Hal ran his hand through his hair, which was getting long, even for him, as he waited for his brothers to show up. The dreams had to stop, and he knew only one way to get that to happen.

He needed to go back for the redhead.

Guilt fueled the dreams, so if he stopped feeling guilty, the dreams would stop. He’d decided it was time to meet with his brothers.

Dem appeared first, giving Hal a shock, as usual. He grunted in hello, and Hal could swear he saw him sniffing the air. The scowl on his face was even harsher than usual. Before he could ask what was wrong, Alec and Thad popped in, one after the other.

The drinks he’d placed by their usual seats were still cold, and there was food on the table, which Dem had immediately jumped into. He was already halfway through his first burger before anyone else could even touch the food.

“I’d like to rescue the redhead who saved Thad and me from being murdered.” He had never beaten around the bush about these types of things, and he didn’t see why he should start now.

Dem almost choked on the bite of burger he had been focused on inhaling. “You what?” he managed after his coughing fit.

“There was a redhead at the farmhouse who saved me and Thad from biting the big cosmic bullet. She struck some kind of deal with the suit, and he whisked her away through that freakin’ portal. I could tell how terrified she was before she left. She needs rescuing, and no one else is going to do it!”

“So you want to poke the bear?” Dem said, setting his burger down.

“Her name is Robin.” Thad’s voice cut through the vitriol of Dem’s.

“Robin?”

“Yeah, I saw her in the vision I had before we went to the farmhouse, and her boss, the suit, called her Robin.” Thad took a deep breath before continuing. “And you’re right; we should rescue her. I saw a small glimpse of what her life was like, and let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. I’m sure if she had to strike a bargain to allow us to leave alive, then it was only going to get worse for her.”

“We don’t have the resources to go up against an organization like that, especially if they can do magic as well. We have to know what we are up against before we step in,” Alec said.

“I agree.” Dem usually sided against whatever Alec wanted, mainly out of spite, so the fact that he agreed meant that they had a lot of concerns about this idea.

Hal sighed. He knew he would have to explain why he wanted to go after her if he were to have any chance of winning them over. “I’ve been dreaming of her. It’s torturing me. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep since we got back.”

Three pairs of concerned eyes stared at him.

“Well, let’s force our resource to talk. If we can get more information out of him, maybe we can put it to good use and rescue your Robin.” Thad was always the most rational and logical of them all, except when it came to his soulmate Cin.

“She’s not my—” Hal sighed. “Okay.”

He knew it would be pointless to try to dissuade them from the idea that Robin was somehow his. All he wanted was to clear his conscience. That was it. He would happily let Robin go about her life after he rescued her from whatever hell she’d put herself in to save his sorry ass.

* * *

Robin tried to pull the skirt of her dress down a fraction more so she felt less exposed, but it didn’t work. The dress picked for today was a short gray number with a beaded bodice that, for all intents and purposes, had no back. The length and lack of material covering her back made her feel mostly naked, which, judging from the look on Randall’s face this morning when she’d come up to the office, was exactly what he wanted.

He purposely kept her off balance, using things that made her uncomfortable and forcing them on her. Slowly wearing down her confidence. He had promised to break her. So far, she’d held strong, but she knew he would win eventually. He had too much to hold over her head, like the lives of her parents and little sister, and besides, as he kept reminding her, she had agreed to this.

When she had offered herself up in Katerina’s place, she’d thought it would just be sex. She could handle that. The monotonous act of him thrusting until he reached his release. She wouldn’t have enjoyed it, but she could’ve handled it.

This, whatever it was that he was doing, was driving her mad. He showed up in her room when she least expected it. He picked out clothing for her, chose her meals, ordered massages, facials, pedicures, manicures, and all kinds of other spa treatments for her. And all while he was sequestered in his penthouse. She didn’t understand his end game; she couldn’t tell what his goal was with all of this.

She was stuck waiting for the other shoe to drop.

For now, she just wanted a longer dress. She couldn’t bend over in the one he’d picked out the night before, and when she sat down, she could feel the scratchy fiber of the seat cushion on the sensitive skin on the backs of her thighs.

Taking a deep breath, she focused on what her goal was today—getting the data from The Farm uploaded to the server her hacker friends maintained. The all-new computer system she’d put together was super fast, which would be helpful when she started the upload.

