City of Light (Outcast 1)
A chill went through me. I glanced sharply at her, but her gaze was unfocused, distant. Mind reader, I thought. Or, perhaps, a mind seeker. Unlike telepaths, seekers couldn’t directly read thoughts. Instead, they picked up a mix of emotion and mental images, and made judgments from those. In some ways, I was a seeker myself. Catching the emotive output of our targets was part of the reason why lures had been such successful spies. Either way, it meant I’d have to watch what I thought and imagined around her.
“My reasons for rescuing them are really not important.” I said it louder than necessary in an effort to snap the other woman from her dream. “So why don’t we get back to discussing whatever it is you actually want from me?”
Nuri blinked and her gaze refocused. But something decidedly dangerous glimmered briefly in her eyes. It oddly reminded me of the darkness I’d seen stirring in Penny’s, and it made me uneasy. Something was going on with these people. Something more than just kidnapping a stranger who’d rescued two of their own.
The ghosts stirred, and their energy stung the air, a gentle reminder of the hell they could release if I gave the word.
But I couldn’t do that yet. The simple fact was, even if I could get past these two, there were still the woman and the lion shifter. And if I managed to overpower them, the rest of Chaos stood between us and the safety of our bunker.
If it became clear they intended to kill me, however, then I’d unleash hell and take my chances. I wouldn’t go down without a fight. Not ever again.
Nuri said, “As I said, all we really want is your help.”
I laughed, and it was a bitter sound. “So instead of merely asking, you attempt to poison me and then you lock me up. Great way to gain my trust, I must say.”
“Why in hell would you expect trust, given Penny’s declaration?” Jonas retorted. “You’re a trained killer—”
“If I were a déchet, then yeah, your reaction might have been understandable,” I snapped back. “But I’m not. The mere fact I’m sitting here talking to you after being injected with Iruakandji proves that.”
“The Iruakandji also proves you are not full shifter, or else you would be far sicker,” Nuri commented, with another warning look at Jonas. “So what are you, precisely?”
“I’m the result of a shifter-and-human pairing.” The lie was automatic, and the only real way I could explain the fact I’d basically escaped the major effects of the drug. Humans were—for reasons I didn’t understand—immune to it. My gaze flicked to Jonas’s as I added, “And we all know what shifters feel about half-human bastards, even in this day and age, don’t we?”
He snorted. “There’s no human in you. I would smell it if there were.”
I raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying my mother—may Rhea be gentle with her soul—was lying?”
“Either she was, or you are.”
“Jonas, enough.” Nuri’s gaze was again intense, and her expression somewhat distracted. I kept still, both in body and thought. After a moment, she grunted and added, “What we need from you is simply your anonymity.”
My eyebrows rose. “Meaning what?”
“Meaning, we’ve done a quick record search, and there’s no one in Central’s system who matches your description. That will be a bonus when it comes to investigating what has happened to Penny.”
“I never said I was from Central.” And if they could access Central’s records, they were far more than mere mercenaries. So what were they doing here in Chaos?
“No, you did not.” Nuri hesitated. “According to Penny, you had no trouble seeing at night, and that might also be of benefit.”
My confusion deepened. “Why?”
“Because even before the war, all of us who live in the cities—both human and shifter—had grown too used to the lights. As a result, we are all but night blind.” Nuri studied me for a moment, then added, “As you would know if you grew up in this place. Or any other major city, in fact.”
I ignored the intent behind that statement, my gaze roaming from her to Jonas and back again. “You live in Chaos, not Central. This place is nothing but shadows.”
“Shadows are not night. There is a difference, trust me.”
I contemplated them. It certainly explained the light both in the bar and here. It also explained why the upper reaches of Chaos had a greater percentage of light per dwelling than the lower. More money meant more access, and more access meant greater safety.
And it meant that if I did get out of this room, I could very easily get free. I was at home in the darkness; they were not.
If they were telling the truth, that is.
“So every child born today suffers this problem?”
“Not all, certainly. There are always a few genetic throwbacks born in every generation. But Jonas is the only one in our unit who isn’t night blind.”
A chill went through me. Unit was an altogether too military-sounding word for my liking. And yet there was nothing about Nuri herself that spoke of military experience.