The man went down. The skin suit, I reminded myself. He wasn’t human anymore. But still . . . I couldn’t look away. The cold place nipped at me, taking bigger and bigger bites of my self-control, but I refused to surrender. What if . . . ?
A gasp echoed down the empty street, the man’s dying breath.
Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.
I rocked forward, ready to sprint to his side, but Cole clamped a hand on my shoulder.
“Trust your instincts,” he growled. “There are no humans out tonight.”
A groan reached my ears that built in volume to a roar as the man split down an invisible seam, and the super gator pulling his strings burst onto the pavement. Light glinted off its beady eyes, turning them red, and he snapped his massive jaws at me.
“Watch my back,” Cole ordered as he drew his sword. “Don’t let them box me in.”
Cole charged the Drosera and leapt over its head. He landed on its back, fisted his sword with both hands, and stabbed downward through its spine.
The creature screamed and thrashed as Cole gripped the hilt of his sword like the pommel on a saddle. A second blade, this one shorter and curved, appeared in his dominant hand, and he started hacking at the base of its skull.
Bullets wouldn’t kill them. I scowled at my gun, my pacifier, hating no one had bothered to tell me that, and traded it for the falchion sheathed at my opposite hip. I tested the weight of the blade and hoped like hell I didn’t hack off my own fingers or toes wielding the blasted thing.
The second shadow coalesced behind Cole as he finished off the first beast. With his back to the skin suit, he didn’t see the attack coming.
This time, there was no bargaining with the cold place. There was no dipping my toes in its waters. It rose up, sank its hooks in me, and plunged me into its depths.
As much as I’d wanted to run to his defense, I prowled, closing the distance. The skin suit held a handgun I doubted would kill Cole since my weapon had been about as annoying as a mosquito bite to the Drosera I dinged, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt, that it couldn’t damage him in other ways.
As quick as that worry surfaced, it drowned beneath a pulse of soothing numbness. Wresting control of my body off autopilot proved impossible. All I could do was ride the wave as I crept up behind the skin suit, cradled his jaw in my left hand, wrenched his head back, then slashed a gaping smile across his throat with the blade in my right.
Blood poured hot and wet through my fingers, and the urge to lick them clean had my mouth watering.
I swallowed once, twice, three times then spat excess saliva on the ground when that didn’t help.
“Release him,” Cole rasped, his voice husky, riding the edge of adrenaline. “He’s dead.”
Finger by finger, I willed my hand open and let the body drop.
“You’re still here.” He gazed at me, into me, through me. “You’re still Luce.”
Luce.
Yes.
The cold place snapped like a rubber band, and I melted into his arms.
“Are you sure?” A tremor rocked my voice. “How can you tell?”
“I would know you anywhere,” he murmured into my hair. “You are the other half of my soul.”
Tipping my head back, I searched his face. “Not her?”
“Never.”
“Okay.” I breathed through the panic fisting my heart and stepped away from him. “I’m not done with this conversation, but I also don’t want us to get sniped out here in the open.”
“We need to finish clearing our zone,” he agreed. “We can pick this up in our room back at the hotel.”
I might have gulped, and he might have nipped my bottom lip hard enough to hurt.
“Bad dragon.” I rubbed away the sting. “I’m waiting on a first kiss, not a first chomp.”
He smiled, all teeth, and we set out to finish our circuit.
On the way, we intercepted Wu, who had gotten bored and decided to come help us.
His gaze lingered on my swollen lip. “Were you two making out or fighting Drosera?”
“You can’t tell?” I arched an eyebrow. “I see you sniffing me. You’re not that subtle.”
“You’re getting better at locking down your emotions.” His bland expression made it impossible to tell if he thought that was a good thing or a bad thing. “You don’t leak as much.”
“Good.” Finally, one benefit to inviting Conquest to the party. “Did you have any trouble?”
“I convinced a few humans to be somewhere else for the next few hours, but I saw no sentries or scouts.”
“We need to backtrack to our rendezvous point.” I scanned the streets, at their darkest and most silent since our arrival. “I hope Santiago wasn’t going for a total blackout. I don’t have night vision.”
