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Damian sat at the bar as everyone filed out of the room. "I'll have a scotch, neat." He felt the badger's eyes on him, but didn't turn. Denton's self-appointed bodyguard's paranoia was useful, but it didn't need any added stoking. "What do you make of all this?" he asked that muscular mink as he placed a napkin down and the glass on top of it.

"Excuse me, sir?" He went left the bar to collect empty glasses across the room.

"It isn't like you have a lot more to do than listen in on the conversations. I'm curious what you think about these crazy people."

"It isn't my place to pass judgment on them. I get paid to stand behind the bar, serve drinks and have sex."

"And that doesn't strike you as even a little odd? Did you hear what they were talking about? Blood, magic. Sounds crazy to me."

The mink returned with a tray full of glasses. "As I said, sir. It isn't my place to comment."

Damian watched him as he sipped his scotch; good stuff too. Whoever stocked the bar didn't skimp. He was pretty much dry, power-wise, but he hoped to recharge soon, so he could spend a little power on this. "Tell me what you think," He demanded, feeding power through the proper mark, which laced his words with an irresistible compulsion to obey.

"They aren't crazy." The mink began watching the glasses.

"Go on." He didn't need to add power here, the compulsion would last a few minutes.

"I've seen them do stuff, Arthur cured my brother of a bone defect doctors said couldn't be cured. That's how I came to work for the Orrs."

Damian was curious as to which one employed him, but that wasn't relevant. "How are they as people?"

"Difficult," the mink replied without hesitation. "Bickering. There's little love between them. When they meet here there's usually more arguing than what went on today. They are putting on a unified front for the visitors."

"Which one do you feel is their weak link?"

The mink looked at Damian, frowning.

Damian fed a little more power through the mark. "Come on, you can tell me."

"Albert, the artist. The others consider him mostly useless."

"All of them?"

"To varying degree. Aiden and Arthur seem to be the ones who get along best with him. Aaron the least."

"Thank you." Damian finished his drink and exited the room.

The others had left together, but they couldn't all have done to watch the lion work. Society magic might be novel to his nephew, but he didn't see them as having the attention span needed to just watch someone paint the floor in blood. he hadn't been told about the sigils by his father or uncle, and nothing in his research after the fact indicated they'd known, so he doubted Donald and Daniel had known about them while they were raising their sons.

There was the sex. The chance to fuck someone from the Society would certainly appeal to his nephews, to impose their superiority on him, but Denton wouldn't be impressed, and if most of his nephews were there, Albert would stay away. But where would he go?

He didn't know enough about his family or this building to guess, so he put a smile on and went to the closest desk. He smiled at the chinchilla seated there. "Excuse me, I'm looked for Albert Orr, I got separated from the group."

She glanced at him before going back to typing. "Mister Orr should be in the media lab."

"Which would be where?"

"Two floors down, suite 1805."

"Thank you." Was it her personality to be this brusque? Or was it a side effect of working in the presence of his nephews?

The suite in question was one large room with computers and desks. The back wall was divided in six monitors, switching between pictures of San Francisco. Albert was seated in a comfortable chair, hands typing commands on the armrest.

"Kicked out of the fun?" Damian said as he stopped next to him. The scent of coffee came from a large travel mug on a side table.

"I didn't feel like being sniped at anymore. I have better things to do with my time."

Damian studied the images as they cycled. They weren't in order, but many repeated. The I80, I5, 580, 680, 880, and 980. "You're trying to work out how they entered the city without being noticed," Damian stated. He kept his amusement from showing at the surprised look Albert gave him. "Why stills? Wouldn't the feed be easier to work with?"

"The server that houses the city's feed was one of the first to be attacked. As far as the techs can tell it's still all there, but it's scattered and the timestamps have been erased, so what's retrieved is out of order. I've put a lot of it back, but there's still a lot to go."

"Do you think they came in via the I80?"

"They are brazen enough to think they could do it and not be noticed." His nephew indicated the screens. "And clearly they were right. Especially since we thought they were on the east coast?"

"Didn't you know they were in Denver before coming here?"

"No," Albert answered angrily.

"Did the others know?"

"How the fuck should I know? Do I look like the guy they come to with their questions?" He closed his eyes and took a handful of breaths. "What do you want, uncle," he added after a pause.

Damian took a chair from an unoccupied desk and sat. "I saw how they treated you and I thought you'd like to talk. One ostracized sibling to another."

"You? Ostracized? Why? I mean other than almost starting a war with the Society?"

Damian smiled. Of course his brothers would have framed it that way. "That was never my plan. Smart men like us--" Albert snorted-- "tend to be pushed aside. You should have more respect for your own intelligence, Albert, your brothers certainly don't. I don't think any of them putting frames back in order with only what's on them as reference. I doubt even Arthur could do this. No matter what your fathers might have led you to believe, you are intelligent, Albert."

"Fine, men like us get pushed aside, your point?"

His nephew didn't buy the argument, but he didn't have to. This was simply about putting him at ease, establishing a common ground.

"Being alone so much, I read. I hear you're an artist. Visual or word? Aiden has the monopoly on vocal, as I understand it."

"Visual, painting, drawing, sculpting."

"Are you good?"

Albert shrugged. "I'm okay. There's better artist out there."

Damian smiled. "You're an Orr, so I'm going to take that to mean you're among the best."

"I said there are better one out there."

"How many of them are your contemporary? Comparing yourself to the old masters is an exercise in self defeatism, don't do it, you're better than that."

Albert shrugged.

