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My fingers slid into his golden hair. I bent down to catch his lips with mine, needing that contact. As if his kiss were the only thing that could convince me he was really here, back where hebelonged.
“I’m sorry,” he said when I eased back. His voice was weary too, its rasp thickened. “I meant to be back sooner. I know how worried you must havebeen.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “I’m just glad you’re back now. And okay. Whathappened?”
“He got himself stuck,” Alice said, her dry tone more solemn than usual. She was leaning against the wall across from the bed, her arms crossed over her chest, looking equallyexhausted.
Aaron chuckled faintly. “That’s a fairly accurate description. I spotted some shifter movement below just before I would have planned to head back. They’ve set up a little camp, a few trailers and tents... I dipped down to confirm they were rogues, heard them talking, and found a perch I could listen from. But I stayed too long. Before I had a chance to leave, a couple of avian rogues shifted and took their posts around the camp, one of them close enough to me that he’d have noticed me leaving and raised thealarm.”
“Couldn’t out fly a couple of lesser birdies?” Marco said, mildlyteasing.
“There was a falcon there, and a vulture,” Aaron said. “They could have done some damage. But I was more concerned that what I’d learned wouldn’t do us any good if they knew I’d overheard it. They’d have changed theirplans.”
“So he just waited there until I turned up and distracted them,” Alice put in. “You’re lucky we’ve got our sibling bond, or Lord knows how long you’d have been waitingthere.”
Aaron rolled his shoulders. “You can believe I’m glad you got there as soon as you did.” He raised his head to meet my eyes again. “Thank you for sending her. It was the rightcall.”
“Remember that the next time you want to go off alone,” I said. “So whatdidyou learn? What were they talking about? How close are they? Do we have to startpreparing?”
He raised his hand to slow me down. When I went quiet, he tugged my wrist to sit me on the bed next to him. I wrapped my arm around his, watching his face as he started tospeak.
“It sounded as though we should be fine as long as we’re here,” he said. “Unless, I suppose, we stay longer than they’re expecting. They’re settled in about a three-hour eagle-flight from here. The plans I heard, they were talking about waiting until we were on the move again. It was clear they assumed that within the next few days we’ll be leaving here and heading toward the felineestate.”
“That is what would make the most sense,” Natesaid.
Aaron nodded. “They want to catch us along the way. Make an attack with the advantage of surprise, on terrain they feel will skew the odds even more in their favor.” He glanced at me to add an explanation. “Normally we’d make it a road trip so we could stop and meet with a few of the more distant communities along the way. We save the jets foremergencies.”
“We could make an exception in a case like this, couldn’t we?” Isaid.
“But then we’d lose our chance of confronting them. As soon as we reach Marco’s estate, they’ll have to make different plans. They’ll move into a newposition.”
“Well, where’s this prime terrain they’re hoping to catch us at?” Westasked.
“I don’t know,” Aaron admitted. “Either they’d already decided and didn’t see the need to mention it to each other, or they haven’t decided yet and are waiting to see what actions we take first. I couldn’t tell from the way they talked aboutit.”
Marco brushed his hands together. “Well, it doesn’t matter, does it? Now we know where they are. We’ll go deal with them before they can set up their littlesurprise.”
“I agree,” Aaron said. “But the difficulty is how. They’re monitoring the area around the estate. They’ll know if we set off straight toward their camp and scatter before we get anywhere near them. I counted around forty of them there. From what the rogue prisoner said, that might be as much as half of their remaining number. If we strike, it needs to be in a way that ensures none of them escapes. Otherwise we’ll just have to deal with them againlater.”
“I’ve definitely had enough of that,” West muttered. “Enough with the constant fleeing and regrouping. As long as enough rogues are out there to stir up trouble, none of our kin are trulysafe.”
“Renwon’t be safe,” Nate said. He moved to stand beside me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “They’ve gotten away with too much already. It’s about time they faced someconsequences.”
“An excellent sentiment,” Marco said. “It still doesn’t answer the question ofhow.”
Aaron rubbed his mouth. He looked so tired I wanted to tell the others to leave, to let him rest, but I knew from the determination in his stance that he wanted this settled. He’d waited out the rogues and spent the rest of the night flying back just so we could have this discussion. So we could come up with a plan of our own. I didn’t think he’d be willing to rest until he knew the information he’d brought back could be put to realuse.
“We do have some advantage now,” Nate said. “We know they’ll be trying to spring something onus.”
“The trek from here to Florida is pretty long,” Marco said. “We can’t be on full alert constantly. I’d like a way to completely turn the tables onthem.”
An idea tickled its way into my head. I straightened up next to Aaron. “You know what? I think we already have the answer righthere.”
Chapter 10
Ren
“Idon’t know about this,”Nate said as we tramped down the stairs toward the basement holdingcells.
