Doc cursed softly. “Remo screwed us more ways than I can count. Replacing him isn’t going to be easy. He might not have been well known, but he had the weight of the São Paulo alliance behind him. And despite Barasa and Omur being cleared, they’ll never be clean enough for those in the pride who still resent me for taking out Sinjin.” His hands fisted and his body suddenly became almost too hot to touch.
Fi jerked back. “You’re not about to go nova on me, are you? Your skin is like fire.”
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a few seconds. “No. I’m good.” He blew out the breath slowly. “Flames just get harder to control when I get riled, you know?” He gave her a pitiful smile. “Sorry, baby.”
She leaned against the couch but kept one hand planted on his forearm. “Does a council member have to be a pride member? Or even varcolai? Can it just be anyone the pride leader appoints?”
“Remo was proof they don’t have to be an existing pride member. They become an honorary member through the appointment. I don’t know about someone who’s not varcolai.” He squinted at her, his skin cooling beneath her fingers. “What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”
She smiled. “What’s it worth to you?”
He laughed.
She tapped a finger against her temple. “This is pure gold, kitty cat. I’m going to need a lot of high-quality persuasion to spill it.”
His eyes went green-gold, the pupils thinning down to slits. She shivered with anticipation as he pulled her down to him. “Good thing I’m all about high quality.” He nipped at her chin, scraping his teeth down her neck and causing her to moan. “You should probably tell me your idea now, though.”
“Why?” she breathed. She wasn’t sure which one of them was on fire now.
His deep laugh reverberated against her throat. “Because when I’m done persuading you, you probably won’t be able to talk.”
“Oh. Oh! Ohhh…”
The juice coated Tatiana’s tongue with the flavors of warm honey, cinnamon, and smoke. After she’d swallowed the first bite, a gentle hum had vibrated through her body. Almost like a tiny electric shock, but completely pleasant.
It felt very much like power to her, the kind of power Lilith didn’t need. But maybe she’d been wrong. She pushed to her elbows on the ground beside Mal. “Is she dead?”
“I don’t know.” He flipped to his feet and stood over Lilith’s body. “She looks dead, but she hasn’t gone to ash.”
Panic swept through Tatiana. She stared at the apple’s small white core. “What if it kills me too?” She tossed the fruit and dug in her pocket for the little metal tin of white powder. Frantically she opened it and dumped it into her mouth. She coughed, spewing dust as she rolled to her side. It tasted like sugar. She clutched at her throat. “I think I’m dying.” She clawed hysterically at the ground. “Water. I need water.”
Mal shook his head. “You’re not dying.” He sighed, disappointment crystalline in his eyes. “Unfortunately.”
Tatiana went still. She wasn’t dying. “Now is not the time for snide remarks, Malkolm.”
A gasp stole their attention. Mal turned, moving out of the way enough for Tatiana to see Lilith quivering on the ground.
“She’s having a seizure.” New fear chilled Tatiana. Death could still be coming for her.
Lilith’s body shook so badly her features blurred. She bent and bowed up off the ground, limbs flailing.
Mal swore softly. “She’s shrinking.”
She was. Right before Tatiana’s eyes, Lilith was growing smaller and smaller. Tatiana grabbed her own arms and legs and palpitated them, but they seemed to be the right size. She tried to listen to her body, to feel for anything that might be changing internally, but there was nothing. In fact, she’d never felt so good.
She glanced back at Lilith. She was no more than the size of a toddler now, and the tremors seemed to be subsiding. Tatiana got to her feet. “What’s happened to her?”
“I have no idea,” Mal answered. He looked at her. “How do you feel?”
“Good. Really good.”
He squinted at her and was about to say something when a piercing wail erupted behind him. Again they turned. Lilith was sitting up, sobbing, swamped in clothes that were now vastly too large for her. Tears trailed down her pink cheeks. She blinked, her brown eyes big and wet, and reached toward Mal like she wanted him to pick her up.
“Holy hell,” Tatiana muttered. “She’s a child again.”
“More than that,” Mal said, his nostrils flaring. “She’s… human.”
Creek stood in front of the machine shop, unlocking the big sliding door, when the familiar sound of leathery wings beating the night air reached his ears. He pushed the door back and left it open after he went inside.
A moment later, Annika joined him. She closed the door as her wings disappeared into her jacket. She walked past him and sat. “Octavian’s dead.”
Hello to you too. Creek took the other chair. “How?”
“He and the mayor showed up at Tatiana’s house in Corvinestri.”
“The mayor?” Creek hadn’t expected that. “No wonder I couldn’t get in to see her. Or find Octavian.”
“None of us could,” she said. “As to how he died, Lilith figured out who he was and killed him before Tatiana could even react, apparently.” She picked at one of the holes in the fabric on the chair’s arm. “It’s all for the better. We would have had to kill him anyway.”