Page 191 of Elven Shadow

Then the shifter turned toward Rebecca with a raised eyebrow.

She still refused to let herself look at him, especially when she could feel the smugness curling his lips even over that constant tingling pull still tugging at her core in his Maxwell’s presence.

That should have disappeared when she’d finally healed herself, right?

Through a self-satisfied chuckle, Maxwell delivered his next terribly timed comment, which he had to have known would only annoy her that much more. “Iknewyou were up to something.”

She shot him a quick glance but couldn’t let herself linger on it before she marched forward after Rick. “Shut up.”

The farther the blackhorn led her and Maxwell down the rows of doors leading into empty rooms, locked with high-tech security and magical wards for everyone’s protection, the more Rebecca began to fear the worst.

Specifically that someone from the Bloodshadow Court had been sent here to retrieve her. Or maybe this was one of her clan’s age-old enemies prematurely congratulating themselves on having discovered the Bloodshadow Heir’s whereabouts before anyone else.

Whoever it was infiltrating Shade to ask solely for “the elf”, she couldn’t afford to let them talk once she reached the holding room. Not with the security unit present, and especially not in front of Maxwell.

She had to be prepared, ready to cut off dangerous conversations before they began. If necessary, she had to be ready to dismiss Maxwell’s security team and order the Head of Security to leave her alone with this anonymous intruder. He’d put up a hell of a fight, but it was the safest option for everyone.

Rebecca couldn’t let herself be discovered by either outsiders or the rest of Shade’s task force.

As the very real possibility loomed every closer while she and Maxwell followed Rick down the next hallway, she also realized she couldn’t let anyone harm Shade the way both Hector and Aldous had attempted to harm them.

This wasn’t just about her and her secrets anymore. This was about all of them. Rebecca was in far too deep now to allow what had now become her home to fall into ruin all because she wanted to protectherselffirst.

Whether she liked it or not, she was responsible for all of them now, and her conscience wouldn’t let her compromise the lives now under her protection.

The second she recognized the unexpected change in her priorities, Rick stopped at the final door on the right to punch in another security code on the panel along the wall.

“He’s been heavily guarded since we apprehended him,” the blackhorn added as the security panel’s light flashed green and he reached for the door handle. “He might look harmless, but I didn’t want to take any chances.”

“You made the right call,” Maxwell said with a nod.

Rebecca merely stared at the door about to open into the next threat facing them all.

Harmless-lookingdidn’t mean a damn thing.

Anyone who could break past Shade’s defenses like this was incredibly dangerous, whether they looked it or not. The fact that this intruder already knew to ask for “the elf” meant he’d allowed himself to be caught and detained inside this room, and that made him even more dangerous still.

Finally, Rick pushed down on the door handle and swung the door inward to reveal the holding cell and Shade’s newly captured intruder turned prisoner waiting for them on the other side.

As soon as the door opened, Rebecca recognized exactly which holding room this was—the very same in which she herself had been held just over six months ago, when she’d first arrived at Shade’s door.

A week she’d spent in this room while the rest of the task force decided what to do with her, specifically whether or not to offer her the opportunity to enter The Striving and attempt to pass Shade’s initiation process.

The disconcerting strength of nostalgia washing over her at the memory brought with it a momentary gratitude for the way thing’s had been run inside this headquarters compound even before she’d been forced into power here. Rick and the rest of Maxwell’s security team had developed effective protocol for this very reason.

Maxwell had put it perfectly; they’d certainly made the right call with this particular intruder.

But when the door fully opened and Rebecca got a clear view inside that holding room, any optimism that might have smoothed over her lingering doubts disappeared.

The fairly large room boasted a comfortable capacity to hold a dozen people with a sufficient level of personal space. The only objects kept inside at all times consisted of four old metal chairs around a long folding banquet table and a single bare light bulb dangling from the ceiling.

Nothing else about the scene in front of her, however, hinted at well-executed protocol.

First came the groans and choking coughs spilling through the open door—several of them coming from several different individuals. After that, Rebecca didn’t want to believe what she was seeing, though it was all laid out in front of her in black and white, impossible to deny.

A dozen bodies—Maxwell’s security team and a handful of other operatives to aid in apprehending and securing their quarry in this holding room—now lay scattered across the floor, limbs splayed in every direction. Some lay face down on the concrete, others doubled over themselves in pain. One guy had landed on his ass in the corner, his back propped against the wall and his chin drooping all the way down to his chest, knocked completely unconscious.

Propped against each front-facing leg of the folding table sat two other security personnel, both of them gagged and bound with the ropes the operatives had most likely attempted to use in binding their intruder.

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