Page 62

TWENTY-NINE

Omen

“We’ve got them,” I said, tapping the RV’s tabletop and looking around at my three associates. A sense of triumph rippled through me. “This puts us in an even better position than if we’d taken them on in that factory building by the river. We’ve backed them into a corner, and they’ll have consolidated all their equipment and resources in that one building, ripe for destruction.”

“They’ll have consolidated all their security there too,” Thorn pointed out, ever the man of practicalities and glasses half empty. “Especially if—you said you think the man who owns the property may be the head of the entire Company of Light?”

After Ruse had returned from his venture with Sorsha, he and I had driven out to see what further information his hacker dupe could unearth. With her charmed dedication, she’d found enough records to clarify the situation.

I nodded. “He’s covered his tracks well, but we came across money trails that convince me that this Victor Bane is behind the biggest operations the Company has conducted in this city. Either that, or someone with immense influence over him was pulling his strings, which amounts to the same thing.”

Restlessness gripped me, and I had to tense my legs to stop myself from pacing. This was only the first glimpse of our real victory. We wouldn’t achieve the rest until we got down to action.

But Thorn was right. We couldn’t charge in, eyes and fists blazing, like the wild fool I’d once been. I dragged in a breath. “And he’ll have plenty of security, yes. But most of the guards won’t be used to working there. We can still make use of parts of our original plan, like the various diversions to divide and conquer. It may be difficult, with fewer of us…”

My gaze lifted to the bedroom doorway down the hall. The unicorn had proven herself a fierce fighter—I’d give her credit for that—but even if her body healed, she’d be in no condition to leap back into a battle for several days at a minimum. I wasn’t sure the centaur would join us in venturing that far from her bedside either, even to avenge her injuries.

And Snap… The day had crept into evening and then dusk with full night looming over us, and our devourer hadn’t reappeared.

When I’d asked him to enlist in my team, I’d known that he had lingering reservations about the most potent part of his nature, but I’d thought his eagerness to help save our kind would override that if he ended up needing to use his greater power. Evidently he’d been more fragile—or the Company’s hunters swifter—than I’d anticipated.

“We’ll make the best of what we have,” I went on, and then, as I drew in my next breath, a knock sounded on the RV’s door.

Both Thorn and Sorsha sprang up, but their demeanors couldn’t have been more different. Thorn’s muscles flexed, his body braced to meet an attack—as if our enemies would have knocked before attempting to blow us to smithereens.

As Sorsha obviously realized. Her face had lit up with hesitant but obvious hope. In that moment, I didn’t see any of the mouthy mortal who pushed me to the limits of my temper or the cocky thief who laughed at deadly threats, only a woman whose heart was leaping at the possibility that our missing companion had come back to us unharmed.

The sight wrenched at me more than I’d have liked. When had I ever seen a mortal that earnestly dedicated to any of the shadowkind? But I didn’t think it was Snap out there—I doubted it would have occurred to the devourer to knock with his return either. And perhaps there was also an incredibly small yet niggling sensation with the knowledge that she’d have looked nowhere near that enthusiastic if I’d been the one who’d vanished.

You didn’t win wars by courting affection. My job was to kick her ass into getting those powers up to speed—a job I might already have backed off on more than I should have today.

I strode to the door and yanked it open, my other hand balled at my side ready to launch my claws. With my first glance outside, my stance relaxed, but only slightly. “What are you doing here?”

Rex was standing just outside the RV’s door, his arms folded over his chest and a particularly wolfish gleam in his keen eyes. “You put out a plea for help, didn’t you, Omen? Are you going to let us answer it or not?”

As he said “us,” he stepped close enough for his companions to converge around him. By brimstone and hellfire, it looked as if he’d brought his entire outfit along for the ride. The inner circle stood at his flanks—Birch the dryad, Lazuli the troll, and Tassel the succubus—and at least half a dozen of the gang’s lower underlings encircled them.

