Zoey led him through the crowd and to the arsenal under the campus. She stopped beside Ginny and armed herself with as many knives as she could carry then grunted under the weight of ammo for the long sniper rifle.
"Who picked you up?" Ginny asked, loading herself down beside Zoey. "And when? I thought I was the only one, 'til Vikki."
"I'm not a goner yet," Zoey retorted.
"Strike two?" Ginny's dark eyes glowed in silent laughter. "Yeah, you are. Strike three is a formality."
Hefting everything, Zoey left, waving for the Professor to follow her as she broke free of the armory. She took the stairs two at a time, breathless by the time she reached the top.
She was on her assigned corner and set up by the time the Professor walked calmly up the stairs and joined her. Wes was stationed in the center of the rooftop. Heidi joined him, and Ginny took up position on the opposite corner from Zoey. Zoey pushed her earpiece into place.
"Comms check," Heidi said.
"Zoey up," she said.
"Ginny up."
"Tell me what you see," Wes directed. "No shots 'til ordered."
Zoey surveyed the surroundings through the scope, using magic to extend the distance. Two blocks from campus, Cambions were massing. More booms around the perimeter indicated explosives were continuing to take out the housing. She glanced towards the Professor's home as it collapsed. Sorrow went through her as she realized yet another part of her life was changing.
"Three dozen, armed, two blocks southwest," Zoey reported.
"Ditto, northeast," Ginny's soft voice said.
The Professor shifted beside Zoey, gazing at his crumbled house sadly. She knew from the dents in the rugs that he'd lived there awhile, long before she came into his life. She shared his sorrow.
"At least I don't have to unpack all my boxes," she said. "I feel kinda bad. Eric put a lot of effort into packing them."
"They now lie in the basement with my vintage cigar collection," the Professor said with a sigh. "I guess I always knew the end was coming."
Her gaze lingered on him at the enigmatic words. She put her comms piece on mute.
"Professor, I need to ask you something," she said.
"Now?" he asked, gaze on the rifle.
"Yeah. You know me. No patience," she tried to joke. "Olivia told me something today. I wanted to ask you if it's true."
The sorrow in his features grew so deep, wrinkles appeared.
"She said Vikki and I and everyone else on Team R are her... uh, hybrid offspring, I guess." Zoey waited for him to laugh it off or deny it.
Instead, the Professor nodded slowly. "I wondered if she would ever tell you."
"You knew?" she demanded.
"Of course."
She waited, but he said nothing more about the greatest single revelation he'd never shared.
"That's it?" Her heart was starting to pound hard against her chest. "No, this is why I didn't tell you, Zoey, or it's not as bad as it sounds?"
"I couldn't tell you, Zoey. It wasn't my secret to reveal. But I could protect you, and I did. I never told her Declan marked you, and I never told Declan you were the daughter of his enemy." The Professor seemed content with his part and offered a smile. "I always did what I thought was right for you."
"I ..."
"Comms, Zoey!" Wes belted from the middle of the garage.
The timing was good enough. Her head was about to explode. She un-muted her earpiece.
"Any change in position?" Heidi asked.
"None," Zoey reported.
"Stay focused, Zoey."
"Alright." Zoey kept her eye trained on the Cambions. No sound but that of rain and imploding homes filled the air. She clenched her jaw, wanting to demand explanations from the quiet Professor.
"Zoey, spill," Ginny ordered over the radio. "Who is it?"
"You first."
"No way."
"God, I need a drink right now," Zoey said. "Ever have one of those days when everyone is out to fuck with your head?"
"I've got a story for you, Z. You have no idea what it's like to be with an Enforcer who specializes in psychological operations," Ginny said. "Rock, paper, scissors?"
"One sec." Zoey checked the position of the Cambions. "Clear."
"Clear," Ginny echoed. "Go!"
Zoey leapt up and darted to the middle of the roof, watching Ginny tear towards her from the opposite direction. The sudden activity took her mind off her panicky thoughts and felt damned good.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Wes yelled from nearby.
They glanced towards him, but didn't stop, instead nearly running into each other before stopping.
"It's how Team R does business." Heidi's answer was amused.
"One, two, three!" Zoey and Ginny counted. Zoey threw out her hand flat while Ginny's fist stayed in a ball. Zoey won: paper over rock.
"Dammit!" Ginny muttered.
"Are you serious?" Wes sounded surprised. "Back to position!"
Zoey and Ginny bumped fists before obeying.
"Tommy," Ginny said over the radio as they returned to their respective positions. "Enforcer."
"Which one?" Zoey asked.
"You can't miss him. He's like a tree."
"You can't mean that gigantor who does mind tricks!"
"Oh, yeah. You have no idea how much those mind tricks fucked me up," Ginny said. "Until strike two, and then I could read him."
