I moved a step closer to her, putting us almost nose to nose, and while she didn’t back away, she started to look unhappy.Not that she’d been the picture of joy before.“It’ll be a quick trip.”
“With us,” Lee said, coming over.
“Yes, if you like.”
“You’re damned right I like!You’re not leaving us behind!Arnou may think we’re useless, but we’re not fucking useless!”
“Why are you mad?”Chayton asked.“She said yes.”
“How do you know it’ll be quick?”That was Sophie, looking as belligerent as Lee, but she was listening.
“Yeah, his scent has been torn apart by the wind by now,” Jason put in.“I have a good nose, but I can’t track him across a city—”
“You won’t need to,” I assured him.
“And why not?”
“Because I know where he is.”
Chapter Seven
The refuge that Jace and his brother had found for themselves before Cyrus adopted them was a vacant hotel on East Fremont, likely dating back to when the Rat Pack was the biggest draw in town.Or maybe older, I thought, surveying the crumbling, one-story, mid-century modern exterior, where the only things holding the place upright were weeds and graffiti.There was no sign of anyone about, and considering that we’d had to climb over a chain-link fence posted with ‘keep out’ notices to get this far, it could be assumed to be deserted.
But what sight couldn’t do, scent could, and Jason immediately started sniffing.
“Yeah, he’s here,” he said.“Or he was.Trail’s fragmented, so it was a while ago.”
“He must have come straight from Dante’s,” Chayton looked guilty.
“Stop beating yourself up,” Sophie said.“You couldn’t have stopped him.”
“Maybe.Or maybe I could have tackled him and let the damned guards drag us both inside!”
It looked like the other boys had been getting under his skin, I thought, and started to say something, but Aki beat me to it.
“Doesn’t matter.We’re going to get him back.”
I contented myself with nodding in agreement.“Fan out,” I told them.“Clan groups all take an aux with you.”
“Why?”Lee demanded, bristling.“You think we can’t handle ourselves?”
“I know you can handle yourselves.You’re going to be protecting them—”
“Hey!”That was Dimas.
“—and they you.We’re at war.Nobody takes chances, and nobody plays the hero.”
“First lesson war mage cadets ever learn,” Caleb rumbled.“Can the ego and take care of each other.In battle, it doesn’t matter who saves your ass.”
Lee blinked in surprise at that, maybe because Caleb had been doing his tall, dark, and taciturn thing since he joined us at the hotel.And considering that he was well over six feet, black as sin, and silent as a tomb when he was disapproving—which he had been since laying eyes on me—he was doing it well.But then Lee nodded.“Howl if you find anything,” I added.
“Why do I think you mean that literally?”Jen muttered, while I attacked a window.
I doubted Jace was going to be in the same spot where I’d helped him clean out his and his brother’s effects after Jayden’s death, but I was starting there anyway.Even though it looked like that part of the hotel had burned recently, due to vandalism or some of the illegal fireworks people set off in this area all the time.Or maybe courtesy of the Vegas sun, which sometimes randomly started fires just because it could.
But the entrance they’d been using still worked, after a bit of prying, as it was just a bunch of boards covering one of the windows.The boys hadn’t wanted to remove them because it would make it too obvious that somebody was living here.So they’d nailed them together and added hinges, making a door.
I crawled into the dark interior, a small, dusty hotel room striped with the sunlight leaking through the window boards.Sophie, Jen, and Caleb came with me, the latter almost disappearing in the low light thanks to his coloring and the dark leather war mage coat he wore.Enough that Sophie gave a little shriek and jumped like a cat when she accidentally bumped into him.
