o f31e4a444fa175b2 (27 page)

“Erinye Unlimited.”

“Exactly.” Her fists clenched at her side, and she looked like she wanted to finish destroying the already-damaged mirror barely hanging on the wall. “I tracked you down immediately because I wanted to warn you to keep all communication strictly between you and me until we find out who has betrayed us. Trust no one in the Sisterhood— not even the members of the Conclave.”

“You mean
especially
not the members of the Conclave. Only one of them could have transferred those funds.”

Her expression grew even grimmer. “Indeed. And only fifteen sisters currently have signatory powers on the Sisterhood’s bank accounts.”

I tilted my head. “Are countersignatures generally required on these accounts?”

She nodded, and her eyes narrowed suddenly. “Except in certain narrow situations. There is one sister who can authorize fund transfers without a countersignature.”

Excitement tingled my skin and I knew exactly what she was going to say next.

“The currently acting Moerae, Ekaterina.”

“Which makes her our most likely suspect.” Something that had my body relaxing and my lips curving ever so slightly. Gods knew I had never wanted to believe that the Sisterhood had a traitor stalking its number. . .
But I never liked that fox-faced bitch. And apparently, for good reason.

This time her hands twitched with the effort to hold them back. She shook them, and then the fingers of her right hand began tapping against her left thigh in that unconscious habit of hers. Finally, she nodded and pressed what felt like a business card into my hand.

I stared at the unfamiliar ten-digit number it bore. “What’s this?”

“A disposable cell phone I just purchased. Use only that to contact me until I tell you otherwise. And stay away from all other Furies, Marissa. Especially the Moerae. I can’t afford to lose you.”

The uncharacteristic passion coloring her voice touched me. I reached out to pat her arm, and she actually drew me into one of her rare embraces. “Be careful, Marissa. You mean more to me than the Sisterhood and the mortal realm combined.”

I pushed back, tucked the card into my pocket, and dredged up a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Stacia. You taught me well.”

Her lips curved in an answering smile. “Go make me proud, Tisiphone.”

So I turned away to do just that.

BEFORE WE COULD TACKLE THE LARGER TASK
of figuring out which Fury had betrayed the Sisterhood, we needed to find out who—or what—at Hounds of Anubis was leaking like a sieve. Add the fact that a Harpy had attacked me inside the Murphy stronghold to all the overly convenient ambushes at locations where only limited people knew our whereabouts, and it seemed pretty clear the Murphys had a mole. I filled Scott and Trinity in on my plan to accomplish that goal on our way back to the Belly. Scott hated the idea of using me as bait to draw out the traitor—big surprise—but Trinity and I managed to tag-team him into agreement. It wasn’t like we had a whole lot of choice. One of those damned-if-we-did, damned-if-we-didn’t situations.

Still, he reached out and squeezed my hand just before we stepped into the back room of Hounds of Anubis, communicating his concern for my safety without using any words. I squeezed back, then dropped his hand and stepped across the threshold. The wards whispered against my skin, settling down when they recognized me as a Fury. The scents of cigars, whiskey, and sweat warred in the air. Though none of them were my particular favorite things to smell, somehow they made me feel comforted. At home.

Trinity and Scott followed me closely. The current oncall gang of mercs looked up at our entrance. A couple of Scott’s cousins, several aunts and uncles from his father’s side, and as according to our plan, his mother.

She kicked into immediate action. “Scott! Your brother and sister just called. They need us there now.”

Scott frowned, glancing from them to me. “Did they say what’s wrong?”

Liana shook her head. “They weren’t sure the phone line was clear on their end.”

Time to play my part. I clenched my fists to each side. “We’ve got to get over there. Now.”

Scott rounded on me with a scowl.
“We’ve
got to do no such thing. You’ll go on up to my apartment, same as we planned before.
I’ll
head over to the safe house with Mom.”

I narrowed my eyes, advancing on him with threat etched on my every feature. “That’s
my
family they’re guarding!”

“Which is why you’re going to stay put, princess. They’d be in more danger with you there.”

That’s ridiculo—”

He tapped me in the shoulder. Hard. “Just shut up, Riss. Why the fuck are you arguing, anyway? After what happened last night, you
know
that’s true.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, shifting my scowl from his face to the floor. “You’re playing dirty, Scott.”

