And now that I was actually thinking about it, that tension had been rather odd. If Nuri had been expecting me, believing I could help her, why had the shifters kept their hands close to their weapons—and even closer once I’d arrived?
“Who were the other people in the bar that day?” I added, “Were they from Central?”
“Yes.” He half shrugged. “They were potential clients, but we got into something of a disagreement just before you arrived. It happens.”
I wondered if the potential clients had anything to do with Penny’s case. I suspected they might, if only because everything seemed to be aligning in an effort to force these people and me together on this investigation.
“And they left after I’d been darted?”
“Yes.”
“Meaning,” I muttered, “they’re probably back in Central telling anyone who’ll listen that there’s a real, live déchet running around. Who cares if its the truth or not?”
“I doubt it,” Jonas said. “Those particular shifters have no desire to get involved with Central’s authorities. If they’re going to do anything, it’ll be investigating the disappearances themselves. Besides, they won’t find you in Chaos, and given Penny never mentioned this place in their presence, it’s unlikely they’d find you even if they did search.”
“I hope you’re right, ranger, because the ghosts and I quite like our current situation.”
“It is certainly more peaceful here than in either Chaos or Central,” he agreed. “Who was that man you met there?”
I raised my eyebrows. “What business is it of yours who I meet?”
“Nothing, except for the fact that you led me on a merry dance almost immediately after meeting him, and yet up until that point showed no awareness of even being followed.”
“Given I wasn’t aware of your presence, it was hardly a deliberate attempt to lose you,” I replied evenly. “We simply used a VTOL.”
“I gathered.” His expression was back to disbelief and anger, but I supposed that wasn’t unexpected given we’d deliberately lost him and we both knew it.
I finished the last of my coffee, then tossed the cup in the nearby recycling slot and rose. “As lovely as this little chat has been, ranger, I need to sleep. You are welcome to claim whatever bench or bunk takes your fancy.”
His eyebrows rose. “You trust me to roam around your sanctuary alone?”
“You are never alone. Not in this place.” I gave him another humorless smile. “The ghosts will tell me if you attempt anything that endangers our home.”
“Warning heeded.” A slight trace of amusement warmed his lips and his eyes. “Enjoy your sleep.”
“And you your investigations.” I hesitated, remembering my conversation with the adult déchet earlier. “But I would avoid the ninth level if you value your life. That is where the bulk of déchet bones lie, and they will not allow a shifter anywhere near them.”
With that, I walked out and headed for the secondary medical center. The soft foam on the mediscan beds was comfortable, and there was no other bedding on this floor, as most of it had once been the training and teaching grounds for pubescent déchet. Some of the ghosts came with me—mostly the younger ones, as well as Bear and Cat. The rest remained to keep an eye on—and gossip about—Jonas.
Once in the medical center, I switched off all the monitors, then climbed into the bed the farthest from the door and closest to the wall. In very little time, I was asleep . . . and, rather annoyingly, dreaming of a shifter with a body of a warrior and fury for a heart rather than the lover I’d only just been reunited with.
• • •
Ghostly chattering woke me many hours later. I didn’t immediately move or open my eyes, but simply let the small noises of the place envelop me. Beyond the ghosts’ excited whispers about their adventures following Jonas last night, there was the soft sound of breathing. The ranger, in a nearby bed. His crisp, sharp scent spun around me, reminding me of the evening storms that came after a long, hot summer day. It even had the same sense of darkness and violence lying underneath it. Beyond Jonas, little else seemed to have changed. Silence stretched through the bunker’s corridors, though the air was touched by the stench of the vampire I’d burned last night. Outside our bunker, dawn had stirred across the skies and, if the electricity in the air was anything to go by, it was going to be an unpleasant day.
I opened my eyes and met Jonas’s bright gaze. He’d been watching me sleep, and the thought stirred through me enticingly. “Enjoy your investigations last night, ranger?”
“I did.” His voice was a pleasant rumble, the anger within it briefly absent. “This place is vast.”
“It was.” I swung my feet off the bed and rose. “But much of it is now either unusable, inaccessible, or under concrete.”
“Indeed.” He sat up. “I didn’t find much in the way of bathroom facilities in this place. Where do you shower?”
In the main bunk rooms, that’s where. But given I couldn’t admit I had access to that area, I simply raised an eyebrow and said, “Why? Are in interested in sharing one?”
His gaze slipped down my body and a smile briefly teased his lips. “Not when you wear that form. Your true self is much more pleasant.”
“Pleasant” was such a nonword when it came to compliments. “How do you know the form you saw was my real one, and not this?”
“It’s something of a talent.” He shrugged. “What are your plans today?”
“Why are you asking?”
His smile lost its humor, and the warmth fled his bright eyes. “Because if you plan to go back to Carleen and investigate those other rifts, I very much intend to go with you.”
Rather than respond to that declaration, I headed out of the room and walked back down the hall to the kitchen. Jonas followed, not willing to let me out of his sight, not even for a moment, it seemed. After ordering two coffees and several protein bars, I turned and said, “And if I don’t?”
