“Please read my mind,” he said. “It will be the simplest way to convince you both of the urgency of this situation and my role in it. In this one instance, I give you my consent.”
Sarah’s eyes widened. “Uh.” The Covenant of St. George specializes in hating cryptids, and Dominic was still a member of the Covenant, no matter how relaxed he was becoming about associating with “monsters” like my cousin. Him giving her permission to read his mind was huge, and she had no idea how to deal with it. Finally, she went with the easy option: “Okay. Um, just clear your mind of everything but what you want me to see, and try not to think about Verity naked, okay?”
Dominic reddened. I smirked. Telling people not to think about nudity is the best way to make sure they think about nudity. That was intentional. If you’re busy trying frantically not to picture someone’s tits, you’re not thinking about keeping the telepath out of your head. Sarah says it’s a good way to get around a person’s natural defenses.
Sarah’s eyes began to glow white. The brightness rapidly increased, until her pupils and irises had been completely obscured. Then her eyes widened again, mouth falling open in a horrified “oh.” “They’re coming here?” she demanded, in a voice that couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be a whisper or a squeak, and wound up demonstrating the attributes of both.
“Yes,” said Dominic gravely.
“They—you—how can you let them do these things?” The glow in Sarah’s eyes went off as she broke contact with Dominic’s mind. Her entire body seemed to shudder, and she took a long step backward, away from him. “You know what they’re coming here to do. I know you know. I saw it.”
“And you also know that I did not invite them, and that I am here to help.” Dominic sighed deeply. “Believe me, Sarah, I was raised to want nothing more than to be able to join my brethren in cleansing this city without remorse. Part of me still wants to be sure in my mission, confident in the righteousness of the Covenant’s purpose. But I can’t. I can’t be that man anymore.”
“This is why they call you people dangerous, you know,” Sarah said, looking at me. “He’s telling the truth.” She paused, gaze swinging back to Dominic. “That’s really why you wanted me to go into your head, isn’t it? So I could tell Very that you were being sincere when you said you wanted to help us not wind up dead.”
“I told her myself; I doubt that she fully believed me,” said Dominic calmly. “This seemed the simplest way to answer everyone’s questions.”
“You let a cryptid poke around inside your head, so I’d believe that you wanted to be a good guy?” I asked. “Wow. You really have learned a lot.”
“That, or you truly are the foul, corrupting beast that my elders would make you out to be.” Somehow, Dominic managed to make that sound like an endearment. He looked toward Sarah. “We need your help.”
“I know. I picked that up, too. You seriously want me to go into the Nest and tell the dragons that the Covenant is en route? I mean, that’s how you think I should be spending my night? I have class in the morning, you know.”
I smiled a little. “You mean you have a chat date with Artie in a few hours. Can’t you reschedule?”
Sarah didn’t blush—she’s not physiologically capable of blushing, since she doesn’t have hemoglobin in her blood—but she did wrinkle her nose and scowl at me before relenting and saying, “I’ll email him. Can we not tell him there’s supposed to be a purge coming? I don’t want to freak him out.”
“You know he’s going to find out from Dad, and then he’s going to be pissed that you didn’t tell him yourself.”
“I know. But I’d rather he be pissed at me later, when this is over, than panicking at me now, when I have other things to worry about.” Sarah sighed. “I guess I’m going to miss class too, huh?”
“Depends. Do you think the dragons will finish freaking out in time for you to get a decent night’s sleep? It’s only eleven-thirty.”
Sarah gave me a withering look. She didn’t say anything aloud, but in my head I heard, Dominic is really worried about you. Me, too, a little bit, but mostly you. I think you should be cautious.
Why? I asked. Do you think he’s going to hand me to the Covenant?
No. But I think there’s a pretty good chance that he’ll drug your drink and you’ll wake up on a Greyhound bus bound for somewhere in the Midwest. He doesn’t want you to get hurt.
On a scale of one to ten . . .
If he’s not playing straight, he’s got shields I can’t break past without a lot of effort. For right now, I’m assuming he’s telling us the truth.
The subject of our furtive mental discussion was looking at us with weary annoyance. “I can tell when you’re discussing me telepathically, you know,” he said. “Despite my never having sought to develop this particular skill, I’ve learned to recognize the signs.”
“We’re educational,” I said blithely. “Sarah’s afraid you’re going to drug me and dump me on a bus to get me out of town.”
“I’ll admit, the thought did cross my—” Dominic stopped and scowled. “I do not appreciate the violation of my privacy.”
“You invited me in,” Sarah countered. “I can’t help what I see while I’m in there. I wasn’t snooping, but the image of getting Verity the hell out of Dodge was pretty prominent in your thoughts.”
“And I’m not in the mood to play the fainting flower and get shipped off,” I said. “We all clear on that point?”
Dominic sighed. “Sadly, yes.”
“Good. Sarah, can you please get to the dragons tonight? Let them know the Covenant is coming, and we don’t know anything more than that, but that they have my word that we’ll do everything we possibly can to keep William safe.” Female dragons are the ultimate pragmatists. William’s wives would be perfectly happy to die if that was what it took for him to survive the purge. I guess that’s one of the perks that comes with being the last known male of your species.
“Just let me email Artie and I’ll head right down.”
“That works. As soon as you’re done at the Nest, I want you to head for the airport and catch the next plane home.” Sarah wouldn’t need a ticket. That was one more bonus of being a cuckoo. She could waltz past security without showing ID, and the airline would mysteriously find her an unclaimed First Class seat.
“No,” said Sarah calmly.
I blinked. “No? What do you mean, no?”
“I mean no. The Covenant isn’t going to find me. You need me, Verity. I’m the ultimate spy. Dominic was thinking it, even though he was trying not to, because he didn’t want to upset you. You need me to stay here and help. I’ll do it, because if I let you get killed, your mother’s going to be so mad.” Sarah looked at me calmly. “You can argue if you want, but I’ll just change hotels and not tell you where I am.”
“I hate you sometimes,” I said.
“I know.”
I sighed. “But also I love you. I do appreciate this, Sarah.”
Sarah smiled. “I know that, too.”
“Dominic and I are going back to the Freakshow. I need to tell the staff we’re about to have issues and make sure everyone knows what to do when the Covenant comes to town.”
“Okay.”
“Okay,” I echoed, and moved to hug her before heading toward the door. “Don’t be a hero, Sarah.”
She laughed at that. “I’m the last person in the world you need to worry about there. I’ll call if I hear anything.”
The convenient thing about having a telepath in the family: she never runs out of batteries, and she doesn’t depend on the cell towers for service. “Gotcha. Good luck down there.”