All Trackers in one place. Trackers being hunted down.
And found.
The Pit would have been a gold mine for any being going after Trackers or other paranorms.
T and Chance. Easy pickings.
With Rodán’s protections, no one should have been able to see any of the Trackers leave, much less know the Pit existed or get inside. Anyone unwelcome, or anyone with ill intent—hell, anyone without an invitation—who even came close to the Pit would become disoriented. They wouldn’t even know where they were until they were far, far away.
Rodán was too powerful. Or at least I’d thought he was. But he had let T in based on the recommendation of another Proctor. Caprice had probably gotten the Chance-Demon in.
I took in the nightclub, moving my gaze slowly from one end to the other, looking for something, anything unusual tonight. My Drow sight made it easier to see throughout the nightclub.
It made no difference that the room was mostly dark, lit only by flashes of color pulsating with the beat of the music. Bodies were packed on the nightclub floor and patrons crowded around tables.
I tried to sift through the smells of food and alcohol to pick out the signature scent of each being in the room. Nothing seemed out of place, and I didn’t smell T’s rosewood and musk scent.
“Rodán said he’d be a little late.” Kelly, a Doppler, caught my attention. When I looked back at her, she tossed her thick blond hair over her shoulders.
I held back a frown at the image of her naked and in bed with Rodán. The thought made my belly feel like someone was twisting it until I was nauseated.
Jealousy? Me?
I’d seen him with lots of paranorms, but I’d never seen him with another Tracker or Peacekeeper.
But why wouldn’t he?
The strange feelings of jealousy must be because I’d lost Adam only hours ago. Lost Adam before I even had a chance to develop any kind of real relationship with him.
Rodán strode into the nightclub from the direction of his chambers, and patrons parted for him like he was one of the Gods of old.
Maybe he was.
He wore a long, forest-green, velvet robe and walked with power and purpose, as he always did. He held his head high and his whitish-blond hair glimmered in the light in our corner.
“We don’t have a lot of time, and we have much to discuss and plan,” Rodán said when he reached us.
He used his magic to erect an invisible wall to block our voices from being heard, and to muffle the loud music.
“Nyx,” Rodán said as he looked at me. “Explain your findings to the Trackers.”
“We came up with even more since I talked with you last, Rodán.” I met his gaze and he gave a slight nod for me to continue.
First I showed them the satellite images that we believed proved that the Demons were beneath the Museum of Natural History. Before anyone had a chance to start questioning that information. I placed down the map with all the circles in a triangular pattern. With a big red star on the museum in the middle of the map.
At first there was silence, before Robert whistled through his teeth.
“Gould be a coincidence,” Fere said. Nadia glared at the Werewolf. “Fere, go eat a dog biscuit.”
“It’s as we feared.” Rodán spoke before anyone else had a chance. “Abaddon is creating another, probably much larger, Demon Gate, and the liaisons are meant to be sacrifices. My belief is that he has left his symbols and taken his sacrifices, and now will attempt to open that gate.”
“Sacrifices?” Nancy set her unfinished chocolate martini on a table. “Are you talking about the missing liaisons?”
Rodán gave a slow nod.
“Liaisons are just humans.” Fere made a scoffing sound. “Why would he choose humans?”
Rodán looked at each of us, the seventeen remaining Trackers. “We’ve never before made this information public. Each liaison has latent psychic ability. A psychic version of stem cells that can be shaped to meet the Demon’s needs.”
All of us stared at Rodán, and I’m sure everyone was as shocked as I was. My mind went immediately to Adam. He had latent psychic abilities? That put him even more at risk.
Ice hissed through his teeth. “Shit.”
Well said.
“And the Trackers?” Nancy asked. “Is it because of our paranormal powers?”
“Yes.” Rodán had taken a sort of military stance. “All of the Trackers taken had strong psychic abilities, also latent.”
“You knew about this and didn’t tell anyone?” Fere nearly growled the words.
