Part 18 (1/2)
Fighting wasn't going to help. I let myself be pulled the rest of the way up into the light.
Dominic released me as soon as I was on solid ground. We both stepped back to let Istas out of the hole. She looked at Dominic, sniffed the air, and frowned.
”You are unwell,” she informed him. ”I will end you if you have harmed Verity.”
”I know,” said Dominic quietly.
Even I could tell that he wasn't looking good. His hair was uncombed, and there were dark circles around his eyes. He looked like a man who'd just realized he was in the middle of fighting a war.
”Dominic?” I said.
He turned to me. ”Sarah.” He sounded relieved. ”I need your help.”
”Is Verity alive?” I didn't know what I was going to ask until the question was out, and then there was nothing else I could have asked him. Nothing else in the world.
”Yes.” He nodded. ”But I don't know how long she will be. We need to move.”
”You know I can't trust you.”
”Yes, you can.” He held out his arm in silent invitation.
I didn't say anything. Dominic knew what he was offering me, and how much stronger I would be if I were touching him. Before either of us could change our minds, I reached out and grabbed his wrist, diving into his psyche as hard and deep as I could without pausing to make the process easy on either one of us. This wasn't the time to be gentle. Dominic gritted his teeth, and he didn't pull away.
Telepathy-cuckoo telepathy, anyway-is usually a pa.s.sive thing, polite and noninvasive. Sure, I may learn a person's deepest, darkest secrets, but it doesn't hurt them, and it doesn't hurt me. This . . . wasn't like that. This was a home invasion of the soul, and it made me feel dirty even as I was doing it.
Dominic's mind was filled with cluttered rooms packed with thoughts and memories even he wasn't fully aware of anymore. He didn't think he remembered what his mother looked like. He did; he just had the memory walled off by so many other things that it only came to the surface when he slept or, oddly, when he ate German chocolate. He was in love with Verity. He hated the smell of violets in the rain; that was connected to his mother's death, and was part of the wall between him and the memory of her face. He wasn't a part of the plan that captured Verity; the rest of the Covenant agents in town hadn't even told him they suspected she existed. He thought they suspected him of being a traitor. He didn't care. After we got Verity back, he was done with the Covenant of St. George.
Dominic de Luca was finally picking a side, and it wasn't theirs.
I let go of his wrist, breaking the telepathic contact at the same time. He gasped, and I realized just how pale he'd gotten. Sorry, I said mentally. I know that can be rough.
”It's all right,” he said. Then he paused. ”You . . . didn't speak.”
I smiled a little. ”I didn't have to. After that kind of excavation, we're attuned. Welcome to the family. Now let's go and get my cousin back from your ex-allies.”
Eighteen.
”The trouble with the Covenant of St. George is that it encourages loyalty through ignorance, zealotry, and fear. I wonder sometimes . . . what would they have accomplished if they'd tried doing it all with love?”
-Enid Healy A converted slaughterhouse in the Meatpacking District ISTAS WALKED into the warehouse ahead of us, her parasol resting against her shoulder. She looked utterly relaxed, which may be the only reason no one attacked Dominic on sight. They were too busy staring at the muck-encrusted waheela. ”Dominic is not responsible for Verity's disappearance, and is no longer affiliated with the Covenant of St. George,” she announced. ”The telepathic girl without a proper circulatory system says so, and as she has no reason to lie, I am choosing to believe the story which presents the highest odds of future carnage.”
”That's my girl,” said Ryan-but his voice was several octaves lower than normal, and he seemed taller as he got up from his seat. Uncle Mike didn't bother standing. He just produced a gun from somewhere inside his jacket and raised it to shoulder level, the muzzle trained on Dominic's throat.
”I admire the efficiency, but can you at least try not to get arterial spray in my hair?” I asked.
”h.e.l.lo, sir,” said Dominic. ”I a.s.sume you're Verity's father. I wish we were meeting under better circ.u.mstances.”
Uncle Mike blinked, looking nonplussed. ”Excuse me?”
”Dominic, this is our uncle, Mike Gucciard.” Telling him Uncle Mike's last name was a warning that the choice Dominic was making was irrevocable: if Dominic so much as twitched in the direction of the Covenant after this, he'd find himself stuffed into a dumpster somewhere in midtown. There are things we don't screw around with, and that includes the covers of our friends and allies. ”Uncle Mike, this is Verity's boyfriend, Dominic De Luca. He's here to tell us how to get her back, and to discuss the many fabulous advantages to defecting to the side with the sense of humor.”
”The sense of humor, and the many, many unmarked body disposal sites,” said Uncle Mike. I'd never heard his voice that devoid of warmth.
”Please go easy on him,” I said quietly. ”He's our best shot at finding Verity.”
”Or he's lying to you,” Uncle Mike shot back. ”Did you consider that?”
I sighed heavily. ”Okay, so is it time to have the talk about lying to the telepath again? I say 'don't lie to the telepath, it never works,' and you all say you won't. And then I point out that the corollary to this is that when the telepath says someone isn't lying, she's probably right. That's when you look sheepish and say you're sorry and hey, look, I just shortcut about ten minutes of awkward conversation, go me. Now can we get on with saving Verity from the Covenant, or do I have to get annoyed?”
There was a moment of silence before Istas said, ”I was unaware the telepathic girl possessed a temper. This is pleasing. Temperamental people are more likely to partic.i.p.ate in carnage.”
”Sweetie, what have we talked about?” asked Ryan.
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 a.s.surance of a man who knew d.a.m.n 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.”
”G.o.dd.a.m.n kids,” muttered Uncle Mike. Then he stepped away from Dominic, moving out of the other man's personal s.p.a.ce. ”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.”