It was too bad it had taken so long to get all her unofficial programs on it, or she would have been able to upload the files already. Instead, for the last few days, she’d been bringing the new system up to date with the system on her old laptop, which was now a melted blob somewhere north of them.

The files had all been encrypted, and she locked them with a password just to be extra safe. Robin knew her friends could crack her password and probably decrypt the files as well, if they wanted to, but she also knew that they respected her privacy. Honor among thieves and all that.

Her only problem was figuring out what to do with the files after she’d uploaded them. She needed to get the information to people who could use it, who could help her take Eclipse down, even though she was stuck on the inside.

The group of hackers she was friends with might be able to help, but they all had their own goals, and she didn’t want to bring this kind of trouble down on them. If she really thought about it, she didn’t think they would survive the reign of terror the Order of Talos and Eclipse would bring to their doorsteps.

The media was a possibility, but they’d probably think it was a hoax, as would the government. She needed someone who knew what was up, who knew that there was magic and supernatural creatures in the world. After racking her brain for the last few days, she had only been able to come up with one answer.

The people who helped Aster escape.

Robin had no idea how to contact them, or even what their names were. She was staring at a mountain of hay, and she knew there was a needle in there somewhere, but she had no clue where to start looking. If she didn’t get this done soon, she felt like the opportunity would pass. She needed to strike while the iron was hot, while Randall was still a little off his game.

She knew he didn’t think she’d noticed, but she had. He was exhausted after they got back from The Farm. There had been the initial blaze of anger at The Scout, or Norman, as Randall had called him, but after that and the fashion show she’d put on for him, he had disappeared up in his penthouse for the last two days, and when he came back down, he looked as if he’d been on a bender.

He had appeared in her room while she was getting ready for bed in the bathroom. When she saw him, she gasped. He looked thinner than he had before, and there were bags under his bloodshot eyes. It was as if something had drained him of all his life force. He’d ignored her reaction, picked out a dress, and left. Now, she was in said dress and waiting for him to call for her from his office.

She may as well have been waiting for a balloon to pop. Tension hummed through her as she typed up a report of the incident at The Farm for the insurance. It was much more ordinary and bland than what had really happened, but she doubted the insurance would cover magic portals and torture of magical creatures.

An e-mail from Randall popped up on her screen, requesting her presence in his office. Finally, the balloon had popped. Robin stood and tugged her dress down as much as she could before heading into the office, notebook and pen in hand.

“You asked to see me, Mr. Randall?”

“Come and sit, Robin.”

“Yes, sir.”

As she sat down in the chair, the leather of the cushion plastered to her thighs. She hated the dress.

“I need you to accompany me tonight.” Randall watched her, his dark eyes assessing her every movement. “I have to present myself to the Order, and I need to be sure nothing untoward is going to happen. If you’re with me, then I at least know whether I’m going to die or not.”

“Where is the meeting? Do I need to call for a car?”

“No, we have to take a portal to get there.”

Robin felt herself pale at the thought. When they had taken the portal away from The Farm, all of her organs had felt like they were being mashed up inside her body. It was not a sensation she looked forward to experiencing again.

“That’s not going to be a problem, is it?” Randall’s eyes seemed to bore into her, as though he was trying to read her mind, just waiting for her to snap.

“No, sir.” She ground the words out even though she wanted to run as far away as possible from him and his damn portals.

“Good.” He smirked. “Now—”

Before Randall could continue, Norman came bursting through the doors of his office.

“I can’t find him!” His hands wrapped around his head and squeezed. His hair was longer than his brother’s and gave him more of a casual, wealthy playboy look, but the way he held his head made it stick out through his fingers at awkward angles. “He’s not answering anything; he’s not at any of his usual spots. I can’t even find him with help from the Order!” He paced back and forth frantically as he spoke, making Robin nervous.

“Could he have been caught in the fire?” Randall’s voice was calm, but there was a blade of anger underneath.

“No! I know he’s still alive! I can’t explain it. I just know!”

“Okay.” Randall sighed, his left hand flexed into a fist. He released it when he noticed Robin watching him. “We are going to the Order tonight. I can see if any of the other members would be willing to help you look for him.”

“But I’ve already asked the Order for help!”

“The request hasn’t come from me, and I’m a higher rank than you. They may give me resources that they wouldn’t share with you.”

