Page 66 of Hunted

DB reached out and cupped the amulet in his hand. He murmured a few words in the Draken language, and the necklace glowed green for a moment. Michelangela felt the tingle of magic.

“There,” he said, letting it drop. “I added a ‘call me’ spell on that. So if you need me, just concentrate on me, and I’ll come find you.”

“You’re the best, DB.” She had to admit, it made her feel better. DB was a worldwalker, able to travel between dimensional worlds by moving through the spirit world, which touched all of them. It was probably how he’d breached Trevor’s security perimeter—all he had to do was find the place he wanted to go by viewing it from the spirit world, and literally step through.

He could break into or out of any building or prison cell that wasn’t warded with powerful magic. And even some that were.

She said, “I’ve got to go—the auction will be starting soon, and I need to talk to Gunn before it does.”

He nodded, but he still looked troubled. “That little girl you’re rescuing,” he said. “What’s going to happen to her?”

She could hear something in his voice that made her pause. DB was an orphan, and he knew what it was like to be alone in the world.

“Gunn said that Thanatos will make sure she’s safe.” But what did that mean? He’d also said Thanatos wasn’t big on feelings.

DB echoed her thoughts. “Being safe isn’t the same as feeling safe. Or being cared about.”

She realized where he was going with this. “You want to take her to Grandpa Gerard. To the wolf village.”

“Then no one can use her anymore.”

She nodded. Gunn would probably kill her—or Thanatos would—but this felt like the right thing to do. “Okay,” she said. “She’ll be way safer that way, especially if we have to fight our way out. But we need a decoy—a doll or something—to take her place. And it can’t happen until after the auction, when we’re about to leave.”

He nodded toward the amulet. “I’ll get a decoy. Call me when it’s time.”

“Deal.”

He started to leave, and then said, “Tell that Gunn guy if he breaks your heart again, I’m going to turn him into a dung beetle and step on him.”

“I’ll make sure he knows.”

Chapter 29

Michelangela found Gunn at the bottom of the main staircase.

“There you are!” He kept his tone light—there were other guests nearby, and McIntyre was approaching with his other clients. “McIntyre and I are going to upstairs to talk over our business. Are you able to amuse yourself while I am gone?”

She knew he was double-checking that she was set for her part of the mission. “Of course I am. That’s why I invited you, isn’t it? I hope it all goes according to plan.”

“And I as well.” He was once more using the formal language of someone who spoke English as a second language. Unobtrusively, his hand found hers. “Enjoy yourself.”

“I always do.” And too quietly for anyone but a shifter to hear, she added, “See you on the other side.”

It was what the operatives she knew always said, when they split during a mission. Nobody said ‘good luck’; it was considered bad luck.

Operatives wanted to be good, not lucky.

He gave her a heart-wrecker smile and then turned and joined McIntyre, who had five other people with him—three men, two women. Gunn began chatting casually with one of the men.

Michelangela lingered, checking her makeup in her hand mirror, until she saw which way they went at the top of the stairs—up the left-hand staircase to the third floor.

She hoped they were keeping the girl as far away from the auction as possible. Gunn would buy all the time he could, but she was the one who held that little girl’s life in her hands. Now it was up to her.

After mingling with the crowd a bit longer, counting minutes in her head, she joined a couple of women climbing the stairs to the cloakroom.

If the guards were paying attention, they were really going to think she had a bladder problem.

Luckily, one of the toilet rooms was free, and Mikey went into it, sat down, and pulled her phone out of her clutch bag.