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The spirit’s voice sounded much calmer than mine. “Was to prevent her family from realizing she had been taken for their experiments. They learned from their mistake with your sister Fury when you wouldn’t leave the case alone. The bastards didn’t mind sacrificing poor Mya to their cause, and they arranged for her to be found by Dre instead of her family to decrease the chance that their switch would be discovered.”

My pulse skittered from being so close to having my dearest hope confirmed. “Then the Fury whose form they forced you to take
is
still alive.”

She nodded. “Or was, last I saw her. Alive because they are using her, attempting to clone their own pet Fury.”

“Over my dead body,” I growled, jumping to my feet. Rage pulsed, but I used it to my advantage, formulating and discarding a dozen different plans in the space of seconds. “Now then. Just so there is no misunderstanding, I’m making this a command. Tell me everything you know about your captors, the place they held you, and this unMagic they are working on their ‘specimens.’ And I
do
mean everything.”

BY THE TIME WE RETURNED TO HOUNDS OF
Anubis, it was far too late to set out for Western Mass. A few Warhounds and one Fury against who knew how many secret government agents and a potential army of cloned arcanes? I don’t think so.

The past couple of hours had been chaotic but productive. The Murphys wasted no time in telling Dre to take his job and shove it (couldn’t blame them for not giving two weeks’ notice), though they’d also relinquished any claim over Fake Amaya, which seemed to be all Dre had hoped for by that point. He knew how lucky he was none of Amaya’s brothers took the opportunity for a little pay-back. Mostly because they were now completely focused on helping me track down their sister’s true whereabouts.

No sooner did we set foot back in Command Central than Kiara swept Scott off to take care of some minor emergency. I fought back the sudden twinge of disappointment and took the chance to slip into the back office.

After checking in with David and Con via telephone, I logged on to the Internet to search the headlines for news of Trinity’s condition. The
Herald’s
front-page headline proclaimed,
Cop Hero in Stable
Condition, Chief MI Still Missing.
I sent another prayer for Trinity’s health winging skyward. I just didn’t think I could stomach losing one more person I loved.

Next, I turned my attention to the Sisterhood. The Elders might have forbidden Stacia from helping me without hard evidence of a mortal conspiracy, but I had an ace up my sleeve now. Testimony from the dead was just as valid as living testimony in the Sisterhood’s eyes. More so, since spirits cannot lie to us.

My lips curved in a tight smile as a scene played out in my mind. Me, sweeping into the Palladium and immediately presented to the Conclave—the Greater Consensus, of course. A little flash and dazzle and voilà! Cue
the
revelation of the past fifty years—that Sidhe were not in fact extinct, and some splinter group of mortals was cloning a secret army of arcanes—and the Elders would soon accede to my every wish...

“Yeah right.” I couldn’t even
think
that with a straight face.

I shook my head and turned back to the computer. My fingers tapped slowly but surely at the keyboard.

The machine loaded the graphics-intensive website that usually took eons to show up on my POS back in the PD. A frown creased my face at that thought, so I forced my attention back to the sleek piece of machinery purring in front of me. I couldn’t hold back a whistle of appreciation. Mac had more than outdone himself.

The typical rigmarole of logging in both electronically and magically zipped by in a flash, and I got lucky big-time. I had to wait only a few minutes for Stacia’s face to appear onscreen.

Concern marred her normally pristine features. “Marissa, are you well?”

I blinked. The spell linking my little spot in the mortal world to her pocket of the Other realms worked just like a mundane webcam. She shouldn’t have been able to see the bandage on my knee. “Couldn’t be better. Why do you ask?”

“It’s well past midnight. I hadn’t expected to hear from you so soon.”

“Oh. What can I say? I work fast.”

Her turn to blink. “You’ve—found something already?” Her voice didn’t sound quite as enthusiastic as I’d expected. Then again, it
was
after midnight.

“More than I expected. I know what’s going on now?’

Surprise flickered. “That was certainly fast.”

I couldn’t help a smirk. “I aim to please.” She tossed an amused look my way before ordering me to spill the beans.