Back at the SUV, we checked in with Santiago’s unit then made certain Sariah hadn’t gotten into any trouble. I was signing off when Wu shoved an eyeglass case in my hands. “New toy?”
He measured the night around us. “A necessary one.”
After tucking away my phone, I cracked open the case. “Night vision?” The wide yellow lenses set in a black frame resembled sunglasses more than anything. “They’re not those nighttime driving glasses, are they?”
“Spoken like a true infomercial connoisseur.” Wu removed them and slid them on my face. “They cost more than $19.99 if that’s what has you worried.”
Through the lenses, the night flared to light around me. I turned a slow circle, stalling out when I spotted Cole, who had believed himself to be hidden. But I noted the tightened fists, the sawing motion of his jaw, and the murder promised in his eyes when they landed on Wu. Maybe their truce wore on him more than I first thought.
Wonder if they would give me a copy of the terms and conditions if I asked? Nah. Probably not.
Silly dragon. Did he really think he had competition? Wu was nice and all, but he was no Cole. And it’s not like he had declared any intentions for me beyond partnering up to wipe my sisters off the face of the planet.
A text on his phone distracted Cole, saving our gazes from clashing and me from getting caught.
“Okay, I’m impressed.” I adjusted the frames until I was comfortable. “Mine to keep?”
“Greedy little thing,” Wu said, amused. “Yes, they’re yours.”
“That was Thom.” Cole flashed me his phone. “He can’t come to us. We’re going to have to go to him.”
Panic quickened my breaths. “He’s okay?”
“Snug as a bug,” Cole assured me. “He’s in a sweet spot to watch our backs and doesn’t want to give up prime real estate.”
“Good.” An exhale gusted through my lips. “Hold on—I thought he went cat?” I glanced at his phone. “No thumbs for texting. How does that work?”
“Ask Santiago.” Cole put away his cell. “This is the field test.”
Packing away my questions for later, I slid a fresh clip in my pocket—bullets might not kill a charun, but they slowed them down—then palmed the falchion. “Ready.”
Wu set the pace, gliding through the darkness, as silent as a cat on soft paws.
Basically, he fit right in.
Cole stuck to my side, his flash of temper extinguished, his body quivering in anticipation of the fight.
“I’ll be pissed if you get yourself hurt,” I murmured. “Super pissed.”
“I know.” Feral intensity burned in his gaze when he turned it on me. “The same goes for you.”
“I know,” I parroted back to him, taking comfort in our small ritual.
I flexed my fingers, rotating my wrist, getting used to the weight of the blade. It should have felt stranger, less familiar, but it didn’t. Eyeing Cole’s sword, I experienced a moment of kinship. Something told me if I lifted it, I would find its strength a comfort too.
Zone three remained quiet and contained. Zone two was bloodstained but empty. Zone one buzzed with frantic activity.
Smoke poured from the rear of the building, and flames licked up its sides. Men and women hustled to contain the blaze, but it burned too bright. Unnaturally hot. I was sweating from here.
“Mmmrrrrpt.”
A slight weight touched down on my shoulder, and a furry cheek brushed mine. “Nice job, Thom-cat.”
“Are the scouts neutralized?” Wu stared into the blaze. “Did you have to burn them out?”
“Mmmrrrrpt.”
“Fast and effective,” Cole praised him. “We don’t have long. The authorities will be notified soon if they haven’t been already.”
The winged kitty glided to the ground, shook out its wings, then rose on two legs as Thomas.
“There were eggs,” he said. “Rooms of them. They’ve dug deep and carved out a true nest. It’s easier to boil them en masse than scramble them individually.”
Eggs. We had to cut down War’s numbers, but it still made my heart ache. “Any children?”
“No.” Thom turned compassionate eyes on me. “There are no young, only the unborn.”
“All right.” I packed away those bothersome emotions for later examination. “Let’s do this.”
Cole was watching me, assessing my reaction to the grim news, but he dropped his gaze before I caught him at it.
“Bring up the rear,” Wu ordered me. “Thom, you’re with Luce.”
Cole offered a tight nod of agreement indicating they ought to be the ones who led the charge. I didn’t argue. I was weaker, and I glitched between stone-cold killer and bleeding-heart. I couldn’t be trusted to have their backs, no matter how much I wanted to guard them.
