Sun
“We need interrogation rooms,” Basile said when I stepped into the hall.
I couldn’t muster more than a sigh. We’d never had use for them here in our Nashville lair, but my second was right, we needed a way to question our prisoners with others observing, a way to leave them alone without leaving them unsupervised. We needed a lot of things, and right now the weight of all of them was a two-ton boulder on my shoulders.
Could any of it make up for what we had lost tonight?
Basile lifted his head, and I drew in a deep breath at the sight of the mourning cuts on the male’s cheeks, cuts usually made during the deceased’s memorial pyre. Not so this warrior—the pain cut too deep, for all of us, but especially for Basile. Reaching from under each eye to his jawline, torn into his skin by his own claws, ran two sets of long, jagged furrows. Basile’s cuts extended below his jaw, disappearing into the high-necked collar of his shirt. The male’s face was ravaged by grief.
Older than me, Basile had been certain long ago that a matebond would never be in the cards for him. To replace the children he would never have, he’d taken the orphaned Thomas under his wing, raised him as a son, taught the bookish young male to fight, to carry fierce loyalty, and to love with unerring honor. Thomas had taught Basile about computers and the modern age, but more, he’d given Basile love in return. I couldn’t imagine losing a child; I certainly couldn’t imagine watching that child die before your eyes, before you were able to reach him, save him.
I closed my eyes against the pain.
Basile cleared his throat. “Video?”
I extended my hand, ignoring the flecks of blood and gore peppering my skin. The Anigma soldier, Baer, had been uncooperative until we’d brought his brother in to “persuade” him. Shaking away the memories, I handed Basile the SD card from the camera we’d used. “We can download it and go over the information later, after…”
Basile hissed, his pupils changing shape as his animal rose just beneath the surface. “Now, not later.”
I placed a heavy hand on Basile’s shoulder, feeling the big male’s body tremble with bottled-up rage. I’d had to force Basile to let me handle the questioning—and the execution, if it came to that. Right now I wasn’t sure. But the extent of my second’s fury would’ve hindered our ability to get the information we desperately needed—information we now had. “Trust me, my friend. None of it will make a difference in the next twenty-four hours. Give yourself time. Give us all time.”
Time to forget the sudden agony in Thomas’s eyes before his life had been snuffed out. Time to forget the Anigma’s refusal to cooperate and what it had forced me to do. Time to forget a lot of things that, in the end, could never be forgotten.
When Basile simply stood, staring at me, I knew my second understood the futility of waiting just as I did. Resignation colored my words. “The shifter knew nothing about Arik’s location.” No more than I had known. The abandoned lair had been the only lead for all of us.
“They want the female?”
“They want to reacquire her, but for what, I’m not sure. Her power, surely, but Baer”—I jerked my head toward the door behind me, indicating the Anigma male—“wasn’t clear on motive. Only that Maddox was rabid to have her. Seems she was responsible for a severe wound during her capture.” Guess that explained some of Kat’s injuries when we’d first seen her. “But that was all he knew. It seems Maddox hasn’t been playing nice with others lately.”
“Neither has Arik,” Basile said, then, carefully, “He’s had her. I could smell her on him.” A worried frown broke up the furrows running down his face.
“And I as well.” The sweet scent of sex, untinged by pain or terror. There had been fear, though. Arik’s. “Whatever’s happening between them, I have a feeling it’s more than Arik was prepared for.”
“The male would fear a growing bond,” Basile said, proving his scenting ability was as acute as mine.
Arik might fear a bond, but I had a strong feeling that was exactly where the couple was heading. “A bond would keep her safe.” From the Anigma. And from Arik.
“You hope.”
We’d both heard Arik’s threatening words. How big a chance was there that the male was blowing smoke to cover up the truth, to conceal what he would see as a weakness? I clenched my hands into fists, needing to find the female, needing to be absolutely certain she was safe. “Damn it, I wish I knew where they were.”
The scent of shame hit my nose. “If not for me,” Basile said, voice so quiet I had to strain to hear him, “you might know right now.”
“Not knowing Arik.” I sighed. “We will find her, eventually. You were more important tonight. And them,” I said with a second backward jerk of my head toward the door.
Basile grunted. “Cale’s still pissed that you let him go.”
Cale would be; but he’d have to get over it. I understood the bitterness. Cale’s father had been Arik’s uncle. The male had loved Anna as long as she lived, though the female had chosen his brother, Rivalen, as mate instead. When Anna died with her mate, Cale’s father had finally taken a female, but he’d never stopped pining for Anna. Unfortunately Cale’s mother, Vara, and Cale had suffered the consequences.
“I won’t explain myself to him again.” I leaned back against the door, all at once utterly weary.
“I sent him to help debrief the other team.”
“Did Lyris tell you if they found anything?”
“They did. An Anigma contingent trying to kidnap a young woman. Took them out.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Did they keep the female?” From what Baer had told me, the Anigma leaders sent a list of females with possible Archai genes with orders to convert and, if successful, capture. The ones who survived were then shipped to Anigma HQ, or at least that’s what HQ thought. Maddox had his own plans on that front as well. But even a few females could be deadly. My heart thudded at the thought of Anigma teams full of psych warriors.
But Basile was shaking his head. “Lyris put one of the soldiers on her, follow and protect only.”
“Good. We’ve got to figure out how to approach her first.” No way in hell would I resort to Anigma tactics, even if the clans’ existence was at stake, which it just might be. Sinking to their level wasn’t the answer.
I prayed my father agreed, prayed Solomon could see now what he couldn’t before, that to act was the only way to preserve Archai peace against an enemy that freely slaughtered females they deemed of no worth, that stole young girls from their homes and forced them into service. Baer had described it all in the end. The atrocities I had listened to, imagined, wanted desperately to cry over, would keep me up today, possibly more than the pain I’d inflicted to gain them. No, I would have no problem staying awake on my knees before Thomas’s memorial pyre.
I was almost afraid to ask, but, “Any casualties?” More casualties.
A pause. “No.”
I released the breath I’d been holding, a prayer of thankfulness whispering through my mind. “From what Baer told me, their losses tonight shouldn’t affect the Anigma’s ability to maneuver in this area, but it could escalate a confrontation.” Which my father would never forgive. In order to stay here in Nashville, in the home we’d built, we had to remain unseen. Outright war in the streets would only make us the targets of terrified humans.
Basile’s eyes were knowing. “What do you plan to do?”
Looking into my second’s face, I knew there was only one thing I could do. “Talk to the king.”
“And if he says no?”
“He won’t.” Desperate hope kept the words in my mind, off my tongue.
“But if he does?”
“Then we’ll do what we must,” I admitted to the persistent male.
“I never had any doubt.” Basile bowed his head, the gesture assuring me of his solidarity. At least one warrior would stand at my side.
But I would face that moment when we came to it. Not now. Now, Thomas waited. Nodding toward the memory card in Basile’s hand, I let my sorrow, my pain color my voice one last time before putting on the mantle of prince. “Go, Basile. Drop this with Lyris. Rest. I will summon you when the pyre is prepared.”
“And when the time comes, what will we say?” If the clan knew who had killed Thomas, at least one secret would be spilled: the fact that the Anigma had returned. Loyalty to the king’s wishes demanded I keep the information private. Love for my people demanded I tell the truth.
Looking deeply into Basile’s eyes, a father’s eyes, I made my choice. For Thomas. And for Basile. “We say he died a hero.”
The king’s wishes be damned.