Stacia’s lips settled into a narrow line at the news that Vanessa was most likely alive and being used as a lab rat by mortals. The double whammy that the arcanes who were supposed to be extinct actually weren’t seemed anticlimactic in comparison.

“This supposed Sidheborn spirit. What exactly did she tell you about her captors?”

I didn’t miss her stressing the word
supposed
but tried to hide my impatience with her obvious suspicion. Elders took the word
skeptical
to a whole ‘nother level. “Not a whole lot of specifics, unfortunately. Just that they were mostly mortal, although the mortals have quite a few brainwashed Sidheborn clones who do their bidding.”

“She couldn’t tell you anything of their leaders? Or where they’re holding Vanessa?”

“Nothing on their leaders. As for location, she believes the arcanes are being held in Western

.Massachusetts.” I rolled my eyes. “Her original words were, ‘somewhere to the west.’”

Stacia snorted. “Damn Sidhe.”

“My sentiments exactly. Still, there’s no denying that’s what she is. Was.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“No mistaking a Sidhe’s Candy Land coloring, or the fact that she was damned near a dead ringer for Vanessa— other than the slightly off-color tats and the spirit that most clearly did
not
match its outward shell.”

She nodded, lips pursed in thought. “True, there is that.”

“So, when should I expect you?”

“I’m sorry?”

I narrowed my eyes. “When should I expect you to get down here to help me? I got the proof you wanted.” Her wince was
so
not the reaction I wanted. “Don’t tell me you’re not coming!”

“Okay, I won’t.”

“Dammit, Stacia. What, do you want me to steal the frigging corpse from the morgue and drag it through the subway tunnel?”

“While I might very well pay to see that sight, Marissa, I don’t think that’s necessary. All the altered corpse proves, even if you summon the spirit in front of the entire Conclave, is that the Sidhe are not dead and at least some mortals are involved. It doesn’t prove that their government knows or, more important, condones the experimentation on arcanes. I need more.”

I pushed back from the desk and let out an explosive breath. Sometimes her obsessive-compulsive quest for perfection drove me absolutely batty. Even if she probably was just erring on the side of caution when it came to persuading the tight-assed Circle of Elders to get off said asses and
do
something constructive.

“Fine. But when I bring you that
more,
I damned well expect you to get the hell down here.”

She nodded, eyes gleaming. “Don’t worry. I may just pop by when you least expect it.”

“Promises, promises,” I muttered before ending the chat session with a sharp stab at the keyboard.

If I’d been acting in my regular capacity as Chief MI, I’d have had the strength of the department behind me, and I’d have gone in, guns blazing. But I was stripped of those powers. All right, fine. So I needed to find something that definitively linked the mortals-turned-modern-day Frankensteins to the feds who just wouldn’t take no for an answer. I could do that. Somehow.

The office door squeaked open just then, and my eyes shot to the doorway expectantly but were met by the sight of the wrong Murphy brother.
Speaking of people not taking no for an answer...

That uncharitable thought had me pushing to my feet and forcing a smile.
Give the poor kid a break,
Riss. It’s just a harmless little crush.
And not like it would be the first time I’d been on the receiving—or giving, come to think of it—end of puppy love.

Sean’s smile was crooked, and endearingly sweet, as he nudged the door closed with one leg and leaned against it with the other. Once again my gaze zeroed in on the oh-so-fine sight of his tight shirt clinging to the chiseled length of his chest and abs. Mmm, yummy six-pack abs that just made me want to...

Jesus, would you cut that out! He’s Scott’s brother. His
baby
brother!

My voice was decidedly high-pitched when I managed to speak. “Uh, hey, Sean. Sorry, I’m finished here if you need the computer.”

The smile that had seemed sweet seconds earlier suddenly became smoldering. Either that or someone had cranked the heat up a dozen notches. “Nope. I just came to enjoy the scenery.” His eyes grew distinctly heated as he gave me a long, slow once-over. “The amazing scenery.”

Oh gods. I was
so
going to hell for the way my eyes kept wandering from his chest to his abs—and even lower. I jerked my gaze up to his face and tried to think of a graceful way to exit. Easier said than done, seeing as how he lounged against the room’s only escape route and seemed in no hurry to move.

