Deciding he liked the idea of a mate who had a soft heart, he tracked her scent into the citadel. Seeing an angelic courtier up ahead, he jumped up to the ceiling and held himself there using his claws to hook into the ridged detail. He dropped down as soon as the courtier was out of earshot and continued to track the delicious, unique scent of his warrior-scholar.
There were many overlapping trails; Andromeda had clearly been exploring the citadel with a view to escaping. But Naasir’s senses were acute and he had no trouble pinpointing which scent was the freshest.
Sliding behind a wall to avoid a guard, he found himself trapped between two oncoming individuals, one from either direction. He didn’t waste time, went up to the ceiling again. No one ever looked up. You’d think angels would, but inside their homes, they never did. It was as if their wings blinded them to the fact that there were other ways of going high than just flying.
Moving across the ceiling using his clawed hands and feet to get a grip, he was careful not to dig so deep that his passage created dust or fine curls of whatever it was that made up the ceiling. It amused him to go right over Philomena’s flame-red head. He wanted to pounce on her and go “Boo!” but he’d save that for another day.
Tonight, his priority was Andromeda.
Climbing the top part of a wall and around a corner, he froze in a pool of shadows.
Xi.
According to what they’d learned during the battle above and in the streets of New York, Xi was only violently powerful when Lijuan fed him power, but that didn’t change his tactical mind and military training. He was dangerous and Naasir respected him as another predator. If Xi hadn’t been fighting for the other side, Naasir would’ve invited him over for a drink and talked to him about tactics.
Now, he stayed motionless.
Xi paused right under where Naasir was hooked onto the wall, the general’s attention caught by a vampire who’d emerged from another corridor. “Yes?”
The slender male bowed deeply. “The scholar has returned to her room. She sat with Heng until he lost consciousness again, and she told him stories of fantastical beings.”
Naasir grinned. He’d been right; she had a soft heart.
“Such gentleness is to be expected of a scholar,” Xi said at the same instant. “Do you have anything further to report?”
“It appears from her movements that she is searching for a way to escape the citadel.”
“Unsurprising,” Xi responded, no irritation or anger in his tone. “Show her to the library tomorrow. That will distract her and give her another outlet for her frustration.” Xi paused. “Be careful with her.”
Naasir heard the same thing that had the vampire bowing deeply again: a faint thread of possessiveness. It appeared Xi found Andromeda attractive. Naasir wanted to rip out the angel’s throat for that, had to dig his claws deeper into the wall to keep from acting on his instincts. If Xi thought he could court Andromeda, he knew nothing.
The general was too civilized for her. Xi didn’t understand secrets, didn’t understand that Naasir’s scholar was a sword dancer who liked fighting and whose blood ran hot. That secret truth in mind, he held his strained position for an entire minute until after the vampire and Xi both disappeared. Only then did he drop soundlessly to the stone floor and prowl along Andromeda’s scent trail.
There were fewer guards in this wing. Naasir understood why—situated in one of the corners of the citadel, it gave the illusion of freedom because of the number of windows and doors, but the outside was heavily guarded. Andromeda was smart not to have tried to escape from this direction. If she’d gone to ground, she’d have been run to the earth by the hounds that Naasir scented below. If she’d gone up, she’d have been shot down by the squadrons above.
The dogs could prove a problem if the rain didn’t come. Naasir could handle them, but it would be an annoying distraction, and there was a risk that someone paying attention would work out that the dogs were whimpering away from a certain point with their tails between their legs.
Reaching the door beyond which he could scent Andromeda, he listened carefully, heard nothing. He smiled and, instead of turning the knob, scratched lightly on the carved wooden panel. It was pulled open from within mere heartbeats later. Hauling him inside with a grip on his olive green T-shirt, Andromeda shut the door with conscious quietness.
Her cheeks were marked by hot red spots when she turned to face him. “What are you doing here?” she said, the pulse in her neck thumping.
He wanted to kiss her, but he satisfied himself with what was left on the tray of food placed on a side table. “Rescuing you.”
Andromeda’s mouth fell open, her brain struggling to comprehend what she was hearing. Naasir had come after her. Right into the heart of the most dangerous territory in the world. “Did Raphael send you?”
Naasir finished off the meat she’d left on her plate and shoved back the silver hair that had fallen over his face while he ate. “I didn’t need to be sent,” he said, a low growl to his tone. “But the sire is helping me rescue you. Jason is here.”
“The spymaster?” Legs shaky, she sat down on the bed. “You both got in?” She couldn’t imagine how; she had a headache from trying and failing to work out a successful escape route. “No one’s meant to have ever infiltrated the citadel. How did you do it?”
Naasir came to crouch in front of her. Reaching up, he flicked her nose. “It wouldn’t be a secret if we told you and you wrote it down in your history books.” Rising to his haunches, he leaned in close to her face. “Don’t put this in your books.”
“I won’t,” she whispered, fascinated by this wild, utterly beautiful creature who had come to rescue her.
She wasn’t a woman who touched easily, having been rarely touched herself, but she found herself reaching up to cradle his cheek with one hand. Turning his head, he rubbed himself against her. His skin was smooth, without stubble, and the contact sent a shiver over her; when the sleek strands of his hair ran across the back of her hand, she wanted desperately to weave her fingers into the thick silk.
“Later,” he said, his eyes heavy lidded. “First we have to escape.” He rose, held out a hand.
Taking it without hesitation, she allowed him to haul her up, hope and excitement bubbling inside her. “Wait,” she said when he would’ve headed to the door. Retrieving her knives, she dug out and unrolled a drawing of the citadel Suyin had surreptitiously made for her, then told him about a gate the architect said she’d hidden in the outer wall. “I don’t think she’s lying.”
Naasir folded the sketch and put it into a pocket of his khaki-colored cargo pants. “I’ll tell Jason, but we’ll escape another way.” He took her hand again after she transferred both knives to one hand.
She stood stubbornly in place. “What about Suyin?”
Naasir looked back at her, silver eyes glinting. “It’ll be difficult enough to get you out—we can’t take another person.”
“She’s my friend.” Andromeda was willing to take the risk that Lijuan’s niece was no spy but another captive. If she was wrong, she’d live—or die—on that mistake, but she couldn’t walk away; the memory of Suyin’s sorrow would haunt her always. “She’s been held prisoner for thousands of years.”
A harshly primal sound rumbled out of Naasir’s chest. “Where?” he asked, the grit in his tone making it an erotic kiss over her skin.
Fighting back a responsive shiver, she described the location of Suyin’s suite.
“Go to her,” he told her after she was done. “Walk there as if you can’t sleep and want company. Wait for me inside her quarters.”
About to step out, she turned back to him and smoothed out a wrinkle she’d made in his T-shirt when she pulled him inside. The instant she’d heard that scratch, she’d known. “Thank you for coming for me.”