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"Get the injured upstairs," I instructed. "Anyone with marks like those go in one of the rooms that can be locked from the outside. I'll explain later. Doc Merlin will see to everyone." The blue and red flashing lights announced trouble. But he couldn't do anything about them.

I called Martin again as I directed people and finally he answered. "Martin, how--"

"It's Max. I just found my son unconscious in my kitchen. What happened Denton?"

This was why I should have been the only one to donate blood. Martin shouldn't have to suffer because of me. "Martin volunteered blood for a phrase. The company was attacked and someone powered through it to get to what it was protecting."

"Did they get it?"

"No. Shouldn't you be screaming at me for endangering your son?"

"Martin is a grown man. He knew what he was doing. And he's just unconscious, not dead. He'll get better. Do you need assistance?"

"We're good here. Can you get in touch when Malek and Malek for me? I'm going to need their help to deal with the litigation this is going to cause."

"I will, if you need anything else, let me know."

"I will." I took a breath and brought up my phone as it rang. Well, Fred was making it easy on me.

"Is everyone okay?" the lion asked as his greeting.

"What makes you think something's wrong?" I answered in spite of the seriousness of the situation.

"Denton, me and Frank just woke up from one major backlash, those don't happen because someone stubbed a toe, and I know I didn't screw up that phrase. And for the records, this is why you spread the danger. Multiply what hit you by five and if you'd been the only to blood, that's what you'd have gotten."

"But you wouldn't have suffered."

Fred let out an exasperated sigh. "You'd have died, Dent. I swear, Marrows' idea of throwing you in a tower is sounding more and more tempting. At least you'd be safe from yourself there. Now spill. What happened?"

"Damian sent men to attack us. Turned some of my men to get them in I think. One of them went for the blood, but in destroying the phrase he must have destroyed the blood to."

Fred was silent. "No, that shouldn't have happened. The energy of a phrase is too localized for anything happening to it to affect the blood. It'll have burned the varnish we put over it, but only where the sigils are. And why would Damian do this? He gave it to you voluntarily, right? If he hadn't wanted you to have it, could you have gotten it?"

I considered the tiger's words in the interrogation room, that mass of marks on his body. "No. If Damian hadn't wanted to, I wouldn't have gotten it."

"Then why attack you to get to it?"

"Then who else? It isn't like I have a multitude of enemies who use marks."

"The Orr twins?"

I opened my mouth to protest, but that reminded me of something. "Give me a minute." I bought up my message, Marcus had sent on just before the pain hit.

'Denton, just a heads up that the twins are in Colorado. We have a bunch of bodies in Lamar that match their MO. We don't know where they went from there, but I can only think of you as the reason for them to come into the state.'

"Okay, you might be right. The twins are in the state."

Fred cursed. "Give us an hour to rebuild our strength and we'll be on a plane back."

"No. Stay in San Francisco. Knowledge is what we need to fight them, and you're the best I know to get that."

"It isn't like there's much. The dozen books that were left behind aren't telling me all that much."

"They'll tell you more if you're there then here. I'll keep the two of you up to date." I disconnected without giving Fred time to reply. The pissed-off hare stalking toward me didn't need to overhear any of our conversation.

"Oh, just knew this was coming," Alice sneered. "I knew that you people would go out of control and put innocent ones in danger."

I stifled the sigh. "Alice, look around. Unless you're blind, it's clear we were attacked. We didn't cause this. I have over two dozen injured, and sixteen injured attackers."

"I'm going to take them all."

"No you're not." I replied.

"Don't you fucking defy me Rasia. I know what you've been doing here. I already have you breaking the edicts once, I'm going to find out how you're breaking them now."

"Nothing in those stop me from running a security company. I have the right to ensure my own safety."

"This isn't a security company, it's an army, and those break the edicts! I'm going to have you brought before and council of judgment and--"

"Alice!" Bret called, running in from outside.

She spun. "Bret? What are you doing here? I swear if someone at the precinct called you, I am going to kill them." She noticed the bandages. "How did you get hurt?"

"I was here when the attack occurred. I wanted to arrange for you and--"

She turned and put her gun in my face. "How fucking dare you?"

I gave a minute shake of the head to stop Tom from shooting her. Regardless of her demented state of mind, this was not ending with her death. The capybara also froze. Other gave us a wide berth.

Bert pushed the gun away and stepped between us. "Alice, what are you doing?"

"I'm protecting you from this monster."

