“Cleaning up the Vancouver location mostly,” Val carefully listed, “arguing with Director de Clermont, being very annoyed about the fact she can’t personally visit this year’s newest recruits, and—of course—training me in my new position so she never has to do paperwork ever again.”

  Old Man Price looked surprised. “Knew you worked with the woman, but you’re taking over her job too?”

  “Dad’s not a big Ceinwyn fan,” King Henry stage-whispered.

  “Just think her eyes see too much and her mouth says too little is all,” Old Man Price corrected to a less severe opinion.

  Vega chuckled at the assessment, but also kept his mouth shut, King Henry noted.

  “And I’m not taking over her job,” Val quickly corrected, a little horrified. “Yet . . . never, please let it be never. I know she wants me to one day, but . . . just Assistant Director for now, it’s quite more than enough for me.”

  “Paperwork puta,” King Henry quipped.

  “Only for the moment and only because she’s under so much pressure due to your dramatics.” Val poked him in his slightly bulging stomach this time. “We’re having a talk if she keeps it up past next month, don’t worry.”

  “So . . . you’re her secretary?” Old Man Price tried to understand.

  “No, that’s Assistant for the Director. I had that job just after school actually,” Val further explained. “Think of my new job as Vice-President of Recruiting.”

  “So . . . if Kind Wind Dale disappears, you are in charge?” Old Man Price asked. “Like . . . tomorrow.”

  Val visibly paled. “That’s . . . one way to put it.”

  “But Ceinwyn Dale never suddenly disappears,” Vega got sarcastic from the other end of the table, “or suddenly reappears . . . when one least expects her.”

  Val’s forced smile got distinctly brittle. “It’s . . . a big step up.”

  “Should get you your own secretary then,” Old Man Price pointed out.

  Her nose crinkled. “Assistant for the Assistant Director?”

  “The Double Ass,” King Henry couldn’t help himself.

  “I suppose I could hire you,” Valentine wryly noted. “Or just have you set the answering machine to ‘go fuck yourself, jackass’ for me.”

  Everyone present got a laugh at that, King Henry included. “Guilty,” he admitted. “Or, ya know, just break it in the first place.”

  JoJo and Susan finally reappeared seconds later. Susan had a dreamlike expression on her face, in major Joy Baby Joy overload. JoJo was tense. When ain’t she tense? Still . . . this was worse than usual. Worse than it had been earlier at least.

  She handed off Nick to Papa Coyote without pausing a second. Motioning to the house with her hand, she glanced directly at her brother, “Can I have a moment with you, King Henry? It’s . . . conversation stuff.”

  Called me by my name . . . not the best of signs. I mean, better than her calling me a ‘little fucking asshole bastard’ like she did when we were kids, but just barely.

  “Problem, my Josephine?” Vega picked up on the same signals.

  “No.” JoJo waved the concern away. “I’d be screaming for the Python if there was something like that going on, not asking for my brother.”

  Old Man Price’s eyebrows went up. “Python?”

  Vega laughed it off, easily lying, “A codename between us for one of my guards. He is a . . . very serious man.”

  “Tall and thin? Sunglasses? I think I saw him outside one of the windows earlier,” Susan said.

  “There are guards? Here?” Old Man Price sounded quite surprised by the news.

  Susan laughed at his reaction. “You didn’t notice the cars upon cars filled with big, hulking men that arrived with Sis?”

  “No . . . was too busy looking at you,” her father grumbled. “And your sister. And my grandson . . .”

  Vega got some explaining to do. At least it would keep him occupied while King Henry was busy with whatever JoJo had planned. Nothing good given the way she clamped a hand on his brown geomancer’s coat and pulled him all the way into the house.

  “If I scream, come rescue me,” he called behind him.

  “We’ll see,” Val replied, “these are really good enchiladas . . .”

  JoJo vs King Henry: Round Whatever-the-Fuck

  JoJo hauled him away without any more time for explanations and especially without any more time for jokes. Right through the sliding door, into the kitchen still extra hot from all that cooking, into the den, and finally down the hallway to her old room tucked in the corner between King Henry’s and their parents’ at the far back.

