Helen frowned. “I don’t think so.”
“Well, she was.”
“Do you have any kind of proof?” asked Joseph. “If we’re going to gear up for an assault, we need to be using good information, not the daydreams of a mentally challenged woman.”
Madoc felt a flash of anger explode below the surface of his skin. He forced himself to keep his hand away from his sword, though he had no idea where he’d found that kind of control. The need to make Joseph pay for the insult in blood was pounding through him. Only the cooling presence of Nika in his mind stayed his hand. “You need to stop right there before you say something I can’t ignore.”
From the doorway, Madoc heard a faint intake of breath. He was compelled to turn toward the sound and saw Nika standing there.
“No, Madoc. Let him go on. It would be nice to know what he really thinks.” She was breathing fast. Her cheeks were flushed, as if she’d run there. Her white hair was tousled from bed, and the imprint of a fold in the pillowcase creased her cheek. She came in and stood next to Madoc, and put her hands on her hips.
He could feel the hurt radiating out from her, making her tremble slightly—not enough to see, but enough that he could feel the stirring of air between them.
“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, Nika,” said Joseph, as if talking to a child. “Really. I just need to know what’s real here, and what isn’t.”
“I’ll be happy to show you, but you’re not going to enjoy it.”
She glanced at Madoc, and he knew from that mischievous look in her eyes that he was not going to like what happened next. “Catch me?” she asked before she did that thing where she collapsed to the ground like someone had yanked the life from her body.
Madoc scooped her up before she hit the ground. She was limp, lifeless. Only the trickle of power being tugged out of him let him know she was safe and sound. That trickle grew, making him wonder whether Tori was fighting Nika’s connection again.
“I really hate it when she does this,” he muttered as he settled into a chair, cradling her in his lap.
“Does what?” asked Joseph. Then he went still. His face went blank. His eyes flared wide. Small, almost strangled sounds came out of his throat.
Angus stepped forward.
“Don’t,” said Madoc. “She’s not going to hurt him.”
“He looks like she is doing just that.”
“If you’d seen Tori, you’d look like that, too. She’s completely fucked-up.”
Suddenly, Joseph sucked in a long breath and bent double, as if trying not to throw up.
Nika’s eyes opened, tears clinging at the corners.
The room was utterly silent. They looked at Nika with a newfound respect—one bordering on fear. If it was that easy for her to slide inside Joseph’s mind, he guessed they were each wondering who was next, and what Nika might see if she went poking around.
Madoc was certain that he was not the only man here with secrets to hide.
Which meant he was going to have to keep a close eye on her here, too. If one of the other men was hiding a barren lifemark—or worse—he was not going to want Nika to find out. Not only would she be in danger outside Dabyr, but she would be in danger here, too. And there was no way Iain was going to give up the names of the men in the Band. He was the only one who knew who they were. Madoc wasn’t going to be able to trust any of the unbound men.
Madoc’s grip on her tightened. What the hell was he going to do with her? He had no business guarding such a precious gift. He was going to fuck up and get her killed. And the damage he would wreak once she was gone was not something he liked to think about.
Everyone was still too quiet. The silence was growing eerier by the second.
Madoc had to clear his throat before he could speak. “Do you believe her now, or do you need another display?”
“One was plenty.” Joseph pushed himself upright, but he was still a little paler than normal. “What you showed me was real, right? Not some mind trick?”
“It was real,” said Nika. “If I wasn’t so tired, I could have kept us there long enough for you to talk to her. She doesn’t want me near her anymore.”
“We’re going in after Tori. It’s just a question of how we’re going to get her out alive. How far away is she?”
“We’re not sure. Nika and I are working on finding her. She put some pictures in my head that might show us where she is, but they’re scrambled.”
“We’ll have them unscrambled today,” said Nika, completely confident.
He loved that about her—her absolute faith that he would come through. It never failed to awe him.
“Do you know anything else?” asked Joseph. “Any other clues that might tell us where she is, how many other humans there are with her, or how many of the Synestryn we’ll need to take down to reach her?”
“All I know for sure is that some fuckhead named Zillah has her.”
Gilda’s black eyes landed on Madoc, making him squirm.
She pushed herself to her feet. “Did you say Zillah?”
“Yeah. Know him?”
Gilda and Angus shared a look. He reached for her as if wanting to give or receive comfort, but Gilda ignored his outstretched hand.
“He’s the one who convinced Maura to switch sides and work for him. He’s a powerful Synestryn. All I really know is that he commands thousands.”
