Inked

“Down, boy,” she told him, sitting up to straddle his shoulders. Her eyes were a perfect ice gray in the moonlight filtering through his bedroom curtains. Wolf eyes.

The brief glimpse into Cyrus’s brain flickered out, leaving me staring into the dense gloom of the drain. That was all right, I told myself as I pushed off from the wall. It looked like I had a guide.

The pressure against my legs doubled as I moved forward into the cha

“Why would the gang kidnap your boyfriend?” a voice demanded.

I whirled to find Jamie right behind me. All the noise had muffled his footsteps, and I hadn’t heard him approach. “I’m not real clear on that yet,” I said, lowering my gun. “But Caleb’s right. You shouldn’t be here.”

“And you should?”

“This isn’t Corps business. It’s personal.”

“And what d’ye think it is for me?” Jamie demanded. “I’m not about to let Toby’s killer walk free!”

“You’re the one who just said we should leave!”

He threw his hands into the air. “Because no one’s here! Tartarus dwellers are very conscious of the weather—they have to be. They probably cleared out hours ago—”

“Not this group.”

“Are we going to do this or not?” Caleb asked, appearing out of the gloom.

Jamie rounded on him. “I don’t even know why you’re here!”

Caleb raised an eyebrow. “I see better in the dark than either of you. And you can’t take on a whole gang on your own.”

“There is no gang! If they were here, they’d have to be in the old shantytown. There’s no other caves in this drain.” Jamie sloshed around a bend and up the tu

“A whole lot of Weres in there!”

Caleb threw out a shield as Jamie dove for one side of the entrance. I stayed where I was, sca

I ran after them—or tried to. But the ward over this entrance wasn’t just for show. I hit what felt like solid rock and bounced back. I watched the ward flicker on and off while Caleb and Jamie were debating whether or not the tu

I lost the tail of my coat when the ward flicked back on again, but no skin. I was across the room in a heartbeat, barely slowing down at the wall. It was an illusion—it had to be—because Weres could do a lot of things, but dissolve into thin air wasn’t one of them. I missed the hidden door slightly, and banged my left shoulder on hard stone, but then I was through.

A long tu

I jumped when Jamie and Caleb came in behind me, even though I’d been expecting it. “Something’s wrong,” Caleb said, an array of weapons hovering around him like a lethal cloud.

“What gave it away?” Jamie asked testily, throwing up his own shields. He looked pissed, maybe at me for rushing ahead without backup, maybe at himself for overestimating the gang’s intelligence. Or possibly the long, silent corridor was creeping him out, too. “The fact that with Were hearing, they should have heard us coming a mile away?”

“Yet instead of ambushing us in the tu

“All of that,” Caleb agreed, just as a Were came out of nowhere, slashed at his face and leapt back through the opposite wall.

“Caleb!” I saw him fall, but didn’t have time to grab him before the tu

One lunged for me, and by the time my conscious mind registered it, I was already moving. My elbow slammed back into my assailant’s ribs, my body turned into the movement, and I used the momentum to spin my opponent face-first into the nearest wall brace—and was thrown back against the opposite wall hard enough to stagger me. Then the Weres were gone again, like lightning.

“Lia!” It was Jamie’s voice.

I looked around, panting. He was on the floor beside Caleb, who was swearing inventively. “How is he?”

“He is feeling like a goddamned punk,” Caleb said, struggling to his feet.

I checked him out. It looked like the blow had been hard enough to knock him off his feet, but hadn’t gotten through his shields. He was unhurt, except for his pride.

“The gang was using another den until this morning,” I told them. “How did they set this up so fast?”

“They didn’t,” Jamie said, getting to his feet. “We’ve lost more than one suspect down here through the years and could never figure out why. Looks like the residents of the shantytown carved themselves a back way out.”

“A lot of back ways,” I amended, wondering which i

“All right. Form up,” Caleb ordered, taking point.

“Why do you get to go first?” Jamie groused.

“Because I’m the only one here who can see through illusions,” he said, tapping his little dolphin. “Sonar doesn’t bounce off them like it does real walls.”

We formed up with Jamie in the middle and me bringing up the rear, our shields out and our nerves tight. Or at least, mine were. Caleb was back to his usual, unflappable self. “There’s a doorway on either side of us, like a cross tu

“How the hell should I know?” Jamie demanded. “There’s no way of telling where they are in all this!”

“Lia?”

“Give me a minute.” I bit my lip, trying to feel for the bond Sebastian had said was there. I was past doubting him—it was either responsible for the glimpses I’d been getting into Cyrus’s brain all day, or else I’d totally lost it. Since Cyrus’s life might hang on it, I preferred to believe the former. The only problem was that I still couldn’t sense anything.

Come on, Cyrus, I thought desperately. You’ve been chatty all day. Don’t cut out on me n—

Her skirt had ridden up to midthigh, and he pushed it higher. She had a few days of stubble on her thighs, enough to feel under his hands as he worked to get the damn dress unbuttoned. He finally tugged it off, leaving her in a scrap of silk thin enough that he could put his mouth on her and still feel her heat. He rubbed his nose against her until she snarled, “Stop teasing.”

“You were right,” he told her. “You are pushy.” Her only answer was to reach back and pop the button on his jeans, pulling his briefs down. She ran a finger over the tip of him, turning his whole body into one exquisite ache. “You win,” he gasped, and snapped the flimsy cords on her panties before tossing them aside.

The scene cut out abruptly enough that I staggered and nearly fell. But it had been worth it. Along with the images, I’d received a definite sense that they were coming from somewhere directly ahead. “Go straight,” I told Caleb.