"Denton's not a monster. Alice, are you listening to yourself? He was your partner for six years. He was a good cop how often did you tell me that. That he was among the best you'd ever work with? Why does it matter if his birth family was involved in crime? He never knew them."

Her face registered confusion, then she shook it off. "You don't know what you're talking about. It's in their blood. Him and all the men here, they're perverts and monsters. You need to go home Bret."

"Alice you need to come home with me," her husband said. "You've not been yourself recently, maybe you need to take a vacation. We can go to your mother's house in Ohio. I'm sure she'd love to see you."

Alice closed her eyes, pained. "I can't. Don't you get it, I'm doing this to protect you from them, to protect everyone in this city. Without me they'd corrupt everything good. Go home, Bret."

"Alice-- Alright, I'm going home." He kissed her cheek. "I'll be waiting for you."

The pain in her eyes hurt me. I wanted to hug her, to tell her it would be okay.

"If you've involved him in this, Denton, I swear I am going to kill you. He has nothing to do with this."

"Alice. I promise you. He came to me and all we did is talk. Bret's worried about you. I am too. I know that we're on opposite sides, but I would never stoop to hurting you through him or anyone else."

She snorted. "No, you take too much pleasure in twisted the knife in my heart yourself. I trusted you Denton." The pain vanished, and a snarl formed on her face. "And you used that against me. You insinuated yourself in the police force against the edicts! You arranged to become my partner just so you could laugh behind my back! Well, now you're going to pay. I'm going to go over this place I'm going to find out all the things you're hiding and I am going to may you pay."

"You can have the lab go over the damage, but they're not stepping in any of the rooms that weren't affected. This is private property."

"So you are hiding things." She grinned.

"If I am, it's none of your business. None of the police's business. You want to make it the business of your other masters, I'm going to fight that. Pick your battles carefully, Cooper. My lawyers know the edicts too."

She shook with rage.

Calm down Alice, I wanted to tell her. This wasn't worth giving herself a heart attack.

"Fine," she snapped. "You don't want me to do my job here. You can fucking deal with this yourself." She turned. "Pack it up, we're done here!"

"Detective?" one of the uniformed officer asked.

"I said we're done! Turns out there was no crime committed here. Isn't that right Mister Rasia?"

"It's Brislow, and it's alright, officer. You did your job. I can take it from here."

Confusion spread among the officers, but the highest-ranking detective had given an order, and the victim wasn't fighting it, so they had no choice. Denton preferred it that way. This meant the people I could bring in would know how handle this Properly. Of course his forensics lab was nowhere near ready to handing this volume of evidence.

"She is going to be trouble," the capybara stated.

"She's been trouble for a year now. I can handle her. I'm surprised you listened to me."

"I work for you."

"For now. Let's get back to cleaning up."

"Are we bringing in forensic?" Tom asked.

"There's no point. I know who did this."

"Damian?"

"The twins. Damian is smarter than to attack me days after making a peaceful gesture. What pissed me off is how those two managed to get to my people. We've been checking everyone for marks before hiring them."

"But not after. Doctor Merlin didn't know to be on the lookout for them. Somehow the Orr twins got to one person, managed to gain control of him, and used him to get to the others. You said Harry organized a hunting trip, you implied some of those on that trip were part of the attack. That seems to indicate Harry was the access point."

"Can you question him?"

"He didn't survive the explosion. I can question the others. If they have been marked, they should be able to tell me who did it to them."

"Tom, I want an honest answer here. Can you question them without actually hurting them?"

The badger looked at me. "Brislow. I'm going up against magic. I don't know what I'll need to do get through it. If it's like the thug that attacked you and the kid, I won't have to leave any marks, but that was a hired criminal. He was paid to attack you. Whatever else was done to him, money controlled him. These men worked for you. They came from the military and police. They were no people known to be easily bought. That tells me those marks on them will do more than allowed them to throw fireballs and lightning."

"They could force them to stay silent."

The badger shrugged. "This is new territory for me, and while I'll admit to enjoying the challenge, what I can't admit to is knowing what it will take to get through it."

"Then don't question them. They're victims, I'm not going to inflict any more than they've already suffered."

"How about those who don't work for you? Are those guys fair game?" The eagerness in Tom's voice worried me.

"Find out who they are first. If they're criminals, who were basically paid for this then yes. I want answers, but no death, remember the deal. If they are innocent dragged into this against their will, they are off-limits."

Tom beamed. "I wouldn't think of letting any of them die. For this, they want them to have a very long time to think on what they did." He headed away rubbing his hands.

Oscar was seated at what was left of a table, looking more himself. "Any idea where Damian is?"

