Admes tapped me on the shoulder. “Don’t you mean the three of us?”
“Yeah, uh.” I looked up at him. How do you say, We’re not sure we can trust you now, without offending a guy you’ve just fought beside and nearly died with? I shrugged. “Our work here is essentially done now that Samos is dead. So it’s really just a matter of collecting Vayl and then we’ll be out of your hair.”
“How old do you think I am?”
“Um—”
“I understand precisely what Cirilai means to Vayl. Did I not see it dangling from a chain around his neck every day he walked in the Trust? And then he left, something none of us ever managed, yet we all understood the ring was what allowed him to survive when the rest of us would have shriveled up and died.”
“Admes—”
His raised hand cut me off. “He came to us with you on his arm and his ring on your finger. And, during the battle, I saw how it took you down. Vayl is in dire straits, is he not?”
I gulped. “I think so, yeah.”
Admes put his hand on my shoulder. “Then I will help you save him.”
“Why?”
“Because I hope it will mean Disa’s fall. And that will be the best thing that has happened for Niall and me in decades.”
He headed for the villa, and without the energy or numbers we needed to tackle the Trust’s best warrior, we plodded after him.
After a few minutes Tarasios said, “Can I go too?”
“No.”
“But—”
“What’s Disa going to say when you show up after she’s already told you to stay home?”
“Oh.” His face fell. “I see your point.”
“Tell you what you can do,” I said. He actually looked more eager than Jack, whose tail had started wagging the second we began moving again. “Find Niall. Tell him Koren was working for Samos.” I gave him my number and hoped he’d actually memorized it as we reached the villa’s outer wall.
Since I still had the keys to the minibus, Dave, Admes, Jack, and I piled in, leaving Tarasios to trudge into the mansion and spread the word about Samos.
I’d never been so glad to slip onto the smooth, cool seats of some wheels that could speed me toward my goal. I gripped the door handle, leaning my forehead against the window as Dave took the wheel and Admes grabbed a rear seat. I was sick and sore and, from the way my shirt stuck to my back, pretty certain my cut had reopened. But none of that mattered. Trouble was, the pains Cirilai kept shooting up my arm at odd intervals made it hard to put my real problem into a perspective that didn’t leave me utterly crazed.
Finding Vayl. Just make it a goal to press toward, not a quest that will destroy you if you fail. Don’t think about what happens if the ring goes cold on your finger. If you never have another moment when he looks into your eyes and suddenly you feel happy, and whole, and alive.
Jack jumped into my lap. Which practically gave me whiplash as I heaved backward, trying to take all that weight without yelling. He shoved his face into mine.
“Okay, let’s get one thing straight,” I told him. “I know where that tongue has been. No, don’t give me that innocent look. I’ve seen you giving the privates a good washing. So there will be no licking of my face, hands, or any other area of exposed skin. Got it?” He laid his head on my shoulder and blew something wet in my ear. “Gross,” I said, “but acceptable.” I rubbed the side of my face against his and whispered, “Thanks.”
Dave had backed us onto the lane leading to the main road to Patras. As soon as he threw the van into drive, without warning, he slammed the accelerator. Admes swore as he dropped something metallic on the floor. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping the next sound I heard wouldn’t be an accidental burst of automatic-weapons fire.
Jack lost his balance and shoved a paw in my chest trying to get it back, which made my left breast hurt so much I looked down to make sure it hadn’t caved in. Thinking about my two typical appendages led my mind on to Disa’s multiple freaky ones. And I decided we’d given Pete more than enough time to research their various applications. With a major confrontation on the horizon, I needed to know how to defeat them. Now.
It took him nearly a minute to answer his phone.
“I still have an hour before I have to get up for the day,” he griped.
“Then you shouldn’t have given me your home number,” I replied.
“Did you know you’re the only one who ever calls me here?”
I bit my lip. It’s never good to stand out in a crowd, especially one as sparse as the group that comprises our department. “It’s important.”
“Then get to the point.” I decided the reluctant acceptance in his voice might spare me a lecture the next time we met, and launched into a brief review of the night’s events.
“So Vayl and I got split up and now I’m going in to back him up. He’s with the face-eater, so I could definitely use any info you guys have dug up, you know, before I go pick a fight with her?”
“Hang on.” I heard the squeak of bedsprings as Pete moved his side of the conversation to a location that wouldn’t give his long-suffering wife nightmares. “Listen, all we’ve got right now are a couple of radical theories. Nothing we’re willing to let you risk your life, or your nose, on. So far all I can tell you for sure is she’s not a true Vera.”
“You mean this isn’t something she’s evolved into by using her own powers?”
“Exactly. She seems to have entered into a symbiotic relationship with a new species.”
“And by new you mean one we don’t yet know how to kill.”
“Pretty much,” he admitted. “Our researchers are working on it, but currently all they can tell me is if you terminate her, the thing that’s connected to her should die as well.”
“That’s easy for them to say. They haven’t seen the damage she can do!”
“True.”
I sighed. It looked like I was still stuck in improvisational mode regarding Disa. And that couldn’t include smoking her unless I figured out how to separate her from Vayl. Maybe if I managed to slow her down. Paralyze her even. Huh. Now there’s a thought.
“Listen, Pete, I know Vayl has fed you information on Trusts in general. Has he told you anything about this one in particular that might help?”
“Hang on. Let me get my laptop.”
I stared at the twinkling lights of Patras, growing larger in the window as we left the countryside and headed toward the docks. I realized I was petting Jack’s head while I waited and feeling better because of it. Too bad my work kept me moving so much. It might’ve been nice to try life as a pet owner.
“Jaz?”
“Still here,” I told him.
“Okay, I’ve brought up a copy of Vayl’s report. There’s not much you don’t already know. He says that the Trust demands absolute loyalty. That Hamon nearly killed him when he turned Disa, because that was one of the cardinal sins of the community.”
“Somebody mentioned the rule, but I didn’t realize Hamon reacted that strongly.”
“Yup. Says here most other Trusts encourage turning. But Hamon insisted that nobody create a mate for him- or herself. It also says Vayl suspected the only reason Hamon spared him was because he despised Disa so much. When Hamon discovered Vayl wanted nothing to do with her, he calmed down considerably.”
Aha! And there you have it, folks, the missing thread of holograph Hamon’s tale. The only way you can step into his and Octavia’s shoes is to be a Maker whose mate would wear the mask. Or vice versa. But, damn, who would willingly do that?
I put my hand to my reeling head. “Pete, Disa needs Vayl in that mask in order to keep the Trust from losing its power. I think if that happened worse things than Samos would show up to enslave them, so she’s got to be pretty desperate. But I can’t figure out why she’d take him away. The mask is in Patras.”