End Game (The Foundling Series) Page 7

  I couldn’t pick apart the threads that wove together to make me. Start with one loose string, pull on it, unravel it, and it would take another and another and another with it until no more Luce remained. Conquest would be all I had left, that immutable core hidden inside me like a dormant disease waiting to spread through my system with cancerous glee.

  “You’re doing it wrong,” Rixton said from behind me. “You’re supposed to put your head in the oven to commit suicide. Common mistake really. Freezer, oven. I can see how you’d get the two confused.”

  Giving up on finding absolution in conveniently frozen portion sizes, I shut the door. “When did you arrive?”

  “About five minutes ago.” He popped a potato stick into his mouth. “I caught up with Maggie then went looking for you.” He crunched through another one. “There are easier ways to go if you’re looking to cash in your chips.”

  “I’m not trying to kill myself.”

  “Um.” A cough stopped him mid-crunch. “This isn’t one of those hormonal things, is it? Where you have the hot flashes and night sweats? Commercials have led me to believe women don’t go through that until they’re older, but I usually flip the station to avoid hearing the side effects, so I could be wrong. I don’t know that I’ve ever sat through an entire ad, so maybe I missed pertinent details.”

  “I’m not going through menopause either.”

  Comprehension dawned on his face. “You’re out of ice cream.”

  “Yes,” I said, deadpan. “I’m out of ice cream.”

  “No problemo.” He tossed me a silver packet. “Hope you like Neapolitan.”

  “This is astronaut ice cream.” The foil crinkled in my hand. “Why do you have astronaut ice cream?”

  “Mags told me to pack the essentials. I can’t very well bring a carton of the frozen stuff into the field, now can I?”

  “Here.” I tossed it back to him. “Something tells me you need this more than I do.”

  We joined the others out in the yard and waited on Wu to finish setting Kapoor on the scent.

  Miller drifted to my side. “When do you plan on bringing in Death?”

  “We need a location first.” I rubbed the base of my neck. “I don’t want to pull that trigger until I’ve taken aim.”

  Several of her coterie, who she viewed as her children, had died in our last confrontation, and her mate had been seriously wounded, as much as a reanimated corpse can be injured. I wasn’t certain what the shelf life on Janardan was, but she had almost come unglued when he was hurt, so he must be killable. That or he was only as salvageable as his corpse.

  “All right.” He nodded. “I can see the logic in that.”

  Thom sidled up to me, brushing his shoulder against mine. “I haven’t hunted like this in an age.”

  We had hunted Drosera together, other charun too, so he must mean targeting a power.

  That must be old hat for Conquest, and therefore the coterie. Much like Cole and his levelheaded approach to defending this terrene, he was pulling on his vast knowledge of how to bring a world to its knees in order to keep this one standing.

  Not ten minutes later, Wu emerged with his lips mashed into a bloodless line.

  Kapoor followed on his heels, his eyes gleaming silver, and his body farther gone into his transformation than I had ever seen it.

  “He’s ready,” Wu rasped. “Are you?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  Wu snapped out a command in a language that tickled my hindbrain, and Kapoor shot into the sky.

  Wings burst from either side of Wu’s spine, and he blasted off in pursuit.

  Cole shifted while the coterie gathered around us, and I hopped on his back.

  With an eager trill, Phoebe shot down the front of my shirt then stuck her head out the neck while threading her tail through the nearest loop on my jeans. It’s not like we had to worry about her splatting if she fell, but we tried to keep her safe, even though she was determined to fight us every step of the way.

  “Stay in contact,” I shouted to the others. “Ears and eyes open.”

  Miller and Thom took one SUV and Portia, Rixton, and Santiago took the other.

  They would be our backup on the ground, in charge of securing food and lodgings as needed until this hunt concluded, one way or another.

  The quick dart of Phoebe’s raspy tongue across my chin brought my attention down to her.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay with Granddaddy?”

  Far away from the action, nice and safe in a mountain fortress, hidden away from it all.

