Shadozuchaser.
Cade groaned, then slumped over face-first. The Shadowchaser released him, shaking her hand as if to flick away grime, then turned to Rinna. “How badly are you hurt?”
“Since when is a Shadowchaser concerned with the health of her enemies?” Rinna blurted out. The male banaranjan squeezed her ribs in warning.
“I’m not,” the Chaser noted. The light surrounding her dagger slowly faded. She shoved it back into its sheath. “Trust me, if you were my enemy, you would know it.”
The male holding her spoke. “Is that him?”
“Yeah.” The Chaser shook like a dog dislodging water from its coat. “You don’t want to know what sort of sport he had in mind for this little one.”
“And she walked right into it.” The disapproval in the male’s voice was palpable. If Rinna weren’t injured, she would have struggled against his superior strength.
The Shadowchaser pulled gloves out of her back pocket, slipped them on. “Thanks for the head’s up, Bale.”
Bale? Banaranjans rarely gave their names, simply because clan offences ran deep and fights could break out over centuries’ old slights.
She twisted around to the other banaranjan. He dipped his head. “I call myself Bale,” he said, deliberately leaving off his clan name. “What do you call yourself?”
“Rinna.” She, too, left off her clan name.
“Rinna, that is Kira Solomon, the Shadowchaser for this area,” Bale said. “Your date calls himself Cade, and he’s been linked to the disappearances of quite a few hybrids in and around this town.”
Rinna stared at the unconscious human male. Her body was using quite a bit of the harvested adrenaline to fight her injuries and the drug, leaving her brain sluggish. “He hunts hybrids. . for sport?”
“He tends to prey on solo hybrids, female ones, because he thinks they’re weaker,” the Chaser said, nudging the human male with one booted foot. “He uses his physical assets in an effort to have some sort of liaison and if that doesn’t work, he’ll resort to drugs.”
Rinna felt the Chaser’s gaze, cool and assessing, quite like her crèche mother determining which of the banrings were weakest and should be put out to die of exposure. Since a banring didn’t have wings, death was usually quick if they were eaten or slow if left to the elements. “He injected me in the shoulder,” she told them. “And I think something’s wrong with my wing.”
“You have a tear, and one joint is dislocated,” Bale explained. “The syringe probably contained something that could drop an elephant. You will need a couple of days of down time to work the tranquillizers out of your system and to heal your wing. I can take care of it for you, and give you a place to stay.”
Rinna stared up at him. Their people were territorial to the point of obsession. Tribes didn’t intermingle without deadly consequences. Accepting his offer might be the same as leaping out of the crèche and into the fire. “I–I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Your judgment isn’t worth much right now,” the Chaser said bluntly. “Besides, quite a few people saw you leave the club with this guy. Laying low isn’t a bad thing. Go with Bale. He can tend to your wing, and teach you a thing or two about living here.”
Rinna lifted her chin. “What if I refuse?”
The Shadowchaser didn’t so much as curl her lips. “You have two choices. One: you go with Bale and allow him to help you.”
“What’s the second?”
“I put you into a Gilead holding tank. The problem with that is that those who go in usually don’t come out.”
“Rinna,” Bale’s warning voice was a low hiss. “Did your crèche mother teach you nothing? Do not antagonize a Shadowchaser. Especially that Shadowchaser. Let me offer you my hospitality.”
The Chaser squatted until she was at eye level with Rinna. “Why did you come here, banaranjan?”
“Because back home it was time to join the feud, and fight,” she replied, folding her arms across her chest. She wanted to lean against Bale, appreciate his warmth and inhale the reassuring scent of cloves. But she couldn’t be vulnerable, not yet, not more than she already was. “I didn’t want to fight.”
The Shadowchaser looked to the male. “And you, Bale. Want to tell her why you came here?”
“Fighting without good reason is a waste of time and energy. ‘Just because’ isn’t reason enough.” His voice was a low rumble against Rinna’s back.
Rinna flinched when the Chaser trained her gaze Rinna’s way. “Seems to me like you’ve got more in common with Bale than you may think.”
Kira straightened. “Bale does a lot of work in the hybrid community, particularly for those without other affiliations for one reason or another. If you want to be a successful part of this community, Bale will help you. Of course, if you don’t want to be a successful part of this community, you then become my problem.”
The Chaser split her gaze between Rinna and the male as Bale helped Rinna to her feet. Rinna held her ground, but just barely. This Shadowchaser was younger than her. But the Chaser’s heart beat a normal rhythm; no adrenaline pumped through her veins. Kira frightened Rinna more than facing her clan’s wrath, and the Chaser hadn’t so much as threatened her.
“I came here to live my life as far from banaranjan politics and intrigue as I can get. But I’m a hybrid, and I obviously have a lot to learn. I think I’ve experienced enough stupidity for one night. I gladly accept your offer.”
Bale helped her to her feet. Rinna gritted her teeth but her wings refused to retract. It was Bale who gently folded her wings back snug against her shoulder blades, but the pain was still intense. Somehow she bore it, using the agony to drill clarity into her adrenaline- and drug-soaked skull.
“I guess I won’t be driving tonight.”
“I’ll get you some place safe,” Bale assured her, “then return for your car. On my word, you will be safe in my care. I’ve promised the Shadowchaser.”
She looked at the Chaser. Without the blue glow suffusing her skin and the small smile curving her lips, the Chaser looked almost normal.
Rinna turned her attention to the human male. “What are you going to do with him?”
The Chaser’s smile faded. “I don’t take well to rogues running loose in my town. I don’t care what side they’re on. Your friend will be made to see the Light.”
Rinna shivered. The way the Chaser said it, Rinna didn’t think she meant a pleasant conversation leading to reason and understanding. She was glad she wasn’t on the woman’s Chase list.
“Thank you, thank you both for your help.” With danger averted, her body wanted rest, despite her mind’s will to the contrary. “I will find some way to repay my debt to you. I will—”
Her next words were lost to the Abyss as she slipped headlong into unconsciousness.
Rinna spent days in Bale’s care, healing her wing, learning about her adoptive city, listening to Bale talk about the need for communication and understanding among the disparate hybrid communities in Atlanta, especially with a Shadowchaser and Gilead Commission watching and waiting.