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I groaned, covering my face with my hands. “Why don’tyoulook any different?” He’d been hit by the syringe, too. Theyallhad—even the Chief, and none of them had lost all their color.
“Because my magic doesn’t give me pigment. Yours does. Just relax,” he said. “Breathe, okay? You hate pink, Teddy. You hate it. This is agoodthing.”
“This is aterriblething!” I looked like a piece of paper. Or a wall. I waswhite.
“Then it’ll be over in no time. The effects aren’t going to last forever. And it’s dark. Nobody can even see you—”
“Oh, my God, you’re white!”
Eva’s voice rang in my ears as she and Patricia came to us, half her face covered in bandages because a werewolf had clawed the skin off her completely. Her eyes were wide, though, and she looked just as terrified as I felt. Patricia, too.
“Oh, you poor thing,” she said, touching my cheek. “Look at you.”
“Stop it.” I slapped her hand away and did what Hunter told me to do:breathe.
But it wasn’t working.
“Oh, man. I do not want to be you right now—and my cheek is missing,” Eva said, pointing at her face.
“Shut up, Eva,” Hunter said. “She looks fine.”
“She looks like a ghost.”
“Better yet—a zombie,” said Patricia.
“Betterbetteryet—aWhitewalker,” Eva said with a grin, then winced when her cheek hurt.
“Except their eyes are blue,” Hunter muttered, then he saw the look on my face. “I mean, youdon’tlook like a Whitewalker. You look like a pixie.” He smiled brightly. “A white pixie.”
“Guys, I look like I’m dead.” The urge to turn around and look in the mirror again was so overwhelming, but I already knew nothing had changed. “How long until it’s out of my system? I can’t look like this every day.” I was panicking. I was panickingbadly.
It was barely an hour since the fight ended. We were still on the dock doing the cleaning up. Well, others were doing the cleaning up. The satyrs were off all around the city searching for humans who’d seen anything so they could take their memories, and the nymphs were everywhere, tending to the soldiers and the agents who’d been hurt.
Tonight’s battle was over, and we’d won, but we’d also lost. Nine of the soldiers were dead, thirteen badly injured. Not at risk of losing their lives, but enough to take a couple weeks off.
But more importantly, the research crew had gone inside the ship once it was cleared by the soldiers and had found the source of the scents the werewolf scouts had picked up. Almost the entire floor under the deck was full of Denkin’s Dust and Triphoy. All of it. And they’d even found the machinery these people had made to prepare them for use.
The best part was the five men we’d captured. Out of forty-two of them, only five were still alive, and they were already back at Headquarters, locked in a holding cell. Alive and perfectly capable of answering questions. Just the thought of being face to face with them gave me the chills. It wasn’t over yet—though we’d found this ship, we still didn’t know who made the drug. We knew it was high fae but notwhichhigh fae, because these ships weren’t registered to the same man who owned the ship I’d been in with Dominic. Could be a coincidence, or maybe not. But until we knew for sure, I still had a lot of work to do.
And I’d have to do itwithoutcolor.
My God. Wasn’t it enough that I’d suffered all my life for beingpink? Now I had to bewhite,too?
“C’mon, let’s go sit over there.” Patricia grabbed me by the hand and Eva and Hunter followed us to a bench on the other side of the dock. From there, we could see all the ambulance vans, the ODP cars, the soldiers, and the crews who were transporting what they found in the ship back to Headquarters for further testing.
Across the ship was Chief Randall talking to Dominic. I looked around, but Derek was nowhere in sight. A second later, my eyes landed on Dominic again, like he was a freaking magnet.
He looked okay. I didn’t know if he still had Crackdown in his system because he never shifted in his missions from what I’d read—except in San Francisco—but he didn’t seem like he was in pain. He held his shoulders straight, his hands on his hips as he said something to the Chief…and a blink later, his eyes locked on mine.
My heart skipped a beat, just like that. I expected him to flinch again, but he didn’t. The Chief was saying something to him, and he sometimes nodded, but he never took his eyes from me.
“Oh, my God, I can’t believe it,” Eva whispered. “He’s checking you out. He’s totally checking you out!”
I couldn’t look away from Dominic if I tried.
“Of course, he is—they’re practically a couple,” Hunter said and I heard the grin in his voice, like he wasproud. That mademeflinch.
“I honestly had a few doubts,” Eva said, her voice light with disbelief.
