"Read about me?"
Fauxleander gave her a sly smile. "I have da Vinci's journals."
Kiara's breath caught in her throat, but she kept her expression carefully neutral. "I see. They gave you the ability to recreate Retro and Sandman. And this place?" She gestured at the house.
"We used the sketches, thinking your old home could help restore your memory. But there's a lot written in code that I can't understand. Could use your help with that. I was really hoping the Midnight Poison info was in there, but not that I can find."
Kiara chewed her lower lip. "How many have read the journals?"
"Just me," he said. "I worried they were too dangerous in the wrong hands."
As far as Kiara was concerned, they were already in the wrong hands. "I want them. Once they are returned to me, I pledge to listen to your plight and contemplate how I may consider to lend aid. It is my only offer."
After several moments, Fauxleander nodded. "Deal. The journals aren't here, but I'll take you to them." He started to get up, his movement stiff and painful.
"No," Kiara said. "I must return to the mansion with Leontes."
"But we just got you away from those bloodsuckers!" He flopped back down in the chair. The tips of the blades dug further into his flesh, but he did not seem to notice. "And I thought you wanted him dead."
Kiara glanced at Leontes. A dark smile slithered onto her lips. "One day."
They both heard the noise and froze. Footsteps scurrying through the great hall. A moment later Kiara heard a door hiss open followed by an urgent whisper. "Kiara? Gramps?"
She shook her head in disbelief.
Fauxleander wrapped his fingers around the hilt of each knife at his chest. "I'll take care of him."
CHAPTER 111
Jaeger entered slowly, but when he saw Leontes, he rushed to his side. "Gramps! Come on, dammit, wake up."
Kiara burst in. "Jaeger, help!"
Jaeger raised his gun. Fauxleander filled the doorway and fired a shot.
"Get down!" Jaeger yelled.
Kiara dropped. Jaeger got off three rounds. Fauxleander took the first one in the shoulder. It spun him sideways and out of sight.
Jaeger vaulted over the couch and ran to follow. Kiara slid her leg across the floor and tripped him up. As the werewolf went down, she grabbed a lamp and crashed it over his head. His unconscious body thumped to the floor.
Kiara stood and kicked his shoulder.
"Reducing me to a damsel in distress? How humiliating. By all that is holy, you are the most infuriating puppy. What she sees in you I will never know. You are the most aggravating, vexatious, and-" She rolled him over. "Oh, hell! Fauxleander, you were not supposed to actually shoot him!"
The assassin shrugged. "Had to make it look good."
"I'm surrounded by imbeciles," Kiara muttered with irritation. "Get them outside at once."
"Yes, ma'am." Fauxleander limped over, his wounds not healing as fast as he would like, but he picked up Leontes, wincing as he shuffled toward the door. "I'll come back for Jaeg-"
Kiara grabbed Jaeger's ankle, took one step, and whipped him airborne. The werewolf prince crashed through the window and landed with a lifeless thud on the grass.
Fauxleander stared at her.
Kiara dusted off her hands. "What?"
"Nothing." Fauxleander stood straighter and headed out the door, his limp now barely noticeable.
"One more thing." Kiara followed close behind. "Where are your explosives?"
CHAPTER 112
In her bathroom at Nightmare Mansion, Kiara furiously scrubbed the blood off her skin, continually glancing back at Leontes, who was lying on her bed, still unconscious. She stripped off her clothes, stained with more blood and gore, and threw them in the sink. Something clattered on the countertop. She picked up the small piece of metal.
A tracking device.
The memory of Jaeger brazenly slapping her backside came to mind, and she had to smile at the clever distraction he had used to plant it upon her. She tossed the tracker in with the clothes and snapped her fingers. The pile burst aflame, mere ash in the blink of an eye, and she washed the evidence down the sink.
The sudden prickles inside her skull arrived without warning and rapidly grew stronger. Like moths to a flame, she felt the minds of others heading her way. Kiara could shut them out for a while, but not forever.
A low, echoing hiss whispered behind Kiara. She turned, but Leontes remained still as a corpse. The room was empty of any attackers. Fear made her itchy. She needed to go. She needed to follow the plan to save herself. But she hesitated because …
She walked across the room, lit with only a few candles and the fire's flickering light, and stood next to the bed. Some color had returned to Leontes' ashen pallor, but when she shook his shoulders, he did not stir. She folded her arms and studied him, covered in wounds and dried blood. So still.