Chapter 162

~~Jack~~

He sat down on his stairs, close to the left side near Mulder. But once he was settled, Mulder hopped down on his shoulder, and Scully joined him on his other shoulder again. He almost told them to get back up on the railings, but based on their reactions, they wanted to be close to him while he had this conversation. They were picking up on how freaked he was.

“I can’t believe you’re alive.”

Mary smiled her usual, big smile, and sat down in the middle of the stairs, almost close enough to touch him.

“Only happened an hour ago. We snuck into a store to get me some clothes before coming here.” She gestured down at herself, and the jeans and t-shirt.

His mom sat down on the stairs too, beside Mary, and she made sure to sit close enough their hips were touching.

“She’s alive,” his mom said. “She has a pulse. She breathes! And she remembers everything.”

“You do?” Jack asked. No point in trying to hide his shock anymore, so he just stared at his sister, wide-eyed and frozen.

“Yeap. I remember all the times you guys visited me at home. I remember ... being a ghost. I remember how crazy it was, and how hard it was to control my thoughts and actions. I remember you,” she pointed at Jack, “being mean about who I was and what was going to happen to me.”

“I ... I ... was just trying to be realistic.”

Mary laughed and shrugged. “I know. You’re an asshole, Jack. I appreciate that.”

Damn, it really was her. Same mannerisms. Same cheeriness he saw in his mom before Mary died, and often found in Fiona. Bubbly. Excitable.

“Jack is an asshole,” Triss said. She grinned at him as she leaned back against the closed mansion doors, Jen beside her wearing the same proud grin.

“I am not...” He threw up his hands. “That doesn’t matter! What happened? How ... How!?”

Mary and his mom looked to Beatrice, and the Nosferatu shrugged and pushed off the doors to come closer.

“You probably know I’ve been up to some nasty shit for a while.”

Jack forced himself to tear his eyes off Mary and looked at Triss. “Yeah, but it’s not like you’ve been stepping on any toes or doing something horrible. Not horrible by Kindred standards, at least. Right?”

“Right.” Thank god she didn’t wince when she said it. “But things did get pretty bloody and gruesome. Took time, but we got a body ready with Black Blood’s help.”

Of course, Black Blood. Jack winced and sucked in a breath between his teeth.

“You really have to work with him?”

“Yeah. I know you got a thing against him, Jack, but he hasn’t done wrong by you. Last I checked, he saved you from Angela and Jeremiah. Twice.” She held up two fingers. “Besides. It’s not like we trust him completely. Fucker has his own agenda for sure, but for now, he’s willing to help us with this.” Before Jack could respond, her two fingers turned into an open palm, silencing him. “We finally got everything finished tonight, and Mary slipped into the body. Bam. Puzzle pieces, clicking together.”

Jack groaned as he processed the info bomb. “I ... guess that’s...” It took a second, but he wiped the bad thoughts away and flicked himself in the chin hard enough to jolt his brain out of negative spiral. “I shouldn’t judge what you did. Stupid of me.”

“We’ve been through Hell together, Jack. You don’t think I’m being careful about this?”

“She is, Jack,” his mom said. “And ... And look!” She squealed, causing both crows to flutter their wings in surprise, as she hugged Mary again, earning a squeak from her. “She’s alive!”

“Alive!” Mary hugged their mom back, and the two of them rested their heads against each other’s. “Oh my god I’m alive. And every thing’s so different, I—” She slowly turned her head and looked up the stairs. Oh shit, Veronica, Leilani, and Rachel were poking their heads out from the wall down the hall on the second floor, where the railing connected. “Jack?”

“They’re my thralls.”

“You built a harem.”

“It’s not a harem!”

“Jack my dear,” Jen said, grin turning absolutely evil. Just like Elaine. “Of course it’s a harem.”

“It’s ... none of your business. And—” A giggle from above. He snapped his head up and shot a glare at his three thralls, and they squeaked and disappeared. “Okay, Mary. I assume Mom has been filling you in on a lot more than she probably should, about the Masquerade?”

Mary nodded. “You mean the secret nightlife stuff? Yeap.”

“Ok, good. I mean, I want to be happy and hug you and take you out to celebrate, but—”

“But you want to make sure that a, uh, ‘kine’,” she air-quoted kine, “isn’t running around Dolareido breaking the Masquerade, and getting you in trouble, or worse, getting us all killed.”

