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I tense, going still.

We hear another voice, a female voice. “Well, my sister wasn’t at the gathering with the rest of us, and I assure you, the scent of that pack, it’s distinctive. I can tell they’ve been here. They left traces all over the living room downstairs.”

“You can really, um, smell each other?” says another voice, also female, but no-nonsense in a way that lets me know she’s probably a cop.

“Of course.” The other voice is closer. “There are rooms up here, into the attic. I think… oh, yes, the scent is getting stronger.”

I’m on high alert.

But I feel Lotus pushing out something through the bond, and I remember what Kyvelki said, that Lotus’s scent made Penelope want to please her. Lotus’s intention is overwhelming,and her scent makes it hard for me to breathe. It burns my nostrils.

“Oh,” says the voice. “No, never mind. I can’t scent them at all. You’d best go. They’re not here. Let me take you to another house, actually.”

It worked!

I grin at Lotus, who grins back.

“Wait,” says the other female voice, the cop voice. “What’s that chair in front of?”

Damn it.

“No, don’t look behind the chair!” the other voice is shrill. “Stop.”

This has the exact opposite effect, of course.

I hear the crackle of a walkie. “This is Jones. Request backup in the house we just left. I’m in the attic. I think they’re hiding in a hidden room, but I’m on my own.”

The walkie crackles back. “Copy that, Jones. Give us five. We’re still outside.”

I swear internally, looking around, trying to think of what to do.

Knight clenches his hands into fists, and I can feel it’s his intention to burst out of there with the gun and try to do something stupid, something that’s going to get us killed.

I shake my head, looking at Lotus. “Baby,” I whisper, “we fight, we die.”

She swallows.

She glances at Striker, who looks grim but nods his assent to me. Then she looks at Calix, who furrows his brow.

He gets to his feet. “Okay, you’ve got to follow my lead here, everyone.”

17

calix

I PUSH OPENthe door and emerge from the attic, hands up.

A police officer lifts her gun as I do, shouting at me to stand down, stand still, hands on my head.

I put my hands on my head and go still. “I want to speak to Dr. Coltrain,” I say. “Right now.”

She trains the gun on me. “Backup is coming.”

“Yeah, you could shoot all of us,” I say. “But you noticed how that one there—” I point at Penelope, who’s cowering in the doorway. “You notice how she suddenly started to try to get you not to look?”

Jones glances over her shoulder at Penelope and then back at me. Her voice is wary. “I did notice that.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Well, if my omega back here turns on the juice, she can make every single Polloi on this compound go crazy. You might be able to shoot them all, but do you really want to explain why you murdered a whole group of people when it’s on the evening news?”