“Jesus,” I heard Dax say from the other side of the room.

“You’re going to regret this, Kilsen,” Allcot said in a voice so low and controlled I barely heard him.

“Probably,” I said, forcing myself to act unconcerned. “But in the meantime, this is keeping you from doing anything stupid.” Like killing my partner.

Allcot snarled, and even though he was holding himself perfectly still, I could almost feel his rage vibrating inside him. And the fact that the vampire had frozen in place meant the knife was perilously close to nicking his heart.

I knew the blade had come within striking distance, but I hadn’t actually been aiming to kill him. Christ, the shit storm that would rain down on me if I actually killed Allcot—whether he deserved it or not—would be colossal. Still, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it if he went after Dax again.

Halston had gotten to her feet, and she walked up to Allcot, her dark eyes blazing as she glared at him. She looked over his shoulder at me and nodded, her frizzy gray hair bobbing with the motion. “Good work, Kilsen.”

“Thanks,” I said, feeling the warmth of Link’s body as he leaned against my leg, showing his support.

“Impressive really,” she said to Allcot this time. “The shifter and the witch took you down with the most basic of weapons and no powers. Isn’t that interesting?”

A low rumble reverberated from Allcot’s chest. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, if Willow hadn’t still been missing, I might’ve laughed at the absurdity of holding Allcot’s life in my hands while my boss taunted him. In no scenario had I ever imagined a scene like this. And to be honest, I really didn’t want any part of it. But there was no turning back now.

“What did you really come here for, Eadric?” Halston asked, her tone curious now.

“To kill you,” he spat out.

Dax’s gaze met mine, and confusion rolled between us. Why would Allcot want to kill Halston?

“No, you didn’t.” The director walked over to the window and stared out over the Irish Channel neighborhood. “You came here for answers, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” he spit out. “Then I’m going to kill you.”

“Going to? Now that’s funny.” She let out a low laugh and a chill rolled over me, settling in my bones. Allcot wasn’t lying. I sensed it with everything I had. She had to know that. Which meant this cat and mouse game she was playing with him was going to end up in a bloodbath. If all five of us made it out of this room alive, it would be a goddamned miracle.

“Tell me where they are,” Allcot demanded.

Halston let out an exaggerated sigh. “How many times do I have to tell you? I have no idea.”

“Who are ‘they?’” I asked. “Pandora and the other vampire hive?”

Halston’s brow furrowed. “What hive?”

“The one that took Willow and Tal,” I explained, trying to catch up. “One of them led me away from the gala. The redheaded vamp I’ve been tracking the past week. He’s a part of the hive. I’m sure of it.”

“Kilsen, stop talking now,” Halston ordered.

“But—” I started, and stopped when the director’s glare nearly burned a hole in my head. “What am I missing?”

“You’re a fucking idiot, Kilsen,” Allcot said, disgust in his tone. “A rival hive didn’t take Pandora. The shifters did.”

“Which shifters?” Dax asked, stepping forward, alarm claiming his handsome features.

“Like you don’t know. Fucking traitor.” The muscles in Allcot’s back rippled with tension, and he started to move forward.

“One more step, Allcot, and I’ll twist this knife so hard your heart will be in ribbons,” I said, my voice as hard as steel. Link let out a growl of support, and I smiled down at him.

“He’s playing you, Kilsen. Go ahead and ask your partner all about the Crimson Valley wolf pack.”

“He’s not playing me,” I said. “I know all about—”

“Kilsen!” Halston shouted. “Do not open your mouth again. Understood?”

I did, in fact, open my mouth but promptly closed it. Dax’s undercover work with the Crimson Valley pack wasn’t exactly classified, as Dax made no secret of the fact that he ran with them. But talking about Void business was off-limits, especially with Allcot present.

Except Willow and Tal were still missing. I couldn’t just sit back and not ask questions if Allcot had some of the missing pieces. There was no choice. I had to do what I had to do. “Why do you think the shifters took Pandora?”

Halston let out a heavy sigh but didn’t chastise me further. No doubt she wanted to know the answer just as much as I did, but she wanted to be the one asking the questions.

“I fucking saw them carrying her off. Do you understand what I’m telling you? Shifters got the better of my wife. The same fucking shifters your boy toy over there has been helping for months.”

