Kin by Jennifer Quintenz

Author:Jennifer Quintenz [Quintenz, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jennifer Quintenz

The ride back to the warehouse was a blur. Gretchen sat across from me in the back of the van, watching me with a steely expression. Matthew traded a nervous glance with Clay. Even Sansenoy eyed me with unease.

I ignored them all, doing my best to push thoughts of Dad to the back of my mind. I couldn’t do anything for him right now. But I could help stop Seth.

The van pulled to a stop, and Gretchen opened the sliding door. We climbed out, along with a dozen Guardsmen and Sansenoy.

Sutherland gestured to the small strike force we’d brought as backup. They followed his lead wordlessly, vanishing around the back of the warehouse. Clay emerged from the van, guiding Justin forward. The widower looked dazed. He blinked, as though trying to make sense of what he was seeing around him. Thankfully, the Guardsmen around us were too focused on the job to notice.

Gretchen drew her daggers, taking a post on our left flank. Sutherland's demolitions expert, Riggs, moved to guard the right. He held a dagger in one hand, but the other hand was gripping the remote that would trigger detonation of the planted explosives.

“Quickly,” I murmured. Sutherland and I had walked through a dry run this morning so I’d know exactly where we needed to move to avoid the blast, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable until we were in position. “Justin, you remember what we talked about?”

Justin nodded blankly. It wasn’t exactly comforting, but it was the best we were going to get.

When I turned back to the others, they were already moving toward the warehouse. It was now or never.

Seth would be expecting us to usher Sansenoy into the warehouse. Given the situation, it was natural for us to be strung tight with anxiety, so I wasn’t worried that our nervous energy would give us up. The crucial element of our plan was Justin. Seth had no idea who Justin was, or what he was capable of—which meant Seth wouldn’t know we could see him.

I took Justin’s arm and started forward. The moment Justin saw any flicker of movement inside the target zone, he would call it out and Riggs would set off the detonation and trap Seth in the blind corner with no easy way to escape.

We reached the door to the warehouse and slipped inside. It took my eyes no time to adjust to the shift in brightness, but I felt the human members of the party slow while their vision normalized. I used the pause to run my eyes over the space. It looked just as it had when we'd left this morning.

I glanced at Justin, keeping my voice low. “Do you see him?”

Justin blinked again. “What?”

“The Lilitu. Look around. Do you see him?” I heard the tension in my voice and forced myself to take a steadying breath.

Justin hesitated. “What am…?” He lifted a hand to rub his eyes. It looked like he was coming out of a dream. “I shouldn’t be here. What am I doing here?” And then his gaze focused on my face.

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