"Go ahead," I told her. I paid no attention to Molly, giving the kid time to think over the lesson and to get herself together. She didn't like anyone to see her when she was upset.
"Why do you think your ex is in danger?" Murphy asked. "Shouldn't this Skavis just run off if it knows you're onto it?"
"If it was operating alone, sure," I said. "That would be the smart thing. But it isn't running off. It's making a fight of it."
"So... what? It has help?"
"It has rivals," I said.
"Yeah. Grey Cloak and Madrigal Raith." Murphy shook her head. "But what does that mean?"
"Think in terms of predators," I said. "One predator has just gotten its teeth into something good to eat."
"Scavengers?" Murphy said. "They're trying to take the prize from him?"
"Yeah," I said. "I think that's what they're doing."
"You mean Elaine?" Murphy said.
I shook my head. "No, no. More abstract. The Skavis is methodical. It's killing women of magical talent. It doesn't have to do that to live - it can eat any human being."
"Then why those targets?" Murphy asked.
"Exactly," I said. "Why them? This isn't about food, Murph. I think the Skavis is making a play for power."
"Power?" Molly blurted from the backseat.
I turned and gave her a glare that quelled her interest. She sank back into the seat. "Within the White Court," I said. "This entire mess, start to finish, is about a power struggle within the White Court."
Murph was silent for a second, absorbing that. "Then... then this is a lot bigger than a few killings in a few towns."
"If I'm right," I said, nodding. "Yeah."
"Go on."
"Okay. And remember as I go that White Court vamps don't like their fights out in the open. They arrange things. They use cat's-paws. They pull strings. Confrontation is for losers."
"Got it."
I nodded. "The White King is supporting peace talks between the Council and the Red Courts. I think the Skavis is trying to prove a point - that they don't need peace talks. That they have us in a choke hold and all they have to do is hang on."
Murphy frowned at me, and then her eyes widened. "You told me once that magic is inherited. Mostly along family lines."
"Salic law," I said. "Mostly through female lines. I got it from my mom."
Murphy nodded, her eyes going back to the road. "And they can start... what? Thinning the herd, I suppose, from their point of view. Killing those that have the potential to produce more wizards."
"Yeah," I said. "One Skavis goes around to half a dozen cities in the most dangerous - to them - nation on the planet, doing it at will," I said. "He proves how easy it is. He identifies and hunts down the best targets. He plants all kinds of distrust for the Council as he does it, making the potential prey distrust the only people who could help them."
"But what does he hope to accomplish?" Murphy said. "This is just one guy."
"Exactly what he wants them to say," I said. "Look what just one vampire accomplished working alone. Look how easy it was. Raith is weak. Time to expand the operation now, while the Council is hurt, and screw talking peace with them. Change the guard. Let House Skavis take leadership."
"And Grey Cloak and Madrigal, seeing that he's onto something good, try to swoop in at the last minute, shoulder the Skavis aside, and take credit for the plan in front of the whole Court," Murphy finished.
"Yeah. They sing the exact same tune, only they substitute Malvora for Skavis." I shook my head. "The hell of it is, if Madrigal hadn't had a personal beef with me I might not have gotten involved. I made him look really bad when he tried to auction me on eBay and instead I fed his djinn to the Scarecrow and made him run off like a girl."
"Like a what?" Murphy bridled.
"Now is not the time to go all Susie Q. Anthony on me," I said. "Madrigal's wounded pride makes him leave clues to try to sucker me into the show. He figures Grey Cloak or our Skavis killer will help him handle me. Except that they ran into another problem."
"Thomas," Murphy said, her voice certain.
"Thomas," I said. "Snatching their targets out from under them."
"How's he finding them?"
"Same way they are," I said. "He's a vampire. He knows what resources they have and how they think. So much so, in fact, that he's ruining the finale of the whole program for everyone involved."
Murphy nodded, getting it. "So Madrigal gets a gang of ghouls and tries to take out his own cousin. And finds you and Elaine there too."
"Right," I said. "He's already being a loser, but it's still a sucker punch, and Madrigal figures, What the hell. If he gets away with it, he pulls off the plan and gets his mojo back from me."
"I still don't get why Thomas didn't say anything," Murphy said. "To you, I mean. I never figured him for that kind of secrecy."
"That's what tipped me off to the whole thing," I said. "There just aren't many things which could make Thomas do that. I think he was counting on it to tip me off, in fact."
Murphy shook her head. "A phone call would have been easier."
"Not if he's being watched," I said. "And not if he's made a promise."
"Watched?" Murphy said. "By who?"
"Someone who has more than one kind of leverage," I said. "Someone who is his family, who is protecting the woman he loves, and who has the kind of resources it takes to watch him, and enough savvy to know if he's lying."
"Lara Raith," Murphy said.
"Big sister is the one behind the peace movement," I said. "Everyone thinks it's Papa Raith, but he's just her puppet now. Except that there aren't many people who know that."
"If Raith's authority is challenged openly by the Skavis," Murphy said, putting things together, "it exposes the fact that he's utterly powerless. Lara would have to fight openly."
"And the White Court vamp who is driven to that has already lost," I said. "She can't maintain her control over the Court if she's revealed as the power behind the throne. Not only does she not have the raw strength she'd need to hold on to it, but the very fact that she was revealed would make her an incompetent manipulator and therefore automatically unsuitable in the eyes of the rest of the White Court."