Mishka opened her mouth to respond but heard Eden’s voice echo from his earpiece. “Yes.”

“Where are they now?” Lucius asked.

Mishka watched as Jaxon closed in on Nolan.

“Le’Ace?” Lucius said.

“Yes?”

“Where are they now?”

Oops. He’d been talking to her that time. “Head east. He’s still walking. Jaxon, you’re about fifteen feet away now. Back off just a little.”

She heard Lucius’s fingers move over the car’s console, pressing buttons. “Initiate manual operations.”

There was a grind as several panels opened up, and then the car was easing backward, to the right, forward. Mishka was highly curious about the man beside her. How he’d met Eden, how two assassins had made their relationship work, but held her questions. Now was not the time.

“Nolan has turned right.”

The SUV picked up speed, and then they, too, were swerving right. She shifted in her seat, somehow managing to balance the two pieces of equipment in her lap without seeing them. Jaxon’s red line was closing in on Nolan’s.

The two men walked a straight track for a bit, then Nolan turned left. Left again. Mishka relayed all of this.

“Where the hell is he going?” Lucius muttered.

“He’s stopped,” she said suddenly. “He’s waving his arms. You’re almost on him. Back off a little.”

One second, two.

“We’re in an alley,” Jaxon whispered. “The end is blocked.”

“This can’t be good,” Lucius said. Metal glided from a syn-leather pouch, whooshing. “Bastard wouldn’t have entered a closed alley without a reason.”

Her heart sped into hyperdrive. Sweat beaded on her skin as apprehension slithered through her. She’d asked the chip to show her all Schön while sitting still and in the contained area. There’d been no one but Nolan to latch onto. What if the chip needed to rescan every time she moved to find the others?

Use the infrared to reveal any other otherworlders in the surrounding area.

Increasing scope of infrared.

A moment later, eight other red lines appeared. All were amazingly bright and flanked Nolan’s sides. All were approaching Jaxon. Her stomach twisted painfully.

Dear God. He had no idea. “Jaxon, they’re here,” she shouted. “The other Schön are here and they’re coming after you. Start firing.”

A car door opened, and she heard Lucius jumping out. His footsteps hammered into the pavement. I need to see, she thought desperately.

Returning vision to normal.

As the world came back into focus, Mishka leaped out of the car. The equipment fell to the ground and shattered. Uncaring, she was hot on Lucius’s heels. Evening had arrived, and the daylight had dimmed substantially. There were a few cars whizzing behind her, but no people meandering along these dirty sidewalks.

She couldn’t see the otherworlders now.

Blue pyre-beams suddenly lit up the alley just in front of her. She heard Jaxon grunt, curse, and then more beams appeared. A killing haze fell over her, and she palmed her gun and two knives.

No one hurt her man and lived to tell about it. For that alone, the Schön would die.

CHAPTER 25

Jaxon, down.

Lucius, down.

All in a matter of seconds.

An invisible enemy was an undefeatable enemy. Or so Mishka allowed the Schön to think. Though she wasn’t able to see them anymore, she knew they’d glommed on to the men like locusts. They didn’t speak, but they could not control the erratic pants of their breathing as they knocked the mystified men down and held them down, guns and knives whipping from their grasps and skidding across the pavement.

“Get out of here!” Jaxon shouted to her. Worried, angry. Helpless.

“Grab them,” she called, “hold them steady.”

He tried. He really did. His arms flailed, though, sometimes grasping nothing but air. Mishka crouched and fired around Jaxon’s body, only daring to use stun beams. Just in case. The thought of Jaxon being harmed by fire, her fire, scared her. And after Dallas’s warning…“I’ll shoot them one by one if necessary.”

“Go!”

“No.”

“Keep firing,” Lucius commanded.

She did. But as she fired, Jaxon and Lucius began to disappear in spurts. An arm, a leg. Head. Pieces of them were there one moment but gone the next. Gone, there. There, gone. What the hell is happening?

Aliens attempting to shield them from view.

Likelihood of success?

Ninety-four percent.

