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“Jax!” Black growled.

His voice sounded shockingly loud after so much silence.

Jax leapt forward to where Black continued to lead us.

I watched as the smaller seer swept the torch in arcs on both sides, and then over the mesh, metal floor. My eyes followed the torch’s path. That’s when I realized, the walls might have curved in towards us on either side, but we were still at least twenty feet above the ground, and probably closer to thirty, maybe even thirty-five.

I heard Black curse in rough Prexci.

I looked up at him, then followed his eyes back down.

He stood on the opposite side of the metal platform, and now the torches all pointed in the same direction. I sucked in a breath when I saw the view below the walkway.

Nick and his sire, Brick, were struggling near the rock wall.

Both had fangs out, eyes red.

Brick had blood on his mouth and running down his pale neck.

If Nick was injured, I couldn’t tell from the view of his black coat from behind, but he wasn’t moving like he’d been hurt.

My eyes scanned over the area near to them.

Jem was sprawled, half on his back on the ground, holding his throat, blood seeping between his fingers as he gasped. That had been one of the sounds we’d heard. The girl stood just in front of him, her hands clenched in fists, eyes wide as she watched the fight between Nick and his sire. She looked like she was trying to decide when and how to jump into the fray.

“Jesus,” Jax breathed next to me.

But my eyes saw jerking movement then, and I turned to my left.

Black had climbed over the railing. He now stood perched on the other side, gripping the metal with the very edge of his boots.

“Wait… NO!”

I lunged for him, but he’d already let go.

36

THE DOUBLE

Really, I realized an instant later, Black didn’tlet goso much asleap.

He threw himself with muscular legs at the nearest part of the cave wall.

I followed with my eyes as he caught hold just below the main outcropping of rock, slid a few feet on his boots and gloved hands, then caught himself.

Once he’d steadied his position on the rock face, he adjusted his footing and hand holds. Then he began to climb, fast, making his way down the bulging cave wall, moving with an agility and skill that both awed and deeply annoyed me.

My jaw hardened as Ace followed after him.

The tall Texan climbed over the railing like Black had, and leapt a little less gracefully for a similar part of the cave wall. Ace slid a little further than Black had down the rock face, but managed to catch himself, too, right around the point where he grew even with Black.

Mika followed Ace.

Jax leapt after them.

I looked to Kiko, and found she was already working on her own way down to the cave floor. She stepped into a simple harness she’d yanked out of her backpack, and spent a few seconds buckling it around her waist. When she finished, she threw the end of the thick rope she’d hooked to a buckle to Javier and Cowboy.

Without waiting, without saying a word, she walked to the side of the metal bridge and climbed up on the railing. Turning around agilely on her feet, she dropped carefully down over the other side, so that she was hanging from the metal bars.