“I remember reaching out to see if Birch would lend his healing abilities,” I said. “Are the rest of you along to provide him with moral support?”

The werewolf rolled his eyes. “Why don’t we discuss all this inside before some country-dwelling mortal drives by and wonders what’s going on with the party at the school bus?”

He had a point, but my hackles rose instinctively at the thought of letting so many powerful and self-interested shadowkind onto the vehicle I was starting to consider mine. Of course, technically it belonged to the tourists in the back, and power was relative. In the grand scheme of shadowkind existences, Rex with his century or so of experience was still a gangling teen, and he was the most established of the bunch. Thorn and I would have stood a decent chance at decimating this pack between the two of us.

That was an evaluation the werewolf could likely make for himself with the experience he did have and his knowledge of me. And I had asked for at least one of them to make an appearance. I restrained my inner hound and stepped back to let them in.

The inner circle kept their physical forms, coming to join the four of us by the sofa. At Rex’s gesture, the underlings flitted into the shadows as they followed. I could still sense their presence lurking around us, but at least we weren’t being squashed into the space like sardines in a tin.

Both Thorn and Sorsha stayed on their feet. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised that even faced with several shadowkind she barely knew, our mortal was the one to push them into action.

“You should take a look at Gisele right away,” she said, motioning to Birch. “They hurt her really badly. Omen and Thorn patched her up as well as they could, but…”

Her voice faded as she led him to the master bedroom. Rex glanced at me with a slight arch of his eyebrows as if amused that I’d let the human call any of the shots, but he didn’t remark on it.

“That was quite a ruckus you stirred up downtown last night,” he said instead.

I grimaced. “Not by our choosing. We meant to ravage the pricks on their own turf, but they caught wind of our plans and ambushed us on our way there. We still managed to do plenty of ravaging, though, just not the rescue effort we’d hoped to include.”

“They’ve moved their prisoners again,” Thorn added with a grumble of frustration. “And they may have captured one of our own.”

Rex’s gaze skimmed over us. “Oh, yes, your ray of sunshine is missing, isn’t he? What a pity.”

A squeak sounded as if in agreement. Sorsha’s shadowkind pet had been huddled in a corner of the sofa at the arrival of the newcomers. Apparently having recognized them now, the little dragon scampered across the floor to twine around Laz’s ankle like a cat. The troll stared down at the creature with an expression of such anguish that I had to suppress a laugh. So much for the tough-guy front.

Sorsha slipped out of the bedroom alone, her face drawn, and moved to rejoin us. I tipped my head to Rex with all the authority I could emanate. “Why exactly are you all here, Rex? Does your dryad require this much protection or were you simply wanting to gawk at us? Because we have more plans to make and battles to carry out on behalf of all shadowkind that I’d like to get back to.”

The werewolf chuckled, but the arrogance in his pose deflated a little in recognition of who was the greater alpha here. I didn’t push the matter far enough to force him to outright cower in front of his associates. There might be times when it’d be useful to call in a favor from this man in the future. Aggression got you farthest in the long run when tempered by diplomacy.

“We’re not here as bodyguards or to gawk,” he said. “I got the impression last time we spoke that you wouldn’t mind a little assistance with all this battling. Well, here we are. We can battle on our own behalf. Just point us at the bastards who need gutting.”

I had to stiffen my expression to hide my shock. He was willing to step into a conflict that didn’t directly involve him yet—and not just offering his own allegiance, but that of his followers as well?

“ I got the impression you didn’t give a shit what happened to the rest of the shadowkind as long as you and your comrades weren’t affected,” I said, keeping my tone dry. “What changed your tune?”

“Oh, we’re affected now.” A growl crept into the werewolf’s voice. “This is our city, and those assholes think they can burn down the fucking Finger ? Maybe I’m not going to join you on any epic quests to win justice for all, but they clearly need to be taught a lesson.”

I managed to stop my gaze from twitching in Sorsha’s direction. From the corner of my eye, I could see her lips had pressed tight. It seemed wisest not to mention that it was one of my associates and not the Company who’d reduced the better part of that monstrosity of a statue to ashes.