The margay shook his head. "He never stepped close enough to the hull of the plane for me to see outside. Once he landed he immediately got in a car. I could describe the back of the airport, but unless you have an expert on them, there was nothing distinctive. Same with the drive. I couldn't see anything to tell me where he was. Then that guy barged in."

"Could Damian have known you were watching him and purposely kept you from seeing anything?"

"I want to say that's impossible, but you know when you're watched, and we have no idea what those things on his body let him do. So it's possible. Dent, After this, I'm not going to be able to help you again. My dad's going to see this attack as being a threat to me." He took out his phone and showed me the display without activating it, a dozen messages already waiting, a thirteenth on added itself as I watched. "I'm going to tell me it was damaged, so I didn't get them, but that's only going to work until he calls Maximilian. And I don't know that I can help, anyway. Damian was careful. He didn't leave anything behind in the interrogation room. I checked. The guy managed not to shed a single strand of fur."

"There isn't all that much left." I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Call your dad. If he wants you to go home, go. I'll handle the fallout from the danger this put you in. I have eight other Society men injured. I'm going to be hearing from those families too."

"This wasn't your fault, Dent."

"Doesn't change the fact that it happened on my watch. It happened after I promised to keep those people safe."

"Come on. You never promised that. You run a security company. Sure, none of us expect to be sent in the middle of a war zone, but danger does come with the job."

"I'm a Rasia. The other families are going to see this as my attempt to remove some of their people without having to take the blame." I paused. "And I hate myself for being able to work out this is how they're going to see it. But as I said. If your father wants you to go home, go. You did all you could for the time being."

I left him as he put his phone to his ear.

"Hey Dad, I'm okay. Sorry I didn't call back sooner, it's been hectic."

At least Oscar would be on my side when his father came blaming me. I doubt any of the others would.

"Kevin?" a woman yelled. "Kevin, honey, where are you?"

I ran to the lobby, just how bad was my luck. "Misses Sanders," I said when I saw the otter walking among the people moving debris. "I'm Denton Bris..." I trailed off on seeing the man with her.

He looked at me and gasped. "You."

And I was back to that day. Running away from that hotel, from Maximilian and her. Feeling dirty and wrong. Catching the eyes of the otter, the way he looked me up and down, how he licked his lips. And then we were in that alley. Me fucking him like my life depended on it.

"You two know each other?" she asked, an edge of suspicion in her voice.

"I--" the man began.

"We met months ago," I said. "Chance encounter. I'd had a bad day, and he talked with me. Helped me cope with some of it. I never asked your name."

"Edward," he said. "Edward Sanders."

I smiled. "My son's named Eddy." I shook his hand.

"Where is my son?" Kevin's mother demanded.

"I'll take you to him, he's upstairs. He's banged up, but nothing major."

"How could you--"

"Viv," Edward said, "don't."

"How can you not be angry at him? He let our son--"

"Viv. I already tried talking Kevin out of this. He's eighteen. He's old enough to make his own decisions, as he was very keen on telling me. He knew what kind of work this is and while I don't approve, I am going to respect his decision."

"Well, I'm his mother, I am going to talk some sense into him."

Upstairs, the common room had been turned into a makeshift infirmary. Doc Merlin was stitching someone up. He noticed me, who was with me and motioned to Kevin, who was helping one of the nurse-- when had those arrived?-- with bandaging injuries.

"Kevin?"

He glanced over his shoulder and stiffened. "Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?"

"I hear about an explosion at your workplace," his mother replied, "what do you think I'm going to do when you don't answer your phone?"

Kevin patted himself down. "I don't have it. It must have falling out during the fighting."

"Fighting?" she exclaimed.

"Miss Sanders," I said before she continued. "Maybe you'd prefer doing this somewhere private?" I indicated one of the bedroom's opened door.

"Mom!" Kevin exclaimed as she grabbed his arm and dragged him there.

When the door closed Edward looked at me. "Can we talk somewhere private too?"

I led him to one of the other unoccupied bedrooms. I was surprised so many were available. I'd expected a lot more of the Society men to use them to have sex or hide out than help.

"I take it she doesn't know?" I said once I'd closed the door.

Edward laughed bitterly. "No. I work very hard at keeping that side of myself to myself."

"I won't tell her, if that's what you're worried about."

He shook his head. "What I need to know is if you targeted my son because of me."

I took a breath. "That is completely accidental. Kevin looks more like his mother than you, and to be fair until I saw you just now I hadn't thought about that encounter."

