Talakai was in full assassin mode, gliding through the booths like a ghost. Keeping him on target was never an issue. Stopping him from seeing demons beneath every cloak was. He never worried for himself, so much as the rest of us. I had a hard time convincing him that not everyone was out to kill us.
Although I didn’t particularly want to run into a Gretik priest either.
Now I reached for the one who was more wild card than team member. As expected, he was several aisles away and running silent.
Nothing yet,Sebastian responded to my wordless query. Even his mindvoice was stiff. It didn’t bother me, it was just Sebastian’s way. Talakai called him an arrogant ass. “A right bastard,” was Matt’s take on it, and he had an exasperating tendency to shorten the Bellati’s name to Baz just to make him snarl.
Sebastian never complained about being called a bastard. But he was our bastard now.
I glanced at the bond bracelet fastened over the top of my arm guard. It now had five chains—my ring finger had a rearing Unicorn spanning from knuckle to first joint, with a horn carved from crystal. And my pinkie had a running dog chasing a crystal-enhanced fish—Mari had chosen it to represent the last two members of our team.
Something about Sebastian’s mindvoice niggled at me. He usually sounded harsh, but this time, he’d also sounded distracted.
I focused my energy on him.Everything okay?
No response. Which was a response. He was there, but just not answering me.
Sebastian!
His reply wasn’t directed to me.Talakai, go beast, swing north.
Hey, what’s up?Matt asked.
I cursed in my head. Sebastian had a tendency to forget who was team leader. Or, for that matter, alpha of our quad.
Belay that, Talakai. Sebastian, what the hell? Have you found the target?
A burst of frustration, followed by,There’s a Bellati at the market. He’s sensed me. We need to cut him off.
A Bellati at the market? The only ones currently off their home realm were the group still working on the river, as well as Eli and Cass at the academy. And Nikolai, of course, although he technically wasn’t a trained Bellati.
But there was another group out in the realms, and Talakai beat me to the right question.
Is he Isobel’s?
He be not ours,Sebastian growled.
My heart accelerated.Matt, Talakai, follow Sebastian’s orders. We have to get this guy.My lips pursed as I added,Alive. He’s no good to us dead.
Training mission forgotten, I grabbed Mari by the arm, and she hunched closer as I filled her in. She nodded and loomed over me as I changed course and sent Trix ahead. Matt, now totally focused, came across from our left to vanish into the aisles ahead of us. Sebastian’s curt directions had him moving in an arc to fall in behind the fleeing Bellati.
Let me see, Sebastian.
A hesitation, and he opened his mind to me. Recognizing the glazed look in my eyes, Mari took me by the elbow and guided me.
I saw through not only Sebastian’s eyes, but Talakai’s, Matt’s, and Trix’s. Sebastian deliberately stayed right at the fringes of what the other Bellati could sense, but the reality was that he drove him toward Talakai.
Who was no longer on the ground.
My perspective dipped and swayed as the Dragon soared above us, his keen eyes scanning the aisles below. He spotted the cloaked figure ducking through a booth only two aisles over from where Matt prowled. Sebastian was farther away, using his energy to push the quarry toward the edges of the market.
The target had no way of knowing that he had an entire team after him, or a Dragon in the sky watching his every move. He reached the perimeter booths and ducked into one of the alleys.
Hold, Matt,Sebastian instructed as the Dire-turned-Dragon neared the entrance to the alley. I sensed Sebastian running, now, to close the trap. I pushed myself faster, weaving Mari and myself through the booths. Trix led the way, linked through me to where Matt now stood.
Sebastian got there first.
Now, Talakai,Sebastian said.
