“It’s because we’re in the city, isn’t it?”
He turned his head to her. “What is?”
“The fact you’re not completely kicking some Dark Fae ass.”
Warrick found himself fighting a smile, despite the gravity of the situation. “Aye. If we were in the country away from all the people, Thorn and I would’ve shifted to fight them.”
“But you can’t because humans might see you here.” She lowered her gaze and sighed forlornly. “The longer we wait, the more Dark will come. I’ve seen eight more already this morning.”
“They were farther down the street,” he lied. He didn’t want her to know that he and Thorn had also noticed the new additions.
Darcy smiled as she lifted her gaze to him. “Nice try, but you’re a terrible liar.”
Warrick took her hand and pulled her to the back so the Dark could no longer see them. “I want to have at least two routes planned out. The most direct route is the one you use all the time. The Dark are there and waiting for us.”
“So we need a different one,” she said with a nod of understanding. She reached her desk and picked up a pad of paper and a pencil from the floor.
Warrick vividly recalled taking her on the desk. His cock twitched, hungry for her again. He fisted his hands to keep from yanking her against him for a kiss and let her draw a map of the area.
“We have many options,” Darcy said as she drew. “Some are easier than others.”
Warrick knew Edinburgh well. He was already devising routes while she marked the streets and talked about intersections, various hills, and numbers of people.
“Here,” Warrick said, pointing to a street two over from where they were now.
Darcy followed the line of the street with her eyes. “It could work. It’s a side street, so there won’t be as many people on it as the main roads. However, it’s one of the longest routes. What about this one?”
He looked to where she pointed and trailed her finger across the map to her flat. “It’s short, but there are many intersections. I doona want to be stopping for a light, nor do we dart out in front of traffic and bring attention to ourselves.”
“You’re right,” she said with a twist of her lips. “Other than flying, what choice do we have?”
Warrick suddenly smiled. “I can no’ believe I didna think of it sooner.”
“What?” she asked.
“We can no’ take to the skies. But we can go underground.”
Darcy’s eyes widened in excitement. “Of course! The city was built atop another. There’s an entire city beneath us, not to mention the sewers and other tunnels.”
“I’ll still no’ be able to shift, but it’ll keep the humans from seeing us.”
“Looks like we found our way,” she said with a smile.
“I need to check in with Thorn and let him know what we’ve planned. We also need to find the quickest way beneath the city.”
She shooed him away with her hand as she picked up her laptop and set it back on her desk as she sat. Darcy began typing something into the search engine, her attention thoroughly absorbed.
Warrick turned away and moved back far enough so that he could still see Darcy. Then he opened the telepathic link. “Thorn?”
“Aye,” he answered. “Are we ready?”
“No’ yet. We’ve found another way to get to her flat.”
“If it involves anything other than the damn street, I’m all for it.”
Warrick smiled at his comment. “Good, because we’re going underground.”
“Where are we going in at?”
“Darcy is looking that up now,” he said as he glanced at Darcy.
Thorn let out a string of curses. “You might want to hurry up. Another ten Dark just arrived.”
“I wanted to wait until dusk, but it doesna look like that’ll be possible.”
“Nay.”
“I found something,” Darcy said.
Warrick walked to her. “Hang on, Thorn. Darcy might have found something.”
“You’re doing that mental talking thing again with Thorn, aren’t you?” Darcy asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Aye. Show me what you’ve found.”
She pointed to the screen and the map of the underground that filled it. “There are three choices. One is a manhole cover just out front of the shop. Since the Dark are there, that’s probably not the wisest choice.”
“And the others?”
“There’s an alley two streets over with a door that leads to the hidden city. It’s narrow and the streets are major tourist destinations. Which leaves this one,” she said, pointing to another manhole cover on the street behind her.
Warrick gave her a smile. “We’ve found our way in. We’ll need to go soon. There are too many Dark here for them to sit back and no’ attack.”
“Got it.”
“Thorn, our way in is in the street behind the shop. Can you get the manhole cover off before we get there?”