“Our turn.” Thom flexed his hands down at his sides. Claws the length of my thumbs emerged from the tips of his fingers. “We must cut down the cowards who flee.”
Suddenly, I had a much clearer picture of how those sheep had met their ends.
Thom was one scary son of a biscuit.
Three Drosera decided they had had enough and bolted down streets headed in opposite directions. I charged after one, but Thom trailed me instead of hunting down the others. And I wasn’t fooling myself. He could dispatch ten to every kill I managed with those razorblade fingertips and his centuries of experience.
“Go,” I growled at him. “They’re getting away.”
“Your safety is my priority.” He wasn’t even winded. “We’ll catch the others.” He tapped the side of his nose, and I half expected him to lop off the tip. “I can track them. They won’t get far.”
“All right.” I trusted his assessment. I didn’t have much choice. Truth be told, I didn’t want to be out here alone. I was scared what I might do without someone to anchor me in this skin. “Let’s do this then.”
The first charun decided he couldn’t outrun us and hid behind a dumpster. Blood poured from his side, and his eyes barely tracked as Thom took his head. At this point, it was a mercy killing.
“The others have a head start.” I kept my expression and voice neutral when he searched my face for signs of . . . revulsion maybe? He was my friend, and I showed him none. “Get tracking, tracker.”
When Thom smiled, his mouth was full of needles, and he rolled his r into a purr. “With pleasure.”
Chin up, he drew in air to fill his lungs then exhaled with manic glee written across his face. Faster than I could ask what he’d scented, he turned on a dime and bolted in the direction his nose told him to go.
To keep up, I had to pull on the reserve that made me a bit faster, a tad stronger, than most humans.
We breezed past zones two and three. This outer area hadn’t been cleared, and the odds of running across innocent bystanders skyrocketed.
“This way,” he breathed, legs pumping until I worried he might lift right off the pavement.
I stuck as close to him as my shorter legs and lesser endurance allowed, and soon I saw what he had sensed all along. The two stragglers had banded together. Now the odds were even.
Thom flexed his claws. “They’ll only kill more humans if we allow them to escape.”
There was no way to tell how many skin suits they had cycled through in their lifetime. Thom was right. The longer they lived, the more humans would die, and the war hadn’t even kicked off yet.
As far as motivational speeches went, it was a short but effective one.
The Drosera noticed us at the same time, and they made their stand in the middle of the freaking street. It’s not like there was any traffic, but there would be eventually. We had to wrap this up quick.
“Take the one on the left.” Thom’s nostrils flared. “He’s already wounded.”
“Got it.”
We advanced while they held their ground. That made me nervous, like they knew something we hadn’t figured out yet.
Right before we got level with them, I grasped the situation and yanked Thom back a step. Had the unmarked sedan not been pointed in the opposite direction, the cops would have spotted us. Me with my blood-crusted falchion, and Thom with his claws still dripping.
Shit on a shingle. This just got more complicated.
“There’s an undercover unit parked on the corner,” I told Thom. “See that glint? It’s a light bar mounted flush with the back windshield. Looks like two officers. Both plainclothes.”
“We have to lure them away,” Thom snarled softly, his disgust at their cowardice apparent.
The big rule was not to involve humans, to fly under their radar, but these two were willing to drag bystanders into the fray to save their tails.
“Damn it.” I wiped the back of my hand across my sweaty forehead. “They know I’m a cop.” I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood. It didn’t matter. Amending that to I was a cop would hurt even worse. “They don’t think I’ll put the officers at risk.”
Thom spared me a glance. “Will you?”
I didn’t like the way he was looking at me. “Will you?”
“No,” he said slowly, as if sounding out the right answer.
Shocker, I wasn’t the only one who pulled on a blank face to conceal their true emotions. The coterie was trying, and so was I. I had to believe that was enough, that we could find some middle ground where their morals and mine didn’t clash so loudly.