Rodán met his gaze with such a hard, commanding look that it was a wonder Fere maintained his angry expression and didn’t shrink away.
Rodán turned back to the rest of us. “With the powers absorbed from the Trackers, and the liaisons soon to be sacrifices, I believe Abaddon has everything he needs to open his gate to the abyss.”
“We can’t let him do that.” Ice stood. “We need to go on the offense and take him at his lair.”
“There are only seventeen of us.” Meryl rubbed her palms on her fighting suit. “Will the Great Guardian give us reinforcements to go after this master Demon and all of his lesser Demons? And help us keep the gate from opening?”
“I was late because I met with the Guardian.” Rodán managed to school his expression, but I could tell he was pissed. “She said she can’t help us in this battle.”
I clenched my fists at my sides. “That’s absolute—”
“Absolutely her choice.” Rodán cut me off before I could say something about the GG that I might really regret. Well, maybe I’d regret it. “This leaves us, alone, to conquer Abaddon and keep him from bringing his legions to our world.”
“How are we going to do that?” Ice put his hand on the hilt of his sword. “Like Meryl said, there are only seventeen of us.”
“Eighteen.” Rodán swept his gaze around the room. “I will join the battle and we will send Abaddon back to the stinking abyss.”
Everyone seemed to hold their breath. Rodán joining us in battle? But then, we’d never faced anything like this before.
“The Demons don’t show until around midnight.” I braced my palms on my hips, feeling the comfort of my dagger hilts next to my hands. “If we find where they’re hiding below the museum, we can take them before they have a chance to leave.”
Rodán nodded, slipped off his robe, and laid the green velvet over the back of a chair.
He had dressed in black this time, a color I’d never seen him in—a black leather tunic and breeches.
He filled out his clothing better than any other male could, and all of our males were fine. Rodán looked more powerful, more commanding, and more beautiful than ever.
Strapped to his back he had a carved bow made from Dryad wood, along with a quiver of Elvin arrows—amazing that I hadn’t even seen a lump beneath his robe. Elvin magic, no doubt. He also had two elegant swords sheathed at his hips, along with two daggers. Talk about prepared.
“What’s the plan?” Hades moved forward and studied the map more closely. “We ail converge on the museum before they have a chance to come out at midnight?”
“Our territories.” Nancy frowned. “We can’t leave them unprotected.”
“We have no choice but to use all of our resources to go after Abaddon.” Rodán looked at each Tracker gathered around the table. “However, we will have to separate.” He pointed to Nancy, Fere, and Ice. “You three will take the building where the liaison was taken and the symbol left in the apartment near Seventy-ninth and Riverside.”
He assigned three Trackers to each of the other two points where liaisons had been abducted and symbols burned into the floors.
“This leaves eight, including myself,” Rodán said. “We will go to the center of the triangle, where Abaddon will most likely attempt to open a gate.”
“Ten.” A little flutter brushed my insides. “Two humans as well. My partner, Olivia DeSantos, and Detectiv
e Adam Boyd.”
Fere scowled at me. “No godsdamn humans. They don’t belong.”
Rodán held up his hand. “These two humans may join us.”
Fere made a sound of disgust. Did I mention I really, really didn’t like Fere?
“So three at each corner point, ten at the center.” I pursed my lips and didn’t say anything else. Talk about bare bones.
Carlos got to his feet. “It’s time to rock.”
“Indeed,” Rodán said. “Let’s rock.”
CHAPTER 31
I stood alone in the arched hallway leading to Rodán’s chambers. The sounds of the nightclub had died away the moment I stepped through the mist. I took the XPhone from its clip on my belt.
My hand shook a little as I pressed the speed dial number, then held the XPhone to my ear. “Hi, Adam,” I said when he answered.
A slight pause. “Hi, Nyx.” Adam’s voice wasn’t cold like I was afraid it would be. Instead he sounded resigned, and that hurt more than if he’d been abrupt or terse, or anything else. “What can I do for you?”