Jack leaned forward and looked past Mary at his mom. She whistled and looked away, which was actually a little weird. Yeah sure, his mom was brimming with energy and joy to the point she looked like she’d explode, but the whistling and looking away was silly behavior made her seem younger. Much as the whole situation with Mary could be connected, he got the feeling her relationship with Jacob had something to do with the change in her behavior.

The idea of Jacob making his mom behave like a young woman felt really fucking weird. But, she was smiling.

“Mom. Did you tell her absolutely everything?”

“Not absolutely everything! But ... a lot.”

Jack groaned and ran his fingers over his buzzed scalp. “Ok, I guess that saves us the trouble of explaining the Masquerade and everything it contains.”

Mary’s grin was quickly mirroring Jen’s. “Yeap.”

“Okay okay. I ... I don’t know what to do, honestly. We don’t let kine go around knowing about paranormals unless they’re bound to someone by the Vinculum.”

“That won’t happen.” His mom stood up and looked down at him, balancing happy and stern on her face. “After everything that’s happened, Mary—”

“It’s not about Mary, Mom. It’s about the Masquerade and the hundreds of vampires it protects in this city alone.”

Triss waved her hands through the air a couple times, like steering a landing plane. “Dude, she knows what’ll happen if she opens her mouth. After all the shit that’s happened, I’m pretty sure we can trust her to not go talking about vamps.”

That was true. As dangerous as it was to have a kine going around free without a leash of some kind, Mary had been neck deep in the worst the paranormal world had to offer.

Sighing, Jack waved a placating hand. “You’re right, you’re right. But what about ... you know, life stuff? Mary was pronounced dead. Her body’s buried in a graveyard. The only way she can go back to living a normal life is if she gets a new identity.”

Mary frowned as she looked down and rubbed her palms on her knees. “A new identity probably wouldn’t be enough. People knew me. If I ran into someone who knew me, it’d be ... like that time I ran into Jack.”

Jack winced again. Wiping the memory of his encounter with his sister from her mind, only for her to find it again as a ghost, had sucked. He’d apologized to her, but she’d been a pretty damn angry ghost at the time, and had smashed him halfway through a wall.

“Then you have few options,” Jennifer said. “You can either leave Dolareido and start a new life elsewhere.”

“I don’t want to leave Mom.”

“Or you can stay here and become a Kindred. There will still be the threat of being found out by people you once knew, but you will be able to manage them.”

Jack, Mary, and their mom all exchanged glances.

“You’re ... not going to yell no, Jack?” their mom asked.

“I want to. But I’m a vampire, and you’re a vampire. Mary knows exactly what she’d be getting into if she agreed.” And try as he might to find a better way out of the situation, he couldn’t. His mom wouldn’t let Mary go, not now after she’d just gotten her back. But it wasn’t a good idea for a young vampire to leave the city, even with their mom; sunlight was a bitch. And if she got a new identity in the city, while still having to live a normal life, it drastically increased her chance of getting found out.

It wasn’t like vampires didn’t have this problem. Jack avoided the firm he used to intern at. He avoided the school he’d been going to before that. He avoided the neighborhood he used to live in. And thankfully, as a vampire, his skin was paler and tighter, making him look different than he used to in general. Plus, he didn’t exactly have a large ring of friends.

Mary didn’t have to become a vampire to live that life, but it’d be much easier as a vampire. Ventrue could wipe people’s memories. Mekhet and Nosferatu were natural at Obfuscate and its child Disciplines like Cloak of Night and Face in the Crowd. Gangrels and Daeva weren’t exactly good at hiding, but they could use Obfuscate too if they had to, and Daeva could turn people into doting slaves if the circumstance called for it. A human couldn’t do any of that. Plus, the superhuman strength and speed went a long way, when vamps needed to clean up a mess.

Mary raised a hand triumphantly. “I think—”

“I think,” Jack said, and he lowered her hand with his, “that you should think about it. If you wanted to stay human, we could make it work. If you wanted to become a vampire like Mom and me, we could make it work, if we can find you a sire.”

“I thought Mom—”

“Mom is about a year embraced. Siring isn’t easy, for a bunch of reasons. She shouldn’t be embracing anyone. And I can’t, not with this curse in me.”

“I would, if I had to,” his mom said, leaning forward and putting her elbows on her knees so she could look past Mary and back at him. “If no one else will, I will. I don’t care how hard it is.”

