Two sandy hands struck the metal doors in tandem. Sparks flared brighter than previously while pain seared through my forearm. We were definitely losing ink, a lot of it by the feel of things.
But the electricity did its job. The doors opened onto a normally lit hallway that was so bright after the elevator shaft that I had to blink liquid out of my eyes. That was the only reason for teariness, I told myself, even as I forced the blur aside to peer down at my forearm. Still, I found myself desperate to determine how much of our frozen matebrand we’d used up.
Not as much as I’d feared. There were still swirls of magical markings on each of us. Mirrored lines that would have met and joined if we stood just a little closer together. Opening the elevator door hadn’t taken nearly as much of our silenced matebrand as we’d lost during Chief Bellwether’s ritual.
Which meant I could still think straight. Could remember who was in real and present danger—Maya, not Orion or me.
Orion must have had the same thought because he turned his cell phone face up to consider the tracking app, punching the door closed button at the same time so no one would accidentally tumble down into the darkness. The mechanism obeyed him. The tracking app, on the other hand, was immediately obscured by an incoming call.
“Donovan,” Orion rumbled, keeping the phone away from his ear so he could swipe back over to the tracking app after answering. Maya’s dot continued to sit in one place. What were they doing down there in the parking garage?
“Bad news,” Donovan answered, sounding grimmer than I’d ever heard him. “Finnegan’s ereader wasn’t just an ereader. When we ripped it apart, the guts included what appears to be a cell-phone transmitter.”
I winced. I really was off my game to have missed something so obvious. Especially when my gut had warned that Finnegan couldn’t be trusted.
“Not such bad news,” Orion countered, and the way his gaze met mine absolved me of any wrongdoing. “At least we know who was responsible for passing along information.”
“We know, but we don’t have him,” Donovan countered. “While we were going through his possessions, Finnegan slipped through our fingers. He’s gone.”
After that, it took us longer than we’d hoped to reach the garage level. First, we were reminded of the fact that Orion’s clothes were still wrapped around my waist by a very wide-eyed dog walker. Then Celeste—safely out of the building, thank goodness—called for an update before changing gears and chewing me out about what she referred to as “chasing Finnegan away.”
Eventually, though, Orion and I took the last set of stairs down to the parking garage as quickly as we could while keeping our footfalls silent. His gaze flicked back and forth between the path ahead and the tracking app on his cell phone while I kept all of my senses intent upon seeking signs of immediate danger.
The first showed up at the bottom of the stairwell where a heavy door lacked a window to let us see what might lie on the other side. Despite the barrier, I caught the faintest trickle of scent that made me hesitate. Not Maya. Not a shifter of any sort. Yet still familiar…
A cigar stubbed out before the multi-agent offensive that ended up capturing Vega’s entire clan. The tobacco’s sweet scent was so unique I’d been able to tell where the cigar-smoking agent was located during the entire takedown, something I’d made a note of because I intended to tell him it was a weakness when working with werewolves. I hadn’t seen the agent afterwards, though, to pass along the warning. Had since changed sides and was glad to know he had a weakness. I’d never smelled that brand before or since…
My hesitation turned into a full stop and I sensed Orion going still and alert behind me. For the dozenth time, I wished we were still able to communicate silently down a mate bond.
But Orion didn’t require words. As I turned my head to meet his gaze, he twisted the cell phone around so I could see the glowing dot all the way on the other side of the parking garage and continuing to recede into the distance.
If Maya was being moved away from us, there shouldn’t be a Council agent waiting outside this door. Not unless they knew about the tracker and were using it to set up another ambush.
Could we have discussed the device’s existence in front of Finnegan? Honestly, I’d been so hollowed out during that phase of the planning process that I had no memory of when the idea of trackers had first been broached.
Looked like we needed to assume our sole advantage had been compromised, to assume that dot might not even represent Maya. Instead, it could be an agent tasked with drawing us away from innocent humans so we’d be easier to take down.
Behind me, Orion smelled like impatience and concern for his sister. He understood there was danger ahead, but he leaned forward anyway, barely held back by my stillness.
I shook my head at him, slipping around his stationary body and starting back up the stairs. Walking into an ambush now had the same problem as us arriving at the penthouse in the elevator. Council agents packed firepower we were forbidden from carrying. Plus, they seemed to know we were coming, which stole away the element of surprise.
Behind me, the scent in the stairwell turned sour. Orion didn’t like this. He wanted to find Maya.
Well, I wanted to find Maya too. But this wasn’t the way to free her.
Our silent conversation was interrupted by the clang of another door closing above us. Whoever had come in wasn’t even trying to stay quiet. Probably just a tenant heading out for the evening.
No such luck.
“Let’s talk,” said Gabi, leaning over the railing on the landing above us, “about sisters.”
Chapter 17
We were caught between two Council operatives. But while Gabi was bound to be armed, at least she wasn’t menacing us at the moment. Which suggested we might be able to talk our way close enough to plant a tracker as originally intended then escape.
“You admit it?” My feet began carrying me up the staircase, and my actions weren’t entirely because of my perfectly rational plan. Instead, I found myself peering at the woman I’d spent years training under then working alongside.
Was her nose the same shape as mine? Were the intricate box braids that kept her hair virtually maintenance-free also preventing me from noticing a similarity in curl pattern?
Her eyebrows—lighter than mine, but perhaps just as prominent?—rose as Gabi answered my question with a question. “You knew?”
“I know now.”
“Then you’ll understand why I’m concerned about her new boyfriend.”
Okay…color me confused. Which was actually helpful. It reminded me that there were more pressing issues at play than my hunt for a sister…who might not be Gabi after all?
With that in mind, I climbed the last few steps up so I could join Gabi on the landing, all the while slipping my hand into my pocket to palm the tracking device Orion and I had originally intended to plant in Gabi’s favorite pair of work boots. It wasn’t any bigger than the beads Celeste and I used to thread onto friendship bracelets. Still, I trusted Orion to notice when I twisted my hand around to make the tiny sphere visible behind my back.
Orion was close enough to warm my shoulders, so he was definitely close enough to see the tracking device. However, when he spoke, he drew us back toward Gabi’s recent statement instead. “Whose boyfriend are you referring to?”
“Celeste’s,” Gabi bit out, as if we were unpardonably slow rather than carrying on a completely different conversation than she was. Or perhaps we were carrying on two additional conversations if you counted the tracking bead along with my original assumption that Gabi had been referring to herself as my sister.
On the tracking bead topic, I waggled the hand behind my back a little harder. Maybe Orion was too close to notice it? If so, surely movement would draw his eye.
Meanwhile, Gabi explained without further prompting. “All Celeste could talk about this evening was some mysterious boyfriend. But she admitted she only met him a few days ago. She’s smitten and I don’t like it.”
“Which is why you set up this sting,” I goaded, knowing that wasn’t the reason. Because Julius was involved along with at least one other Council operative. No way they’d take time out of their busy schedules so Gabi and I could compare notes about Celeste’s dating life.
