THE VAULT

Remy had heard stories about the basement underneath the Archives. Part laboratory and part mortuary, it also housed some of the most brilliant minds in Aluria. Bloodwakers had been invented within its hallowed corridors, as had fire lances and other useful weapons specifically designed against vampires.

But the reality of the basement was that everything in it stank to the highest of heavens and was murder on Remy’s sensitive nose. Not even the semblance of sterility across its polished stone floors and white walls could prevent the smell of death from permeating through. Xiaodan made a face but said nothing about the stench, while Zidan Malekh strode in without hesitation; the place may as well have been a botanical garden, for all the attention he paid it. So Remy sucked up every complaint he was itching to make and endured.

Not even Reapers were granted access to the basement, as a rule, but the policy had been altered after Astonbury’s death. Now they guarded the doors leading into the laboratories, with more stationed within, far enough from the breakable equipment to put the scientists at ease. Most of the hunters eyed the covered body laid out on the slab before them like it might rise up when they weren’t looking. All things considered, it was a reasonable assumption.

They were also watching him. Some looked outright disapproving. Remy ignored them. The poison Astonbury had inflicted on the Pendergasts’ reputation had been extremely effective, but Remy no longer had to answer to him or to them.

The coroner, a florid-faced man who had introduced himself as the same Dr. Agenot of the autopsy reports Remy had filched, was the only doctor they were permitted to meet. He was currently expounding enthusiastically on the specific causes of the Duke of Astonbury’s death in far greater detail than Remy wanted (which, ideally, would be limited to where exactly the bastard had first been stabbed so he could imagine twisting his own knife in deeper). The complicated medical terms the doctor was tossing about could have been spoken in an entirely different language for all Remy understood of it.

Xiaodan and Lords Feiron and Aglaice looked equally at a loss, but Zidan, to add to Remy’s already ever-present annoyance with the man, appeared fluent in the science-speak, the two corresponding rapidly in complex nomenclature until Lord Feiron finally lost his patience.

“If you would be so kind, Dr. Agenot,” he said testily, “to couch your findings in layman’s terms for the rest of us to follow.”

“Ah yes. My apologies, Lord Feiron. It’s not every day that I can discuss such matters in the depth I would like, to someone not of the Alurian medical profession. Lord Malekh here possesses quite an extensive knowledge of human biology considering that he… ah.” Agenot turned red.

“I was a physician myself once, in a former life,” Malekh said, to Remy’s surprise and further irritation. “But the others would be interested to hear your findings on the subject’s thoracic cavity.”

“Yes. As you all know, Aston—the victim,” Agenot corrected himself hastily, after a nervous squint at Lord Feiron, “will not be presented to you today, as would have been standard. Mostly because of the, err, general condition of the body, and also out of respect for his ducal rank. What I can tell you right now regarding the, err, victim, is that parts of the body remained intact after the attack, mainly the chest and torso. Cause of death, as far as I could determine, was a wound near the left anterior axillary line that perforated the left lung and entered the atria. Death due to hemorrhagic shock was quick. The rest of the other, ah, observable injuries happened postmortem, as far as I could ascertain.”

“Excuse me,” Xiaodan said, “and please feel free to correct me if I misheard. Are you telling us that what the Duke of Astonbury really died from was a stab wound through the heart?”

“Yes, and from the size, I would guess that it was a rather large sword that did the damage. Larger than most piercing weapons I’ve seen in the past.”

“Someone went to a great length of trouble for a grudge,” Zidan said grimly.

“His zweihänder,” Lord Feiron said, with a visible start. “Good God, someone killed him with his own zweihänder! He hasn’t used it since his rise to lord high steward—it’s been stored at the armory ever since! Aglaice, come with me. Lord Malekh, Lady Song—if you will please excuse us.” He dashed out, his subordinate at his heels.

“While they confirm the duke’s zweihänder as the murder weapon,” Malekh said briskly, “I would like to see your autopsy reports regarding both Tal Harveston and Lady Daneira.”

“Lady Daneira’s has been completed, at Lord Malekh’s request,” Dr. Agenot said apologetically. “I am sorry, Lord Pender—”

“Armiger,” Xiaodan corrected quietly.

“Armiger Remington. The Duke of Tennyfair gave us his permission, as distasteful as it all is—”

“Couldn’t you have found some other way?” Remy asked tightly. “Hasn’t she been disrespected enough?”

