Blood Before Sunrise

her head cocked from one side to the other. She inhaled the air around her and trembled. Tears pooled in her eyes but didn’t spill over her lids. Her bottom lip quivered, jutting out like a frightened child. I stood by and watched, waiting anxiously for Fallon to pay me for services rendered and lift the spells confining Delilah to silence.

Fallon turned to look at me, the same hungry gleam in his eyes. He lifted his hand to Delilah’s forehead, the moment mounting to the suspenseful climax Fallon wanted it to be. And just when I thought my goals were within my reach, the shrieking blare of alarms told me I was wrong to have ever trusted Fallon to hold up his part of our bargain. “What the hell is this?” I drew my dagger and leveled it, hovering just over his heart.

Fallon swept the blade away as if shooing a fly. “Don’t be an idiot,” he said through clenched teeth. “We’ve got to get out of here. Now. Or we’re both as good as dead.”

“I’m not leaving without Delilah,” I said, wrapping my free hand around her scrawny arm.

“You expect me to get all three of us out of here unscathed?” Fallon’s eyes bulged.

“You damned well bet I do.” I ushered him toward the door with the point of my dagger. “You’re as guilty as I am, buddy. And Delilah comes with me.”

Great, Darian. You’ve gone from trained assassin and royal guard to petty thief and kidnapper. Way to raise your standards. But my mission to find Brakae had become an obsession. No fucking way was I walking away now. I towed Delilah out behind me while I prodded Fallon in front of me. “Don’t forget,” I said, harsh, angry, the voice of a blossoming criminal, “I have the hourglass. If you want it, you’d better get us out of here.”

The alarms continued to howl, following us down the corridor toward the elevators. Delilah wasn’t easy cargo to haul. Basically a zombie, she moved only because I pulled her into motion. She didn’t speak or make a sound. She just shuffled her feet along, her stringy hair swinging around her empty, emotionless face.

“Can’t you get her moving faster?” Fallon asked.

“Not unless you want to employ your fancy brain-restoration techniques right fucking now!” I snapped. “Otherwise, shut up and keep moving.”

Fallon shook his head and froze ten feet from the elevators. Three sets of doors slid open simultaneously to admit a fully uniformed security detachment-and at their head stood Moira.

The urge to kill her was a tangible thing, burning in my chest and threatening to override the tiny sense of reason I’d been clinging to. She’d hurt Tyler, messed with his mind and his emotions. And that bitch was going to pay.

“Fall back,” he said, no longer needing my dagger to encourage him. “There’s a set of stairs at the end of the hallway just past Delilah’s cell.

I took a step forward instead of retreating, and Fallon grabbed onto my arm, pulling me back. “Now isn’t the time. Unless you want to forfeit your life along with the Oracle’s secrets, we’ve got to get out of here. Now.”

I stared at Moira good and hard, hoping that she, like her brother, could hear my thoughts. This isn’t over. “Let’s go.” I shoved Delilah at Fallon, and he scooped her up in his arms, retreating the way we’d come. I drew my katana from behind my back-quite a feat considering the backpack-and pointed it toward my biggest threat, the Sidhe with an attitude. I backed away slowly, giving Fallon the lead. Delilah had become my number one priority. If she died, the secret of Raif’s daughter would die with her. And after everything I’d done, I doubted any of the fifteen Fae standing before me would lend a concerned ear.

“My brother isn’t here to save your pathetic hide.” Moira brandished her scary barbed swords with glee. “I don’t care who or what you are. You’re dead.”

“Only if you catch me.” No one escaped a dangerous situation by playing meek.

“If Reaver could see who you’ve decided to consort with,” she snorted, “I’m sure he wouldn’t champion you. He’d help me rip you limb from limb.”

I did not want to stick around and chat with this psycho bitch. The bloodlust in her white-blue eyes had me yearning for my own revenge. She had the upper hand, however, and if she caught me, she wouldn’t just stab; she’d skin me alive and make sure the feat would take days to accomplish. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I swore under my breath. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about right now. I slowly put distance between Moira and me. She sheathed her swords and drew a bow from behind her back. I paused-curious-and watched as she produced a strange arrow from a quiver hanging at her side. My lips curled into a snarl, and I fought the urge to charge full speed and run her through with my katana. I recognized those arrows well. They could incinerate anything they managed to strike-including me.

“Get Delilah out of here-now!” I yelled over my shoulder. I turned to run, feeling as though I traveled in slow motion, melting into nothing as I heard the first arrow fly. Moira cried in battle, a shrill and chilling sound that drowned out the sound of the alarms. She barked an order in a strange language, and I didn’t look back as I fled down the corridor, fearful of what I might see if I dared to look. I heard the whooshing of air as the arrow sailed past me, burying itself in the floor. The concrete began to sizzle and melt away, leaving a two-foot hole and no sign of the arrow that had caused the damage.

My bones hummed in my body, my skin crawled with the sensation of powerful magic, and I felt my body leave the safety of obscurity as Moira put the kibosh on my hopes of a stealthy escape. Whatever magic she’d aimed at me earlier at her brother’s house held me now, chained to my solid form and making me an easy target to take down.

Fallon rounded a corner just past Delilah’s cell and paused before disappearing from sight. “Hurry up, damn it!” he called.

“Darian!” a familiar voice called out from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Adare shoulder to shoulder with Moira. Great. Just great. The whole of Xander’s kingdom would know about this clusterfuck by sunrise. “It isn’t too late to turn yourself in! Think about what you’re doing. Stop!”

I rounded the corner just as one arrow buried itself in the wall, another barely clipping my boot. Moira’s enraged scream put a smile on my face as I took the stairs, two at a time. With no idea where I was going, I ran up the stairs, taking two flights before a hand grabbed me hard around the arm, hauling me through a doorway.

“Be still!” Fallon seethed, giving me a shake. “I’ll get you out of here with your head still attached, but you’ve got to be quiet.”

“How are you going to do that?” I asked. “This place is swarming with PNT security, including that Sidhe bitch. Oh, and did I mention she’s got some wicked fucking arrows to sling?”

“Moira,” Fallon replied with disgust. “Her power is nothing. Shut your mouth and don’t move.”

Fallon set Delilah down, and she stood like a mannequin as he went to work. Muttering words I couldn’t decipher, he passed his hands over me from toe to head, ending by combing his fingers through my hair. He repeated the procedure with Delilah who didn’t bat a lash, and then in the same sweeping gesture, passed his hands over his own body. “There. We’ll walk out right under the bastards’ noses.”

“Are you off your nut?” I asked before I really looked at my companions and my jaw dropped. “Holy hell, how did you do that?”

Delilah and Fallon were no longer recognizable as themselves. And as I passed my hand over my face and through my now-short hair, I realized neither was I. If Fallon scoffed at Moira’s power and managed to do this to me, he was jacked up with more magic than any preternatural creature I’d ever met-except, maybe, for Ty.

“A glamour,” he said. “But it won’t last long, so I suggest we get the hell out of here.”

I marveled at my hands, no longer small and thin, but rough and corded. A man’s hands. I didn’t even want to think about what other attributes Fallon had given me. Wouldn’t Anya be jealous? I probably had the balls she wished she had! “Where to from here?” I asked. “I don’t want to look like this for any longer than I have to.”

Fallon answered with a chuckle. “The Oracle will be our only problem, as she’s a bit on the lethargic side. This corridor leads to the elevators. We should be able to hit the main floor and walk right through the gate.”

Yeah, well, the best-laid plans and all of that…If it ended up being that easy, I’d shit my pants. Frantic voices echoed throughout the complex and finally, thank God, they shut off the alarms. We walked to the elevator without incident, although I have to admit anyone with half a brain would have noticed we looked a little suspicious with the third member of our party dragging “his” feet as he followed us along.

We rode the elevator to the main floor in tense silence. I was scared shitless to step even a toe out of line. But as the doors glided open and we stepped into the lobby, I let out a deep breath. The search had migrated to other areas of the compound, and we were nearly home free. I pushed Delilah in front of me, urging her out the front entry just behind Fallon. One hundred and fifty yards stood between us and safety. One way in, one way out. Right through the front gate.