“Whatever it takes to see you safe, Riss. And your family. That’s what you’re paying me for, after all.”

Rage tickled the back of my throat. I forgot we were acting for a moment. Rage nearly won out over reality, but then I shoved the berserker anger aside and backed down just in time to avoid bloodshed.

Barely.

“Fine, then. But you should take more than just your mother with you.”

This time his eyes were the ones to narrow. “Are you telling me how to run my own business, Fury?”

“No, I’m telling you not to underestimate our enemy. Again.”

He gritted his teeth, the sound grating on my nerves in the extreme. Finally, he nodded. “All right.” He turned toward his father’s oldest brother, Ian Murphy. “Can you escort Riss and Trinity upstairs, Uncle?

And assign guards to both the hallway and fire escape.”

Ian, a burly redhead with a short temper but an equally sharp sense of humor, nodded, eyes moving from nephew to me. He smiled grimly. “Don’t worry, nephew. You can count on me to keep the lassies in line. Especially the Fury.”

I muttered under my breath and stalked toward the heavy door separating store from residential hallway. “You better keep
them
safe, Murphy, or you’ll wish your uncle failed in the task you lay before him.”

The two men exchanged knowing looks before heading off in separate directions: Scott to slip outside with his mother, Ian herding Trinity and two of his sons after me. Of course, Scott and Liana had no intention of going far. The plan was for them to drive far enough away to fool any watchers and then circle back to slip in the rear of the building. They should be back in plenty of time to be there if—no,
when—our
traitor realized that I was all by my lonesome with only a mortal for company. Once he or she figured out how to get around the arcane guards waiting in the wings.

Ian checked Scott’s apartment himself, leaving his sons behind in the hallway. He stuck his head out the door several minutes later to give the all-clear.

“Now, then, don’t you lassies go causing trouble for us. Stay put until Scott gets back. He’ll sort things out quick as can be.”

I stalked across to the couch and threw myself down. “I know that, Ian. You’re acting like I don’t trust him or something.”

He snorted. “Where was all your high-and-mighty trust in my nephew two years ago?”

The coward didn’t wait for my response, however, just slammed the door behind him and turned the key in I door. Voices muttered on the other side, but I couldn’t quite make them out clearly. Still, I knew the gist of the conversation. Ian, instructing both sons to stand guard in the hallway until someone was sent to relieve them.

Trinity grew bored within ten seconds flat and flipped the TV on to some forensics show. I managed to make it five minutes before the thousand tons of stress pushing down on me, added to the inane goings-on splashed across the TV screen, did me in.

“How can you watch this shit? Don’t you get enough blood and guts during the day?” Trin’s mouth opened wide, and then she tried to speak. I cut her off. “I need to change my clothes.” I stalked into Scott’s room and slammed the door behind me. Guilt nudged until I shoved it aside as ruthlessly as the door. Maybe it wasn’t Trinity’s fault that I didn’t have any control over what was going on, but she’d do as a target in the meantime. Truth was, I just needed a moment to myself. I didn’t even have any clean clothes here—we’d vacated the no-longer-safe house without grabbing those Kiara had packed for me. I settled on the edge of the bed and wondered how the hell life had spun so far out of my control in just a few short days. The dual uncertainties of whether I’d be able to save Vanessa or where things stood with me and Scott had stretched my already-fraying patience to just about the breaking point. I wasn’t sure how much more I could—

The front door opened and closed, and voices murmured in the living room. My body tensed, but I forced it to relax when I registered no sounds of forced entry. Curiosity flared when the voices continued in the other room. I wondered if Inn’s sons had decided to keep watch from the inside. I thrust my shoes back on and went to investigate.

Or at least, I tried to. Magic pulsed the moment I stepped through the door. Trinity took me to the ground before my mind registered the fact that she was attacking. She lashed out, snaking my arms behind my back and securing them with something plastic that bit into my skin. The shock of her betrayal warred with the incongruity that she had managed to subdue me so easily. She was a mortal...

“What the fuck, Trin?”

