Fever - Burned Part 32

When we reach Ryodan's office, Barrons says he's got things to do and I'm abruptly divided, but I make a snap decision to stick with Ryodan. Although I'm dying to know what kind of "things" Barrons does when he goes off by himself (and intend to fulfill that fantasy very soon), I'm also riveted by the intimate look I'm getting at the man behind Chester's, who I'm beginning to realize is far more complex than I thought.

He protected Jo's feelings. He was done with her months ago and waited for her to dump him without ever betraying it. That's hard to pull off in any relationship. I can't reconcile the ruthless, bottom-lining man I know with the one who went out of his way not to hurt a human woman.

When he steps into his office, I follow, realizing only after the door slides shut that I'm stuck in here until he decides to leave again. When he pulls out his cell phone that shouldn't work and taps a number, I hope he's not summoning a woman to get the taste of Jo and Lor out of his mouth because I really don't want to watch Ryodan have s.e.x.

Well, okay, so maybe I wouldn't be entirely adverse to that, if I didn't know him and have to see him all the time, but really. Not in the mood for more of the s.e.x everyone else is getting to have at the moment. Between my new invisibility and extreme irritation at the only man I want to have s.e.x with, my prospects are slim.

"Fade, get your a.s.s down to Lor's room and untie Jo." He's silent a moment. "It's none of your f.u.c.king business why Jo's tied up there. Just do it. And I don't care what that woman says or does, I don't care if she's suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hed up by a tornado and dropped straight on your d.i.c.k, you will not f.u.c.k her." Another silence. "Yes, she's naked. No, that's not 'cool.' f.u.c.k you, Fade. Forget it. Take one of the waitresses down. You will remain outside the door while she goes in and unties her. Then tell Jo she's fired." Silence. "I don't care what the waitress thinks. Fire her, too."

He ends the call, shoves the cell phone in his pocket, drops down into the large leather chair behind his desk, picks up the dark blade and starts toying with it again. I'd really like to know what his deal is with that knife.

When the door swishes open I debate leaving while I can.

While I stand there, pondering options, the Unseelie that Dani called "Papa Roach" stumps in, and I shiver with revulsion. I totally get why she nicknamed it that. Papa Roach is segmented, made by thousands and thousands of roachlike creatures clambering up on top of one another to form a larger being. They are the same bugs the waitresses permit beneath their skin to feed on their fat. Papa Roach, the collective, is purplish-brown, about four feet tall with thick legs, a half-dozen arms, and a head the size of a walnut. It jiggles like gelatin when it moves as its countless individual parts shift minutely to remain coalesced. It has a thin-lipped beaklike mouth and round, weirdly lidless eyes. As it moves into the room, a few of the roaches skitter off. I press back against the wall, creeped out by the nasty things, in no mood for a few of them to scurry over the toes of my boots. I imagine they're small enough to turn invisible, which could be a problem if anyone was looking.

Ryodan barks, "Keep your s.h.i.t together when you're in my f.u.c.king office."

The bugs scurry back up Papa Roach, scale a leg, and settle into a knee.

I don't heave the sigh of relief I feel.

When Papa Roach speaks, I shiver again. Its voice is pretty much exactly what I'd expect a roach to sound like: a dry, malevolent, insectile rustle. "The one you call Jada has left the abbey. We lost her a few blocks from here."

"Kasteo."

"Hasn't spoken a word. The woman has only just begun to talk to him."

I wonder, What woman?

"The black hole at the church."

"Is minutely larger."

"The Unseelie Princes."

"Plot to take the spear from the woman and kill R'jan."

My hand goes instantly to my spear. This time, however, I'm not a.s.saulted by images of death and destruction. My Book is oddly still.

"Their fortifications."

"Remain unchanged. They grow lax since meeting with you. Believe you think them leashed. Think they have an edge you don't know about. Believe you've overestimated yourself."

I expect Ryodan to press that issue but he says only, "R'jan's location."

"Three days ago moved into McCabe's old house and is fortifying it. It appears he plans to stay."

"Bring me precise details on his defenses. Within the hour. Sean O'Bannion."

"Spoke last night at Temple Bar. Offered jobs rebuilding the pubs and stores for pay, and made it clear he will accept only currency in exchange for goods."

"The Unseelie Princesses."

"So far we have seen only the one. Met recently with Jada. They conspire to trade services."