“No number of autopsies will undo what had already been done to her,” Malekh said coldly. “There are strange creatures about, endangering my kindred and your kingdom. If Lady Daneira’s mortal remains can provide the clues needed for their destruction, then she will not have died in vain.”

“It still isn’t right!”

“Perhaps Astonbury’s enmity toward your father is not the reason you’ve been exempted from similar Reaper investigations in the past. This is not a vocation for weak stomachs.”

Remy glared at him, fists clenched.

“Remy,” Xiaodan said softly, “you have every right to be angry, but it is not Zidan you should be directing your fury against. I want to prevent more deaths like hers. You brought her in. I know you’ve seen the strange color of her blood yourself. We had to move quickly before she revived on her own. It was a wonder she hadn’t bitten her poor mother.”

Remy hated it. Hated it but knew none of them had much choice at this point. “At least tell me you’re done with her. Do what you have to do quickly, so we can bring her back to her parents.”

“I’m sorry, Remy. What’s particularly horrific about this is that there is no antidote to reverse its effects. We… we can’t bring her back to her parents. Once Dr. Agenot has taken every sample he can, we must burn them all to ensure they don’t rise again—thoroughly enough that not even the smallest bone fragment survives. That’s why Zidan and I are here. Being a sunbringer has its uses.”

Remy’s mouth thinned. “I see.”

“Ideally,” Dr. Agenot said apologetically, “we would like to keep the bodies for another two weeks to see if they all go through the Rot.”

“The Rot?”

“It describes the process perfectly, and we’ve been using it to describe these mutations ever since. Once we can determine the triggers, we can prevent their reanimation indefinitely without needing to consign them to the fires. Lord Malekh, we’ve found that your suggestion of lowering their body temperatures does keep them in a suspended stasis. The yakhchāl blueprints you provided to us months ago have already been put to good use, as you must have seen outside. Its entrance is only accessible from within this laboratory, and we are far enough below ground level that it works rather perfectly for our purpose.”

“ ‘Them’?” Malekh repeated. “How many of these infected are you keeping here as of this moment?”

“About twenty-two in total, not including the Harveston lad.”

The Summer Lord was angry. His face was unlined of emotion, as always, but Remy could feel fury bleeding out of every pore. “The yakhchāl was intended to be a place for you to conduct your examinations safely, not as an opportunity to collect more corpses. The danger increases with each one you keep.”

The doctor shrunk back. “We weren’t expecting to get as many as we did, milord. These were Harveston’s victims, and there are fears that they, too, may be reanimated. We will not have any specimens to study if we can’t keep them here.”

“Did Astonbury know?”

“It was his idea, milord.”

“Does the queen?”

Here Agenot faltered. “Well—”

“You cannot keep doing this, Doctor,” Xiaodan said. “So many things can go wrong.”

“It’s the only option we have left, unfortunately. I’ve drawn as many blood samples as I could, and hope that our experiments can unlock their secrets. Astonbury was adamant about preserving the bodies in the likelihood we might need more.”

“Twenty-three infected bodies, in a city of over three hundred thousand people. Your lord high steward took a very risky gamble, Doctor.”

“I only do what my superiors tell me, milord. If it puts you at rest, only one of the bodies are in the last stages of the Rot, and we’ve kept that at the vault.”

“The what?” Remy asked, recalling mention of it in the doctor’s report.

“The vault, mil—err, Armiger. A reinforced room built with all the steel and silver they could spare us—not much, sadly. We barely have enough of the silver for Reaper weapons as it is. The hunters have been guarding it at all hours to ensure no accidents.”

“You made a gaol for the undead?”

“It’s not an unreasonable safety measure,” Malekh said. “I’ve constructed a similar one myself in the course of my own investigations.”

“The only important information I am getting out of this conversation,” Xiaodan said, “is that there’s an infected vampiric corpse in this vault of yours that you have been unable to kill.”

“Correct, milady. That would be the Harveston boy. We believe that he is at the final phase of the Rot. His regenerative abilities are almost impossible to slow down at this point, and I do not believe that even ice would be a deterrent. No matter how many times the Reapers take him down, he reassembles himself in the space of an hour. He’s shown no cognitive functions, only regressing further with every metamorphosis into baser animal instincts.”

“Well,” Remy said. “Sounds like we’re fucked, then.”

