Finn

by Romi Hart

  The color took ages returning to Claire’s cheeks. She couldn’t speak, so Finn answered for her. “We had some business to discuss with Victor and my dad.”

  Bernard dipped his chin once. “I thought so. Are you going into the office today or will you leave it ‘til tomorrow? I want to talk to you about NightRage.”

  Finn stiffened. This wasn’t the reception he was expecting. “What about them?”

  “I need to deal with them. Their leader Punchy owes me money. He keeps delaying when I insist he pay up. He knows I can’t use my usual strong-arm tactics on him and his Crest to exact what’s mine. You know more about NightRage than we do. I need to talk strategy with you.”

  Finn raised his eyebrows, but he restrained himself from expressing any more explicit indication of surprise. “You know everything about them. What do you need me for?”

  “I know all about their powers and their home addresses and all that stuff. The one thing I don’t have is experience dealing with them, either as friends or as enemies. That’s what I need you for.”

  Finn took a deep breath. “What about the Prometheus Crest? Damien, Conrad, Pablo, Lucy, and Claire sealed an alliance with them without any help from you. The only real question is whether you’re gonna play ball or if you’re going to make all our lives a nightmare resisting the inevitable.”

  “That’s not a question. We have an alliance. Now we can all move on.”

  Finn’s eyes widened. “We do?”

  “Of course. Damien told me all about it last night. It’s pretty obvious SeamStream needs the Prometheus Crest as much as the Prometheus Crest needs SeamStream. We’ll work together as one. What we know, you will know and what you know, we will know. Your enemies will be our enemies and our friends will be your friends. You have only to let me know how we can be of assistance to you.”

  Claire cried out, “Daddy!” and rushed into his arms. She pressed herself to him.

  Finn could hardly register those words. He anticipated some kind of unpleasant confrontation with Bernard—some stand-off—not blanket acceptance. So Claire was right. Damien handled everything.

  Bernard patted her back. “That’s all right, sweetheart. You two go upstairs and take a shower. Take the rest of the day off and I’ll see you at the office tomorrow morning.”

  He sauntered around them and walked out the front door. The house never sounded emptier than when the lock clicked behind him. Finn and Claire looked at each other, but neither moved.

  What should they do? Should they go upstairs like Bernard told them to? For a second, Finn couldn’t make up his mind whether to be happy about this. He prepared himself to take Claire home to Ogru-Kuche if necessary.

  He no longer doubted she would integrate there exactly the way Riley did. Claire would make herself at home and win friends. She would be as loyal to the Prometheus Crest as anyone could hope.

  Now he faced the prospect of staying here with a foot in each camp. Could he do that? Did he really want to do that? Life was so much simpler when he belonged to only one Crest. He knew where his loyalties lay. He didn’t have to question who he was working for at any given moment.

  In a way, the very confusion of staying in Bernard Novak’s house answered those questions for him. It made sense in a nonsensical way. He discovered himself here. He found his true purpose.

  Someone had to represent these two Crests to each other. Neither would trust someone who didn’t belong to their own Crest and he was the only man alive who belonged to both. Claire gave him that.

  If he went back to Ogru-Kuche now, he would lose that. He would cease to be a part of SeamStream Crest and so would Claire. He would give up his unique position torn between two radically different Crests.

  When he looked at her, he read the same confusion in her features. She scanned her house, her home, as if removed from everything. She didn’t know how to enter it again after exempting herself from her Crest, her clan, her family—everything she knew.

  He couldn’t let her lose her home, not after she risked everything for him and his people. He took her hand and she tagged after him upstairs to their own room. He shut the door, but she still didn’t settle in the way she did before. Her old cocky confidence departed from her. She left it in the Quag with the Prometheus Crest.

  The room cast a strange aura over him, too. His clothes were in the closet. His sweat was on the sheets. His toothbrush was in the bathroom, but he still didn’t quite accept that he was welcome here—not the way he was before. He shot himself in the foot by taking Bernard’s children away from him. He couldn’t believe that all was forgiven.