"For."

"Jada offered to kill the Unseelie Princes in exchange for the location of the Crimson Hag. The princess is considering it."

"Take the princess a message. She will trade services with me, not Jada. I will make it worth her while. The Highlanders."

I thought he was worried about her! Why the h.e.l.l did he force me to stick around if he's willing to meet with her without me present?

"R'jan has provided them with three sifting Seelie to help them search in exchange for protection against his various enemies. Seems they have Fae lore he finds useful."

I listen, gaping. Ryodan's network of spies is standing right in front of me in a single ent.i.ty comprised of thousands and thousands of sentient "bugs." He literally has the whole freaking city bugged. Papa Roach divests various "roaches," sends them scurrying beneath doors and into cracks to eavesdrop on everything that happens in Dublin and report back. No wonder Ryodan knows everything all the time!

"The Unseelie King."

"Does not appear to be in Dublin."

He's wrong about that.

"Mac."

"As if she's vanished."

I smirk.

"Dancer."

"Succeeds in evading us occasionally. Not certain how. He spends a great deal of time in the labs at Trinity performing various experiments. He has taken recent interest in a female musician."

"In what capacity."

"We have not seen them f.u.c.k."

"The cavern beneath the abbey."

"We are no longer able to enter. The doors have been closed. Not so much as a crack left to us."

Okay, what the heck? We tried and tried to close those doors. Who closed them, how and when?

"Recently you neglected to mention details of significance. If the environ at the abbey or either of the princes' lairs alter in any way, no matter how small, you will report it to me instantly."

"Understood."

Papa Roach waits, and when another demand isn't forthcoming rustles, "Our servitude is nearly up. If you wish to renew our contract again, it will cost you more. There are others who value our services now."

"For the first time in millennia you can walk among humans in your natural state, only because the Fae have come out and the world thinks you're one of them. p.i.s.s me off and I'll drive the Fae from this world, sending you back into the cracks and crevices and trenches of war in which you've scrounged for rotting carca.s.ses since the dawn of time. You will renew your contract for the same terms. I have always seen to your needs."

I blink, stunned. Papa Roach isn't Fae? What the h.e.l.l is it, then? What a vast, complicated world Ryodan manages!

Then I have a worse thought: Criminy, have all roaches since time immemorial been spies? Or only certain ones, and that's why every now and then you find one in your bathtub that just won't die no matter how much hair spray you coat it with or how hard you try to squish it?

Papa Roach makes a dry, grinding sound deep in its throat that's creepy as h.e.l.l.

"Our needs have increased."

"You enjoy parasitic relationships with humans that were never permitted before."

"We wish it to be required that all humans host one of us."

I shudder.

Ryodan picks up the dark blade and toys with it. "We will discuss it at your next contract renewal."

Papa Roach's round eyes fix on the black blade, and its beak parts, revealing rows of tiny sharp teeth.

I suddenly think I know what the blade does. Kills whatever Papa Roach is.

"As you wish."

When Papa Roach leaves, Lor walks in.

Dressed.

I decide to stay a little longer and leave with Lor. Who knows what I might learn next?

"Sit," Ryodan barks.

Lor moves to the desk and drops down into a chair, shoving his blond hair back with a hand, looking wary. I don't blame him. Ryodan is unpredictable as h.e.l.l. They don't call his way of dealing with things the "gavel effect" for nothing. He's famed for biding his time, gathering information, processing it, then when he makes a decision, the gavel falls and everyone that p.i.s.sed him off or offended him or just breathed wrong dies.

"What's up with Dani?" Lor says.

Ryodan lays the knife on the desk. "Remember Fade telling us he'd found a kid who could move like us and was blowing through the streets, pretending to be a superhero."

Lor laughs. "f.u.c.k, yeah. We all accused each other of breaking covenant and making her. Skinny redhead with b.a.l.l.s the size of mine. I'd go watch her even when it wasn't my turn just to see what she'd do next. Kid's better than Netflix."

"I didn't give her a second thought until I found a warded house where Rowena did her dirty work. Old woman kept journals. .h.i.tler would've enjoyed. Book after book of notes about the experiments she performed. Dani wasn't her only unwilling subject. She recorded every detail. The drugs, the black arts, the manipulation and coercion, how she caged her, dehumanized her, turned a child into an animal, watchdog, fetch-it girl, a.s.sa.s.sin. Made her grateful for any crumb of kindness. Completely controlled her mother until-" Ryodan breaks off, a muscle twitching in his jaw.

