Page 36 of Beyond the Veil (Endangered Fae #4)

“You feel responsible for her. I won’t ask why or how. But you do. Nusair, it’s all right. If we get the doors open, she comes with us. But if she’s free too much before and a sudden influx of humans invades this space, I’m pretty sure we’re asking for a disaster.”

Finn still seemed wary and unhappy even when Nusair relocked the door. “If you were so upset about her, why didn’t you let her out before?”

“Oh, I have,” Nusair said with a ghost of his usual smile. “I open the door every night for her so she can come out and see me. Sometimes I bring her spiders I’ve found. She’s been with me since she was a little fingerling lizard.”

A pet. Madre de Dios, who knew djinns had pets? “All right. When we’re closer to the time, she won’t get left behind.” Diego even dared to pat Nusair’s shoulder before he went to the cell Finn said he shouldn’t see. “And this one, mi vida ? What’s in here?”

Finn hesitated, his pale complexion edging a few shades whiter, so Diego grabbed the bars and pulled himself up. He was expecting some horrible monster, maybe something gelatinous or insect-like, so he wasn’t at all prepared.

For a moment, he couldn’t find anything in the cell until he spotted a lump of cloth in one of the far corners.

He squinted into the gloom, caught his breath on a choked exclamation and let himself down with a thud.

Huddled in the corner were the remains of a little girl.

Hard to say how old she had been since she was so thin and desiccated—maybe eight or ten years old.

Her sunken eyes were open and staring. Her little fangs still protruded from her mouth.

“Oh, God…” Diego sank to the floor to put his head on his knees.

“I told you not to look, love.”

“She was a vampire and they let her starve ,” Diego said, wiping at his streaming eyes. “What a horrible way to die. She was just a baby.” He lifted his head to glare across the room at Nusair. “Why didn’t you let her out? How could you let a child die like that?”

“Don’t get all righteous and bitchy with me.” Nusair lifted both hands as if warding off the accusation. “By the time I got out, she was already dead.”

“Diego?” Finn’s voice was small and uncertain. “I don’t think we can take her with us.”

“Why?”

“I think she’s likely to crumble the moment we pick her up.”

“Oh.” Damn it, what about her family? Someone should mourn her . Diego heaved a breath, trying for control, but he knew the image from that cell would haunt him forever. “Every detail of this place goes to the UN when we’re back home. Everything, hear me?”

“Of course, love. I’ll help all I can. You know that.”

The gentle reproach in Finn’s voice brought his head up. “I’m not angry at you, carino.”

Finn bent to kiss his temple before he strode over to speak to the ghoul and the griffin in some language Diego didn’t recognize.

The griffin dragged himself out into the hallway as soon as his door was open and flopped onto the corridor floor.

He looked just like pictures of griffins, with his eagle head and wings and lion’s body, but his fur was patchy and his feathers broken and dull.

The ghoul was more surprising. Diego had expected someone humanlike, but what emerged was on four feet. It’s a dog? No, a hyena.

The ghoul, too, lay on the cool concrete floor, tongue lolling, seeming far too much like a canine just rescued from a badly run shelter.

Nusair freed the werewolf last, speaking to him in terse, irritated Arabic.

The man, who was perhaps in better shape than the rest of the inmates of the cellblock, was still too thin and babbled at Nusair nonstop as he emerged.

Nusair barked out something angry and the man ceased.

“Scorpion-brained fool,” Nusair muttered. “He thanks us. Profusely. And says he turned a few days ago only because of the terrible stress of his arrest.”

“Did he give you a name?”

“Ask him yourself. Moneychanger. Usurer,” Nusair snarled and spat at the man’s feet.

“All right, leave him alone, please.” Diego patted the man’s shoulder and indicated that he should sit down as well. Nusair’s obvious hatred for bankers would only be a problem if the man got in his way.

“It’s almost dark, love,” Finn said as he peered up at the ceiling slits in one of the open cells.

“Finn.” Diego pulled him into a bone-creaking hug. “Be extra careful. Please don’t get shot this time.”

“I’ll do my very best.” Finn lowered his head for a sweet, searching kiss. “Remember that I love you and I’ll always do my best to come back to you. So don’t shout at me if I do get shot.”

Diego hid his face for two quick, steadying breaths against Finn’s shoulder. “I’ll do my best.”

Finn laughed and gave them all a jaunty wave as he disappeared into the false cell. Without the damn collar, Diego would have known each shift Finn underwent and what he became. As it was, when he glanced at the door, all he knew was Finn had gone.

Before Theo’s change, he would have only seen darkness when night fell.

The dark had frightened him, his night vision so bad they had barely allowed him to have an unrestricted driver’s license.

After? The night opened up in strange and glorious colors, in deep purples and silvers, in sinuous curves and softened lines.

Half an hour before moonrise, the sky was a bright colander of stars and the dunes spread out in silver waves on all sides.

He could see where the old cliché of the desert being a sea of sand came from.

The shadows transforming the shifting sands into restless water took little imagination.

It would have been incredibly peaceful except for one thing.

“Theo? Theo, are you listening?”

Limpet had been going on for the last hour about this and that and Theo had completely lost track. He didn’t tune out so much as he found Limpet’s voice soothing and his brain stopped interpreting the meaning of the words after a while.

“Listening but not paying attention.”

“Wonderful. I could have told you I had the pearl of all wisdom and you wouldn’t know.”

“Pretty sure you don’t.”

Limpet made a strange whistling sound through his nose. Theo decided it was an annoyed sound.

“Sorry. What did you say?”

“I’m not staying behind and watching you go down in a hail of musket fire.”

