Thom guided me out the door, and we didn’t speak again until we had fastened our seat belts.
“I wish I could give you more assurances,” he said, “but I will not lie to you. I have never treated a human, but I did a thorough study of them to ensure the bodies we constructed for ourselves were sound. Based on what I learned, I had no reason to believe my saliva would cause an adverse reaction in your father. The dose I administered should have knocked him unconscious and softened his memory of events. Without conducting an examination, though, I can’t make you any promises other than he will recover. Eventually.”
Rubbing my forehead, I massaged away the tension headache sparking between my eyes. I trusted Thom’s skills. I trusted his abilities. Hell, I trusted him. But Dad was… Dad. I wanted him back to one hundred percent, and I wanted him to stay that way. “How much will he remember?”
“Not enough to endanger himself, if that’s what worries you.” Thom fidgeted in his seat, uncomfortable holding still even behind the wheel. “I expect, if he dwells on the event, he will recall his heart racing, his palms sweating. Thanks to what we have told him, he will frame those sensations as the warning signs of another stroke instead of his fight or flight reflexes kicking in.”
“He’s a target because of who he is to me, and that’s not going to change.” I peeled the wrapper off one muffin and passed it to Thom. “Maybe we should have left his memories. Ignorance has its perks, I know that, but knowledge might keep him safer.”
“There’s a real danger that a human of his age, in his health, would fracture if we allowed him to keep what he learned.” Thom nibbled the edge of the muffin like he had never had one and wasn’t sure what to make of the thing. “Your decision is the same one I would have made in your place.”
“Thanks.” I picked at the blueberry crumble on top of my breakfast. “So, why am I really here?”
Talk about ignorance. I had only seen three demon breeds in their natural state. I had no idea what was out there, what was possible, what we were up against. A crash course in demonology was exactly what I needed. The opportunity to observe one in the wild, when it wasn’t actively trying to murder me, would be educational, but Cole wouldn’t have invited me without a secondary purpose.
He was like the onion Portia had used to explain the terrenes to me. Layers upon layers upon layers.
“Santiago views the ubaste as a portent,” Thom admitted. “They’re a rare breed, and while they aren’t a threat to midlevel or high charun, they aren’t without their uses. Still, it’s unlikely an Otillian would welcome a nonlethal species into their coterie. Therefore, its sudden appearance is suspect.”
“Could it have breached this world on its own?”
“Given there have been two breaches by higher charun and their coteries in the last fifteen years, it’s possible.” He bit into the muffin, having decided it was worth the effort after all. “The odds of an ubaste deciding to do much of anything other than eat are slim, though. A more likely scenario is that War brought it through with her to unleash when it would benefit her most. She has made use of similar diversion tactics in the past.”
“Why does Santiago believe otherwise?”
“The demon is making no effort to conceal its kills, and it hasn’t increased its range. The pets have all been taken within the same zip code, the bodies left for anyone to find.”
“That seems to support your theory,” I mused. “Not detract from it.”
“The NSB kept a close eye on us. We weren’t unaware of Kapoor’s interest, but we had no inkling of the depth and breadth of the program the human government has initiated for charun. The first thing any midlevel or high charun does on a new world is learn the food chain so that they can integrate at its peak. The lower charun, in turn, do the same, so they know what to avoid.
“An ubaste killing indiscriminately in a residential area makes no sense. They would never venture so close to humans, and they’re smart enough to discern the link between a human and its pet. They would grasp that the fastest way to haul down wrath upon its head would be to take what belongs to another. Basic predator/prey behavior.
“For the ubaste to have survived any length of time in this world, say if it were a remnant of a previous coterie, it would have had to fly below the radar or the NSB would have picked it up and killed it. There would be no reasoning with it. It could be tamed, like any wild animal, but only to a certain point. Kapoor doesn’t strike me as the kind of man to waste manpower on such a venture.”
“Its behavior indicates it’s new here and hasn’t figured out who the top predators are yet. The fact the NSB hasn’t captured it supports the idea it hasn’t been here long.” I lost my appetite and set my muffin on my knee. “That would mean Famine has breached.”
“We’ll know more once we capture the creature. If it’s new, the smell of other worlds will be on its fur. And if Famine had her coterie carry it through, for whatever reason, it would bear traces of her as well.”
“Are you familiar with her scent?”
Thom shuttered his expression. “Yes.”
That explained his assignment to this case. “The plan is we find where she emerged and… then what?”
“We don’t know why or how you came back as you are,” he said slowly. “You are unique. The person you’ve become is… soft. War used your kindness to her advantage, and Famine would too if given enough time to acclimate.”
“You’re talking about confronting Famine before she gets a chance to study War’s CliffsNotes.”
“War will be searching for her too. She’ll want to claim the first ally since you defied her. There’s a chance, if Famine has breached, she’s already been compromised. She and War are close. Conquest has always preferred working alone, as has Death. But each new world brings with it a new set of rules. The first one to learn them wins.”
“Maybe we’ll beat War to her.” I blew out a long breath. “We at least have to try, right?”
“No, we don’t.” Thom flicked crumbs from his shirt. “We will, though. For you. Cole has ordered it so.”
While I wanted to ask where and when and if he was meeting us, I had to accept that him volunteering Thom to pick me up sent a message that he needed space after what had happened.
“How far to the lab?” The persistent itch between my shoulder blades wouldn’t stop until we’d unloaded our cargo. “The cooler is light enough I can handle the drop while you wait if you can get me clearance.”
“You already have clearance to access and use any and all of White Horse’s resources.”
“Oh. Ah, thanks.” The lab access alone made me giddy, not that I would need it except for private case work like this since I would soon have the NSB’s resources behind me. “When did that happen?”
“It’s always been that way. Your name is on all the deeds, all the policies, all the accounts. All of it.” He heard my gasp and glanced at me. “Our duty is to provide for you. The business Cole imagined, that we helped him build, was only ever meant for you.”
Gold dots winked in my vision. “I don’t need any of that. I don’t want it.”
“We did the best we could on our own,” he said on a soft breath. “Are you not pleased?”
First Cole and then Miller and now Thom. How did I always end up with my foot in my mouth?
“You all worked so hard,” I explained. “The company, the properties, the money, all of it, should belong to the coterie.”
His ears twitched, the muscles pulling taut so that had he been shifted, they would have flattened against his skull. “That’s not how this works.”
“Maybe it’s how this should work.”