  He swiveled around in front of Claire and cupped her cheeks to kiss her. He could always find relief in her lips and her eyes and her body. They would always be his by right. She would always welcome him.

  He backed her toward the bed. Her ass bumped into the mattress and she tipped under the pressure from his mouth. Heat rushed to his crotch ready to invade her.

  All at once, she tore her lips away with a smacking sound. Her hand flew to his stomach and she pushed him off. “Finn?”

  “Yeah, baby.” His passion carried him forward to kiss her again. He couldn’t think of anything else right now.

  She met his tongue with her luscious swirling movements, but a second later, she yanked free. “Can we….?” Her eyes skated sideways. “I don’t feel…. Can we go to the office instead?”

  He froze staring at her. “You want to go to the office?”

  Her cheeks flushed. “I…I want to do it with you. I always want to do it with you, but I need to see what’s going on with the others. I don’t feel right doing it here when the deal’s going down at the office. Can’t we just go over there and see what they’re doing before we…. you know?”

  He had to think hard to grasp her point. “All right. We could do that.”

  “Are you sure?” She lunged forward and kissed him. “I want to do it with you. You know that, right?”

  “Sure, baby.” He kissed her back still spinning from one mental extreme to the other. “We can go to the office if you want to.”

  She hopped off the bed. “Thank you so much! I’ll just take a quick shower and change my clothes. Will you please call the car?”

  She got halfway across the room before he had time to realize she was gone. She ducked into the bathroom and the shower noise covered all other sound.

  He collapsed into an armchair by the window. So that was it. They were back. They were staying in this room. Now they were going to the office to see what everybody else was doing.

  Bernard gave them a free ticket to waltz right back in like Claire never told him to shut the fuck up and shove it up his ass. Now the others were at work, too, like they never overrode their father’s wishes by defending the Prometheus Crest.

  Finn stared out the window for a while. Claire’s disembodied hand thrust through the bathroom door and dropped her clothes on the carpet. She was really doing this. She was going to the office first thing in the morning instead of engaging in a little hot morning sex. Go figure.

  He got up and fished her cellphone out of the jacket. He took it back to the chair, but it took him several minutes before he summoned the will to call the car.

  He blinked down at the screen trying to get his head working. He punched in the code and brought up the message app. He tapped out a text to the driver and laid the phone aside. Now he had nothing to do but wait his turn in the shower.

  She came out wrapped in towels. She shot him a quick grin and busied herself getting dressed. Now it was his turn. He threw his clothes in the laundry hamper and got under the spray.

  The scorching water washed off the Quag, but it couldn’t wash it out of his blood. It ran in his veins. It always would. The Prometheus Crest believed the New Breed came from the Quag and they would always return to the Quag. The Quag was the true home of all New Breed.

  He certainly saw a new side of Claire out there. He saw a new side of her whole family. They b
ecame fully themselves when they returned to the Quag. Finn would always have to return there, too. He belonged there. His time in this house would always be temporary. He knew now that it would be temporary for Claire, too. She tasted the Quag and she wouldn’t be able to live without it. None of them would.

  Maybe that was why Bernard resisted it the way he did. The next generation of SeamStream would act differently than the old one. That was what this alliance really boiled down to. The old prejudices didn’t hold water anymore. SeamStream wouldn’t be able to remain isolated for much longer, if at all.

  He had to force himself to get out and dry off. Part of him was still out in the Quag with his friends. How simple life was out there. He loved the primal direct necessity of shelter, food, fire, water, and survival. None of this political intrigue meant spit out there.

  He found Claire sitting fully dressed on the edge of the bed. Her bare feet flipped her high heeled shoes over on the carpet in an abstracted way while she doodled on her phone. She didn’t see him getting dressed.

  All at once, she tossed the phone onto the mattress and looked up at him staring into the closet. “Is everything all right?”

