Page 59 of Taken

“What happened?”

“P1 staked her.” Crow used the code for Gabriel; as the oldest brother, he was P1, or Prince One, just as Zaq was Prince Two. “She attacked while he was occupied with a human female. I assume she thought he was distracted. She was wrong.”

I stared at my alpha. She seemed more bothered that Torch had failed than that she’d died. How had I not noticed how cold Crow was?

“So they know she was one of us?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s bad.”

Her mouth twisted. “No shit.”

I wrapped my fingers around my coffee cup. I was in shock; I needed something to ground me. Shock at Torch’s death. Shock at the realization that if I’d been assigned to slay Gabriel, it would’ve been me who died.

“Wait.” I frowned. “When did this happen?”

“Wednesday night, New York time.”

My frown deepened. We’d left Moreau’s lair early Tuesday morning, Paris time. There’d been plenty of time for Torch to have been told to stand down between then and Wednesday night.

“But…why did she attack at all? The agreement with P2 was that if he worked with me, his brothers would be safe.”

Crow waved a hand like it didn’t matter. “A communication misfire. Torch didn’t get the message in time.”

I gripped my cup. Hard.

“P2 was half-dead when we left M’s lair. I told you we needed a few days.”

“Are you questioning me?” Behind the sunglasses Crow’s eyes were the chilly blue of a northern sea.

Yes, I am. “Communication misfire” my ass.

I stared back. This was the woman I’d modeled myself after. Like me, she had a vampire primus father. Like me, she’d lost her mother at a young age to the monsters. And like me, she’d dedicated her life to Slayers, Inc.

Up until the last few days, I’d followed her blindly, wholeheartedly.

I looked away first. “No. I’m sorry.”

“Mm.” I felt her gaze. Assessing me and my commitment. Trying to unnerve me.

I smothered a flare of resentment and shifted the conversation back to Torch’s death. “Could someone have tipped P1 off?”

Crow angled her head like the wicked-smart bird from which she’d taken her slayer name. “Why do you ask?”

I moved a shoulder in a small shrug. “This informant you have in the Kral organization. Maybe he told P1 to watch his back.”

“There’s more than one informant, and no, P1 wasn’t tipped off. None of the informants knew about Torch. But you can tell P2 what happened. Make sure he knows that just because Torch is dead, doesn’t mean his brother is safe.”

“You embedded another slayer?”

“We always have a backup plan. You know that.” Which was a nonanswer, but I knew it was all I’d get.

A frightening thought occurred to me. The Krals now knew SI had inserted a slayer into Gabriel’s household.

My mouth dried.

Damn, damn, damn.

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