Once his housework was done, Nero escaped to the garage and spent the remainder of the afternoon cleaning and tuning up Red Queen. He always enjoyed working with his weapons, but today the task also provided some much-needed breathing room for all of the house's occupants—at least until the younger members of the household arrived home from school. Nero didn't want to send them to the park without Julio to supervise, and none of the children were anxious to return to the orphanage after the frightening experience they'd had on Monday, so he installed them in their bedrooms with an apology and a promise to take them on an outing soon. One more item to add to his ever-expanding list. Perhaps, if the weather remained fine, he could beg Trish or Lady to take the kids on a walk before dinner.

But like so many of his plans, that one soon fell through. The outside temperature dropped steadily throughout the afternoon, and a light drizzle was just starting when the Minotaurus van rolled up at the curb. Nero collected his tools and stepped out of the way as Lady backed it into its space in the garage—a touch less skillfully than Nico, but still with impressive accuracy for someone who had rarely driven the enormous vehicle.

"Not a scratch," Lady announced as she stepped down from the driver's seat. "Your standing with Nico is secure." She tossed Nero's keys in an arc over the hood. They went a little wide, but Nero caught them with his spectral hand.

Trish, descending from the passenger door, cocked an eyebrow at his stunt and glanced at the open garage door. "And what do the neighbors think of that trick?"

Nero shrugged. "Mrs. Trevisan next door is half deaf and needs a magnifying glass to read the numbers on her own front door. Mr. Jones, across the way, keeps his curtains drawn and only leaves the house on weekends. And the Caravaggios, in that house over there, stopped speaking to us after the Order fell apart because they blamed Credo for everything that happened, so I don't give a flying f—" The side door opened and Rosso hopped down, and Nero's profanity filter automatically switched on. "—fig what they think."

Rosso was staring at Nero's arm with shining eyes. He'd clearly seen the whole thing through the window, and while Nero had used the arm to catch him a few times, the boy hadn't been given many opportunities to passively observe Nero's ability. "Hey, how far can your magic arm reach?"

Nero glanced around. "About from here to the street, I think. Why?"

"Can I see? Can you grab something out there?"

"Uh… not right now," Nero temporized. "I don't want to scare the neighbors."

Lady gave an undignified snort as she rounded the front of the van and pulled down the overhead door. "So, how are things on the home front?"

"Same as when you left, plus a few more kids going stir crazy. Julio's still catching up on school work, and Vergil is… Vergil." Nero set Red Queen in her case and, seeing Rosso's gaze linger on the sword, locked it before the boy could ask to handle it again. "How'd your battledriving go?"

"Wardriving," Lady laughed. "And no luck, I'm afraid. If Lauda was hiding out at any of the places we went today, he was too far away for Tony to sense."

"Well, if he's been building up to this for more than a year, he's obviously got a few holes to crawl into. He could even be up at the castle."

"Or under it," Trish said. "I think our next step should be to search those tunnels, like we talked about a few days ago. We might find Lauda or the Nilepoch there. Either one would be progress."

Nero nodded as he led the way into the house. "We can talk about that after dinner. Speaking of which…" He sidestepped and leaned into the living room to check the console clock. "If Kyrie's not home in the next fifteen minutes or so, we may have to start cooking without—"

Even as he was speaking, he heard the rattle of a key in the lock, and the front door opened. "Oh!" Kyrie blinked at the three adults and one child blocking the hallway. "Hello, everyone. Am I late?"

"Nope. You're right on time." Nero gave Kyrie a quick kiss as she paused to hang up her coat, ignoring the faint gagging sounds Rosso made in the background. The opinions of eleven-year-old boys on the opposite sex were universal, it seemed, regardless of whether they were fully human.

Trish exchanged a look of amusement with Lady, and they both looked at Rosso. "Should we tell him?"

Rosso glanced between them. "Tell me what?"

"Nah," Lady said. "Why spoil the surprise?"

Rosso bounced on his toes. "What surprise?"

"You'll figure it out in a few weeks," Lady said dryly. A mischievous look stole over her face, and she turned to Kyrie. "You know, I've just thought of something. You two left home together this morning, but then you stayed at the orphanage to work, and Nero came home alone. Is that a violation of the house rules, since nobody got a kiss before you left?"

Kyrie, in her innocence, actually stopped to consider the question. "You know, I'm not sure! I think I kissed Nero goodbye at the orphanage, but if not, it's easily remedied." She stretched up on her toes and kissed him again.

Rosso, predictably, made another blech sound, and this time Lady and Trish laughed unapologetically. "Oh, I have an idea!" Trish said. "Let's record him making that noise, and we'll play it back every time he hangs up one of those centerfolds in his office."

