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Long, slightly-curved, electric swords were now locked to their backs as part of that uniform, the sword handles DNA-coded so that they could only be drawn by their official user. Every Leash agent additionally carried long, black, semi-organic charge sticks, which doubled as cattle-prods and long-distance shooting weapons. They emitted charges that could incapacitate a fully-grown vampire and kill a human dead with one pulse.

Their armbands displayed the skull and chain insignia of the H.R.A.’s enforcement arm.

They were fucking evil, as far as Nick was concerned.

Even their uniforms made him think of Nazis.

Nick felt his stomach drop as four more members of the notorious Leash joined the first two to drag Walker in the direction of an armored vehicle.

“Whyare you taking him?” Nick asked coldly, still glaring at Lara St. Maarten.

“Be silent, Nick.”

“Why? Are you going to tell them to kill me, when they come back?”

She turned to stare at him, her eyes livid.

“He’s a terrorist.” She said it dispassionately, reasonably, as if she hadn’t had Forrest Keanu Walker inside her River of Gold penthouse apartment on more than one occasion, including for dinner.

“He’s alawyer––”Nick began coldly.

“––He’s also been concealing his true race,” she said scathingly, her voice an open warning. “Now shut the fuck up, Nick. Before they decide you’re an accomplice, and start looking into who else the two of you might’ve been working with.”

She didn’t look at Wynter as she said it.

She didn’t look at Tai, or Tai’s brother, Malek.

She didn’t look at Morley, Kit, Charlie, or Jordan.

Even so, that message was crystal clear, too.

“Why did you bring them here?” Nick asked, quieter. His words weren’t meant for the human H.R.A. or I.S.F. agents’ ears, only for hers. “Would you really rather see us all dead? Is that the better outcome, as far as you’re concerned?”

St. Maarten pretended not to hear him. She gazed around the clearing, absently fingering part of her straight hair off her cheekbone.

“I’m afraid the H.R.A. was inflexible on their need to question Mr. Walker about his political activities,” she said, her voice indifferent, despite the warning Nick still heard. “Now that they know he’s the infamous agitator ‘Keori,’ they are unwilling to let him go without his being interrogated. Keori has long evaded their attempts to identify him.”

The middle-aged woman folded her arms, her eyes colder still as she drummed her fingers on a suit-clad bicep. She aimed her stare back at Nick.

“You’ll have to take it up with them, Detective,” she said mockingly. “I assume he’ll be processed, and then legal redress can be attempted, once specific charges have been filed.”

Nick swallowed his fury with an effort.

He knew she was behind this.

Of courseshe was.

She’d offered them Keori, probably in return for the H.R.A. and the Leash not looking too closely at Tai or Malek, and leaving them in her custody, instead. If that was the bargain she’d struck, she was a fool. The Leash might give her what she wanted in the short term, but they’d never forget it. Never.

Tai and Malek would be living on borrowed time.

So would Nick, now that he’d been associated with them.

Rich humans hiding hybrids was one thing.

Rich humans hiding dangerous, telekinetic and prescient seers was something else again.

That didn’t even get into the inter-racial consorting going on.