[M__M 03] Misery Loves Company (8 page)

Chapter Nine

Back at my desk, I discovered a thumb drive and a note from Tom explaining that it contained all his information on the furies. I had to give credit where it was due—that was a much faster response than I’d been expecting.

He’d also left me a book. Faded black, with creases in the corners and a disintegrating cover, it looked like it might fall apart if I opened it. Tom had stuffed a lot of similar books in his office, a few of which I’d snooped through once. When I’d accused him and his fraternity of ruining my life not too long ago, he’d tried pressing one of those books on me, so it wasn’t surprising he was doing it again. Perhaps the only surprising thing was that this wasn’t the same book as last time. He must have found a creepier one to replace it.

Maybe I’d skim it later. I wanted to stop at my apartment to get Misery and mentally prepare myself before my meeting with Dezzi. I pocketed the thumb drive, which I figured I’d read before passing its contents on to Gunthra, and stuck the book in my backpack. Then I checked both ways down the hall and dashed for the exit. Tom’s habit had been to work late, and I didn’t want to be caught trying to sneak out without our meeting.

At home, I changed into a pair of jeans and a clean shirt, then strapped Misery around my hip. Although I had no need to take the knife into a meeting with Dezzi, feeling the sheath against my thigh comforted me. I’d acquired the blade around the time I’d acquired the information about what I was. We were on this journey together. It only seemed right to have it with me when I spilled my guts.

Besides, wearing a salamander fire-forged knife made me feel a bit like a badass. Silly as that might be, I would take whatever mojo I could fake because I was so not looking forward to this conversation.

Leaving Tom’s thumb drive on my bureau, I silently and quickly rehearsed what I was going to say to Dezzi. Then I squared my shoulders and took off for The Lair and whatever it would hold for my future.

The bar was open for business, but Lucen had moved a couple tables around, effectively turning the back of the room into a semiprivate seating area. Apparently he didn’t think the conversation at hand warranted opening the bar late for true privacy, which I took to mean he didn’t consider my forthcoming confession that big a deal. I hoped he was right and that Dezzi wouldn’t treat it as such.

As for myself, I still considered it a big fucking deal, but I’d live. Lucen was right about one thing—better Dezzi hear it from me than from him.

Lucen set an empty glass in front of me. “I thought you might want something. You’re nervous.”

“With good reason.”

“Horrible reason.”

“You don’t know that.” I took the bottle of Jameson’s that he set on the bar and poured myself a heavy shot. “This is my deepest, darkest, dirtiest secret. I haven’t told anyone else.”

Lucen poured himself a shot to go along with mine. “I like the sound of deep and dirty. Anyway, little siren, other people do know it. Gryphons know it. Gunthra knows it. Don’t you think you’ll be better off with people who are on your side knowing it too?”

“Since when are the satyrs as a whole on my side?”

He downed his shot and cupped my hand in his. “Since you saved Dezzi’s backside.”

If you’ll recall, I was trying to save a bunch of humans, not the satyrs.
On some level, I was certain Dezzi understood that, but supposedly she’d appreciated the way I’d handled the situation, allowing her to escape any legal issues for Lucrezia’s crimes. Alas, that had mostly been luck. Not that I was admitting it.

“What if Dezzi expects me to bend my knee to her like the rest of you do?”

Lucen laughed and stuck the bottle away. “No oaths or pledges of loyalty are required.”

“Uh-huh. What about stabbing me with a pin and making us satyr sisters?”

“You been drinking before you got here?”

“No, but I should have been.”

Lucen came out from behind the bar, trailing his fingers down my arm. His touch soothed my nerves in spite of myself. “Relax. You’re one of us, and Dezzi is the Dom for this region. She needs to know the truth, and it will most likely work in your favor. Dezzi protects her own, and she likes you.”

To be fair, I liked Dezzi too, as much as was humanly—or inhumanly—possible, all things considered. Every interaction I’d had with her suggested she was fair, and, like Lucen had said, she took care of the satyrs under her. She’d even taken in one who’d been cast out by another domus.

That said, she was a damn powerful pred, and in my experience, no one ever got to be damn powerful by being kind and generous all the time.