“Quite frankly, we’re not sure what to do with it, especially with the lord high steward now, uh, gone. We couldn’t kill it, even if we wanted to. The vault was the best option. Ten inches of silver- and steel alloy–enforced walls, with a little peephole you can look through. The duke decided that it was far too dangerous for any of the Reapers to slay it again, and it’s too rabid for us to approach.”

“Bring us to it,” Xiaodan said.

“I don’t think so, milady.” One of the Reapers in the room spoke up unexpectedly, a dark-haired veteran named Slavitt. “A dozen of our best Reapers could barely bring it down the last time, and it’s going to fight its way out if you so much as crack that door open. I don’t know who’s set to take Astonbury’s place, but if they’re like him, they’ll forbid us from letting anyone near the corpse.”

“I have a few skills that not even the best of your Reapers possess, sir.”

“But milady—”

“I am not just milady, I am Song Xiaodan, heiress presumptive of the Fourth Court. I outranked the Duke of Astonbury, and now I outrank you.” The noblewoman had the uncanny ability to sound imperious despite her soft, lilting voice. “I will take responsibility for anything that happens inside, and that is why I ask you and your hunters to remain outside the room, with the doctor.”

“You may as well let her,” Malekh said, sounding amused, like his fiancée hadn’t just decided to put them all in mortal peril. “It’s easier to nod and say yes.”

Slavitt hesitated only briefly, then slumped against the wall, suddenly boneless. “If you say so, milady.”

---

THE SCIENTISTS weren’t taking any chances with the creature. There was an outer room where Agenot and the other Reapers were waiting, then an inner chamber that served as a barricade between them and the mutation. The latter had a window made from heavy glass and was overlaid with bars for bystanders to look in—an extra precaution, Remy supposed, ensuring the protection of those outside. And within that room lay the vault, which looked how its name implied. Silver, as Remy knew, could withstand most vampire attacks. Agenot watched them nervously through the pane, flanked by the other hunters, as Remy and the vampires entered the inner chamber.

“I may have to activate the locking mechanism to bar the doors,” the doctor warned. “It prevents the subject from escaping, but it will also trap you inside with it. I must stress again that I share Sir Slavitt’s protests about all this.”

“Thank you for the warning, Doctor,” Xiaodan said. “But we’ve conducted our own examinations of infected corpses in the last couple of months, and we have an advantage you humans do not.”

“ ‘We’?” Malekh asked, as a dark eyebrow inched higher up his forehead in amusement.

“Just follow my lead, Zidan,” Xiaodan muttered.

“As you wish, beloved.”

“And what is that advantage, milady, if I may be so bold?” Agenot asked.

“The Rot can infect humans, but not those who are already vampires.” Xiaodan cracked her knuckles. It made a satisfying sound against her slender fingers. “It all boils down to whether I can kill it faster than it can kill me.”

The doctor tittered apprehensively. “I admire your confidence, Lady Song.”

“It’s not just confidence,” Remy murmured, recalling the way she had intercepted his and Malekh’s fight, the strength of her grip against his jaw, controlled and unwavering. The absolutely blinding brightness of the sun inside her.

Xiaodan shot him a startled look, but he was already approaching the vault itself. The only way to look in was through the small keyhole Agenot had mentioned, large enough to peer through, but not much else. Remy crouched down.

There didn’t seem to be anything inside, at first glance. He could make out a smaller space within, stripped bare of furniture. Even the floor was constructed of some thick metal, another preventive measure to keep whatever was trapped there from digging its way out.

There was a peculiar odor seeping out of the opening, vile and reeking and the worst thing Remy had ever smelled in his entire life—worse than the unwanted fragrance that wafted through the basement unchecked. Something massive was rotting within, and whatever it was had not been human for a very long time.

And then it filled his vision without warning—a putrefied, eyeless face; a lipless open mouth; patchworks of flesh that were decaying in some places yet were regrowing in others, on a fleshsack of a body that could only be described as human-shaped because it had the requisite two arms, two legs, and a torso. But any humanity left in its face had long since been eaten away, replaced by the stuff horrific phantasms were made of.

Reports had described Tal Harveston as a man of average height and weight, but the thing inside had swollen to at least thrice that description, just as Takenori claimed. Its fangs were long, whittled and sharp as a vampire’s, and brown from decay, but they snapped down with shocking strength as it tried to bite at Remy.

