Now it was Istas’ turn to sigh. “Humans are discomforted by excessive discussion of their squishy interiors.”
“Which means . . . ?”
“No referencing carnage more than once in a single conversation.”
“As the dominant human in the room, that rule is hereby suspended until we get my niece back,” announced Uncle Mike. Now he stood, stalking toward Dominic with the calm, predatory assurance of a man who knew damn well that he was armed to the teeth and ready to kill anything standing in his way. I knew I wasn’t in danger. I still took a step away from Dominic, just in case. Uncle Mike kept walking until the two of them were almost nose-to-nose, lowering his gun at the last minute as he looked the younger man square in the eye.
To Dominic’s credit, he stood his ground. Then again, maybe that was a sign that he was too stupid to live.
“Sarah’s vouching for you, and that would normally be good enough for me, but my niece’s life is on the line,” said Uncle Mike. His tone was absolutely level. That was another warning sign, and I took another step away from them. “If you’re lying to us—if I find out you’re using some Covenant trick to lie to us—I won’t just kill you, I’ll hurt you. I’ll make you sorry that you ever came to America, and then I’ll make you even sorrier to have tangled with my family. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir,” said Dominic. “And if I may be blunt, sir, I’m already sorry to have encountered your family.”
Uncle Mike’s eyebrows shot up. Then they lowered again, coming together as he scowled. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Before I met your niece, I was content to be ignorant of the true nature of this war, and my place in it. Without her influence, I might have been able to spend my entire life believing ‘monster’ was the word for cryptid, and ‘traitor’ was the word for Price. I would have been unaware of how incomplete my understanding was. I would have continued to think that I was happy.” Dominic gave a small shake of his head. “I want to find Verity more than anything else. I want to bring her home, and never let her go. I want to learn everything there is to know about this maddened mirror image of the world where I grew up. But here and now, I am frightened, and she is missing, and part of me is sorry I ever got involved.”
“He’s telling the truth,” I said. “In case anyone cares.”
Once again, every head turned toward me. Uncle Mike radiated disapproval. “I didn’t expect you to take his side, Sarah. Do I need to remind you of what his kind does to yours?”
“Uncle Mike, I love you, and I know what you’re trying to say, but I’m a cuckoo. Killing cuckoos isn’t a sign of evil, it’s a sign of sanity. Killing other sapient cryptids is another matter—and that’s something I’ve never seen Dominic do. Plus he’s in love with Verity. That sort of puts him in my good graces.”
“I am in love with her, and would prefer she remain among the living,” said Dominic. “Please. I don’t know what I can possibly do to prove myself to you, and I doubt that we have time for anything that you might name. Verity is alive, but that doesn’t mean she’s not in danger. Time is short. I need your help.”
“Goddamn kids,” muttered Uncle Mike. Then he stepped away from Dominic, moving out of the other man’s personal space. “Okay, Covenant boy. Tell us what you know.”
“Margaret Healy loves her duty and hates your branch of the family in equal measure,” said Dominic, apparently counting both myself and Uncle Mike as official members of the Price-Healy clan for purposes of this debriefing. It made sense. Even if we weren’t related by blood, we were tainted by the ideology that led her actual relatives astray. “I was honestly surprised to see her with the review team. The last time we spoke, she was still barred from activities in North America.”
“Why?” asked Ryan.
“Margaret never believed that the Michigan incident had truly eliminated all survivors of the family on this continent. She wanted to investigate in person. Our superiors felt this was a personal vendetta with no immediate benefit to the Covenant.”
“You mean they were worried she might be right, and that she might set off a war,” said Uncle Mike.
Dominic nodded. “I think that was a factor in their decision, yes. If she was wrong, she would be wasting her time and the Covenant’s resources on a wild goose chase. If she was right, and she was unable to eliminate or capture all hostiles in her first attack, she could very easily have caused the remaining members of the family to turn their efforts against the Covenant.”
“But there are like, eight of them,” said Ryan. His thoughts were confused, chasing each other around his head like puppies chasing their tails. “I don’t know how many, since Very was always pretty cagey about that, but I know they all live in the same house when they’re at home.”
“If there’s one thing you should know about the Prices, it’s that odds rarely work the way they should once the family decides to get involved.” Dominic smiled. “The Covenant had them outnumbered ten to one in Buckley, and they survived. Margaret could easily have triggered a chain reaction no one was prepared for.”
“Maybe she just did that anyway,” said Uncle Mike. “Verity dies, I can guarantee you that the Covenant of St. George isn’t going to like what comes next.”
“Sir, while I respect the destructive power of your family more than you may believe, I can guarantee you in turn that if Verity dies, the Covenant will regret their actions long before any of her relations can get here.”
“We get it,” I said. “If Verity dies, everybody’s sorry. You know who’s probably going to be sorriest? Verity. If this Margaret person wasn’t allowed to be in North America, why is she here now?”
“I was told that it was a test for her, to see whether she could focus on the mission at the exclusion of her personal vendettas,” said Dominic. A sudden wave of regret, blame, and self-loathing rushed off him like it was trying to fill the entire room. It took everything I had to stay where I was. None of the others were telepathic, but they shouldn’t have needed to be. He was practically screaming his pain. “Please forgive me. I believed them.”
“There was no reason for you not to,” said Uncle Mike. From his tone, I could tell that he’d picked up on the same emotional weather I had. I relaxed a little. “Whatever lies the Covenant may have told you about the cryptids, they raised you. They trained you. Did they ever lie to you about anything but dogma before?”
“I don’t know,” said Dominic.
“I hate the Covenant as much as anybody, but I’m willing to bet they didn’t, because truth is the best way to guarantee obedience. The more lies you’re told, the harder it gets to keep the stories straight. When your bosses told you Margaret was here to test her obedience, you had absolutely no reason to think that they were lying to you. You got me? You warned Verity as soon as you had the chance. You did everything you could.”
“I didn’t do enough.”
Istas yawned more widely than a strictly human jaw would have been able to support. There was an audible cracking noise as the bones shifted to accommodate the gesture. Dominic went very still, and I had the brief impression from his thoughts that he had managed, temporarily, to forget that humans were the minority in this room.
“This is dull,” Istas announced. “Are we going to stand here and debate blame while Verity is slaughtered? Vengeance carnage is often satisfying, but it takes longer to perform properly than the kind which does not require a death to begin.”
“That’s my girl,” said Ryan. “A delicate flower.”
Istas snorted.
Dominic took a breath, seeming to center himself. “Margaret Healy hates Verity’s bloodline for daring to leave the Covenant,” he said, returning to his original conversational thread. Smart boy. “She didn’t accompany the investigative team because they thought her hatred might have dimmed.”