“You would think so,” Wu said dryly.
Needing a moment or ten to absorb what they were and weren’t saying, I asked, “How is Thom?”
“I reattached his wing.” The amusement slid off Wu’s face to clatter on the floor. “I have a minor healing gift, as you’ve probably realized, and I could do that much.”
So, his magic touch had a medical explanation. It should have relieved me of the guilt I felt when his touch sparked against my skin, but all I could think was Thom, Thom, Thom.
Tears welling, I swallowed hard. “There’s a but in there somewhere.”
“I can’t promise he will ever fly again.” He rubbed the skin over his breastbone, his mouth a tight line. For a winged charun, this must be akin to delivering news of a death to family members. “Additional treatments over the next forty-eight hours will fuse his bones and muscle faster than they could regrow on their own, but it will take months to build up his strength again. From there . . . It’s in his gods’ hands.”
“I never should have let him go alone.” I wiped my cheeks dry. “He should have had backup.”
“Thom is an experienced operative,” Cole soothed. “He knew the risks, and he chose to take them.”
“He lost a wing, Cole.” I pictured his scarred face, his kinked whiskers. “What will he do if he can’t fly?”
“He will adapt.” He tucked errant hairs behind my ear. “He’s a gifted healer in his own right, and his people are winged. This might not be a common injury for them, but it would have happened during dominance or mating fights. He’ll know what he’s up against, and he’ll have ideas on how to treat it. Just give him time to mourn.”
“Okay.” I sank back against him. “As long as you don’t think he’ll do anything drastic.”
“Thom is pragmatic.” Cole tightened his arms around me. “He knows his own value. Even if he must wait until he returns home for treatment, he would endure. The knowledge he’s collected is too valuable to lose.”
Well, that answered one question. The coterie was aware Thom wasn’t a permanent fixture, a fact that stabbed me through the heart imagining the day he left us. Having almost lost him, I saw clearly how it would be to go on without him, and I couldn’t imagine parting with my friend even under happy circumstances.
“He agreed to act as our healer under the condition he was allowed to return home at a time of his choosing,” Cole told me. “He never belonged to Conquest the way he belongs to you. He’s your friend.” Cole stroked a thumb over the banding above my elbow. Even through the shirt, it made my soul hum. “Thom was ready to leave after seeing Earth, that had been his goal, but then you . . . changed.” He smiled. “The mystery proved too much for him to resist. He decided to stay on, and he hasn’t left yet.”
Unable to bear thinking on the topic any longer, I let it go. “How are the others?”
“Portia and Santiago are fine.” Meaning so was Maggie. Physically, at least. “Miller is still resting. He needs a few more days to fully recover, but he can be mobile in twenty-four hours.” He hesitated, debating a confession. “Maggie sat with him for a long time. She’s never held control for that many hours. Portia was impressed with her endurance.”
Hope and worry for my best friend clashed in the pit of my stomach. “How did the dogpile happen?”
“The coterie is yours,” Wu answered for Cole. “They’re drawn to you, and you refused to leave Thom.”
“What about Sariah?” I hadn’t spared her a thought since realizing Thom was missing.
“She’s in her room.” Wu glanced in that direction. “She’s asked permission to reach out to a few of her contacts to gauge War’s reaction. Santiago deferred her request until Thom was stable.”
“He can track her movements and pull the plug if she attempts a double-cross.” He spied on people with ease through their own equipment. Walking through the backdoor of his own tablet, he could do in his sleep. “It might be worth the risk.”
“There’s something else.” Wu woke the screen on his phone and showed me a map. “Another body’s been found.” He zoomed in on the area in question. “Kapoor passed along the update. This one is the liveliest yet. It had to be restrained.”
“That’s who called.” I had noticed him on his phone, but I hadn’t thought much about who rated an answer during an op. “How far is Redwood?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“The bodies are being put into the waterways north of here,” Cole said thoughtfully. “This corpse is more talkative because the taskforce is catching them faster.”
