by Dima Zales
“As everyone here knows, I can tell truth from lies,” Nero says in a low, hard voice. “And Sasha is telling the truth. Unless”—he glares at the already-cowed dream walker—“you’re doubting my word?”
Easton drops into his seat without a peep.
I guess he doesn’t have something compromising on everyone in the Council.
A new person stands up. Under the hood, she’s a gorgeous woman who—for lack of a better word—smells delicious.
Familiarly delicious.
“That’s Tatum,” Kit whispers huskily. “She’s the most powerful succubus in the world and has had affairs with half the Council.” Spotting my eyes narrowing on Nero, she adds hastily, “Not him, don’t worry. He’s never been with anyone on the Council.”
Good. I don’t want to have to kill yet another succubus—or anyone else on the Council.
I have a feeling they’d frown on such behavior.
“I think it’s obvious what our next step should be,” Tatum says in a sing-song voice. “Something of this magnitude can’t be handled by our Council alone. We need to call a meeting of all the Councils.”
“She’s right,” says a woman standing next to us—the one who helped Nero in his battles by summoning animals to do her bidding. “The Paris Council has their own powerful seer, and while no one here is doubting Sasha’s vision”—she gives Nero a cautious look—“it would be prudent to hear what he has foreseen as well, and what he thinks can be done about the situation.”
A seer on the Paris Council.
Why do I have a bad feeling about this?
“I agree,” Nero says ceremoniously. “Does anyone disagree?”
Again, no one so much as makes a peep.
“Then we reconvene when the arrangements are concluded,” Nero says with finality. Stepping aside, he approaches the guy who turned into a giant werewolf during the dragon world battles and says in a low voice, “We need to talk.”
“Of course,” the werewolf replies. “I’ll meet you in the hallway.”
Nero nods, then grabs my hand and drags me out of the room, with Claudia on our tails.
“Sasha, this is Eduardo,” Nero says when we’re out of the Council’s earshot. “He’s the alpha of the New York City pack.”
“Nice to meet you.” I extend my hand and shake Eduardo’s giant one. “I saw you fight in a vision. It was an impressive sight.”
“Thank you,” Eduardo says, then looks expectantly at Nero.
“Tell him,” Nero says to me.
“I saw a vision where I was attacked by a werewolf,” I say to Eduardo. “A giant one. Bigger than you.”
“Impossible,” Eduardo says. “Are you sure fear didn’t just mess with your mind? My kind can be rather intimidating up close.”
I suppress an eyeroll. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Then describe him,” Eduardo says with a frown.
As I do, the werewolf looks more and more confused.
“There is no such wolf in these parts,” he says when I finish. “Are you sure it wasn’t just Kit or one of her kind with their tricks?”
“No clue,” I say. “How would I tell the difference?”
“You probably can’t,” Eduardo says. “Very few of us could—which doesn’t help matters.”
“Can you ask around?” Nero suggests. “Maybe he’s a youngster who’s not on your radar? Or a visitor from somewhere?”
“I’ll do that,” Eduardo says. “But don’t get your hopes up.”
And without so much as a goodbye, he stalks off.
Alrighty then.
Maybe werewolves are only good at socializing with other werewolves?
Shrugging, Nero starts walking down the catacomb-like path through the castle.
When I’m sure we’re outside even super-hearing, I say, “The Paris seer is Nostradamus, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.” Nero’s face is dark. “But, despite what he did to you and your father, he should be our ally in this.”
“I know,” I say. “He wants Tartarus dead more than anyone. The question is, at what cost?”
“Right,” Nero says grimly. “He’s no doubt playing his own game.”
My phone dings, attracting Claudia’s curious gaze.
I check the device. It’s a text from Lucretia.
I just came back to my senses and saw your replies. Are you anywhere near the recovery room?
“Where are we in the castle?” I ask Nero. “Lucretia is done with her Mandate Rite and wants to meet up.”
