The Curse (Belador #3)(20)

Isak hadn’t known she was an Alterant before that night, and she’d be on his shoot-on-sight list if Sen hadn’t wiped the memories of Isak and his men after they’d seen her shield Tristan’s group.

Isak was yet another complicated relationship she didn’t have time to dwell on.

Forcing her attention back to the male complication du jour, she said, “Couldn’t you have used a little logic? Why would I have brought in a bunch of black-ops boys with weapons who wanted to kill Alterants?”

Tristan held his hands out. “Look at it from my side. Sort of tough to reason all that out in a split second when someone’s trying to kill me. I had the safety of three people in my hands, which included my sister. Tell me you’d have made any different decision if you’d been in my place, with you trying to haul us in to face a Tribunal and men pointing cannons at someone you care about.”

Nothing would be gained by arguing the past. She picked at the calamari some more and said, “You said you had information on the traitor. What is it?”

“I can’t tell you—”

She slapped the chair arm. “Don’t even start that crap with me again.”

“If you’d let me finish, I was saying I can’t tell you because I don’t know anything about the traitor, but I have someone who does.”

“The friend who gave you money?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he or she?”

“He, and that’s why I’m here, because he said he can’t get near you with Tzader, Quinn and everyone else so close.”

“Tell him to call me.”

“Nope. He won’t risk talking on the phone or any other electronic format. He wants you to meet with him.”

“Why?”

“Because he has a personal interest in helping the Beladors and said you’d understand as soon as you meet him.”

She toyed with that, trying to decide what to do with this opportunity. “Why is he helping you?”

“He runs the equivalent of an underground network that helps people like us, beings without any support or pantheon.”

What choice did she have at this point other than to play along? She needed Tristan and he knew it. “It will have to be at night and I’ll pick a place”

“It’s tonight and I know the place. I’ll take you there.”

She made a chuffing sound of disbelief. “You really think I’m going to let you take me somewhere?”

“It’s the only way he’ll talk to you. He wants to talk to you specifically about Conlan O’Meary.”

Crud. Could this be for real? Tristan shouldn’t know about Conlan, so clearly this guy had some information. “Let’s say I agree to do this. What do you get out of it?”

“Safe passage out of the country for me, Petrina, Webster and Aaron.”

“Where’d you put your sister and those two Rías?”

“Somewhere safe.”

“Webster and Aaron still able to control their beast?”

“Yep. Getting better all the time.”

That brought up a question burning the inside of her brain that Tristan might be able to answer. “Speaking of Rías, what do you think makes them different from us … besides eye color?”

“Why?”

“Because we’ve had another one shift in Atlanta.”

Tristan tapped his chin with a finger. “That fog return?”

“No. We’ve had gang wars breaking out and found a few trolls mixed in, but tonight was the first time a Rías appeared in one of the fights.” She considered mentioning the Svarts, but changed her mind. Until Tristan gave her a reason to share more, he had all he needed to know for now. “But you met up with Webster and Aaron before the sentient fog was released. Where’d you find those two Rías?”

“Remember when you and I first met? And I was here with the Kujoo?”

She looked up in a mock show of trying to remember. “Let me think. You mean the very first time in Piedmont Park when you turned Nightstalkers into demented ghouls that attacked me?”

“I didn’t change them. The Kujoo warlord did that.”

“I don’t see the difference since you were working with the warlord.”

Tristan rolled his eyes. “Do you want to know how I met Webster and Aaron or not?” He waited for her noisy sigh before continuing. “When I got a chance to slip away from the warlord, I was down in the project housing late at night when Webster and Aaron tried to mug me. I didn’t want to hurt them since they were human, but the demented ghouls had followed me and swarmed those two, then Webster and Aaron started shifting.”

“So maybe it takes an unnatural source of hostility like the sentient fog or aggressive ghouls to cause the Rías to shift.”

“Maybe.”

That supported the theory she’d worked out with Quinn. She’d have to let him and Tzader know. “The Rías I know about had no control. They just shifted and killed immediately. What about Webster and Aaron?”

“They would have, but I shifted into my Alterant beast the minute they changed.”

Evalle groaned. “VIPER would have gone crazy if they’d heard about that.”