“Fucking hell.” Remy reared back. It reminded him of the creature he and Elke had encountered at Glycespike.

“The Harveston corpse is a unique case, as you can see,” Agenot said. “It’s far larger, far stronger, and far quicker than the other common infected—a colossus, as we’ve termed it. In this form, it has the capability to control others mutated to a certain extent, compel them to attack on its behalf.”

Malekh only nodded, like this was nothing he hadn’t heard before. Remy, on the other hand, was dumbfounded. “You mean it attempted to control all the other infected corpses in this laboratory?”

The scientist looked sheepish. “There were no casualties, if that worries you. There was only one other body it tried to infect—we had not yet put it under the ice like the others. The Reapers were fairly quick at taking action. It’s the reason we’re keeping it inside the vault, matter of fact. The silver in the walls appears to be preventing it from doing so again.”

“And Her Majesty knows nothing of this? You’re compromising the safety of everyone in Elouve!”

“These were all under the lord high steward’s orders, Armiger,” Agenot said nervously. “I only do as he says.”

“May I?” Heedless of the sickening, gnashing sounds from the other side of the steel door, Lady Song bent down and studied the corpse. “It really is regenerating,” she said in amazement. “How interesting. But regenerating into what?”

“I’m not sure interesting is the appropriate word,” Remy grated out. “I thought you’d seen these mutations before.”

“Not quite. Zidan tends to be much more cautious about his experiments than your late lord high steward. I’ve never seen any of the infected at the later stages of this Rot because we make sure that they don’t survive this long.” Her voice dropped. “The poor boy. It was terrible of Astonbury to let him suffer this way, Doctor, and for such a protracted duration.”

“How long has it been in there without any bloodletting?” Malekh asked.

“We’ve been letting it stew for close to ten days,” Slavitt said, answering for Agenot. “And as far as we can tell, it’s shown no decrease in its strength or speed.”

“Nothing more than a mindless shell at this point,” Agenot added, “consumed with only the urge to kill.”

“At this rate of regeneration, I’m not surprised. Theoretically, it may even survive without sustenance almost indefinitely.” Malekh laid his hand against one of the walls of the vault, where heavy dents had been curved into the steel.

“So they could be immortal this way,” Remy said, stunned by the implications. “Almost indestructible, but at the cost of everything else.”

“Doctor Agenot,” Xiaodan said. “I would like you to open the vault’s door at my signal.”

Agenot made a shocked, spluttering noise. “Milady, surely you still do not intend to—”

“I very well intend to, Doctor, and in case you’re about to oppose me, please understand that this is, yet again, another order. Armiger Remington, please step out of the room and join Dr. Agenot and the other Reapers.”

Remy could have protested, could have resented the suggestion that he wasn’t strong enough. He wasn’t some weak little apprentice noble to be cosseted like he hadn’t been fighting vampires for years. If Malekh had issued the command, he would have told the man to stuff that order up him like spit through a roast.

But Xiaodan sounded just a little too… eager.

Remy compromised, positioning himself outside between the closed door and the window’s edge. If the infected corpse somehow found its way past the vampire couple and broke the door down, he could at least be of some use.

“Zidan,” Xiaodan said, “take heed of the time.”

Her fiancé folded his arms and leaned back against the door, relaxed, like his intended wasn’t about to confront some eldritch terror. “Always.”

The woman took a deep breath, then focused on the entryway. “Now, Doctor. Open the vault.”

The doctor produced a key from one of his coat pockets, used it to turn a lock among the row of buttons on the wall. With a grating noise, the door to the vault swung outward.

Everything happened far too quickly after that.

The decaying creature waiting within was too Lightdamn fast. All Remy could ascertain for sure was seeing a messy, crimson blur, and then a brief glimpse of a hulking, pus-ridden form barreling out of the vault only to disappear immediately from his sight, and for one dreadful moment he thought that it had gotten out even with all the fail-safes in place.

Lady Song moved. In one rapid, graceful movement, she blinked out, reentered human vision, struck at the air. There was a gurgling noise that sounded like it had emanated from some stomach rather than from the throat.

The monster reappeared in the air Xiaodan had just slashed at, cut cleanly in half and only inches away from the door leading to the outer room where Remy and the others waited.

