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down like a toy. His eyes were open, but all the light drained from his face. It was as though he’d simply
left his body there and gone somewhere else.
“Let’s all stay very calm.” The voice in Lindsay’s head was cool and precise. “Making a scene will
just get people hurt.”
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Lindsay could feel his magic still working, but there was a power more controlled than his behind it
now. He felt empty and limp, like a puppet. It was a sensation so familiar that he could hardly fight it.
“It’s time to come home,” the woman said. Not the woman. The girl. Lourdes.
Somewhere, Lindsay was screaming in terror and outrage, but it never went beyond that small place
deep inside where he’d been locked the whole time he was at the Institute.
“Don’t run.” There was hot breath on Lindsay’s hair and big hands on his shoulders. The voice was
horribly familiar. Jonas. “Let’s get you someplace safe.”
Lindsay tried to struggle, but he couldn’t fight himself. His body wasn’t here anymore, and his mind
was gone as well. He was a walking dead man.
“Dramatic, but accurate.” There was laughter in Lourdes’s thoughts. “Hush. If one of us slips while
we’re playing this game, it could kill us all.”
Lindsay knew he was walking, being guided by Jonas’s hands on his shoulders. Dane followed behind
like a dog.
Could kill us. Lindsay was willing to make that sacrifice. He gathered his courage.
“All of us?” Lourdes’s thoughts were a chiding tap on Lindsay’s soul. “Even him?”
Lindsay had a flash of awareness that Lourdes had her mind on both of them. She felt impossibly
powerful. Under the moment of horror and awe, he felt that she was having trouble holding on to Dane.
The mind could make up hope from nothing.
“Why don’t you both come this way?” There was a nearly invisible door in the wall that led off to a
service hall, easily missed until now. A beautiful young woman in an airline uniform stood there, holding
the door for the three of them. “Jonas, if you’d escort our friend to the car, I’ll make sure Dane joins us. It is Dane, still, isn’t it?” She gave Dane a bright smile as though he could see her, as though he’d answered.
“I thought so.” She held out her hand and he came to her, letting her take his hand.
Jonas steered Lindsay toward the door and his claws slid through Lindsay’s clothes to dig into
Lindsay’s shoulders. “Feel free to try that game of yours on me again, little man,” he murmured. “Any time
you like.” Trickles ran down Lindsay’s arms under his sleeves.
Why couldn’t Ezqel have let Jonas die?
Jonas laughed softly as he guided Lindsay through the long, white hall under the strings of fluorescent
lights. “Too bad you can’t fight, pretty. Worse that I have to keep you in one piece. I’d like to take you apart in front of our friend here.” He rumbled, sounding so much like Dane. “He died too soon last time,
would have missed the whole thing.” His breath was sweet against Lindsay’s cheek. “He did die last time. I
remember it now. Can’t wait to do it again.”
“If you’re good.” Lourdes’s voice was light, floating in the stale air of the hall. “If I have to kill him
to keep him quiet, you don’t get to. Can’t you watch your paws? The smell of his little friend’s blood is
making him harder to handle. I’d rather kill Dane now, but I’m trying to be civil to you. Do you think
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Cyrus could grow a new dog if we sent him the head? I’d know that already if you’d let me cut yours off,
Jonas.”
Jonas laughed again. “Let’s see what you have to give me before we talk about me giving you
anything, girl.”
Please don’t hurt Dane. Lindsay had watched Dane die once already. He never wanted to see
anything like that as long as he lived. He reached for his magic, heart racing with fear and anger when it
still wasn’t there for him to use. The place where it was, here and not here at once, was empty.
“Has to happen sometime, Lindsay,” Lourdes said blithely. “He’s done too much damage. We can’t
keep him. He is a lot prettier now, so I see why you’d be upset. Did he put on that pretty face just for you?
Underneath, he’s just a flea-bitten old thing. We’ll get you a nicer dog. Nicer than Jonas, even. Look.”
There were stairs that led down, and a pair of tall, solemn men, twins, stood waiting on the landing.
“Hello, gentlemen,” Lourdes said cheerfully. “Lindsay, meet Hesham and Mahesh. They’ll be taking care
of you. I know how much you like being cared for and I wouldn’t take something away from you without
replacing it with something better. I’m sure Dr. Moore will let you keep them.” The two men bowed in
unison, extending their hands to Lindsay.
They looked like corpses, fallow skin tight over dry bones; they smelled of cedar and sandalwood and
roses and dust. Lindsay tried to back away from their reaching hands, even though it put him in Jonas’s
arms, against the feral’s big chest. Suddenly, even Jonas seemed better than whatever these men could do
to him. And Dr. Moore. Her name was laced through all his worst memories.
Jonas shoved him away. The twins caught Lindsay gently and righted him, each taking one of his
arms. “I need my hands free,” Jonas said roughly. “Come on, girl, enough socializing. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Lourdes was sauntering down the stairs behind them, her arm looped through Dane’s. Her mind slid
away from Lindsay’s as soon as the twins had hold of him, but Lindsay’s magic was still locked out of
reach. Now, he was terrified. His magic was gone.
“You think you have a grip on him, but it might not last.” Jonas snarled as he spoke. “It doesn’t last
on me, not forever.”
Lindsay struggled against the two men who held him, hoping that Jonas was right, that Dane would
break free of Lourdes’s hold on him. Whatever she was doing, Dane had to get free. Lindsay had to get
free. He didn’t want to go back to Dr. Moore, not again. Not ever.
“Come, sir.” One of his two keepers spoke, and the man’s accent was British. They were gentle with
him, smoothing his clothes and hair as Dane would have done, always keeping an iron grip on him, and
they guided him down the stairs. Under other circumstances, they would have been comforting, and that
thought made Lindsay ill.
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Together, they all went into the lower levels, through winding tu
where a van and a limousine stood waiting. The driver of the van, a broad, flat-faced man in coveralls, got out and swung the back open to reveal the cage inside.
“Say goodbye, Lindsay.” Lourdes let go of Dane and he stood still. “He’s going with Jonas and
McKay, in the van. We have other things to do.” Hesham and Mahesh turned Lindsay so that he could see
Dane, each with a gentle hand on one of his arms, as though they were supporting him instead of holding
him prisoner.
It was Dane’s body, but was Dane really in there? Lindsay wouldn’t say goodbye to him, either way.
It felt wrong. He wished he could see into Dane’s mind, to bring him back to himself.
He stepped forward, and they let him, their hands still on his arms so he couldn’t run. When he was
close enough to touch Dane, he leaned up and brushed a kiss over Dane’s lips. Wake up. Lindsay kissed harder, desperation and fear building up inside him and seeping out from between his lips. His magic was