  She bared her teeth.

  “I’m willing to supply you with cats to chase.”

  Her lips stopped quivering while she thought it over.

  “I might even let you eat one or two.”

  Sorry, cats.

  A decisive shake of her head sealed the deal.

  “Stay close and do exactly what I tell you, understand?”

  This time when she showed her teeth, it was with glee.

  The thing I kept forgetting about her was she was charun, a person and not a pet. She might look like the cutest little dragon to ever be born — hatched? — but she was a child, and according to Cole children on Convallaria matured at a wicked fast rate until they hit puberty. I wasn’t imagining that she was bigger in the time flies when you have kids way most parents viewed their offspring. She was putting on weight, gaining length. Her mind was sharpening, her reflexes quickening.

  As she settled in to nap, I kept tabs on Wu and Kapoor.

  With the sun beating down on us, it promised to be a long day.

  Wu called Kapoor to heel at nightfall, and we met up with the others to eat and sneak our sweaty, sunburnt party into our hotel rooms. Wu and Kapoor shared a room, since Kapoor was fully under Wu’s control as far as I could tell.

  No wonder Wu hadn’t shared Kapoor’s ability with us. It meant exposing his own and acknowledging that no matter how much he despised his father, he was still very much his son.

  The coterie, plus Rixton, had three rooms up for grabs. I expected Thom and Miller to share, then Portia and Maggie, who were, of course, a combo deal, to stay with Rixton, and for us to get stuck with Santiago.

  I wasn’t disappointed.

  “We’ve got a problem,” Santiago said as he shoved into our room and claimed one of the queen-size beds.

  “How is that different than any other day?” I flopped on the other mattress, sore and achy and glad Phoebe had settled on the dresser in the nest of blankets Cole made for her. “There’s always a problem. Multiple problems. If we didn’t have problems, I would think the world was ending.”

  A bit too on the nose, but I was tired and hungry and hungry and tired.

  “Mateo Vega is reporting five missing Cuprina scouts.” He tapped the tablet screen he pulled from who knows where. “They’re more tech savvy than most. They all wore smartwatches to keep in contact with their home base.”

  “That’s good news, then.” I frowned at his glum mood. “That means you can track them.”

  “I’m working on it.” He manifested three more tablets and began to search in earnest.

  Forcing my brain to do its job, I asked, “When did they go missing?”

  “Today.”

  “Kapoor was with us the whole time.” The news drew me upright. “Are you sure it happened today?”

  Most scouting parties left on days or weeklong missions, only returning home to report and tag in the next group. Radio silence wasn’t uncommon. Technology was easily tracked, so most left their phones and other gadgets at home.

  “They left this morning, got a few hours out, and the signal disappeared. Mateo attempted contact an hour after, in case they had flown into a dead zone for coverage. No one answered his calls.”

  “We can’t afford to divide our forces.” I sounded very much like the general leading her troops, and I hated how naturally it came to me. “We have to stick together. It’s the only way we’ve got
a fighting chance against Ezra.”

  “We can’t hang our allies out to dry,” Santiago said, “or they’re going to start thinking you’re more like Conquest than the brochure says.”

  “I didn’t say I wouldn’t send help.” I was practical, not heartless. “Contact our allies. See who’s nearest them. Request a search party. Keep the details as vague as you can. We don’t need to start a panic.”

  “Yeah,” Santiago agreed dryly. “We wouldn’t want our allies to know they’re being hunted.”

  “They knew what they signed up for,” Cole rumbled from behind me. “We need to keep a lid on the Kapoor situation for as long as possible.”

  “There.” After a few keystrokes, Santiago powered off his tablet. “Help is on the way. Problem solved.”

  He turned to go, but I put myself between him and the door, blocking his easy exit.

  “What is your problem?”

  “Problem? What problem? I don’t have a problem.”

  “Are you questioning orders?”

  “There she is, ladies and gentlemen.” He tucked the tablet under his arm so he could clap. “Conquest.”