Without warning, Allcot lurched forward and flew, actually flew through the office, and once again grabbed Dax by the throat. “If anything happens to her, I’ll rip your limbs off one by one and just stand there while I watch you bleed out. Do you hear me?”

Dax wouldn’t have been able to answer even if he tried. Allcot had cut off his ability to even breathe, much less talk. Instead, my partner kicked out, fiercely aiming for Allcot’s crotch. He missed and Allcot let out a low, sinister laugh. “You can keep— Fuck!”

The vampire dropped Dax, then reached up and pulled the dart out of his neck. He glared at Halston, who was still holding the tranq gun, and then his eyes rolled into the back of his head just before he collapsed to the floor.

Dax climbed to his feet, rubbing at his neck. “You couldn’t have done that a little sooner?”

“Why?” Halston asked. “Kilsen had a knife practically in his heart. I had no idea he was crazy enough to risk death just to strangle you.”

I stared at Allcot’s limp body and tried to process what he’d been saying. But none of it made sense. How had the shifters gotten to Pandora in the middle of all those vampires? I glanced back up at Halston. “What happened while I was out tracking that vampire?”

Her eyebrows shot up and disappeared under her frizzy gray hair. “Didn’t Marrok fill you in?”

“Not really. He was engaged in his own altercation. He didn’t see anything.”

She cleared her throat. “Well, that is unfortunate, isn’t it?”

Dax and I shared another confused glance as the director picked up the phone and ordered security to take Allcot to a holding cell.

Not five seconds later, two large security guards rushed in and dragged Allcot out.

I turned to Dax. “Do you have any idea what he was talking about? Do you think the Crimson Valley wolves have anything to do with this?”

“I don’t…” He grimaced as he shook his head. “They might when it comes to Pandora. The truce between them and the Cryrique vampires is perilous at best. I’m not aware of any plan that was in the works, but if she pissed one of them off, they might’ve gone rogue and taken her.”

They’d abducted Allcot himself only a few months ago. Not long after, Dax had negotiated a truce. The shifters would stop their attacks on the Cryrique as long as the Cryrique stayed away from their pack.

“They would have if Allcot’s been experimenting again,” I said.

And when I say experimenting, I mean running clinical drug tests on shifters. The Cryrique was actively developing healing drugs for all types of paranormals as well as dabbling in recreational concoctions. And while healing drugs might seem noble on the surface, their testing methods weren’t one hundred percent ethical. It was always all about profits when it came to the Cryrique. It didn’t matter to the pack that the shifters in question had been willing participants. In the pack’s eyes, their members had been exploited.

“I haven’t heard any rumors of that.” Dax frowned. “In fact, I haven’t heard any rumors of anything for a few weeks.” He rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Fuck.”

Fuck was right. There was always, always, something going on with the pack. If he hadn’t heard anything, they’d cut him off and were intentionally keeping him in the dark. “Dax, you have to go now. Get back to the pack and find out if they know anything about Wil, Talisen, or Pandora.”

“Do you need backup?” Halston asked him.

Dax shrugged. “I can probably handle it on my own, but backup is always a plus.” His gaze landed on me, one eyebrow raised in question.

“I can’t do it.” I flopped down into one of the metal chairs the director kept around to remind us we shouldn’t be sitting on the job, and Link settled at my feet. “They’ll never talk if they think I’m sniffing around.” I didn’t have the best reputation with the rogue-shifter population. Ever since I kicked their asses and helped Allcot escape their hostage games, I’d been labeled a vamp sympathizer. The sad part of their hasty judgment was that if the situation had been reversed and the vamps had been holding a shifter hostage, I would’ve done the same for them. But they only saw what they wanted to see.

“She’s right. I’ll take Sebastian with me,” Dax said.

Halston nodded and once again picked up the phone, this time to call the shifter in question.

Dax moved to stand in front of me. “Are you doing all right?”

I stood and let out a strangled laugh. “Me? What about you? Allcot did his best to choke the life out of you.”

He shook his head. “No, he didn’t. He just wanted to hurt me.” Dax lifted his arm and nodded to his wrist. The skin was bruised purple, but judging by the fact that he was able to move it, his bones had already healed. Ultrafast healing was quite the perk of being a shifter. It also meant other supernaturals never hesitated to snap a shifter’s bones. It caused the maximum amount of pain and didn’t result in any permanent damage. At least not physically. “If he’d wanted me dead,” Dax continued, “you’d be calling the coroner right about now. If he’d been serious, not one of us could’ve stopped him.”