Lor growls, "Until what?"

"Doesn't matter. Point is, the headmistress was in Dani's life long before she remembers it. There were a dozen volumes, filled cover to cover. When I finished reading them, I went hunting."

Ryodan-an avenging angel? Knock me over with a feather.

"What happened? Mac killed the old b.i.t.c.h."

Now that I'm hearing this, I'm sorry I didn't kill her sooner. And make it last longer.

"Not Rowena." Ryodan says. "I went hunting Dani. It was the kid I meant to kill. First."

There goes the feather. This is the man I fight with incessantly.

"That's f.u.c.ked up, boss. That's beyond f.u.c.ked up."

I nod vigorously, scowling.

"You went hunting Dani instead of Ro? You don't kill the victim. You kill the perp."

"I thought the kid's life was like that of another child I knew. Grown men can withstand things children can't. For centuries I took care of Barrons's son while he searched for a way to end his torment. For an eternity I shared their f.u.c.king pain. I couldn't put my nephew out of his misery, but I could spare the girl a h.e.l.lish existence."

I'm slammed by a one-two punch of shocks and my mouth drops open. Nephew? Freaking nephew? Is he serious? Ryodan and Barrons are brothers? I study his face intently, looking for similarities. So, when Ryodan called him "brother" earlier, he really meant it. I'd thought it was just guy-bro-talk. Brothers in arms or something like that. I narrow my eyes with a scowl. That makes me and Ryodan almost like ... family or something. Ew. The second shock is more palatable: there was something of avenging angel in his actions, after all. Mercy from Ryodan. Who'd have thought.

"Why the f.u.c.k are you telling me this? And why now? Figured you'd be chewing my a.s.s over Jo not telling me s.h.i.t you never talk about."

I was wondering the same thing. Ryodan doesn't explain himself. Ever.

"I'm telling you because for some unfathomable f.u.c.king reason Dani likes you. That means you may prove useful in getting her back. The more you know, the more you can help."

"Getting her back from where?" Lor demands. "What did the b.i.t.c.h do to her? Where are those journals? I want to see them."

"It wasn't just Rowena. And I suggest you leave it."

"I suggest you go f.u.c.k yourself."

"Once you called me king. Now you lie, f.u.c.k my ex, and tell me to f.u.c.k myself. Tread lightly, Lor. You may have changed. I have not."

"You're talking about my favorite human. I want names. Details. I'll rip out their hearts. I'll flay their f.u.c.king hides."

"I already took care of them."

My hands are fists, nails digging into my palms. I force myself to unclench them so I don't drip blood on the floor. Other people abused Dani? Who? I want to kill them, too.

"Yet you let the old b.i.t.c.h live after you found out. What the f.u.c.k's with that?"

Something inhuman rattles deep in Ryodan's chest. "The moment Barrons got the Sinsar Dubh, I planned to lock Rowena away in a dark, h.e.l.lish pit. Keep her alive so that if one day Dani remembered, she could exterminate her. Some crimes are so personal, blood-vengeance belongs only to the one who suffered them. It was the only gift I could give her."

"Dani doesn't remember? How's that possible?"

"She fragmented. Not sure if the old b.i.t.c.h managed to intentionally cause it or if it had already happened to some degree before she came on the scene and she just drove wedges in the door to lodge it open. When I chained Dani up in the dungeon, it wasn't because she'd killed Unseelie in my club. I was trying to discover what she recalled of Ro's experiments. I'd begun to suspect it was little. Skimming her mind was time-consuming and tricky as h.e.l.l. Kid's got more locked doors in that megabrain of hers than a high-security prison. Dani remembers some of it but it seems the worst memories were embedded in her other personality's psyche, or never fully absorbed. It was difficult to read her, even unconscious. There are things she may never remember. If we're lucky. Our super-girl carries her own kryptonite, right there in her head."

"You gotta be kidding me. My little darlin's a split personality?"

"Not so little anymore. And she calls herself Jada now. She's the survivor, aware of Dani. Jada has ledgers and objectives. Dani has hopes and dreams. Dani doesn't know about Jada. She has what she thinks of as an 'Other' but doesn't realize it's a fully formed persona."

Lor shakes his head. "How the f.u.c.k did I miss it?"