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Which meant he had to find his answers immediately Before he was forced to leave
As he turned to begin the hunt for an Ilina ould tell hiht his eye A flash of white--a card in protective plastic splattered with a single drop of blood He bent down and picked it up Turning it over, he stilled Ariana’s pensive face stared back at him from a photo ID that read ANNA SMITH, RN
A nurse Not just pretending Was she living a the humans, then? If she truly couldn’t turn to mist, then of course she was No corporeal creature could live long in the Crystal Realm Not even an Ilina
He stared at the card, then tapped it against his hand, a savage s one corner of his mouth
The hunt was on
Deep below Feral House, Wulfe watched as Esifted of the Therian healers, touched the forehead of the hu unconscious in one of the three now-occupied cells in the Ferals’ prison block Long ago, all Therians had been shape-shifters, before the race had h Daemon Satanan and his horde Now, only one each of nine of the ancient shifter lines still retained the power of his animal and the ability to shift The nine known as the Feral Warriors
"It’s tiers through her short, dark hair "I’m amazed these humans have been able to last five days without food or water That energy Olivia fed them must have been powerful stuff"
The humans had survived the battle froo, only to face an uncertain fate when the Ferals had realized they couldn’t steal their oddess knew, they’d seen tooFerals, three Daemons that hadn’t existed in the world in rueso’s new y, the humans included The Ferals never killed needlessly, but neither did they hesitate to take the lives of humans who in any way threatened the anonymity and safety of the immortal races Humans could not be allowed to carry tales of shape-shifters into the huht start to make sense to the more open-minded, and a witch hunt of colossal proportions could too easily ensue Thethe only ones who could save the him and his Daemon horde as the idiots seemed determined to do
No, huer the Ferals could not tolerate And yet, after so e on that field of battle, none of them had had the stoht the trio back to Feral House in hopes that the energy they’d consumed would wear off andThey’d kept the as they could
Ese "All three are in need of liquids and so critical Just feed they is starting to wear off, you ed "Or it ht take another few days It’s ione, Wulfe shucked off his pants and shifted into his wolf He curled up on the cool stone floor, where he could watch two of the captives and hear all three The hues divided by thick stone walls He lay in shadow, out of sight, in case any of them awoke suddenly
Nearly an hour later, he heard footsteps on the stairs, his wolf’s hearing identifying the one approaching by both scent and sound His chief, Lyon
Wulfe shifted back into his human form but didn’t bother to pull his pants on He wasn’t a Feral who could keep his clothes on when he shifted and would just have to take theain when he returned to wolf--the faron the floor of the prison block
Lyon appeared froeway that led from the mansion’s base, as the Ferals always did Touch was an important need to the Therians, particularly the Ferals, with their ties to the anie?" Lyon asked
"They’re still out Any word frorowl ru for Tighe and Hawke I trust Kougar to do what he can, but there’s no way to know if he’ll succeed We can’t lose theet these three stripped of their memories and out of here, the better I don’t like that they’re here And I sure as hell hope you can get into the male’s memories if it turns out he’s blind, as you suspect"
Minds were clouded andinto the eyes A blind person offered no easy entry Possibly, no entry at all
Wulfe shrugged "I’ll do what I can" Tighe would do better He was the best at clouding huoddess help theain
The soft rustle of clothes on stone told hirief that tried to crowd hiht of his friends lost in that spirit trap
The blonde was the one stirring He’d taken watch enough times over the past days to be well acquainted hich hunored by the Daeh he’d been staked with the others, was in the cell out of his direct line of sight The other tere fe who looked to be still in her teens, and the blonde who, he was certain, was older than the other two by at least eight to ten years She was thirty, or close to it, her liash one of the Daeh to stop the bleeding, but she was going to have a hell of a scar And if anyone knew a thing or two about scars, it was he He rubbed his jaw, feeling the soft brush of day-old whiskers Whiskers that did little to hide his own disfigureo transformed him from a male women admired into one froroan, he and Lyon both stiffened "You’d better talk to her, Roar," he said quietly, reaching for the jeans he’d tossed against the wall "She doesn’t need any runted "I don’t have much luck with terrified humansor females who think they’re huht he’d plucked their new Radiant, Kara, out of her huarden She’d adjusted beautifully, but apparently that had been one hell of a night For both of thee this particular task, each certain the prison block was about to erupt in screa on his pants
Lyon nodded, relief flooding his eyes before he turned back to the passage that led into the house "I’ll get her"
"Use your cell phone"
"It won’t take but a fewit" With a quick, feral grin, Lyon disappeared into the passage, leaving Wulfe alone with the waking human female Daled to sit up, working her way back to full consciousness Her blond hair was straight and ed Confusion clouded soft gray eyes beneath knitted brows as she looked around Lifting a hand, she touched the wound on her face and winced, then jerked and slowly turned to stone
Rehtening with pain and a horror few humans had experienced in the last five thousand years, and none had lived to tell about
Here it coood screaly face
But no tears ca the bars of her cage "Xavier?" Her voice was hoarse with lack of use and raith fear "Xavier!"
The fear wasn’t for herself, he realized Not directly He noted the er of her left hand Was the rew as the seconds passed without answer And while he could tell she was struggling to hold on to control, she was losing The tears were beginning to spring up in her eyes though they’d yet to fall
"Xavier!"
He’d been hoping to leave the woman to Kara Like most males of his acquaintance, he took offor wanted toat the first sign of tears But this one was fighting them so valiantly, he found he couldn’t let her suffer
"Is Xavier blind?" he asked froaze spinning toward hi he’d been wrong about the blind part "He’s unharmed, unconscious, as you were He’s in one of the other cells" Fro in his, he doubted she could see hi as if cruht of her relief After several, deep, tre hiaze that he found oddlyvisceral