"Same. It was amazing, but not something I'd dwelled on. How did you met my son? He never said. Just said that he wasn't going back to school because he'd gotten a job."

"He delivered pizza to one of my orgies last fall."

"Excuse me?"

I shrugged. "He was clearly interested, so I offered for him to take part, he said yes."

Edward was in my face. "He was barely eighteen! How the fuck do you go and get him to have sex with a bunch of strangers!"

I fixed my eyes on his. "He was eighteen, I checked before I made the offer. And they weren't strangers. I knew them, well, most of them and the others had been vouched for. That was the safest environment I could think of for a curious young man to have his first sexual encounter. I made the offer, he said yes, and I made sure he was treated the way a man should be treated."

"If that looked anything close to the way you treated--"

"You were a means to an end," I said flatly. "You were great, but that was all about me. If it hadn't been you, it would have been someone other guy. You wanted me and--"

"You needed it, Trust me, you radiated need. That's what made it even more hot."

"What happened with Kevin was all about him. It was fun, but we all made sure his pleasure came first."

"Why hasn't he told me about you then?"

"You're going to have to ask him. But my guess is that he's eighteen, had mind-blowing sex and figures that probably isn't something his parents want to know about."

Edward nodded. "I notice there's a bed in here."

"Yes, sex happens. Security work is high stress, and that needs to be relieved. I'd rather offer my employees a safe environment where they can do that."

"I saw women."

"I'm an equal opportunity employer."

The otter took a breath. "Why my son? Why offer him a job after meeting him during an orgy?"

"Kevin is smart and observant."

"Don't you think that means he should go to school and hone that then?"

"I do. When I started my company, I told him that once he was done with school, if he was interested, I'd be happy to consider him for a job. He showed up two days later and told me he wanted to work for me."

"And you just said yes?"

"I explained the kind of work he'd be doing. The dangers he'd face the risks. I told him he should finish school, but he insisted he'd rather work for me."

"You should have refused. You should have told him to go to school."

I studied Edward. I didn't understand his reaction, although I suspected that in eighteen years I'd know exactly why he was behaving the way he was. Maybe he'd forgotten how he'd been at Kevin's age, or maybe he hadn't been the same. I remembered who I'd been.

"I was thirteen the first time I was with a man."

"What does that--"

I cut him off with a raised hand. "I initiated it. I'd been jerking off for years to fantasies of men by then and I wanted to know what it was like. He was the first of a long list of men who should probably have never agreed to have sex with me, but I wanted it. By the time I was eighteen, I knew exactly what I wanted out of life. I believe that men that age are capable of making those decisions. Be it sex or work. I made sure Kevin knew all he needed to know to make an informed decision, and then I let him make it. And I respected it."

"Do you expect me to be happy with that?"

"You're his father. I expect you to demand I do what you tell me in everything regarding your son. What I'm going to tell you is that you need to talk with him. He's the only one who can tell you why he wants to do this. Maybe you can convince him it isn't right for him. But I am not going to make that decision for him."

"Can you keep him safe?"

"Can you ask me that question on a day when my company isn't falling apart around me, literally?"

He smiled.

"Seriously though, I didn't create this company to put people at risk. I want to use it to keep people safe, but safety isn't a guaranty. I will keep Kevin as safe as I can, just like every other person who works for me, but this job comes with risks."

He was silent, then nodded and opened the door.

"There you are," Kevin's mother called, Kevin in tow. "Tell that son of yours he has to do what I tell him. He's coming home and then going back to school."

Edward looked at Kevin and I wondered if he knew this aspect of his son enough to recognized the determination in the set of his shoulder.

"I won't," Edward answered.

"Edward!"

"Viv, Kevin's a grown man. I spoke with his employer and I'm confident he won't put him needlessly at risk. And that Kevin is aware of what kind of risk exist in this kind of job. I'd like him to come to dinner tonight so he can tell us why he wants to do this, but I will not disrespect my son by assuming he isn't mature enough to know his own mind."

"Edward," Viv said, her voice smaller. "He got hurt."

"Mom," Kevin said. "I got hurt falling off my bike. I got hurt at school, I got-- I got bullied there. I'm going to get hurt no matter where I do."

"But this is dangerous," She insisted.

"Mom, I get to keep people safe. I think that's worth a little danger."

She was crying now, and I decided I no longer needed to be a witness. At least one thing today was getting resolved in a positive way.

I made it down the stairs to a bandage elk glaring at me. "You and I need to talk."

I sighed. Yep, I'd have to be happy with only one thing.