44
	Jess woke to a dreadful numbness in her arms and the smell of gunpowder clogging her nose.  She was stripped naked and tied to a table, and something poked her sharply in the stomach.  Her mouth still tasted of blood, some of which must have been her own because when she ran her tongue around her mouth she could feel ragged sharpness where her teeth were broken.
	“Say that again.  Tell me about this heir you think you need,” Richard said.
	“She's my daughter,” Marcus said.
	“Your daughter?  With this whore?  What about me?” Richard said.
	“You are her brother and she will need you.  You'll have to teach her everything she'll need to know, she she can take my place,” Marcus said.
	The cold pressure against Jess's stomach increased and she heard the click of a hammer being drawn back.  Her breath caught in her throat and she fought to let it out slowly.  She wanted to scream and kick him away, but she was safe as long as she didn't move.
	“I'll see you dead before I see some whore's bitch take my place,” Richard said.
	“I thought you would have been pleased.  You've always been bored by politics, and every time I offered to let you take charge for a week, you said no,” Marcus said.
	“That's because I didn't want it that way.  I wanted to earn it and show you I was ready,” Richard said.
	“You made your choice,” Marcus said.
	“I think she's awake,” said a third voice.
	This one was female, familiar, and tinged with horror.  Jess tensed, waiting for Richard to fire, and she hoped he would.  But all that happened was someone brushed a hand across her forehead and clucked their tongue.
	“I think she's going to be okay,” the female said.
	“Lucky her,” Richard said.
	“Yes, she is.  And so are you, Melissa.  You're going to look after her yourself, and make sure nothing else happens to her,” Marcus said.
	Jess tested the thongs that bound her wrists to the table and found that, while she couldn't get them loose, she could move her arms up just enough that they weren't pulled back so far.  Pain burst through her fingers as the blood started flowing again, but she felt better for it.  Anger and fear would come later, but for now all she wanted was to sit up.
	“Will you really shoot your own sister?” she said.
	She had lost her glasses, so Richard was mostly a blur, but the look of guilt that shot across his face was clear enough.
	“You don't get any say in this.  That thing you're carrying is not my sister,” he said.
	“Don't you think I know who her father is?  And she's going to need a big brother to look after her as she grows up,” Jess said.
	But his eyes had gone hard and all she could see in him now was his father.
	“Think of it as a mercy.  What would she be like after twenty years alone with him?” Richard said.
	“I did okay with you, boy.  Your ungrateful mother just didn't understand what it takes,” Marcus said.
	Richard snatched the gun away from Jess's belly and pointed it at his father instead.  Melissa yelped and dropped to her knees behind the table.  She tugged at Jess's arms to get her to lie flat, but Jess dug her claws in and wouldn't move.
	“You leave her out of this.  You're the one who never understood.  You never cared enough to love her back,” Richard said.
	“Lie down, you stupid girl.  If he shoots you, I'll be next,” Melissa said.
	She hammered at Jess's elbows, trying to get them to bend, but fear made her blows weak and she stopped when Jess bit her.
	“My daughter will grow up to be her own person.  If you won't help, then don't you dare touch me,” Jess said.
	Melissa flinched and rubbed her arm where Jess had bitten her and, for a moment, she looked bewildered and scared, like a little girl up too late in a world of adults.
	“Every time I see you, I lose a little more.  My brother, my city.  And now?” she said.
	“I can't fix any of it.  I'm sorry,” Jess said.
	“It's not your place to be sorry.  None of us can help being who he made us,” Melissa said.
	She took out a tiny silver key and unlocked the shackles.  Jess tensed, expecting violent objection as she rose from the table, but Marcus only grinned at her, like he would at a favorite pet doing a trick.  The pit of her stomach turned to ice and her mouth went dry.
	“I've spent my life being afraid of you, and I'm finished with it,” Richard said.
	“Stupid boy. You're more afraid of me now than you ever have been,” Marcus said.
	“You haven't give me a chance.  What could I do, always under your shadow?” Richard said.
	“Your mother was too meek, I should have seen that sooner.  The dam needs to have some fire in her blood,” Marcus said.
	“And you think that this little bitch will be any better?” Richard said.
	“Her name is Abigail,” Jess said.
	The chill in her stomach turned to fire and she slipped between them.
	“My daughter and I belong to you, and maybe that's the way it should be.  But I will have her wear her own name,” Jess said.
	“Of course.  It's the perfect name for the child of my old age,” Marcus said.
	He put a hand on her cheek and she leaned against him.  His other hand found her breasts, and she kissed his chest and his neck.
	“You're being blind, father,” Richard said.
	“I'm fifty-one years old, and this is my last chance to save what I've built.  Maybe it's time for a little blindness,” Marcus said.
	“She'll take everything you have and put you in the ground,” Richard said.
	Jess moved up to kiss the tender hollow of Marcus's throat, and his hands wandered across her body.  He lingered on her stomach, running his fingers through the fur and pressing in a little, to feel the child growing there.  He kissed her fingers as she brushed them across his mouth and didn't resist when she pushed his chin up.
	“I'm sorry,” she said, and she drove her teeth into his throat.  The flesh there fit easily into her mouth, and his blood rushed down her throat, to drown her.  She bit harder, drawing his arms around her as his knees gave way, and there was thunder behind her.  Pain ripped her stomach open and they fell down into darkness together.