Nero shot them a look. "I hope you know, when he hits puberty, I'm sending him to you two to have The Talk."

"Oh, no," Lady countered. "Traditionally, I believe that information is supposed to come from an older male relative."

Nero wagged a finger at her. "Male, relative, but technically not older."

Lady acknowledged that with a shrug. "Well, I suppose there is someone who fits on all three counts. We know he's at least familiar with the basic mechanics." She jerked her head toward the living room, where Vergil was staring hard at a book and doing his best to ignore the conversation in the hallway. "Though we might have to do some spot checking on the part about birth control…"

"And you can stop right there before this gets any more awkward." Despite his flippant tone, Nero felt the warmth creeping up around his ears. He'd had no trouble accepting the fact that his father hadn't known he existed—unplanned pregnancies happened from time to time, even on conservative Fortuna—but he was far from comfortable dwelling on the actual mechanics of his conception, or what could be inferred from it about Vergil's… technique. There were some thoughts better left unexplored.

Mercifully, Rosso had grown bored with the adults' conversation and provided a timely distraction by ducking around Lady to dart into the living room. Upon spotting his brother seated in the armchair, Rosso gathered himself for a leap—a dangerous one, if Nero read his trajectory correctly, as it would land him directly atop Vergil's book—but before he could leave the ground, Vergil shot a frigid glare over the top of the pages. "If you value your life," Vergil said in clipped words, "don't."

Rosso scowled and crossed his arms. "You're no fun."

"You'll find me considerably less fun if you persist in annoying me."

"I don't think you could get any less fun," Rosso sulked. "You're the most boring S.O.B. ever."

The silence that blanketed the room was brief, but absolute. Kyrie froze in place, as though she couldn't believe what she'd heard. Even Lady and Trish fell momentarily speechless as they waited for the fallout. Nero was mentally calculating whether his spectral arm could possibly haul Rosso out of the room before Vergil could land a fatal attack, but fortunately Vergil's only response to the insult was the flick of an eyebrow. "Would you care to repeat that?" His tone clearly indicated that it would be a terrible idea to do so.

"You heard me." There was an unmistakable challenge in the boy's expression. He was intent on provoking a reaction, and Nero had no doubt that he would continue escalating until he succeeded. "I said you're an S.O.B."

"Tony!" Kyrie reprimanded him sharply. "That is not acceptable." Rosso blinked once, as though surprised by the rebuff, but didn't take his eyes from Vergil.

"It's also not particularly prudent." Lady leaned against the doorjamb. "You're outmatched and outnumbered, kid. You might want to rethink your strategy here."

Rosso cocked his head toward her, but kept his eyes on his brother. "What strategy?"

"My point exactly. Now, while I am fully sympathetic to the desire to swear at Vergil—I mean, he makes me want to swear at him all the time—it's probably not the most inspired idea to do it while he still outweighs you three to one. And it's even less smart to do it in front of Kyrie. And Nero," she added, almost as an afterthought.

This time Rosso looked over at Lady, a crease of confusion appearing between his eyebrows. "I didn't swear at him. Swearing is against the rules."

She conceded the point with a nod. "You're right. You didn't technically swear, but I'm pretty sure Vergil knows what S.O.B. stands for."

"Of course he does," Rosso said promptly. "He was there when Nero taught it to us."

Every eye in the room swung to Nero, whose mouth had suddenly gone dry. "Um," he said.

The heat of Kyrie's gaze burned into him. "Nero?"

Nero's mind raced. He knew he slipped up occasionally, but he really did try not to use rude language in front of the children. Had he called Vergil any names in front of Rosso? It was possible. But then, he almost always called Vergil an asshole, not a son of a bitch…

Rosso, apparently, had no compunctions about implicating Nero in his misconduct. "You called him that, remember?" He pointed at Vergil. "Because he reads all the time."

Nero's panic redoubled, and he met Kyrie's eyes even as he failed to produce the explanation they demanded. He gave a desperate head-shake and wondered whether any of the sleeping bags were still in the van. He might be sleeping in the garage tonight.

"Nero doesn't seem to remember, Tony." Kyrie's voice was terrifyingly calm. "When was this? Were the other children there?"

Rosso shrugged. "It was a while ago. It was just the three of us, upstairs. Nero was telling us a story and he wouldn't stop looking at his book—" The accusatory emphasis was underscored by the dirty look he shot at Vergil. "—so Nero said he was an S.O.B."

The temperature of Kyrie's gaze dropped several more degrees. Nero shivered. "I see. And Nero told you what those letters meant?"