“We can’t wait them out, and we can’t let them go.” Our chances of striking a third target evaporated if we stood here much longer. I still wasn’t hot on that plan, but majority ruled. “Can you incapacitate them?”
A flash of needle teeth. “Yes.”
“I’m going to engage.” I tested my grip and found my palm bone-dry when it should have been as sweaty as the rest of me. “When the officers exit the vehicle, take them down. Easy.”
“I won’t hurt them,” he promised, sounding more certain.
“Wish me luck.” I didn’t give him a chance to follow through before charging toward the startled charun. One blanched while the other pointed to the sedan in case I had somehow missed the police presence. I grinned at them, and it was a nasty twist of my lips that snarled up my face. “They can’t save you.”
The cold place burst over my head, chilling my thoughts and freezing my reservations.
Whatever change they perceived on my face or in my body language sent them scurrying.
Behind me, I heard car doors open and footsteps hit pavement.
“Stop,” a woman barked. “Drop your weapon and put your hands in the air.”
Trusting Thom to have my back, I kept up the pursuit.
The Drosera sprinted for the nearest lighted area, a grocery store by the looks of it. The lot wasn’t empty of vehicles. Far from it. There were people in there who would eventually need to come out and get in their cars to go home. These two knew I valued human life. They were making me work for the kills. The only way to protect the shoppers was to take out the charun before they hit that spill of light and claimed their safety.
Diving deeper, I pumped my legs harder. I drew on that calm center until it enveloped me, until its focus encased me in an impenetrable bubble where things like exhaustion and ethics ceased to exist. Even the worry I had nursed for the humans faded to a half-formed thought, easily swept aside by the tide of hungrier urges.
The faster charun stepped in a pothole and lost his footing. Those precious seconds cost him. I was on him a heartbeat later. I clamped my left hand on his shoulder then thrust my blade through his kidneys. He cried out, thrashing. The wound, while painful, wasn’t life-threatening. It was a petty strike, a toll exacted from him for making me waste my time. He should have stood his ground, died in the fight with his kin. But no, he had abandoned them to save his own skin.
I shoved him forward, and he landed on his hands and knees. From there, it was easy to take the three steps that lined me up with his shoulders, to raise my blade, and sever his neck with one surgically precise blow.
His head tumbled to the asphalt and rolled to a stop with his face gazing skyward. I watched the light go out of his eyes, and I was satisfied. No, I was horrified. But I couldn’t shatter the icy bars of the cage holding me. There was nothing to do but piggyback on that spark of Conquest’s consciousness while ancient instincts ruled my body.
The second charun hadn’t waited around to see what fate befell his coterie member. He was a dot growing smaller on my horizon as he fled toward the perceived safety of the light.
He didn’t make it.
Thom slammed into his side, and they went down together. A feral snarl tore past his lips as he punched the Drosera in the chest. His hand came back bloody, and he clutched a fistful of pulpy meat in his palm.
His heart.
Thom
had ripped out his heart.
Bile splashed up the back of my throat, the heat of it thawing me until I registered the dried blood making my hands itch. I clamped my lips closed as Thom rose. He tossed the shredded organ onto the dead Drosera’s chest like a ball of yarn he had grown tired of playing with then strolled toward me.
“We need to sweep the area. I’ve got their scent now. I’ll be able to locate any of their nest mates.” He reached in his back pocket and removed a thin packet that crinkled. He pulled out one baby wipe for me and took another for himself. He watched me until I started cleaning my hands then began the meticulous process of scrubbing blood from his knuckles. “Better?”
“Much.” I deserved a gold star when my voice didn’t crack. “Thank you.”
“This body isn’t as flexible as my natural one,” he said mournfully. “The texture of the human tongue leaves something to be desired as well.”
“I’m, uh, sorry about that.” All I could think of was how cats stretched one leg high over their heads while they cleaned their junk and about how there were rumors about a rock star having two ribs removed so he could fellate himself. I wasn’t sure if Thom had a sense of humor or if it was too dry for me to discern it, so I wasn’t taking any chances. “So . . . You can track any deserters?”
