Kaylin spotted the mark before Grace was three steps into the room. “Excuse me?!” She grabbed Grace’s jaw and tilted it into the light. “You’re wearing a bite the size of a doorknob, and I had to find out with my own eyes?”
“It’s recent.”
“It’s enormous.” Kaylin grinned at me across the room. “I love this for you. I love this for everyone.” She frowns. “Where’s yours?” She points in my direction.
“He’ll get his soon enough.” Grace winks at me. “One to match.”
Nadia looked up from her laptop long enough to take in the mark, then me. “Good,” she said. “Now he can sit through a briefing again.”
Jericho didn’t say anything. He put his hand on my shoulder on his way to the coffee, and I felt the weight of it after he’d gone. Viktor’s eyes touched the mark for one second on his way in.
“Medical clears you for full duty next week,” he told Grace. From Viktor, that’s a toast.
The word is still in me. Under all the ease, in the part that isn’t human, the animal keeps the one he used at her cell door, and I’ve stopped trying to take it back.
They.
Viktor sets down his mug, and the room quiets.
“Two items stay open,” he says. “You’ve earned a night without them. You’re getting them anyway, because they won’t keep.”
He looks down the table. “Vanya.”
She’s been quiet all evening, at the far end, watching. “Whoever took Serenity used a different route than we’ve been tracking,” she says. “It’s not a Syndicate blood bank. It’s something else.” She lets that sit a second. “The trail out of that building is cold. I want to be straight about that.” She looks at Grace. “It doesn’t mean I’ve stopped searching.”
“And the other problem’s mine,” Viktor says. “Somebody planted two phones where they’d do the most damage, and they’re still inside these walls, or close. The list of who it could be is shorter than it was. It isn’t empty. Nobody change your routines, and nobody talk about this outside this room.”
Grace goes still. Her hands flatten on her thighs, and I know what’s coming.
“Then use me.” She says it to Viktor, but it’s for the room. “We know my blood is valuable to them. Let’s set something up to get me in there.” Her chin’s up, waiting for my reaction. “I’m not asking permission. I’m telling you where I’m useful.”
Nobody answers, because they’re all not-looking at me.
The bear comes up my spine so fast the room spins—her, back inside the place that put a numbered band on her wrist—and my hands are flat on the table, pressing, and it’s climbing my throat before I can stop it. I get it down. Barely. Sweat prickles cold along my back. If I open my mouth now, what comes out isn’t going to be rational.
“Grace—” Viktor starts.
“Don’t manage me, Viktor.”
Jericho catches my eye and tips his head at the coffee counter. I go, because the other option is opening my mouth with the animal still in my throat.
He pours two cups and hands me one I won’t drink.
“Take it easy,” he says. “You already saw what happened the last time you tried to hold her back. Handle this carefully.”
“She’s not going back. Not going to happen,” is all I manage to get out.
“Mm.” He drinks. “And nobody in that room expects you to sit still for it. The bear just got her back. The mark is fresh on her throat. I know how that feels.” He glances over at Nadia, who’s deep in conversation with Vanya. Viktor’s still frowning at Grace, like he knows this is going to be tricky.
I set the cup down without deciding to. There’s something I need to say.
They.
It’s been under my feet the whole time. I’ve been standing on it.
“Decker.” Jericho’s watching my face now. “I know that look. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Give me a minute with her.”