I held my free hand in a fist over my heart. I swallowed. Gathered myself so that my voice wouldn’t crack like I was afraid it would. “I promised you that I’d let you know when we were going after the Demon responsible for the liaisons’ disappearances and all of the human deaths.”
“What’s the location?”
Professional. Formal. Like I was just someone else he was getting information from.
I clenched my fist tighter against my heart and squeezed my eyes shut before giving him the information, and telling him where to meet us. Me.
“Thanks. I’ll be there.” He disconnected the call.
My eyes were still closed and I’d shut my senses down, trying to block out everything. Absolutely everything.
When Rodán spoke, he almost startled a shout out of me. “Tell me what has happened, my sweets,”
he said in Elvin as he came up from behind me.
I looked up at him but couldn’t get a word out. Rodán took me in his arms and pressed my head against his chest. His arms felt warm and comforting around me, and I could hear the steady beat of his heart. “Tell me,” he said again, his voice low and soothing. His scent of cedar and mountain laurel was as warm and welcome as the sound of his voice.
Rodán listened as I told him about what Adam had overheard and his reaction. What Adam said.
How I’d hurt him without meaning to, and how much it hurt me.
Rodán hugged me again and kissed the top of my head.
I perched in a willow tree above the northern end of the lake, where I’d told Adam to meet me. I wanted to see him before he had a chance to see me.
The willow’s leaves fluttered against my face in a breeze that carried the scent of the lake and the park’s trees. The branch I was on was slender and supple, but it easily held my weight.
It wasn’t long before Adam arrived, and this time he wasn’t wearing his brown leather bomber jacket. He wore body armor over a black T-shirt, black jeans, and he was well-armed. His shoulder holster held two handguns and his Glock was holstered on his duty belt. He had a sheathed knife along with other things on his belt, like what looked like a canister of tear gas. Also attached to the belt were a couple of items I was pretty sure weren’t legal.
He looked so handsome, so real, that it made my heart hurt more. Especially when I caught his coffee and leather scent.
His back was to me when I swung down from the tree to land silently behind him.
The fluttering of many birds seemed to take flight at the same time in my belly and chest. “Adam.”
He wheeled, his hand going immediately to his Glock at the same time he spun to face me. Then he relaxed and took the few steps to stand in front of me.
Adam studied my face before he raised his hand, clasped a handful of my hair, and let it slide through his fingers. Even in the little light offered where we stood, my hair looked so blue against his tanned skin.
He cupped the side of my face with one of his large, callused hands and stroked my cheek with his thumb as he studied me. “You’re beautiful.” He kept running his thumb over my skin. “So beautiful.”
His touch made me ache. Had he forgiven me? His expression was that of a man who cared about me as he slid his hand from my face into my hair and stroked the tips of my pointed ears. For a moment I thought he would kiss me. Goddess, how I wanted that.
But his expression went almost blank as he stepped back. He let his hand fall to his side so that he was no longer touching me. “What’s the plan?”
I started to say Rodán’s name, but after Adam’s reaction to finding out about me and Rodán, I couldn’t say my mentor and lover’s name. I don’t know if I should have been ashamed of myself or if I was just trying not to dredge up the memory from what amounted to mere hours ago.
“There are four teams and our Proctor,” I said.
“Rodán.” That same resignation was in Adam’s voice again as my stomach sank. It had been stupid of me to avoid saying Rodán’s name, anyway, since Adam would be meeting him in moments.
“You and I will be included in the larger team that’s going for Abaddon.” No expression from Adam. “Is that okay with you?”
“Of course.” He didn’t hesitate, but he looked from me toward the museum.
I could be professional, too, and leave personal feelings behind. Hanging onto those kinds of feelings at this moment could get any one of us killed. “Everyone is already in position.”
