Lord of Unkindness: Chapter Thirty-Nine

 Notes: Just an epilogue after this, my darlins. So much havoc, finally contained!

Title: Lord of Unkindness: Chapter Thirty-Nine

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Chapter Thirty-Nine

 

 Photo by Paige Cody

Ciro never had much to do with his extended family, nor they with him. His father had been loathe to hand over any power he didn’t have to, and that included letting his son connect with the people he was related to beyond what Victor decreed was necessary. He’d never met his mother’s parents; as far as he knew, they were dead. He’d only very rarely met his second cousin-once-removed, Lavinia Hambly, who was old enough to be his grandmother and shrewd enough to have a story ready to go for the police, the FBI, and keep them from delving deep enough into the tower to start asking questions about, oh, the occasional body and/or person in a coma tucked away here and there.

Lavinia was as no-nonsense a person as Ciro could have asked for when it came to dealing with the family holdings, which was exactly what he wanted. She didn’t even blink when he told her he wanted to give it all up.

“You’ll be forfeiting your inheritance,” she noted instead. Lavinia was tall and elegant, and when Ciro looked at her he could see a glimpse of his father in her, but no more than a glimpse. She had only three familiars with her, and they were all—

Bunny rabbits. Small, soft, adorable bunny rabbits. Jesus Christ at Easter mass, they are too cute. He could practically hear Angelo cooing from where he sat on the sidelines.

“If my inheritance isn’t eaten up through repairs to this damn building, then it’s too big anyway.”

“Oh, I fully plan to remove our family from this place now that Victor is out of the way.” She sniffed derisively. “Do you know how long it’s been since most of our familiars touched grass when we weren’t on assignment? This enormous building is little more than a mausoleum, and if you really intend to hand it over to me, then I plan to sell it to the city so that they can raze it to the ground and put affordable apartments in instead.”

“That sounds amazing.”

She paused for a moment, then said, “What about the outstanding contracts?”

Ah, now they were getting into the sticky dealings. The Hambly family had a reputation for getting results to uphold, and even if Ciro didn’t plan on working with them anymore, he didn’t want to spike their wheel on the way out. “I’m not up to date on the outstanding contracts. Do you have access to those files?”

“Of course I do.” Ciro arched an eyebrow at her. “Your father relied very heavily on his magic but neglected some of the more basic spycraft available to everyone with a budget, Cyrus. I’ve had  a keylogger on his computer for over two years and a camera in his study for five. How do you think I was able to keep everyone out of the way when he went on his little rampage?”

Well, damn. “You could have helped, you know.”

She shook her head. “I could have done nothing more than gotten in the way. You don’t understand because you’re the top tier for the Hambly family, but those of us with less affinity for our heritage have always been treated as an underclass. And I hate to admit it,” she added wryly, “but there’s some cause for that. You and Nephele, your father and your uncle, you have magical abilities that go far beyond the workings of your familiars.

“Most of us, though? We don’t have that breadth of talent. Our magic centers around our familiars in their animal forms and goes no farther. We can’t cast special spells, or when we do they aren’t any better than what we could do with technology.” She hefted one of her rabbits with a little smile on her face. “But you’d be shocked what people say around any old bunny in the park. We’re not lesser at our craft, we simply developed it differently. All that to say, none of us would have survived the showdown you had with your father and you know it, Cyrus.”

Lavinia had him there, but… Ciro glanced over at Angelo. “There are a lot of witches who do spellwork like I do, though. Aren’t there?”

“Not as many as you might think,” Angelo said, one hand stroking Chiffon while his raven—because he’d adopted this piece of Ciro’s magic and Ciro was very much okay with that—gently preened the hair at the back of his neck. “Again, it comes down to who you’re exposed to. Most witches go hard in a single direction—they’re specialists. Sometimes in elemental magic, sometimes in blood magic, sometimes in the use of their familiar. You take that last one to an extreme, just like I can use my internal energy more effectively than most witches can.”

Ciro watched a gold thread bloom from his lover and reach for him, wrapping him up in warmth. The numbness in his hands and feet, which had persisted since he’d woken up, receded a bit. He smiled.

“Interesting.”

He stopped smiling as he remembered there was someone else in the room. “Not really.”

Lavinia looked at him with a hint of pity. “I did just finish telling you I’ve been bugging your father’s office for years. I knew his thoughts about you and Mr. Fabroa, and I—”

Her eyes went wide, then a bit frightened as power, raw, palpable magical power, crackled through the air like electricity. Ciro had more power now than he knew how to handle; it would have been a lot if it had just been his own, strained and stretched and multiplied by distance, but combined with his father’s? He was in danger of burning himself as much as everyone else, and his emotional control when it came to anything having to do with his bastard of a father was next to gone.

Ciro’s vision filled with gold, not threads but bands wrapping him up and helping him tuck the magic back inside of his body. It felt a little like trying to stuff a spread-out sleeping bag back into its sack, but they managed it after a minute. The effort left Ciro panting and Lavinia wary.

“I intended no threat,” she said quietly. “I’m happy that you’ve found a partner who matches you so well. I’m glad you were able to find someone to love, Cyrus. That’s so rare in our circles, isn’t it?”

“I’m sorry,” he told her. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”

“It’s nothing. Let’s move on to the contracts, hmm?” There were some that only one of the upper echelon of Hamblys could handle, and the only one left was Ciro. “You’re under no obligation to us, of course,” she continued carefully, “but too many defaults would damage our reputations beyond repair, especially with the changes coming to Hambly Tower. If you could fulfil this particular subset of jobs, it would be a great help to the rest of us.”

He nodded as he looked at the summaries she’d handed over. It was corporate espionage, high level but rote—all stuff he could handle easily with his familiars, and for ludicrous amounts of money. “I’ll do it,” he said, “but then I’m done working for the Hamblys.”

Lavinia slowly nodded, but said, “I understand, but would ask that you consider leaving the door open to possibility of the occasional job. I’m not saying I’d be bold enough to sell your services,” she added as Ciro glared at her, “but there are times when something comes to us carrying a certain level of…moral obligation. I have the feeling you might like to consider some of these contracts. Not to mention, it’s a way for you to earn a living.”

“I’m planning on being a kept man,” Ciro said, and Angelo laughed as he came over and set his hands on Ciro’s shoulders.

“I’m looking forward to keeping you in the style to which you’re accustomed. One studio apartment with a sagging ceiling and patchy electricity, coming up.”

“You’re hilarious, really,” Ciro deadpanned. “Damn, I’m so lucky I get to live with this sense of humor for the foreseeable future.”

“Forever.”

“We’ll see.”

“You will,” Angelo agreed.

“Is that a yes?” Lavinia pressed.

Ciro sighed. “Fine, it’s a yes.” He glanced at the tablet Lavinia was holding close. “How much more is there to go over?”

“We’ll take breaks throughout the day,” she promised him. “But when you’re done, Cyrus, you’ll be done. Apart from the outstanding and potential future contracts, I will never call on you to do anything relating to the family again.”

Now that sounded like a deal.