Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(99)

“What’s wrong?” Evalle put her arm around the woman. She would hunt down Tristan and make his bunch very sorry if they had hurt this woman when they’d been here.

“I was too slow,” she mumbled again. “They swore we could stay this way, human, forever.”

Evalle hated having to douse the hope in the old woman’s voice, but she had to stop Nightstalkers from going with the Kujoo. “It’s a lie. The Kujoo are turning Nightstalkers into something that can’t hold a human form or a ghost form. Something evil. Pass the word around to hide from them.”

Tears drizzled down the old woman’s face and dripped off her chin at the stark disappointment in losing the glimmer of hope that she could return to her prior life. Evalle felt as though she’d taken a crayon from a child, but she wouldn’t let the Kujoo trick any more of these poor souls.

Grady was a wily old guy who understood evil. Maybe he hadn’t shown up here because he was hiding from the bad guys.

Maybe she’d convince herself that was the case in another lifetime, when in truth she had a sick feeling he’d been caught by Tristan and the Kujoo.

Daylight had pressed in close by the time Evalle made sure the old woman was safely back in her Nightstalker form and Evalle reached her underground garage.

She struggled to stay awake all the way to her apartment. Feenix thumped, thumped, thumped down the hallway, running to meet her. But he stopped short of flying at her.

He must have seen the desolation in her eyes that soaked through her bones. She forced a smile to her lips and made it real for him. “Hi, baby.”

Clapping the sides of his body with his fat little hands, he waddled to her, grunting undecipherable words, then hugged her leg. She patted his head. “Let me get a shower and type a letter, then we’ll play, okay?”

He danced around, chirping with happy sounds, before he landed on his beanbag, where he normally waited for her.

After a quick run through the shower, she pulled on a T-shirt and underwear, then plopped down on the bed with her laptop. Ignoring the possibility of being locked away by the Tribunal as a worst-case scenario or having to ask Isak to help her disappear as best-case scenario would be foolish. She opened a blank document and typed, “To Tzader and Quinn: If I lose my case with the Tribunal and don’t return …”

Thumping and grunting noises reached her before Feenix showed up at her bedroom door. He was dragging his stuffed alligator and a pair of her dark sunshades. She had five pairs besides the one she was wearing.

He flapped his wings and flew to her bed, landing softly beside her. When he tucked his wings, she lifted her arm so he could crawl up against her. He put on the dark sunshades and settled against her chest with his alligator tucked under one arm.

She hugged him, her heart aching over the impossible thought of leaving Feenix, her apartment, Tzader, Quinn … and the rest of the team who had stood by her tonight.

And there was Storm, who knew she was an Alterant and had no issues with that.

She was beginning to think he might actually be telling her the truth about not helping Sen put her away. But he couldn’t prevent Sen from carrying out a Tribunal decision.

Using one hand to type so she didn’t have to give up any chance to hold Feenix, she pecked away. The pain of losing this little guy cramped her lungs when she tried to breathe, but she would make sure he was never left to depend on the world’s mercy like she had been.

There was no mercy in this world for misfits.

Tristan had called that one right.

When she finished typing the letter, she attached it to an email set to send to Tzader and Quinn on Thursday by noon. If the Tribunal locked her up, the email would ensure Feenix’s future was secure, but her baby would be lost without her.

People liked dogs and cats.

Not something that ate lug nuts and breathed fire. Only Tzader and Quinn would protect him.

He stopped muttering words and sounds when she closed her laptop. She should tell him she might not return, but she couldn’t do it yet. “Let’s go see what’s in the kitchen utensil drawer for you.”

Feenix turned and hugged her with one arm. “Mine.”

She swallowed against the lump in her throat and hugged him back. “You’re mine, too, baby.”

For now.

There had to be something she could do, but what? The only Nightstalkers left in the city had no intel on the Kujoo. The human woman with the rock couldn’t be tracked after teleporting. Vyan clearly did not like Tristan, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to hand the woman and the rock over to the Kujoo.

Sitting here with time disintegrating was driving her nuts. She had to do something.

She scrolled through emails while she groused mentally and stopped at one from Nicole with a subject line of IMPORTANT. It read:

Must see you soon. Even daytime.

Evalle lifted her phone and dialed Nicole, who answered on one ring. “Hi, Nic.”

“Where have you been?”

“Butt deep in alligators. What’s up?” Evalle shushed Feenix, whose eyes lit up with excitement when he realized she was talking to Nicole.

“You’re in deep trouble.”

“Tell me something I don’t know, Nic.”

“Come over and I will. Not on the phone. Sorry, but I don’t trust it with the work you do and what I want to tell you.”