Page 192 of Hunters and Prey

“What do you think, Black?”

Black turned to find a bunch of faces and eyes aimed in his direction.

Yarli, Mika, Jax and Holo sat in a cluster together, directly across from him. Black had noticed, since Dalejem––or “Jem,” as most of them called him––disappeared with Nick a few days earlier, he’d rarely seen the four of them apart. He wondered if they even noticed they were doing it, huddling together for protection since Jem got taken.

Shoving that from his mind as well, he straightened, stretching his back from the kink in it from hanging over the monitor for too long.

“I don’t fucking know,” he said, his voice gruff. “That’s why I called all of you in here.”

Yarli frowned delicately, folding her arms gracefully over her chest.

“You must have an opinion,” she said. “You spend more time in her light than any of us.”

Black felt his irritation spike a little.

He felt like retorting, Not as much as I’d like right now, Sister Yarli.

He didn’t do that, either.

“I don’t know––” he began, his voice more subdued.

His phone rang, vibrating in his pocket.

He felt a spike of panic hit his light, from outside at first. It reverberated and echoed in his aleimi, even before he looked at the name displaying on his phone.

He picked up, putting the phone to his ear.

“Angel?” he said. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

The woman on the other end was crying.

She didn’t speak at first, and his panic turned to anger.

“Angel?” he growled. “What the fuck? What’s wrong?”

“Black…” she said, gasping.

“Yes, it’s fucking Black. What happened?”

He was already walking towards the door of the conference room.

He already knew what she was going to say.

“She’s gone.” She gasped the words, getting it out with an effort. “She’s just fucking gone, Black. I don’t know what happened…”

A cold finger ran down his spine, even as he jerked open the door to the conference room. His eyes blurred as her words hit him, even as he turned his head over his shoulder, half-snarling at the rest of the room.

“Come with me,” he said. “Now, goddamn it!”

He didn’t bother to explain.

He was already running for the elevator.

“ISAW IT,” Angel said.

She took at breath, and Black had to fight the urge to grab her and shake her, even though she’d pulled herself together somewhat by the time he got down there.

She was managing to at least halfway project a veneer of calm.

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