“You know, he’s really a people person,” I said when he’d left.
“What auction was he talking about?” Gazzy asked, and I shrugged.
“No clue,” I answered, starting to walk around. The double doors to the room were metal, windowless, and had several locking bolts. Our captors definitely thought we were hot stuff, and I felt kind of proud of our bad reputation. Proud but really trapped.
“Now what?” Angel was still wan and pale, with dark circles under her eyes. There were chairs around a table, and I helped her sit in one.
“Iggy?” I said. He came closer, and with his incredibly delicate touch, he skimmed his fingers over her arm. “Is there anything you can do?”
“It’s really swollen,” he said, and I used every bit of my self-control to not say, “No duh!”
“It feels like a clean break,” Iggy went on. “Let me see . . . So to speak.” Very tenderly, he manipulated her broken arm.
Though Angel’s face got a little green around the edges, she made hardly a sound. I held her shoulders and sent her comforting thoughts, and then we all heard a tiny scrape and a clicking sound, and Angel relaxed a bit.
“Oh, that feels better,?
?? she said. “Still really bad, but less bad. Thanks, Iggy.”
Iggy smiled, proud that he could contribute to the flock this way. I ripped up the lining of my jacket — wouldn’t be needing that here! — and made a stiff bandage to hold her arm in place.
“Now what?” Gazzy repeated Angel’s question.
“Fan out, check the perimeter,” I ordered.
Which took less than five minutes.
Everyone reported that the room seemed rock solid. The vents were too small for a house cat, there was only the one set of doors, and we had all seen the window demonstration.
“Maybe I can . . .” Nudge murmured, and she crouched next to one of the doors. She moved her fingers close to the locks and closed her eyes. “If I could make the bolts all line up . . .”
“Oh, so smart, Nudge,” I breathed, coming to crouch next to her. “Can you feel them?”
“I think so,” she said. “If my magnetism could — ow!”
There was a harsh crackle, and Nudge was jolted backward almost a foot. The residual electricity practically made my hair stand on end. Nudge was on her back, rubbing her hands.
“The locks are booby-trapped,” she announced glumly, in case we hadn’t picked up on it. “So much for my new skill.”
“My new skill was no help either,” said Angel.
“And since we’re not surrounded by snow, I’m still blind.” Iggy sounded bitter, but then he perked up. “On the other hand, this carpet is a tasteful ecru, with a thin cinnamon stripe close to the wall.”
I glanced at Fang, who was totally visible against the walnut paneling of the room. He shrugged.
“So now I guess we wait,” I said. Which, you know, I’m so good at.
64
BEING IN THIS TALL BUILDING was interesting for us, because we were up high but not flying. Outside, it was really storming — huge crashes of thunder and lightning that I remembered from the last time we were here in the wishfully named Sunshine State. Gusts of wind buffeted the building, and it was so tall it actually swayed.
“Good thing this building’s rated for hurricane-force winds,” Nudge said, looking out the window nervously. “It’s really blowing out there.”
They fed us. I was hoping they’d send in actual humans with our food, because they’re easy to jump and pretty fragile. No problem getting past them, unless they have guns.
Instead we got Transformer-bots with trays, under Gozen’s watchful laser eyes.
They gave us a variety of food, apparently never having fed mutant bird kids before. We had oatmeal, sandwiches, fruit, bread, a bowl of dog kibble, which Total pushed toward Akila, and . . .