“You’ll care if Antoinette does. She’s Prince. Just because she’s your sire doesn’t mean she’ll give you a pass if you embrace someone without her permission.”

“She certainly didn’t for mine,” Triss said, shrugging.

With a purposefully loud sigh, Jack shook his head and dismissed everything with a wave of the hand. “Please, no one commit to anything yet. Let’s just ... just be happy for the moment. Mary’s alive.” He poked her shoulder for good measure. She poked him back. Instant smiles.”And she can keep it that way for a good long while. I’m sure Antoinette will let you stay in the Elysium Tower, and you’ll have access to anything you want.”

“Good idea,” their mom said. “We should go back to her place, and relax. It’s safe there.”

Relax. Jack smiled at her and nodded, and she returned it, her eyes giving him a tiny hint of the shit she’d been through lately, before she looked away. Hell. She’d gone through Hell, since Mary died, and had been stuck there this whole time, working with Triss and Jen, and Black Blood, to get her back.

And Jack was getting in the way of her happiness with unwanted doses of reality. Well, reality could wait, at least for a night.

Jack raised a finger. “So, uh, we going to Antoinette’s first? Or did you want to see Jacob, Mom?” That, was a question he thought he’d never ask. Felt gross in his mouth.

“I’ll send him a message.”

Sure enough, there he was. It was a strange thing, Jacob having a smartphone. It was easy to think of Antoinette and Elaine, and even Daniel, using smartphones, considering how much they relied on technology. The witches didn’t give two shits about technology, though.

But Jacob was, as always, a fucking weird guy. He sat there on one of the stone benches, dressed in a burgundy suit and a burgundy tie, complete with black sunglasses that hid his eyes. He looked really good in it, honestly, and filthy rich. Jack bet the dude was filthy rich, and probably never touched a dime of it, except on ridiculously expensive suits no one else would be able to pull off.

The man stood up as they approached, smile growing as he saw Jack’s mom, before vanishing as he saw Mary.

“Clarice! Long time no see. And Samantha! And who is...” He sucked in a breath as he came closer. “Is that ... Casper?”

Casper? What the fuck? Jack folded his arms over his chest and glared at Jacob, but before he could say anything, his mom ran past Jack, and threw herself at him, full on hard enough to knock him over if he hadn’t been expecting it. But Jacob stood his ground and caught her, and wrapped his arms around her as she buried her face in his neck.

“It’s Mary!” she said, voice muffled by the Nosferatu’s suit’s shoulder.

Jacob looked — pointed his head anyway — at Jack, and then at Beatrice and Jennifer as they rounded the corner.

The group of them were standing at the entrance of the hedge maze, one of them anyway, where it opened up to the front of the Elysium Tower. While the tower itself was Antoinette’s private home, the whole area was considered an Elysium zone: no violence of any kind allowed, to Kindred or kine. In the maze, maybe half a dozen young Kindred hung out, usually. Jack didn’t sense any right now, but they could have simply been suppressing their presence. Or they’d bailed when they realized one of the most powerful Kindred around for dozens, probably hundreds of miles, was only a couple hundred feet away. Which meant the group had some privacy.

Mary came forward, and she looked Jacob up and down a couple times. Yeah, that probably happened with everyone the first time they saw Jacob.

“Mary,” their mom said, once she let the man go, “this is Jacob. Jacob, this is Mary.”

Jacob again looked at the group of them, before he finally settled his hidden gaze on Mary, and held out his hand.

“Well holy shit. You look great, kid.”

Mary smiled and shook his hand, leaning back and forth slightly as she brimmed with energy.

“I feel great! It’s amazing, having a body again. You have no idea what it’s like to just ... float.”

“That I don’t.” Jacob walked around Mary, and looked her up and down a few times, too. Mary posed, no hesitation at all. “I can’t believe it.”

“Believe it,” Triss said. “We went through Hell to make it work, and it only worked cause Mary was still hanging around and—and stop looking at your girlfriend’s daughter like a piece of meat.”

“She is not meat!” Jacob threw up both hands. “She is a living wonder! And a precious gift.” Big smile returned, Jacob walked up to Triss, and hugged her, hard.

“Boss, don’t hu—urk!”

Well, dude was an ancient elder. If he wanted to squeeze Triss hard enough to pop her like a balloon, he could. He nearly did.