“You’re right,” I said, a tiny bit of tension draining from my shoulders. “I’ve just never seen Allcot like that before. It seemed as if he’d legitimately lost his mind. I guess I thought he wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“He wasn’t. That’s what happens to us poor bastards when our girls are in danger.” He reached up and gently brushed a lock of hair out of my eyes. Then he bent down and pressed a gentle kiss on my forehead.

On the surface, the gesture was sweet, chaste even. But my body responded instantly to his touch, and I had to stop myself from swaying into him, from wrapping my arms around him and burying my face in his chest right there in front of our boss.

No, Phoebe, I chastised myself. There was a reason I’d put the brakes on the physical side of our relationship. Dax was a damned good partner, and I didn’t want to ruin it with romantic entanglements. So much for that. He’d just implied I was his girl with that last statement, and my heart had fluttered like a lovesick teenager’s.

I leaned back, putting distance between us, and gave him a hint of a smile. “Try not to get your ass kicked again, okay?”

He chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”

Halston replaced the phone on the base, cleared her throat, and stared at us with disapproval. “Marrok, please keep it professional. Kilsen is your partner, not your girlfriend.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, his lips twitching with amusement as he kept his gaze trained on me.

Halston’s tone turned clipped as she added, “Sebastian will meet you in the lobby in five minutes.”

This time he glanced over at the director, giving no indication he was bothered by her chastisement. “What do you want Phoebe to do?”

“Kilsen will interview Allcot after the tranquilizer wears off.”

“Sounds… frustrating,” Dax said, giving me a look of sympathy. “Try not to stake his ass before he gives you something good to work with.” Then he winked and walked out of the office.

“That relationship will eventually bring you both down,” Halston said.

I lifted my chin in defiance. “There is no relationship.”

The director snorted. “Right.” When I didn’t respond, she pressed her lips into a thin line and shook her head. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Ignoring her advice, I asked, “Why did you keep ordering me to stop talking to Allcot?”

Her head snapped up and she pierced me with her dark gaze. “All matters that pertain to the Crimson Valley wolves are classified. You know that. We don’t discuss Void business with anyone, especially not Eadric Allcot.”

I flinched at her sharp tone but stood my ground. “I know that. But Willow and Talisen are missing, and so is Pandora. Don’t you think those two things are related?”

Halston let out a long sigh and sank into her chair, leaning back as she studied me. “Of course they are related. But do you honestly think Allcot is going to work with the Void in good faith?”

I lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “He might. This is Pandora we’re talking about.”

The director’s eyes narrowed, then she wrinkled her nose in distaste. “How can you be such a skilled witch and yet be so naïve?”

Anger prickled down my spine, and I clenched my fists in an effort to keep from lashing out at her. I knew better than anyone what Eadric Allcot was capable of. Willow had been tangled up in his bullshit for the past two years, and I’d been the one right there helping her through it all.

“I can see I touched a nerve,” Halston said conversationally. “You think you know how to handle him, don’t you?”

“I didn’t say that,” I said, refusing to take her bait.

“You didn’t have to.” She snorted a chuckle. “Just remember, there is no one more manipulative than Allcot. No one. And if you choose to trust him, sooner or later you’ll get burned.”

“Message received.”

She stared at me for a long moment then said, “All of your other cases have been reassigned. Your sole duty now is to find Rhoswen and bring her home. Understood?”

“What resources do I have?” I asked just to judge how serious she was taking Willow’s disappearance. Willow had been an agent of the Void at one time, but she wasn’t any longer. Sometimes agents who left the organization were hung out to dry when shit went down.

Halston’s lips formed a thin, grim line. “Whatever it takes. With her ability, it’s far too dangerous for the Void if she falls into the wrong hands.”

Far too dangerous for the Void. Of course that was the reason I was being given full support. It didn’t matter that Willow’s life was in danger. Or that she’d been a valued member of the Void. Or that she was a fae in the hands of some random vampire or shifter. No, it mattered that she had the ability to turn vampires into daywalkers, and the Void wanted to keep that little secret tightly under wraps. Typical. But all that mattered was I had the full weight of the Void behind me. “Thank you,” I said and signaled for Link to follow me. “I’ll be in the research center until Allcot regains consciousness.”

The director nodded, and as Link and I left, I was already texting my contacts back at the Cryrique compound.