“Not fast enough.” Each life lost was one too many. “Do we have agents combing north along the river?”
“No.” Wu cast me a withering look. “Why would we do something so obvious as hunt for a killer?”
“I’ve had a lot dropped on me.” I huffed out a mocking laugh. “Forgive me for falling behind the curve.” Heaving a great sigh, I shoved upright on Cole’s lap. “It appears I’ve already showered.” The clothes I wore were clean, and so was my skin. “Let me get dressed, and we’ll go.”
“Maggie bathed you.” Cole followed me up when I stood. “I’ll talk to Santiago and—”
“I want you to stay with Thom.” I fisted his shirt. “He’s back with us but . . . ” I shook my head. “There’s no one better than you to watch his back. Can you do this? For me?”
“For you.” He covered my hand with his. “I would do much worse.”
There was subtext here I wasn’t grasping, a shift in his perception of me that made me warm and cold all over.
Magnificent.
That’s what he called me. That’s what he saw when he looked at what lurked beneath my skin.
I saw beauty in each member of the coterie, but I was vain enough to want him to find me beautiful. Full stop. That he did made my stomach do this loop-de-loop thing that made me thankful I quit eating when I did.
“I’ll rouse Santiago and Portia.” Cole glanced back at Thom’s room. “They can help me put Miller to bed, and then I’ll set Santiago to work on securing a connection for Sariah’s recon. Maggie has been resting for a few hours, so she’ll probably be ready to sit with him again. I’ll do the same with Thom.”
A peculiar sensation dragged at me, a sense of displacement that worried me more the longer I stared out the window. “How long was I out?”
“Three days.” Cole palmed my nape again, and his heat radiated down my spine. “We all slept.”
“Not all of us.” Wu followed my line of sight. “I stood watch.”
“Thank you,” I rasped, “for protecting them when I couldn’t.”
“We’re even,” he assured me. “Miller saved my life. I don’t forget my debts.”
We parted ways then, and Cole followed me into our room. He didn’t say a thing as I stripped out of my pajamas. Panties and the matching bralette Mags had layered under my clothes kept me modest, but a flush spread across my chest and up into my face the longer he watched me.
All too soon, I had the black suit on. I didn’t want to leave them. I wanted to huddle together, hide in this safe place, and forget the world outside this hotel while we licked our wounds and healed. “Get an order together, and we’ll pick up food while we’re in town.”
The coterie would wake hungry, like me, and I had decimated the groceries.
“I can do that.” He tracked me, the predator in his eyes. “I’ll even text with updates.”
“Keep spoiling me,” I warned him, “and you might never get rid of me.”
“I can live with that,” he said simply.
Stupid tears pricked the backs of my eyes, and I used the excuse of needing to freshen up to retreat to the bathroom. A cold washcloth to my cheeks helped get my head on straight, but I wasn’t fooling anyone. Let alone myself.
Cole wanted to keep me.
Maybe that wasn’t love, not as humans understood the emotion, but it was a start.
Conquest might be shadowing every move I made, but
I wouldn’t let her have this. I wouldn’t let her have him. Never again. He was mine. I wanted to keep him right back. And if Conquest thought she might slip her leash, she had another think coming. I would turn that sucker into a garrote if that’s what it took to keep her hands off him.
Cole had earned his happiness. He had won his peace. He deserved to love and be loved in return.
And if I had to stitch the halves of myself together to be a worthy partner for him, that’s just what I’d do.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Paperwork occupied me on the trip to the morgue in Redwood. Kapoor wanted to be kept in the loop, but Wu would rather run him in circles, so that left me to file the necessary forms. I took comfort in the routine, the clack of laptop keys, and the fact even world-ending powers couldn’t save you from bureaucracy.
“We’re here,” Wu said to snag my attention. “Are you ready?”
“Yep.” I saved my files and closed my laptop. “Let’s do this.”
The building resembled a plain brick box from the outside, but the interior was ritzier.