“Yes.” He took my trash and shoved it into a pocket alongside his wipe. “We should get started. The cops won’t be out long. I didn’t bite them very hard.”
I rested my hand on his arm. “Thanks for not hurting them.”
“Hurting them would hurt you.” He went solemn on me. “I would never do that.”
A humid wind stirred around us in a sudden rush that left me searching the sky for storm clouds.
Thom brushed his shoulder against mine. “Cole.”
Sure enough, a gust of hot breath blasted in my face, the scent coppery but pleasant.
“Come to check on us?” I groped air until my fingers tangled in his silky mane. “We’ve got everything under control.”
The dragon made an inquiring noise, almost a trill.
“He’s on clean up detail,” Thom informed me.
“You’re collecting bodies for disposal?” I clenched my hands, a sick feeling in my gut when it occurred to me to wonder how the coterie made bodies disappear fast in an urban setting. “Or are you the disposal?”
A huff of breath, the bright punch of new pennies, fanned my cheeks.
“FYI.” I kept my tone light, my expression smooth. “You’re flossing when we get back to the hotel.”
The great beast nudged my shoulder, and I took the hint gladly. He had cleanup to do, and he didn’t want me here when he chowed down.
We almost made it out of range when I heard the first crunch of bone. The sour taste coated every surface in my mouth, but I swallowed until I felt certain I wouldn’t toss my cookies. I avoided thinking about how my dragon BFF was a man eater. Corpse muncher? Charun nibbler? Did that make him a cannibal?
Look, brain, I can’t afford to backslide into shock. This is my new reality. Adapt already.
The pep talk must have done the trick. I managed to help Thom clear the zones, adding three more kills to my tally, before we backtracked to zone one to rendezvous with the team.
Wu stood in the rubble of what should have been an inferno, but whatever accelerant they used had reduced the old fast food joint to blacked bones jutting from the cracked foundation. He glanced over when he heard us coming. He examined my hands and then my face. A grimness pinched his mouth, and it looked more at home on his face than any smile I had ever seen him wear. There was something sad about that.
Leave it to him to cut to the chase. “Are you steady?”
“Rock steady.” I grinned, but he didn’t get the reference. Rixton would have laughed. Maybe even sang a few bars of the R&B classic. Probably made a dirty joke that would get him slapped if Sherry heard him talk about her that way. He viewed his wife as a sex goddess, and she was cool with that, but it was the sharing—the oversharing—with his coworkers that mortified her. “Never mind.”
“Luce handled herself well.” Thom came to my defense. “Next time, she needs a bigger blade.”
Hefting the falchion, I twisted the handle so light played off the stained blade. “I would have to upgrade to a broadsword to get bigger than this.”
Thom nodded in agreement. “Cole has yours.”
“I have a sword?” The fingers in my right hand tightened. For a moment, the sensation of carved wood vanished, and braided leather molded by time and sweat and blood warmed my palm. “Maybe he should keep it safe for me. I drew on the—” I almost said the cold place but didn’t want to explain myself. “I remembered how it feels to fight with a sword, maybe with that sword, so let’s avoid giving Conquest another touchstone.”
Memories were trickling in faster than ever. I couldn’t afford to touch an old sword and black out again. I had no clue what triggered my last episode, and I aimed to keep it that way, but two days? What kind of landmines were buried in my head that exploded on that scale?
Maybe everyone had been right all along. Maybe it was only a matter of applying enough pressure in the right spot. After all, something was making me go boom.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Santiago greeted me onscreen wearing a maniacal grin. Gore smeared his face, and his hair was plastered to one side of his scalp with dried blood. Portia crammed in behind him and let Mags surface long enough to wave at me before tucking her back in where it was safe.
Call me optimistic, but I figured that meant their mission was also successful.