I laid out everything for him. To start with, we had three teams of two stationed around the museum. Rodán, Adam, and I would be going in.
Adam and I moved through the park to our meeting place with Rodán. Because he was human, Adam made more noise than I would have liked—loud for the paranormal world. To humans he would be nearly soundless.
We reached our destination and Rodán stepped from where he had been invisible in the shadows. If Adam was startled by Rodán’s sudden appearance, he didn’t show it.
For a brief moment the two stood at the edge of the shadows and appraised each other. They were both about six-two, but with different builds and different coloring. Rodán, with his long blond hair and green eyes, was beautiful, almost ethereal for a man, yet he was all male.
Adam was hard and rugged, his brown hair cropped close to his collar and his brown eyes keen and appraising. He had a cop’s wary and controlled expression.
Rodán—it wasn’t possible for anyone to surpass him for the level of confidence he carried, yet Adam’s confident air seemed just as strong at that moment.
But there was truly no comparison between the two men.
It had been just a couple of seconds, and then they each held hands and gave what was clearly a firm handshake. “You and I,” Rodán said as they gripped hands, “shall talk once this is over.”
Adam studied Rodán for a moment before he gave a curt nod.
“Let’s go.” I was impatient to find Abaddon and jam his ass back into the abyss.
Before we made our move, I caught Adam looking at me a couple of times, studying me before he would turn away.
“What about Adam?” I said to Rodán. “The Demons will be able to see him.”
Rodán said nothing but stared at Adam who began to . .. vanish.
Almost. I could see vague outlines of Adam, and a slight shimmer beneath the moonlight and streetlights. I saw faint movement as he raised his hands and looked at them—or through them.
“Holy sh— crap.”
“Are you fine with this?” Rodán asked.
“Yeah, sure.” Adam’s voice sounded clear despite the fact that he barely had any form. “I always wanted to be the Invisible Man.”
With our own glamours, Rodán and I faded into shadows and moonlight, and I knew we were as faint to Adam as he was to us. Rodán must have also done some kind of silencing spell that cushioned every step Adam made, because I couldn’t hear a single sound coming from him. Not eve
n his breathing.
We started across Central Park West to the beautiful sprawling stone building of the Museum of Natural History. We passed the statue of President Theodore Roosevelt on horseback, then jogged up the steps to the front doors.
Inside the statue, like all statues, there were Gargoyles, hideous creatures that could turn to stone or metal. These particular Gargoyles protected the museum from night predators. I was surprised the creatures had let anything evil past them, like the Demons.
Abaddon must have found a way to get beneath the museum without being noticed by any being—
unless he had killed the Gargoyles and they were dead inside the shell of their statue. I’d never heard of anything like that ever happening, though.
Our three other teams would remain outside until Rodán signaled and gave them instructions. Olivia was somewhere nearby with Nadia, but like the other four Trackers they were completely hidden from view.
Well-secured banners above and to either side of the entrance made barely a sound as the night breeze stirred them.
A feeling of dread and hopelessness grabbed me as we neared the front entrance. Pain, suffering, fear.
Vibrations filled the air. Massive pain seared my spine and my body—my arms, my legs, my face.
Everywhere. I choked back a scream with every sting, so powerful that my muscles began to quiver, my body sweat, and my vision blur.
My belly felt like scorpions were stinging my in-sides.
What was happening to me? Goddess. I couldn’t think. My breathing was so shallow I could barely take my next breath.
The moment I reached the top, my knees buckled and hit the landing hard. I had to clench my teeth to bite back every cry that wanted to tear from my throat. I couldn’t hold onto my glamour and it dropped. I was completely exposed and crippled by pain.
A glimmer of light let me make out the vague outline of the invisible Adam as he crouched beside me. He put his hand on my upper back and my whole body clenched in an effort not to scream from the pressure of his palm on me.
“Are you okay?” Adam’s voice was urgent, concerned. “I can see you. You’re totally visible again.”
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