Wu stopped at the curved front desk and slid one of his cards across the granite counter. The secretary scanned his credentials. Her eyes popped wide, and her mouth fell open. A tremor started in her hands when she reached for the phone, and her voice warbled when the party on the other end answered.
“M-m-mr. Wu is here to see you,” she stammered. “Shall I send him in?”
We must have been given the green light. The secretary gestured toward a frosted glass door that swung open at the press of a button. She had an entire command center up here. Nice setup. It kept the desk manned at all times. It also made me wonder why that was a priority and what kind of facility we had just entered. This was no county morgue, there was too much shine on every surface, but Wu wasn’t in a sharing mood.
“Please take a seat in room one,” she said haltingly. “Dr. Franklin will be with you shortly.”
Wu didn’t thank her. He didn’t even look at her. He was too preoccupied for manners.
“Thanks,” I told her on my way past, and she attempted a smile that slid off her thin mouth.
The frosted door didn’t wait longer than it had to before closing behind us with a cool gust of air. The hall we entered was sterile enough we could have eaten off the floor. Six rooms on alternating walls stood with their doors open. From a quick glance, I could tell they were all identical.
Wu entered room one and took one of the seats pushed against the far wall. The chairs were mighty cozy, so I opted to stand. Besides, there was a metal slab taking up the center of the room, and curiosity got the better of me.
I was leaning over the side, checking out this weird hook thing when a second door hidden in the wall swung open, and the woman I assumed was Dr. Franklin walked in. She was a short woman, middle-aged, with pink hair that kept falling into her startlingly red eyes.
“Mr. Wu,” she said crisply, her accent peculiar. “You brought a guest.”
“This is my partner, Luce Boudreau.” He cut his eyes toward me. “Or, as she is more formally known, Conquest.”
The good doctor wobbled and went down on her knees. The crack was audible, and I winced. She bowed, stretching her body across the floor, her fingertips almost close enough to brush the toes of my boots.
“Mistress,” she breathed. “I would have prepared an offering had I known to expect you.”
“I go by Luce these days,” I said pointedly to Wu. “No offering required, but thank you.”
Slowly, the doctor rose. Confusion lined her face, and that had me wondering exactly what kind of offering she would have given me if she was stunned I didn’t want one. Gold? Jewels? Nah. Nothing so tame. I imagined only the best would do for Conquest. Probably blessed virgins or small, plump children.
Wringing her hands, she wet her lips. “Would you like to see the body?”
“Yes.” I smiled like her deference didn’t creep me the hell out. “That would be great.”
The doctor returned to the room she had entered through, and I stared at the floor, determined not to give Wu the satisfaction of acknowledging how uncomfortable he’d made me. I almost lost the battle, but lucky for me, she returned fast.
“Here you are.” She preceded a gurney wheeled in by two men who shared her coloring. The body of an elderly man was strapped to the surface. His nudity made isolating the cause of death easy. He had been attacked by an animal or—to be fair—a charun, and it had devoured his entrails. Though his lack of guts didn’t seem to be slowing him down. He twitched from his toes to his eyelids. “I kept him preserved as best I could with the application of low-frequency energy pulses to keep the brain stimulated.”
“He’s in much better shape than the last one,” I allowed.
“You’ve presented us with a superior specimen,” Wu said over me. “Please, do pass your notes along to the other labs. What you’ve accomplished here is remarkable.”
Her smile revealed serrated teeth. “I would be honored.”
Wu rose with fluid grace. “Can we have a moment alone with the body?”
“Of course.” She ushered her assistants away. “I’ll return in ten minutes.”
“That will be fine.” He waited until the door closed before he approached the body. “Place your hand on its chest.”
Eager to get this over with, I did as he instructed. On contact, the corpse sucked in a gasp it used to fuel a string of nonsense syllables that caused Wu’s expression to darken until I had to lock my knees to keep from bolting. “What is he saying?”