“So they do,” I said without missing a beat. “And who better to deliver that lesson than you and your followers.” A smile curved my own mouth. “I’m looking forward to seeing how much damage we can inflict on them together. If I have it my way, they’ll never light so much as a cigarette around here again. Let’s get down to work.”

We’d just finished filling the gang in on what we knew and our plans so far—“Infecting their computer system,” Tassel purred. “I like it.”—when Birch emerged from the master bedroom. Somehow his nearly translucent skin looked even paler than it had when he’d gone in. His voice seemed to have faded too.

“The unicorn shifter will live,” he murmured roughly. “She woke up enough to exchange words with her partner. It may take another day or two before she can even move around on her feet, though. I’ve suggested they retire to the shadow realm until she’s fully recovered, as soon as she’s strong enough to make the leap through a rift.”

“You’ve got yourself a unicorn shifter?” Rex gave a disbelieving guffaw and then snapped his fingers at the troll. “That reminds me of something. Laz, fill Birch in on what he missed. Omen, a word?”

We stepped into the second bedroom—and damn if I couldn’t still scent a trace of the passion Sorsha must have shared with at least one of my shadowkind companions in the past couple of days. I willed it out of my awareness before my thoughts could linger on the moment in the yard when her body, her lips, had drawn me in with a nearly magnetic pull before I’d broken out of the spell. “What?”

The werewolf rubbed his hands together. “On the subject of unusual and powerful allies… I don’t remember many details—this was at least a couple of decades ago, though not so long it couldn’t be relevant. The Highest were searching for a particularly virile and apparently unpredictable shadowkind in this realm back then. I got the impression this one had caused some kind of chaos they needed to settle. Can’t remember the name they asked us about… A red stone of some sort. Jasper? Garnet?”

“Is this story going anywhere?” I asked, as though my interest wasn’t already piqued.

“I’m getting there. From what I heard from my contacts, they were looking for this red-stone-name all over the country. Maybe farther out too. And they specifically told us not to engage with the shadowkind if we got any word. It was too great a risk, and we should let them handle it.” He grinned. “I never heard that they caught that one. If you could track this Jasper or Garnet or whatever down… That’d be someone to have on your side in this war with the mortals, don’t you think? Could be almost as much a rebel as you are.”

I had a vague recollection of hearing murmurs about this subject, but I’d mostly been shadow-side during that time. As it probably had back then too, the first thought that flitted through my mind was of a being long-gone. I didn’t think the Highest had ever taken issue with anyone more than they had with Tempest, my once some-time partner-in-crime, and she’d gone through guises like mortals shed clothes… but I’d watched the minions of the ancient ones batter her to a pulp centuries ago. The sphynx was long gone, and we were likely all better for it. I doubted she’d ever have reformed.

Whoever this newer rebel was, it certainly sounded as though they had energy and guts to spare. Stumbling on them would be a longshot, but a possibility to file away all the same.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. “If we need the extra assistance in the first place. I say we crush the bastards tonight and end things there.”

“That works for me.” Rex bumped shoulders with me hesitantly, as if half expecting me to take a bite out of him for his forwardness. I settled on a simple glare. He hadn’t needed to offer anywhere near this much help. I could allow a little chumminess.

And maybe not just with him. When we returned to the living room, my eyes settled on Sorsha—sitting cozied up to Ruse now, poking Thorn in his massive bicep without any fear of the wingéd’s power, shooting a snappy response back at something Tassel had said. Like she belonged here.

Could I really say she didn’t? Correct blame for the fire aside, I doubted Rex would be here at all if she hadn’t laid into him about his self-centeredness.

Our mortal and her hope springing eternal.

I just had to keep a careful eye on all the other emotions her presence tended to stir in me. There was no room for distractions. We had a conspiracy of humans to destroy—and I intended to see them fall before the night was done.