Page 33 of Heir of Ashes

He didn’t answer. Either he didn’t hear me—the bracelet’s effect—or he chose to ignore me. His strides were long, eating up the distance fast. My legs were long, but I still had to hurry to keep up.

“Hey!” I called loudly, dodging a huge black umbrella that almost blinded me.

Logan glanced my way and gave me a once-over. “A hotel, maybe,” he said, crossing the street.

I followed, jumping over a big puddle by the sidewalk.

“I need somewhere private so I can check you for anything the Society is using to track you.”

That thought sent a chill down my spine. My steps faltered before my mind raced to catch up with the wild thoughts his words caused. I shivered violently at the idea that the PSS could track me. Or it could have been the cold rain pelting my face. Either way, my mind cleared fast.

No way. I shook my head. “I ran away over a year and a half ago. If they could track me, I’d have been back in their clutches a long time ago.”

“How many times have they found you since?”

“Three. We’ve already established the Bad Boy Team was sent by Remo.”

“Four, because I was given your exact location the day I met you. No, that’s not true. It’s five with the ambush today.”

Another shiver crawled down my spine.

“Look, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they have some clever PI on retainer who they use whenever they have a particular subject they want found,” he conceded. “But it doesn’t hurt to check.”

We turned another corner and Logan pointed ahead to a stucco building. Two sycamore trees stood high before it. “We’ll rent a room there.”

“Alright.” Sensing he had something else to say, I prompted, “What’s on your mind?”

He hesitated for a brief second. “What if, you know, they have been keeping tabs on you all along?”

“What would they do that for?” I wondered warily. “It wouldn’t have furthered any research.” Wasn’t that what Dr. Maxwell kept boasting about?The PSS will be the most recognizable research facility in the entire world … we have the best scientists … our research has improved the living conditions of many … the PSS prevented a war from breaking out in South Africa … stopped a supernatural revolution from overthrowing human authorities in Europe … the development of the strongest weapons in the hands of the U.S …

As if there were no preternaturals anywhere but in the United States. I couldn’t imagine how watching me run and hide would advance any project.

“I don’t know. Maybe they wanted to see how you interacted with other people. I could be wrong.” He shrugged his shoulders, but I could tell he wasn’t convinced.

But I was. There was no way they were watching when I attacked the fire mage and didn’t interrupt. No way … Yet no one from the diner had come out. Hadn’t I seen someone by the diner’s glass door? I stopped, and the woman behind me almost plowed right through me. I barely felt the impact, but the cuss word muttered under her breath came through clearly enough.

My God, if they’d been watching that day when I killed the fire mage … They must have had a field day. It made sense—no wonder no one had come out of the diner to check on the commotion. But they wouldn’t have known what I did to the vampire. We were inside my room; they would have needed cameras to monitor indoors. A sudden thought struck me like a slap, brutal and shocking. The week after I’d rented a room at Marian’s Bed and Breakfast, she had explained how John, the local handyman, had been sick and sent a replacement from the next town over to fix things around the house. She hadchastised me for not telling her about my faulty lighting and praised the nice, respectful, handsome man. At the time, I’d dismissed her ramblings as the attempts of an old lady bent on matchmaking. But hadn’t he been fixing the light that had been working perfectly when I’d left for work? I had told myself either John was mistaken or the new handyman misunderstood John’s instructions. If they had been watching that day with the vampire or the fire mage, or even the werewolf I outran with inhuman speed, leaping off a three-story roof without breaking a limb or momentum …

Those bastards!All this time!Rage gripped me like a vise and I doubled over to keep myself from exploding.All along! This whole time! I thought I was free of them, but I had been nothing more than a freak show, a pawn in a sick game. They had sent me some goons, sat back, and watched how I managed. If I won, I stepped up to the next level, a higher goon. If I lost, game over and back I’d go into the PSS cages.

Logan said something, but his words were drowned out by the storm raging inside me. My anger surged like a wildfire, fierce and uncontrollable, and I had to press my hands against both sides of my head to keep the fury from taking control. A low, guttural growl rattled inside my chest, primal and raw, reverberating through my entire being. Logan crouched in front of me, his hands wrapping around mine, and said something that was lost to the haze.

A tremor ran down my body—I was teetering on the edge of something dangerous. Something I couldn’t name. It should have terrified me, but all I could think about was storming that PSS base and unleashing chaos. Every thought, every emotion, every fiber of my being was consumed by the thought of the Scientists reveling each time I exposed myself.

The next growl turned into a gasp halfway through, my anger giving way to an agony that was just as intense. Logan’shand continued squeezing my twice-dislocated shoulder until tears sprang to my eyes.

“Watch the talons,” he murmured, urgency in his voice.

Seeing my confusion amid the haze of pain and dissipating anger, he tapped a finger on my wrist. “The talons.”

I glanced down. My talons were out. Logan’s right hand half-covered them, but a glance around showed we had gathered quite a crowd. I retracted my talons and wiped tears of rage from my face, only for them to be replaced by the pounding rain. Kincaid’s dulling spell had worn off, and now my shoulder and head were throbbing with a vengeance.

“You all right?” Logan asked, still shielding me from prying eyes, concern clear in his searching gaze.

I nodded. A moment later, he straightened and assured the gathered crowd that I was fine, just received some bad news from home.

Home indeed, my inner voice scoffed.

---