Without knowing how often the guards checked in with one another, we had no clue how wide our window of opportunity extended. For all we knew, the guard had checked in with a benign-sounding code when he first spotted us, and reinforcements would pound up the stairs once his radio silence was noted.
I had no illusions that Wu wasn’t capable of physical violence. It required zero imagination to picture him snapping necks with one hand while disemboweling with the other. But his reactions felt off to me, more intense than usual.
Maybe this was the real Adam Wu, and I was meeting him for the first time. Now that we were partners, it’s not like I could do much about his methods except mitigate the damage for humans. But the way he butted heads with Cole reminded me of Thom’s warning that Wu saw me as his. Factor in Cole starting to see me in the same light, and I had to wonder if all the bunk Wu had spouted about there being no need for fraternization laws within the taskforce was a crock.
The heat thing made me head-explodey. Mentally, I stuck with ovulating. That was a nice, human word. Normal. Plus, it sounded far less likely to end with me thrown over a male’s shoulder and brought to his cave for impregnating.
The coterie was quick to point out when Cole got me hot and bothered. Wu was attuned to my scent as well, but his possessiveness had me questioning if I wasn’t the problem. And how we fixed that without fixing me.
That charun-friendly IUD was starting to look better and better if its hormones did the trick. It’s not like I planned on following in War’s footsteps. Birthing cannon fodder—I mean, offspring—was not part of my strategy to win this.
What I had done to Sariah to get at War could and would be done to any children I had and me. Payback was a bitch, and no kid ought to be used as leverage. That was perfect-world thinking, though, and my new reality was a far cry from that. Strategic advantage or not, Sariah might have earned clemency if not for all the blood on her hands.
I recalled the first time Wu set eyes on Nettie, the predatory gleam in his gaze, the inhuman spark that had me shoving her into her father’s arms and putting myself between them. Babies were pink and plump. Tender. Barely a mouthful. Their skin soft, their bones fragile—
Nettie might not officially be my goddaughter, but Rixton had been my partner on the force for years, and I loved them both like family.
A wave of dizziness rocked me back on my heels, and my gorge rose. Wu gripped me under the arms to keep me from collapsing in a heap, but his support couldn’t stop my gut from roiling.
“Your scent changed,” he said, echoing my earlier thoughts. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m good.” I forced my knees straight. “I had a thought that didn’t agree with me. That’s all.”
Warmth spread through his hands where he touched me. “What kind of thought?”
“I . . . ” I screwed up my face. “I was thinking about Nettie.” There was more, there had to be. I missed her and her parents, they were three pieces cut from the cloth of my soul, but I had made my peace with their safety. I wouldn’t hit the deck mid-op remembering what this war had already cost me. “Wu.” It took a lot for me to admit it, but I had to get it out there. “I can’t hold onto them, but . . . I get these flashes. Memories that aren’t mine, thoughts I would never have, urges that are more instinct than anything.”
“The wider you open your bond to Cole and the rest of your coterie, the more often this will happen.” He hesitated. “Your senses are heightening, and your instincts are coming back online too. Denning with your own kind is thinning the walls between you and Conquest.”
I didn’t miss how he singled out Cole, but I was too tired to argue. “That doesn’t sound like a great idea.”
“You need to access your abilities.” He gazed down at me. “Your coterie needs you strong, and so do I.”
“You also need me to be me.” Supernatural powers did no one any good if I switched teams and took my coterie with me. “I’m steady now.” I straightened my clothes. “Thanks for not letting me eat floor.”
A hint of weariness—or was that wariness?—pinched his expression. “What are partners for?”
I huffed out a laugh then took a good look at our surroundings. “No one came running when we busted in here.”
“We’re alone.” Wu flared his nostrils. “The tech’s scent is fresh. We must have just missed her.”
I checked the time on my phone. “She must be on lunch. That’s handy.”
Wu scoffed at the idea of serendipity. “There was a reason why I chose midday for infiltration.”
“How do we do this?” The room was large but still cramped for its purpose. Two bulky machines dominated the center of the room, and three laptops sat open and on stands that pressed against them. Four industrial refrigerators lined one wall. That was our first stop. “They should be labeled, that’s the easy part, but how are we getting a viable sample out of here?”
“With this case.” Wu flashed the black pouch at me again. “Diabetics use them to cool their insulin during trips. I soaked it in cold water prior to our departure to activate the gel crystals. It’s good for forty-five hours in temperatures up to one hundred degrees. It’s the best option we’ve got on short notice.”
Easy to conceal too. That always helped. “All we have to do is make it back to the SUV.”
“What do you mean?” Comprehension dawned a moment later. “Cole.”
“I once saw him ice over the staff lounge at Madison Memorial. This should be nothing.”
“That was a brute show of strength,” he countered. “A lack of self-control that required Kapoor’s direct intervention. This requires a delicate touch.”
“Let me worry about that part.” I had an idea that didn’t hinge on finesse. “You take that one, and I’ll take this one.”
