More spell residue.
“Or it is bait,” he said.
Cole’s shoulders rolled back as power gathered restlessly beneath his skin.
“Whatever did this is close.”
A low sound rose from the darkness farther along the passage.
It resembled a growl, although it belonged to neither a human nor an animal.
Rhen stood.
A figure stepped into the weak spill of streetlight.
Another rogue.
This one moved differently from the creatures they had already killed. Red light pulsed through blackened eyes, while its shoulders jerked upon their joints like a marionette being tested by an unseen hand. Its fangs remained exposed, but hunger did not control its expression.
Obedience did.
“They have another one,” Cole said.
Malakai’s mouth curved without humor. He looked toward Rhen and signed,Good. I was beginning to get bored.
The rogue attacked with a precision that did not belong to a mindless creature. It launched itself directly at Rhen like a weapon thrown by another hand.
Rhen met it in the air.
He caught the rogue and drove it into the stones hard enough to fracture the wet surface beneath them. The creature thrashed and hissed, but Rhen’s hand had already closed around its throat, pinning it with irresistible force.
The rogue’s eyes burned without fear.
Fear was no longer controlling it.
“Who is doing this to you?” Rhen asked, tightening his grip until the bones beneath his fingers began to strain. “Who is holding your leash?”
The rogue hissed.
Its mouth twisted into something resembling a grotesque, defiant grin.
Malakai stepped into Rhen’s line of sight.
It will not speak. None of them will.
Rhen made his decision.
He forced the rogue’s head aside and sank his fangs into its exposed throat.
Tainted blood flooded his mouth. It tasted bitter and sharp, contaminated by whatever spell had taken hold inside the creature.
Rhen drank deeper.
He was not feeding for hunger. He followed the wrongness in the blood, searching for some impression of the hand controlling it. The spell resisted him, distorting everything it touched, but the rogue’s mind briefly opened beneath the invasion.
The street disappeared.
Cold eyes looked back at him through a fractured image. A cruel smile flickered into focus, accompanied by raised hands moving as though conducting an orchestra.
