"I will have a talk with Alex anyway." He rubbed his jaw. "Has there been any word of her brother?"
"No, nothing, and I can find no trace of him leaving the city. I will continue the search, but if he has been taken by the Brethren again…"
"I understand. Thank you, Val." Michael ended the call and looked at Phillipe. "Do you know what Alexandra was doing last night before she placed the call to Chicago?"
Phillipe looked uncomfortable. "I did not see her myself, but one of the seneschals mentioned that he saw her walking through the south wing, near the high lord's chambers."
Michael nodded. If there was anyone who could infuriate Alexandra, it was their liege lord. "I think it would be sensible for you to visit the hospital while I am meeting with Richard and the others. Perhaps you could help Alexandra with the patients. She may need someone to talk to."
Phillipe nodded, understanding what Cyprien meant. "I think I can assist her until le conseil supérieur is over."
Michael went from there to the reception room, which he entered behind Zhang and Tristan. The two seigneurs were discussing the possible locations of Brethren cells in their territories. Both fell silent as they noticed him, but nodded before they took their places.
Michael saw some other, suspiciously furtive glances from the seigneurs already seated, and kept his own expression bland. He knew that opposing war against the Brethren had set him apart from the other Kyn rulers, and he had expected some backlash because of it.
Richard entered last, and took his place at the head of the table. He was about to speak when a servant came and whispered something to him. He nodded and the servant went to the door, admitting Alexandra to the room.
Michael, Richard, and the rest of the seigneurs rose from their seats.
Alexandra had changed out of her lab coat and wore one of the dresses Michael had bought for her. The deep green material complimented the dark honey color of her skin, and the classic design of the garment gave her a decidedly regal air. She had also arranged her curls to fall from a knot atop her crown, and the emeralds he had given her glowed in her ears and around her throat.
"My lady," the high lord said, sounding none too pleased to see her. "I understand this address you wish to make is a matter of urgency, but I think you and I should step out of the room."
"I'm sure you do." Alexandra smiled tightly at Michael before moving to the other end of the table to face Richard. "Please be seated, gentlemen. I want you all to hear this."
Michael looked from his sygkenis's set features to Richard's fisted gloves, and put his hand on his dagger as he sat down with the other men.
"During the nineteen eighties, a group of Brethren in America began conducting experiments on mortal children," she said without preamble. "They isolated orphans, runaways, and abductees in underground breeding centers, where they kept them for years."
"Experiments?" Solange, who had fled the Nazis to prevent them from using the Kyn for their insane schemes of racial purity, looked furious.
"Brethren scientists and doctors subjected the children to treatments designed to alter their bodies, their minds, and possibly their genetic makeup," Alex replied. "I believe the experiments were performed solely for the purpose of turning these children into superhumans capable of hunting, fighting, and killing the Darkyn. I can also provide evidence that at least six of the children who survived these experiments grew up to display extraordinary abilities."
Richard planted his hands on the table and began to rise. "This is all quite riveting, Doctor, but your theories about Brethren breeding practices can wait until—"
"I'm one of the kids who survived the Brethren's genetic experiments." As the men around the table uttered startled sounds, she gave the high lord a smile that glittered with malice. "So sit down, Richard, or I'll show you just how effective they were."
The high lord sank back into his seat.
"You were raised by the Brethren?" Sevarus growled, his one eye ablaze with hatred.
"Seigneur, I was probably bred by them," she said. "As were Samantha Brown, Nicola Jefferson, and Liling Harper, the other orphans who've made the change to Kyn in the last couple of years."
"So the order seeks to infiltrate us with their killers." Cordoba spit out the words.
"We didn't know we were killers," Alex told him. "My guess is that we were created as reserve troops. Most of us were adopted out or raised by foster parents as normal human children. We were never told about the experiments, our abilities, or their purpose. Evidently I was the first to be changed." Her mouth softened as she glanced at Michael.
Solange appeared bewildered. "Were you sent to us by the Brethren?"
"No. I didn't know they existed until after I became Kyn. My change was simply an accident—or a twist of fate. My enhancement, which allowed me to operate faster than any other human surgeon in the world, brought Michael and me together. Samantha Brown's ability to see a murder by touching the blood of the victim, Nick's Darkyn radar, and Liling's ability to remove or inflict pain brought them to the lords who changed them as well."
