Killer's Gambit

by Hermione Stark

  “Ooh,” goaded Saskia. “Look who’s being rude now.” She turned to Storm. “You were perfectly happy to tell me off for being rude to your friend, so why aren’t you telling Evie off? Or does she have big sister immunity?”

  “Yes, I do,” said Evie calmly. “As the head of this family—”

  “Ha!” Saskia let out a screech of derision. “You can pretend to be the head of anything you like while you’re in Otherworld, but you can’t pretend to be the head of us. And don’t pretend that you’re not just pissed off that Diana is a psychic because you’re scared that Diana will bring all of the family secrets tumbling out of the closet.”

  “Saskia, that’s enough,” said Storm quietly. This was exactly what he had been worried about. He knew that Evie would be furious with him

  “That’s right!” Saskia shouted. “Take her side. Like you always do!”

  “I’m not on anyone’s side,” said Storm.

  “Yeah, because we all know that you’re Switzerland,” said Saskia snidely. “You’ll just stand by watching while magical armageddon ravages the world. Oh no, hold on, I’m wrong about that, aren’t I? You’ll run around saving everyone else while your family perishes, because you’re a big hero.”

  “It’s not like that—”

  Saskia cut him off abruptly. “Go on, Diana. It’s great that you’re here. Why don’t you show Evie how your psychic powers work by bringing all of her secrets out? I would love to see it.”

  “What secrets?” demanded Evie. “There are no secrets.”

  “”Oh please,” Saskia said. “You two have been keeping secrets from me my whole life. Never telling me anything. Pretending that it’s because you wanted to protect my feelings and because I was too young. But I’m twenty-one now. I am grown-up. And I want to know everything. And you two are cold and reserved. If anyone has Skeletons in their closets it’s you too. You’re always shutting me out, and I know that there is a reason why.” She stabbed her finger on the table to emphasize her point. “It was always big siblings this and big siblings that! Well, I am sick of it!”

  Evie did not bother to respond to Saskia’s outburst. She turned a polite smile on Diana and explained, “Saskia is just upset that she was fostered separately to Storm and myself after our parents died. It was unfortunate and couldn’t be helped, but Saskia has never recovered from her resentment of it.”

  Incensed by Evie’s supercilious tone, Saskia banged the palms of her hands onto the table loudly. “Don’t you dare try to put your perfect little spin on things. Don’t you dare speak about me as if I wasn’t here. I bet you would love it if I didn’t exist. You always made me feel like an outsider. What was the problem? Was it that I looked more like dad than like you and mom?” She yanked her blond hair roughly. “Well, excuse me! I can’t help if I’m not as perfect as you two. I can’t help if I took after dad instead of our perfect angelus mother. I might not have any of the magic, but I am a person too!”

  Storm reached out to put his hand over Saskia’s, stunned that she felt this way. He had never thought that he’d done anything to make her feel like that. She had never expressed this before. But Saskia snatched her hand away from him, and turned her accusing glare on him instead of Evie.

  “It’s too late now,” she said. “You left me behind and came to this country for your stupid job. So don’t try to be my perfect big brother, because you are not!”

  She looked fiercely at Evie. “And you left too. You went back to Otherworld to get married to your stupid husband and have your perfect little kids and be your perfect family without me. But it’s not perfect, is it? Because we all know that Nash is a horrid git, no matter how much of a pretty facade you try to put on things. Well, guess what? Life isn’t perfect. Look at us for example. One in the realm, one in America, and one running off to London to bury his head in the sand. What is the point of even pretending to be a family? We’re not one. We might as well accept it!” She stabbed the table with her finger for emphasis.

  There was a ringing silence.

  Diana broke it. “Wow,” she said. “You guys sure have a lot of angst. Storm is so perfect that I assumed it would all be happy families with him. Boy was I wrong. This is amazing. Please continue. Tell me everything. I wish I had ordered popcorn.”

  “Nobody is pretending to be perfect,” Evie said in an even voice.

  “Gaargh!” said Saskia, shaking her fists in frustration. “Don’t you dare say what you think I want to hear just to appease me.”

  Evie ignored Saskia. She was looking at Storm. “For example, if Constantine was perfect he would have returned to the Realm long ago to fulfill his responsibilities.”

  Storm felt like she had punched him in the gut. “Evie!” he said in a warning tone.

  “Ooh, don’t stop now,” said Diana. “What responsibilities?”

  Saskia spoke up with a cruel smirk on her face. “She means his —”

  “Saskia!” Storm snapped, his voice is sharp as a whip.

  It shocked the defiance out of her. Her expression turned sulky. But that didn’t stop her from saying, “Storm’s an Archon, don’t you know?”

  Diana leaned towards Saskia with great interest. “What’s an Archon?”

  “It’s the single most important position in the various Otherworld communities,” said Saskia. “Storm inherited it from our patriarchal bloodline. He’s supposed to become an all-powerful angelus and watch over the community like some avenging heaven-sent guardian.” She said the last part in a mocking tone.

  “It is no laughing matter,” said Evie.

