Page 92 of Xerxes Ascendant
Kyle snickered.
“So when were you going to tell me about your escapades on Upper Xerxes?”
He blinked at the screen, surprised. “How did you hear about that?”
Rolling her eyes, Indira puffed out an irritated breath. “Everyone’s talking about it. The Master of House Epsilon and thathot, hulky blonde.”She pulled a face. “Ew. Don’t they know it’syou?”
“Thanks,” Kyle said dryly.
“Two of the neighbours have already stopped by, and I’ve had people calling me all morning, including Mish. He said to tellyou that Ben’s sister got home okay, with only a few bumps and bruises.”
“Let them know that if she requires medical treatment, House Epsilon will cover the expense,” Akira called from the other side of the room.
“I’m not your fucking receptionist!” Indira yelled back at him. But Kyle knew she’d pass the message on, because underneath her snappishness, she was as soft and sweet as Akira.
“Oh, and some guy showed up at your House looking for you, Kylie,” Indira said.
His Master tensed, always so suspicious and adorably protective, but Kyle waved him down. He thought he knew who it might be. “Vin?”
“Him, yeah. Apparently he and Tyler really hit it off.” His cousin’s expression took on a mischievous edge, and Kyle wondered how much gossip had been passed between her and Misha on their call. They always talked far too much shit when they caught up with each other, and Kyle himself was a regular subject of their loose lips and crude tongues. He could only imagine the torrid speculation they’d engaged in after finding out he’d been on Upper Xerxes with Akira.
“Mayor Mackenroth fronted the media about twenty minutes ago,” Indira added. “Ranting and raving about terrorist Lowers and the proven criminal links between the Coterie and the Carrion.” Kyle’s heart ratcheted, but his cousin only smirked. “Everyone’s seeing right through it, don’t worry. You guys are heroes for returning all the kidnap victims, and until Mackenroth gets clever enough to offer a monetary reward, no one on Lower Xerxes will be turning you in.”
Kyle shared a wary look with his boss across the small office. Credits were a powerful motivator, even for those whose morals would have otherwise kept them quiet. Mackenroth might bevindictive, selfish, and arrogant – and public sentiment was turning against him as a result of the Coterie pointing fingers at him for the Fall – but he wasn’t stupid.
The pair of them were on borrowed time, unless the politics of Xerxes could be turned in their favour.
Akira snapped his fingers, hurrying the Engineer, and once he had his own runepad back he began to furiously type out messages with a darkening scowl on his face. Letting the man work – bullying the Coterie or calling in demands from his network, or whatever it was he did so well – Kyle quickly caught his cousin up on what had happened since he’d last seen her.
“I can’t believe you took the mayor hostage,” Indira cackled, making the Engineer’s eyebrows lift into his hairline. “I’d have given anything to see that bastard’s face when he realised he’d lost.”
“But has he?” Kyle asked quietly. “He has a bomb in his body, Indira. Or the trigger for one, anyway. It’s him who holds the whole city hostage.”
His cousin’s expression sobered. “Yeah. Egotistical maniac. He’d kill us all just to hold onto power.”
Benedict Mackenroth was already responsible for so much death and misery...and with the Fall, who knew how much time humanity had left to it? Did people like him not realise that treading on others for their own gain only served to doomeveryone?
Spotting Akira waiting at the door, Kyle quickly wrapped up the call. “Catch you later, Indy.”
“Fuck you too, Kylie. Stay safe.”
And then the pair of them were back out in Lower Xerxes’ dawn streets, pale artificial lighting emanating from the ceiling in a poor substitute for the genuine sunrise Kyle had enjoyed earlier. Akira seemed to be in a hurry, setting a rapid pace across the city that Kyle had to trot to keep up with, and yet theman confoundingly frustrated his own efforts at haste by taking several unnecessary turns. At one point, he circled the same city block, and another time he had them pause outside a closed ramen takeaway for nearly five minutes. Kyle had been rather confused, but now, sneaking a glance at the way his boyfriend’s hands clenched into tight fists and how the lines of his throat stood taut in tension, he understood.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he whispered. “Are you sure?”
Akira nodded without turning around. “It’s time,” he said, and ascending a set of metal stairs that wrapped around to the second floor of a building, he raised his palm and pressed it to the scanner set in the door. It hummed, flashed green, and the door swung open beneath his touch to reveal a long hallway decorated in thick, welcoming carpet.
Akira Miyasaki had brought Kyle home.
Kyle
I told Tyrone that if he doesn't want the Coterie to find out that we were attacked outside his club, that he needs to book some sessions in with the House. He's already paid for appointments for three of his men
Akira
I don’t know whether to promote you or reprimand you.
Kyle