  “Ya know . . . I’m pretty blunt about shit—personal failing and all that—but you’re even worse. Would’ve figured some of that Coyote guile might have seeped in by now. Along with all the other fluids he been seeping into ya . . .”

  JoJo didn’t say a word. No comeback. Nothing. She just stared up at him.

  Glared up at him.

  Ignoring his broken nose, wasn’t hard at all to tell they were related. King Henry’s own face shifted to the feminine extreme. Estrogen instead of testosterone. Hormones . . . like, what the fuck? Gay frogs, that’s what!

  And if hormones ain’t enough, I had geo-anima working on me my whole life, doing who knows what to my body, my mind, maybe even my divine fucking spark itself. Made you wonder what JoJo had working on her, before she sacrificed it. Suppose it don’t matter no more. Doubt the Totem will ever give it back. Or even could.

  Destroying it might work.

  If, ya know . . . you were cool with starting a war that’d make Eureka look like a border dispute.

  Maybe one day.

  He was kinda busy at the moment.

  “Know I got a general offer to kill your hubby,” King Henry tried to make a joke of it, “But seems like a bad night. That’d be some Frey-Lannister kinda shit.”

  Her nose flicked in anger.

  “See you’re the sibling got Mom’s silent treatment,” he shared some of his own anger back at her.

  JoJo only quivered in fury.

  “Say something!”

  She hit him.

  Okay . . . King Henry had been expecting a JoJo special shin kick just about then, would’ve been fair. But, no! Instead she threw every bit she had right at his chest, as hard as she could. Old Man Price taught his girls how to punch too. Plus all that werecoyote something-extra. Only thing that kept it from being too punishing was that JoJo didn’t have much weight behind it, even with the lingering pregnancy pounds.

  So she punched him. Not bad. He could deal with it. A Price solving problems with their fists, ain’t nothing more expected in the whole universe than that. Like a Welf sneering at peasants or a Daniels being ginger. Just the way the universe was supposed to be. Solving problems and venting emotions. First punch . . . fair enough. The second punch though . . . that one went into his extra full stomach.

  That’s a dick move!

  Then the third, fourth, and fifth punch . . .

  King Henry turned to his side, letting his shoulder take all the impact. What the shoulder was for after all. Somewhere in all the flurry and the fury, the punches lost form, became slaps and smacks, whatever JoJo could do to just keep hitting him over and over again. Curse words flew from her mouth. Cuz . . . Price gonna Price in that area too.

  Asshole!

  Bastard!

  Son of a bitch!

  Piece of shit!

  Fucker!

  Rinse and repeat, don’t bother with the soap, ain’t nothing cleaning that mouth out but some penicillin.

  He took it, all of it. Waited it out. The smacks, the slaps, everything in between too. JoJo dissolved into tears quick enough, shaking, only keeping her feet because she leaned against him for support.

  “What I do this time?” King Henry asked casually. Most people would’ve hugged her, he supposed, but he still wasn’t that civilized. Nah, family is where I get mighty uncivilized.

  He felt her sob against his chest. “You told me she wasn’t as bad as Mom, you fucking asshole!”

  Oh . . . well . . . shit.

  Susan wasn’t. Mostly. “Maybe you’ve forgotten how bad Mom was.”

  JoJo pulled back to smack him with another forearm. “I’ll never forget! Stop acting like you were the only one here!”

  Was the only one here and even I didn’t make it all the way to the end . . . Couldn’t say that without upsetting her even worse though, so instead he just simply asked, “What did Suze do?”

  “She . . . she was Mom. For like ten minutes.”

  Oh . . . well . . . shit.

  Double shit, even.

  Like . . . from both ends . . .

  “That’s a new one,” King Henry managed to grunt. Not just Bad Days then, but Bad Moments too. Might complicate that job helping Natalie Gullick a bit. Ya think, dumbass? Suze was so looking forward to it though . . .

  JoJo’s expression went extra dangerous and she pulled further back. “New one? What else is there?”

  Gave her a shrug, even if he couldn’t manage an I-don’t-give-a-crap variety. “She’s a necromancer. She hears dead people. And . . . people only in her head she thinks are dead people, but are probably just her delusions. During what I call ‘Bad Days’ it’s the delusions and maybe even the necro-shades running the show. If you think about it, could be a lot worse. Like . . . she could be building Constructs out of people’s pets or something.”

  He was trying to keep calm, but JoJo completely freaked out. “How is that not worse than Mom? That’s way worse!”

  “The Construct pet thing or—”

  “What she’s actually doing!” JoJo hissed.

  King Henry met her eyes, dirt on dirt, and tried to steady her with some of that unblissful truth he’d spent so much to obtain. “Cuz nine-tenths of the time she’s Susan. Our Susan. Remember the Big Sis took care of us? Remember how much it meant? The one who seemed to actually give a shit we washed our hands or took a shower or had breakfast or even went to school?”

  “Mom cared!”

  “One day out of the week.”

  “It was more than that!” JoJo vehemently tried to keep her bliss.

  “Not after you bailed. And by the end . . .”

  JoJo gasped in pain. “And what about Susan’s end?”

  Hard to see even JoJo that distraught. A hug was still too far, but King Henry did reach out and put a hand on her head. Distraught alright, so distraught she didn’t even knock the hand away. Instead she sniffed back more tears. “Susan was taught to give anima to a vial. I make her do it every day. Well, excepting the Bad Days. Still . . . it helps, helps tons. For all the evil Paine did, the Wilders he found are less Mad than if he’d let them stay free. It’s still not surefire, not a cure; you can barely even call it a treatment—about as good as bloodletting back in the day—but her progression won’t be anything like Mom. Suze has years, maybe decades.”

  “It might take longer, but—”

  “Working on that too. A cure for Madness. Don’t know what Vega told you about Eureka or since—”

  “You’re some special mancer even more special than before,” JoJo interrupted him with bitter words and hard eyes that wanted to scream how special she was too. “You’re going to be one of their leaders now . . . which is just . . . what does that have to do with Susan?”

  King Henry took his hand back, leaned against a wall. Even crossed his arms. “My payment for killing Paine was to demand how most of the spoils get spent. More complicated than that, and . . . everything is still up in the air . . . but, I’m gonna cure it, Little Sis. Take Anima Madness off the board. Fix the problem.”

  “You can’t know it works like that! What if it’s treatable but not curable?” JoJo tried to keep her anger stoked. “What if she’s like this forever? What if you fail? What if . . . what if it does get worse than Mom?”

  “Suppose it could go down like that,” he admitted. “Even if I do figure it all out, suppose that might be another nice shot to my balls from Fate, leaving Susan like this. But . . . well, I’m in love with an idealist, so . . . why not have hope for once in my life?”

  At mention of Valentine, some of the anger finally left JoJo’s posture, if not her face. It rarely left her face. “Did you really make her cry?”

  “Yeah, I’m a master of first impressions.”

  A grudging smile formed. “How?”

  “First time Val used the Mancy she set a dog on fire.”

  “So she’s actually a psychopath who fits right in with the Prices?”

  “Accidentally.”

  “Oh. That . . . sounds traumatic.”

  His turn to let some anger show. Or if not anger, at least indignation. “Who do you think us mancers are? Think we go around barbecuing poor fucking Lassie for fun and then we throw her down the well with all the other bodies? What’s that girl? You wanna be nice and toasty?”

  “I know humans, and they’re bad enough already with just guns and drugs, even just their fists! Much less magical powers. Much less magical powers that seem to be built on lies about how powerful they are.”

  “Suppose that’s a fair assessment,” King Henry grumbled away his indignation. He did say the same just about every other day after all.

  “I think she’s the most perfect and wonderful person ever and ever,” JoJo mocked his over-defensiveness with some singsong.

  “Like you don’t get annoyed when people talk about how much of a scumbag Vega is.”

  Her nostrils flared again, but she didn’t return fire for once. “So she accidentally kills some poor dog, what’s that have to do with you?”

  “I . . . uh, kind of brought it up in front of the whole class before the school year had even technically started.”

  JoJo shook her head ruefully. “Smooth.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “You and your mouth.”

  “Know that too.”

  “Well . . . regardless of the past, the fool girl seems to be in love with you now.”

  “We got it bad,” King Henry agreed. “Speaking of freaking out . . . you done with yours?”

  She hit him again. Not an actual punch, but it did have her knuckle out to deaden his arm. “I had every right to freak out! My life wasn’t all rainbows and glitter like your girlfriend’s, and Susan like that was still one of the most unnerving things I’ve ever seen.”

  “Val’s life ain’t that easy.”

  “Did she not say that her father is a multimillionaire tech guy?”

  “Sure, she was lucky with that, but don’t dismiss what she’s had to go through since the Mancy entered her life. She can kill with a snap of her fingers, Jo. It weighs on her. All of it. She . . . don’t get to be normal. She plays at being perfect because it’s where she’s got to keep herself to get through the day without some massive disaster. Even being as good as she is, she’s still got a body count on her head. Still has to deal with every other person she meets flinching. To say nothing of the people seen what she’s really capable of, who know that pretty blond girl grew up with a nuclear bomb inside of her.”

  “That sounds like some celebrity complaining about how hard they have to work to keep their fame,” JoJo spat in disgust.

  “That first time we were together that she mentioned? That was her first time period. That’s how terrified she is to let go. That’s how terrified she is to be anything less than perfect every fucking day. Lucky for us, she is Boomworm. Lucky for us, Valentine Ward is . . . everything I wish I could be.”

  “As if you don’t have the same power?”

  “Nah, mine’s different enough, and it don’t got the same primal fears attached. Everyone fears fire. But a building breaking in half? We just go about our day expecting them to stay upright. Plus . . . being I was born a Price, long as I don’t shit myself it’s considered a victory.”

  JoJo sat down on the edge of the bed, straightening her skirt. “I suppose you aren’t the same boy I grew up with,” she whispered, “anymore than I’m the same girl you grew up with. I see the weight of it on your shoulders; feel the weight of it on mine. I killed a dog too, you know. It wasn’t an accident either. I stepped to the Totem and I . . . I might not have your Mancy, but my magic isn’t without its own responsibilities. Especially since I’m a Poly-Shifter . . .”

  “Ain’t similarities supposed to lead to empathy and not dislike?” King Henry pointed out.

  “She’s just . . .” JoJo shook her head and slapped a hand at the air. “There wasn’t anyone else you could fall in love with?”

  He shook his head, even if . . . it wasn’t completely honest. “Took Val all those years to get through the scars as it was.”

  “If only she’d been shorter . . . and less blond . . . and talked to pugs or something far less intimidating . . .”

  Somehow made him smile, even if it was wan. “Was a girl like that in my class. Jessica Edwards. She lives in Hollywood now doing some pet therapist to the stars shit.”

  This intrigued JoJo. “What was wrong with her?”

  “Old Mancy for one. Spoiled rich girl for two.”

  “And I’m the snob?”

  “Also a lesbian.”

  Oh, JoJo mouthed.

  After a bit of silence, King Henry went back to something a lot more important, “Guessing you didn’t use fire. To . . . kill your dog.”

  JoJo glanced down at her knees. She played with the hem of her skirt for a few seconds. Used to do that when she was little and Mom got on to her. It was just when he thought he’d have to move on to some other topic that she said, “No, not fire. Women are allowed a knife. Some also even drug the coyote beforehand.

  “You didn’t.”

  “I refused both. I kicked at it until it snapped at me and then I jumped . . . I wrapped my arms around its neck and I kept squeezing . . . squeezing and dragging it closer and closer to the Totem . . .”

  “Little Sis is hardcore. Hell of a way to impress a guy . . .”

  She held up her palms, probably remembering the blood. It wasn’t what she spoke about however, “She was so like Mom, King Henry. A necromancer . . . it . . . it wasn’t Mom, right? You said she gets possessed, does that mean—”

 

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