The Mech Who Loved Me(61)

Garrett was also devilishly perceptive. If anyone could spot any telltale signs of a flirtation, it would be him.

"Liam Kincaid. And aye, I'm working with Ava, though she's doing most of the work at the moment."

Garrett's gaze locked on her, and he winked, clearly aware of her presence all along. "Speaking of the devil... Ava, what are you doing hiding back there?"

Very subtle, Garrett. She rolled her eyes at him, and then painted a sweet expression on her face when Kincaid turned to look for her, as though she'd done no such thing. "I've just had another look at Mr. Thomas." 

"Any luck?" Kincaid was suddenly all business.

"There's an injection site up under his hair, in that fatty roll of muscle where his scalp meets his neck. We have a murder." And now she knew what had done it. "It's not a disease. I knew it! He was poisoned."

"Mr. Thomas?" Garrett frowned. "Isn't that one of the Black Vein victims?"

"Yes," she enthused.

"Then we have five murder victims," Garrett said grimly, rubbing a hand down his daughter's back as she sleepily rested her head on his shoulder. "Not just one. And they're all blue bloods."

She heard the question in his voice. Garrett was frightfully intelligent, but until Malloryn gave her the go-ahead, she wasn't certain she should be mentioning the caterpillar mushroom to anyone. "We're not entirely certain what the agent is yet."

Kincaid's jaw flexed, but he didn't quite look at her.

If word of something like that got out, then blue bloods would be dropping like flies all over London. Too many people had grievances against the old Echelon, and some of them were blinded enough by hate to see any blue blood as a threat.

"I guess we have some investigating to do," she said brightly. "I'll keep you apprised of anything Mr. Kincaid and I find."

And Kincaid, thank goodness, kept his mouth shut.



* * *

"Thought Garrett was a friend," Kincaid said as they strolled down the street toward Malloryn's secret house.

He'd kept his suspicions to himself on the tram ride back, but he couldn't help voicing them now. Just why was Ava keeping secrets from the Nighthawks?

"He is," she said glumly, her arms wrapped around herself. It wasn't cold, but she often did that when she was lost in thought. Or troubled by those thoughts. "You understand what this means?"

"Someone's killing blue bloods?"

"Someone has found a blue blood's mortal weakness," she all but breathed. "Kincaid, this changes everything. Blue bloods have always been impervious to sickness or grave wounds. The craving virus heals everything, short of decapitation or removal of the heart. Or so we always thought. If the wrong hands get hold of this information...."

"There's a lot of people who'd kill to have that power." The thought of it stirred through him like a breath of fresh air. He'd been ground beneath the Echelon's heel once upon a time, forced to slave away in the enclaves with no hope of anything better in his life. Humans couldn't stand against blue bloods, not and hope to survive.

They were faster, stronger, and, as Ava said, impervious to mortal harm for the most part.

This leveled the playing field.

"You cannot breathe a word of it," she stated.

"Jaysus, Ava. Think what could be done with this information? The Echelon's still hovering over London like vultures! The revolution put power in the queen's hands, but all those blue bloods who looked the other way when the worst of them cut a girl's throat and drained her dry, they're still there. All those blue bloods who paraded their blood whores and thralls around on leashes, or killed people in the streets because they could! The queen might have changed some of the laws, but there's an awful lot of bloody predators still mincin' around in fucking silk with blood on their hands. With this information, they're no longer top of the food chain, Ava." His older sister, Agatha, flashed to mind, her feet so very pale as she dangled from the ceiling. "No one would have to worry when their sister doesn't come home at night, or-"



       
         
       
        

"So you'd kill them? Murder them?"

He drew back as if slapped. She didn't understand. "Do you know what it feels like to lose someone you love, because the Echelon thought it was a joke to serve her up at a fucking dinner party as the main meal, where they all shared her around as a blood whore? Do you know the shame a woman feels after that? What she's capable of doing-"

"Do you know what it feels like to have someone look at you as though you're a monster," Ava cried, "even though you cannot help your diet? I understand where you're coming from, I do, but I've never-"