The Lair’s door opened as I drank the last of my whiskey. Dezzi had arrived. All the satyrs in the bar quietly deferred to her in their own ways as she walked past, and she stopped to talk to most of them. Her dark eyes, however, remained fixed on me. I pushed the empty shot glass aside, watching her right back. I wondered if she noticed my unease, and if so, what she made of it. Lucen hadn’t told her what the meeting was about.

Tall and curvy, with perfectly unblemished dark skin, wide eyes and an enviable set of eyelashes, Dezzi was nothing if not memorable. Today, just a few of her long braids wrapped around her horns. When she moved, she swayed like a queen, and when she spoke, she commanded authority, though her voice was soft.

Lucen jokingly referred to her as “mother”, although I didn’t think she was the one who’d made him a satyr. Devon was the only one who I knew owed their magical second life to Dezzi. And on cue, the bar’s door opened a second time, and in strode Dezzi’s lieutenant.

I swallowed, cursing my stupidity. Bad enough that I was about to confess my darkest secret to someone I could barely call a friend. I hadn’t counted on spilling my guts to Devon as well. In hindsight though, I should have expected it. Devon wouldn’t be an effective backup if he didn’t know everything that Dezzi did.

Together, Lucen, Devon and Lucrezia had once made up Dezzi’s inner triad—or the three top-ranking members of her council. Since Lucrezia was now in Gryphon custody, awaiting trial for murder, that left a vacancy.

“Did Dezzi choose Lucrezia’s replacement yet?” I asked Lucen as Devon also stopped to talk to a satyr on his way toward us.

Lucen set a pitcher of beer and some pistachios on the table for us. “No. So no one else will be joining us, if that’s what you’re asking.”

It was, so I nodded in reply. Adding another satyr to this conversation would be worse, especially since there were few others on Dezzi’s council whom I knew by name.

Across the room, Devon winked at me. Raising an eyebrow in return, I hopped off the stool. Glad one of us was cheerful.

He came up behind me as I contemplated which chair to grab. I was feeling defensive, so I wanted my back to the wall, but that meant I’d be hemmed in all sides by my company.

“So Jess has a secret,” Devon said close to my ear.

I’d noticed the faint clove scent of his magic a second earlier, but had been lost in my thoughts. Now I jumped, and the realization that I was sensing his power left me flustered. Damn it, that shouldn’t be happening, and it was one of the biggest reasons why I didn’t want him here.

Tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, I inched away from him. “Hardly a secret,” I said, thinking on what Lucen had pointed out a moment ago. “It’s just not common knowledge, and the blond one behind the bar thinks you should be let in on the news.”

Devon smirked. “Will it answer the question of how you got past my wards at Purgatory?”

“Still hung up on that, are you?”

He pulled out a chair and sat, affecting a lazy, disinterested manner that didn’t fool me one bit. “You keep not answering the question, so yes. You know what they say, the chase is often what makes something exciting. This uncommon knowledge, everything you keep covered up and out of my reach—the more you dodge and deflect, the more intrigued I become by what you’re withholding until it’s all I can think about. All I dream about. So close I can almost taste it. It makes life hard.”

Heat spread across my chest, driven by the intense expression in his eyes. Clearly he wasn’t talking about the wards anymore.

“I might have the explanation about your wards, yes.”

His smirk morphed into an evil grin. “Well, that solves one of my hang-ups. Now when are you going to do something about the other?”

Before I could escape, Dezzi appeared at Devon’s side. Lucen followed with a glass of wine for her. I grabbed the closest chair and sat, trying not to fidget. Dezzi took the seat to my left. Although I could see the rest of the bar over Devon’s shoulders, his height and Lucen’s broadness to my right formed a warm wall around the table. I felt cut off, trapped in our own room after all.

Everyone was silent while Dezzi sipped her wine, then she gestured to me. “My number two called this meeting because he said you have important information to share.”

“Wait, you’re number two?” I stalled, glancing at Lucen.

“I was promoted since Lucrezia’s gone. This is your meeting, Jess.”

In other words, get on with it.

I took a deep breath, feeling three pairs of eyes drilling into me and three auras of magic assaulting my senses. Unlike the other two, Dezzi’s was faint, but the strength of the power she emanated suggested that I had her full attention.