I wasn’t sure yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing beyond the obvious that I was grateful we had all made it out the other side unscathed. “Where’s Miller?”
Santiago cranked up his deranged smile into berserker territory. “Digesting.”
“I see.” The division of assets made a lot more sense once he put it like that. “Cole is too.”
“Cole is probably wishing he had a toothpick right about now. Miller doesn’t have that problem.”
Meaning . . . he swallowed his victims whole versus chewing first?
Not gonna ask. Don’t wanna know. I’m happy living here in Ignoranceville, population: Luce.
He peered around me but got an eyeful of headrest since I was holed up in the SUV. “Where are the others?”
“Cole is on aerial surveillance, Thom went cat in the driver’s seat to clean up, Wu is on the phone with Kapoor.” I spun the tablet around to give him an eyeful of Thom licking his unmentionables. “And I got the pleasure of checking in with unit two, which would be you.”
“Uh, no.” He laughed with an edge of challenge. “We’re unit one.”
Exhausted, filthy, and smelly I might be, but I couldn’t resist needling him.
“’Fraid not.” I tsked at him. “Cole and I are both here. That makes us number one.”
“I said we’re unit one.” Santiago’s face got a lot closer to the screen. “If we’re talking number one—”
“Are you two children really fighting over this?” Portia palmed his forehead and shoved him back. “Now?” She caught sight of my face and sighed. “Him, I get. I made peace with the fact he’s a man-child long ago. But I expected better from you, Luce.”
“I’ll try to behave.” I don’t think the smirk sold her on my contrition. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, report.”
“The nest was exactly where Sariah indicated. It was located in a warehouse district, which made it easier on us. One human was injured in the skirmish—a security guard on watch—but we left him at the hospital. We counted a dozen Drosera and maybe another dozen charun of various species. All local.”
Mixing ranks couldn’t be a good sign. “She’s recruiting?”
“You remember Veronica? The receptionist at the lab? The one you hid from to avoid having your feet kissed?” Santiago smirked at my unease. “There are fanatics like her on every terrene. Each member of the cad
re is idolized. Some charun worship the four as goddesses. There are entire sects devoted to furthering your goals, and that means planting agents throughout the terrenes. All the cadre has to do is ask, and their vessels will sacrifice themselves on the altar of your ambition.”
“Good to know.” Pieces were shifting in the back of my mind, connections snicking into place, but I couldn’t afford to get distracted. “Anything else to report?”
“We won, obviously.” He snorted like it could have gone any other way. “Miller handled the runners, and we tossed the rest in the warehouse and set it on fire.”
“Two fires, two cities, and two poor arson investigators who are getting wakeup calls right about now.”
“Aren’t you glad you’re no longer one of the schmucks who gets lassoed into lending a hand?”
“I loved my job,” I said softly. “I would trade them for the honor any day of the week.”
The cat beside me paused his grooming, his sky-high leg drooping.
“But that would mean losing you guys.” I scratched under the cat’s chin. “I had that life, and it was a good one, but . . . ” I shook my head, “ . . . it was never mine. Not really.” I included Santiago in my smile. “This is what I was meant to do, to be, and I can’t regret learning how it feels to belong.”
“Even if it means ending your nights sticky in places you can’t mention in polite company?”
“What polite company?” Portia cackled. “You? Me? Mags, maybe. Okay, fine. Miller has manners.”
“I have manners,” Santiago snarled. “Want me to introduce you to them?”
“You didn’t, did you?” She gawked at his lap then started baby-talking his crotch. “Did he name you guys Manners?”
“What?” Blistering purple scalded his cheeks. “No, I did not name any parts of my anatomy Manners.”
“Guys.” They ignored me. I tried again, louder. “Guys.”
“What?” they chorused, almost nose to nose.
“You’re overlooking a critical detail here.”
“Is that some kind of come-on?” Santiago frowned. “If so, no. You can’t overlook my details.”
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