Page 46 of Hers to Claim

Rio smiled at him, positively glowing with affection. “Yeah.”

“Entonces vámonos.” He herded them toward the passenger compartment where Karma was already behind the wheel and Dasher was belted in at shotgun. “I’m flying overwatch. I’ll see you on the other side.”

Rio watched him take to the sky, and then sighed. “I hate when he’s out of sight.”

Karma shrugged. “He’s the most bulletproof of all of us, but I’d probably feel the same.” She pulled out after the vehicle in front of them.

“Is Tilly flying too?” Mari asked.

“Nah,” Dasher said, looking over his shoulder at them. “She and Kima had a yelling match about it that only ended when Samar grabbed Tilly and pulled her to another vehicle still screaming.”

Karma shook her head. “I can’t decide if the makeup sex is going to be amazing or leave one of them hospitalized when it finally happens.”

“Probably both,” Rio said, still staring out the window.

Mari hoped they got it sorted out soon, because Tilly needed someone she could count on in her life, whether that was Kima or someone else. “Did you and Cisco ever have a time like that? Where on the outside it was all angry feelings?”

From the front seat, Karma snickered.

Rio met her eyes in the rearview mirror and smirked. “She’s laughing because for a long time all we did was argue. About everything. Everyone but us knew why and when we finally got together it was…a lot.”

“You guys full-on destroyed the barracks,” Dasher scoffed. “Everyone who walked in and saw it all busted up just shrugged, because it was about time.”

“Shifters can have difficulty admitting their feelings at the best of times,” Karma said. “But given the climate around here until recently, it’s no wonder Kima is stuck.”

When Mari looked to Rio for an explanation of that he said, “The drive to protect what we care about is really strong and can manifest in weird ways when it feels like that person is threatened.”

Karma shrugged as they exited the expressway behind the lead car. “I tried talking to Kima, but she really didn’t want to hear it.”

“She’ll figure it out,” Dasher said as he looked around for any threats now that they were moving slower.

It was late at night so the traffic was light, especially in the more industrial part of the city where they were headed. Not many people who weren’t locals ever saw this part of Las Vegas where trains were unloaded and machinery stored, and they likely would never recognize the dark streets and shuttered buildings. It was a far cry from the glitz and glamor of the Strip.

They pulled in behind the lead vehicle along the curb of an unremarkable patch of street. Kima and Dancer and Nara poured out of the lead SUV and looked ahead of them toward a large poorly lit building.

Mari exited and walked to where the group in front of them waited.

Cisco landed beside her with a rush of wind. “Surrounding buildings are clear.”

Kima glanced her way. “Dancer says wards start about ten feet out from the fence line.”

Mari looked over the area. The presence of wards seemed to indicate that they were indeed in the right place. Ahead of them, the sidewalk was clear all the way to the enclosure. Magic tingledon the edge of her awareness, like something moving just out of sight.

“I need everyone to stay back here except Rio.”

Cisco looked unhappy with her choice but didn’t question her. He gestured to the group coming up from the last vehicle to hold back a bit. “I’m coming in to get you if anything so much as twitches.”

She shook her head. “Not until the wards are down.”

He frowned. “How long will that take?”

“Depends what kind of witch put them up.” She unfocused her eyes as she looked in that direction, then shrugged. A witch whose power was substantially different than hers would be harder to read. Pricilla’s magic was a simple matter to scan and unravel, Greta’s too, but when she’d tried the same thing with Giselle’s wards, it had been much more difficult. “Feels weird.”

“Yeah,” Dancer said. “They did something to camouflage it. Never seen that before.”

Scanning the area in front of the fence, Mari moved closer, Rio walking at her side quietly. The noise of the guards talking behind them faded as they moved down the street. Rio’s eyes restlessly swept the dead end ahead of them for threats.

Even closer, she couldn’t really get a handle on the wards. They were there, certainly, but it was like her sense skipped over them rather than landing on them.

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