“Think you could’ve made that sound any worse, Kitty?” asked Ryan.

“Oh, trust me, I could still make it sound worse,” said Kitty. “I have a gift.”

Dominic listened in silence, his posture impassive and unyielding. I was pretty sure his expression was meant to match. Internally, he was a different story, broadcasting anxiety and remorse so loudly that it was leaking through my shielding. I took a breath, focusing on shoring up the walls between me and the rest of the room a little bit better.

“Before we go any further with this, and yes, knowing that we have very little time, I need to be sure you understand that I did not make the decision to come to you lightly,” said Dominic. There was a slight quiver to his voice. Anyone who didn’t know him would probably miss it. I couldn’t stop hearing it. “I was raised to believe that almost everyone in this room was a soulless monster, and that the humans among you were traitors to their species. I was misled, and I allowed it, because it was all I knew. I’m sorry.”

Muttering greeted the first part of his statement, replaced by silence and a general feeling of surprise as he continued. I stepped out of the doorway, moving to stand next to Kitty.

“I was willing to let the Covenant come and go unhindered, helping Verity protect you and your families until the danger had passed. Unfortunately, that ceased to be an option when they took her. I understand that I am asking you to challenge an organization that wants nothing more than your extinction. I have nowhere else to turn, and Verity has no other options.”

“Will they kill her?” asked Carol. She wasn’t wearing her wig, and the snakes atop her head hissed and writhed in response to her agitation.

“Sadly, no,” said Dominic.

Ryan took a step toward him, seeming to get almost a foot taller in the process. My eyes weren’t deceiving me; the therianthrope was growing. Never a good sign. “What did you say?” he growled.

“If they were going to kill her, we could create a gas leak in the building and blow them all to Kingdom Come,” said Dominic. If having a shift-primed tanuki menacing him was a problem, he wasn’t letting it show. “Since they’re not going to kill her any time soon, we have to come up with a solution that doesn’t include killing her ourselves.”

“Oh,” said Ryan suspiciously. He didn’t shrink back down to his original size. I guess some things take time.

“As I was saying: no, the Covenant will not kill her. It would be, if you will forgive me an unpleasant turn of phrase, wasteful. Verity Price represents something they have not had in generations. She is a source of information about her family, and about the cryptids of North America. They will break her, through whatever means necessary, and then they will drain her dry.” Dominic shook his head. “I love her. I do. But believe me when I say that the Covenant of St. George is extremely good at breaking people. She will do her best to withstand them, and I believe she’ll be able to hold out much longer than many people could. In the end, she’ll break. In the end, everyone breaks.”

“So what do we do?” asked Angel.

“The Covenant is using a dockside warehouse as their temporary headquarters while here in town. Their hotel rooms have already been abandoned; presumably all three of them have moved into the warehouse to supervise their prisoner, and to fortify their defenses against me.” Now Dominic’s voice turned even grimmer. “I didn’t tell them Verity existed; I vanished when she was taken.”

“And our family has a history of converting Covenant agents to our way of thinking,” I said. “They’ve probably already decided that Dominic is no longer on the right side.”

“This is true,” said Dominic. “In their eyes, I am as much of a monster as any of you, if not more. After all, I saw the light, and turned it aside.”

“Congratulations,” said Istas primly.

Nervous laughter spread through the room like a stain. Uncle Mike allowed it for a moment before stepping forward, saying, “Okay, folks, get it together. My niece needs saving.” He glanced to Dominic, who nodded. Uncle Mike nodded back before he continued, “We know where they are, and we know how many of them we’re going up against. We also know they may have bitten off more than they could chew when they took Verity. If they’re hoping to get information out of her, that means they’re keeping her awake and reasonably aware of what’s going on. Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve seen that girl kick a boundary imp’s ass when she had a concussion and a broken arm. If they think she’s just going to sit there and let them ask their questions, they’re going to find themselves with a nasty surprise. That works in our favor.”

“If things are so slanted in our favor, what are we still doing here?” asked a Pliny’s gorgon I vaguely recognized as being one of the newer members of the staff. He crossed his arms, posture daring Dominic and Uncle Mike to come up with an answer he’d believe. The snakes on his head hissed ominously, twining themselves together in a sinuous braid which undid itself just as quickly. I thought his name was Joe. Maybe. Whatever his name, he was tall, unfriendly, and crowned with venomous snakes. That alone made him worth listening to, if only so his hair didn’t start biting people.

“Because there’s this little factor called ‘the unknown,’” said Uncle Mike. “We need to worry about what we don’t know.”

“The three Covenant operatives are highly skilled in their own areas, and are not going to be inclined to go gently on us,” said Dominic. “Peter Brandt is a demolitions expert. Robert Bullard is a tactical specialist. Between the two of them, they’re very likely to have turned the warehouse into a death trap for anyone coming in without knowing how to avoid the trip wires. Margaret . . .” He hesitated.

“Margaret is a Healy,” I said. Several heads turned toward me, like everyone had forgotten that I was there. Sadly, they probably had. Stupid cuckoo powers. “For those of you who don’t know what that means, she’s like an evil Verity. She won’t stop hitting you just because you say you’re going to be good, you changed your mind, and you’d like to go home now. That means that no matter how heavily weighted we think this equation is in our favor, we have to be better than the probabilities. We have to be absolutely certain of what we’re walking into.”