"When this is over, you'll have to show me what you've done. For myself, I read. I always loved books. They're easier to deal with than people, and with patience you actually learn something from them. It's how I came across the library that would start all the mess that would end with me imprisoned in a Hearth."

"Why did you do it? I mean, you had to know going up against the Society was a stupid move."

There you go, Damian thought, relax enough to question my motive. Stop seeing me as someone older and wiser, and I become just another peer.

"I was seventeen, I told my father, and he jumped on the chance to get more power so he--"

Albert snorted. "Yeah, I noticed."

Damian tilted an ear to encourage him to continue.

"I got the pleasure to meet Brian," he said sarcastically.

"I thought he was an invalid. Didn't he fall sick after I was imprisoned? Donald, or Daniel, said something about it bring when they took over."

"Yeah, but they had Anakin rejuvenate him to before that and he caused us his own set of problems. He used those mark things on Aaron and Anakin." He chuckled. "He has got to regret doing that. Aaron's had him in a cage back at his club, feeding him just enough to make sure he won't die and starving him for sex. He's so weak he hasn't been able to get it up in months."

And thank you for the information. "I should say that this isn't how your grandfather should be treated, but I grew up under that man's balls, so I'm all for him suffering."

"Aaron is the only one who cares. The others would rather see him dead, even Anakin won't go close to that old man. But Aaron's always had a vindictive streak."

"Anakin isn't here. Someone mentioned something about him being out of the city. I doubt it's because he ran away, and I can't see him hunting down your fathers."

"No, Arthur didn't want him around when it got clear thing would get violent. I love Anni, but he's a child. If it wasn't for his ability to make people younger, I'm pretty sure our fathers would have treated him worse than us. And on top of that what Brian did to him left its mark, so when Arnold decided to send the mothers away to keep our sons out of our father's hands, Anakin was the best pick to go with them."

"Mothers?" that was new.

Albert nodded. "Arnold figured it was time for us to have sons."

"Us? All of you? Doesn't that go against how things are supposed to be done?"

"You're the result of that tradition, you really want to keep it going?"

"Valid point, so how many?" A new generation changed things.

"One each. Arnold wanted two apiece, because he figures the best way to lower the odds of any one of them going off the deep end like Brian and our fathers is to defuse the power as much as possible, but he also expected us to raise them and sixteen kids if beyond even our ability to deal with. Eventually he saw reason."

"So you're going to have a little artist to take after you." Damian smiled while he thought. The next generation was conceived, so he didn't have to worry about this one.

"Balls, I hope not. Whichever's mine I want him to have more useful than art to contribute."

He didn't expect them to have a problem when he because their god, other than the fact he'd have wipe his power base first to accomplish that, but while he'd do what he could to keep the worse of the coming conflict from affecting his family, now he had a backup plan.

"Albert, art is a good thing, and look at what you are doing, clearly you can contribute great things to your family." A whole new generation he would be able to start from scratch with. "Even if said family is blind to that." Damian didn't think he could have planned this better if he'd been behind it. Speaking of family. "I noticed my two other brothers aren't taking part in this."

"We didn't ask, and they didn't volunteer. They've always kept apart, which shows how smart they are, considering my fathers weren't any kinder to them than to the rest of us. There's also the fact we have no way of knowing for certain who they'll align with. There's no love lost between all of them, but they are brothers."

"I don't think you'd have to worry, but I understand the concern. Aren't you worried about me?"

Albert fixed his gaze on Damian. "They had your cock and balls on display. I kind of figure that trumps whatever brotherly ties that might have existed."

"That it does." Damian grinned. "I want those two dead more than anyone in this building can imagine, for what they forced me to go through."

"I don't know that anyone will help with that, but I don't expect they'll get in your way either."

Damian sighed theatrically. "Clearly, you don't know Denton. He's going to want to save them, get them to repent their ways and work for the good guys."

"Really?"

Damian shrugged. "Probably not that far, but he's going to have issues with cold-blooded murder."

"You think my fathers are going to just stand there and let you kill them?"

"Good point. Self-defense he's probably going to be okay with."

The door opened, and a badger entered the large room. "So this is where you disappeared to."

"And Mister Marrows," Damian greeted him. "Or do you prefer one of your innumerable other names?"

The badger grinned. "Marrows works for you, since I can't just kill you and save us a whole lot of trouble down the line."

"I'm not--"

"Save it, we both know better. Come on. We have work to do."

"Has Denton already found my brothers?" Damian stood.

"No, he's still getting fucked, but while that's happening, Alex got a lead on a cell of your brothers' men, so we are going to go thin the herd, if you will."

"I think I am more useful here, helping with."

"I am going to beat some bad people," the badger stated.

"And I hope you truly enjoy it."

"Oh, I will, but there is no way I am leaving you in this building without supervision."

"There are plenty of men here to can ensure I behave."

"Like I trust any of them for that. And aren't you a little weak? I mean, didn't you lose a lot of blood save the collie? And haven't you been under constant supervision by men with enough morals to make you throw up? Don't you want the chance to replenish your batteries in the company of someone who isn't going to care how you do it?"

Damian stiffened. He'd been careful not to do anything and while his brothers had left far too many drained bodies for people to miss the implication. They shouldn't have worked out it was how the power was fed.

"Fred's done a lot of reading. The kid's smart and you'd be amazed what he can work out from a few books and a lot of old stories. And I've just spent half an hour talking with him. So, how about it? Feel like going out and fixing two problems at once?"

The badger was too fucking smart and too much of a smart-ass. Once he was a god, he'd have to do something about him.

Fucking him long and hard would have to be first.

After that it would depend on how much begging the badger could muster.