City of Light (Outcast 1)

She thrust a hand through her dark hair and resumed pacing. “That is one of the larger nests; I doubt we could ever muster enough people—”

“You won’t have to. I’m going in with the ghosts.”

She stopped again, her gaze narrowing as it swept me. “That is dangerous—for you and for them.”

I snorted softly. “And who in this room is truly bothered about my safety?” I thrust my hand toward the two men. “Them? We both know they would dance on my ashes in glee if I was destroyed.”

“I wouldn’t risk staining the soles of my boots,” Branna growled. “But the thought of the vampires tearing—”

“Branna, enough.” Jonas’s voice was flat, but it nevertheless contained the whip of command.

I glanced at him in surprise. His expression gave little away, but I had no sense of the fierce anger and distaste that had been so evident only hours before. Maybe he was simply controlling it better.

“You cannot go into that place alone,” he said, voice now as neutral as his expression. “It would be both your death and that of the children. Yours and ours.”

“I’m not foolish enough to take my little ones into that place.” My gaze returned to Nuri. “You all need to leave.”

“We can be of more help if we—”

“No,” I snapped, “you can’t. I’m calling to the soldiers who haunt the old corridors. I have no idea if they will actually answer my call to arms, but I can guarantee having two shifters so filled with old hatreds and prejudices standing at close quarters will only inflame an already dangerous situation.”

“And the five children? If you manage to get them all out of that nest alive, where will you take them?”

“I’ll bring them to you, in Chaos.” I hesitated, then stepped back. There was so much more I needed to tell them, but, once again, time was of the essence. I had no idea how long it would take for Sal’s partners to realize things had gone sour, but when they did, they would no doubt order the five children destroyed—especially given that, according to Sal, they’d outlasted their usefulness. Why that should be, I had no idea, and, right now, it wasn’t important. I had to get to them—rescue them—before the vampires were unleashed. “Where is the best place to enter that nest?”

Nuri hesitated. “Any of the open sewer outlets within Chaos’s lower level will get you into their tunnels, but the best place is probably the old main outlet half a click downstream from the drawbridge. It’s the one they generally use.”

I frowned. “If this is common knowledge, why has no one done anything to block it?”

“Because while the old sewer system was completely eradicated within Central to ensure the vampires had no point of entry, the government doesn’t really care what happens beyond its walls.” She shrugged. “Besides, any attempt to shut down that sewer exit would only result in their using the Chaos ones more. I doubt those forced to live on the lower levels would appreciate such an event.”

“But surely an eradication program . . .” I cut the question off. Right now, the why behind allowing an active nest to exist so close to Central didn’t matter. I waved a hand at the door. “Leave. All of you.”

“You’ll need to release Branna first,” Jonas commented.

I hesitated, my gaze meeting his. “Only if you swear to control him. Otherwise, he can take his chances with the ghosts.”

“He will not threaten you in any way or form when released.” Jonas’s gaze was on Branna rather than me. “Will you?”

Branna’s expression was mutinous, but after several seconds, his gaze dropped from Jonas’s, and he muttered, “I will do nothing to harm you in this place. You have my word.”

I smiled grimly. In other words, once out of this place, he would do his utmost to ensure I was as dead as those who haunted these halls.

“Fine,” I said, my gaze on his. “But just remember what is at stake.”

A smile touched his lips. He knew what was at stake, and he didn’t care. It made me wonder just what the déchet had done to his kin during the war. It had to have been bad for this sort of hatred to linger so many years after its end.

I walked around the bed, brought up the main screen, and then released his bonds. He sat up immediately and rubbed his wrists; his gaze, when it met mine, was lethal, but he kept his word and made no move toward me.

I glanced back to Nuri. “Follow Cat. She’ll get you out of here.”

She hesitated, then nodded, her skirts swirling as she spun and walked to the door. Branna cast me another dark look, then leapt off the opposite side of the bed and stalked after her.

Jonas didn’t immediately move, but I could feel his gaze on me. It was a weight that did odd things to my breathing and, for no real reason, made me angry. At the attraction I couldn’t control, at him for hating so much, and at fate for forcing me to destroy the only other good thing that had come into my life in the last one hundred years aside from my little ones.

Only he hadn’t been good, I reminded myself bleakly. Quite the opposite.

“What happened to Sal?” Jonas asked eventually.