Theo turned on his side and put an arm around Limpet’s waist to pull him close. “I won’t be alone. I’ll be fine even if I take a couple of bullets. And you’re not going anywhere near the shooting.”

“You can’t—”

With a quick tug even closer, Theo seized Limpet’s soft lips in a kiss to silence him. “No. I can’t stop you from doing what you want to do. But I’ll be happier if you stay here. Less distracted.”

“Oh, distracted,” Limpet murmured against his lips. “I love your kisses.”

Theo sighed, stroking a hand along Limpet’s hip. His body wanted nothing more than to rip his clothes off and rut against Limpet until they both had sand in places they’d never imagined. But now was about the worst time to give in to raging, often-ignored hormones.

“Just think about it. Stay here and I can focus better.”

“Hmm,” Limpet said as he snuggled deeper into Theo’s arms. It might have been agreement or that might have been wishful thinking.

Light, drumming footsteps on the other side of the dune brought Theo up to his knees, with his hand on his sidearm. The running steps belonged to a jackal and the purposeful trajectory meant it could only be Finn.

“Hey.” Theo withdrew his hand from his jacket and flopped back down on the sand. “They about ready?”

“Diego is gathering everyone now. They’ll start at moonrise.” Jackal-Finn shifted to shaggy black dog, then to panther.

“Might want something that can get up the ladder to start.”

“True.” Finn backed up and shifted to gleaming, black dragon.

“Not really funny.”

The dragon flattened his wings against his back and lay down to make himself the smallest possible target atop the dune.

“I don’t mean it to be amusing. Your pardon.

I know it’s not your favorite shape, Theo, but consider.

Those big, swinging lights look at the ground.

I can take you by air and we can drop on them before they even know they’ve been attacked. ”

“Makes sense. Is it…safe?”

“You do know that first dragon incident was an accident, don’t you?” Finn said in a hurt tone. “I won’t drop you and I certainly won’t squash you a second time.”

Theo waved a hand in dismissal. “The squashing was my fault. Just never flown Dragon Air before.” He stared out at the blight of the prison block on the serene landscape. “Moonrise. We better start. Get those guards and weapons secured before they get the doors open.”

“Climb up then. I’ll drop you on the roof and shift smaller. Please don’t shoot any black tigers or lions or wolves you may come across.”

“No bears?” Theo asked as he climbed onto Finn’s reptilian neck.

“Ah, you do have a sense of humor. I worried that you’d lost it somewhere.”

“Theo!” Limpet stood at Finn’s shoulder, his hand on Theo’s ankle. He opened his mouth a couple of times, uncharacteristically at a loss for words.

“Hey. It’s all right. Just stay here.”

“Don’t die, Theo. Just…don’t. Please.” Limpet stroked his leg, his black eyes huge and glistening with worry.

“Do my best since you asked nicely. Hang tight, little bit. I won’t be long.”

Theo wrapped his arms and legs tight around Finn and squeezed his eyes shut when Finn leaped skyward with a sickening lurch.

Planes were bad enough. The prince’s Sikorski made him queasy.

But he wasn’t about to tell Finn about flying discomfort now and the flight was a short one.

He squinted past Finn’s draconian head, watching the prison grow as they approached.

If he timed it right, he could drop directly on top of a guard and let Finn get to shifting before someone could shoot him out of the sky.

Finn gained altitude, getting them above the walls and out of the guards’ immediate line of sight.

As a battle steed, Theo couldn’t have asked for a shrewder one.

His handgun stayed in its holster. If he didn’t have to fire a shot, he wouldn’t, but he wasn’t optimistic about being able to take down eight men without raising an alarm.

He shifted to the right as they crested the wall, right over top one guard.

As if they had choreographed it, Finn back winged and Theo dropped, taking the guard down with the force of his fall and a swift punch to the head.

Silently, he pulled zip ties from one of his inside jacket pockets and secured the guard’s hands and feet before dragging him out of the central walkway.

When he looked up, Finn had already vanished.

Theo crouched, listening for his next nearest target.

The man was just rounding the southeast corner of the elevated walkway that circled the roof.

Theo faded back into the shadows between the lights and let the man march past. Just as he pulled up short, probably realizing his counterpart on this section of wall was missing, Theo pounced.

One hand over the man’s mouth to silence him, the other struck in a quick jab behind the man’s ear. Two down.

He secured the second man as he had the first. Staying low, he crept farther along the walkway and came across a third man then a fourth sprawled on their faces.

He zip tied and dragged them out of immediate sight as well.

He was just about to congratulate Finn on being such a swift, silent hunter when a frightened cry went up from directly ahead and a shot rang out.

Shoving caution and silence rudely aside, Theo raced to the sounds of struggle.

A huge black panther had a still-screaming man on the ground.

Their last wall guard stood fifteen feet down the walkway with his rifle aimed directly at Finn.

Theo gauged the distance, took a running leap onto the railing between the walkway and the roof below and launched.

Though he was moving fast, the man with the rifle spotted him and got off a shot.

Pain tore through Theo’s shoulder. He ignored it.

A single bullet wound wouldn’t slow him down.

Fear ruined the guard’s second shot as Theo came down on him, fangs bared and snarling. He ripped the rifle from the man’s hands and snapped it in two before he raised his fist to put the man out. Theo held his blow, panting. The man had fainted.

“Finn? All right?” he called softly.

“Well enough.” Finn padded over while Theo secured his unconscious victim. “Your pardon for all the fuss, though. We nearly had it done in silence.”

“Didn’t hear any radio noise. Don’t think they got to warn anyone.” Theo trussed the last one and took a quick turn around the perimeter walkway. “All accounted for up here. We need to crack into that security bunker.”

A sliver of moon had just peeked over the edge of the dunes. Plenty of time.