“Can’t believe you did it,” he said. He gave her a few more squeezes, the last one pulling a tiny very-not-Beatrice squeak from her, before he put her down. Then he aimed his sunglasses at Jen. “And you—”

“Observed. I don’t deserve hugs.” Jen put up her hands and stepped back. Twice.

Mary giggled, and so did her mom. Contagious laughter. If Fiona had been there, they’d probably have triggered an unending laughter train that’d kill anyone who needed oxygen.

“Sorry honey,” his mom said to Mary. “Jacob is a little eccentric.”

“Putting it mildly,” Jack said, rolling his eyes. “I’m surprised we’re meeting here.”

His mom nodded to the tower. “I didn’t tell Jacob why. I wanted to surprise him. But I also wanted to get Mary somewhere safe.”

Safe was a good idea. There weren’t any hunters anymore, save for the three that were getting along with Dolareido’s paranormal world. And the Carthians and Invictus were getting along again. The only dangers Jack was worried about, were Jacob and Black Blood, and they were big dangers. Black Blood was part of the reason Mary was alive again, and Jacob was standing right there in front of him. And Jack was the only person in the group who knew Jacob might be someone he’d have to confront in the future. It made it damn difficult to look at the man, and let him be so close to Mary.

“You came without knowing why?” Jack asked.

Laughing all the merrier, Jacob came over to him and clapped him on the shoulder.

“Samantha asked me to. What, Antoinette wouldn’t go somewhere you asked her to go?”

It took effort to not wince at the comparison. A lot of effort. Jacob knew Jack didn’t like thinking about him with his mom, and comparing their relationship to his with Antoinette really hit that nerve. Worse, the bastard winked at him. Hard to see considering he was wearing sunglasses, but the eyebrow and cheek muscles moved enough.

“If she wasn’t busy.”

“Well, I wasn’t busy. And I’m glad I wasn’t. Holy shit I never thought Triss would actually do it. I never thought ... well, fuck me. Shows you what I know. Figured an old man my age would learn to never assume.” He came back over to Mary and Sam, and clapped once. “We need to celebrate!”

“We need,” Jack said, “to give Mary a break.”

His mom sighed, but nodded, and gently touched Jacob’s chest once. That was an intimate touch, a knowing touch, and Jack ground his teeth into powder. Silently.

“Jack’s right, that’s why we came here. My sire needs to know, but we also want a quiet, safe place for Mary to recover.”

Triss stepped in beside her. “And because, as much as we’re all happy as shit, we’re not stupid. Keep expectations realistic, right?” She elbowed Jack’s mom in the side, gently, but enough to make her oof. “Something could still go wrong. Everything seems good, but the fuck do we know, right? Something could still go bad.”

“Way to jinx it!” Jacob shoved her in the shoulder. “Come on! She’s breathing. She has a pulse. Looks like she remembers things, right?” Mary nodded. “Then—”

“No,” Jack said. Maybe a little harder than he meant to, because everyone looked at him, faces serious. “Beatrice is right. Everything is great so far, and I’m damn happy Mary’s alive. But we can’t assume it’s a perfect, happy ending for all quite yet. Realistic expectations.”

His mom looked like she was about to say something, but sighed and nodded as she lowered her head. Before Jack could say something, Jacob came in beside her and hugged her with one arm.

“You are one cold knife to the gut, Jack,” Jacob said.

“I’m just—”

“I know, being realistic.” The elder smiled at him, even as he rubbed his mom’s arm. “The world needs realists. Keeps the rest of us from jumping off cliffs, thinking we can fly.”

“That’s my brother.” Mary laughed again as she gave Jack a gentle punch in the shoulder. “I don’t know anything about anything, but if this doesn’t last, well at least I got to hug my mom again. And you.” And again, before Jack could say anything, Mary swooped in and hugged him.

“Young Miss Terry?” Antoinette asked.

Mary nodded, hands at her sides and plucking idly at her t-shirt hem. “Me.”

Antoinette sat upright at her desk, red eyes a fair bit wider than Jack was used to. Shock. He knew the feeling.

“My men were wondering why Jacob stood at the base of my tower, and yet did not come to see me.”

“That was me,” Jack’s mom said, and she raised a hand. “We wanted to get here fast, so we could put Mary somewhere safe, but I also wanted to see Jacob.”

“Understandable. I assume he was quite surprised to see your daughter alive.”

“He was!” Sam giggled and gestured to her daughter beside her. “It worked! Can you believe it?”