He shrugged. “Then I will wait until you do.”
“Again, I have to ask, why?”
“Because that is what I have been ordered to do.”
My eyebrows rose. “And do you always do what you’re told?”
“It depends on the order.” His gaze was heated, angry. Determined. “But in this case, my niece is involved. And I will do everything in my power to bring down those who are responsible for the change in her.”
And heaven help anyone who got in his way, obviously. “What about the information I gave you on the rift in Deseo’s basement?”
“Nuri has been informed, and will act on the information today.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How? Communication devices don’t work down here.”
“We don’t need them.”
Meaning I was right—he and Nuri could share thoughts. The dispensing unit dinged a reminder. I handed Jonas both a coffee and protein bar, then picked up mine. “I guess we’d better get moving, then.”
Surprise briefly touched his otherwise set expression. “This early?”
“The earlier the better, as there’s not so many people about to catch me coming out of the bunker.” I headed for the tunnel that would take us down to the seventh level and the South Siding exit. “Besides, I have plans to meet a friend tonight.”
I could feel his gaze on me—a quicksilver caress that sent goose bumps flitting across my skin. And they weren’t the result of fear or cold. Far from it. “Do these plans involve the same man you met last night?”
“That, ranger, is none of your business.” I glanced over my shoulder. “And no, you cannot come with me, nor do I want you following me. In this case, three is most definitely a crowd.”
One dark eyebrow rose. “Never fear, I’m not into voyeurism.”
Maybe, I thought, and maybe not. Because if he gained even the slightest inkling that my meeting with Sal was anything other than pleasure, then watch he would.
“What about the vampires?” he added as we moved thro
ugh the sixth-floor cross-link. “How do you intend to dispose of their bodies? Burning them under lights will make this place rather odorous.”
I shrugged. “I can’t risk dragging them out into the sunlight, as the smoke might attract unwanted attention. I’ll just have to hope the ventilation system will have taken the worst of their smell from the air by the time I get back.”
By the time we’d reached the pile of vampires—which were still smoldering thanks to the closeness of their carcasses to the wash of light—I’d finished my coffee. I placed the cup near the wall to recycle later, shoved the protein bar in my pocket, then determinedly walked to the pile of dead and began tossing them into the middle of the room. Jonas joined me and, in a very short time, the vampires were little more than disintegrating ash. But the smell of burned flesh was sharp and rank, and my stomach churned. Thank Rhea I was going out for the day.
I walked over to the room’s control panel and set the lights to come on automatically with dusk. Then I ordered the ghosts to stay within its protection and not to approach the vampires should they attack again tonight. They were more than happy to comply.
With Cat and Bear dancing in front of me, I headed down the tunnel to the South Siding exit.
“Why do all the ghosts not come with you?” Jonas asked. “I would have thought they’d enjoy the break from the monotony of this place.”
I shrugged. “Cat and Bear were closest . . .” I stopped abruptly. To me when they gassed this place and we all died, I’d almost said. I really did have to watch myself.
“Closest to what?” Jonas asked.
Though he was behind me, I could feel the weight of his gaze. Feel the force of thoughts as he tried to read my mind and pry free my secrets. But lures could not be read by anyone other than the strongest seekers—and there were few enough of those around.
“Closest to training age, from what they said. I guess it’s natural for them to be more adventurous.”
“But you said there are adult déchet in this place. Why would they be restrained?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s not like they talk to me all too often. It’s usually just me and the children.”
We reached the South Siding exit. The day was, as I’d sensed, crisp and cool, and overhead thunder rumbled ominously.
“Sounds like rain isn’t very far off.” His gaze swept the rubbish and ash-strewn dirt beyond the grate. “You might want to grab yourself a coat.”
I might, but it involved going back to the restricted floors, and that still wasn’t going to happen when he was near. “With the look of those skies, any coat I have will be next to useless inside of five minutes.”
I opened the grate, then reset the lock code. I had no idea how the vampires got the grate open last night—or why they even needed to, given all they had to do was shadow to get in—but it wasn’t going to happen again if I could help it. Once Jonas was out, I hit the lock switch, ensured the grate did come down, then guided the ranger around to the left, away from the rail yards.
“Why are we taking the long way around?” he asked as we walked up the hill to the back of the museum buildings.
“Because it’s a good way of avoiding the guards and any chance of being questioned.” I glanced at him. His skin was a warm, sun-kissed gold, even in the cool light of a storm-clad day. “I don’t know about you, but I generally prefer to avoid the interest of officialdom.”
“A point I totally agree with, so lead on.”
We made good time around the museum and across the park, and in little more than an hour were approaching our goal. Rain splattered down, big fat drops that sizzled as they hit the broken road surface that divided this part of Carleen from the park. The battered curtain wall opposite us was covered in moss and vines, and there was nothing unusual to be seen—nothing other than the pressing darkness that was now forever a part of this place. And yet . . . energy crawled across my skin. An unnatural energy.
“There’s a rift near here.” Jonas’s voice was heavy as he gazed thoughtfully to the left. “It’s on the move.”
I frowned. “How do you know that?”