Rosso nodded, clearly proud that he'd paid attention. "Stuck On Books."

Lady had the grace and self-control to slip past Nero and move several steps down the hall before cracking up. Trish remained where she was and made no attempt to disguise her amusement. Nero couldn't bring himself to look into the living room. He doubted that Vergil would deign to show levity in front of the assembled audience, but Nero knew he'd lose a full measure of self-respect if Vergil actually laughed at him. Besides, he was pinned in Kyrie's deadly gaze like an insect in amber; he couldn't have looked away.

Kyrie let Nero squirm for a few more seconds while she put her words in order. "Tony," she said at last, "I realize that you didn't mean to break the rules, but in addition to being unkind, what you said sounds very much like a phrase that is considered extremely rude. Someone might hear you and think that you meant something much worse, so I would appreciate it if you don't say it again. All right?"

"All right." Rosso's eyes darted back to Vergil. "You're still boring, though," he muttered.

Kyrie let that one slide; apparently she felt Vergil could look after himself, when it wasn't a matter of enforcing the house rules. "Now, I'd better start dinner if we're going to eat on time." Releasing Nero from her weaponized glare, she breezed past him and disappeared into the kitchen.

Nero hurried after her, all too aware of the thin ice beneath his feet and his circumstantial escape. When he reached the kitchen, he was relieved to see that Julio was still working on his algebra at the kitchen table. At least Kyrie wouldn't eviscerate him in front of one of the children. "Is there anything I can do to help in here?"

Kyrie smiled for Julio's benefit, but the steel in her eyes made no secret of her meaning. "I think you've done quite enough for today, don't you?" She washed her hands and put a large pot of water on to boil. "I'll go freshen up while that's heating."

Julio waited until she'd left before giving Nero a questioning look. "What happened out there? I heard laughing, but you look… um… kind of the opposite."

"Yeah, I just had a near-death experience." Nero glanced toward the hall and lowered his voice. "If you value my life, do not ever let Kyrie hear you swear."

Julio blinked at that, but raised his hand to his forehead in a salute.

By the time dinner was ready, Nero was beginning to feel cautiously optimistic about his standing with Kyrie. She didn't bring up the incident with Rosso again, and Nero took the initiative to set the table and prompt the kids to wash up for dinner before she could ask him. If he volunteered to wash the dishes after the meal, she might decide to forget about his little language slip with the twins. Maybe.

Kyrie was still slicing bread at the stove when Nero got all the children herded into their chairs around the kitchen table. Eager to help, Nero balanced the guests' plates on his arms and delivered them to the living room. He returned to the kitchen to collect their beverages, and was just setting the last glass on a tray when Carlo looked up at him from across the table. "So when are you gonna tell us about your sword?"

Kyrie's head snapped up at that, and Nero narrowly escaped another life-threatening glare as he bit back a curse. "Uh… sword. Right." He threw a helpless look at Kyrie. This one really hadn't been his fault; he'd been called to the orphanage in the capacity of devil hunter. "That's right, I said we were going to talk about that, didn't I."

"Yours was really big," Kyle chimed in. "Way bigger than Mister Vergil's!"

Kyrie massaged the bridge of her nose, and Nero floundered. "You know, I think we should, um, wait until after dinner to talk about that." Nero glanced around the kitchen for a distraction, and his eyes landed on a fresh bag of marshmallows that Kyrie had evidently picked up at the market. "I'll tell you all about it over dessert."

"Yay, dessert!" the children cheered.

Kyrie pressed her eyes shut for a few seconds, then took the tray of glasses from Nero and preceded him into the hallway. "Nero, would you step out here with me, please?"

Nero dutifully followed her into the living room, where she distributed the beverages to their guests before pulling him along to the laundry room. She pushed him inside and shut the door, then rounded on him. "What are you doing?" Her voice was low, but tense.

Nero tried to keep his growing frustration out of his own voice. "I'm trying to do damage control."

"By promising the children dessert I haven't made?"

"You don't have to make anything. We can just toast a marshmallow for each of them over the stove. I'll do it," he added. "You don't have to do any more work. I just needed to stall them for a few minutes so I can get my story straight."

"Your story. About your weapons." Kyrie set the tray on top of the washing machine and rubbed her temples. "When were you planning on telling me that they knew about those? If they'd blindsided me with that question, I wouldn't have had any idea what to say."

"I'm sorry. I should have told you, but I just forgot." Nero caught her hands and held them. "When the orphanage was attacked, a few of the kids saw me and Vergil there. We had our swords with us because we'd just been fighting off a whole horde of demons. I told them I'd explain everything when we got home, but then Julio got kidnapped, and…" He squeezed her fingers. "I guess I'll have to come up with something to tell them."