  He studied his shirts and pants and his boots down on the floor. “I shouldn’t wear these. I should get fitted for a few suits.”

  “No way!” She shot across the room and threw her arms around him. “Never!”

  He caressed her velvet hand across his mid-section. “Yeah?”

  “I don’t ever want to see you wearing a suit.” She stormed across the room and stuck her feet into her shoes. “You wouldn’t look right in a suit.”

  He chuckled to himself and yanked a t-shirt over his head. “If you say so.”

  “I do say so. Now hurry up. The car’s downstairs.”

  He got dressed in his usual uniform and they headed down to the limo. Some things would never change.

  They rode to the Sheraton and ascended to the office. They found Damien and Pablo working over the light table. Lucy sat on the couch. Finn didn’t see Conrad anywhere.

  Finn peeked into the conference room. “Where’s Bernard?”

  “He stopped in a little while ago and then he left. He said he had a lunch date with Julio.”

  Finn slapped his thigh. “Dang! He said he wanted to talk to me about a deal with NightRage.”

  “He left all the details for you.” Damien took a tablet computer from behind the reception desk and passed it to Finn. “He wants you to handle it.”

  Finn blinked at the device. “Me? How am I supposed to handle NightRage?”

  “He’s leaving all of us to manage the business,” Pablo chimed in. “He was supposed to make some decisions on the new stadium construction project, but when he showed up here a little while ago, he told us to deal with it ourselves. He told us to make our own decisions and follow them through.”

  Finn gasped. “What is he doing that for?”

  “He’s absenting himself from controlling every solitary detail of the company’s management,” Damien replied. “He’s been talking about it for years and now he’s doing it.”

  Finn shook his head. He still couldn’t bring himself to touch that tablet. “That’s taking it a little far, don’t you think? I could understand him being upset about the alliance, but….”

  “He’s not upset about it,” Pablo told him. “I think he’s actually happy about it. He didn’t say so, but I think he’s relieved he doesn’t have to micromanage everything anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if he passes the whole business off to us in the next few months.”

  Claire zipped around Finn and snatched the tablet off the desk. “It’s about time. Come on, Finn. Let’s see what he left for you.”

  He tagged after her to the couch. Lucy scooted over to make room for them. Claire held out the device, but Finn shrank from it. “I don’t think I should do this.”

  “Why?” She thrust it at him. “You’re gonna be great. You know you are. Here. Look.”

  She scooted close so her side touched his. She opened the tablet and tapped the screen. “It looks like he left some files on the hard drive. Here. This one says Punchy.”

  She opened a document, read two lines, and held it out to him. “Here. It’s for you.”

  He took the device and read the page. His eye skimmed along the lines of text and his pulse quickened. It was all true. Bernard Novak was leaving him—him, Finn Weeks—in charge of retrieving money from Punchy, the wizard leader of NightRage Crest.

  The document listed dates, emails, and personal conversations Bernard had with Punchy about seven thousand dollars Punchy owed him. Punchy promised more than fifteen times to pay it back within a month. The last time was three months ago.

  Bernard let the matter rest while he considered how to get money from one of the most powerful wizards in all Anarock. He suspected that Punchy thought he’d gotten away with this shit because Punchy never contacted Bernard again to arrange payment.

  Bernard Novak never forgot a debt, though. He kept searching for a way to wring the money out of Punchy without sparking a full-blown mutant war on the streets of Anarock. That would be everyone’s worst nightmare.

  In a daze, Finn handed the tablet back to Claire, but he didn’t see her sitting right in front of him. His head spun through the possibilities. Bernard was right about one thing. The Prometheus Crest had a lot more experience dealing with NightRage treachery.

