“Yeah,” Eidolon said, his own voice cracking. “Sounds good.”
Kynan was still reeling from his meeting with Tayla five hours earlier. He couldn’t decide which was worse: people he trusted being demons, or people in his cell lying to him. Adding to his frustration was the fact that Jagger and four other Guardians were nowhere to be found, and when he asked Lori if she’d seen anything strange going on within the cell, she’d said no and then promptly seduced him. Which wasn’t unusual or a problem—he was a guy, after all—but afterward she’d been anxious to go out hunting, when usually, daytime sex sent her into a fit of domesticity. Guardians joked that they could tell how frisky she and Ky and been by how many batches of cookies she baked in a week.
Half an hour before sunset, just as he was preparing to dial Lori for a status check, the phone rang.
“Ky.”
“It’s Tay.”
“What do you want?”
Her soft sigh crackled over the bad cell connection. “I guess you haven’t learned anything.” When he didn’t answer, because he wasn’t about to tell her that his spidey-sense was tingling, she sighed again. “We think the captured demons are being held at the old zoo. If any Guardians are involved, that’s where they’re going. Tonight.”
Something tightened in his gut, because as much as he wanted to get to the bottom of this, if only to prove that his people weren’t involved, he was terrified that Tayla might be right.
Or it could be a trap. He couldn’t trust anything she said. Not anymore.
“Kynan? Did you hear me?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Okay, then. Um, see you around.”
He hung up. Checked his watch. Tonight. It was already tonight. Quickly, he dressed to kill; leather pants, T-shirt, weapons harness, leather jacket, and finally, every fucking weapon he could load on his body. If this was a trap, he wasn’t going down easy. He was, however, going alone. If Tayla was right, he couldn’t trust any Guardians to go with him. If this was a trap, he couldn’t risk getting any of them killed.
One way or another, the truth was coming out tonight.
Twenty-four
At dusk, the abandoned zoo took on a strange life . . . one where shadows lurked in the corners of Tayla’s vision, disappearing when she’d turn her head, and where crickets chirped only in the distance, probably afraid to reveal their location because something might eat them.
Tay, Eidolon, Shade, and Wraith had come over the wall at the rear of the zoo, the plan being to locate Gem’s parents and any other imprisoned demons before Gem entered through the front. With any luck, they could free the demons and Gem would never have to set foot inside the zoo, but if she did, Luc was with her. Tay had never seen anyone as eager to fight as the huge paramedic, and even though he couldn’t take beast form without the full moon, Wraith had assured Tayla that he could hold his own. Wraith had been the one to tell her, because Eidolon wouldn’t so much as look at her. She didn’t blame him.
When she’d first seen him at the back wall, she’d wanted to throw herself at him, to apologize for her role in Roag’s death, but he’d kept his gaze averted, his fists balled at his sides. He definitely hadn’t invited conversation, and with his brothers standing there, talk would have been awkward, anyway.
As they cleared the back half of the zoo where they’d come in from over the wall, Wraith moved off on his own toward the big-cat habitats, moving silently, all coiled danger on the prowl. A moment later, Shade peeled away, slipping into the darkness and disappearing right in front of her. Eidolon hadn’t been kidding when he’d said Shade could turn to shadow in the presence of shadow.
“I’m heading to the bear pens,” Eidolon said, his voice low, scratchy, as if he’d been up all night the night before. “Be careful.”
“You, too.” As per plan, she’d sweep the bird-of-prey habitat and then head to the place where Gem was supposed to meet her handlers. Tay would hide and wait to see what—or who—showed up. “Hellboy?” She grabbed his forearm, feeling his muscles tense beneath her fingers. “Look, I know I have no right to ask this of you, but will you please not kill any humans?”
“After what they tried to do to you, you still defend them?”
“I want them to face Aegis justice for what they’ve done.”
“What they’ve done is what The Aegis has taught them to do, Tayla. Do you really think they’ll be punished?”
“If they’ve been operating against the Regents’ orders, then yes, they will.”
Eidolon stared over her shoulder, his gaze turned inward where she couldn’t follow. Finally, he nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
And then he was gone, and she was alone.
For the first time in her life, she didn’t like the feeling.