She ignored me, eyes glazed and lips pressed into a tight, emotionless line. That look seemed so familiar. I tried to place it..

“Don’t get mad at Trin, darlin’. She’s not acting of her own free will, I’m afraid.”

Somehow, the sound of that faint Scottish brogue hurt almost as much as thinking Trinity had betrayed me. Elliana I could have expected this from, but not him. I’d truly
liked
him, dammit.

“Mac,” I said, as much to acknowledge him as to drive it home to my breaking heart that he was the traitor in our midst—that he had been all along. Even worse, I’d finally figured out what he was. Only one group of arcanes could bewitch others so effortlessly. “You’re Sidhe.”

He stared down at me, expression inscrutable. “Partly,” he admitted after a long, tense moment.

That made sense. I’d written him off as a Sidhe earlier because he didn’t “match” the magical signature of any of the Sidheborn clones I’d run into thus far.

“But not part mortal,” I mused aloud. “Else you wouldn’t be able to compel Trinity to betray me so easily.”

“Also true.”

“What else are you, then?”

He shook his head. “Time for that later, darlin’.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What else are you?”

His lips tightened and he crouched down next to me. “Be silent, Marissa. Else I’ll—”

I took advantage of the fact that he didn’t immediately wish me harm to bind him with a small but effective spell. “What else are you?”

Had he been a full-blooded Sidhe, or even just expecting it, he might have had a chance to resist the Rule of Three—an ancient spell that works only on those with the slightest drop of Sidhe blood. One of the few advantages non-Sidhe arcanes had when dealing with them—and one reason they typically made their sucktastic bargains with mundanes, who had no such protection. He struggled against the magic coursing from my body to his, lips clenched and every muscle trembling. But he lost.

Rather than answering verbally, however, he did something unexpected: shoved up the sleeves of his long-sleeved sweater and revealed something I never saw coming. Two rainbow-hued serpents wrapped around his arm from elbow to shoulder, shimmering with the blended shades of blue, green, and red.

“Y-you’re—” I couldn’t even stutter the last out.

So he did it for me, reaching a hand down to stroke my hair as he did so. “I’m a Fury.” Where his skin touched mine, magic flared again, this time of like calling to like. The shock of what he was worked to his favor, weakening my resistance to the point where he had no trouble overpowering me. As darkness swept from his hand to my mind, I realized just how screwed I was.

FIRE LICKED ALONG MY LEG, RADIATING FROM
my knee downward. I bit back a scream as consciousness returned, reaching down to adjust Kiara’s bandage, but my fingers felt nothing beneath the stiff denim of my jeans except bare skin. I gave in to the groan hovering on my lips. Where the hell was the bandage?

“They took it,” Trinity murmured from beside me. Her arm wrapped around my shoulder and she hoisted me to a sitting position. Bedsprings squeaked beneath us. I fought hack both pain and near-hysteria long enough to take in my surroundings. Soothing sage-green walls, multicolored bedspread, and matching curtains that swayed in the early morning breeze.

I frowned. “This doesn’t look like a lab.”

Trin hugged me. Whether to reassure me or keep me immobilized, I couldn’t tell. “That’s because it’s not.”

Either the pain faded or I was getting better at ignoring it, because I managed to focus enough attention on her to realize something crucial. Her eyes were clear and bright, completely free of any compulsion whatsoever.

“Good. Easier to escape then.”

“Riss, you may want to wait on that one.”

I wriggled away from her slightly, eyes roaming over her face, seeking any hints I might have missed seconds earlier. “You don’t look like you’re under his control anymore..

“That’s because I’m not.” She pulled me to her side again and patted my arm. “Riss, do you trust me?”

Befuddlement wrapped around my brain as I tried to figure out what the hell she was talking about.

Trinity had been a cop longer than me, and she’d obviously been awake longer. She wasn’t bound by the same disability I was, and the movement of the curtains suggested a possible route to freedom. Why weren’t we already halfway back to the Belly?

“Didn’t we already have this conversation?”

Door hinges creaked, cutting off whatever she’d been about to say. My head swung in the direction of the sound. I expected to see Mac, brainwashed Sidhe clones, or even mortal scientists come to experiment on the captive Fury.