Norman’s shirt was rumpled, and his tie barely hung on around his neck. She wasn’t sure that Randall’s words were going to have an effect at first, but as soon as Norman heard the Order at Randall’s level was getting involved, he calmed down.

“Now, go and get yourself cleaned up. You’re filthy.” Randall turned away, clearly dismissing him.

Norman seemed confused. He started to leave and then stopped. “So I’m not coming with you to the Order?”

“I think that would be unwise given your current state, don’t you?”

“But how will I know if they are going to help?”

“I’ll tell you! Now go home!”

He looked like he wanted to say something else, plead with Randall to let him come along, but he also recognized that he wouldn’t win that argument. At least, Robin assumed that was what he realized, since he left. He still looked slightly bewildered as he exited, but he didn’t make Robin nervous anymore.

“You should go and change.” He looked at her appraisingly. “Wear the blue dress with pockets and a V-neck. You’ll know it when you see it. I’ll have some food sent to your room. You’ll have an hour to change and eat and come back up here so we can leave. Do not be late.”

“Yes, sir.”

Robin knew when she was dismissed. As she made her way back to her desk, her mind made a desperate plea for escape by giving her an idea of how to get the files to the guys who rescued Aster. She logged on to her new set-up quickly and uploaded the files. Her nails nervously tapped on her glass desk as she watched the files transfer.

While that was going on, she made her way through to the printer she’d hacked at the beginning of this whole thing, and sent a message off. She hoped it got to the right hands, because she was running out of time. Randall was clearly grooming her for something, and she had a feeling she didn’t want to find out what it was. Once the upload was complete, she logged off and discretely removed the flash drive before heading to her room.

* * *

Hal stood in front of the cage and stared at the man who sat inside. His dark hair and almost black eyes made his skin look even paler than it should. They had been keeping him in here to get the very information he now sought out of him. So far, the man hadn’t batted an eyelash out of concern.

That was about to change.

Aster had wanted to come down with him, but he refused. There was no reason for her to see this asshat, no matter what kind of vengeance she was after. It could only end badly.

He was thankful that Thad had persuaded Cin to stay behind as well. She was brand spankin’ new to being a fury. He didn’t want her to get in trouble with Hades just yet, and if she killed or tortured someone who hadn’t been cleared, she’d be in a heap of trouble with Hades and the other furies.

“Are you just planning on standing there and staring at me all night, big man?”

“Haven’t made up my mind yet.”

“Well, I vote you leave. Let me get my rest.”

“You’ve been resting for the last few days. What could you possibly need rest from?”

“Dissecting you lot can be quite arduous at times, especially when they put up a fight, like the little blonde did, not to mention that blue-haired bitch. It never works, though. I always get what I want in the end.”

“I see.” Hal knew he was being baited. “Did you want your entire lab to burn to the ground? Every last inch turned into ash?”

Confusion clouded his face, followed by rage.

“You’re just trying to bait me. I see through your tricks.”

“You were stumbling around a building that was burning to the ground when we took you. How would I bait you with something you already know?”

“I only started a small fire to keep that psycho fury contained. I don’t know what happened to make it all explode like that.”

“That would be your boss, the one who left you for dead.”

The guy didn’t look convinced.

“Look, at least tell me your name, and I’ll tell you what happened.”

“Leonard, but most people call me The Surgeon.”

Hal didn’t want to think about the implications of that name and what it might mean about Aster’s stay with that man.

“Your boss opened a portal that torched the back of the house and doubled the size of the fire you originally started. By the time we were about to leave, you showed up, and the house was pretty much gone. We left it burning. I would be surprised if anything in it survived. It felt as if it burned hotter than a natural fire, but that could just be because two idiots were playing with forces they didn’t understand.” Hal hadn’t realized he was so angry. It was only that his speech went from normal to shouting that gave it away.

“So my life’s work is gone. Just like that. Do you have any idea how many lives were sacrificed to get the data that was stored there?”

“You were murdering people! Not to mention being an idiot for not backing up your data in more than one place.”

Leonard looked frustrated. “It was backed up in more than one place, but they were all at The Farm.”

“Well, looks like you’ve lost everything, then, huh?” Hal sighed and sat on a chair one of his brothers had pulled over. “So, why can’t you do any of your fancy magic now?”

