Author: Kalayna Price

I ran.

Akane followed, her wooden Japanese shoes making soft clicks on the carpet. I rounded the corner. The glass doors to my room were only yards away. I just had to reach them.

Air hissed around Akane’s blade as she swung, and I dropped. The sword swished through the air, but I was fast enough to dodge. Or at least, I thought I was, until Akane’s foot slammed into my back, sending me sprawling forward.

I twisted as I hit the ground, trying to get my legs under me. Too late.

Akane’s next kick knocked me to my back. Her foot ground into my chest, and she pressed the blade against my throat.

Warm heat ran down my neck.

“See what you did, beast.” She pulled open the collar of her kimono and exposed angry red grooves running over her shoulder—my claw marks. They hadn’t healed.

“You poisoned me.”

Not the response she wanted.

Her blade bit deeper into my throat. I swallowed. Losing my head wasn’t on the top of my to-do list.

Reaching out, I grabbed the foot planted on my chest and twisted, hard. Something popped. Akane screamed.

The sword pulled back, and I rolled. Just in time.

The arc of her sword sliced through a clump of my hair.

But not my neck. I threw my weight at the leg still supporting her, and she crashed backward. The sword flew from her grip.

“What’s going on here?” someone yelled from the direction of the stairs. Footsteps ran toward us.

I pushed myself off the floor, one paw-like hand pressed against my bleeding throat. Akane tried to stand, but her leg bent at an unnatural angle. It didn’t hold her weight. She glared at me, a steady stream of melodic but pissed-off words flowing from her. I didn’t know the language, but I could guess what she meant.

“Not this time, worm,” I said, kicking the sword further away.

Three figures rounded the corner, rushing toward us.

“What did you do?” a familiar, squinty faced guard asked as he charged toward me.

Jomar grabbed me before I could backpedal. He wrenched my hand away from my throat and twisted my arm, jerking it behind my back. Oh, now this was familiar.

“Let go. She’s the one who tried to decapitate me.”

He jerked my arm harder, turning me around in the process. Then his hand shot out. The back of his hand slammed into my cheek, made my vision turn red.

“That was for the disrespect,” he said. Then he pushed me away, turning back to the other two enforcers with him.

Pain pulsed upward to my eye, but I didn’t touch my face.

I wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction.

“What should we do, sir?” a vampire I’d never seen before asked, as he attempted to help Akane stand.

Jomar looked from where Akane hobbled in the vampire’s arms to the blood trickling down the front of my dress.

“Ronco, escort her,” he pointed at me, “back to her room and make sure she stays there. Sean, we’ll carry Akane back to her room.”

Ronco took me by the arm, and his eyes went from my throat, to my misshapen hands, and then back again. “She’s losing a lot of blood. Shouldn’t we seal the wound or send for her master?”

“I’m not touching that unnatural thing,” Jomar said, sneering. “Knock yourself out if you want to, but the mistress should be done with her master soon.”

Ronco reached his thick fingers toward my throat and I took a step back. Oh no, he wasn’t putting his mouth on me.

“It’s fine,” I growled.

He shrugged and encircled my wrist with one giant hand before leading me down the hall to the room Nathanial and I shared. After depositing me inside, he leaned against the French doors, effectively blocking the only exit. Jerk.

I headed directly to the bathroom.

I studied my neck in the mirror. The cut looked superficial, and the trickle of blood was slowing. I searched the bathroom cabinets, but there were no medical supplies. I did find a washcloth, and used it to rinse away as much of the blood from my skin as I could. I blotted at the tacky blood clinging to the bodice of my dress, but it was a lost cause—the gown was beyond ruined.

I turned the faucets on full blast and peeked out the bathroom door. Ronco still had his back to the room, not paying attention. Good. After shutting and locking the door, I backed to the corner of the bathroom and whispered Gil’s true name. On the third repetition, magic tinted the air and she popped into the tub. Her eyes scanned first me and then the small room before she spoke.

“Took you long enough,” she whispered. “Bobby gave up waiting hours ago. He’s been combing the city looking for you.”

“Well it’s a good thing he didn’t find me. I never thought I’d ask this, but throw me in the void and get me the hell out of here.”

She blinked at me in surprise. “You realize how close it is to dawn?” she asked. At my nod, she frowned. “Where’s Nathanial?”

“Busy. Let’s go.”

She didn’t hesitate again, but laid a hand on my shoulder.

