Dawnkeepers

said. His head came up and he focused on Strike. “You said ‘retrieve’ the artifact. We’re not buying it?”

“The thing’s in a museum.”

Rabbit grinned. “So what you really mean is that we’re going to steal it.”

Strike shifted, shooting a vaguely uncomfortable look at his ex-cop queen. “Yeah. That’s pretty much the plan.”

Rabbit nodded. “Cool. I’m in.” As if there had been any question of it, really. He might be on the outskirts of the real action, and only a half-blood, but he was still a Nightkeeper. He did what his king said. That didn’t mean he couldn’t add on a few things, though. Like keeping in touch with Carter, and making sure he was the first one to get to Myrinne.

As far as he was concerned, that was as nonnegotiable as a fricking royal decree.

“Hello?” Lucius banged on the storeroom door again, hard enough to sting his hands, though the blows made little impact on the heavy paneled door. “Anyone? Hello? I need to talk to Anna. It’s important!”

He didn’t know what time it was, though he’d slept until he wasn’t exhausted anymore, which suggested it was well into the day after his arrival. Maybe already too late.

He rattled the door against its padlock. “Anna!”

A sick feeling locked his gut. He remembered how he’d gotten there, remembered the shock of traveling in search of Sasha Ledbetter and finding Anna and the Nightkeepers instead, but his memories of the prior night were hazy and unreal, like they’d happened to somebody else. An angry, resentful version of himself. In the light of day—okay, in the light of a single fluorescent tube, but after a good night’s sleep—he felt more like himself. And in getting his brain back online, he’d realized he’d left out a crucial detail when he’d been talking to Anna.

Drawing a breath, he thumped on the door again. “Hello! Can anyone hear me?”

The lock rattled on the other side, and an irritated male voice said, “Hold on to your ass. I’m coming.”

The man Lucius had been the night before would’ve looked for a weapon and taken a swing at whoever was on the other side of that door. The guy who’d woken up feeling more at home inside his own skin than he had in a long time backed away and dropped down to sit on the edge of the cot, trying to look as unthreatening as possible.

Which was a good thing, he realized the second the door swung inward, because the guy who stood in the opening was below average in height and weight, in his late fifties, with peppered hair and a quick, economical way of moving . . . and he held a machine pistol with easy familiarity.

Lucius raised both hands in an I’m unarmed; please don’t mess me up gesture, and said, “I come in peace.” Hope you do too.

He was no gun expert, but the thing pointed at him looked like something out of a war movie, or maybe a cops-and-gangs flick, automatic and nasty-looking. The guy, on the other hand, didn’t look nasty. He looked wary and drawn, as if he had a ton on his plate. Then again, that’d make sense. If Lucius had truly found the Nightkeepers, they had to be gearing up for the end of the world, the battle they’d spent generations preparing for. And if that wasn’t a mind-fuck, he didn’t know what was.

“You said you had a message for Anna?” the guy said.

“Yeah. I, uh . . . I’d rather give it to her personally.” He had a feeling it wasn’t going to go down big regardless, but didn’t feel so comfortable telling it to Mr. Armed-and-dangerous.

“I’m Jox, her winikin. I’ll give her the message.”

Which might’ve been useful info if Lucius had any idea what the hell a winikin was. Whatever the guy’s job description, though, he didn’t seem inclined to go get Anna. Knowing that Anna and her brother—the king, and how screwed up was that?—needed to know what he’d done, and figuring their response was going to suck regardless of how the deets were delivered, Lucius said, “Fine. Tell her that Desiree bet me my degree that I couldn’t find proof the Nightkeepers existed, and gave me the money to do it. I called her last night from the road and told her where I was headed.”

Jox looked disturbed but not panicked, suggesting that the location of the compound wasn’t entirely sacrosanct to the outside world. He said, “Who is Desiree to Anna?”

“Her boss at UT. Beyond that, you’ll have to ask her yourself.” He was so not going there.

Jox considered that for a long moment, then nodded. “I’ll give her the message.”

When he started to pull the door shut, Lucius said, “Wait!”

Jox paused. “Yeah?”

“Tell her I’m sorry.”

“Knowing Anna, that’d work better coming directly from you,” the guy said, not unkindly. Then he shut and locked the door.

He was right, too, Lucius knew. Thing was, at this point he wasn’t sure he believed Anna would accept his apology . . . or the help he planned on offering.

Alexis was just getting out of the shower when there was a knock on the door of her suite. As she toweled off and threw on last night’s nighshirt and a pair of yoga pants, she was strongly tempted to ignore it, needing a few more minutes to herself.

It wasn’t like she’d had much in the way of downtime to recharge after the eclipse ceremony.

Between her fight with Nate and the dream-vision, she hadn’t gotten to bed until close to three a.m., and she’d slept poorly, her dreams chasing her with sensory images of Nate and Michael, and heartache. They’d been real dreams, not visions—she was sure of that much—but they’d put her seriously low on REM sleep.

She’d planned on chilling in her sitting room for another hour at least. The knock came again, though, suggesting that whoever it was knew she was in there, and wasn’t planning on being ignored.

Sighing, Alexis crossed the sitting area and opened the door to find her winikin on the other side.

Izzy’s expression lightened, though it stayed worried around the edges. “Why didn’t you wake me last night? I can’t believe I didn’t hear the commotion.” The winikin ’s voice became reproachful.

“You should’ve had someone come get me. I would’ve stayed with you.”

“I know.” Which was why Alexis hadn’t woken her. Trying to avoid having to say that, she took the winikin’s hands in hers and gave them a squeeze. “I’m fine, honest.”

Izzy looked at her long and hard before nodding. “If you say so.” She stepped into the suite and pushed Alexis toward her bedroom. “Get dressed. Jade wants you in the archive as soon as you’ve had some coffee.”

That had Alexis stopping and turning, her heart kicking on a burst of excitement mingled with dread. “She found the temple? We’re going?”

Izzy nodded. “You leave for Belize in an hour.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“It’s called the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave system; ATM for short,” Jade said, indicating her laptop screen, which showed a series of photographs that were eerily familiar to Alexis.

The two women were in the archive, having a one-on-one about the likely temple site. The three-

room library was quiet, the temperature perfect, the air crisp from the high-tech filter system Jade had requisitioned a few months earlier. The whole effect should’ve been restful, but Alexis couldn’t settle.

She was keyed up by the prospect of seeing the temple for real, and nervous about going with Michael, knowing she would have to proposition him if she wanted access to the goddess’s power.

What was more, she wanted to talk to Jade, and make sure things were really over between her and Michael. She couldn’t bring herself to start the convo, though. Not because of Jade, but because thanks to some of what Nate had said the night before, Alexis couldn’t help feeling as though she were pimping herself out for the magic. She kept telling herself it wasn’t really like that, at least not by Nightkeeper standards. But at the same time, she had to admit that by modern standards it was borderline.

Forcing herself to focus, Alexis peered at the Web site Jade had found. Seeing that the nav bar had buttons