“Fine. So here’s the thing. You all know I have unusual abilities for a human. The reason for that is because…” Living with the knowledge for a month made it no less difficult to get out the words. My tongue wanted to trip over them, but somehow I forced the correct sounds to form, though they did so slowly and ugly. “Because I’m not fully human, or maybe not human at all, depending on your perspective.”

Whichever perspective, I was resigned to it being a matter of semantics. I was what I was, and the news of that seemed to have stunned Dezzi and Devon. Her face was uncharacteristically blank, and Devon’s mouth was uncharacteristically silent.

Finally, Dezzi took another sip of wine, and Devon poured himself a glass of beer from the pitcher.

Unnerved, I slapped my hands on the table and stood. “Okay, so that’s all. Meeting adjourned.”

Lucen grabbed my wrist. His grip was light, and his face twisted into a smile, but his message was clear. “Would you relax?”

“No.”

“So what are you?” Devon asked.

“A freak,” I grumbled, but I sat back down.

Dezzi leaned forward, weaving her fingers together and resting her chin on them. “I’ve had suspicions, although the details elude me.”

Devon blinked at her. “You know?”

“I said not for certain.” She waved a finger at me. “Tell me everything and start at the beginning.”

I poured myself some of the beer. This could be a long story if I knew where to start. Was it with what the Gryphons had done to me as a teenager, or when I bargained with Gunthra for the information?

I decided on Gunthra, and spent the next ten minutes going over everything I’d learned about myself in the past month. The beer loosened my tongue, or I blamed the beer anyway. Although I’d rehearsed this part, the truth was, I hadn’t done a good job of it. As I spoke, it dawned on me that it was damn near impossible to explain my sordid life story without sharing details I’d have rather not shared about my abilities and about the Gryphons.

I talked about the deal I’d struck with Gunthra. The explanation she gave me—how humans with magical blood didn’t always die when preds tried to change them, but on rare occasions became something other, not quite pred but no longer human.

I mentioned the unique abilities my quasi-satyr status gave me—how I could influence humans, my stronger resistance to pred power, and most importantly, my ability to reverse the bond that preds used to feed on human emotions. Then I explained how I’d used that ability on the fury who tried to addict me, and how the Gryphons had discovered some of what I was capable of.

Finally, I told them about the Gryphon files Steph stole, getting them decrypted, and finding out it was the Brotherhood of the Wing that had done this to me.

When I finished, Dezzi and Devon knew everything I’d told Lucen, and the shock waves I’d elicited had me squirming in my seat. Shock tended to blunt a pred’s power, but shock was temporary. Once it passed, preds threw off heavy power from their heightened emotions, and I’d given Dezzi and Devon a lot to think about. Not only was I well aware of Devon’s clove scent, but Dezzi’s coconut pheromones settled against my skin too.

I slid my chair back from the table and pulled my knees in. It didn’t help dull my senses, but it made me feel more secure.

Devon raised his glass toward me in a mock toast. “So you’re one of us. Congratulations on your promotion. This changes things.”

“Changes what things?”

“Before you were interesting because you were a strange human. Now that I know you’re your own species? That is way beyond interesting.” His blue eyes opened wide as he turned to Lucen. “You can’t hoard her. It’s not fair.”

Lucen laughed, but I groaned. “Can you be serious for a minute?”

“What makes you think I’m not?”

Fortunately, Dezzi didn’t seem to be in a joking mood, and a glance from her made the boys shut up. “I suspected something like this but not to this extent. Changing someone with magic in their blood—I knew that it did not always kill the person, but I did not know it could lead to people with Jessica’s abilities.”

“I didn’t even know that much,” Devon said, sounding petulant.

Dezzi’s expression was mock pitying, and she patted him on the arm like a child.

I snickered into my beer, and Devon tossed a pistachio shell at me.

“So is that what you were thinking?” Lucen asked. He still held my wrist, but now his grip felt more protective than controlling. I appreciated the warmth of his hand.

“Not quite. Gunthra’s knowledge appears more extensive than my own.” Dezzi smiled apologetically, but she didn’t sound happy about that. “The implications here are intriguing. If the Gryphons have found out how to ensure the survival of people like Jessica during the transformation, that would be good to know. As is whatever else this Brotherhood is doing in secret.”