“Cyanide,” I explained.

“You can’t kill him with that.” Curran grimaced.

“It’s not for him. It’s for me.”

They stared at me.

“People were dying,” I said. “He was laughing, and all I could do was to sit tight and be safe.”

Curran growled. “You think it’s easy for me?”

“No. But you’re used to it. You have experience with responsibility for people’s lives. I don’t. I don’t want anybody else to die for me. I’m up to my knees in blood as is.”

“I had to send three patrols out,” Curran said. “Because of you. None of them died, but they could have. All because you couldn’t stand to not be the center of attention for a few minutes.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“Fuck you.”

I started sniffing. “What the hell is that stink? Oh, wait a minute, it’s you. You reek. Did you dine on skunk or is that your natural odor?”

“That’s enough,” Mahon roared, startling both of us into silence. “You’re acting like children. Curran, you’ve missed your meditation, and you need one. Kate, there is a punching bag in your room. Make use of it.”

“Why do I have to punch the bag while he meditates?” I mumbled on the way out.

“Because he breaks the bags when he punches them,” Mahon said.

I was almost to the room when it occurred to me that I had obeyed Mahon without question or even doubt. He had that eternal father-thing about him that managed to throw me off track every time. There was no defense against it or at least I didn’t know of one. He didn’t use it when he fought with Curran. I tried to figure out why while I dutifully punched the bag. My punches were rather pathetic. Then exhaustion settled in. A mere twenty minutes later I gave up, took a shower, and fell onto my bed without finding an answer.

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 10

SOMEONE STOOD OVER ME. MY EYES SNAPPED OPEN and Curran’s face slammed into focus. He leaned against the wall next to the bed looking at me.

“What?”

“He called,” Curran said.

I sat up in bed. “He decided he wants a fight?”

“Yeah. He put Derek on the line. He broke the kid’s legs and is keeping him in the leg irons so the bones can’t heal.”

Better and better. “Bono give you any terms?”

“Me, the Crusader, and you. Tonight.”

How nice. A party for the top three on the upir’s most wanted list. “Where?”

“South-eastern ley point. He says he’ll let us know from there.”

“Are you bringing backup?”

“No,” he said. He didn’t mention any reasons but I knew them all: his word, his pride, his duty, the fact that the upir would kill Derek. Any one of those would do.

I rubbed the sleep from my face. “What time is it?”

“Noon.”

The patrols caught me at seven in the morning and I had gone to bed around eight, which gave me a grand total of four hours of sleep. “When do we have to leave?”