The car was moving through the city streets, the lights of Neo-London blurring past the windows, and David couldn't stop staring at the woman sitting across from him. Elena Vane. Marcus Vane's sister. The daughter of the man who had killed his parents. She was sitting there like she had every right to be there, like she hadn't just pulled them out of a government building, like her last name wasn't the first one on his list.
Lucas was pressed against David's side, his body still half-shifted, his hands still clenched. He hadn't taken his eyes off Elena since they got in the car. "Someone want to explain what's happening? Because I'm sitting in a car with a Vane and I'm trying really hard not to punch something."
Elena looked at him with something that might have been amusement. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't. I just helped you escape from a building full of people who would have loved to explain why three teenagers broke into the Director's office. A little gratitude would be nice."
"You're a Vane." David's voice came out flatter than he intended. "Your family killed my parents. Your father has been hunting for what they left behind for eighteen years. Your brother has been circling us since the awakening, testing us, warning us. And you want gratitude?"
Elena's expression didn't change but something in her eyes shifted. "My father and my brother are not me. And what they did, what they've been doing, is not something I chose."
Becca was sitting in the front seat, turned around, her eyes fixed on Elena with the intensity she usually saved for combat. "Then why are you here? Why help us?"
Elena was quiet for a moment, looking out the window at the city passing by. "Because I know what my father did. I know what he's been looking for. And I know what he'll do to get it."
The car pulled into an underground parking garage, the lights flickering overhead, the sound of the engine echoing off the concrete walls. David didn't recognize the building, didn't recognize the neighborhood, didn't recognize anything. He looked at Becca and she nodded slightly, her hand near her dagger, her shadows already pooling at her feet.
Elena led them through a door, up a flight of stairs, into an apartment that was small and clean and looked like no one lived there. She gestured at chairs, at a couch, at anything that would let them sit down. David stayed standing.
"You said you've been waiting to meet me," he said. "Why?"
Elena sat down in a chair by the window, her hands folded in her lap, her face calm in a way that seemed practiced. "Because I know what's coming. And I know you're the only one who can stop it."
Lucas made a sound that was half laugh, half disbelief. "Stop it? Stop what? Your family?"
"My family is part of it. A small part. The part that does the dirty work, that sends the assassins, that makes sure no one looks too closely. But they're not the ones in charge." Elena looked at David. "Someone else has been running this from the beginning. Someone who wanted the Phoenix Clan gone, who wanted what you're protecting, who has been waiting for eighteen years for someone to find it."
David's hands tightened at his sides. "Director Chen."
"She's part of it. But she's not the one at the top. The Vane family works for her, and she works for someone else. Someone who's been in power longer than any of us have been alive." Elena's voice was steady, her eyes never leaving David's face. "Someone who thinks what your father hid is the key to something much bigger than a dead clan's legacy."
Becca moved closer to David, her presence steady, her voice low. "Who?"
"I don't know. I've been trying to find out for years. Every time I get close, something happens. People disappear, records get erased, the trail goes cold." Elena's hands tightened in her lap. "Kaito was getting close. That's why they attacked him. He found something, something that led to Chen, something that scared them enough to break their own rules and strike in the open."
David thought about Kaito in his hospital bed, about the bandages around his chest, about the smile that didn't quite hide the pain. "He found Chen. He didn't find who's above her."
"He was close. So close." Elena stood, walked to a bookshelf, pulled down a file that looked like it had been handled a hundred times. "I've been collecting evidence for years. What my father did, what Chen did, what happened to the Phoenix Clan. I have names, dates, locations. I have enough to destroy them if I could get it to the right people."
Lucas finally sat down, his body shrinking back to normal, his face pale. "Then why haven't you? Why wait until now?"
Elena put the file on the table between them. "Because no one would listen. Because my father is powerful and Chen is powerful and the people above them are even more powerful. Because the only person who could make anyone believe the truth is the person who has the most to lose." She looked at David. "The son of the people they killed. The heir to the Phoenix Clan. The only person who can prove that what happened eighteen years ago was murder, not accident, not politics, not the natural fall of a clan that had grown too powerful."
David stared at the file, at the years of work Elena had put into it, at the evidence she'd been collecting while her family hunted him. "Why? Why do this to your own family?"
Elena's face twisted, the calm mask cracking for the first time. "Because my mother was Phoenix Clan. My father killed her too."