  The problem was that not even the Prometheus Crest dared to make an enemy of NightRage. In all his experience, Finn couldn’t think of one shifter in Central City who would dare to cross South Claiborne Avenue to get money out of Punchy and his crew. No one would be so stupid. None of the Prometheus Crest would be dumb enough to loan Punchy money, or anyone else in NightRage money, for exactly that reason. Those fucking wizards would have no incentive under Heaven to ever pay it back. Why should they when they could out-magic anyone?

  He leaned back thinking it all over. Punchy didn’t count on one minor detail. He never counted on the Prometheus Crest forging an alliance with the SeamStream Crest.

  The Prometheus Crest might not be as powerful as SeamStream or NightRage, but they had one distinct advantage. They never took any shit from anybody and they knew how to fight. Even NightRage knew that. That was why NightRage left the Prometheus Crest to rule Anarock. They never used their magic to take the leadership for themselves when they could easily do so. They didn’t want to get into a fight against the Prometheus Crest because no one walked away from a fight like that without blood on their face.

  The longer he thought about it, the more Finn hardened himself for a battle. That was the only thing Punchy and his wizard friends understood. It was the only thing they truly feared.

  He snapped alert to find both Claire and Lucy staring at him. Their identical blue eyes searched him for some clue what was going on in his head. He rounded on Claire. “Give me your phone.”

  21

  Claire held her breath watching Finn press her phone to his ear. The thin sound of ringing squeaked from the speaker. Then a male voice cut in. “Hey, sweetheart. How are you?”

  Finn’s lips cracked in a grin. “Hey, sweetheart, yourself. How are you doing, Dorian? It’s Finn Weeks.”

  Claire almost burst out laughing when she heard a strained choking cough on the other end. “Holy crap, you scared the life out of me, man! What are you doing, calling me on this number?”

  “I don’t have a phone on me so I’m using Claire’s. Listen, man, I need a favor.”

  “Sure thing, man,” Dorian exclaimed. “What do you need? Name it.”

  “How many of your brothers and cousins can you rustle up at short notice?”

  A silence followed. Then Dorian’s voice took on a hard edge. “Probably about seventeen of ‘em in the next hour. Sorry, bro. That’s the best I can do.”

  “That’s plenty,” Finn told him. “I need all of you down on South Claiborne Avenue by nine o’clock.”

  “You got it. Do you min
d if I ask what this is all about?”

  “We’re gunning for NightRage. Meet at the intersection of South Claiborne and Fourth Street in front of the Capital One Bank. Can I count on you?”

  “Oh yeah.” Dorian’s voice changed like he was moving off somewhere. “I’ll see you there with bells on.”

  He hung up. Finn removed the phone from his ear and handed it back to Claire with a strange expression on his face. His eyes glinted with strange fire. “There you go.”

  Claire shuddered at the sight of him. “What are you going to do?” She hated to ask.

  He got to his feet and sliced his finger through the air. “All of you put your stuff away and come with me. We’ve got work to do.”

  Lucy gaped up at him with her mouth open. Finn paid no attention. He strode to the light table and interrupted Damien and Pablo at their work. “Stop what you’re doing and come with me. We’ve got a job to do.” He looked around. “Where’s Conrad?”

  Damien blinked at him in astonishment. “He’s downstairs going over the IT security protocols. What’s this about?”

  “Go get him and meet me downstairs in five minutes. We’ve got something more important to deal with.” Finn spun around to find Claire and Lucy staring at him. “Come with me, you two.”

  Five minutes later, all five siblings met in the lobby. Claire wanted to keep close to Finn, but he stormed everywhere with such monstrous, deadly energy she didn’t dare.

  He paced around the lobby waiting for Pablo to bring Conrad down from IT. When they got there, he didn’t explain anything. He spun on his heel and clipped out, “Let’s go.” He strode out of the building and climbed into the limo.

  The five siblings piled in with him. No one said a word driving across town. The terrain changed to something more horrible than anything Claire ever imagined. She knew all about Central City and Hoffman Triangle and the more dangerous parts of town, but she never saw them with her own two eyes before.