“We’re done here,” the raver said, and true to her word the soul mist was gone.
Death looked at the gray man again, who crossed his arms over his chest, his cane tapping impatiently on his thigh. Then he turned to me. His eyes swept over me again, as if he stil was not confident I hadn’t been hurt. He reached out, his hand cupping my face. His thumb traced over my cheekbone and for a moment I thought he was going to say something more.
He didn’t.
He leaned forward and his lips brushed against mine, a ghost of a kiss that made my entire body react to the almost electric feel of his skin against mine. Then he vanished, the raver and the gray man disappearing a heartbeat later. I stared at the space where he’d been and touched my lips, stil feeling the gentle warmth of his mouth.
I was breathless again—but not from the fight.
Now is seriously not the time.
I let my hand drop and turned. Both Caleb and Falin stared at me. At least they aren’t fighting with each other. I wiped my suddenly damp palms on the front of my shorts, fumbling with my dagger awkwardly as I did so.
“I, uh . . .” I shook my head. It was Falin’s ice blue stare more than Caleb’s that got to me. I swal owed and tried again. “Are you hurt? I mean, more than you were when you got here? Apparently the birds were carrying a spel that would transfer with as little as a scratch.” I stopped and pressed my fingers to my mouth again, but this time in alarm. “Oh, crap—Hol y.”
“I don’t think she woke for the fight. She should be fine,”
Caleb said, but he was already moving toward her bedroom as he spoke.
bedroom as he spoke.
I wasn’t so much worried about tonight’s fight as I was about the fact that she’d been injured by the cu sith in the Quarter. I had no doubt the raven constructs had been sent by the same person, and if they were carrying a spel , had the cu sith been as wel ?
I darted around Caleb as I sprinted down the hal . I reached Hol y’s door a moment before he did, and I threw it open.
Hol y wasn’t inside.
I hadn’t closed my shields, so the comforter pooled at the end of Hol y’s bed looked both faded and rotted and whole with a vibrant geometric pattern. The sheets had obviously been slept on, and unlike me, Hol y made her bed. Always.
So she’d been here, but the bed stood empty now.
I whirled around. Caleb’s worried, wide-eyed expression matched mine as we made a quick search of her room.
The windows were closed, there was no sign of a struggle, and the outfit she’d planned to wear tomorrow was set out on her dresser. The only thing wrong with the room was the fact that Hol y wasn’t in it.
“Here,” Falin cal ed from the front room and both Caleb and I took off at a run.
I heard PC barking as I passed the guest room, but I didn’t pause to let him out. He was safe in there.
When we reached the living room, we found Falin leaning heavily against the doorframe. He pointed at something in the front yard and we rushed past him.
A figure lay crumpled in the middle of the lawn, red hair fanning around her head and her bare knees tucked to her chest. Holly.
I col apsed in the grass beside her. I didn’t see any blood, any injury, but the way she was lying could have covered it. I groped for her throat.
“She has a pulse,” I said as Caleb dropped to his knees beside me.
He reached for her shoulder and her eyes fluttered open.
He reached for her shoulder and her eyes fluttered open.
She gasped, her hands jerking toward her chest as if she were pul ing a sheet over herself.
“Caleb?” She blinked, sitting up. “And Alex? Okay, guys, real y, I don’t need nursemaids. I’m fine. I—” She stopped and looked around for the first time. “Uh, why am I outside?”
I shared a glance with Caleb before saying, “You don’t remember coming out here?”
“No.” She frowned. “Should I? Was I sleepwalking?”
Good question. I hoped that was it, but the sinking feeling in my stomach was pretty sure nothing as mundane as sleepwalking could explain what had happened.
“Let’s get you inside and see if we can’t work this out,”
Caleb said, helping Hol y to her feet.
She wore only an oversized T-shirt, and she smoothed it self-consciously where the hem hit high on her thighs.
Caleb and I shepherded her past Falin and through the front door, and then settled her onto the couch. While Caleb fetched her a drink, I retrieved my phone.
Tamara’s phone went to voice mail the first time I cal ed. I hung up and tried again. This time she picked up on the fourth ring.
“Alex, it’s four thirty in the morning. You better have a good reason for getting me out of bed.”
Unfortunately, I did.