Then the drow halfling brushed past the other FRoE agents. Rhynehart stared at her as she stormed through the foyer. She had to swerve to avoid the bodies scattered all over the place, and she felt his gaze on her even when she stepped outside into the early evening. We only made it out of this because of Corian. Maybe he was right.
Cheyenne jammed her hand into the outside pocket of her jacket and took out the Heart of Midnight pendant. The gem glittered at her in the orange and pink light of sunset, and she begrudgingly put it back on, tying a little knot in the thing’s silver chain because she’d broken the clasp.
Her drow magic and the heat of her rage disappeared, squashed back down inside her by the protective spell of Corian’s stupid necklace. Her bone-white hair darkened into her regular High Voltage Raven Black, the purple-gray of her drow skin lightening to her human paleness. The pointed tips of her ears disappeared beneath her hair again. Clenching her fists, she took off toward the line of FRoE vehicles parked at the curb just beyond the mansion. I just need a minute to cool off. Then I’ll come back to help those kids get to their parents.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
When the last wide-eyed and shell-shocked magical kid was loaded into the last black FRoE van called in for transport, Cheyenne nodded at the agent who shut the door. That agent got behind the wheel, her partner in the passenger seat beside her, and the van took off after all the other vehicles.
Rhynehart tossed his helmet, vest, and dampening gloves into the back of his Jeep and whistled. “Let’s go.”
It took a lot of willpower to pull her gaze away from that last retreating van, but she finally managed it and turned to head for the passenger-side door of the Jeep. Once she closed the door behind her, Rhynehart started the engine with a jerking twist and slowly left the neighborhood.
“Let me guess,” Cheyenne muttered. “The cleaning crew comes later.”
“Different department.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Let’s focus on ours, huh? Now that the most important job’s out of the way and the kids are heading back to base, this is the part where you tell me who the hell our lightning-bolt hero was.”
The halfling turned to frown at the agent, who was so focused on playing hardball with her that he squinted against the sunset, his sunglasses forgotten.
“I can’t tell you anything about that, Rhynehart.” Not if he doesn’t already know we had our asses saved by a Nightstalker. Especially Corian.
“You’re getting really good at mimicry, you know that?” Rhynehart shot her a quick glance, blinked furiously against the sun, and jerked down the visor. It didn’t do anything to block the glare. When he grunted in irritation, Cheyenne leaned forward and grabbed his sunglasses from the cubby beneath the dashboard.
“Here.”
“Yeah.” He snatched them from her, put them on with one hand, and shook his head. “Don’t expect me to believe for one second that you don’t know shit about what happened in there. One minute you’re up there trying to knock down that door. The next minute, there’s a goddamn silver tornado taking down every single one of our targets, and who’s suddenly standing right there in front of me at the bottom of the stairs again?”
The halfling stared out the windshield, pressing her lips together.
“Not a rhetorical question, Cheyenne. I’m talking about you and the look on your face when our anonymous friend booked it back out that door. If you don’t know who it was, you know something. Spill it.”
“There’s nothing to spill, man. Sorry.” She couldn’t look at him. I can’t trust him either, and I’m not about to throw Corian under the bus, even if he called me a moron.
“You’re not sorry at all.” Rhynehart cleared his throat and turned onto the freeway to head toward Richmond.
* * *
Half an hour later, they pulled up in front of the red diner where Cheyenne had negotiated herself into another meeting with L’zar just hours ago.
Cheyenne glanced around the mostly empty parking lot and licked her lips in frustration. “I’m still not hungry. Just take me back to the compound with you so we can finish this thing with those kids.”
“Nice try, halfling.” Rhynehart shifted into park and whipped his sunglasses off before fixing her with an angry scowl. “Wherever you’re going tonight, it’s not back to base. You have priorities to work out.”
“Thanks for the pep talk.” She snorted. “Right now, my top priority is helping those kids get back to their families.”
“Cross it off the list. And don’t even try to sneak back to the compound after you get out of my car. Yeah, I heard all about your fun little night out with my agents last night. There’s no point in blindfolding you anymore on the drive over, but if I have to, I’ll put out an order to keep you off the base for as long as it takes.”
Cheyenne blinked furiously. “You can’t just tell me to screw off—”
“That’s exactly what I’m doin’, kid. Get out.”
“Hey, I’m the one who found those kids in the first place, asshole!” It threw her off more than she’d expected when the usual heat of her drow magic didn’t show up at all with her anger. “They’d still be locked up in that psychotic ritual den if I hadn’t found the connection to Ranzig Ca’admar.”
“Yeah, you get full credit for that one. Go get yourself a cookie.” Rhynehart nodded toward the driver’s side door, his eyes narrowing. “My guys are the ones who get to deal with those kids now. You’re off the hook. Unless you wanna spill this second what you’re trying not to tell me.”
I can’t believe this. “There’s nothing to tell.”
“Then get the hell out of my Jeep and call me when you’re ready to talk about what happened back there. We’re done.”
Biting down
