Sunset: Pact Arcanum: Book One (10 page)

“Nicholas, are you sure? That kind of threat will almost certainly invite a reprisal.” He reached out and clasped Nick’s hands in his.

“As long as it falls on me and no one else, they can do their worst. But if they so much as breathe wrong at someone I care about, they’ll all pay dearly for it. Tell them that.” He pulled his hand free and stroked Lorcan’s cheek. “Please. Do this for me.”

Lorcan closed his eyes, leaning into the familiar touch, knowing Nick didn’t mean it to be anything but a gesture of friendship. Lorcan didn’t care. He opened his eyes again. “All right, Nicholas,” he said quietly. “I’ll tell them.” Leaning forward, he whispered into Nick’s ear. “I’ll see you tonight, maybe. I’ll let you know what they say.”

Armistice Security Headquarters, Anchorpoint City, Grand Mesa, Colorado

Ana strode along the deeply carpeted gray halls of Armistice Security Headquarters, her expression stormy. Gauging her mood, agents she had worked with for years wisely scattered before her, choosing to get out of her way.

When she finally entered the central room in the suite of offices she occupied with Nick and Scott, she closed the door behind her and headed for her private office. Like Scott’s, her office door was marked with the half-circle symbol of Armistice Security overlaid with the colored sword of an element—in her case, the red sword of fire. The door to Nick’s office carried the seal of House Luscian. As she passed the window, she stopped momentarily to gaze out at the view of the lesser spires of the city, which she had always loved. Only when she turned back toward her office did she notice a person sitting on the comfortable black leather couch that adorned the room—a person she never imagined she would find here.

Michelle Phillips took her eyes off her son, Peter, who was playing on the floor, to coolly acknowledge Ana’s presence before pointedly ignoring her.

Ana watched for a moment, stung by the snub in spite of herself. Scott’s wife had every right to be angry, of course. Her husband and closest friends had been lying like dogs to her for years about their secret lives, and Scott had almost made her a widow tonight. Ana sighed inwardly and opened the door of her office, flipping on the overhead lights as she stepped inside. Letting the door close behind her, she walked up to the desk and sat in her high-backed leather chair.

“Nice of you to finally show up,” Takeshi muttered, dropping his shroud of invisibility.

Ana swiveled in her chair. Take leaned against a filing cabinet with his arms crossed.

“I’m here now. I wanted to tell Sike first, before he saw it on the news.”

“I know, and I don’t blame you at all.”

“Where are they? Nick said he’d meet me when I arrived.” Ana drummed her fingers on the desk.

“Scott went to tell Michelle the truth. It didn’t go well. She demanded to come here and confront all three of you together. Scott turned off the internal security sensors after they arrived, but the screaming was pretty intense if what leaked through the soundproofing on the outer door was anything to go by. Anyway, since they were in the doghouse down here, they headed up to the Citadel so Nick could tell his family the truth.”

Ana frowned. “The Citadel? Why not here?”

“Because it’s the smallest of the Hidden Cities and is predominantly populated by Daywalkers. It was the easiest for him to get the local Nightwalkers to evacuate.”

“Oh, Christ, I forgot about that. Is he finally going to test them? It’s been six years, for God’s sake.”

“I know. He’s trying to be careful in case either of them is actually latent. He told the Nightwalkers of the Citadel that if one of his siblings kindled due to their presence, he would consider it a personal affront to his honor. They cleared out pretty fast after that. It hasn’t been that long since the last time they had to rebuild the city because of him.”

“What’s he going to do if they are latent?”

“I don’t believe he’s thought that far ahead.”

“If either of them turns up positive, it would absolutely destroy him, Take.” Ana rubbed her eyes tiredly. “At least, it would have yesterday. I hate to admit it, but Jeremy did us all a huge favor by giving Nick something to believe in again. It was a horrendous risk—and almost went so completely wrong—but Nick just might find a new balance now, with a bit of light to even out the darkness.”

“Rory thinks so, too.” Takeshi pushed himself away from the filing cabinet and sat in the chair across from Ana’s desk. “Forgive me for saying what we’re both thinking, but Nick does have a knack for making life difficult for the rest of us.”

