Free Hidden Trump (Bite Back 2) by Mark Henwick

Biting you will not change my marque.”
    I felt a chill spread down through me. If he drank my Blood, his Athanate senses would untangle the puzzle of what made me different. But something in me really didn’t want him to do that yet. Something that might be too fragile.
    “And we may lose something,” Diana cut in, seeming to pick the thought from my head. Skylur snorted and steepled his fingers in front of his face again, but didn’t object as Diana went on. “It’s important because Panethus and Basilikos are more than just creeds, Amber, they are behavior patterns as well. Humans debate nature versus nurture, and so do we.”
    More chills ran down my spine.
    “Athanate tend to follow the behavior of those that infuse them,” she said. “Panethus create Panethus. But someone freshly bitten by Basilikos and kept in a Panethus House would also tend to turn to Panethus behavior.”
    “But I don’t know what type bit me, and I haven’t been kept in any House.”
    “Exactly. All our knowledge says that the most likely outcome for that is rogue. You’re not rogue. The second most likely outcome is Basilikos, simply because it’s easier to fall into that pattern of behavior.”
    “So you’re sitting there waiting for me to—”
    “Amber.” Diana’s calm tone stopped me.
    No one else said anything. There was a coldness in my chest that wasn’t going to go away until this was settled, but there wasn’t anything they could do for me right now. And they were waiting for me to break the agreements I had made about keeping Ops 4-10 secret.
    Crap. And worse, I had a suspicion they weren’t going to like the truth. But my links with Ops 4-10 were loosening. I couldn’t ever go back to them. I wouldn’t even get inside the gate without Obs grabbing me, and once they found out my Blood had changed again, I’d never get out. I’d spend the rest of my life in that cell.
    This was another decision between a sure bad result and an uncertain one. I had to commit myself to the Athanate, and let go of my agreement with the army.
    I took a breath and jumped.
    “I was on a mission in South America when it happened, two years ago.” I studied their expressions. They all had their poker faces on, but a tenseness that appeared around Bian’s mouth told me that just South America was already bad news. “I don’t know what they were. They weren’t exactly wearing T-shirts with Basilikos printed on them. Matter of fact, they were dressed in nothing but loincloths. Both sides…” My voice came to a halt. My squad. Every one of them, except me, dead. I shook my head to clear it. “There was one of them left at the end and he got to me. Tore my throat open. Fed on me.”
    “What did you do?” said Diana.
    “I cut his freaking head off,” I snapped.
    “Oh, my kinda gal,” said Bian, and she reached over to squeeze my shoulder.
    Fang 4 came back in and held a quiet conversation in Athanate with Skylur. Diana sat still, watching me. What was going on behind those dark eyes?
    Skylur finished and turned his attention back to us.
    “We don’t have time to take this further now.” He nodded to Diana. “We will proceed cautiously. South America makes it likely that it was Basilikos. That’s one problem. And the infusion of Were is even worse.”
    What?
    “We’re not saying that Were are like Basilikos,” Diana said to me, “but their pure instinctive behavior is much closer to Basilikos than Panethus. This is something that I will be responsible for investigating. We want you as part of us, Amber, but every part of us affects the whole. We cannot take poison into the association, if that is what you are.”
    She sat back. “We’ve all been on edge tonight. Some of that may be due to your marque. Not just the pheromones, the telergic element. We may be picking up subtle emanations of Were from you and reacting badly. We can’t have that in Haven.”
    “We could isolate her,” Skylur said, shortly.
    “Not