Solomon's Sieve (14 page)

The softening of Rev’s face was barely noticeable. He’d been playing hard ass for a very long time. “Many of the retired knights have children, Lady Laiken. Perhaps even most.” He glanced at Storm. “Sir Caelian is being recalled as well.

“You have seven days before B Team rotation begins. Six hour shifts every other day.” He turned to Elora. “Sir Catch is preparing a report on which three of the trainees he thinks are most ready to go early. As martial instructor, I’d like to have your input on that as well.”

At that, Elora jumped to her feet. She was incensed. “Stop right there! Putting seasoned knights back on the street is one thing, but you’re not getting my boys before they’re good and ready to go.”

“It’s not up to me.”

“Of course it is. You’re not getting them. And as far as B Team goes, two of us have a child together. Do you understand that that’s a
special
circumstance?”

Rev seemed to be considering that. “You’re right. You can’t both be out on the same patrol. Take turns and I’ll be B Team’s fourth.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

Storm spoke up for the first time. “You can’t handle the duties of Sovereign
and
be on rotation.”

“I absolutely can. And I will.” Storm opened his mouth to speak, but Rev cut him off. “So long as I’m in charge here, it’s not up to you.”

To Storm, he said, “Go spend time with your wife and report in seven days.”

To Ram and Elora, he said, “Go unpack. You’re not going anywhere until we can replace you.”

Watching as Ram and Elora looked to each other, an onlooker would have sworn an entire silent conversation took place through the connection they made with their eyes.

Ram turned back to Rev. “If our boy is going to be in danger…”

Rev interrupted. “If we’re talking about vampire, this facility, which will soon house twenty-eight active duty knights and twenty trainees, is the safest place the child could be.”

“Aye.” Ram looked dubious. “I once thought the same.”

The three members of B Team filed out into the hall, but didn’t speak until they got into the elevator. Storm punched Hub level and turned to Ram. “How about a drink?”

“You read my mind, brother.”

After they had settled into a booth near the bar Storm sat back and shook his head. “I’d rather take a horse-whipping than deliver the damn edict to Litha.”

“’
Tis no’
your
doin’. You’re the victim here, the victim of vampire virus once removed. If anythin’ she should be coverin’ you with sympathetic kisses and cooin’ about how The Order is king of mean.”

Storm smirked at Ram. “Once removed? You have always had the oddest way of looking at things.”

“Just another reason why you’re incomparably fond of me. Wonder what Kay’s goin’ to say about this unwelcome development.”

“Wonder what
Katrina
is going to say.”

Storm looked at Elora across the booth table between them. “You’re being uncharacteristically quiet.”

Realizing that was true, Ram turned his head to watch her reaction. When she didn’t speak right away, he put his arm around her shoulder. “What’s goin’ ‘round in that beautiful noggin, my girl?”

Elora raised her gaze to meet Ram’s, looked across at Storm, and then lowered her eyes to the table. “You heard him,” she said quietly. “The vaccine, which came from
my
blood, has compounded the problem so that it’s worse than it was before.”

The two men knew her well enough to extrapolate her reasoning at the same time. Guilt.

“Elora,” Storm began, “you can’t possibly be thinking of taking on responsibility for this. For gods’ sake, woman, you’re just a plaything of the Fates. Like the rest of us.“

“Stormy’s right, love. You thinkin’ ‘tis you… well ‘tis daft and there’s nothin’ for it.”

Storm rolled his eyes at Ram’s lack of delicacy. “What Rammel means to say is that, if we were going to place blame, which we’re not, but if we were, it would be on Monq. Not you.”

“AYE! ‘TWAS MONQ!” Noticing that his outburst had drawn the attention of the few other people in the bar, Ram self-moderated his behavior, a rarity to be certain, and lowered his voice. “The whole thin’ is a result of the quack’s experiment and lays no’ at your feet.”

Elora looked up and searched Ram’s eyes like she was looking for evidence that he believed what he was saying. When she seemed satisfied with what she saw, she looked over at Storm and found no accusation there either.

“Should I volunteer as an incubator to try and convert the new strain?”

“NO!!” Storm and Ram answered in unison, without hesitation, and with conviction. If Elora was a normal person, she would have been startled enough by the suddenness of their response to jump from her seat.

After a few seconds of silence, she said, “Okay.” Looking between the two, she said, “I remember how I used to feel, thinking about you patrolling without me.” She let her gaze settle on Ram. “I honestly don’t know how I’m going to be able to sit at home wondering…”

Under the table she felt Ram’s big warm hand cover hers. She interlaced her fingers with his. “Maybe I should…”

Both men knew what she was about to say. Again the response was quick, sure, and in unison. “NO!!”

When a couple of beats had elapsed, Ram said, “No doubt ‘tis harder on the one stayin’ behind.” He gave her the signature killer smile. “You’ll have to endure the discomfort just like...” His smile faltered when he allowed images of himself being the one waiting for her to return from patrol. “Fuck.”

Storm looked at him with sympathy.

Elora took in a deep breath and blew it out. “As to the matter of my boys, I’d rather kill that pretty bastard than let him send my babies out before they’re ready.”

Ram scowled. “Pretty bastard?” He pulled back and looked at Elora like she’d grown a horn in the center of her forehead. “You mean the new Sovereign? You think he’s pretty?” Ram sounded distinctly unhappy about the idea.

“Way to miss the point, Ram.” She leaned into her husband so that her upper body was pressing against his arm. “Of course he’s nowhere close to walking perfection. Like you,” she purred.

His forehead cleared of lines as he smiled down at her, their faces inches apart.