“Tell her we’re headed to the southwest tower,” Nero says, then grabs Claudia’s elbow and pulls her into a left turn. “She’ll know where that is.”
Following them, I text Lucretia back, and she tells me she’ll see us there.
“She used the words ‘came to,’” I say to Nero. “Does that mean the Rite is as unpleasant for a vampire as it was for me as a pre-vamp?”
Nero grimaces. “Almost everyone passes out from the Rite. And the stronger you are, the more painful the experience.”
“Interesting,” I say and notice Claudia listening with interest. “I guess I won’t rush to get my second Rite any time soon.”
“You’ll need it ASAP, actually,” Nero says. “Without the Mandate aura, you’re not recognized in the Cognizant society and therefore considered outside the law.”
“Right. I guess it’s like ripping off a Band-Aid—best to get it over with.” Then something clicks, and I say, “The werewolf in my vision. I didn’t see his aura.”
“You didn’t?” Nero raises an eyebrow.
“No,” I say. “But I don’t see anyone’s aura right now—so I wonder if I’d nudge that future off kilter by going through the Rite before that attack.”
“It’s possible you didn’t see the guy’s aura because he was from another world,” Nero says. “Then again, since you need to go through the Rite soon anyway, why not do it today?”
To highlight his words, he grabs one of the monks passing by and whispers something into the man’s ear.
Nodding solemnly, the monk rushes off, presumably to make the arrangements.
“Would I see an aura of someone from another world?” I follow Nero and Claudia up a narrow staircase. “Assuming that someone is also from a world that uses the Mandate stuff.”
“No,” Nero says. “The Mandate is specific to each world—which is actually another reason for you to go through the Rite today, along with any other Cognizant on Earth who hasn’t done so already.”
“Oh?” I look at Claudia to see if she’s following her brother’s logic, but she just shrugs.
“When Tartarus and his children arrive, we’ll be able to tell them apart from Earth Cognizant by their lack of aura,” Nero says. “In fact, the Councils will probably issue an order to kill anyone without an aura on sight.”
“In that case, I will go through this Rite as well,” Claudia states. “We don’t want the collateral damage of someone trying to ‘kill me on sight.’”
Nero stops, frowning at her. “Are you sure? You’re more powerful than most, and it’ll be very painful for you.”
Claudia shrugs carelessly.
“I don’t know if it can even be arranged,” he continues. “The Mandate is a privilege of the Cognizant who are born on this world. The Councils do make exceptions for some from other worlds, like me, but—”
“I’m confident they’ll make the exception for me as well when I tell them it’s the price for my help.” Claudia winks at him, then looks at me. “I’d help regardless, of course, but they don’t need to know that.”
“We’ll talk more about this later,” Nero says and stops at the end of the staircase in front of a large door. “The southwest tower is through there.”
With a screech of rusty hinges, he pushes open the door.
“There you are,” Lucretia says, grinning, as we step into a room with circular stone walls—the kind where an evil dragon might keep his damsel in distress.
> I better not piss off Nero. This place might give him ideas.
“Lucretia, this is Claudia,” Nero says. “Claudia, this is Lucretia—Sasha’s half-sister. Like us, they just reunited as siblings.”
“Nice to meet you, Sasha’s sister,” Claudia says to Lucretia with a mischievous smile. “Since I’m Nero’s sister, we’re practically family.”
That not-so-subtle hint again. Claudia doesn’t give up easily, does she?
I was hoping Lucretia didn’t understand the variant of Russian that is the dragon tongue, but judging by the evil, Lilith-like grin on her face, my half-sister totally got it.
“How are you feeling?” I ask her, remembering she’s just gone through the Rite.
“Yes, how are you doing?” Nero eyes her with concern. He’s either a more caring boss than I’d realized, or more likely, he’s thinking about what it’s going to be like for me and his sister.
“I was surprisingly well as soon as I got my senses back,” Lucretia says. “It seems like it’s easier to handle the Rite the second time around.”
“Oh, good,” I say with relief.
