Sebastian gestured to me. “There be two knives in the backpack, with sheaths that can be strapped to your thigh and upper arm.”
His voice was cold, almost irritated. He wasn’t happy about us being here—I didn’t know if it was because he was worried about bringing raw recruits into this situation, or if it was just Sebastian being Sebastian.
I pulled the knives free—one was, for me, more a short sword. A full twelve inches in length. I opened my cloak and strapped it to my leg.
The Bellati took the smaller knife from me. “The arm sheath be designed to hold it upside down, so you can draw it in a hurry.”
He stepped close, and I inhaled his scent—musky, like a shifter, but subtly different from Matt. The clasp on the arm sheath was designed for one-handed fastening, and he made short work of attaching it. His fingers brushed my skin, sending tingles radiating outward. I shivered.
He seemed unaffected as he showed me how the knife slid into the sheath, and I heard it click home. “You have to push here to free it.” He pointed to the indented spot.
“Okay.” I tried to infuse my voice with more confidence than I actually felt. I glanced at Matt, who stared at the tall Bellati with lowered brows. His eyes gleamed with his beast.
Sebastian turned to him. “We need your nose.” His tone was brusque, even for him.
“How good is your sense of smell?” I asked.
“Nothing be as good as a Dire nose,” the Bellati said.
Matt was full of questions, too. “How virgin is this realm? Am I tracking more than just our Dires?”
Sebastian gestured impatiently to the guards. “Shades have to be observant. Gateways often use non-native species for the guardians. If they are hiding and fully disguised, the realm might be virgin.”
I dutifully examined the guards. “So the fact they are neither disguised nor hiding indicates that this realm knows all about gates and Cryptids?”
“It’s your first clue,” Sebastian corrected. “If they be a different species from what we encounter on the streets, then you can be pretty certain of your assumption. So yes, you might scent other Dires.” He tugged his own hood further over his face. “But we need to keep things low-key, or we might spook our quarry.”
He sounded annoyed at having to describe what, to him, was elementary stuff. Matt stiffened at the edge to Sebastian’s words, but nodded and pulled his cloak hood further forward. I caught the merest glimpse of his lengthened jaws as he partially altered his face to his beast in order to use its superior nose.
Instantly, his head swung up the alley, and his feet followed.
Sebastian gestured for me to precede him, while Matt fell in a step behind. The knot inside me tightened further. Somewhere in this realm were those that had kidnapped two twin Sabres. I couldn’t imagine how frightened the shifter children would be. I glanced around us.
“How much lead time do they have?” I asked.
“About an hour.” There was a growling undertone to the Bellati’s voice. Anger? Dread? “Long enough.”
I swallowed. Long enough to give the kidnappers time to disappear, he meant. Far too much hinged on Matt’s nose. And they had disguised their scent. “Are you following the pepper smell?” I whispered ahead to Matt.
“Uh-huh,” he muttered back, sounding distracted. He was bent over, bringing his nose closer to the ground.
The alley split into three, and Matt stopped, swinging his entire body to the right, and then facing the center alley.
“Trail splits here,” he said. “Most goes straight, but a lighter scent goes right.”
I couldn’t see Sebastian’s face beneath his hood, but his tall form straightened, gazing off to the right.
“That way.” He pointed.
What factors fed into that decision remained a mystery, but Matt turned that way without question. Our pace accelerated, pausing only when we reached another intersection. But Matt’s nose picked the trail up again, and we jogged along an even narrower alley.
There were no lights here, and I had a difficult time navigating the debris. More than once, I tripped and banged into Sebastian. He merely grunted and, a couple of times, pushed me back onto my feet.
My first true mission, and I felt pretty damned useless. The futures of those little girls were in our hands, and I had no idea how to help them.
Matt stopped so suddenly that I almost ran right into him.Smooth, Anna.The Dire straightened to his full height, his hood tilting back as he lifted his beast nose.
“They’ve gone up,” he said.