  A warning rumble filled the space between us, but I couldn’t blame Cole. It was all mine.

  “I’ll ask you one more time before I shift and swallow you whole. What is your problem?”

  “That right there.” He jabbed a finger in my face. “You’re more like her every day.”

  “What do you want me to do? Bail on Wu and Kapoor — on you guys — instead?”

  “Yes,” he hissed. “Go prove you’re willing to put your money where your mouth is.”

  “I set Kapoor on this path. It’s a collision course with Ezra. I’m not going to search the bushes for what we all know they’re going to find. I can’t protect those people. I made that clear. They chose to follow me, to deify me, and I hate that I can’t slap them sober, that we need willing sacrifices.” I slapped his hand away. “Coterie is family. You guys and Dad are all I’ve got left.”

  “Ezra has held this terrene beyond memory, beyond time, beyond —”

  A bucket of ice-cold comprehension dumped over my head. “You’re scared.”

  Horror contorted his features. “I am not.”

  Now that I knew to look, I couldn’t stop seeing it. “You are too.”

  “Am not.”

  “Are too.”

  The door swung open behind us, and Portia sashayed in without waiting for an invitation.

  “I can’t believe you picked a fight with Santiago and didn’t invite me to join.” She rubbed her hands together. “What are we making fun of? His face? His pea-sized brain?” Behind her hand, she said, “His pea-sized other brain?”

  “Forget it.” He shoved past her into the hall. “Forget I said anything.”

  As much as I wished I could, I had an inkling of what would make this better — and worse — and I owed it to him to suck up my distaste and do it.

  “He left.” Portia gawked after him. “I offered to insult his manhood, both north and south, and he left.” She wheeled on me. “What did you do to him? He’s broken.”

  “I have an idea how to fix this.” I pushed out a sigh. “Stay put. It won’t work if there are spectators.”

  When all eyes were on him, he couldn’t help but live down to their expectations and pitch epic mantrums worthy of his reputation.

  My first order of business was hitting the vending machines for his favorite soda and snacks. Only after I had that peace offering in hand did I track him down to the parking lot where he sat under a tree planted in the median between our hotel and the strip mall behind it.

  “Catch.” I tossed him a bag of those rock-hard corn things, ranch-flavored, that would chip my teeth if I tried to eat them. “I would toss your soda, but that would be cruel.”

  Eyes narrowed on me, he tore into his treat. “That’s never stopped you before.”

  “Yes, well, normally I would shake it all the way from the vending machine to here and then given it to you for the joy of watching it explode in your face. I might have even recorded it for Portia.”

  “What’s stopping you?” He accepted the can but eyed it with distrust. “You’re not exactly known for your mercy.”

  Ignoring his sprawl that screamed no girls allowed, I kicked his ankle until he made room for me to sit beside him. Then, since he was being a scaredy cat, I took his drink and popped the top myself to prove it wasn’t rigged. I handed it back, and he slurped loudly and suspiciously.

  There was nothing to do but spit it out. “You’re trying to protect me.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Yes, you —” I gritted my teeth against falling into the childish rhythm that was his comfort zone. “You’re trying to provoke me into personally checking on the missing Cuprina. There’s no tactical reason why you would do that, so it’s got to be an emotional one.”

  “I have no emotions.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “No, I don’t.” A smile tipped the corner of his mouth he must have thought I couldn’t see. “Is there a point to this? I’m not against you hand-delivering me snacks, but I could make a list for next time. It would cut down on the number of trips you have to make.”

  “You’re worried we’re going to find Ezra,” I pressed on. “You want to scare me off so I’m not there when you die in a blaze of glory.”

  “There’s no glory in death,” he scoffed. “I don’t like you enough to spare you from the psychological scars witnessing my imminent demise would inflict on your wannabe human psyche.”