  Diana waggled her eyebrows at storm. “Wow,” she said. “That sounds very alpha male and sexy.”

  “In that case,” said Saskia. “Evie must be very alpha male and sexy, because while Storm is not doing his job, Evie is having to do it.”

  “That doesn’t sound fair,” said Diana, giving Storm a startled look.

  “Oh please,” said Saskia. “Evie loves it. She lives for it. She’d totally be the Archon if she could. She is the eldest, and it should have been her. Too bad she’s just a lowly woman.”

  “Evie is far better suited to it than me,” said Storm. “The community is lucky to have her.”

  “It’s not so simple,” said Evie icily. “Is it?”

  Storm rubbed his forehead wearily. “It never is,” he said.

  Diana was looking at him with great sympathy as if she wanted to give him a hug. He was fairly certain she was about to throw her arms around him, and this horrified him. It was the last thing he wanted right now. He stiffened up slightly, and she seemed to get the message.

  “So, what about you Saskia?” said Diana, turning her attention to his younger sister. “You’ve talked about everyone else’s problems, but what about yours? Or are you saying you don’t have any? Are you saying that you’re as perfect as you accuse Evie and Storm of pretending to be?”

  Saskia looked petulant. “I don’t have problems,” she said. “I just have fun.”

  “Ha, fun!” Said Diana. “All play and no work will make Saskia a miserable old hag who wonders how it all went wrong and exactly when it was that she threw her entire life away.”

  Jenny burst into laughter, saying, “Nice one.”

  But Saskia glared at Diana. “What’s that supposed to be? A vision of my future?”

  Diana reached across the table and grabbed hold of both of Saskia’s hands. Saskia would have yanked them away if Evie had not reached over instinctively as if she was going to do the very same thing. Storm gave Evie a single glance that clearly told her that she had better control herself. Evie looked mutinous. Her hands slid beneath the table, where storm was sure that they were clenched into fists. Looking smug, Saskia let Diana keep hold of her hands.

  Diana closed her eyes and hummed to herself mystically as if she was trying to read Saskia’s future. “You are going to decide that finishing your education is a bunch of nonsense, and you would be better off without it. You’re going to run aw
ay to Las Vegas to drown your sorrows in alcohol and gambling and magical narcotics. You’re going to meet a dark and handsome man who will carry you away in a tide of wonderful romance. You will fall madly in love, and think that you’ve found the reason for life itself. And then one day you’ll find out that this dark and handsome man is a mage who has bewitched you, like he has bewitched numerous other young woman, and now he’s done with you because actually you’re really boring and you have no idea what you want from life, and he’s tired of you being a leech.”

  Diana pulled her hands away from the Saskia. “Sorry buddy. It’s not looking good for you. But I guess it could have been worse. He could have been a bloodthirsty vampire instead of a lecherous mage. You might be in your mid-thirties by then, but I’m sure you’ll manage to pick yourself up and try to make something decent of your life.”

  Saskia was looking horrified. “That’s not going to happen to me!”

  Diana laughed. “Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. How do you know?”

  Saskia looked towards Storm accusingly. “Storm told you he wants me to go back to university and finish my last year, hasn’t he? Well I won’t let you fool me into doing what he wants. It’s my life and I’m going to do what I want!”

  Diana considered Saskia for a few moments and then she said, “Do you know Princess Caroline?”

  “How am I supposed to know a princess?” said Saskia.

  “Unfortunately I do know her,” said Diana. “A couple of months ago I was on a case at the Otherworld Embassy here in London, and Princess Caroline and Xander Daxx were there with the ambassador, and in front of everyone Princess Caroline decided to be a git and embarrass me about not having any education at all, because she knew that I’d never been to university. I hated her for it. And I knew that she was wrong because I didn't need to go to university to get by in life.”

  “No way!” said Jenny. “You know Princess Caroline and Xander Daxx? That is so cool.”

  Even Saskia looked impressed. Diana looked slightly confused. She had opened her mouth as if she had been about to tell Saskia that Storm knew Princess Caroline and Xander Daxx too. She gave him the briefest of glances. And then she shut her mouth again. Clearly she had realized that telling Saskia another thing that she didn’t know about her supposedly secretive older brother was not going to make Saskia happy. Storm was relieved.

  “Anyway,” said Diana, “I didn’t give a crap about what Princess Caroline thought about me just because I hadn’t been lucky enough in life to have the kind of family that had encouraged me to have a higher education. But then afterwards I thought about it, and you know what I realized? Sometimes the most frustrating thing in my life is that I don’t even know what I don’t know. And I didn’t even know that I didn’t know about it, until I read on the internet about this thing called unconscious incompetence. And I realized that I am incompetent at a lot of things, and I’m totally unconscious about my incompetence. I haven’t got a clue!”

  “Yeah, whatever,” said Sakia, not looking impressed.

