City of Light (Outcast 1)

And yet, even as he said it, desire rose between us, tainting the air with its rich, heady aroma. I dropped my gaze from his and steadfastly ate the omelet—even as my skin prickled with awareness and heat flushed my body.

“So what did you discover during this invasion?”

“It’s not an invasion. It’s nothing as crude as that,” I snapped, then took a deep breath and added, a little more calmly, “He got caught in some sort of weird darkness with three others, and it merged their DNA. I’m pretty sure they can communicate telepathically. Sal got a call this morning, and I think it was one of the people I saw in his mind.”

“If they can communicate telepathically, then they wouldn’t need to use standard coms.”

“True.” I bit my lip for a moment. “Perhaps it’s not a true form of telepathy, but rather something like the seeker skill, in that they share impressions rather than thought.”

“It’s possible.” There was an odd edge to his voice that had me frowning. But before I could say anything, he added, “Can you describe the three he was caught with?”

I shook my head. “They were little more than silhouettes. All I can tell you is that there was one man, one woman, and someone else. Someone that felt unnatural, maybe even alien.”

“So the woman who followed you here is very possibly one of those three?”

“Possibly.” Or it could be one of Central’s rangers, alerted to my presence thanks to the other lot of shifters who’d been at Nuri’s when I’d first arrived there. Anything was possible at this point.

“What about the darkness itself?” he asked.

That edge was deeper. “It was unnatural and also very alien. Why?”

“Because what you’re describing is probably a rift.” He scrubbed a hand through his short hair. “This is not good news.”

I frowned as I rose and walked across to the autocook, depositing my plate in the slot before ordering two coffees. “But if he was caught in the rift, he’d be dead. People don’t survive them.”

“People do,” he snapped back. “It’s rare, but it happens. But if he was caught in a rift with those others, then they now all share not only a form of collective consciousness, but possibly many of the abilities they had individually.”

Because rifts chewed up the DNA of whatever they encountered and spat it out in a completely different form. But if that was the case, why did Sal look the same? He shouldn’t, given the terrible results I’d seen of plants and animals caught in rifts. Or was it simply a matter of his using his shifter skills to maintain a form he was more comfortable with?

“That would explain how Sal and the person in the restaurant could share the same scent,” I said eventually.

He nodded. “The other three will also hold the same scent.”

“Other two,” I corrected. “The fourth person caught in that rift didn’t actually survive.”

“At least that means there’s one less for us to track down.” His voice was grim. “What else did you catch?”

“Nothing during sex.”

He raised an eyebrow again. “And afterward?”

“Again, nothing. But for no reason at all he brought up the Broken Mountains and asked if I’d been there recently.”

“Interesting.”

“More so given he also mentioned that he’d heard they were now infested by vampires.”

The autocook pinged and two steaming mugs of coffee appeared. I picked them both up and walked across to Jonas, handing him one but making sure our fingers didn’t brush.

He raised an eyebrow at my actions, and amusement briefly teased his lips. It made me wish he’d smile more often. Unfortunately, it fled as swiftly as it had appeared.

“There are no vampires in the Broken Mountains. I have kin up there; they would have mentioned it.”

“But there is an old military base, isn’t there?”

“Yes.” He took a sip of coffee, his expression thoughtful. “You think he was deliberately trying to get a reaction out of you?”

“I think it’s more than possible. If Sal, his two unknown friends, and the vampires are somehow all connected to whatever is going on, then they’ll be aware that someone raided that base last night.”