It stumbled across the inner chamber toward Remy and slammed against part of the window through which he watched, with enough force that even the reinforced frame rattled furiously, going blurgghssggshekchkkk.

There were more sickening wet noises as the lower segment of the mutation’s body slid down to the floor behind it. Braced against the glass, mouth agape from a loss of muscle, the remains of its face focused sightlessly on Remy—the creature growled. Its tongue moved, its fangs clicking.

Calmly, Xiaodan placed her foot against the fallen creature’s back. She grasped its head with one hand, and then wrenched its skull off the rest of its body, detaching a few feet of spine along with it. There was a thump as it finally collapsed on the floor, seizing soundlessly.

“Armiger Remington,” she said. “Dr. Agenot. If you would both close your eyes. Sir Slavitt, I advise you and your Reapers to do the same.”

Remy could feel the searing heat through the walls, the flash of light even through his closed eyelids. When he finally opened them, the monster was gone, the blue-black spatters on the ground the only traces of it left.

Xiaodan was pale, though at least still upright. Malekh was already at her side. The monster had swept past him, and he hadn’t even turned a hair at the danger.

“Light help us,” Remy said, staring. Xiaodan had been fast. He would have to down at least ten bloodwakers one after another to keep up with that speed, and his insides would promptly hemorrhage in gratitude right after.

Agenot pulled another switch, and the door opened. Remy rushed in, paused. His instinct had been to comfort her, ascertain that everything was all right. Xiaodan had fainted the last time she’d done this.

Malekh’s hand around her shoulders stopped him in his tracks. Of course. She was his fiancée. He fought back the brief spurt of disappointment.

As if sensing what he was thinking, the vampire lord turned to look back at him. Something in his calm gaze made Remy flush and hastily look away.

“Fantastic!” Dr. Agenot was beside himself with awe. “None of the Reapers could even begin to—it was an honor to see such a display of—”

“Thank you, Doctor.” Xiaodan had a hand pressed over her heart. Remy could hear her heartbeat, sped up nearly double despite the fight’s swiftness, eventually slowing down into a more relaxed, if still irregular, rhythm. “How long did that take me, Zidan?”

“Two point seven seconds.”

She grinned. “That fast?”

“That fast.”

“I’m very impressive, aren’t I?”

“Indubitably.”

“I’ve heard rumors,” Slavitt said. He and the other hunters wore faces far too blank to not be fidgeting inwardly. “That anything you touched turned to poison. That you could evaporate into mist. That you could wither vampires and humans alike with one look.”

“The last is not untrue,” Malekh murmured.

“But what you can actually do is create light. More important, you can kill vampires with it. Kill these mutations.” What Slavitt could refrain from showing in his expression, the reverence and awe in his voice revealed.

It didn’t stop his hand from grazing the hilt of his fire lance. The other hunters copied his gesture.

“And you’re sure it won’t re-form itself again, milady?” another Reaper Remy didn’t recognize asked cautiously.

If Xiaodan had noticed the shifts in their stance, she was diplomatically ignoring it. “Rest assured that you won’t ever have to worry about this particular creature again.”

“And all that remains are these blood spatters?” the doctor asked.

“Were you intending to preserve its remains even after everything?”

“I—of course not, milady. But as a man of science, I cannot help but mourn what could have been, had we found a better way to secure the subject without risking our own safety. But in light of the darkness and rain that constantly befalls Aluria, your talent was a welcome sight to see.”

“I’m glad to find someone who sees my abilities as more than just a curse, Doctor.” Xiaodan sounded almost sad.

“It is a most welcome solution to our problem, milady. Each time the Reapers kill it, the separate parts would liquefy, flow toward each other, and then reconstitute the creature—much like a sea cucumber or certain species of jellyfish. If only we could isolate the blood properties that allow that to happen, perhaps determine the neurological impulses needed to willfully control such transformations. The secret to immortality, without needing to undergo such terrifying metamorphoses.”

“And we’re not going to find that out today,” Xiaodan growled. “The poor Harveston boy is finally at rest. I intend to see the rest of the bodies here disposed of, as well.”

“But I was under express orders from the duke not to…” Dr. Agenot paused, as if only just remembering that he had performed an autopsy on the lord high steward only hours earlier.

“We will leave nothing else to chance, Doctor. Let them all be at peace.”

