Forbidden

Subterfuge

Luca

Yellowed grass, the blades like straw, reached Luca's knees and covered the field stretching before him as far as even his powerful vision could see. Today's snowfall had been the fine, powdery variety, and the white drifts at the base of the stems shifted with the breeze. Van huddled against his side, her lashes and nose visible above her scarf.

"You're sure this is where they said to meet?"

He tried not to sigh in exasperation. Three times she'd asked the same question. Temperatures were falling faster than the sun, and when the horizon's golden hue burned out to indigo, they would fall well below what was safe. For humans at least. Though, even with an increased tolerance because of his shifter blood, he would happily exchange his coat for fur.

"Yes. They were very precise. Longitude and latitude."

After Van recovered from her breakdown, she suggested looking at the file she'd retrieved to see what was so special about it, but Luca convinced her it would be better to call the number on the back of the card. They could figure out the file once they were safe. His jaw tightened. They were putting a lot of hope in a group of people they knew nothing about. It was possible they were trading one danger for another, but right now at least, he knew who posed the greater threat.

"But this is outside of Briarwood. If we get caught..."

"If we get caught, we're in trouble for bigger reasons than me taking a trip over the city lines. Tommy thinks whoever turned him in probably knows about our involvement too."

"Trixie."

It would be easy to agree with her. He had been the one who told her not to trust any Slayers, but something told him Van was wrong about the Slayer. Trixie had been at Riviere. If the Slayers knew about the supernatural hangout, they would have raided it by now.

Dust billowed across the field, and the evening light glinted off unlit headlights. Pointing, he told Van, "Car."

"Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe we should have run. Maybe we should have waited. The Asylum may know nothing about us working with Tommy. We jumped the gun. Oh god."

"Van, Van," he shook her gently and tipped her chin up so he could look into her eyes.

What he found there made him want to cry. From day one, he had admired her strength and determination. When she found out about the supernatural world, she hadn't batted an eyelash, but finding out the truth about her father had crumbled her stone walls. Now, she was a girl made of glass, and the next wrong thing would shatter her.

"Do you want to go back? To your father? To that school? Even if your secret is safe, can you go back to that house knowing what you know?"

Her bottom lip quivered. "No."

"Do you trust me?"

The quivering ceased. "Yes."

The car was close enough for him to make out the number of people inside. "If things don't feel right, we run. Okay?"

She didn't have time to answer. Car doors opened and slammed, and three bundled figures crept toward them, raised hands holding sinister black metal. He growled. The woman who issued instructions to him earlier had not made him think their greeting would be so antagonistic.

"What's the code?" the person in front barked. It was difficult to tell beneath the layers, but he thought the speaker was a woman.

"Old man of the sea," he replied smoothly. A clever allusion to the sea god, Proteus, and a powerful indicator of where their allegiance lay. Luca thought, at the very least, these people were members of the supernatural community.