Xavier’s labored breath ceased for so long that for a moment I wasn’t sure he was still breathing at all. He was. Breathing and staring with the fearlessness borne from only one thing: the death of hope.
“Between you…and the plebeians, of course,” he answered, and my disgust for him was renewed. “Between an Archer and someone who merely does what they’re told.”
And this time I was certain he glanced at the camera.
Then Xavier began hacking so badly that for a moment I didn’t think he’d make it to the surgery. I angled him on his side, not knowing if I was helping or hurting him.
Meanwhile, I glanced back at the binder in my lap, realizing just how much power I suddenly held. When Xavier died, I would have complete control over Valhalla, all the Archer assets, and this household as well. I thought of the masks hanging on the walls just outside Xavier’s home office, their magical properties, and the hidden room where he performed rituals that provided additional power to the Tulpa. Very suddenly I was on the precipice of all that my mother had spent years trying to get to-the heart of the Archer organization. Unexpected. Undetected.
Unstoppable.
And if Felix killed Helen, leaving a kill spot that any supernatural could read, it would all be undone in an instant. Shit.
“Okay, thanks for the family business, Daddy.” I dropped a kiss on his forehead and turned. It was all I could do not to run to the door. Only that ever-present camera-and the ones I knew were positioned in every room-stopped me. “Take care.”
“Olivia?” he said softly.
I turned impatiently.
“When I call you next…will you come?”
I knew then that he would die soon. He would die because of every contemptible little deed, each snarling thought, every mean intent. Such things built up, just as in business…compounding his sins, multiplying them, returning them with interest. But because of what he’d meant to my sister, and she to him, I didn’t avert my eyes.
“Sure,” I said, swallowing hard. “Of course.”
I bypassed the elevator in favor of the stairs, having trouble keeping myself to a mortal pace. I sniffed at the air. No blood yet. Please don’t let it be too late. Hitting the landing of the winding staircase, I heard Helen moving about in the sitting room, and whipped around the corner to find her bent over the tea set, the room awash in light and peaches and creams. She was arranging pastry.
Felix was poised behind her, boyish face gone fierce with hatred, double-edged boomerang fisted over his head.
“Scones!” I yelled, bounding into the room before he could decapitate her. Both their heads jerked my way. Felix’s boomerang disappeared from sight. “I-I-I love scones with my tea. Oh, Helen. You remembered!”
I shot her a smile that felt too giant for my face. Then I jerked my head, causing Felix to back down and Helen to raise a brow. I turned the move into a shudder. “Is it cold in here? Are you guys cold? Tea sounds good. Doesn’t it sound good, Nate? Join us, Helen?”
I was babbling, too loud and fast, but Helen fortunately begged off with the excuse of attending Xavier, and Felix and I sipped from tiny teacups in a protracted silence, remaining like that up until we were cocooned in my car and zipping down the gravel drive.
Once we hit the guard gate, Felix turned in his seat and ran a hand through his tousled hair. “What the hell was that?”
“I just inherited the family business.”
I explained to him about the power we’d have upon Xavier’s death to move about the mansion. How we could install agents and moles inside my familial home to unearth more of its paranormal secrets, and no one would dare question it. More importantly, we could do the same with Valhalla, and that might be key in finally uncovering a way to kill the Tulpa. I finished with an explanation of why I’d stopped him from decapitating Helen. “Leaving a kill spot in the mansion would have done away with all of that.”
Felix immediately nodded his agreement, but I could tell he was disappointed as he gazed out the window. The adrenaline that would have allowed him to cleave Helen’s head from her body in one strong swipe had dissipated, and he sunk into his seat, sighing heavily. “He really is dying.”
“You heard that?”
“Dude, I smelled that.” Facing forward again, legs splayed, he lowered the window, allowing fresh air to race through the car’s cab. We both inhaled deeply. “The place reeks.”
“I know.”
He glanced at me sideways, wind warring with his hair. “How does it make you feel?”
“How should it?”
“You tell me.”
I opened my mouth, prepped for the easy retort, then snapped it shut. “I feel nothing.”
“Apathy,” Felix said, nodding his head while his bald fingertips tapped out a tune only he could hear. “That’s okay. He was never kind to you.”
“No, I mean I’m not even apathetic. I’m not even numb. I feel nothing.” I shot him a tense smile and changed the subject. I needed to drop him somewhere and get back to my search for Skamar. “So, back to Vanessa?”
He nodded, eyes downcast. The air in the car suddenly felt heavier-like a hot, wet blanket had been dropped over me. I shivered anyway.
“Where can I drop you?”
He shrugged one shoulder. It didn’t matter. The warehouse was centrally located, so he’d reach it from any side of the valley within the hour.
“I thought she was dead, you know,” he said suddenly, looking back up. “When we reached Chinatown? Right before we entered that bakery?” He shook his head, eyes fluttering shut. “For a few moments I had to live in a world without V…it was like the earth tilted again on its axis.”
I knew what he meant. I’d felt the same shift when my mother left me. Again when Olivia died. That one was still unbalancing. And even though I’d chosen to let go of my past love, Ben Traina, his absence in my life had forced me to a different emotional plane as well. The dismantling of a dream was also a sort of death.
“I’m not really good at remembering things, not even birthdays and anniversaries,” Felix said, shrugging as he looked out the window. We were back on the I-215 loop, nestled between banked, decorative walls that blended with the surrounding desert. “Stuff like that just doesn’t seem important at the time. But then Vanessa? She’ll talk about something, a time or place-a battle, a childhood memory-and with one small detail, like the season or what it smelled like or what we were wearing-I’m back there, and I remember it. And when I can remember,” he added, voice unusually soft, “there’s nothing at odds inside of me. Everything makes sense. Like every step in my life was consciously chosen to lead me to her, and now. Times like that, I’m perfectly balanced. I don’t need anything else.”
I tapped my fingers on the wheels. My chances of finding balance with anyone was hamstrung by a past where I’d had only myself to rely upon. Being as vulnerable as Felix was with Vanessa, even with an equal and someone I trusted, went against everything my instinct told me.
But I would have loved to feel exactly what Felix was talking about.
“I’m coming with you to the warehouse,” I said before I could stop myself. Hunter was there, and I suddenly wanted to see him…though I didn’t say that to Felix. Then again, from the way his attention was fixed on the scenery, I didn’t need to. My fingers tightened on the wheel. Damn these super senses. “Hunter’s been working on a replacement conduit for me,” I explained.
“Mmm-hmmm.”
“It might help me in Midheaven.”
This time he said nothing.
“And I need to tell Warren about Xavier’s plans for me.”