Shit. She squeezed the trigger in quick succession. Blinked in shock. One of her blue beams must have slammed into an alien, because suddenly his cloak of invisibility disappeared, revealing a Schön warrior who’d be frozen in place for the next few hours, not dead but unable to move. His hands were gripping one of Jaxon’s wrists, as if he’d been pinning it down. She would have stunned Jaxon and Lucius to prevent invisibility, but stun did not work on humans, a defense against accidentally freezing agents.

So Mishka returned to firing at the hidden aliens, knowing they would come for her and attack her as they were attacking the men.

Her vision blurred on a rush of dizziness. Her nostrils suddenly stung. Her blasts did not slow, her finger hammering away, but she had to close her eyes for a moment. Even with her lids shut, the world seemed to spin. Reaction to the stress?

No. Foreign substance detected in the air. Most likely a sleep aid.

Sleep aid? Hell, no! Stop breathing.

Blocking airways now.

Instantly her lungs ceased inflating, and her throat closed. Having trained for this, experienced it, she did not panic. She knew the reservoir of oxygen stored inside her would slowly seep out, keeping her lucid for another ten minutes.

If she remained calm.

Determined, she opened her eyes. The men were not so lucky; unlike her, they had to breathe. They ended up sucking breath after breath of the drug into their systems. Soon Jaxon and Lucius stilled, their bodies relaxed and slumped. A moment later, they disappeared completely.

They never reappeared, not a single part of them.

Determination blending with fiery rage, Mishka scowled. Where were they? You won’t hurt them with stun. She fired like a woman possessed, managing to freeze and materialize three other Schön.

Two were a few feet away from her; the third was mere inches from her face.

She expected the impact of the aliens, but was somehow surprised when it came. Her feet were swiped out from under her, and her back pushed down. The ground seemed to swallow her up in less than a single blink, heavy bodies fighting to keep her pinned.

They struggled for what seemed an eternity. Mishka could have broken free, but in the end decided not to. She couldn’t kill all of the otherworlders while they were invisible, and she knew it. She couldn’t save Jaxon while he was invisible; she knew that, too. What she wouldn’t allow was Jaxon to be taken from her.

Obviously, the Schön didn’t plan to kill them. They could have done so already. Since they hadn’t, they must plan to capture and relocate. To stay with Jaxon, she’d have to be captured herself. Then, when they reached their destination, the Schön would feel safe, they would materialize, and then she could kill them and save Jaxon.

Not a great plan, but the only one she had at the moment.

As she half struggled, feigning weakness, her fingers were pried apart, her weapons confiscated. Cold, wet spray bathed her face. The sleep aid. Mishka pretended to sputter, though without oxygen no sound emerged. To cover that, she pretended to sink into the dark unconscious.

The aliens never spoke, but they did move away from her. A minute passed, followed by another. Her heart slammed nervously in her chest. Inactivity had never been her strong point. What are they doing now?

Agents being gathered. Stunned otherworlders being gathered. Now approaching you…

Intent?

Capture, most likely. No weapons aimed at you.

Strong arms banded around her and lifted her into an equally strong chest. Warm breath trekked over her cheek. Another wave of dizziness hit her, this one stronger than before. Her supply of oxygen had dwindled significantly because of her increased adrenaline, which increased the speed of her circulation. I need to breathe now.

Initiating breathing.

Nolan’s spicy scent instantly filled her nose as she dragged in a deep breath. Nolan. Just his name intensified her anger. That stupid shit, how dare he do this! Don’t stiffen, don’t react. If Jaxon had not been involved, she would have reached up and choked the life from the double-crosser.

Later, she promised herself. Part of you expected this. Part of her, though, had hoped otherwise.

Footsteps echoed in her ears, and then she was being jostled forward. Was she now invisible? she wondered. And if she was, would she now be able to see her opponents? Slowly she cracked open her eyelids, allowing only the slightest bit of reality to intrude. Buildings glided past her, but she could not see a single Schön. Not even Nolan. More than that, she could not even see her own body.

How did they not bump into each other?

A possible answer drifted through her mind as soon as the question formed. Practice. Or maybe their race possessed special sensors that allowed them to simply know where the others were. Maybe they could see past the shield of invisibility.

