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They were either wielding magic from a different dimension or a future timeline, or both. Mother, help us.

As I went deeper into the mechanics of the tower, the finishings turned rougher. Humans didn’t often pass here. No one cared if the walls and floors were unfinished. Pipes of all sizes, ducts, and drains, all exposed for easy maintenance. Giant humming condensers and fans. Moisture rose in the air, the temperature rising to an almost tropical degree. Patches in the concrete marked old repairs to sewers or other plumbing. Graveled areas with uneven levels.

Finally, a partial wall behind the last stack of boxy equipment. Cement blocks tumbled away into darkness. I peered over the edge, noting impressions in the dirt and dust on both sides. Footprints, both giant sphinx paws and shoes. Both smooth hard soles as well as softer athletic treads.

More than one two-legged person had passed through this spot. Quite a few, actually.

I scanned the area with my normal vision, noting the steel girders, exposed rebar, and concrete overhead. Rough piles of dirt and debris. Chunks of concrete, empty plastic bottles, aluminum cans, possibly from laborers who’d originally worked here during the construction or humans seeking shelter from the streets. Most of the city’s buildings had similar underground levels that inevitably connected, sharing sewers, water, and electricity conduits.

Then even deeper, subways and other subterranean tunnels for sewer, water, and storm drains. Lovely places for thralls to multiply with no one the wiser.

Pulling back, I focused on only the hole in the wall and watched a reverse time lapse. Ini and Isesi leaped through, eyes burning with hunger. They quickly parted ways on the other side. A human face. Pause. Coming into the building. Pale, pasty skin streaked with old blood and dirt. Broken, stained teeth. Red bloodshot eyes. Nose sniffing the air like a predator as he crept over the jagged wall and entered the tower’s basement.

More. A dozen. Men, women, all shapes, ages, and sizes, dressed in tattered clothes. Staggering, their human bodies wasting like the corpses they were. Thralls turned by the master, entering my queen’s space. Indignation burned in the pit of my stomach. Her blood circle stretched into the earth. I could feel it deeper than where I stood now. So how had they entered?

They must have found a deeper access tunnel and then wandered…

No. I dismissed the thought immediately. They hadn’t wandered. They’d been led here. Deliberately.

Another group of ten. Twenty. They milled around in the darkness beyond the partial wall. Then came up into the basement level. Feasting on any human they encountered. An HVAC man working on equipment. Gone. Torn apart in seconds.

But not enough people came down that tiny out-of-the way elevator.

It was a perfect trap, honestly. My queen’s blood circle would have kept them inside, refusing them the ability to escape. Their own deteriorating bodies and minds couldn’t find their way out again. Their only instinct burned to feast on whatever they could find, but especially queen’s blood. They would have scented the queens several stories up. In desperation, they may have turned on each other, but eventually…

They would have dared the stairs to seek that bright Aima blood calling so sweetly.

I shuddered at the carnage they could have done. Inside my queen’s own circle. If she’d been present…

The powerful scent of her magic would have drawn them like bees to honey.

The stream of thralls slowed. Whole periods of inactivity played through my mind. I almost stopped watching but just in case, I continued watching the hole. Shara didn’t currently need me, and I had nothing more pressing to do. Besides, this was a weak point in her defense. Who better to stand guard than the stone sphinx?

I almost gave up hope of seeing anything else but then a woman’s face flickered into the hole. Fuck. She wore an ankh on her chest, my queen’s own symbol. I paused, marking her for the rest of the Blood, and immediately scanned for her history.

:Too late,: Guillaume said. :She’s already dead. Ezra just took her out.:

I arched my eyebrows in surprise. :She was returning here? Tonight?:

:She was, yes. She worked as one of Gina’s assistants. From the logo on her shirt, she must have made her way down there right after our queen took control of the tower.:

I growled out a low curse. :How the fuck did she know it was down here? That was before the master thrall started turning humans. How are they communicating with one another?:

:Exactly.: I heard a metallic grinding slide in his bond, as if the knight sharpened a blade on a whetstone. :Tanza would’ve only been dead for a few hours. At most. Yet Angela knew something was down there.:

:And now, whatever it is, lies in wait for our queen.:

57

RIK

Every muscle in my body quivered with urgency, eager to shift. Pound. Crush her enemies to rubble. Anything that threatened her. But I forced myself to walk sedately behind her, guarding her back as she moved toward Sekh. More of her Blood not guarding under Guillaume flowed with us, converging in the mechanical area outside of the broken wall. I sent Lew, Nox, and Nevarre ahead into the tunnels to prepare the way for her to pass safely.

I wasn’t sure how much she picked up from the Blood bond, especially given her focus on Tanza and Keisha, so I provided her a quick summary about Angela.

:I liked her.: She let out a soft sigh. :I hope Gina isn’t too upset. If the man you can’t See entered the tower, our security guards should have a record. I sent a request to Frank to start looking for a name. Can you See where Angela went?:

The general’s upper lip curled with disgust. At himself. :No. She walks confidently into the darkness. She doesn’t use a map or flashlight. One second she’s there. The next, she’s gone. I can’t See what happens, but I can guide you to that point.: