The door flies open before anyone has a chance to comment on it.
I don’t know what I expected of Wolf’s sister. Perhaps someone like him, who dresses in style that’s Victorian crossed with underground club scene. Someone who feels out of time. Someone fiercely beautiful and wildly unhinged.
The woman who walks through the door looks like a suburban housewife in her dark jeans, cream knit sweater, and knee-high boots. Her dark hair is pulled back into a perfect, sleek ponytail and her makeup is present, but tasteful. She’s wearing afloralheadband.She’s attractive in a generic kind of way, but she doesn’t possess the kind of beauty that will stop people in their tracks. She’s devastatingly normal.
At least until I look into her icy blue eyes. There’s no warmth there, no soul.
She smiles, flashing fang. “Hello, baby brother.”
Wolf goes still beside me. “Lizzie.”
She surveys the room, her gaze flicks dismissively over Rylan before lingering on Malachi. “Interesting company you’re keeping these days.” Her grin never wavers. “Nice to see you out and about, Mal. Silly of you to fall into that trap in the first place.”
“Lizzie,” he rumbles. “You’d better be here to help, rather than cause unnecessary trouble.”
“I never cause trouble unnecessarily.” She finally looks at me, blue eyes assessing. “So this is the new girlfriend. Welcome to the family, sweet girl.” She takes one step toward me and laughs when all three men jolt. “Relax, lads. If I was going to kill her, I wouldn’t have walked through the front door.”
Rylan makes a vaguely snarling sound that shouldn’t have been able to come from a human mouth. “Don’t fuck with us, Lizzie.”
“Can’t blame a girl for having a little fun. Everyone is sotense.” She walks over to the chair where Malachi sits and props a hip against it. “Now, tell me who you want me to kill. I feel a tad bit guilty about the little fire incident last time we met, so I’m willing to play nice for the duration.” She feathers her fingers through Malachi’s long hair. “Besides, I couldn’t resist the temptation to see old friends.”
She’s toying with Wolf. Maybe with me, too. Testing. I might even appreciate how thoroughly she disrupted the room with a few short sentences if the stakes weren’t so damned high. “You’re not going to be able to kill anyone. We simply need you to shoot him in the throat.”
She turns those eerie eyes on me again. When I first met Wolf, his eyes spooked me. Compared to Lizzie, he seems downright welcoming and normal. It’s strange to realize that. Wolf has become known and familiar to me in our time together, but I don’t think that’s a possibility with his sister.
She’s fucking terrifying.
Lizzie stops playing with Malachi’s hair and straightens. “Explain. My baby brother was sparse on the details.”
I open my mouth, but Rylan beats me to the punch. It’s just as well. For whatever reason, Lizzie seems less interested in messing with him than with anyone else in the room. He leans forward. “We’re going to kill Cornelius Lancaster.”
She doesn’t seem shocked. She doesn’t react at all. “Big game you’re hunting. Even with my help, he’s likely to kill you all.” She laughs, a thread of madness in the sound. “I’m not getting close to that canny old bastard.”
“We don’t need or want you to get close.” Rylan points to the maps on the coffee table. He and Malachi found topographical ones somewhere, so they’ve overlaid those with my drawings to get a better idea of exactly what we’re working with. “You’re the best long-range attacker in this realm.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere.” She scans the map and then looks back at him. “Explain what you want. Then I’ll tell you my price.”
“You’ll be here.” He points to the X south of the compound. “It’s high enough that you’ll have a clear shot of the courtyard.” Rylan moves his finger to the drawn in compound. “Cornelius will be there. We need you to shoot him in the throat and put enough power behind it to destroy his vocal cords.”
“He’ll heal fast.”
“That’s our problem.”
More likely, that’smyproblem, but I appreciate the sentiment. Even if I’m the one facing my father, we’re all in this together. I lean a little harder against Wolf. He hasn’t moved since Lizzie walked into the room, tracking her the way a mouse tracks a cat. It’s disconcerting in the extreme.
Rylan sits back. “Will you do it?”
“Sure.” She shrugs. “If Wolf comes home.”
I’m already shaking my head. “No. That’s out of the question.”
“Be quiet, little girl. The grownups are talking.” She turns to Rylan. “You swept him away after that little misunderstanding and it put me in a bad way with our mother. Wolf needs to come home.”
“No,” I say again. I start to stand, but Wolf clamps an arm around my waist and keeps me sitting. “No,” I repeat. “Whatever price you need,I’llpay it. Anything else is out of the question.”
She raises an eyebrow, looking unimpressed. “What could you possibly offer me that’s worth the risk I’m taking? You’re a nobody. If you were someone, I would have heard of you by now.”
I’m not about to tell this dangerous woman that I’m a seraph. But that’s not the only bargaining chip I have. I catch Malachi’s eye and he gives a tight nod. He’ll follow my lead. Rylan and Wolf will follow his.