She fought them off, fought to keep from falling back under the horrified, fascinated spell of voyeurism.
The blob reappeared, slowly, slowly forming into the body.
Suddenly, it moved and she blinked, startled.
“Cat.” Nortia’s quiet voice held a sharp note that cut into her head like a knife. “Don’t move.”
The blob froze and, little by little, Cat came into focus. Panting like she’d just run a five-minute mile, Tira stared hard at the familiar features of Margie’s daughter.
“Tira, can you hear me?” Nortia asked.
She kept staring at Cat, afraid to move her head and risk even more of a headache. “Yes, Lady.”
“Good.” Nortia sighed, the soft sound the only indication the goddess had been at all worried about this process. “Now I’m going to take your hand and lead you over to the sofa.”
Nortia wrapped her hand around Tira’s and Tira registered the warmth of the goddess’ skin, a second before the vision hit.
Unlike her visions before, she felt disconnected from this one, as if she were watching it on a TV screen instead of experiencing it in person.
But there was no mistaking the images.
When she blinked again, they were gone and Nortia stood before her, an unusually worried expression on her beautiful features.
“Tira, what—”
“Margie, I need to talk to Dan. Right away.”
Chapter Twelve
“The woman who kidnapped you has your sister. Why the fuck didn’t you say that when you woke up?”
Nic scrubbed a hand through his hair as he paced John Simmons’ sparse front room.
The guy lived like a Spartan. Only a couch, TV and coffee table sat in the front room. There was no dining table, no kitchen table. In one of the bedrooms, there was a bed and a chest. In the other, piles of boxes. And a locked chest Nic knew held weapons. He could smell the metal and gunpowder.
John sat on the couch, his gaze taking in everything. He watched Nic pace for a while then he stared at Duke, silent and hulking against the wall.
But his gaze always came back to Kaine at the front window. He stared at her as if he was dissecting her and Nic knew it made her crazy because she liked this eteri. She wanted him, Nic could smell it on her and that was such a shock in and of itself that Nic tried not think about it. Kaine, who had so many reasons to hate eteri, had fallen for one.
And the guy couldn’t stop staring at her as if she were a freak in the carnival. Even when he would only talk about his sister.
“I need you to release me so I can go get my sister.”
“And how do you know where to look?”
John looked him straight in the eyes. “Because I overheard the man who took her out of the cell next to mine tell someone on the phone where to meet him.”
“How do you know they weren’t just jacking your chain?”
“Because he didn’t say it loud enough to hear. I read his lips.”
Handy trick. “Tell us where and we’ll retrieve her.” Duke’s voice sounded like a feral dog’s growl but the guy did nothing more than stare at Nic steadily.
“No.” John’s voice held absolutely no inflection. “You have to take me with you.”
Nic sighed. “Look, man, we don’t have time to argue. And frankly, we don’t want to worry about you shooting us in the back the first chance you get. We’ll retrieve your sister. I know you don’t think you have any reason to trust us but we’re not the bad guys here.”
“Then exactly what are you?”
John’s gaze arrowed back to Kaine, standing next to the window, staring out at the dark night.
When they’d dragged John back into the house after he’d accidentally shot her and she had changed to save her life, John had told her where she could find a pair of sweatpants that might fit her and another sweatshirt. The old one had disintegrated when she’d used her magic.
“We’ll be your worst nightmare if you don’t help us out here.”
Nic rolled his eyes at Duke’s hard-assed comment. “Look, ignore Mr. Happy for the moment. You’re military, right? Special Ops? So are we. You have my word as a soldier that we’ll do everything we can to retrieve your sister and that we’ll return her to you. We want the bitch who took her. She’s ours.”
John looked him straight in the eyes. “Then I guess you better stop talking so we can leave.”
Nic looked at Duke, who made his thoughts clear without moving a muscle. Then he looked at Kaine, who turned to him with dead-cold eyes.
“I know where he parked his car. Bring him and let’s get this done so we can wipe him. The sooner the better.”
“You’re sure this is the right place?”
From their vantage point of a secluded parking lot overlooking a desolate-looking industrial park, Tira eyed the equally dilapidated warehouse just over the Reading city line. Only a mile or so from Albright College and the Hampton Park neighborhood, the cluster of buildings looked, for all intents and purposes, deserted.
Nodding, she turned to face Kyle. “Yes, I recognize the building and the symbol on the sign from the vision.”
“And you’re sure she’s in there?”
Kyle’s tone held the slightest hint of doubt and she knew she couldn’t fault him for it. Previously, her Gift had worked only through touch. Today, she’d only needed one look into Nortia’s eyes to trigger a vision.
“Yes, she is. Look, Kyle, I understand why you have doubts. But I’m not wrong. Whoever’s behind the kidnappings is in that building.”
After another few seconds of staring into her eyes, Kyle nodded and looked into the rearview at Dan.
“You sure about this?”
Dan made a rude noise that had Tira turning just in time to see him give Kyle the finger. “Don’t make me hurt you, asshole.”
Kyle’s expression never changed. “Hey, man. It’s been a while since you’ve been out in the field, I just want to—”
“You just want to yank my chain. Fuck off.”
Kyle’s mouth curved in a hard-edged grin. “True, but you know Margie’ll have my ass in a sling if anything happens to you. And Cat would cry and I hate to see Cat cry.”
Dan snorted. “And Tam will be all over mine if you get so much as a scratch so don’t fuck around. Let’s get this done.”
Kyle’s smile lightened until he looked almost approachable. The man was a tattooed bad-ass who looked like the assassin he was. But when he smiled, like he was now at Dan or whenever he looked at his mate, Tira saw his true nature. Indomitable but compassionate to the core. A man you wanted at your back.
Nic and Duke would do anything for Kyle, that’s the kind of loyalty he commanded. Hell, they practically worshipped him.
She completely understood.
Dan shrugged out of his coat and pulled his shirt over his head, shedding his clothes in preparation for changing.
When he was naked, he got out of Kyle’s Wrangler and headed for the small patch of scraggly grass closest to the car. She glanced back at Kyle when Dan knelt on the snow-covered ground.
Kyle’s smile had disappeared. “I want you to seriously reconsider going in there with us, Tira. Stay here and let Dan and I clean house first. Then we’ll come back for you.”
She shook her head. “That’s not what I saw. I have to go in with you. There’s something I have to do.”
“But you don’t know what it is.”
She shook her head again, feeling like a broken record because they’d been over this three times already. “I still have to be in there. I’m afraid if I’m not, something will happen to you and Dan. And either of your mates can take me in a fight.”
Kyle didn’t even crack a smile at her attempt to lighten the mood. He didn’t say anything for several seconds, just stared at her. Finally he sighed. “You stick to me like glue. If I tell you to run, you run and you don’t stop. If something happens to Dan and me, just keep running. Go to Sal’s. If you don’t think you can make it there, head for Lacey’s bar on Eleventh Street. Teodoro de Feo will keep you safe until Nic and Duke can get you.”