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Chapter One

The fight club had moved since Jace Warden had last visited the Austin Shiftertown The Shifters used to meet for their forbidden bouts in an abandoned hay barn nestled into folds of a hill, but the land had been purchased, and a developer had built over it

On his borrowed Harley, Jace turned from the discreet plane that had flown hihway that led to drier country away from the river The world had darkened while he’d flown east from Nevada to land at an airfield that had supposedly been closed

Dylan Morrissey, the Austin Shiftertown liaison, had left a hts, and he’d also left the bike for Jace’s transportation Tired and hot, and having hauled himself halfway across the country at Dylan’s request, the last thing Jace wanted to do was to ride out to the fight club But Dylan had su the Collars off Shifters once and for all, and had extended his hospitality, so Jace hid his irritation, thanked the huet this far, and mounted the motorcycle

Jace turned off where the directions had instructed, the paved road quickly turning to dirt, the bike bouncing and skidding over gravel and through ruts The road grew narrower and narrower, until it petered to nothing Jace continued down a short hill and around a bend, and found the Shifter fight club behind a slight rise that hid it from the road

He s before he saw the electric lanterns, fire dancing in garbage cans, and flashlights Anything that could be quickly doused was being used to illuminate the scene

Jace would have known it was a place of Shifters, even in the pitch-dark Shifters working off adrenaline rushes and fighting instincts had a certain interesting—and pungent—odor

Jace killed the engine of the bike, parking it a the pack ofthe helmet from the seat andbefore he approached the fight area He wasn’t worried about Shifters stealing his change of clothes and toothbrush—Shifters didn’t steal froht to the death Possessions were territory, and territory was respected But huht clubs, and sos

The new fighting arena was a broad slab of concrete about a hundred feet long and just as wide Probably an old building or an event area of some kind, abandoned by its owners whenhad been pulled away except the slab

Rings were outlined by concrete blocks, and firelight flickered wildly,it a scene from hell, co fun and working off stea hook-ups—hu into the darkness to work off steam a different way

Jaceused for liaisons—and toward the firelight He didn’t worry about locating Dylan in the chaos, because Dylan, a Feline Shifter as mostly lion, always made himself known