You little bastard, she thought, seething as Daniel reached across the bar and she pushed his calming hand from her.
Professor Thole was sourly eyeing Trisk over his glasses. “You allowed a tactical virus to attach to your tomato? That is a stupid error.”
Furious, Trisk took a breath to tell them all to go to hell, her words catching when Rynn put a finger to his lips. Slowly she exhaled, no less angry but trusting his half-hidden smile.
“Trisk is telling the truth,” Orchid said, and Kal’s eyes shot murderously to the pixy. “I was there when Kal made the bridge between the virus and tomato.”
Ulbrine stiffened in the sudden silence. Orchid’s wings turned pink as she blushed at everyone’s eyes on her. “I don’t fly in your garden anymore, Kalamack,” she said, bobbing up and down to make her dress waft. “You told me you wanted to prove her work was dangerous and yours was safe. If you cared about what was safe, you wouldn’t have promised Saladan you’d give him manufacture and distribution of Trisk’s other work.”
“He did what!” Trisk exclaimed.
“You did it to hurt her, Kal,” Orchid said, her dust so bright it was hard to look at. “To help yourself, not help your people.”
“You’re going to take the word of a pixy over mine?” Ulbrine said, but he was sweating, and Piscary casually reached out, catching Orchid’s foot as she flew murderously at Ulbrine. Fuming, she backwashed in her own dust, shrilling at Piscary to let her go.
Ulbrine stood, his expression drawn. “Release Dr. Cambri into my custody. I’ll see about beginning to mend this,” he said, but the Weres had their heads together, whispering, and Professor Thole’s lips were pursed in thought as he stood behind the bar with Daniel.
“I have a doubt,” Piscary said, voice mocking and low.
“The proof was destroyed in the fire. A fire she set,” Ulbrine said, and Kal stood, only to be shoved back down by Rynn Cormel.
“This is outrageous!” Ulbrine said, fuming when Piscary’s brown eyes flashed black. “I demand you release Dr. Kalamack and Dr. Cambri to me.”
“Demand?” Piscary said, so still on the couch that he didn’t look real anymore.
Ulbrine’s eyes narrowed, and Trisk stiffened as she felt the enclave member tap a line.
“Perhaps you’re right,” Piscary said, and Daniel exhaled at the visible easing of tension in not only Ulbrine, but the Weres and Cormel. From behind the bar, Professor Thole fingered a worn ley line charm. “I was dearly hoping to avoid this,” Piscary continued, “but as you say, the evidence of who tampered with the connection points between the species was destroyed in a fire. I have no problem with the testimony of a pixy, but others will.”
“Thank you, Piscary,” Orchid said primly, flying back to sit on Daniel’s shoulder.
“Then you release them to me?” Ulbrine asked, his smile faltering when Piscary’s attention went to the far corner of the room.
“Rick?” the master vampire called, and Trisk’s eyes shot to the bandaged man in the wheelchair. Her jaw went slack as she remembered what Niles had said when he tried to burn them alive in her truck. My God, Rick was burned into his second life? Undead vampires did not feel love, but they did feel pain.
Ulbrine sat down fast, his expression empty as Leo wheeled the bandaged man forward.
“Rick?” Daniel said, and the figure shifted a wrapped hand up in acknowledgment. “The news said you were dead!”
“I am,” Rick rasped, and Trisk blanched when a weird, wispy burbling rose up. He was laughing. “I am,” he continued, the awful noise gurgling to nothing. “Kal burned me alive when I realized he’d tampered with the Angel tomato and Dr. Plank’s PTV. He hid within his circle when fire dripped from the ceiling like liquid sun. He watched me burn, and did nothing.”
Trisk shuddered when the white-wrapped figure turned to Kal, the hunger and hatred behind the bandages easy to see. The black orbs rimmed by red didn’t even look like his eyes anymore. “You think your journey here was painful?” Rick rasped, his beautiful voice gone. “Perhaps someday I will thank you for moving me to my second life. But not today.”
Professor Thole’s fingers began to drum on the bar. Ulbrine began to distance himself from Kal, and seeing it, Piscary frowned. “I’m sorry, Rick. Thank you,” Piscary said as he gestured for Leo to take him out.
Rick’s eerie, rasping laughter hissed over them all, and Daniel turned to Piscary, his face white. “Is he going to be okay?”
Piscary seemed surprised by the question. “It remains to be seen. His insurance will be sufficient to set him up safely from the sun, but he has no scion to see to his other needs. If he does not find one soon, the blood he takes from my family will no longer support him. He can’t hope to win his own scion while burned. It was an ill-timed death. Niles is most upset.”