Dead Beat

"Yeah," I said. "That’s the kink I haven’t worked out yet."

Thomas nodded, scraping the last of the batter out of a bowl and onto the griddle. "Even if you do figure out how to call the Erlking, it sounds like he might be kinda dangerous."

"Probably. But impersonal. That means not as dangerous as one of the heirs going godly and showing up to give me some payback for annoying them." I shrugged. "And the only one in danger will be me."

"Wrong," Thomas said. "I’ll be with you."

I had been sure he would say something like that, but hearing it still felt pretty good. Thomas had a truckload of baggage, and he wasn’t always the most pleasant person in the world-but he was my brother. Family. He’d stand with me.

Which made what came next hard to say.

"You can’t," I said.

His expression smoothed over into neutrality. "Because of Mavra?"

"No," I said. "Because I’m going to bring in the White Council." Thomas dropped his spatula onto the kitchen floor. "I have to," I said. "It took all the Wardens together to take down Kemmler and his students last time. I might not be able to prevent the Erlking’s arrival. If that happens, someone has to stop the heirs directly. I can’t do it. The Wardens can. It’s as simple as that."

"Okay," he said. "But that doesn’t explain why I can’t stick with you."

"Because to them you’re just a White Court vampire, Thomas. With whom I am supposed to be at war. If they learn that you’re my brother, it might give the people in the Council who don’t like me grounds to question my loyalty. And even if they believe that I’m not acting against the Council or being controlled by you, they’d still be suspicious of you. They’d want assurances that you were on their team."

"They’d use me," he said quietly. "And use me against you."

"They’d use us both against each other. Which is why you can’t be around when they show."

Thomas turned and studied my face carefully. "What about Murphy? If you call in the Council, Mavra will screw up her life."

I chewed on my lip a little. "Murphy wouldn’t want me to put innocents in danger to protect her. If one of the heirs turns into some kind of dark god, people are going to die. She wouldn’t forgive me for protecting her if that was the cost," I said. "Besides. This isn’t about recovering the Word. This is about stopping the heirs. I can still get the book to Mavra and fulfill our bargain."

Thomas took a deep breath. "Is that wise?"

"I don’t know. She’s not exactly alive. I doubt Kemmler’s techniques would apply to her use of magic."

"If they didn’t," Thomas said, "then why would she want the book?" Which was a damned good question. I rubbed at my eyes. "All I know is that I’ve got to stop the heirs. And I’ve got to protect Murphy."

"If the Council finds out that you’re planning on using them to defeat the heirs so that you can give Kemmler’s book to a vampire of the Black Court, you’ll be in trouble."

"Not for long," I said. "The Wardens will execute me on the spot."

"God. And you can accept that? From your own people?"

"I’m acclimated," I said.

We were quiet for a moment.

"You want me to sit this out," Thomas said. "You don’t want me to help."

"I don’t see that I have much choice," I told him. "Do you?"

"You could just leave this whole thing. We could head for Aruba or something."

I looked at him.

"Okay," he said. "You won’t. But a guy can hope. I just don’t like the idea of sitting on the sidelines when you might need my help." He frowned. "Hey. You’re doing this on purpose. You’re trying to keep me out of it to protect me, you… sneaky little bitch."

"It works out that way," I said. "Think of it as payback for those painkillers."

He grimaced at me, then nodded.

"And thank you," I said quietly. "You were right. I needed the rest."

"Of course I was right," Thomas said. "You looked like you were about to pass out. You still don’t look great."

"I’m hungry. Did you make those pancakes for breakfast, or are they only decorative?"

"Go ahead and mock," Thomas said. He slapped a bunch of pancakes onto a plate and brought it over to the table along with a plastic bottle of maple syrup. "Here. Happy birthday."

I blinked at the pancakes and then up at him.

"I’d have gotten you a present, but…" He shrugged.

"No," I said. "I mean, no, that’s okay. I’m surprised you remembered at all. No one has remembered my birthday since Susan left town."

Thomas got himself a plate and left the rest on a third plate for Butters. He sat down at the table and started eating them without syrup. "Don’t make a big thing of it. I’m sort of surprised I remembered it myself." He nodded at the world in general. "So you think Grevane and the Corpsetaker are the ones who turned the lights out?"

I shook my head. "They were both stretching themselves by keeping so many undead under their control. That’s why the Corpsetaker went after Grevane with a sword, and why he defended himself physically."

"Then who did it?"

"Cowl," I said. "He made himself scarce last night. My guess is that he was too busy setting it up to take a swing at Grevane or the Corpsetaker."

"Why Cowl?"

"Because this is a major hex, man. If you’d have asked me yesterday, I wouldn’t have thought this was possible. I don’t know how he did it, but…" I shivered. "His magic is stronger than mine. And from what I saw of his technique, he’s a hell of a lot more skilled, too. If he’s as good at thaumaturgy as he is at evocation, he’s the most dangerous wizard I’ve ever seen."

"I’m not sure how he did it matters as much as why," Thomas said.

I nodded. "He gets a lot of advantages. Paralyzes human power structures. Keeps cops and so on too busy to interfere with whatever they’re doing."

"But that’s not the only reason. You said something about preparing the way?"

"Yeah." I finished a large bite of syrupy pancake goodness. "Black magic is tied in pretty closely with a lot of negative emotions-especially fear. So if you do something that scares a whole lot of people, you get an environment that is better for black magic. This stunt is going to cause havoc. Make a lot of people worry. It will help with the heirs’ major mojo tonight."

"You’re sure it’s tonight?"