We each tackled our assigned fridges, and it didn’t take long for me strike gold: Lambert, Jay.
“Got it.” I lifted the vial, slid it into the pouch Wu held open for me, then started wiping down surfaces I had touched. “Are fingerprints something I should worry about?”
His grin spread slowly. “What do you think?”
“That I no longer exist?” I meant it as a joke, but Wu wasn’t laughing. That was just . . .
Damn.
While I wrapped my head around becoming a figment of my father’s imagination, Wu tucked away the sample then exited into the hall. He paused to check the guard’s pulse, but I deducted points for humanitarianism when he made certain I was looking first.
“He’s fine,” Wu assured me. “I’ll call for assistance as soon as we’re out of the building.”
Uncertain I believed him, I sharpened my scowl on his back as he led our escape. “You do it, or I do it for you.”
We hit the elevators, shuffling closer as more people piled in with us then wriggling out once we reached the ground floor. Okay, so I was the one doing the shimmy. People parted for Wu, but they huddled together again just as fast. Safety in numbers and all that. Even when humans didn’t shriek and point at charun, they tended to know they were there on a subconscious level.
All in all, I was impressed with how smoothly we pulled off our mission. Right up to the point where we located the White Horse SUV, and I spotted the person waiting in the passenger seat.
“Sariah,” I growled as my heart skipped a beat. “How did she get here?”
Wu filled his lungs then shook his head. “I can’t pick up her trail.”
We reached the SUV together, and I approached on the driver’s side. Cole didn’t fool with lowering the window. Instead, he popped open the door in an invitation to check for myself that he was whole and unharmed, which I did to the best of my abilities without hauling him out and patting him down.
Downplaying my initial burst of concern, I glanced between them. “I’m listening.”
“Miller called,” Cole said before she could open her mouth. “Sariah claims to have time-sensitive information on a cluster of nests within a few hours of town. He asked me to pick her up so you two could discuss the viability of her intel.”
“I was scaring the blonde.” Sariah cheered at the mention of terrorizing Mags. “He knocked me out twice, but what can I say? I inherited my mother’s hard head. I kept bouncing back.”
“Miller will kill you if you harm her.” Better the threat come from him than me. The target would still be painted on her back, but it might be a few inches smaller. “Try it sometime if you don’t believe me.” If the coterie was showing her Maggie instead of Portia, Sariah would be in for a nasty surprise when she made a move against them. “Granted, he’d take the rest of us with him, but maybe he’s made his peace with that.”
Sariah cocked her head to one side when she realized I was serious. “He wouldn’t.”
“The last thing he wants is to hurt her.” I believed that, and she could read my honesty if her discomfort was any indication. “Defending her honor while also killing her in the process would probably not earn him any brownie points, so he’ll avoid it. Unless you piss him off so much his switch flips.”
Cole watched me during our chat, his expression neutral, but curiosity burned in his eyes. I could see him mentally reviewing every interaction between Miller and Maggie he’d witnessed, and the grim set of his mouth made it clear he wasn’t happy about this latest development.
“You can fill us in on the ride to the hotel.” Wu spoke over my shoulder, his breath almost in my ear.
Once again, Cole kept his lips buttoned, and it was all I could do not to reach out and pry them open.
The caveman routine was a bit much, and the chest-beating was overdone, but I still experienced a thrill every time he bristled when another male paid attention to me.
Dragon logic was so much easier to parse. He would have eaten Wu by now. Message sent and received.
Checking on a hunch, I located one of the coolers that seemed to come standard in every White Horse SUV trunk. I brought it to Cole, who breathed ice along its insides, and we stashed the sample there until we could have it flown out for testing.
The idea of riding with Sariah behind me made the hairs prickle along my nape, so I let her keep her spot then slid in behind her. Wu sat behind Cole, and I didn’t miss the tiny smirk he wore. One I assumed the driver noticed if his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel was any indication.
“Look, Tweety.” I pegged Wu with my best cop face. “We all have to work together, and that means we all have to play nice together too.”
“Tweety?” Wu cast me an affronted look.
Sariah craned her neck. “Tweety?”
“Hello?” Outing him, even without a proper name for his species, wasn’t happening. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s rude to eavesdrop?”
“No.” She frowned. “As a child, I was able to hide in places too small for adults. One of my duties, until I outgrew them, was to spy on the cadre whenever they convened.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from telling her how messed up that was when she had no frame of reference for what a normal childhood ought to be like. Mine wasn’t exactly average, either, but Dad made it as smooth as possible, and I had Maggie as an example too.
“Tell us about this nest,” Wu said to get us back on track. “What makes the location time-sensitive?”
“Each unit rotates from nest to nest. There’s a system in place that allows empty locations to be restocked and cleaned in addition to letting the heat to die down if the coterie has drawn attention to itself.” She twisted around in her seat. “We’re two days from a rotation. It would garner too much attention for the entire coterie to relocate at once, so a unit per week makes the transition.”
“You’re talking about a massive network.” I swallowed hard. “How many members are in War’s coterie?”
