“You have a lot of optimism, Eric.”
“I’ve been around a while,” Eric said. “It’s experience, not optimism.”
“Do you want me to drop you off somewhere?”
“No.” Eric laced his hands behind his head. “I should check up on what the Shifters are doing at your store. Shane can drive me back.”
• • •
"We’re doing this, with or without my dad,” Jace Warden said.
Jace, Eric’s son, stood straight and tall, looking much like his absent father with his dark hair and green eyes, but more alert, more present than Eric ever let himself seem. Since Jace’s mating—he’d recently taken a mate from the Austin Shiftertown—he’d stood even straighter, with more authority than ever.
Graham stood with Jace, facing the Shifters who were annoyed that Eric hadn’t showed yet. Eric wasn’t coming, Graham realized. He’d sent Jace to do this, letting his son take authority. Talking to Misty had been an excuse. Eric had made sure Graham was here to back up Jace if necessary. Cagey Feline.
The Shifters stood in an old airplane hanger forty miles from town, in remote desert, where a human called Marlo kept his planes. The former drug runner now made his money carrying Shifters where they wanted to go. Shifters couldn’t travel outside a state without special permission, but as usual, Shifters had learned how to get around the rules. Marlo did a brisk business hauling Shifters back and forth. He was discreet, reliable, and knew how to avoid problems.
The Fae-blood human who’d been captured sat in a straight-backed chair at the end of the hanger. He’d been bound in chains of silver, spelled, Graham guessed. Sean Morrissey stood with him, the Sword of the Guardian on his back, his father, Dylan Morrissey, at Sean’s side.
Couldn’t be easy for the Fae-blood, facing a roomful of grim-faced Shifters who’d figured out he’d helped screw them in more ways than one. Couldn’t be easy sitting in a room with Dylan either, one of the most formidable Shifters ever born. No one could predict what Dylan would do.
Bowman had come, as had Eoin from Montana. A couple of Shifters from Shiftertowns in Utah and New Mexico were also there, plus Liam and Sean—basically whoever had been able to get there on short notice.
“He won’t tell us his real name,” Liam said, starting without preamble. “Afraid this will give us unfair advantage.”
A rumble of laughter came from everyone but Dylan and Bowman.
“In the human world,” Dylan said, “he goes by Lorcan.”
The Fae flinched slightly. For the most part, he maintained his arrogance, even though he was outnumbered by angry Shifters ready to kill him. Technically Lorcan was employed by the human government, and Lorcan must have believed the humans would rush to his rescue. But if Liam and Dylan had been true to form, the humans wouldn’t even realize Lorcan had gone.
Lorcan’s father, a half Fae, had come up with the concept of the Collars for Shifters, convincing humans twenty years ago, when the existence of Shifters was revealed, that these were the best way to keep the wild and dangerous Shifters under control. Collars used a combination of technology and Fae magic to react to a Shifter’s adrenal system, giving them shocks when they became violent—in the Collar’s opinion.
Dylan’s rumbling voice silenced the Shifters. “Graham has recently discovered that the Fae in Faerie have created swords that can work in conjunction with the Collars—the swords set off the Collars at the will of the sword’s wielder. Is that correct?” Dylan bent to Lorcan, waiting for him to answer.
Lorcan moved in his seat, but his eyes remained haughty. “If a Fae told you that, that Fae is no longer one of us.”
“Huh,” Graham said. “He told me, because he thought he had total control over me. Thought I’d surrender right there and be his pet, then rush out and bring all my Shifter friends back with me to him.”
“You are Shifter,” Lorcan said to him, his arrogance still present. “You have always been a captive. I am not and never will be.”
“You are now, laddie.” Liam picked up one of the spelled chains binding Lorcan and shook it. “These don’t bother me, but they hold you pretty good. Why don’t you tell us what we want to know?”
“And then what? You kill me? If I am to die, then you can live ignorant.”
“We’re not going to kill you,” Dylan said. His tone was quietly calm, deadly. Graham, who didn’t intimidate easily, wanted to shiver. “You will go back to the Fae and tell them that their experiment failed.”
“Will I?” Lorcan asked, disdainful.
Lorcan, born of a human mother and a half-Fae father, looked human, even more so than most half Fae. He was slender, but his features were very human, his hair wheat brown instead of the severe pale fair of most Fae. His hair covered his ears, but Graham was pretty sure those ears weren’t pointy.
“You will,” Dylan said.
“We know what you’re up to, ass**le,” Graham said. “You and your dad made the Collars, and I’m willing to bet you made or helped make the Fae swords too. Now, what’s the master plan? Or did you just want to make Shifters more miserable? Fae are still pissed off that Shifters won the war against them all those years ago and took their freedom. Get over it, already.”
“This is a waste of time,” Bowman said impatiently. “Break some bones and get some answers. How many of these swords exist? Where are they? Why have the Fae waited to use them?”
“Let Dylan finish,” Jace said sternly.
The other Shifters looked at him, falling silent. Graham saw them adjust their thinking from viewing Jace as an older cub to Jace as Eric’s successor.
Air displaced next to Graham, and Reid was there. Graham had drawn back his fist, ready to punch, but checked himself at the last minute. “Damn it, Reid.”
The other Shifter leaders had started forward, a few of them half shifting. “What the f**k?” Bowman asked. Not everyone had known Reid could teleport.
When Lorcan saw Reid, his assurance drained rapidly. “Dokk alfar.” He continued with a string of weird-sounding words.
“Ironmaster,” Reid said, in English. He held up his hand, which was clasped by a heavy black ring—iron—and advanced on Lorcan.
“What’s he afraid of?” Bowman asked, a growl in his throat. “Iron doesn’t affect mixed-breed Fae. And what the hell is he?” He pointed at Reid.