Page 130 of The Mech Who Loved Me
Malloryn arched a brow. "I only wear my monster-who-crushes-humans-beneath-his-heel face on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. You were in luck. It was Thursday. Hero day. Besides, you saved my life in that factory. I'm a duke. We never allow ourselves to fall into debt toothers."
Kincaid grimaced. "I think I owe youonenow."
"Who's counting?" Malloryn asked, but his smilewasevil.
"Thankyou."
"Wonders never cease," Malloryn said, in a tone that mocked bothofthem.
Kincaid slumped back onto the pillows. He didn't want to like this man, but perhaps they had more in common than they'd expected. "What happened to the girl? The one youloved."
Silence was his only answer. He didn't think Malloryn was going to reply,until—
"It's the sort of thing I share only with my nearest anddearest."
"Aren't we friends now?" Kincaid drew his arm up to rest behind his head and smiled attheduke.
Who stared at himflatly.
"I got her killed," the duke said, very softly. "She belonged to someone else, and in my youthful infatuation, I believed I was invincible. That I could take what was his and walk away unscathed. The man she belonged to shot her, right in front of me. Straight through theheart."
Kincaid rolled his head on the pillow to look at the duke. If that was Ava, he would have burned the world to ashes to get revenge. "What happenedtohim?"
Malloryn's smile was chilling. "I spent the next ten years searching for a way todestroyhim."
"Did yousucceed?"
"Oh, yes." Malloryn's tone could have frozen an entire sea. "I ruined his every scheme. I destroyed his puppet prince consort, burned his little kingdom to the ground, set his tower ablaze, and then I cut his throat from ear to ear the night the revolution occurred. He managed to escape at the time, but I found his body later in the yard with a bullet to the chest. I wanted to burn his corpse, but the queen insisted he be buried. She wanted Lord Balfour to rot instead, and it seemedfitting."
This was why Malloryn joined the revolution to bring the prince consort undone, and restore human rights to England? "You're adangerousman."
"I can be." Malloryn relaxed back into his chair. "As Ulbricht and his friends discovered. I have no intention of seeing London destroyed after I sacrificed years of my life tobuildit."
"What happened to the serum?TheSOG?"
"It seems we entered the wrong factory. Ulbricht and the SOG set three of them to blow, and they planned on blaming the humanists. The remaining two factories are in perfect working order. If one doesn't consider the fact all the blood waspoisoned."
Kincaid scraped his hands over his face. "So they blame the humanists, and set off a war, and with so little blood remaining, everyone rushes to getwhat'sleft."
"That was the plan, yes." Malloryn sighed. "And of course, the only blue bloods who keep enough thralls to feed themselves—and therefore don't require the blood—are the Echelon. Some of them might have died, but it was a risk Ulbricht seemed content to take. I must have pissed him off lastmonth."
"It's your winning charm," Kincaidmuttered.
Malloryn barked a laugh. "Perhaps. Ulbricht used to fawn at Balfour's feet, so I was never his favorite person. I wish I'd gotten a chance to question him before he died, to ask him why he suddenly decided to launch this foolish scheme to destroy London. What stirred him up after three years of kissing the queen's hand and pretending he was on board with herplans?"
"That's the problem with dead enemies. You can't question them afterwards," Kincaid replied sleepily. "If I had my time again, I'd have tried not to shoot himforyou."
"No matter." Malloryn shrugged and stood, his shadow falling over the bed. "I just wish I knew where those bloodydhampirwere now. They can't have just vanished, and I suspect they're up to something. Hurry up and get better. Now we've got Byrnes and Ingrid back, I want all hands on deck. Ulbricht and his Sons of Gilead have been vanquished, but now we need to work on the real mission: discovering justwhohas been pulling the strings behind the SOG and thedhampir. The mastermind behind all of thisnonsense."
"Sounds good." Kincaid yawned. "But you'd better get me a new handfirst."
Epilogue
"WHAT HAVEYOU got to tell me?" the Masterasked.
Obsidian bent his head as he knelt upon the rotted timber floor, and stared at the hem of the Master's velvet robe. It was so bloody cold and dank in here, and he hated it, but the subterfuge was necessary for the next stage of the Master's plans. If anyone found them before they could complete phase two, then everything would beruined.
And he did not want to be the one to tell the Master or Ghost their little plan had beendestroyed.
