Hotbloods (Hotbloods #1)

“But what do you think they’re doing to the people?” I asked, thinking about the one that had been riding Ianthan, the way it had looked lying there dead in the alley.

“I don’t know.” Navan frowned at the paper he was looking at. “I’ve got some guesses, but I don’t think there’s any way to know for sure until we’re actually able to find one and question it.”

“We’re going to question it?”

“We’re going to try. Having the ability to shape shift, of course, certainly comes in handy when trying to evade capture.”

We went back to our piles, and I sipped my third cup of tea. The wind had picked up outside, and it rattled the panes of glass. The ship would at least be shelter from the wind, but I didn’t know how warm it would be, and I wanted to soak up all the heat that I could now.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, though I had long ago finished that third cup of tea when the old woman that had been sitting at the other table approached us. She and the waitress looked as if they could have been sisters. She wore a faded head scarf that had slipped back, to reveal her thick, steel-colored hair. Her skin was deeply lined and her eyes appeared milky, though she had made her way over to our table perfectly fine, without assistance.

“I heard you speak of tonrar,” she said. I glanced at Navan. How had she been able to hear that, all the way across the room? “Bad things have been happening here. People whisper that it’s the work of tonrar, but they are wrong. They make offerings to try to appease him, but people still go missing. Just a fortnight ago, my closest neighbor was out tending his sheep and he did not return for his evening meal. Gone, just like that. People are afraid. No one knows what to do.” She reached down and touched Navan’s hand. He tried to pull it away before she could make contact and feel that his temperature was not that of an average human, but she must’ve been stronger than she looked, because her fingers closed around his hand and didn’t let go. “But you do,” she said. “You know what to do. And you will do it.” And then she let go of his hand, patting it, like he was a little boy and she was his grandmother. She turned and walked away.

Navan and I stared after her as she made her way to the door and then walked out.

“She’s a seer,” he said finally.

I looked at him. “Like a psychic?”

“Yeah. She knew what I was—notice how she didn’t react when she touched my hand?”

“I did notice that.”

“There’s actually a lot more of her kind on Earth than people might realize,” he said. “Humans seem fond of stigmatizing the people who claim to have a sixth sense like that. Shunning them or medicating them or institutionalizing them.”

“Well . . . I think that’s because a lot of the time they seem crazy. Or they’re saying stuff that people don’t want to hear.”

“Humans seem to have a very narrow field of what they deem possible.”

“Not all of us.”

He smiled. “I know.”

We stayed in the restaurant for a while longer, but then we left. The wind had died down some, but it was still bitingly cold, and when Navan picked me up to fly us back to the ship, I nestled against him.

When we got back, Navan said he was going to leave me at the ship to do a quick fly around over the area and make sure that it was safe.

“How will you know?” I asked. “I mean, if there are shifters around, couldn’t they be in the form of something you wouldn’t even suspect, like a bird or something? Or what if they’re invisible?”

“They could be,” he said. “But I should be able to sense them, and I’d sleep a lot better tonight if I at least look around before we turn in for the night. You’ll be fine here.”

“I’m not worried about that,” I said.

He smiled. “I’ve noticed.”

Though I knew he wasn’t going far, there was a part of me that wanted to jump into his arms before he took off, to go with him, to never leave his side. The feeling almost overwhelmed me, but I stayed in the ship and watched as his powerful wings beat back and forth, lifting him higher and higher into the sky. A shooting star arced across the darkness, and I blinked, marveling at the fact of everything that had happened in such a short period of time. Not too long ago, I’d been standing under the sweltering sun in the middle of a corn field with my two best friends, and now here I was, at the edge of the world, watching a coldblood that I was most certainly developing feelings for, fly off into the night sky.

An electronic ringing sound jolted me from my reverie, and I looked around, confused at first, until I realized it was Navan’s comm. I went over to his bag and picked it up. It continued to ring, and I pressed a button, bringing the device up to my ear.

“Hello? Hello, Navan, is that you?” came Bashrik’s voice.

“It’s Riley,” I said.

“Riley! Where’s Navan? Is everything all right? Why didn’t he pick up? Did something happen?!”

I suppressed a smile at the anxiety in his voice. “Everything’s fine,” I said. “Well, relatively speaking. Navan’s just checking out the area, so he’s not here right now. I know I probably shouldn’t have picked up, but I had a feeling it might be you, and I didn’t want you to worry.”

“Well, it’s a little late for that. We’ve all been worried sick, quite frankly. You don’t know my brother the way I do, and he can get himself into situations that are way beyond his control. I know Navan’s downplaying the whole thing but if you haven’t noticed yet, that’s sort of the way he goes about things. It’s not a big deal—until it is. And, I’m not trying to be an alarmist or anything—but this is a very big deal. And it’s just the two of you? It might be different if I was there but as it is, you two are both in a lot of danger. In fact—”

“Is that Riley?!” Angie’s voice came through loud and clear, almost as if she were right there in the ship with me. In a way, I wished she was. There was the sound of rustling. “Riley? Is that you?”

“Hey,” I said, smiling at the sound of her voice. “It’s good to hear your voice.”

“When are you coming back?” She sounded as anxious as Bashrik had. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, we’re okay,” I said. “And I’m not sure when we’ll be back. Hopefully soon. We’ve got to take care of something out here first. But we’re going to get back there as soon as we possibly can.”

“I can’t say that’s the most reassuring thing I’ve ever heard,” Angie said.

“I know. I’m sorry I can’t give you a better answer. But try not to worry, okay?”

“Okay. Lauren says hi. I’m going to give this thing back to Bashrik. Stay safe, Riley.”

“I will.”

Bashrik continued to grill me when he got back on, and though I tried to answer him as best I could, I knew my responses weren’t going to satisfy him; the only thing he really wanted to hear was that Navan and I had given things a second thought and were on our way back.