His gaze came to mine and, just for an instant, the darkness I’d seen glimmering in both Penny’s and Nuri’s eyes shone in his. “I’m sensitive to them. It moves toward us, so if this false rift of yours is near here, we had better investigate it quickly.”
I hesitated, my gaze scanning the wall again, wondering if the energy I felt was the approaching rift, the false one, or something else altogether. I couldn’t tell, and that worried me.
At least I still had my guns and knives—not that they’d do much good against the force of either rift.
“Tiger?” Jonas prompted. “We need to move. Now.”
I forced reluctant feet forward. The rain hit my body, slithering down my neck and plastering the thin shirt to my body, but it wasn’t the cause of the chill that was growing in the pit of my stomach. The closer I got to the false rift, the more that chill grew. My two little ghosts crowded close, their energy bright sparks that shivered and danced across my skin.
I leapt onto the broken wall and paused to get my bearings. We were farther north than where I’d entered yesterday, but, after a moment, I saw the gnarled giant tree covered in moss and swept my gaze left. The hill wasn’t too far away . . . neither was that crater, and its heavy darkness.
I jumped down and led the way through the tangled mess of destruction and regrowth. But the farther we got up that hill, the more the darkness stung my skin, until it felt as if my whole body burned with its presence. Something was different. Something had happened between yesterday and today. I looked around, suddenly aware of the ghosts who watched, and stopped.
“Is there a problem?” Jonas asked immediately, one hand on his weapon.
“That’s what I’m about to find out. Keep an eye on that rift.” I found somewhere safe to perch, then held out a hand, palm up. “Cat?”
She settled on my hand, then seeped down into my body. The creep of death immediately began to assault my limbs, faster and sharper than before. Doing this two days in a row was dangerous, but it wasn’t like I had many other choices. The tall ghost I’d spoken to yesterday stepped forward.
“The gray creature was here last night,” he said. “He moved one of the rifts.”
“The real ones, or the false ones?”
“False. The one that was in the crater you went down yesterday now stains our resting place.”
Why would he move a rift? Was it a result of my using it yesterday, or the subsequent destruction of the security panel? Either way, it just might mean they would be keeping a closer eye on their devices. “Is this the first time they’ve moved the rifts?”
“Since they made them, yes.”
“‘They’?” I frowned. “There’s more than one?”
“There are three,” he replied, anger in his expression. “Two men, one woman. You must stop them. That rift cannot be allowed to remain where it is. It stains our bones and ashes with its malevolence.”
“I’ll do what I can.” I paused. “Can you give me a description? Were they all wraiths?”
“Wraiths?” he said, frowning.
“The gray beings with few features.”
“Yes. Though two wore clothes of this world, and one wore pants similar to what you have on.”
While that last bit matched what Penny had already said, it was odd for wraiths to be wearing clothes at all.
“Thanks again for your help.”
He bowed. “My name is Blaine.”
“Thanks, Blaine.” Then I added silently, Cat, time to leave. Her energy seeped from me and the world spun, thick and dark and cold. A hand gripped me, holding me steady.
I drew in a shuddering breath; my hands and feet were heavy with the chill of death, and its frost lingered far too close to my lungs.
“Thanks,” I said after a moment.
“What in hell just happened?” Jonas said. The warmth of his grip seeped
into my body, flushing the chill from my skin.
“I was talking to the ghosts.”
“Which ghosts?” His gaze briefly skated the immediate area, then came back to mine. “Carleen or yours?”
“Carleen.” I gently pulled my arm free, though the heat of his touch lingered, continuing to warm me. “They said the wraiths were here last night, and that they moved the false rift I went through yesterday.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Meaning they’re likely aware someone used it.”
“Or—given I destroyed the security panel in the brothel’s basement—they’re simply being cautious.” My gaze swept the shadows that inhabited this place. “The ghosts also said there were three of them.”
“Three wraiths?”
I nodded. “And all of them wearing clothes.”
“Odd behavior for wraiths.” He frowned. “It’s not as if clothes would hide what they were.”
“No.” I took a deep, steadying breath, then waved a hand. “This way.”
We walked across to the crater that contained the second of the false rifts, but stopped on its rim. The blackness within it crawled across my senses; it was a thick, gelatinous evil that stole my breath and made me want to run. The very last thing I wanted to do was go into that darkness, but there was no other way to discover where this rift might lead.
“The false rift lies at the bottom of this crater, below the shadows.”
“What shadows?”
My gaze shot to Jonas. “What do you mean, ‘what shadows?’” I waved a hand toward the blanket of darkness that lay only inches away from my fingertips. “I mean that.”
He glanced down at the crater, then his gaze came to mine again, his expression curious. “I see nothing. Nothing beyond a weather-torn bomb crater and a sea of white bones.”
“But . . .” I hesitated, glancing at the thick shadows, seeing nothing beyond it. Feeling nothing beyond it. “You really can’t see it?”
“I can’t see whatever it is you see, obviously.” He considered me for a moment, then moved forward, down into the crater. Within three steps he’d disappeared. The ghosts stirred around me anxiously.