“I ... do find it difficult to believe. But I am beyond glad. Terrified, perhaps, but beyond glad. I am sure you must have had access to powerful tools to achieve such a feat.”

Powerful tools? Jack raised a brow and looked beside him at his mom and sis. They both squirmed.

“Beatrice and Jennifer did not join us, I see,” Antoinette continued.

“No, sire. They figured we’d want some quiet time, just the two of us. And ... I’m pretty sure they’re afraid of you.”

The Prince grinned. “As it should be.”

Slowly, Antoinette pushed herself up to her feet. Ghost Mary had seen Antoinette before, but she still quivered a little at the sight of her. No two ways about it, Antoinette was very tall, and the white hair and red eyes were intimidating as hell. Combined with the black suit and skirt that looked like they cost as much as a car, Mary seemed a bit overwhelmed.

“I have to admit,” Antoinette said, “this is unprecedented.”

“That’s part of the reason we’re here,” Jack said. “It’s safe here, in case things go ... wrong.”

“Wrong, my love?”

“Yeah. Like, this happened only a bit ago. We don’t know what might happen.”

“Your son is forever the pragmatist,” Antoinette said, grinning at his mom, before grinning at him. Cute, making him look like the cold voice of reason in all this, when Antoinette was the colder one when it came to it.

“Yeap,” his mom said, aiming her own grin at Jack. “Jacob said the same thing.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “We thought maybe you could check and see if Mary’s ok, too? Like, with your dragon tools and stuff.”

“You would like me to prove that Mary Terry is alive and well.”

“I mean yeah, if it’s possible.”

Antoinette set a hand on Mary’s shoulder, and looked down at her with a serious gaze.

“I am sorry, but I can do no such thing. At least, not in regards to whether Mary is truly alive in the sense of the soul and self.”

“You can’t?” their mom asked.

“Non. And while I cannot discuss the fine details of my work in front of Mary, or Jack for that matter, I feel comfortable enough explaining this. My machine cannot pierce into the inner chamber where the soul resides. I am afraid the best you could hope for, is to ask a Begotten to monitor her dreams, should she have any.”

“We thought of that,” Samantha said, “but Sándor says he can’t, uh, reach the soul.”

“But he will be able to tell if she dreams, non?”

“Yeah, I believe so.”

“Any entity with a brain can dream in some form or another, but the dreams of someone with a soul should be quite distinct versus those without, to a Begotten, I imagine. After the ball, we should arrange such a test. Though, I do think that with Mary’s current state, we can currently ask the most basic, and perhaps most powerful question, as a test.” She looked down at Mary, and his poor sister quaked. “Do you feel alive, Mary?”

They all looked at her.

“Do I feel alive?”

“Oui. Do you feel alive? A ... je ne sais quois. A feeling. A kernel of awareness and desire inside you, something hidden inside emotions.”

Jack raised a hand. Well, this did suddenly feel like class.

“Emotions aren’t enough?”

“Non. Emotions can be found in anything with a brain developed enough to respond to chemicals and stimulus, same as dreams. But a soul? We know it exists. We know it affects us. But to understand it, quantify it, and measure its effects? It is how we know we are more than robots simply responding to stimulus or following processes and routines, and yet, we cannot define how we know.” She nodded as she tapped a finger on her chin. “One of the many areas of study in the Ordo.”

Jack nodded as his eyes drifted away. That made sense. The debate about whether people were sentient, or self aware, or had souls, it was all still-running debate among philosophers and scientists alike. Determinism and the nature of a soul seemed to disagree with each other, but at the same time, it was hard to dismiss that Jack felt like he had a soul, some sort of hidden spark inside him that was impossible to define or quantify. And considering the crazy shit Jack got to see in his four years of being a vampire, crazy shit even by vampire standards, he was pretty confident souls were a thing.

“I ... think I do?” Mary said. “I’ve never really thought about it before.”

“I would like to say you would know instantly, but I have no way to know such a thing. Take your time, child of my childe.” Antoinette softened her smile, and gestured to the door. “Explore the tower as you wish. There are many rooms where the contents are sensitive, but they will be locked. You need not worry, so wander freely.”

“Thank you! I uh, was kinda worried you’d lock me in a box, to keep an eye on me.”

Jack grinned. “Or do experiments on her.”

Her own grin slowly turning sly, Antoinette walked over to him, leaned down, and kissed him. Deeply. Jack blinked at her when she pulled away, and then at Mary, who kept glancing his way with wide, surprised, sheepish eyes.