Distracted by the fire, the Drosera didn’t notice us converging on them until Cole roared his battle cry. That sent them into a fresh tizzy, and they tossed aside buckets and grabbed anything that might work as a weapon. I counted two dozen of them, give or take. It was hard keeping them straight with the black cloud swirling around them.
Wu raced forward, twin swords raised, and sliced through his opponents without uttering so much as an undignified grunt. Each strike was as elegant as a courtly bow, his attacks a vicious waltz with more partners than any dance card should hold. He actually paused once to grimace as blood splattered his shirt. Thankfully, he got his head back in the game before it was separated from his shoulders.
There was no hesitation in Cole. There was no stopping him, either. He raged at them like a pissed-off bull with a matador in his sights. He swung his sword like it was an extension of his arm. Powerful. Merciless. He cut down his opponents then snarled a challenge for more.
What it said about me that I actually panted watching him work up a sweat, I didn’t want to know.
It was easier accepting them as other than recognizing the same urges and desires in myself.
“Our turn.” Thom flexed his hands down at his sides. Claws the length of my thumbs emerged from the tips of his fingers. “We must cut down the cowards who flee.”
Suddenly, I had a much clearer picture of how those sheep had met their ends.
Thom was one scary son of a biscuit.
Three Drosera decided they had had enough and bolted down streets headed in opposite directions. I charged after one, but Thom trailed me instead of hunting down the others. And I wasn’t fooling myself. He could dispatch ten to every kill I managed with those razorblade fingertips and his centuries of experience.
“Go,” I growled at him. “They’re getting away.”
“Your safety is my priority.” He wasn’t even winded. “We’ll catch the others.” He tapped the side of his nose, and I half expected him to lop off the tip. “I can track them. They won’t get far.”
“All right.” I trusted his assessment. I didn’t have much choice. Truth be told, I didn’t want to be out here alone. I was scared what I might do without someone to anchor me in this skin. “Let’s do this then.”
The first charun decided he couldn’t outrun us and hid behind a dumpster. Blood poured from his side, and his eyes barely tracked as Thom took his head. At this point, it was a mercy killing.
“The others have a head start.” I kept my expression and voice neutral when he searched my face for signs of . . . revulsion maybe? He was my friend, and I showed him none. “Get tracking, tracker.”
When Thom smiled, his mouth was full of needles, and he rolled his r into a purr. “With pleasure.”
Chin up, he drew in air to fill his lungs then exhaled with manic glee written across his face. Faster than I could ask what he’d scented, he turned on a dime and bolted in the direction his nose told him to go.
To keep up, I had to pull on the reserve that made me a bit faster, a tad stronger, than most humans.
We breezed past zones two and three. This outer area hadn’t been cleared, and the odds of running across innocent bystanders skyrocketed.
“This way,” he breathed, legs pumping until I worried he might lift right off the pavement.
I stuck as close to him as my shorter legs and lesser endurance allowed, and soon I saw what he had sensed all along. The two stragglers had banded together. Now the odds were even.
Thom flexed his claws. “They’ll only kill more humans if we allow them to escape.”
There was no way to tell how many skin suits they had cycled through in their lifetime. Thom was right. The longer they lived, the more humans would die, and the war hadn’t even kicked off yet.
As far as motivational speeches went, it was a short but effective one.
The Drosera noticed us at the same time, and they made their stand in the middle of the freaking street. It’s not like there was any traffic, but there would be eventually. We had to wrap this up quick.
“Take the one on the left.” Thom’s nostrils flared. “He’s already wounded.”
“Got it.”
We advanced while they held their ground. That made me nervous, like they knew something we hadn’t figured out yet.
Right before we got level with them, I grasped the situation and yanked Thom back a step. Had the unmarked sedan not been pointed in the opposite direction, the cops would have spotted us. Me with my blood-crusted falchion, and Thom with his claws still dripping.
Shit on a shingle. This just got more complicated.
“There’s an undercover unit parked on the corner,” I told Thom. “See that glint? It’s a light bar mounted flush with the back windshield. Looks like two officers. Both plainclothes.”