Ana sighed. “You’ve got that right.”

“Are you ready to get to work, Special Agent Nizhoni?” Takeshi asked.

“Yes I am, Director.”

“To begin with,” Take said, lacing his fingers behind his head, “we need to discuss a change in your duties as Lead Agent on Nick’s security detail.”

“I’m all ears.”

“It is the unanimous decision of the Triumvirate, following the events of this evening, that Nick be reassigned to new diplomatic duties. We’ll find someone else to be our liaison with the Court of Shadows. We want him to fill a new position we’ve created, and I’d like your input on the best way to set up the logistics of supporting that role.”

“What new position?”

Take met her eyes gravely.

“Ambassador to Humanity.”

C
HAPTER 8

“Are you serious?” Ana asked incredulously. “You want to open diplomatic relations with the human governments?”

“Yeah.” Takeshi shrugged. “We’re exposed now. The safest course is to be proactive about releasing information so the humans don’t start making up whatever they want to believe. We’ll retask the Washington, Ottawa, and Mexico City chapterhouses to serve as embassies. He can rotate between the three governments as needed. We can even set up another base of operations for him at the chapterhouse in New York City, in case he ever needs to address the United Nations.”

“Why Nick?”

“Because he’s already out in the open, and he has a track record with being in the human media spotlight.” Take looked at her with a grim expression. “And because he’s strong enough to make him hard to kill. That’s why we let him deal with the Los Angeles situation. Aside from Rory, he had the best chance of protecting himself if he was caught in the blast.”

“How do you want to do this, Take?”

“We’ve already started upgrading the fixed, non-lethal defenses in the new embassies. If the humans decide to attack, we’ll be able to hold them off. The upgrades should be complete in about a week. In the meantime, we think you three should start brainstorming how to make initial contact with the human governments. They’ll be resistant, so you’ll have to find a way to get them to acknowledge our legitimacy.”

“That’ll be difficult,” said Ana, turning her head to look at the hologram hovering in the center of the opposite wall: an image of all four Winds together, the strongest Sentinels in the world. “We’re a challenge to their authority. They won’t be willing to share power.”

“Then you’ll have to figure out a way to make them listen. We’re out in the open now, and we’re not going to disappear.”

“Takeshi,” Ana said after a moment of silence, “do you ever wish things were different? That your life could just go back to the way things were before the Gift?”

Takeshi’s expression was inscrutable. “No.”

“Was that a completely self-serving lie to get out of answering my question?” Ana asked with a smirk.

“Yes.”

Ana stopped smiling and straightened the framed photograph of her husband on the desk.

“Whatever happens next is going to be a nightmare, no matter how we slice it. This isn’t the first time Nick’s gotten us thrown to the wolves, and I’m betting it won’t be the last. Rory’s just as bad. I mean, you saw how he turned on us when Jiao-long made him a Nightwalker. What could possibly make this all worthwhile?”

Takeshi closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. “You know my grandmother raised me. She was from a traditional background, and she tried to give me the same upbringing. To her, in the end everything came down to
giri
and
ninjo
. One is self-sacrifice, duty, and obligation, versus the other, which is emotion, compassion, and love. Yes, Rory killed me, but that was his nature at the time. He fought against it—even gave me the opportunity to escape with my life or to join him in the darkness. I couldn’t bring myself to do either. Running away would have meant living my life without him, and staying with him would have meant becoming the kind of monster I spent half my life killing. So instead, I died. I let him kill me to break the deadlock.

“That should have been the end of it, but Rory wouldn’t let it go. He faced the same choice I did—living as a monster in the darkness without me, or entering the service of heaven for the power to bring me back. He accepted the Grace and bound himself to being a slave to the Light, quite possibly until the end of time, unable to die until the Grace releases him. He did that for me, Ana. I owe him my continued existence, and everything in my life after that is a tribute to him.

“My duty belongs to him, and so does my heart. There’s no conflict between
giri
and
ninjo
for me anymore, between honor and desire. No matter what happens with the rest of my life, I will be content with him beside me.” He opened his eyes and turned to face Ana. “Does that answer your question?”

“Yes,” Ana said, her expression thoughtful. “Thank you for answering me.”