"Why enhance only women?" Tristan asked.
"The Kyn wouldn't expect female hunters," Michael said slowly. "The members of the order are all male."
"As are the Kyn," Zhang said, looking thoughtful. "Most of us prefer to feed on females. They could get close without arousing our suspicions."
"That was likely the plan," Alex said, "but I should tell you that there were also a few boys involved in the experiments. One who survived is Liling Harper's twin brother, Kyan. However, he has not gone through the change."
"We must put a stop to this," Sevarus said. "Cyprien, America is your territory. You must direct your suzerain to attend to these centers and free these children before they are permanently altered."
"The centers are closed," Alex told him. "The original project was abandoned ten years ago, after one of the major breeding centers was destroyed by a storm created by two of their test subjects. Fifteen of the best geneticists in the U.S. were killed during that disaster, along with most of the Brethren actively involved in the project. The kids are already altered and grown."
Gilanden grunted. "At least they cannot make any more of you."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that. Genetic engineering, as my friend Charlie Haggerty told me in Chicago, has come a long way since the eighties." Alex looked directly at Richard. "I believe the order has found a new and more efficient way to repeat the enhancement process, which is why they've attacked and burned so many jardins. Kyn who are badly burned don't die but go into a state like hibernation. Recovering their bodies gives the Brethren plenty of time to harvest their DNA without having to worry about controlling and containing them."
Tristan looked stricken. "Harvest? You mean they are cutting out this… DNA… from us?"
"Why would they need it?" Zhang put in.
"Without getting into the technical aspects, yes, Seigneur Tristan, they probably are." Alex looked at Zhang. "Using Kyn DNA and modern genetic engineering techniques, they can start altering more humans faster and more efficiently. If they are creating part-Kyn human hybrids again, it has to be so they can build a new army. An army that in fifteen or twenty years can wipe out the Kyn."
"An army of Kyndred," Richard said.
None of the men said anything. Most of them were in shock.
"Now that you know why we survived the change, I think we need to forget about the war and exposing the Brethren to the world," Alex continued. "There is a secret army of superhuman hunters out there, gentlemen, and they don't even know what they are. The Bretheren may be creating more, too. We have to track down these Kyndred, make friends with them, protect them, whatever it takes. They are the real threat to the Darkyn, and they're also the only hope we've got for a future."
"Hope?" Sevarus sputtered with indignation. "They were made by the Brethren to kill us."
"That's true," Alex said. "But their experiments did something else: They made us immune to the lethal effects of the Kyn pathogen. That's why I and the other women survived the change, gentlemen. We really are your Kyndred."
Nottingham rushed Chris from the plane, and barely spared a moment to bespell the customs agent trying to stop them for a search before heading for a row of telephones.
"You call," Chris said. "I'll find a taxi."
"You are staying with me." Nottingham kept his grip on her arm.
"I told him, Jimmy, you wanker, leave off gawping at the hairy bint or I was going home," a bleached-blond woman was saying angrily into the phone Nottingham stopped at. She glanced at him. "Bugger off, mate, I've got another twenty minutes." She scowled into the receiver. "Like I was saying, Sue—"
Nottingham leaned in, spilling his scent all over the girl. "End the call and go home."
Chris watched the girl's face empty as she hung up the phone, smiled dreamily at Nottingham, and wandered toward the exit. "I'll never get used to how you do that."
"Excellent." A long arm spun Nottingham around and seized the front of his shirt. "He'll not be doing it again."
"Robin." Chris almost laughed with relief. "How did you get here so fast?"
Robin didn't seem to hear her. "Did you think you could take her from me?" He dragged Nottingham around the corner and into a men's lavatory.
Chris heard porcelain shatter and saw two human men run out of the bathroom, still frantically tucking in their shirts and zipping up their flies.
She rushed past them and went inside, ducking to avoid part of a sink as it flew at her head.
"She does not belong to you." Nottingham shoved Robin into the side of a stall, denting the aluminum cubicle. "She is a mortal. You cannot have her."