“We have to lure them away,” Thom snarled softly, his disgust at their cowardice apparent.
The big rule was not to involve humans, to fly under their radar, but these two were willing to drag bystanders into the fray to save their tails.
“Damn it.” I wiped the back of my hand across my sweaty forehead. “They know I’m a cop.” I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood. It didn’t matter. Amending that to I was a cop would hurt even worse. “They don’t think I’ll put the officers at risk.”
Thom spared me a glance. “Will you?”
I didn’t like the way he was looking at me. “Will you?”
“No,” he said slowly, as if sounding out the right answer.
Shocker, I wasn’t the only one who pulled on a blank face to conceal their true emotions. The coterie was trying, and so was I. I had to believe that was enough, that we could find some middle ground where their morals and mine didn’t clash so loudly.
“We can’t wait them out, and we can’t let them go.” Our chances of striking a third target evaporated if we stood here much longer. I still wasn’t hot on that plan, but majority ruled. “Can you incapacitate them?”
A flash of needle teeth. “Yes.”
“I’m going to engage.” I tested my grip and found my palm bone-dry when it should have been as sweaty as the rest of me. “When the officers exit the vehicle, take them down. Easy.”
“I won’t hurt them,” he promised, sounding more certain.
“Wish me luck.” I didn’t give him a chance to follow through before charging toward the startled charun. One blanched while the other pointed to the sedan in case I had somehow missed the police presence. I grinned at them, and it was a nasty twist of my lips that snarled up my face. “They can’t save you.”
The cold place burst over my head, chilling my thoughts and freezing my reservations.
Whatever change they perceived on my face or in my body language sent them scurrying.
Behind me, I heard car doors open and footsteps hit pavement.
“Stop,” a woman barked. “Drop your weapon and put your hands in the air.”
Trusting Thom to have my back, I kept up the pursuit.
The Drosera sprinted for the nearest lighted area, a grocery store by the looks of it. The lot wasn’t empty of vehicles. Far from it. There were people in there who would eventually need to come out and get in their cars to go home. These two knew I valued human life. They were making me work for the kills. The only way to protect the shoppers was to take out the charun before they hit that spill of light and claimed their safety.
Diving deeper, I pumped my legs harder. I drew on that calm center until it enveloped me, until its focus encased me in an impenetrable bubble where things like exhaustion and ethics ceased to exist. Even the worry I had nursed for the humans faded to a half-formed thought, easily swept aside by the tide of hungrier urges.
The faster charun stepped in a pothole and lost his footing. Those precious seconds cost him. I was on him a heartbeat later. I clamped my left hand on his shoulder then thrust my blade through his kidneys. He cried out, thrashing. The wound, while painful, wasn’t life-threatening. It was a petty strike, a toll exacted from him for making me waste my time. He should have stood his ground, died in the fight with his kin. But no, he had abandoned them to save his own skin.
I shoved him forward, and he landed on his hands and knees. From there, it was easy to take the three steps that lined me up with his shoulders, to raise my blade, and sever his neck with one surgically precise blow.
His head tumbled to the asphalt and rolled to a stop with his face gazing skyward. I watched the light go out of his eyes, and I was satisfied. No, I was horrified. But I couldn’t shatter the icy bars of the cage holding me. There was nothing to do but piggyback on that spark of Conquest’s consciousness while ancient instincts ruled my body.
The second charun hadn’t waited around to see what fate befell his coterie member. He was a dot growing smaller on my horizon as he fled toward the perceived safety of the light.
He didn’t make it.
Thom slammed into his side, and they went down together. A feral snarl tore past his lips as he punched the Drosera in the chest. His hand came back bloody, and he clutched a fistful of pulpy meat in his palm.
His heart.
Thom had ripped out his heart.
Bile splashed up the back of my throat, the heat of it thawing me until I registered the dried blood making my hands itch. I clamped my lips closed as Thom rose. He tossed the shredded organ onto the dead Drosera’s chest like a ball of yarn he had grown tired of playing with then strolled toward me.