There was a knock at the door; Takeshi stood. “Good luck with your new job.” He gave Ana one of his rare grins. “Don’t forget, poker night is at Scott’s tomorrow.” He spoke to his AI and teleported away.

“The others are back,” Michelle Phillips said curtly when Ana opened the door.

Ana followed her into the outer office. Scott and Jeremy stood together, looking uncomfortable. Michelle took her seat again on the couch, next to her son. There was a distinct demarcation between the two groups, as if an uncrossable moat divided them.

Ana approached Scott, noticing, as she did so, that Jeremy was now sporting a black eye.
Good. He deserves it.

“Where’s Nick?” she asked.

“The Court of Shadows Embassy in Icehaven, so he could give their Ambassador a message,” said Jeremy.

“What message?”

“He wanted to warn them off of Toby,” Scott told her.

Michelle looked up at that. “What does Toby have to do any with this?”

“He’s Sentinel latent,” Scott said.

His wife’s face paled as she looked fearfully toward their own child.

“It’s all right. He’s fine.” Scott hastened to reassure her. “I already tested him to make sure he was safe. You haven’t inherited the Gift, so your children won’t ever be part of it.”

“Well, thank heaven for that,” Michelle said. “As soon as Nick gets here, I have something to say to you all.”

Ana looked at Scott, who was watching his wife with concern. “All right,” she said. “We’ll wait.” She extended a psychic probe to Scott and felt the Water Sentinel respond in kind, forging a temporary link.
“What is Nick doing?”

Scott unmasked his link to Nick and looked through the Daywalker’s eyes. He saw another young man with spiky black hair and pale skin sitting opposite Nick: Lorcan Primogenitor Diluthical, the Court of Shadows Ambassador to the Triumvirate. He was dressed casually in a green T-shirt and black slacks and he held Nick’s hands in his own. The Nightwalker talked quietly to Nick, his expression troubled.

“I’m surprised they’ve still got their clothes on
,” Ana said on a private level of their psychic link.

“Yeah, well, I’m sure they’ll get around to that eventually. They always do,”
thought Scott, his tone edged with disapproval.
“Nick still insists they’re just friends.”

“Nick is an idiot,”
Ana said as she watched Lorcan stand and walk out of the room.

“He’ll see through Lorcan eventually,”
thought Scott.
“Personally, I can’t wait.”

The two felt Nick turn his attention to their joined minds.

“Welcome back, Ana.”

Ana laid her psychic touch on Nick’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry to hear about Toby.”

“You were right.”
Nick’s grief echoed along the link.
“I should have tested them years ago.”

“What’s he going to do?”
asked Ana.

“They’re all going to spend the night at my place at the Citadel. Toby still wants to do the overseas concert tour with his band in the fall, despite the danger. That’s assuming they don’t cancel on him after all of this comes out. Lorcan will warn the Nightwalkers around the scheduled venues that Toby is to be left strictly alone, but there’s always a risk someone won’t get the message.”
Nick’s psychic voice grew brutally cold.
“I told him they would all pay dearly if anything happens to my brother. Lorcan says he’ll make sure the Court understands the cost of making a mistake.”

“Nick,”
said Ana,
“Michelle says she has something to tell us when you get back here.”

She felt him stiffen and then slump again, resigned.
“Might as well get it over with then.”

A moment later, a soft chime rang in the outer office and Nick appeared in a white haze. Ana and the two Journeymen lined up facing the couch, ignoring Jeremy for the moment, who simply stepped out of the way. Michelle stood to confront them.

“You lied to me,” Michelle accused Scott. “Betrayed me. You never even gave me the chance to be a true partner in your life. You had every opportunity to trust me with your secrets. Instead you chose to keep me in the dark while you placed yourself in danger over and over again, without any regard for how it might affect me and your son if something happened to you.”

She turned to Nick. “You, I can understand. You don’t have anyone depending on you. But Scott and Ana have families.” She glared at Ana. “You’re supposed to put us first, but neither of you even tried to give up this life for our sakes. Neither of you has any courage in your convictions.” She looked directly at Scott, whose face was contorted by anguish and remorse.