Page 74 of Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker)
“That guy,” Cain breathed, sounding like he wanted to both kick Gerald, and also never ever see him again.
“Indeed,” Mother said, nodding. “We’ll see you on Saturday at seven, then, Detective Cain. I’ll ask Meg to make her roast. And extra for dear Plot Twist, because she’s the most perfect creature ever born.” She leaned forward and gave my still-sopping kitten a kiss on the top of her head. “For now, I insist ontaking my son, his partner, and their cat home. They need rest. If you have more questions for your report, you can ask them another time.”
Something about the way she worded that pinged oddly in my brain.His partner? Their cat?No one else seemed to notice, though.
“We certainly can, ma’am,” Cain agreed, biting his lip and staring at the vial that she was still holding.
She stepped forward, into his space, and held it up for him to take back. “I’ve found, Detective Cain, that what works best is two shots, right to the head.”
“Or a vase,” I mumbled.
Cain blinked over at me, then his eyes went wide.
Mother smiled at him. “Everyone has the right to defend themselves. No exceptions.” She waved the vial in front of him. “I’m serious, though. Head wound. Massive physical trauma. Direct and prolonged sunlight. Everything else is just Hollywood set dressing.”
He nodded to her, mute, and then turned beseeching eyes on me. “Sunlight?”
“Sunlight,” I agreed. “World’s most inconvenient weapon against predators that only attack at night. But it works on bacteria, so why not other things?”
Cain nodded thoughtfully, stepping out of our way as we followed my mother out of the building to where she had a limousine waiting for us. Well, technically two of them, since she’d arrived with the mayor. She waved to him as she climbed in, and he inclined his head, then turned back to a group of cops. I suspected he was going to personally make sure everything was taken care of. Anything important enough to get Fiona Knight’s attention was important enough to pay attention to, for someone who had to live in her city, let alone govern all the humans who lived in it.
CHAPTER 31
The moment we were in the back of the car, I turned to my mother. “Sexton.”
“Your cousin,” she said with a sigh.
Davin looked stunned by the idea, but Mother looked . . . exhausted.
“We tried to make sure no one would ever know, but Mary has ruined that. Her telling Sexton you exist might as well have been telling everyone that you exist. All we can do now is try to make sure you’re ready.”
“Ready?” I demanded. “Ready for what?”
“They weren’t always,” Mother said, sighing, looking awfully sad. “But your father’s people are a fractious, warring lot. Worse, they can steal each other’s power, and they seem to do it quite a lot. That theft involves killing the person whose power you’re stealing.”
“Eat his brain,” I said, staring off into space.
Davin made a face, and Mother looked at me sharply. “What?”
“Mary. She—she sold me to Sexton. Said as soon as she had her ten million dollars, he could eat my brain or whatever it was we monsters did.” I shivered, because it had seemed like such anabstract idea at the time. “She wanted me out of the way because she thought I was your weakness, and once I was dead, you’d be an easy target.”
Davin nodded, like that was obvious, and my mother’s eyes narrowed, not at him, but at the mere thought of the woman who had been her assistant.
“But I mean, I’m pretty sure she was delusional. She was also going on about how she was royalty and you were nobody. It was weird.”
At that, finally, my mother scoffed. “Royalty. One of a bunch of upstart children forced upon us by colonizers, that’s what she was.” She reached out and scratched Twist’s ears again. “Very well done, child. You let me know what you want, and I’ll get it for you. Salmon, chickens, or a whole side of beef. Whatever you like.”
Twist cocked her head and looked at me. “What is a side of beef, Father? Is it many beefs?”
Of course that was what mattered. “I think she really liked the brisket,” I answered, but then went back to the subject that mattered to me. “Mother. I...I actually appreciate that you were trying to hide me. It seems like that was a good choice, considering Sexton’s instinct was to buy me and...eat my brain or whatever that was. It was creepy as fuck and slimy and I would prefer to never experience it again in my life.”
Her eyes narrowed. “He tried to overpower your mind? The little fool. He should have known that any child of mine would be stronger than him.”
“He said you were a weak dead human, and me being your son made me weak too.” Maybe it was the already heightened emotional situation, but that made my mother bare her teeth in a snarl, and frankly, the woman was fucking terrifying like that. No wonder people who didn’t know her did whatever she said. Still, I didn’t think I needed my mother to defend me, in thissituation. “I disabused him of that notion pretty handily. He’d already given up and decided the only way he could beat me mentally was by stabbing me first.”
“Coward,” she hissed. “Just like his father.”
“His father.” I turned so I was directly facing her across the backseat of the car, and met her eye steadily. “My father’s brother?”
We were in the middle of impossible situations, and there was another one: my mother looked away, unable to meet my eye. “Your father’s brother,” she agreed, her voice so low it was almost a whisper.
Davin, who’d been silent up to this point, gave a huff. “I think maybe what he needs to know first, is what exactly the woman meant when she called Flynn and his family monsters, Senator. What do you mean when you say his father’s people?”
The look on her face was bleak when she looked back up, first at him, and then at me.
She looked me right in the eye as she said, “I mean dragons. You’re a dragon.”