Then another possibility hit her. The virus they possessed was alive and victims could communicate within one another’s minds. Perhaps that virus let them know where every invisible, infected body was.

If Estap knew, he’d want to harness the mind-speak ability for Earth soldiers. Once scientists figured out how, he’d take all the credit himself, of course. Bastard. When this was over and if she survived having the chip removed, she was going to plunge her dagger into his jugular. Watch him slowly bleed to death, unable to breathe as death claimed him.

He doesn’t matter right now. Only Jaxon mattered. Always Jaxon. She hated that she couldn’t see him and reverted back to infrared. Relief rushed through her as she spied the outlines of two otherworlders carrying the two agents. The agents were limp, but they still emitted great waves of body heat, which meant they were alive and well.

Record coordinates, she commanded the chip.

Mapping location switch.

Now all she had to do was wait…

Jaxon came awake slowly, his mind groggy, his body limp and weighed down with cold, heavy chains. Damn, this is familiar. At least he wasn’t bombarded with agonizing pain.

“That’s it, baby. Open your eyes for me.”

“Mishka?”

“I’m here.”

Her soft, sweet voice lulled him all the way out of slumber. His eyelids popped open, but several moments passed before he could see through the murky darkness surrounding him. Small barred doorway, crumbling stone walls, shaggy brown carpet. Where was—There!

Thank God. Mishka. As beautiful as ever. He was chained to a bed and she was chained to a wall. She was alive. Dirty and bruised, but alive. They faced each other, both sitting down, arms raised and legs stretched out. Her lips lifted in a happy grin, and relief cascaded down her face when their eyes met.

“Finally,” she said. “Sleeping Beauty awakens.”

His relief was just as visible, he knew. “The beast, you mean.”

“My beast.”

Sweet woman. “How did this happen?” He remembered following an invisible Nolan, firing his weapon, and then being tossed to the ground like a rag doll, unable to see who—or what—had attacked him. Lucius had appeared, had fallen. Then, nothing. Jaxon’s mind showed only a black screen.

“They planned it and were waiting for you. Nolan practically gift wrapped us before he led us to his friends.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. Anger. He’d been betrayed. Heat bloomed in his cheeks. Embarrassment. He’d been outsmarted and overpowered. In front of his woman. “Did they hurt you?” Powerful fury laced the question. His now narrowed gaze roved over her, searching for injury.

She wore the same clothing she’d worn earlier. Dirty black shirt, dirty black pants. There were fresh scratches on her left cheek and bruises on her hand, but other than that she looked the same. Healthy glow to her skin, hazel eyes bright, strawberry tresses tangled.

The thought of anything happening to her had him swallowing bile. I failed to protect her. She could protect herself, yes. That filled him with pride, yes. But he wanted, needed to be man enough for her. She deserved nothing less than the very best.

“No,” she said. “They carried us here, about a ten-minute walk from that alley. Nolan insisted we be placed together. I think he didn’t want us to worry about each other. They’ve got Lucius in the cell next to us.”

“Anyone else?”

She shook her head. “Just the three of us.”

“Eden was screaming commands at Lucius in my ear, telling him to pull back or she’d join the fight and kill him herself,” he said, the memory sliding in place. “She didn’t show up?”

“If she did, it was after we left. I never saw her. And just so you know, there were nine aliens in the alley. That’s how many we’re up against now.”

“Three against nine. Not bad odds.” Jaxon tugged at the chains, and the lumpy mattress underneath him bounced. “This remind you of anything?”

“Only one of the best days of my life,” she said with another grin. “The day I met you. And no worries, okay? I can get us out of this. Easy.”

“How?”

“Watch.”

Her metal wrist seemed to shrink in size, and his eyes widened.

“There are grooves in the metal,” she explained, “that are able to collapse into each other, readjusting the width.” She slid her hand free. The chain slapped against the wall as she waved her fingers and grinned. “See.” Then she turned to her bound wrist and placed a silver finger in the hole. Once again the metal realigned. She twisted.