Then the world dropped away.

* * * *

My eyes hadn’t adjusted to the light in the alley before Bobby captured me in a tight embrace. I pushed away from him, not only because he had a mate who wasn’t me, but because he smelled awfully good. Not sexy man good, but juicy steak good. I must have lost more blood than I thought.

“What happened? Where have you been? Are you okay?”

Bobby demanded, not releasing me. His gaze landed on my hands and the other questions died on his tongue. “You have paws?”

I frowned. “I’m too weak to change them right now.”

Gil stepped closer, staring. “You can change them at will now? When did this happen?” She pulled her scroll out of the air.

“It’s new, completely irrelevant, and not necessarily at will.” I hid my paw-like hands in the folds of my gown. “We need to make a plan on how to search out the other men I might have tagged. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get away again and—”

“I found one already.”

I stopped, my mouth still stuck in the shape of the next word as I turned and stared at Bobby. “What?”

“I found one of the shifters. He isn’t a hunter. The scent isn’t from Firth. It’s like the rouges we chased before. A cityshifter.”

I blinked at him. So there were more. And he’d found one.

Which was great. I think. “Did you…?”

“Kill him?” Bobby shook his head. “We don’t know if he turned rogue or not. I scouted the area and waited to see if he would move from his hidey-hole, but he hadn’t emerged by the time I left to meet Gil.”

He beamed at me, bright eyes sparkling in the dim street light. He was clearly thrilled to be the source of good news.

And this was good news. Right? I mean, we didn’t have to go out and hunt the shifter, we already knew where he was.

Too easy. Nothing ever came easy without a catch.

I tried to share Bobby’s optimism, but I just didn’t have it in me. I flashed him a weak smile and stared at the night sky.

It was still dark, without a hint of predawn light, but I could feel the dawn coming like a gradually increasing weight around my neck. It had been a long night already, and Avin still expected me to turn a body over to him by dawn. Oh, and the vamps were at the mansion discussing whether I would be a side-show attraction. It was definitely a night I’d like to have a ‘do-over’ button for. But if we find the cityshifter…

At least the night wouldn’t be a total loss.

“How far?” I asked.

Bobby’s gaze followed mine. “We will have to hurry.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

I stared at the twisted razor wire ringing the fence around the junkyard.

“You’re sure?” I asked, glancing back at Bobby. He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. I had caught a hint of city-shifter.

He was right.

Bobby hauled the edges of the chain link up, making a gap for me to slip under. The dress caught as I crawled under the gate and tore as I jerked it free. Well, it was already ruined anyway. Standing, I grabbed the bottom links of the gate, holding it for Bobby.

Gil watched. Then she vanished, reappearing a moment later at my side. She smiled, and a small ball of purple magelight appeared over her shoulder.

Show off.

“So where in here is he?” Gil asked, her bubble of light reflecting off mountains of twisted and rusted metal.

Vehicles smashed beyond recognition, cars missing their doors and interior, and scraps of parts were thrown into towering piles. The carnage gave me a whole new reason not to trust cars. But it didn’t tell us where our shifter was.

I tilted my head, scenting the air. I could catch hints of the city-shifter on the wind, but my nose told me only that he was somewhere further ahead. I glanced at Bobby, and he nodded. Okay, time to search.

At one point, there had been a trail around the gutted cars, but busted glass and rusty parts now littered the path.

And I was in heels.

I picked my way along the jagged path carefully. Not quite careful enough. My skirt snagged on the rusted end of a muffler half buried in the snow. I jerked it free and the material gave way with an awful sound. I glanced at the large ‘V’ shaped rip. Let’s see just how many holes I can get in this damn thing. I hauled the skirt up to my knees. It didn’t help.

I tripped over a snow-covered fender.

I growled in frustration, and a growl answered.

I froze. Gil’s mage light flickered out, leaving me blind in the sudden darkness. The city-shifter? If it was, he didn’t sound happy.

Another growl sounded. I swung around, peering through the dark at the skeletal body of a Jeep. Nothing moved. My heart thudded in my chest. Bobby crept closer. The growl sounded again. Still nothing moved.

Until something did.

A huge body lumbered out of the Jeep. Not a shifter. A Rottweiler.

Moonlight twinkled off the spikes in its leather collar. I stumbled back. My shoe ground into shattered glass hidden in the snow. Another growl rumbled behind me. Closer. I twisted. Another massive canine emerged around a crushed truck.