I’m about to explain that I will be undergoing this myself shortly, but Lucretia grins and says, “I have a huge surprise for you.”
My heart speeds up. I think I know where this is headed, but I don’t want to get my hopes up.
“It’s sibling related,” she confirms, her grin widening.
Of course. When one goes through a Rite, their family joins the ceremony—which means our mystery sibling was there for hers.
As if in reply to my thoughts, the door opens—and I can’t believe my eyes.
This is my sibling?
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Chapter Fourteen
“I hope you can see why I needed to clear it with him first,” Lucretia says.
“Yeah,” I say as my brother walks in—followed by yet another surprise relative straight out of a Jerry Springer episode.
It’s Chester and his daughter Roxy, a teen werewolf who, with her Mean Girls wolfpack, had attacked me, and more than once.
And now, it turns out, she’s my niece.
In their defense, both father and daughter look chastened—and so do I, I’m sure. I already felt bad about what I did to Roxy, and that was before I knew we were related.
Hopefully, now all this will just be a story to laugh about at the Thanksgiving table—right after Lilith gets the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaking of Lilith, now that I know what to look for, Chester does resemble her a little—especially that trickster smile of his. The same can’t be said about Roxy. She takes after her mom—Chester’s wife who was also Darian’s lover.
Yep, definitely Jerry Springer. Cognizant style.
“I want to start by saying I’m very sorry I pointed a gun at you,” I tell Roxy and extend a hand to her.
She stares at it intently, then shakes it with real enthusiasm.
With her usual queen bee demeanor toned down and her face relatively makeup-free, my niece finally looks her age—making me feel like a monster despite her acceptance of my apology.
Chester elbows his daughter.
“Right.” She examines her Louboutin boots. “I’m sorry as well. I should’ve sensed that you were family. You look a lot like Aunt Lucretia.” Meeting my gaze, she earnestly adds, “Nothing is more important to me than family. I hope you can believe that.”
Poor girl. Losing her mom—and having Chester for a father—must’ve made her yearn for strong familial ties.
“Sasha has so many relatives,” Claudia whispers to Nero, but loudly enough for everyone to overhear. “If you marry her, they’ll be our family.”
Great. Nero’s sister must be in the same boat as my niece, having lost both of her parents at a young age.
I sneak a glance at Nero.
His face is unreadable. If he likes this preposterous idea, he shows no sign of it. Lucretia, however, grins widely, while Chester and Roxy’s faces are unchanged. Maybe they don’t understand the Russian variant that is the dragon tongue?
Pushing all thoughts of Nero’s reaction aside, I smile at Roxy. “Of course. Let’s not ever mention our rocky start again.”
“I, too, wish we’d started off on a better footing,” Chester says, his satyr-like face unusually serious.
“You mean you wish you hadn’t tried to kill her using Beatrice?” Nero growls.
Roxy looks at her father with wide eyes. I guess she didn’t know the full extent of our history.
“I only knew Sasha was someone Darian was interested in,” Chester says. More bitterly, he adds, “I had no idea our loving mother popped out yet another kid she could ignore.”
“I don’t think Lilith meant to ignore me,” I say with a grimace. “And trust me, the absentee parenting you and Lucretia experienced was for the best.”
“Right.” Chester examines me as if he’s seeing me for the first time. “Lucretia mentioned you’ve been spending time with Lilith.”
“She—”
“Hold on,” Roxy says to me, sniffing the air. “Something is different about you today. You don’t just look like Aunt Lucretia; you smell like she does, too. At least how she started to smell recently. After she turned.”
Great. Now I’ve failed my niece’s sniff test.
“You’re right,” Nero says to her. “Sasha is now a vampire. Lilith manipulated her into drinking her blood and then made sure she died.”
My three relatives gasp as one, and Lucretia exclaims, “How could I have missed it? You don’t have an aura. I can even sense—”
“Hold on,” Chester says. “This is too much to process. Can someone start at the beginning?”