“Tori has seen Maura. She might still be with him. Tori included him in that jumble of images she gave me. He looks almost human. When the fuck did they start looking like us?” asked Madoc.
Angus pulled in a deep breath. “We thought he was an anomaly.”
“Angus, don’t,” said Gilda.
“No. It’s time. They need to know,” he told his wife.
“Know what?” demanded Joseph.
Angus turned back to the group. “We didn’t tell anyone that the Synestryn were starting to look more human because we worried what the men close to the end of their time might do. How many humans would die because of mistaken identity?”
Joseph stood, pressing his hands flat on the desk as he leaned toward Angus, his face red with barely controlled rage. “You told me their attempt to look more human had failed the night you killed that abomination—that demon with a child’s face. You should have told me about Zillah. As your leader, I should have known.”
“We chose not to tell you what we learned. There was nothing you could have done with the knowledge,” said Angus.
“How do you know? You never let me try.”
Gilda’s face twisted with rage. “We almost died trying to get Maura away from him. If he’s strong enough to nearly kill a bonded pair of Theronai, there was no way you or any of the unbound men here could have stopped him with swords alone. You would have tried and you would have died. I couldn’t let that happen.”
Joseph’s hands bunched into fists. “It was my decision to make. Not yours. Who knows what I might have been able to do. Maybe Tori would never have been taken at all. We’ll never know now.”
“It was my decision,” said Gilda. “Don’t punish Angus for something I did.”
“He went along with it,” stated Joseph, his voice as cold and final as a grave.
“And I’d do it again, too. We were upholding our vow to protect humans, Joseph. If that means keeping secrets, so be it.”
This was going to get out of hand fast. Madoc couldn’t let that happen. Too much was at stake. “Tori doesn’t have time for us to argue about this right now. She’s due any day and says that a lot of the girls there don’t make it through labor.”
“There’s more than one girl there?” asked Helen, horrified.
Drake laid a hand on her knee.
Angus shook his head in regret. “Last year we found a demon that looked like a human child. It wasn’t. It was venomous, fanged. It attacked us and tried to kill us, but I think it’s clear now where it came from.”
Joseph nodded. “That’s why Andra has been so busy. Why so many blooded children have gone missing. They’ve been stealing them, using them for more than just food.”
“How is that even possible?” asked Gilda. “Human and Synestryn can’t interbreed—they’re too different.”
That sparked Madoc’s memory. “Last year, when we took Nika from the mental hospital, she was freaked-out because they were feeding Tori blood, because they were changing her. When we saw Tori in her mind, she looked odd. I’m not sure if what she looked like in her head is what she really looks like in person, but her blood was too dark under her skin. Maybe whatever it is they do to these kids allows them to grow up and bear children that are part human, part Synestryn.”
“I didn’t imagine what they did to my sister,” stated Nika. “I was there. I saw it. I felt it. I know she’s hidden some things from me, but I remember the way the blood burned her mouth and throat. I remember how many times she threw up, only to have them do it again. They changed her.”
The room fell silent as the implications sank in.
“It seems to fit,” said Joseph, “but I don’t want to jump to any conclusions. The Synestryn have been able to reproduce without any problems. Why would they go to all this trouble?”
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Nicholas. “If they looked more human, they’d be less scary. Part of their mojo would be gone.”
“Not to mention the fact that they’re diluting the power of their own bloodlines,” said Gilda. “They’re weakening themselves by doing this.”
“No,” said Helen. Her face had gone ashen and she was trembling badly enough that Madoc could see it across the room. Drake’s arm circled her shoulders and she leaned into him. “They’re trying to become more human.”
“Why?” asked Gilda, incredulous. “What possible reason could they have to do that? They’d be weaker, live shorter lives. That’s what happened to the Slayers.”
“If they look human, who among you would be able to hunt them down and kill them? If their offspring are part human, where do you draw the line? Who dies? Half humans? Quarter humans? How do your vows to protect humans deal with this?”
Madoc had no idea. All he knew was that Iain was the only one he knew who had volunteered to hunt down these abominations. And his soul was long dead.
“What better way to protect their young than to turn them into the one thing you’re sworn to protect? They’re counting on your honor, using it as a weakness.”
“Helen’s right,” said Madoc.
“We are so screwed,” whispered Joseph. “We’ve got to stop this. Now. Before it’s too late.”
“Assuming it isn’t already,” said Drake.
Joseph put on his game face. “We need to rescue these kids, have the Sanguinar study them to see if what’s been done to them can be undone. And whether we can stop it from happening again.” He turned to Nicholas. “How long before everyone is back?”