Kyrie was silent for a few seconds. "The truth," she said at last.

Nero stared at her. "I thought we weren't going to tell them about demons until they got older?"

"We don't have to call them demons, but I want to be as honest as we can be with them. I'm exhausted by all these lies and omissions and cover stories." She sagged back against the appliance. "I don't want to live my life behind a veil of secrets. I want people to believe what we tell them. I want our children to believe they can trust us." Her gaze flicked up to Nero and hardened for an instant. "And that means admitting your mistakes, and not just covering them up with more lies. That whole embarrassing scene with Tony this afternoon could have been avoided if you'd just explained you'd said something wrong in the first place, rather than telling him it meant something entirely different. What if he'd told one of the other children? What if they'd said it at school?"

Nero sighed. "You're right, and I'm sorry. But that happened months ago, when they were barely out of diapers! I didn't think they'd remember it long enough to tell anyone else. Hell, even I didn't remember it until Tony explained." He caught her warning look and backpedaled. "Uh… I mean heck. Sorry."

"Well, evidently their memories are as tenacious as their physical bodies." Kyrie turned and collected the tray. "We'd better go eat while the food is still warm. And you had better think about how you're going to explain things to the children."

Nero reached around to open the door for her, then followed her back to the kitchen. The kids were nearly finished with their food; that didn't leave him much time. He handed Kyrie her plate. "Why don't you go sit with the grown-ups? I'll finish up in here and get started on dessert."

Dessert took some experimentation, and resulted in a couple of blobs of carbonized sugar becoming fused to the stovetop—Nero knew he'd be scrubbing those for a while—but at last he'd managed to heat-puff half a dozen marshmallows on forks. Once they had cooled to a safe temperature, he distributed one to each child.

"So now you'll tell us about the sword?" Carlo asked as he eagerly accepted his treat.

"Sure." Nero bought himself a few seconds by moving some dishes to the sink. He caught movement in his peripheral vision, and turned to see Kyrie leaning against the door jamb to listen. At least she hadn't left him completely adrift. "Her name is Red Queen, and…" He drew a deep breath. "And she helps me keep all of you safe."

The children blinked back at him—all except Julio and Rosso, who were already aware of Nero's true occupation. "Safe from what?" Flavia asked.

"From… bad things. See, there are these monsters that live on the island. Most of the time they stay out in the woods, but sometimes they get into the city, and people have to hide from them, the way you all did at the orphanage the other day. And when that happens, people who can fight them off, like me, have to get rid of them so nobody gets hurt."

The younger children wore expressions of frank disbelief. "But monsters aren't real," Kyle protested. "They're just in stories."

Nero shrugged. "You believe in wild animals, don't you? Like, uh, bears? And lions? Crocodiles?"

There were nods around the table. "But we don't have those on Fortuna." Carlo spoke with the absolute confidence of a nine-year-old in possession of an interesting bit of trivia. "At school we learned that since the island was made by a volcano in the middle of the water, the only animals that live here are the ones that people brought on boats."

"True," Nero said slowly. He didn't want to contradict their teachers. "But sometimes other things find their way onto the island, and those things can be dangerous. Not a lot of people know about them, though, so it's not surprising that you haven't heard about them before now."

The children still didn't look convinced. Flavia giggled openly, and Carlo stared at Nero expectantly as though waiting for the punchline. Julio glanced around the table and seemed to realize that Nero's story wasn't landing. "I've heard about them," he volunteered suddenly. "I haven't seen any, but I've heard grown-ups talk about them."

"I've seen some." Rosso had been trying to fit his tongue between the tines of his fork to reach every last speck of marshmallow, and Nero hadn't known if he'd even been paying attention, but apparently the opportunity to claim a unique experience over the others was too good to pass up.

Scipio scowled at Rosso. "You have not."

Rosso went back to licking his flatware. "Have so. I saw Nero kill one."

All eyes swung back to Nero for confirmation. He shot a questioning glance at Kyrie in the doorway, but she merely conveyed a shrug with her eyebrows and left the answer up to him. "That's right, you did." Nero turned back to the children. "I forgot about that one in the warehouse."

Uncertainty reigned at the table now. "If you really saw one," Carlo asked Rosso, "what did it look like?"

Rosso pursed his lips as he thought about it. "It had a great big knife instead of an arm."

A chorus of nuh-uhs broke out. "If it was a wild animal, it wouldn't have a knife!" Kyle insisted.

