Death Knell by Hailey Edwards

Author:Hailey Edwards
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780349417103
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Santiago greeted me onscreen wearing a maniacal grin. Gore smeared his face, and his hair was plastered to one side of his scalp with dried blood. Portia crammed in behind him and let Mags surface long enough to wave at me before tucking her back in where it was safe.

Call me optimistic, but I figured that meant their mission was also successful.

I wasn’t sure yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing beyond the obvious that I was grateful we had all made it out the other side unscathed. “Where’s Miller?”

Santiago cranked up his deranged smile into berserker territory. “Digesting.”

“I see.” The division of assets made a lot more sense once he put it like that. “Cole is too.”

“Cole is probably wishing he had a toothpick right about now. Miller doesn’t have that problem.”

Meaning . . . he swallowed his victims whole versus chewing first?

Not gonna ask. Don’t wanna know. I’m happy living here in Ignoranceville, population: Luce.

He peered around me but got an eyeful of headrest since I was holed up in the SUV. “Where are the others?”

“Cole is on aerial surveillance, Thom went cat in the driver’s seat to clean up, Wu is on the phone with Kapoor.” I spun the tablet around to give him an eyeful of Thom licking his unmentionables. “And I got the pleasure of checking in with unit two, which would be you.”

“Uh, no.” He laughed with an edge of challenge. “We’re unit one.”

Exhausted, filthy, and smelly I might be, but I couldn’t resist needling him.

“’Fraid not.” I tsked at him. “Cole and I are both here. That makes us number one.”

“I said we’re unit one.” Santiago’s face got a lot closer to the screen. “If we’re talking number one—”

“Are you two children really fighting over this?” Portia palmed his forehead and shoved him back. “Now?” She caught sight of my face and sighed. “Him, I get. I made peace with the fact he’s a man-child long ago. But I expected better from you, Luce.”

“I’ll try to behave.” I don’t think the smirk sold her on my contrition. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, report.”

“The nest was exactly where Sariah indicated. It was located in a warehouse district, which made it easier on us. One human was injured in the skirmish—a security guard on watch—but we left him at the hospital. We counted a dozen Drosera and maybe another dozen charun of various species. All local.”

Mixing ranks couldn’t be a good sign. “She’s recruiting?”

“You remember Veronica? The receptionist at the lab? The one you hid from to avoid having your feet kissed?” Santiago smirked at my unease. “There are fanatics like her on every terrene. Each member of the cadre is idolized. Some charun worship the four as goddesses. There are entire sects devoted to furthering your goals, and that means planting agents throughout the terrenes. All the cadre has to do is ask, and their vessels will sacrifice themselves on the altar of your ambition.”

“Good to know.

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