"I'm working for them," he blurted.
"What?" Xander froze.
"I told you, it's complicated. But there's a threat to the alliance between our three races, and I got dragged into it to help keep the peace."
Xander swore under his breath, looking stunned. "What happened to you, K? Working for the blue bloods? Who are you? They're poison."
He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. Xander had a point. Who was he now? What was he fighting for? At first the only reason he'd joined the COR was because there was a threat to everything he'd fought for, and also because Malloryn could give him a fighting chance at avoiding the Kincaid curse, but now...?
It was different now he knew a few blue bloods as actual people. Christ, Byrnes was smug and arrogant, but had saved his life; Charlie didn't have a mean bone in him; Gemma gave new meaning to the word seductress, but she was dangerously protective of Ava; and Ava, well, she was the hardest one to categorize.
"Do you know what it feels like to have someone look at you as though you're a monster?"
Ava was the gentlest soul he'd ever known.
"They ain't all bad," he said gruffly, and Xander cuffed him over the back of the head.
"Maggie," he bellowed, "my man needs another drink! He's speaking in fuckin' riddles."
It took a moment, but suddenly there was an ale in his hand, and Maggie peering at him worriedly.
"Kincaid's gotten in with the blue bloods," Xander snarled, urging him to drink up. "The man's lost his mind."
"Keep your voice down," Maggie warned Xander. An announcement like that in there might just get Kincaid's head punched in. "And don't be stupid. Kincaid was the one who dragged us out of that hell, the one who found a way for us to fight. If he's working with them, then I'll bet my right hand it's for good reason."
"Thanks," he muttered, draining the tankard. "You've not been getting caught up in any of the riots, have you, Maggie?"
She gave him a long, slow look.
"Don't," he warned her. "There's something brewing behind the scenes-someone pulling strings who's trying to stir up trouble. Whoever it is, they don't give a damn about us humans. They're just using you to tilt at windmills."
"What have you heard?" she asked quietly, refilling his tankard.
"Can't really say." But something else was bothering him. And maybe it was the reason he was truly here. "What would you do if there was a way to get rid of the blue blood scourge forever?"
Maggie froze. So did Xander. Loud laughter and noise spilled over their trio, but he knew he had his answer.
"What do you mean?" Xander's charm slid off him in an instant, his expression turning hard. "What do you know?"
And instantly he knew it was a mistake. "Nothing. It's nothing. I'm just speaking theoretically: if you had a way to kill blue bloods, what would you do?"
"Well, I'd get my hands on it," Xander said, a little louder, and Maggie instantly hushed her husband.
She was looking at him, her dark eyes reading the nuances Xander clearly didn't see. "For years we've been crushed under the heel of the Echelon, Kincaid. We never had a way to defeat them, because we're human, and they're not. They're almost impossible to kill, which is why we built the Cyclops. Only an automaton could survive a blue blood. If you know of something that could kill them, then you should speak up."
"And where do we stop? How do we control it?" he asked quietly. "The Nighthawks are all rogue blue bloods. Without them, we would never have had a chance to kill the prince consort. We'd still be sitting in that enclave and rotting. They were our allies."
Xander shrugged. "We don't have to kill the Nighthawks, unless they get in our way."
It was Maggie, once again, who saw the problem. "The needs of many outweigh the sacrifice of a few, K. You're the one who told me that seven years ago."
And he'd believed it then, when he ruled the enclaves and the only way out was to overthrow the mad prince consort. Did he believe it now? He'd yelled the exact same fucking thing at Ava, but it was only now, when his friends repeated the same views, he could see the dangers.
"Ava's a blue blood," he said, and Xander nearly spit out his drink.
"Fuckin' Jaysus," Xander said, and then coughed. "Are you mad?"
He scrubbed his weary face again. "I told you. They ain't all bad. Maggie's got more murderous impulses in her little finger than Ava has in her entire body. It's... opened my eyes a little."