Or so I thought. But he must have sensed my desire to flee, because suddenly he was across the room in two ground-eating strides, and then his arms locked around me and his lips pressed down on mine—hard.

Time slowed to a crawl, my skin grew flushed, and desire speared where his hands now roamed along my arms, skimming across the crimson expanse of my tattoos. I pushed him off, wiping my mouth with the back of my trembling hand.

Holy shit. I’d made out with Scott not even five hours earlier and now, here I was letting his baby brother play tonsil hockey with me. Triumph glowed in his whiskey-colored eyes, making him look far older than his tender years.
Yeah, just focus on that little fact. He’s more than
ten
years younger than you.

A baby.
Well, now anyway. Once we were both past our forties, it wouldn’t seem like such an age gap for immortals, but right now—ouch!

“Ah, uh, gotta go.” And with those eloquent words, I fled the room as quickly as I could, thanking all the gods that the main room was empty. Guilt and frustration flooded through my veins. Guilt because I hadn’t pushed Sean away sooner, and frustration that he’d gotten my body all revved up again. I considered saying to hell with it and hotfooting it out of there, but since when had I ever cut and run when that was the smartest thing to do?

No way I would crawl back to Scott so soon, though, so I settled for a short walk around the block to cool off. My feet had barely touched the building’s front stoop when the door. slammed open and shut behind me. I stiffened and turned, ready to chew out Scott or Sean. Instead, I found myself facing someone unexpected: Mac.

He arched a red-gold eyebrow and joined me on the stoop. Again, I had the strangest sensation I’d seen him before, though I knew that I hadn’t. But the shape of his wide-set green eyes, the way his long, thick eyelashes (wasted on yet another man) made his eyes look even greener, the way he folded his arms over his chest as he twisted his lips and looked down at me—something about it screamed out
Remember me?

But I didn’t. Come to think of it, I wasn’t even 100 percent clear whether he was mortal or immortal, and that had me frowning. I couldn’t remember the last time I hadn’t immediately cataloged someone’s status as arcane or mundane based on the way they moved and the unique magical scent coloring the air around them. Mac, however, seemed an enigma in more ways than one.

My inability to pinpoint just
what
he was had me scowling. “What do
you
want?”

He blinked, making me envy his long, red-gold lashes again. “Going somewhere?” At my silence, he added, “Alone?”

“Did Scott send you to babysit or something? If he did,. you can just get the hell back inside. I’m a big girl now.’,

Amusement had his lips twitching, but he managed not to smile. “Scott didn’t send me. Elle did.”

This time I was the one to blink. “Ellie sent you?”

He laughed at the bafflement in my voice. “Yes. As Scott’s second, she takes the duty we owe to you quite seriously. It wouldn’t look at all good for us if you were kidnapped or killed on our own front porch.”

Gods. Showed how pissed-off and confused I’d been, to go charging away from sanctuary without thinking about the consequences. Plenty of arcanes (and mortals, for that matter) knew of my past ties to Scott and his family— making this a logical place to look for me when I failed to turn up elsewhere. What good did it do me to hire backup if I was just going to take off on my own at the first hint of emotional turmoil?

“I need a walk. Too much Rage,” I grudgingly admitted.

Recognition lit his eyes and he nodded, motioning me to precede him. My respect for him rose a couple notches. He obviously knew more about Furies than the average Joe Schmoe, because he didn’t ask any questions.

All remained silent on the city streets around us, except the sound of an occasional car passing by. Most of the buildings on the other side of the street (since the Murphy compound took up the entire block on the near side) housed a mixture of residential buildings and storefronts that, like Hounds of Anubis, had already closed up shop for the night. Other areas of the Belly would be nowhere near so quiet.

Mac allowed me to set the pace, for both the walking and the talking. Silence went only so far toward soothing the Rage inside a Fury. At some point, she had to actually talk herself the rest of the way down from that intense ledge, or engage in physical activity much more strenuous than a walk around the block.

“So, how’d you hook up with Ellie, anyway?”

He showed no surprise when the question popped out of my mouth a good five minutes after we started walking. “We met when her family hired me to handle all the electronic security for her ah, formerly pending nuptials.”