Zoey dropped to her knees and all but fell into position, cuddling the rifle against her cheek. Breathing hard, she nonetheless felt better after releasing some of her energy.
"You?" Ginny asked.
Zoey heard her grunt as she dropped into position. Surveying their surroundings, Zoey repositioned her face before answering.
"Declan."
Ginny laughed hard. "I'll take Tommy over Declan every day. No way I'd want that."
"Did you say Declan?" Heidi's voice held a note of surprise.
"Uh, oh," Ginny said. "Mama bear is gonna take your head off, Zoey."
"I guess it would've been made public eventually," Zoey said uncomfortably. A glance over her shoulder revealed that Heidi was glaring in her direction with cold fire in her eyes.
"You know why he's the head Enforcer, right?" Ginny asked.
"Won't matter in a few days when I walk away," Zoey said.
"Fine. I'm not telling you."
Zoey was quiet for a moment. She hadn't wanted to hear directly from Declan how powerful he was. He was right; the Enforcer side of him terrified her. She saw it when they made love and in their bond. She knew nothing about him, she realized, aside from who his father and brother were. Suddenly curious about the man she'd known all of three days who shared his own soul with her on day one, she broke.
"Tell me."
"No."
"Goddamn it, Ginny!" she muttered.
"I thought you Hunters were a little better disciplined," Wes said into the mic. "If I hadn't seen you both fight, I'd be scared shitless right about now."
"They're called Team Reject for a reason," Heidi said. Zoey heard something in her tone that worried her.
"Does not play well with others. Failure to respect authority," Zoey recited.
"Outbursts of violence towards other Halflings," Ginny added.
"Either cannot or will not follow instructions," Lydia added shyly. "I had my first hearing yesterday."
Zoey laughed. "So you do fit in!"
"I guess."
Zoey glanced at the Professor, who looked more worn down than she'd ever seen him. She flipped off her mic and addressed him. Laden with rain, his clothing clung to his slender frame and made him appear almost nondescript, for an incubus. At his sexual peak, he never would have been overlooked or mistaken for a human.
"Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.
"I'm well, kiddo."
She handed him a bottle of water. "You're not okay."
He accepted it and gave her a distracted smile. "I had hoped not to see the day where everything we built came down like this."
Zoey said nothing. She had no affection for the place that had become her home or for most of the girls she was supposed to fight with. Only Team R and the Professor. The school was bloated and self-important, filled with girls chosen more for looks than potential to fight. No, there was no love lost.
But it was her home, and the tremor of emotion that went through her scared her. Where did she go, if the Professor's house was blown up? Did she go to Declan, whose agenda wasn't clear? Did she go to Olivia, who chose a horrible time to reveal their relationship?
Why did Olivia reveal it today?
"I knew it would come soon," he added. "This has been building for awhile."
"What has?"
"The internal struggle in the Incubatti. The Cambions never should've been granted power in the first place. Now, there's no way to fix it but by force."
"You think there are parts of the Incubatti that don't believe in what the Cambions do?" she asked.
"I know it to be true. Declan's father has planned this for many years. I don't know that he anticipated the Cambions attacking the Sucubatti, though. It'll drive a wedge between any cooperation the two might have," he explained.
Thus far, the Incubus whom Olivia told her not to trust seemed to be telling the truth. Declan didn't believe in protecting Cambions. He was fighting them in his own way. Relief spread through her, soon replaced by a chill that slid into her core. If the Enforcers and IAB were temporarily allied to fight the Cambions, what happened if they parted ways? Where did she go then?
"Olivia said she blocked all transfer orders for Team R. Why does every Hunter get transferred when they turn twenty two?" she asked, recalling something else she read in Vikki's journal.
"They aren't transferred per se," the Professor said slowly. "Most end up killed off."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, if you weren't the daughter of the head of the IAB, you would be dead by now. There has never been a clean, easy way of handling Hunters that go mad from sex energy. There comes a point where too much is built up, and the only alternative has been to destroy the Hunter."
"You're telling me every girl here is gonna end up dead?" Zoey demanded.
"Many end up the mates of Incubatti. It's how Incubuses are born," he reminded her. "Those that don't are killed off. You have Declan to stabilize you. Vikki has Liam. The girls on Team R won't follow that path, but the rest ..." he shrugged. "It's why I and the other Bennies stayed with the Sucubatti. Philosophical differences aside, we knew the only way to find and protect the soul-mates of our brethren was to be where they were bred. Here."
"I am going to need some serious therapy after this shit."
"Zoey! Mic!" Wes shouted. She flipped on the mic, her gaze on the Professor.
"No meltdowns," the Professor said with some of his old cheerfulness.