Wildfire

Chapter 41

41. Love

You could have cut the tension inside Marco's car with a knife. If he was aware of the friction lingering in the air between Diego and me, he didn't mention it. He had offered to drive us back to Diego's apartment while Georgina and Slater transported Lexie to a secure holding prison in Norway; he still wanted to question Aiden about his involvement in the manufacture of argentiserum, but he had time before Aiden was due to make a 're-appearance'.

I wasn't really up to speed on the semantics, but the whole process sounded awful.

Georgina promised me that Lexie would be well taken care of while Aiden was in their custody and, depending on the course of their on-going investigation, that was likely to end up being a long, long time. The production of unauthorized chemical weapons, particularly weapons designed to take advantage of another race's weaknesses, was a huge no-no in the supernatural world.

Slater and Marco had boxed up every crate of argentiserum they could find and Slater had used his cell phone to enclose the 'crime scene' in the supernatural version of police tape, which looked like a giant bubble. A team of SCC officers were en route to collect the evidence.

I leaned my forehead against the window as cars swept past, my thoughts still spinning. My anger towards Diego was still there, simmering at the back of my mind, but a wave of trepidation was slowly starting to infiltrate every atom of my body. When I had woken up in that hospital bed six years ago, I had pleaded with my grandmother to take me away from him — I had promised myself that I'd never let him do to me what he did to her. As much as I loved him still, I knew what he was. What he was capable of.

I was terrified that if I ever came face to face with him again, I'd let him slip under my defences. I'd let him manipulate me.

But then... I was older now and wise to his mind games. Did he really hold that kind of power over me anymore?

But what if he's one of them...?

A million possibilities floated through my mind. Lupi, vampire, witch, familiar... what if he was one of them?

What did that mean for me?

Nothing particularly special had ever happened to me. I'd never levitated things by accident or turned into an animal. I'd never communicated telepathically with anyone before or brought anyone back from the dead.

I was human.

If nothing else proved it, I needed Georgina's ergot to see the supernatural world in the first place. If I was one of them, I would have already been aware.

"Can you turn that up?" Diego piped up after a little while.

Marco reached for the volume dial on his radio and a detached, robotic-sounding voice filtered through the speakers.

"...of reports indicating that four guardians lost their lives in the attack, although no women or children were harmed. Consul Schwahn is still refusing to back down from the newly-imposed caste tax and has issued a statement declaring that any more of what he calls 'barbaric' attempts to undermine his command will be met with equally as barbaric punishment."

Diego stiffened. "What happened this time?"

Marco sighed and lowered the volume. "One of the Families left the city last night in favour of their own lands. Rumours were already spreading that the caste tax was being used to renovate their houses so the rebels decided to teach them a lesson."

"Which family?"

"Duquesne." Marco grimaced. "The problem is that there are pockets of resistance appearing all over the place but none of them are working together, so when the Seekers make headway with one group, another one destroys all of that progress with another attack. The situation is just getting worse and worse."