Sariah offered a negligent shrug. “I have no idea.”
“Is that your final answer?” Wu asked, his voice a silken invitation.
“Mother won’t risk herself with a pregnancy to increase our numbers, not when she’s tipped her hand, but she’s got enough children they can start building our forces without impacting her ability to realize her vision.”
I couldn’t hide the judgment in my voice. “Incest?”
“The offspring are disposable.” Sariah frowned at me. “What does it matter if they’re deformed? Or their intelligence is diminished? Mother wants as many bodies between her and you as she can get, and she’s not picky where they come from as long as they report for duty.”
“Is that why you’ve killed so many?” Not the question I meant to ask, but it popped out anyway.
“I have a certain reputation, it’s true.” She toyed with the cuff on her wrist. “I earned it.”
“But?” I prompted.
Baffled, she glanced up at me. “What makes you so sure there is a but?”
“No one is born a killer. No one crawls from the womb irredeemable. Parents guide us, and circumstances shape us. The world gets its licks in too.” I spread my hands. “I’m a prime example of nature versus nurture. I am this person because my father loved me, taught me, and invested in me. I’m this version of me because I want to be someone who makes him proud.”
“Are you serious?” Sariah cocked her head at me and then included Wu in the gesture. “Is she for real?”
Wu pinched me, and I yelped. Cole snapped out his arm toward the greatest threat on reflex and fisted Sariah’s throat without decelerating.
“She feels real enough to me,” Wu said, ever-so-helpfully.
“Let her go.” I pried at Cole’s fingers, and he let me peel them away. “She didn’t try to hurt me.”
“Turn around and sit down,” he barked at her all the same. “Conversation can wait until we get back to the hotel.”
“Sure thing,” she croaked, shooting me a grateful look.
All hope for evaluating her intel went up in smoke, but I would bet money that wasn’t the reason for our extra passenger. Cole had defused a delicate situation by moving the lighter away from the tinder, nothing more.
“You won’t break through to that one.” Wu offered the advice in a matter-of-fact drawl. “Forget saving her.”
“I’m not—” The protest died in my throat when it occurred to me it might be true. Hard to tell if it was guilt on my part or deeply buried fondness from Conquest guiding me. And by fondness, I mean she wasn’t the only one who recognized a solid-gold resource when she saw one. One bound into our service made it even better. It meant even if we couldn’t earn her loyalty, we still reaped the benefits. “How do you know? Look at my coterie.”
“Your coterie was loyal to Conquest. Most were with her of their own volition.” The back of Cole’s head drew his eye. “Or they gave consent to be taken.” He tapped his fingers on the seat beside us. “You’ve given them a taste of freedom, and the fact you didn’t walk up and immediately snatch it back has earned you their goodwill. Adaptation isn’t the same thing as transformation.”
“You’re saying coteries are like packs of rabid dogs. The pack master can kick and beat and starve them, and the one time he shows up with a bone, all is forgiven. Even if it’s only one bone, and they have to fight amongst themselves to claim it.”
“You see the face they want you to see.” Wu’s fingers stilled. “The coterie you know is a fiction they’ve created, one that complements your goals and ideals, and you’d be a fool to trust your eyes.”
Thom explained to me how the first thing charun did on a new world was learn the food chain to integrate at its peak. They observed a society, selected its top predator, and then mimicked it. On this world, that meant humans. Charun were resilient. My own species, apparently, were the ultimate chameleons, selecting mates and then altering our biology to mimic them on a cellular level. But hearing his theory that the coterie had crafted personas to reflect mine set my teeth on edge.
I shook my head. “You’re wrong.”
Wu once accused me of believing my own propaganda, and maybe he was right, but this was a prime example of him doing the same.
Conquest was a title, not a person. That’s what he told me. Well, coterie was a label, and it was up to us how we defined it.
What mattered to me was they had been given fifteen years of freedom, and they had spent it building a quiet life for themselves. They had done no harm. At least not to humans. Charun politics were a river I was unqualified to paddle in, so I floated no opinions on the topic.
The coterie had evolved from whoever they had been, however she had molded them, to who they were now, a shape they defined themselves.
I was a blank slate gifted with a fresh start, so why shouldn’t they get the same second chance?
Secrets aside, I believed in my coterie, and I trusted them. They were being as honest with me as they could without compromising me or endangering themselves. And I was returning the favor. Ezra was the only skeleton hiding in my closet, and I couldn’t be certain they hadn’t watched me stuff him in there.
I had a theory that our bond flowed like a river between us, that wading in was what had eroded the touch-aversion that plagued me until I met them. And while I might have been oblivious to the current for the last decade and change, they had been swept along in my wake.
The coterie was, I speculated, fundamentally altered at its source. I was the fount, and I had been reborn. How much had my regenesis christened those waters? Had it anointed them with fresh purpose as well?
Sink or swim.
They had more than survived the swirls and eddies of change. They had thrived amid the chaos.
“I hope your faith isn’t misplaced.” Wu frowned at that. “None of us are who we appear to be.”