Nero decided it wasn't worth the effort to set them straight, especially if he were hoping to avoid explaining what demons were and where they came from. "Okay, enough," he called over the animated chatter. "It's time for homework. Everyone, put your forks in the sink before you leave."

Kyrie stood aside as the children trooped out of the kitchen, still arguing about the likelihood of blade-wielding wildlife. When they'd gone, Nero slumped back against the counter. "Well, that went about like I expected."

"You can't expect them to believe something so different from what they've always been told right away. But it will give them something to think about, and someday, when they're presented with more evidence, it might make the transition easier for them." Kyrie retrieved a dishcloth and began sweeping stray crumbs from the tabletop into her palm. "For the record, I think you explained it as well as you could have."

"Let's just hope they don't decide to spread the story around school, or the orphanage." Nero started the sink filling. "I think I'm already in enough trouble with Sister Benedicta without dropping that bomb on them."

"Well, if you look at it that way, the fact that the children don't quite believe you might be a blessing in disguise." Kyrie shook the crumbs into the garbage bin. "I'll go get the rest of the plates from the living room. And once we've finished cleaning up, we need to have another grown-up conference."

Nero sighed and looked around the small kitchen. "So all the kids are back in here for homework time, I guess."

"That, or their bedrooms. There really isn't anywhere else to go."

"Yeah." Nero plunged his hands into the soapy water and began scrubbing a plate. "How old is Mrs. Trevisan, do you think?"

Kyrie looked surprised by the non sequitur. "Around eighty, I should think. Why?"

"That's pretty old. You think if I kiss up to her enough, she'll leave me her house in her will?"

Her mouth dropped open. "Nero!"

"I'm just saying, if we're gonna keep running this hotel, we could use another half-dozen rooms or so. And she can't live forever."

This time, Kyrie's gasp of mock horror was punctuated by a well-aimed snap of the dishtowel.

By the time Nero had finished the dishes, Kyrie had divided the children into two groups and installed those with homework to do around the kitchen table. The others remained in their bedrooms to entertain themselves however they wished. Julio, who had finished the bulk of his schoolwork earlier in the day, offered to stay in the kitchen and help the younger children with their assignments if they needed it.

"We're gonna end up owing that kid a whole library," Nero murmured to Kyrie as they met in the hallway. "He's practically a middle manager for us at this point."

"I'm just glad he's so willing to help. I don't know how we'd have managed these past few weeks without him."

The thought lurked in the back of Nero's mind that they'd come perilously close to learning what life without Julio would be like, but he instantly banished it. "Guess we'd better join the rest of the party out front."

In the living room, Vergil was seated in the armchair as usual, while Lady and Trish sat at the farthest end of the couch from him, pointedly looking through a couple of Trish's magazines. The atmosphere among the three of them held its usual chill. "Sorry it took so long," Nero said. "Had to talk to the kids about some things."

"It's fine." Lady flashed them a smile, though Nero detected more tension in it than usual. Given the physical distance between herself and Vergil, he could guess at the reason.

"So I guess we need to decide what we're doing next." Nero waved Kyrie to the remaining spot on the couch while he leaned on the back behind her. "I mean, we had a plan for this week, but thanks to Lauda, that lasted all of one day."

Trish set aside her magazine. "As I mentioned earlier, we still have the tunnels under the castle to explore."

Lady nodded. "We didn't find anything during our sweep of Mount Lamina's western face, so I think underground is the next logical place to look."

"Okay. How are we gonna divvy it up? Or do we still want to stick together as a group?"

There was an instant's hesitation before Lady spoke, during which her eyes flicked toward Vergil. "I think we should go in together to get the lay of the land, but if there's as much ground to cover as Nico said, we could split into two groups to search the facilities themselves. Say, Trish and I could search one side, and you two can do the other?"

Nero hadn't really expected either woman to volunteer to keep Vergil company, but he supposed he couldn't blame them for that. "Okay. I'll let Nico know we'll be rolling out just after breakfast tomorrow. I guess now that Lauda's shown his hand, we don't have to worry about him going after the orphanage again. The kids will be headed there for their after-school activities." He glanced at Kyrie. "Do you want to take Tony and spend the day there? It might be safer."

"I'm not sure the orphanage is ready for a full day of Tony. But I have some errands to run during the day tomorrow, and I can take him along. And then after school, Tony and I can walk the children to and from the orphanage. After what happened yesterday, I don't really want them running around unattended."

"Sounds like a plan. Everyone agreed?" Nero glanced around the room, noting that Vergil was the only one who had said nothing. But he didn't object when presented with the opportunity, so Nero took his silence as approval. "Okay. I'll go call Nico."