  “Of course you don’t.” Risking life and limb, I leaned my head against his shoulder, ignoring how he stiffened, and let that contact soothe him through the coterie bond. “I remember how guilty I felt after Thom … ” I couldn’t finish, but I didn’t have to when Santiago felt that burden as heavily as I did. “I wouldn’t want anyone to feel that way if I got hurt. That they were responsible. I wouldn’t want them to think it was their fault.”

  “We don’t have to go looking for trouble,” he said quietly. “He’s going to find us. He probably already knows we’re on the way.”

  “He’s got all the advantages,” I allowed, “but he’s not going to see us coming. He’s too used to being powerful, too certain we’re going to cower before him. He doesn’t expect to face his enemies head-on. He throws Malakhim at all his problems until they go away. He’s not expecting a fight. He’s expecting to wear us out and then hunt us down.”

  The tension beneath my cheek ebbed a bit, and I kept my own smile hidden.

  “That still doesn’t solve the problem of who is attacking our allies.”

  “That’s true.” I plucked a blade of grass and twirled it between my fingers. “There’s always a chance that it’s Malakhim.”

  “I don’t see the point in picking off the outliers.”

  “Surveillance? Kill the lookouts then creep up on the main camp for recon?”

  “Why stop there? Why not wipe out each encampment? They have the numbers.”

  “These attacks divide our focus,” I pointed out. “I’ve cultivated a reputation among the cadre and their coteries for weakness. That same outlook will carry over into each cadre members’ followers. They might hope that I’ll peel off from the group to put out fires in person.”

  Santiago tensed again then rolled his shoulder to dislodge me. “Then they’ll be disappointed.”

  Figuring that meant my work here was done, I stood and dusted off the seat of my pants. “Coming in?”

  “I have to brood for another hour or two.”

  “Long enough for Portia to notice and come check on you?”

  The cut of his scowl was betrayed by the tremble in his lips that begged to be a smile.

  “What are you up to?” I looked to either side of him, but I didn’t see anything obvious. “Spill.”

  Santiago didn’t do happy without a reason. Usually one that sucked for the other person involved.

  �
��A tin of itching powder might have come into my possession while we were in Virginia City. The general store had all kinds of awesome gift ideas.”

  “You could have bought her one of the gemstones. She might like that more.”

  “Sometimes, it’s like you don’t know her at all.”

  Raising my hands, I backed away. “Just make sure Maggie doesn’t get stuck with the cleanup.”

  “I won’t hurt Maggie.” He snorted. “Miller would swallow me whole.”

  “Yeah, he would.” The poor guy had it bad. “But that’s nothing compared to what I would do to you.”

  With a wink, I left him to stew and plot, the two things he did best. No doubt an ugly surprise would drop into my lap thanks to the comment I had made about his pouting until Portia took notice. He preferred to strike first and apologize … well … actually never. He wasn’t much for sorries.

  Healing my relationship with Santiago might be a stretch, but I had slapped a solid bandage on it.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The next morning, Kapoor led us farther across the country, in a northwestern slant. I was going to laugh my butt off if it turned out Ezra lived in Hollywood, but that was the exhaustion and nerves talking. A high-density area would be the worst-case scenario. There was also the fact he viewed himself as above it all, so I doubt he would want to live among the common or uncommon, since we’re talking Hollywood, rabble.

  When we broke for lunch, I got served more bad news.

  “Are you sure?” I sat across from Santiago on a picnic bench, devouring the fried chicken and biscuits he had selected for lunch. “How many were lost?”

  “Two more clans are reporting scouts missing. The total between them is fourteen.”

  Overnight, I seemed to have come down with a case of humanity.

  “Tell the other clans.” So much for strategy. “Warn them it’s started. Let them know they’re being hunted. Bring in the scouts except for the perimeter patrols around the encampments. Make sure they’re armed.”

  “Will do.” Santiago set to work. “I’ll send aid to the clans who require it.”

  “Thanks.” Drumstick in hand, I rose and started pacing off my anxiety. Within minutes, Cole joined me. He wore Phoebe like a necklace, which was one of her favorite modes of transportation. “What’s up?”