  Diana returned Saskia’s unimpressed look. “It’s not like it’s the worst thing in my life. Most the time I don’t even think about it. Then sometimes something happens and it makes me realize that nearly everyone else has a framework for life by which they can measure their experiences and make their decisions and get through the hard times, and I have a big fat nothing. If I make a decision, there’s a bigger risk that I’m going to make a totally stupid choice. And it’s because nobody ever taught me how to do things. I don’t have a wealth of other people’s experience and support and knowledge to draw upon. And here you are just throwing it away. Is that really what you want for yourself? Do you want to stumble through life not knowing how to do anything or how to make the right decisions and not understanding the context in which other people live? It’s not like you’re a psychic like me and you can just wing it.”

  Storm felt a bit stunned. Diana had never said anything like this to him, and it surprised him that she thought about this kind of stuff. It was like she was admitting to an insecurity without actually admitting to an insecurity. And something in what she had said had clearly struck a nerve with Saskia.

  “Yeah, I kind of see what you mean,” Saskia mumbled, looking like she was still trying to wrap her head around the entirety of what Diana had been trying to communicate.

  “Awesome,” said Diana cheerily. “While you’re thinking sense, you can promise to me that you’re going to finish your last year of university. I’m not going to take no for an answer. Don’t even hesitate. Just make the promise and follow-through, and then you can have a whole bunch of fun doing it.”

  Saskia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, fine, whatever. I’ll do it.”

  “Whaaaat?” said Diana in mock astonishment. She cupped her hand against her ear and angled it towards Saskia. “Say that again! Was that a promise I heard?”

  Saskia made a face, and mumbled, “Maybe.”

  Diana high-fived Jenny. “Problem sorted!” she cried in glee. “That wasn’t so hard. You grown-up types are always making mountains out of mole hills. Psssht. I don’t know why we young folk bother with you.”

  Saksia and Jenny giggled. Diana proceeded to chat with them, leaving Evaine and Storm to each other’s company. Which was not ideal. But neither of them cared, because both of them were still gob-smacked at what Diana had managed to achieve. Storm could not wrap his head around how she had just made his little sister promise to do something that stubborn Saskia had insisted that she was not going to do. And now, to hear Saskia speak, it seemed like her previous stance was already an ancient memory.

  Evie and Storm resorted to making small talk. Storm knew that both of them had other things on their mind that they wanted to say to each other, but now that the Saskia problem was resolved, neither of them wanted to start another argument in the present company. And boy was Storm glad of the present company. He was more than ready to get out of here.

  Fortunately at 8:00 pm on the dot, just as Saskia was ordering a spherical chocolate cake confection for dessert, Diana grab Storm’s hand and hauled him up from his seat as eagerly as if she was a puppy.

  “We must leave,” she announced. “Duty calls!”

  “Already?” said Saskia, looking disappointed.

  Diana blew Saskia and Jenny as kiss. “Toodle pip!” she said, as she dragged Storm away.

  Once outside the restaurant, Storm reclaimed his hand for himself. He knew Diana had manhandled him so insistently to annoy Evie and it amused him to let her do it, but it would just have been supremely awkward to keep holding her hand outside of the restaurant.

  “So are you going to tell me what this plan is to catch the killer or not?” he said.

  She told him, and Storm could not believe what he was hearing. It was outrageous. He should have known better than to think she would come up with something within the realms of normality. Reasonable, he had hoped for. Logical at the very least.

  “This is not going to work,” he said.

  “You’re damn right it is!” she said with a wicked grin. “Trust me.”

  Chapter 25

  DIANA

  Storm drove us to the Ronin house, where we had to park some distance up the driveway given the number of cars already present. As we arrived at the front door, I shoved myself bodily in front of the Storm. “I am going to do the speaking,” I insisted for the dozenth time.

  “It would be better coming from me,” he said. “They won’t believe it coming from you.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m sure that you bring your Agency boss-man gravitas and all that, but as far as I’m aware, you are not immune to their mesmerism and I am. So it’s best if I speak and you glower attractively at my side as if you’re giving me your full support.”

  “How are you even sure you’re immune to their mesmerism? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Is this some kind of magic from your wizard friend, and if he’s dabbling in these untested areas, how do you know you can tru
st it?”

  “Never you mind what it is. Just follow my lead. I’ve got this.”

  “You’d better have this. The vampire council people are going to be furious that we have come here again. This is going to get the team fired for sure. If you have any doubts at all, now is the time to say it.”

  “Oh ye of little faith.” I didn’t need his reminder that if this went wrong the whole team would be fired. It had been worrying me quite a lot, but I didn’t want to let on to Storm. We both needed to appear absolutely confident and sure of ourselves in front of the Ronins if this was going to work.

  We both stopped speaking as the front door opened, and a servant let us in. “The mistress is expecting you,” she said.

  We had called ahead this time, just thirty minutes ago to catch them off guard. Storm had told Audriett Ronin that he had official Agency business to discuss with all of the members of her family.. She had retorted that tonight was inconvenient, given that she was hosting a soiree for business acquaintances. This had been part of my plan, of course. The one thing I had learned was that the Ronins valued their pride. They would not want us to make a scene in front of all of their guests, and they probably wouldn’t kill us in front of their guests either. Storm had not given Audriett at a choice. He had said we would arrive at 9:30 pm precisely, and here we were as planned.