“I would never do experiments on someone so precious to my own childe.”

Jack chuckled and rubbed his head. Conveniently, Antoinette didn’t say she wouldn’t do it, just not to him and his family. And she said it knowing they’d pick up on it. Crafty.

His mom spoke next. “Mary and I are free for the rest of the night, then?”

“Indeed. Go, celebrate. This is truly a wondrous occasion. Perhaps in the future I will implore you let me examine Mary in detail, but nothing serious, and it can wait. If you decide to go out into the night, remember that she still looks exactly as she did as kine. Be careful and remember the Masquerade. I trust your discretion.”

The two girls cheered, literally, and made for the door. But before they got out of the office, their mom turned around.

“Jack, you want to come too?”

Jack took a moment thinking about it. The look in his mom’s eyes was so full of joy, it was almost overwhelming. Mary met his eyes too, and unlike his mom, she knew Jack well enough to know he really wouldn’t like getting dragged around playing tour guide, not with the two of them bubbling with excitement and chatting nonstop. No judgment, it just wasn’t his thing. Well, maybe a little judgment between brother and sister, him judging her chatty ways and her judging his hermit ways.

Back to old habits between the two of them. That made him smile more than anything that’d happened tonight.

“No, you two hang out and have fun. I know you’re dying to.” He winced. Fuck, that was a poor choice of words. “I’ll catch up with you later, Mary.”

“You sure, Jack?”

“Yeah. Go crazy. Mom’s a millionaire now, or near it. She’ll buy you stuff.”

“Oh my god she is!” Mary hugged their mom around the shoulders and dragged her out with her excitement meter cranked to eleven. “I want ice cream! And then shoes!”

Jack and Antoinette looked at each other and waited until the door closed. A soundproof room meant they couldn’t hear the elevator ding, but they waited anyway until they were confident Mary and his mom were on the way down.

“Jack,” Antoinette said, and she motioned to the chair in front of her desk.

Jack sighed heavy as he sat in it, and Antoinette sat on the other side of her desk, waiting. She knew he’d want to have this conversation, and she was happy to wait for him to get to it. The Prince was too damn smart.

“I’m terrified,” he said after a bit.

Antoinette sighed, mimicking him as she leaned back in her chair. “Understandable.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course. Your dead sister is alive once again. The implications alone are massive. I will not be able to keep this secret, and can guarantee witches and dragons from other cities will come to see your sister. Her life will be in danger, as others will be tempted to wisp her away for their own experiments.”

Jack stared at her, until he knew his mouth was hanging open. “I meant because she seems to be alive, but might not be! She might just be a body walking around with a ghost possessing her.”

“Ah yes, that.”

He threw up his hands. “I hadn’t even considered all that other stuff!”

“I will handle that element of the problem. Dolareido is my city, and while I am embarrassed with the sheer chaos that it has suffered these past few years, be under no illusion. I control my city.” She tapped a finger against the table a couple times.

“Hey you don’t need to convince me. I know you let Garry and Michael bash heads. You could have stopped them.”

She grinned. As powerful and deadly and ancient as Antoinette was, even she wasn’t completely immune to an ego stroke.

“I could have. At great cost, but I could have. My point is not to boast, my love. What I meant, is that I have control of this city in ways not even the Invictus understand. Were it not for Jeremiah and Elen and the magical abilities they brought with them, I would have easily crushed their invasion. I can keep your sister safe from outside threats.”

Jack winced and looked down. “Right, Elen. You think ... she was involved in Mary’s resurrection.”

“Undoubtedly. Your mother stole Elen’s knife and book from my many artifacts.”

“What!?”

Antoinette put up a settling hand. “Beatrice is not stupid, Jack. She asked your mother to steal the items, so she could pursue resurrection to help your mother, and herself. I am sure that was partly because she was afraid I would say no, if she or Samantha asked me directly. But, perhaps even unknown to Beatrice herself, she wanted to know if your mother had the commitment to follow this dark road to its end.”

“Well, damn. I can’t believe ... Holy shit.”

“It is worse than that. Beatrice and your mother paved that road with corpses, though with your connections in the Invictus, I expect you suspected.”

Jack sucked in a breath through his teeth and looked to the side. “I mean, a little. Invictus get reports of kine deaths that are strange, or people who go missing that fit that ‘nobody will miss them’ bill. There’s been more of them than usual, the past few months.”