“The message is from Death.” Gold washed his eyes, and they glinted like polished coins. “She wants to parlay.”
“She breached?” I snatched my hand back. “How is that possible?”
Santiago had cameras trained on the site where we entered this world and sensors in the water. Any disturbance in the area would register on his equipment. There was no way for her to have slipped in undetected. Santiago was too good for that.
“She wouldn’t require an intermediary if she was here,” he pointed out to me.
I walked to the antibacterial gel dispenser on the wall and pumped a liberal handful. “True.”
“The corpse was reanimated and reprogrammed, both hallmarks of Death and her coterie.”
“Famine left her coterie behind, but Death sent hers ahead?”
“Only one person is required to carry a message.”
“That little . . . ” I growled. “Sariah knew. She’s known this whole time and hasn’t breathed a word.”
“The decision might have been a private matter between the cadre, but she would have noticed an extra body even if she wasn’t privy to the reason why he was there.”
“Him?”
“There’s only one person she would trust so wholeheartedly.” Wu gestured toward the mumbling corpse. “Janardan, her mate.”
“She sent him through ahead of her.” That’s what he was saying. “He’s already here.”
“So it seems.”
“Great.” He must be an all-around swell guy since he was using humans as Post-it notes. Scribble his message on their brain then dump them in the water. “Do we have a location?”
“We have a general area.” He pulled out his phone and started texting. “That’s all we need. He’s going to be watching to see if we received the coordinates. He’ll make contact after we arrive and he’s had time to assess the threat.”
“Why water?” Santiago was aquatic. I had figured that much out on my own. So were Drosera. It wasn’t stretching the imagination to picture Death as finned or scaled. “I get that it makes our job harder. Pinpointing his location via body dump site is next to impossible without the message.” But there had to be more to it. “What type of charun is he?” I backtracked. “Are they?”
“He is Iniid.” He didn’t glance away from his screen. “Death took his form after they mated.” His lips flattened. “Picture a freshwater dolphin. Imagine it having tentacles i
nstead of flukes. Add in seven rows of serrated teeth, like sharks. That’s roughly how Iniid look.”
“Who thinks this stuff up?” I paced the length of the room. “Are schematics for charun pulled from some book of nightmares?”
“You have a very narrow view of the world.” He put his phone away. “Have you never considered how grotesque our kind might find humans? They’re largely hairless, without scales or fur, claws or proper teeth. They’re flesh. Nothing more. On any other world, they would be considered prey.”
I wasn’t falling for his garbage. “And yet Earth was the terrene chosen as a battlefield.”
He had no ready answer for that. Earth was lousy with humans. Therefore, they must hold some value. I noticed he failed to mention how the species as a whole had survived by evolving their technology. From sticks and rocks to guns and knives to nuclear weapons, humans were a clever species. Often too much so for their own good.
Dr. Franklin rejoined us, and we made goodbye noises before leaving the facility. It must be backed by the NSB to be so well funded and so open in its charunness. They weren’t even playing at being human past the lobby and receptionist.
“We have another stop to make before we return to the hotel.” Wu guided us deeper into town rather than out onto the highway. “I would have given you more notice, but your forced resting period made that impossible.”
I resisted the urge to squirm in my seat. “Do I get details?”
“There’s a clinic in Yazoo City.”
“Ah.” I let my gaze slide out the window as it sank in. “You’re taking me for my first exam.”
“Yes.”
“I wish you had told me,” I said softly. “I would have liked Mags to come.”
“We couldn’t risk the interference.”
“It’s not like she would have wrestled you to the ground for touching me.”
But she would have given him her best disappointed teacher look, which had quelled many a tiny rebellion amongst her kindergarteners.
“I won’t be touching you,” he assured me. “Our top physician was flown in to do the honors.”
“They’re all the same.” I curled in my seat, resting my cheek against the cool glass. “They all want to peel back your layers and see what makes you tick. This one might have more degrees, but that’s just paper on the wall.”
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