Dylan and Remi would have left the Speakeasy by now, Lawna tailing them for safety so Remi could split off and get back to the house. Then Callum could reunite with Dylan where they’d stashed a change of clothes for Nicole so they could follow back to the townhouse.
All was going to plan but her heart still launched into her throat when Kyan’s hands wrapped around her waist and the floor disappeared from under her. Her stomach nearly did too when he threw her over his shoulder.
‘Let go,’ she snarled.
‘The Wake want to speak with you.’ He used that tone he first had in Estwood – no-nonsense. Patient, diplomatic.
‘Who the—’
One word cut through their dialogue like a knife.
‘DYLAN!’
It was a scream. A real, true scream.
It wasRemi.
The sound lashed through Nicole like a transformation.
Suddenly, she was abandoning their plan, their route. Kyan froze beneath her. She didn’t want any more pain, she didn’t want to hurt him. But the game was up.
Nicole reached, twisting to arc her body against the hard curve of his shoulder, and fought every instinct to protect him, so she could bring the heel of her shoe down towards his neck.
It didn’t puncture in reality. They had drawn blood from him earlier today and put it in a fake pack at his neck, so that when he reported to the Wake tonight, it would match his own blood and verify hisstory.
She hit the bag and twisted, getting her legs around him and swinging her weight to tip them.
They hit the floor, and she ran at a dead sprint to the sound of her family.
Dylan
DYLAN AND REMI HAD JUST MET LAWNA SOTHEY COULDtake alternative routes back to the townhouse when he stilled.
He turned to find a giant form in black tactical gear at the end of the alley instead.
Kyan?
Remi turned too.
Kyan and Nicole had told everyone of their plan – to stage a fake hunt to make sure the Wake stayed off their back long enough that they could get to Ireland. But what was he doing here? They weren’t supposed to meet until they’d all taken separate routes back to the house.
‘Hey,’ Dylan said. ‘What—’
It was his gait that gave it away.
This hulking assassin wasnotKyan.
Lawna positioned herself in front of her daughter.
Dylan glanced back to the other end of the alley to make sure there were no others, his senses soaring up and out. He hadn’t felt the stranger, they’d moved too quietly, and he knew Remi hadn’t either, or she would have said something.
The stranger didn’t stop his determined approach.
‘Back off,’ Lawna ordered.
They didn’t stop.
Dylan waited a second more for his body to transform, to feel that shimmer of Empyrean power at the approaching menace.This was it,he thought.The first transformation—
