doorway to the bedroom with the pit in the floor, her figure had settled somewhere between woman and beast. Her movements gave her all the grace of a drunk stumbling in after a late night, which Paige guessed was due to the ley lines or whatever sort of energy was flowing up from the exposed section of ground. Although she wasn’t sure about that yet, Paige was confident that she hadn’t been spotted. No Full Blood would have allowed a Skinner to see them in a state like that.
Minh dropped to her knees and reached out to the pit with both hands. Her fingers splayed apart, and when they couldn’t go any farther, her hand shifted into something that allowed them to become even more of a trembling tangle. The noise she made started as a wail but slowly rose to a howl. Paige found herself transfixed by Minh’s cry, almost to the point of walking into the other bedroom just to be closer to its source. Fortunately, Nadya was there to place a cautious hand on her shoulder to keep her in place. Still, from where she stood she got a good look at Minh’s powerful back as the Full Blood bowed down to sink her claws into the exposed dirt. Every coarse strand of fur stood on end, then Minh’s head snapped up. She was about to let out another howl but managed to choke it down.
“It’s a real kick, ain’t it?”
Spoken in a thick cockney accent, the question struck an immediate chord with Paige that made her want to jump up from where she was hiding and sink her weapon into the other Full Blood’s neck.
Liam had strode through the front door on two legs but still wearing the pelt of a wolf. By the time he entered the smaller bedroom, he’d shifted down into a human body covered with a thinning mat of fur. He was nothing but a skinny naked man when he crouched near the pit in the next room and allowed his hands to hang between his knees in what might have been a lazy effort to conceal himself.
Minh’s response was a series of grunts and growls that could have been made while she was in pain or in the middle of a vigorous copulation.
“Yeah,” Liam said. “I know just how you feel. It’s dangerous to be here, though. Too much for the senses to be this close to a source this pure.” He stretched out both hands while fur eased out from beneath his skin and layers of muscle piled up like thick waters coming in at high tide. He’d grown a long snout by the time he lifted his head to gaze up at the ceiling. When he opened his mouth, his human teeth slowly extended into blunted spikes. “Considering how strong it is here, I’m surprised we didn’t get two new pups to take Henry’s place. Wouldn’t that have been a riot?”
Paige made it to the edge of the doorway by the time Minh snapped her head to look over her shoulder. Since Liam had swelled up to his brawnier form, however, there might as well have been another wall between her and the other bedroom.
“Speaking of riots,” he continued, “there’s one going on right now. You should make the rounds and keep the wretches in line.”
“I can’t,” she growled. After the creaking of a few bones, she was able to speak a little clearer. “I can’t control them. They don’t listen to me like they listen to you.”
“You just have to show them who’s boss,” Liam replied.
“Or perhaps there’s another reason. Perhaps Esteban was right when he said you’ve been here drinking more than your share of the Torva’ox for longer than you admitted.”
“I made it no secret that I was here.”
“Did Randolph know?” Minh asked.
The sound he made started as a snarl but shifted into a hacking laugh. “It’s his territory. If he didn’t know something like that, he would have been picked off a long time ago.”
“That’s not the arrangement, Liam. We’ve lived in our own territories so the Torva’ox would be drawn to us equally.”
Now that she’d heard that strange word spoken by a physical voice instead of a recording or secondhand translation, Paige sifted once more through her mental files. She still couldn’t come up with anything.
“And that won’t work anymore, darlin’,” Liam continued. “More humans know about us and the leeches and every other thing that’s been hiding for so long. What they don’t know already, they’re learning about, thanks to insane fools like Misonyk or those fucking Nymar who’ve been making the headlines. And when the Nymar do try to tend to their business without making a spectacle, the Skinners have been stirring things up to the point where it’s gotten tougher for anyone to go about their business like we used to.”
From where she was standing, it was difficult for Paige to tell whether Minh’s response was a laugh or a growl.
“Making a spectacle?” she said in a voice almost fully human. “The Nymar are making a spectacle? This is coming from the one who tore apart a city in front of human police, news cameras, and countless other eyes staring at him?”
“That was more than just a spectacle.”
“I know,” Minh sighed. “You were sending a message.”
“And you got it, luv. You, Esteban, and even the old trickster that had been locked in Lancroft’s cage. Have you heard from Esteban?”
“He’s found another one of Lancroft’s storehouses. The other Jekhibar wasn’t there, but he says he’s found the original Shadow Spore.”
Liam grunted in what was plainly disgust. “You use the name given to it by the leeches?”
“They may have named it, but it was meant for us,” she said. “It’s just been lost until now. Lancroft tried to keep the source separate from the first carrier, but now they’ve both been found.”
“Are the legends true?” Liam asked. “Can he take the forbidden form?”
Paige strained her ears but could only hear the broken floor creaking beneath the two werewolves. Finally, Minh said, “Esteban needs a Jekhibar for that. Randolph chased him away and the humans swarmed in to attack them both before it could be found.”
Shrugging, Liam told her, “If you can trust him. There’s more to worry about than Esteban or his legends.”
Liam’s feet scraped against the floor as he settled into a new position at the edge of the pit. The ebon Full Blood arched his back and sunk his hands into the dirt exposed beneath the splintered floorboards. The way his head craned back and his entire body tensed, Paige imagined his toes were curling as well. When he let out the breath that had built up inside of him, she could almost feel it against her ear.
“Don’t be so troubled if you can’t take as much of it in,” Liam said. “It’s not something meant for all of us.”
“Don’t give me that,” Minh snapped. “You’ve been encroaching on Randolph’s territory for longer than you’ve been telling any of us, soaking up more than your share of the Torva’ox for all of that time.”
“You know Randolph. Maybe not as well as I do, but,” Liam added in a voice that must have been accompanied by a lecherous smile, “certainly in a different way. With that kind of insight, you must also know that none of us could have done much of anything in this territory without his consent. He may not be taking part in this war, but he knows better than to stand against it. It’s inevitable.”
“Nobody thinks Randolph was ignorant of anything happening here. That’s the problem. Why wouldn’t he want his share of the Torva’ox?”
Sliding his fingers from the dirt, Liam said, “He’s old and tired.”
“You still have to answer for how you got away from your assigned lands and managed to trade territories with Jaden.”
“Wasn’t easy.”
“Did you kill her?”
There was a long pause before Liam finally said, “There are other ways to solve our conflicts, luv.”
This time, Paige had to fight to keep from laughing. She knew better than to make a sound or even draw too large of a breath, which didn’t leave her many options as far as getting out of that room. Not far away, Nadya gripped the FAMAS and studied her surroundings carefully.
The voice that came next was smooth and silkier than any human’s. “If she’s not dead, then why isn’t Jaden here?” Minh asked.
“It don’t matter,” Liam replied in an accent that seemed to get more guttural as Minh’s became more refined. “There are enough of us here to draw more of the Torva’ox than any have ever felt. The Breaking Moon will see to that. Esteban probably tried to convince you to kill me before it rose.”
“Something like that,” she admitted.
