Page 59 of Lost Touch

“It’s all right, Ash. Just tell it the best you can. I’ve been where you are,” he added in an undervoice.

And that gave me the courage to spit it all out, in fits and starts and not very coherently, but from beginning to end.

Well, with some gaps. I did tell them we’d been having sex to deal with Drew’s increased aggression and libido, but I glossed over all the details, even though I suspected everyone in the room knew a lot more about werewolf sex than I did.

“…and we kept driving, but Drew kept getting worse. And I found Nate’s website, so, yeah.” I swallowed hard, feeling like a tiny, vulnerable goldfish in a bowl surrounded by cats. Did wolves eat fish? Predators were predators, I figured, and given the number of sets of glowing eyes, plus the two magic-using badasses, I didn’t like my odds if they didn’t like my story. “Here we are,” I finished lamely.

No one said anything for a second, sitting there and continuing to watch me with expressions ranging from surprise to frowns to a neutrality I couldn’t begin to penetrate.

To my surprise, Calder spoke up first. “How did you say you found Nate’s website, exactly?”

His suspicion hurt, and my eyes prickled. God, he’d been there with me. Andhedoubted me?

“Google. I mean, don’t tell me you’re a Bing user.”

Jared, awesome guy that he was, chuckled softly. No one else cracked a smile.

“Hell of a coincidence,” Calder said heavily. “You said you passed over a lot of other websites before Nate’s. That sounds like an excuse to me. Seems like you might have already known where you were going. And I want to know why.”

The silver glow in his eyes had intensified, going from shimmery to opaque.

“How the hell would I have known about you? You took off and left us there! I didn’t even know your names, let alone where you were from. You were supposed to call us!”

Calder leaned forward, fixing me with a stare that seemed to go all the way through me, piercing me down to whatever ragged bit of soul I had left.

“Someone would have had to tell you.”

Thatgot a reaction from the rest of the room. Nate and Ian both looked horrified, Matthew thoughtful, and Jared started to protest. “Calder, we got them this time, you killed the last of them—”

Fuck, “This time”?The last of them?My blood ran cold, but before I could say anything, Arik interjected with, “They left the facility at the same time as you, and if they’d been in touch with the other faction, wouldn’t they know better than to come here—”

Nate cut him off in turn, and they were all yelling and arguing within seconds, except for Calder, who didn’t yell but argued with the best of them, and Matthew, who sat back silently, pinching the bridge of his nose.

The other faction.This time. I leaned back on the couch, fighting a new bout of nausea. From that and bits and pieces I could pick up from the argument raging around me, not all of the warlocks had died that day. There had been more.

And some of these people thought I might be working with them.

Abruptly, I’d had more than fucking enough. Drew lay unconscious on the floor, maybe dying, because who the hell knew what was happening to his body? He could be having a stroke, or a heart attack, or…I had no idea. They were supposed to do magical healing, for a hefty fee I might add, and instead they were yelling at each other like a bunch of preschoolers.

“Could you all fucking shut up for a second?” I didn’t know I could shout that loudly until the words burst out of me, even rising over Nate’s strident bitching.

Six heads swiveled like they were on strings, and six sets of variously angry, annoyed, or disbelieving eyes fixed on my face.

I knew it had to be glowing red, because it felt all hot and tight. How absurd did I look, all small and blushing and flustered?

But it didn’t matter, and I didn’t quail. Because Drew’s life hung in the balance. I’d been the one to bring him here. Hetrustedme. My judgment.

God help him.

“Am I your prisoner, or a paying client?” I demanded.

“You haven’t actually paid ye—” Nate began, but Arik cut in with, “Shut up, Nate, for fuck’s sake!” and Jared snapped, “Hey, we don’t need the money as much as we used to, and besides, he was a prisoner too!”

They all glared at each other long enough to give me an opening.

“Everything I’ve told you is true. If we were working with someone, why wouldn’t I have come up with a better cover story for how I found you? And why would I have let Nate hit Drew with his weird purple hand thing—I mean, Iaskedhim to knock Drew out! Why would I want the only person with me who could do any damage to any of you unconscious? It’s not like I’m a threat on my own!”

“We’re assuming anyone can be a threat—” Matthew began, in a tone of authority that Nate completely ignored, interrupting loudly, “Wait, weird purple hand thing? No, seriously, Matthew, can it, this is important!”

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