The Curse (Belador #3)(56)
Kit turned to where Isak stood with a cluster of his men and called over, “Have them take Jasper to the holding cell.”
Isak peered over his shoulder, clearly not happy with Evalle or Kit. When he swung back to his men, he murmured orders. One of the men walked over to a cabinet, where he pulled out some space-age-looking handcuffs and leg cuffs.
Isak’s men had Jasper trussed up in less than a minute, then carried the poor guy out of sight.
Evalle would like to see this cell that Isak and Kit obviously believed could restrain a nonhuman.
Yet another part of this secret operation.
Evalle gave Kit a smile of relief. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, but you do understand that just because I stopped Isak from blowing you to pieces right now doesn’t mean you’re in the clear … or free to leave.”
And here I’d mistaken Isak as the greater threat in the room. Should I call in Tzader or Quinn?
No. That would only draw them to the one group of humans capable of killing them.
Evalle had to handle this on her own and hope she walked out of here alive, but what would Macha and VIPER do when they found out she’d been made as an Alterant by humans?
EIGHTEEN
Any word from Evalle?” Tzader wiped blood from his hands and face with a rag now soaked with the smell of death.
Quinn grimaced as he cleaned his own hands. “Not yet.”
Tzader handed the rag back to Horace Keefer, wishing he could get rid of the troll problem as easily. He asked Horace, “Did you hear back from Trey?”
“Yep. The boy said he’d be here soon with ten of ours and has sent more Beladors to the other teams. That oughta stop a Svart. One at a time.”
“We can only hope. Once Trey arrives, take our injured to headquarters. Tell Sen I’ll talk to him as soon as I can.” As Horace strolled off, Tzader scanned the blood-swathed ground of yet another cemetery and shook his head. “At least we don’t have to call Sen in to clean this up since Adrianna’s on site.” Tzader paused. “I’m glad you were here to pull some intel from that troll.”
“For what good it did.” Quinn’s self-inflicted disgust was as evident as it was unfair.
“No one else would have stopped that troll. You saved human lives and our team.”
“I didn’t manage to retrieve much useful information, only that jumbled mess.”
“You found out more trolls are coming. That’s something we needed to know, Quinn.”
“But this one kept thinking about demon, then Svart? What could that mean?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he meant they were bringing in demons, too.”
“We would have had our first chance for some real intel if I could have breached his shields and held control for one minute. One. Minute.”
“Next time.” Tzader sent telepathic messages to the Beladors on-site, ordering them to scour the cemetery for any more humans present. Fortunately, this had been a small skirmish, except for the damned Svart troll. Adrianna had put the three human gang members caught up in the fray to sleep with a spell that would leave them thinking they’d dreamed the entire battle.
Those humans would be dropped in the respective neighborhoods for each of their gangs.
Tzader turned back to Quinn. The man had the sick-gut look of someone who’d been sucker punched. Just to distract him from the dead troll, Tzader asked, “You get your family problem dealt with?”
“Yes.”
“She headed home?”
“No.” Quinn’s attention had definitely shifted from the troll. Frustration simmered in his gaze. “Found her downtown. She can’t go home yet.”
“Think anyone has seen her yet?”
“No one with VIPER that I know of, but now that the Nightstalkers know, it won’t be a secret for long.” Quinn’s expression dropped another notch on the grim scale.
“Ah, hell.”
“That pretty much sums it up. She’s hidden in my hotel suite for now. I’ll deal with her as soon as I get back.”
Quinn looked beat, but the man had been forced to destroy two minds today. He held himself accountable and to such a high standard, nothing would offer consolation except a chance to redeem himself in his own mind.
Tzader didn’t want to push Quinn further, but they weren’t gaining ground on this Svart problem, and what he had in mind might help Quinn if it didn’t destroy him. “Are you sure your mind is strong?”
Quinn’s head came up. “Yes.”
“And you think you still have an open path to Kizira?”
Slower to answer this time, Quinn still said, “Yes.”
“If she came into your mind, could you control her invasion long enough to mine her thoughts for information?”
When Quinn didn’t answer right away, Tzader added, “The better question might be could you do that to Kizira?”
“Yes, I’d have no qualms about extracting what we need. I assume you want to determine if the Medb are behind these attacks?”
“That and anything else you can dig up.” Tzader doubted it would be that simple for Quinn, whose integrity prevented him from entering a mind involuntarily unless the person represented a dangerous threat, but Kizira had taken advantage of Quinn while he had no ability to resist.