“Gods of Halla. When are the two of you going to settle into old married life like the rest of us? To your point, Elora.” She looked over at Storm. “You can’t kill the new Sovereign. Without even broaching the morality of it, they would either send a replacement with the same orders, or order Glen and me to stand in. In which case they would also send the same orders. This is not going to be one of those times when you have a shot at fighting City Hall and winning.”

“City Hall?”

Elora had been in Loti Dimension for nearly two years, which was long enough to glean most cultural differences, but not all.

“Metaphor for authority.”

“Oh.”

“So. What do you do when you disagree strongly, but can’t fight?”

“Find a way to accommodate while preserving as much integrity as possible.”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

“You’re saying that, if I have to give up three boys, I can at least control the situation to the extent of picking the ones that stand the best chance of surviving.”

“
Yep.”

Elora stared at Storm for a few minutes while various candidates filed through her head. When every one of them ended with a vicious vampire bite, she finally shook her head and said, “No. The new Sovereign has to die. He and every replacement they send. Storm, if that’s you, I’m sorry. You’ve been a really good friend. And rescuer. I’m auntie to your little girl and BFF to your wife, but I’m not sending lambs to slaughter even for you.”

Ram chuckled, slouched into the booth leather, and threw back a shot of Irish whiskey.

“Elora…” Storm started.

She hissed at him. “We’re supposed to be keeping the innocent safe from monsters, Storm. That includes those boys. I don’t have any kids who are ready to be knights.”

“
I’ve got two Solomon Nememiah Medals of Honor that say otherwise.”

Elora looked at him like she’d been slapped. She opened her mouth, but having lost her breath, it took her a while to whisper, “No.”

The challenging expression on Storm’s face melted into regret when he saw how deeply she was affected by the possibility that she’d have to give up the two boys who’d saved her own life. She looked at him like he’d just suggested throwing her own children to wolves.

“I’m sorry. I know you’ve gotten close to the trainees since you moved back here.” He nodded toward the surroundings in general. “I don’t mean to be so hard ass about it. What can we do to help?”

She took in a shallow breath like she was fighting for emotional stability and shook her red and pink head. “There’s no good angle. If you put the trainees with veteran knights it’s not only dangerous for the trainees, it’s dangerous for the knights…” She stopped like she’d just received a message from the gods. “That’s it! I need to be scheduled to go with them when they draw on rotation. I’ll be their fourth!”

“NO!!” They answered in unison.

“The two of you are beginning to sound like the narrator’s chorus in a Greek tragedy,” she scowled. “And, in the words of the new Sovereign, it’s not up to you.”

“The fuck ‘tis no’.”

“Elora, you’re a member of B Team and we’re one of those outfits that’s hard to get into and hard to get out of once you’re in. I know what you’re thinking. It’s on your face plain as the day is long. You can’t babysit knights. Not even very shiny new ones.”

“I can.”

“No,” he said firmly. “You cannot. If The Order is going to give them the title, then you have to give them the respect that goes along with it. Compromising their confidence, which is what you’d be doing - and they’re not dumb - threatens their safety more than a nest of vampire ever could.”

Lines formed between Elora’s brows as she let that sink in. She looked over at Ram, who responded with a slow nod. “Give the fucker his due, love. He’s no’ always right, but this time he is.”

“After he put that out there, even if I didn’t think he was right, I couldn’t go with them now. Just on the off chance that he
is
right. Thanks a lot, Storm.”

He shrugged. She was being sarcastic, but she should have been giving him genuine thanks because he
was
right.

“I’ve been so preoccupied thinking about what this means for me.” She looked at Ram. “And you.” She looked at Storm. “And you. And my boys. I hadn’t even thought about how awful this must be for poor Baka. He was so, I don’t know, euphoric about the vaccine putting an end to the plague. I’ll bet he’s taking this really hard.”

“Well, I’ll tell you one thing,” Storm said. “He’d better make sure he keeps his ass away from fangs because there won’t be any ‘third time is the charm’.”

Ram snickered.

“That’s not funny,” Elora scowled at Ram whose smile didn’t waver in the least.

Storm’s cell vibrated against his hip. He pulled it out and glanced across the table at Ram and Elora. “Kay.”

He opened the connection with a tap. “Yeah?”

Storm jerked the phone away from his ear. Ram and Elora could hear Kay yelling from across the booth. “Hold… (pause). Hold… (pause) Hold… (pause) HOLD ON JUST A MINUTE!” I’m putting you on speaker. Ram and Elora are here.”

“Well, hail, hail the gang.”

The three looked at each other. Sarcasm wasn’t Kay’s typical style.

“Look. We’re all in the same boat,” Storm said. “Nobody’s happy about this.”

There was a long pause before Kay said, “What’s the real story? There’s got to be more to this than just report in seven days.” Kay made some sort of indescribable noise. “SEVEN DAYS!!”

“We’re not ALL in the same boat. Ram and Elora have got each other. I can’t bring Katrina to J.U. and you can’t bring Litha either.”

Storm looked around the table. His gaze fell on Elora and stayed there. “That’s partly true. Since Litha’s an employee, she
could
move in here temporarily if she wanted to, but one thing is for sure. Wherever they are, Trina and Litha are not going onto the patrol schedule.”

Kay’s sigh was long and heavy enough that they heard it over speaker. “Yeah.” He was sounding a little calmer. “That is something on the positive side.” (Pause.) “I’d like to say that Elora is equipped to take care of herself, but we all know that’s not true.”

“Hey!” She jumped in while they chuckled. “Getting hung like meat while biters feast on your naked body and try to drain you isn’t exactly a picnic.” They stared at her without saying anything, each caught in the throes of his own memory. “Well. I guess it
is
a picnic if you’re vampire.” She smiled, not wanting to remain in that memory a second longer.