“We need to sweep the area. I’ve got their scent now. I’ll be able to locate any of their nest mates.” He reached in his back pocket and removed a thin packet that crinkled. He pulled out one baby wipe for me and took another for himself. He watched me until I started cleaning my hands then began the meticulous process of scrubbing blood from his knuckles. “Better?”
“Much.” I deserved a gold star when my voice didn’t crack. “Thank you.”
“This body isn’t as flexible as my natural one,” he said mournfully. “The texture of the human tongue leaves something to be desired as well.”
“I’m, uh, sorry about that.” All I could think of was how cats stretched one leg high over their heads while they cleaned their junk and about how there were rumors about a rock star having two ribs removed so he could fellate himself. I wasn’t sure if Thom had a sense of humor or if it was too dry for me to discern it, so I wasn’t taking any chances. “So . . . You can track any deserters?”
“Yes.” He took my trash and shoved it into a pocket alongside his wipe. “We should get started. The cops won’t be out long. I didn’t bite them very hard.”
I rested my hand on his arm. “Thanks for not hurting them.”
“Hurting them would hurt you.” He went solemn on me. “I would never do that.”
A humid wind stirred around us in a sudden rush that left me searching the sky for storm clouds.
Thom brushed his shoulder against mine. “Cole.”
Sure enough, a gust of hot breath blasted in my face, the scent coppery but pleasant.
“Come to check on us?” I groped air until my fingers tangled in his silky mane. “We’ve got everything under control.”
The dragon made an inquiring noise, almost a trill.
“He’s on clean up detail,” Thom informed me.
“You’re collecting bodies for disposal?” I clenched my hands, a sick feeling in my gut when it occurred to me to wonder how the coterie made bodies disappear fast in an urban setting. “Or are you the disposal?”
A huff of breath, the bright punch of new pennies, fanned my cheeks.
“FYI.” I kept my tone light, my expression smooth. “You’re flossing when we get back to the hotel.”
The great beast nudged my shoulder, and I took the hint gladly. He had cleanup to do, and he didn’t want me here when he chowed down.
We almost made it out of range when I heard the first crunch of bone. The sour taste coated every surface in my mouth, but I swallowed until I felt certain I wouldn’t toss my cookies. I avoided thinking about how my dragon BFF was a man eater. Corpse muncher? Charun nibbler? Did that make him a cannibal?
Look, brain, I can’t afford to backslide into shock. This is my new reality. Adapt already.
The pep talk must have done the trick. I managed to help Thom clear the zones, adding three more kills to my tally, before we backtracked to zone one to rendezvous with the team.
Wu stood in the rubble of what should have been an inferno, but whatever accelerant they used had reduced the old fast food joint to blacked bones jutting from the cracked foundation. He glanced over when he heard us coming. He examined my hands and then my face. A grimness pinched his mouth, and it looked more at home on his face than any smile I had ever seen him wear. There was something sad about that.
Leave it to him to cut to the chase. “Are you steady?”
“Rock steady.” I grinned, but he didn’t get the reference. Rixton would have laughed. Maybe even sang a few bars of the R&B classic. Probably made a dirty joke that would get him slapped if Sherry heard him talk about her that way. He viewed his wife as a sex goddess, and she was cool with that, but it was the sharing—the oversharing—with his coworkers that mortified her. “Never mind.”
“Luce handled herself well.” Thom came to my defense. “Next time, she needs a bigger blade.”
Hefting the falchion, I twisted the handle so light played off the stained blade. “I would have to upgrade to a broadsword to get bigger than this.”
Thom nodded in agreement. “Cole has yours.”
“I have a sword?” The fingers in my right hand tightened. For a moment, the sensation of carved wood vanished, and braided leather molded by time and sweat and blood warmed my palm. “Maybe he should keep it safe for me. I drew on the—” I almost said the cold place but didn’t want to explain myself. “I remembered how it feels to fight with a sword, maybe with that sword, so let’s avoid giving Conquest another touchstone.”
Memories were trickling in faster than ever. I couldn’t afford to touch an old sword and black out again. I had no clue what triggered my last episode, and I aimed to keep it that way, but two days? What kind of landmines were buried in my head that exploded on that scale?
Maybe everyone had been right all along. Maybe it was only a matter of applying enough pressure in the right spot. After all, something was making me go boom.