He didn’t bother to tell him that the cage made any magic impossible. Alec couldn’t jump out of it when they’d locked him in there, and they had designed it that way on purpose.

“I don’t want to.” Leonard acted like a petulant child.

“Bullshit. Do it and I’ll let you out.”

“If I do it, then take me back to Boston.”

“Deal.”

Leonard’s eyes widened in surprise, which made Hal laugh.

“Look, man, I’m not you. If I say I’ll do something, I’ll do it. If you prove me wrong right now and do magic, then I’ll take you to Kalamazoo, if you want.”

“Fine.”

Hal took a moment to tie his hair back. It had been getting longer and more unruly for a while now, but he kind of preferred it that way. In any case, he didn’t want it to catch on fire from whatever pathetic sparks this guy was going to dish out.

Leonard watched as he settled in the chair as though he was about to watch a show. It was only when he became still that the guy began to speak.

“Order of Talos, hear my plea. Grant me access to my power. Order of Talos, lend me your strength. Order of Talos, lend me your speed. Order of Talos, lend me your fire.”

He flared his hands, and one itty bitty little spark flew, but nothing else happened. Nothing that would make Hal believe the man could truly do magic.

“Jazz hands? Is that the correct term? That’s what you use to cast a fire spell?”

Leonard went back to pleading for power from the Order of Talos. All Hal wanted was to know who the hell they were and how he could get Robin out of there. Her name sounded like bells in his mind. He hadn’t really connected the two before Thad had shared that tidbit of information with him, but now it was as if a cello had joined a violin, and the beauty had just doubled.

“It’s not like you know magic. You’re just winged demons that your gods didn’t want to look at anymore.”

“Oh, really?”

Leonard chuckled. “If you knew magic, you would have made me talk a long time ago. It’s clear from the behavior exhibited by yourself and your brothers that magic is not a weapon you have the ability to wield.”

Hal summoned his siren voice, the voice that made anyone do anything he wanted, but could also potentially turn them into his mindless slaves, unable to breathe, eat, walk, sleep, unless he told them to. This was an acceptable risk. “Hop on one leg.” He only used just a touch of his power; it was more of a garnish than an actual command. Nevertheless, Leonard began hopping on one leg.

“What the—”

“We do have magic. We are just smart enough to know when to use it and when to hold back, unlike yourself and your boss.”

“Can I stop hopping yet?”

“I don’t know, can you?” Hal smirked. His brothers had come down here all sound and fury, with the exception of Thad, who hadn’t been down here at all since he got Cin back. All Leonard needed was someone to challenge his place in the world, or at least what he saw as his place.

A growl of frustration sounded from the man in the cage.

“Tell me to stop hopping!”

“No.”

Hal watched as his expression went from astonishment to indignation. He was willing to bet that Leonard hadn’t had many people tell him no in his lifetime. If he was honest with himself, it gave him some obscure joy to be one of those people. Leonard understood violence too well; he needed to be undermined, to have someone destroy that cocky attitude, and then he would talk.

Over fifteen minutes later, Leonard cracked and yelled, “Dammit, tell me to stop hopping!” His voice had changed to one of desperation.

“Will you talk to me? Tell me what I want to know?”

“Yes.”

“Swear on your own grave.” Hal didn’t trust anything that came out of this psychopath’s mouth.

“I swear.”

“Stop hopping.” The relaxation in Leonard’s body was immediate. Hal hoped his relief would serve in encouraging him to answer the questions honestly.

“Thank you,” he gasped out as a coughing fit shook his body. Leonard was severely out of shape. He wasn’t fat, but he had no cardiovascular strength.

“Now, tell me who your boss is.” Hal figured he would start with something easy that he already knew the answer to.

“Randall Fields.”

“Good. And what is the Order of Talos?”

“An ancient organization that believes everyone worthy should have access to magic, not just those chosen by the gods or fate. We seek power and the ability to guide the world on the correct path, to save the world from the corruption of magical beings.”

“And where is Mr. Fields based out of?”

“The Eclipse headquarters in Boston.”

“So that’s why you wanted to go back to Boston, huh?”

“Yes.”

“And how could I break into the Eclipse building?”

“You can’t. It’s barometrically locked. At least, any of the floors you would be interested in.”

“Can you draw me a floor plan?”

When Leonard nodded, a smile spread over Hal’s face.