“Sure,” I say. “It all started when I discovered a map to my father.” I look to see if Nero reacts, since the map in question was in his safe, but his face is still closed-off. “I then organized an expedition to rescue him,” I continue, “and ended up on a world that Lilith made her own. A world where people worship her as a goddess. That’s where she’d been spending most of the time that she was, as you say, ignoring you.”
“A goddess,” Chester mumbles, and it’s unclear if he’s impressed or outraged.
Who am I kidding?
He’s impressed. And I might’ve just given him an idea to take over some poor world and be their god of mischief.
Oops.
“Anyway,” I say, “that’s what we were up to when you helped us with your lion at the airport. After that, Nero locked me up, I escaped, and then Lilith, Nostradamus, and these chorts showed up.” I proceed to tell them about the events that followed—ending with how Woland killed me.
I then describe my apocalyptic vision. Since they’re my family, I want them to evacuate if I fail to stop Tartarus.
Chester’s face tightens as I speak, and Roxy’s eyes grow wider with every word. “Earth is going to be destroyed?” she exclaims when I’m done. “Why didn’t you start with that?”
“I hope to stop it,” I say defensively. “That’s what we’re here for, by the way—to talk to the Council of Councils in a few minutes.”
“Of course,” Chester says. “I heard a meeting had been called, and I wondered what it was about.” He cocks his head, studying me. “No offense, sis, but I wonder what it is about you that made Nostradamus think you can defeat Tartarus. I mean, our family is pretty impressive, don’t get me wrong, but that guy is a legend of a different caliber.”
“To start, she inherited two powers,” Lucretia says. “Vampirism from Lilith, and seer abilities from Rasputin. Have you ever heard of a seer vampire before?”
“No,” Chester says. “Double powers are pretty rare.”
“Speaking of that,” I say. “Could it be that I actually inherited three powers? Is it possible that because Lilith wanted a superpowered kid to save her, her prodigious probability manipulation made it happen for her?”
Chester scratches his chin. “You did manage not to die when I tried t
o make it happen. That’s very difficult for someone without trickster powers. I thought it was your seer ability, but maybe—”
“She won against me as well,” Roxy says, her cheeks reddening. “And I’m under the protection of your luck, so the same logic applies.”
Nero looks at me thoughtfully. “You know, now that you bring it up, this could explain your abilities with the stock market.” He turns to the others. “I’ve been pushing Sasha to grow her seer powers by asking for stock recommendations, and she has obliged wonderfully. But, if looked at from the right perspective, her performance might’ve been due to probability powers instead of her seer ability. She was just too good—even for a seer of her power level.” He looks at me admiringly. “Sometimes, I had a feeling that the mere fact that she gave me a stock caused the market to shift in that stock’s favor.”
He’s right.
Without bothering to get visions of the stock market, I gave Nero stocks with tickers like EAT, CAKE, BEAT, HOG, LUV, FIZZ, YUM, NUT, COOL, WOOF, and even sillier ones without doing any research. I just pulled them out of my behind because they sounded humorous—yet they all made him money.
“To move the stock market like that would require a lot of raw probability manipulation power,” Chester muses. “Did you encounter any other abnormalities like that?”
“I haven’t exactly been lucky lately, if that’s what you mean,” I say.
Not lucky.
Right.
That’s an understatement of the century.
“Bad things can still happen to probability manipulators.” There’s pain in Chester’s eyes as he says this. “I’ve lost my wife, and more recently, my seat on the Council. Temporarily.” He looks at Nero meaningfully, then sighs. “The universe is too complex to manipulate every aspect.”
“Right,” I say, trying to think of more examples that might fit with the probability manipulation theory. “When I need a vision, I often get just the right one. When I join minds with other seers, I get glimpses of very pertinent memories of theirs. I always thought it was my subconscious mind helping me out, somehow, but it could’ve been this instead.”
“That’s a good point,” Nero says. “When she was but a novice seer, she managed to dream the exact visions she needed to thwart you and Beatrice, and also the Council.”