“You would need to ask for the queen’s consent in the matter of the other infected, milady,” Slavitt interrupted respectfully. “Astonbury had convinced Her Majesty that it was important to preserve all experiments within the labs by any means necessary. We cannot go against her orders.”

“Does Her Majesty know that your laboratory contains specimens she intends to preserve that can be resurrected at a moment’s notice no matter the manner of death inflicted by her Reapers?”

Slowly, Slavitt shook her head. “Astonbury didn’t want to worry her. Said he wanted to find the answers first.”

“Did you swear an oath to the queen of Aluria or to her steward, sir? I do not think loyalty to the Crown extends to keeping secrets from her person.”

Malekh reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small carrying case containing syringes of varying sizes. He selected a large needle among the selection, crouched down near the largest pool of blood, and drew a sample from it. Then he took out another, one already filled with some strange colorless liquid, and squeezed its contents onto the stain.

The blood thickened and hardened, solidifying into a gel-like cocoon.

“A fast-acting coagulant,” Malekh said. “A stimulant to induce rapid arteriosclerosis, force it into a state of crystallization. This should put them in a state of paralysis without worrying about their potential reanimation. Easier to do if ice is a scarcity. This one vial can inoculate the rest of the bodies in your morgue long enough for Xiaodan to incinerate them all at once. Obliterating these creatures takes its toll on my fiancée’s health, Doctor. I am glad that you have a healthy appreciation for her abilities, but I would much rather take away the frequency she has to perform such responsibilities whenever I can.”

“You induced arteriosclerosis into their system?” Dr. Agenot asked, amazed. “A stroke of genius, sir! Of course—as the virus is carried through their bloodstream, halting their circulation would prevent regeneration at the cellular level. But we’ve tried accelerating fibrin polymerization before, and we could never expedite it to within seconds as yours has.”

“We have other distinct advantages, Doctor, as Lady Song has already mentioned. You are limited to working with human proteins. But it is the regenerative qualities of vampire blood that helps speed up the process. I can provide your laboratory with serum for you to replicate, along with samples I’ve extracted from Harveston’s blood. The medical facilities in Elouve far surpass those that I keep in my own laboratory. Perhaps there will be more to be found here with the equipment at your disposal.”

“I thank you, Lord Malekh. Recent blood extractions have been impossible until you came along, though our analysis is not likely to be any different from what you have already discovered.”

“Have you isolated the two differing blood types from Harveston? Is it of the same AB sequence?”

“How did you know—ah, you would know, wouldn’t you?”

“Mind explaining it for the ones who don’t?” Remy huffed.

“Gladly, Armiger,” said Agenot. “Harveston possesses the A blood type he was naturally born with, albeit almost unrecognizable as human in its current state, swimming with abnormalities still unknown to us. But we’ve also discovered an AB type in his blood, and unlike Harveston’s, it is unmutated. Every test we’ve conducted on it so far indicates a human donor. It is the same in every other corpse—their original blood type since birth, and another foreign to their genetic makeup. Always of the same AB blood group.”

“I’m not the most educated when it comes to the blood sciences,” Xiaodan said, “but isn’t it impossible to have two different blood types in one body at once?”

“Improbable, but not quite impossible. A quirk of nature may produce different zygotes and therefore differing types within the same person—we call it chimerism. Organ transplantation can also be another cause, rare as that is. An infected corpse with chimera-like characteristics could be a coincidence. Two is suspect. But when all the corpses that come your way are afflicted with the Rot and also possess those two unique types, and one always of a specific blood group…”

“I’m more concerned with who this blood type might belong to,” Malekh said. “In the meantime, the Reapers are to take all the bodies in your morgue for Xiaodan to destroy.”

“I’ll talk to the queen herself,” Xiaodan added.

Remy continued to gawk at the hardened blood on the floor. The corpse had been nothing but a mindless shell, the doctor had said.

He had said the same thing about Lady Daneira. But the girl had visited her mother while still infected. Something inside her had remembered.

And this colossus had made a dash for him rather than for the door. Rather than attack either Xiaodan or Malekh, which it would have done if it was surviving on instinct instead of intelligence. Even cut in half, it had plastered itself against the bars. Without eyes, it had turned its face unerringly toward him.

He didn’t know if the door, reinforced as it was, would have been enough to hold it had Xiaodan been any slower to act. And the way Harveston seemed to single him out had made Remy take it all quite personally.

“Fuck,” he said again, just because.