How would giving control of our world to either be of any benefit to Sal’s partners?
But I guessed I hadn’t been caught in a rift with a wraith, as they had. Nor had I been driven so close to death in a vampire attack that whatever infections they carried forced a mutation, and made me a dhampir—which was the reason behind Sal and his partners’ ability to communicate with the vampires and wraiths.
Maybe both those events had changed the way the three of them viewed their relationship with our world. Maybe they no longer even saw themselves as part of this world. While I might have thought that Sal’s contempt for humans had stemmed what had happened to déchet after the war, maybe its source was a rather more alien view of beings they saw as weaker.
Beings that needed to be erased.
I shivered and rubbed my arms as we wove our way through the grimy, chaotic ground level and out into sunshine. But it didn’t make me feel any better. Didn’t chase the coldness from my skin or my heart.
Jonas stopped and knelt, brushing his fingers lightly against the soil. I waited behind him, all too aware that Branna was behind me.
That he was watching. Waiting.
And while Jonas’s presence was obviously enough to curtail his almost instinctive need to kill me, it could not and would not erase it.
I clenched my fingers and fought the urge to reach for one of the rifles strapped across my back. It was the sort of action that might just cause the attack I was trying to avoid.
“They split up.” Jonas rose and glanced back, his gaze remote. “The main pack ran for the old drainage outlets. Four others headed for the park.”
“And Penny?”
“I don’t know. I can’t find her footprints anywhere, and the scent of blood and death coming from Chaos is erasing everything else.”
“Meaning they’re probably carrying her.”
“Yes. Our best bet is to split up. Branna, follow the tracks to the outlet and see if you can find any sign of her. Don’t go into the den, though. We’ll track the other four.”
As Branna grunted and left, Jonas’s gaze swept me, assessing. “They’ve got a good half-hour head start. We need to run—will that be a problem?”
Yes. But that wasn’t going to stop me. “I’ll keep up.”
He nodded and led the way forward, setting a pace that, at any other time, would have been easy for me to keep. I bit my lip and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and not falling behind.
We crossed the Barra River and ran up the valley to the rail yards. Pods were pulling into the station in readiness for the day, but Central’s drawbridge hadn’t yet come down.
We’d just passed the museum and were approaching the main road when Bear returned. Jonas stopped, obviously sensing his approach.
“Where did they take her, Bear?” His tone was terse.
Bear’s energy touched mine. They were met in the forest by a man in an ATV. Penny was transferred into the vehicle and taken on to Carleen. They went into a false rift.
My stomach sank. I was in no state to traverse a rift. It would, without doubt, kill me.
“Tiger,” Jonas snapped. “What has happened?”
“You didn’t hear Bear?”
“Not this time. I suspect it was deliberate.”
It was, Bear said. He is very angry right now.
But not at you. Not even at me. “The vampires were me
t by an ATV in the park. Penny was transferred and taken into Carleen. They went into a rift.”
“Then we—”
“There is no we when it comes to traversing the false rift, Jonas.” My voice was soft but determined. “And I haven’t the strength to even try right now.”