City of Souls

of the what of the previous night’s events. I closed my eyes with a low groan. When I opened them again, Warren was wearing an ill-concealed smile.

“You might want to put on something a little more appropriate,” he said, taking in Hunter’s crumpled sweats. I couldn’t really see the point as I could still hear Felix, now grilling Hunter in a playful tone. Even Warren rolled his eyes as he turned away. “Besides, it’s time to train.”

I wavered on my feet, and had to brace myself against the wall. I couldn’t train with these people! They’d kill me just deflecting one of my blows! But Warren left the room before I could think of an excuse, and almost immediately, Hunter stood in the doorway, looking more hesitant than I was used to.

I straightened, rubbing a hand over my face as I shot him a distant smile.

“What did he say?” He asked.

“He wants me to go back to Midheaven. He says Harlan Tripp can tell me how to find Jaden Jacks.”

Hunter stiffened as he eased toward me.

“I told him no.”

Surprise froze on his face. “And he was okay with that?”

I tried for bravado, hoping the effort would actually lend me some. “What’s he going to do, force me to give up pieces of my soul?”

“Good for you, Joanna.” But as he reached for me, I could tell what he meant was, Good for us. I’d told Hunter I wouldn’t leave again, and though I’d meant emotionally, I decided now that it would hold true for this world too. And I definitely wasn’t going to tell Warren about Ashlyn now. Even if the Tulpa did know of her. Don’t ask me why, but it somehow seemed the lesser danger. How messed up was that?

“Hunt, about these maps…” I pulled back, wanting to ask what he was doing or planning, and what he so clearly didn’t want Warren to know. What they were arguing about. Why?

“It’s not clear?” he finally asked in the wake of all these unasked questions. I shook my head. “I was trying to find my way to you, Joanna. Once it was clear where you’d gone, I decided to come get you. I wanted you back. Safe and sound.”

His hands fell again over my back, reminding me of the bruises there. Sound. I closed my eyes and leaned my head against his chest. I wasn’t that…but as he pulled me close, dropping a kiss to my temple, smoothing back my hair with his smooth fingertips, I almost felt safe.

Then he spoke again. “C’mon. Let’s train.”

And he pulled me to the door, not knowing that what awaited me on the other side was the exact opposite of safe and sound.

“We have to drop back ten and punt, my friends,” Warren was saying as Hunter and I joined the rest of the troop in the shooting range. I scanned the cavernous room, quickly noting who was there and who wasn’t. Vanessa was absent, of course, probably given over to Chandra’s care since Micah was here, and a quick scan told me that Kimber had been omitted again. Dammit. My first thought had been to stick close to her, the weakest in our troop, during this training session. Though perhaps her absence was for the best. Her dislike of me had shifted into unconcealed hatred, and she would have probably used the opportunity to settle scores.

Not, I thought, something I could currently afford.

I turned back to Warren as I leaned against the plastic screen Felix, Jewell, and Riddick were clustered in front of, and fought to keep my thudding heart in check. It was beating too fast, and, though they didn’t seem to notice, I glanced back to find Hunter-arms crossed, one brow lifted-staring right at me. I jerked my head and turned away. Tekla was to the right of him and, though she had her eyes closed, she was always aware of her surroundings. Shit, we could probably communicate by mental telepathy, and she’d still know it.

Of course, our appearance together-and mine in particular-was also noted. Micah and Gregor managed to nod and merely look away, though Felix wiggled his brows, and Jewell blushed for me. Riddick looked more like he wanted to question me about Midheaven-they all probably did-but Warren had obviously already filled them in or told them to drop it until later. Probably both.

I crossed my arms self-consciously, and pulled Hunter’s sweatshirt tighter about me. Warren ignored the curious undercurrent and knowing glances that met our joint arrival, returning the group’s focus to the point at hand.

“Safe zones,” he said, positioning himself in the cavernous room’s center, “have now become the least safe places for us in this city. Therefore, we need to rethink our place in this valley-indeed, in our entire world.”

“You mean now that there’s no place for us to hide outside of the sanctuary.”

I automatically cringed. Gregor hadn’t meant it as criticism, but I still felt it as such.

Warren, though, uncharacteristically shrugged it off. “It doesn’t matter.”

I tilted my head, unsure that I’d heard him right. “What?”

Warren fisted one hand on his hip, the other raking through his short, choppy hair. “Obviously I’d prefer if the Shadows were the ones hamstrung by a lack of safe zones, but we feel it as a loss only because we’ve known the alternative. This is what I mean by reconceptualizing our world. We must now reimagine our territory.”

“I’m sorry. Are you telling us to…think cheery thoughts?” Felix clearly hadn’t forgiven him for keeping them in the dark about Midheaven’s existence. “What? And it will all go away?”

“I’m saying check the attitude, son. Change your mind, and you can-”

“Change the world. Yeah, yeah. Got that memo.” Felix crossed his arms. “And we still have no safe zones.” He shot me an apologetic look when I ducked my head again, because his anger wasn’t for me. But Warren was too obtuse and stubborn and focused to note it, or care. “So what’s your suggestion, hide out in our sanctuary?”

“I suggest,” Warren said coldly, “that we don’t hide at all.”

An appropriately dead silence met that proclamation.

Warren’s mouth lifted at one side. “Inside the safe zones, we are vulnerable to our enemies’ weapons-”

“While they remain impervious to our own,” Tekla added, opening her eyes. I realized she already knew what Warren was going to say. However, the rest of us were still in the dark.

“But outside of those zones…”

Warren trailed off, waiting. And, slowly, one by one, understanding crept over each face. Outside of those zones, our weapons still worked. We could still fight. Hunter was the first to voice the new thought. “We just don’t enter the safe zones. We meet them, only and always, in our city.”

“That’s where we take our stand,” Riddick added, punching a fist into his opposite palm. “On the streets.”

“That’s our even ground,” Jewell added, with a lift of her chin.

“But we don’t do it alone. We do it back to back. In teams.” Warren jerked his head at our surgeon…and scientist. “Micah.”

Micah had moved to a table containing what looked like a fire extinguisher, and we all watched as he pointed the hose and nozzle toward himself. “This is a fortifying preservative. Chandra and I have been working on it for some time now. It defends against attack.”

He demonstrated by spraying his thigh with a mist that fell like a spider’s web over his frame before disappearing. Then he whipped his conduit, a pristine scalpel that caught light as if drawing it in…and plunged it into his leg.

Jewell screamed.

The scalpel bounced off of him…and the webbing rippled with the after-effects, then fell away, dissolving on the floor.

“And now I can be injured again.”

“So it’s a shield?” Gregor asked, touching the nozzle. A shimmering strand adhered to its tip like a piece of chewing gum as he pulled his finger away.

“More like a fire retardant over clothing. You’re safeguarded for exactly one strike.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “I mean, I can see its use if we’re ambushed, but why do we need a protective layer in training?”

“For the same reason Tekla just walled in the entire warehouse,” Warren cut in, joining Micah, and crossing his arms. “We’re in an all-out war, but right now the stakes are higher for us than for them. Right now we’re off- balance.”

“And in order to regain our footing,” Micah said, motioning with his reclaimed scalpel, “we need to train harder than they do.”

I was happy to don all the protective layering I could-I’d wear a hazmat suit everywhere but the shower if it