"Maybe a little." She hooked her arm through his, her smile huge, and led him away from the chopper.
Turning, Bo sent the pilot a thank-you salute. The other man returned the gesture before taking off to make the journey back to his base at the airport.
Bo almost flagged him back down. He'd left part of himself in the deep, and how the fuck was he supposed to function without his heart?
His lungs tight, he drew Lily to the edge of the roof so he could look out over a Venice gilded by the gold of the setting sun. The glorious hues of the buildings dusted with snow, the winding canals, the gondolas, the buskers, it was all so familiar and it had always before soothed his soul. Today, however, he strained to glimpse the ocean that was Kaia's home.
"Do you think it'd be difficult to shift Alliance HQ?"
His sister threw him a startled look. "Well . . . we've been here a long time. The land the HQ stands on belongs to the Alliance and because we've been here so long, we have intricate security measures in place that it would take years to re-create in another location."
He could feel her examining his face with those big gray eyes that had been so bleak and stunned when his parents first brought her home. "Is it Kaia?" A gentle question. "You always smile when you talk about her."
"Yes." Bo blew out a breath. "She's my mate, Lily. And she's a world away."
"You could run a lot of things remotely. Our comm center is strong, and--"
"And our people need to see me here, in the thick of things." He shook his head at her, this sister of his who'd back him in any decision. "We're still so fragile." Like the finely blown glass out of Murano; a single crack could destroy everything. "Heenali?"
"Still nothing." Shadows drifted across Lily's face, the gold of the sunset eclipsed by an inner darkness. "It's not looking good for her, is it?"
"No." Bo turned his gaze back to his city. "Cassius is on her ex's trail?"
"Yes. He checked in a couple of hours ago, is following the new financial trace I picked up." She slipped her hands into the pockets of her coat, her breath frosting the air. "We're fracturing, Bo. It's good you came back now. Any longer . . ."
"The first thing I'm going to do is set up a stronger line of succession."
"It won't work." Lily's eyes appeared like Malachai's pale gold in this light. "We're too young in our current incarnation. Someone has to be the anchor for every new creation--and you're ours." Her sleek black hair was gilt under the sunlight. "But that doesn't mean you aren't allowed to have love. We'll figure this out. Venice is the least landlocked city in the world. Kaia could swim out to the ocean anytime she wanted. Lots of water changelings call it home."
Bo thought of his siren with her need for the safety of the black around Ryujin, of her heart so tied to the blue, and shook his head. "She's a creature of the deep, Lily. It would be like trying to cage a butterfly."
* * *
*
KAIA didn't cry. She lavished her love on her newborn clanmate. She made treats for the entire station. She swam until her breath was lost and her heart thundered. And she spent every night dreaming of a human tied to her by a bond that would never break but that was stretched painfully thin across the vast distance that separated them.
The creature inside her swam in agitated circles, unable to think.
Nothing was right. Nothing was as it should be.
Bebe took one look at her four days after Bowen's departure and said, "Well? I told you your time would come. Make your choice, girl." Harsh words, but her hand was gentle where it patted the back of Kaia's. "You either fight or you curl up and die. Only two choices."
* * *
*
TEN days after his return and Bowen was still missing two of his senior people. Heenali remained off the grid while Cassius continued to track her surprisingly slippery ex. Added to that, the slew of recent media stories about the Alliance crumbling from within meant Bo had to show his face at certain events when he'd far rather be alone.
He was also going out of his mind missing his mate, though he could feel her inside him in a way he couldn't explain. He just knew that Kaia lived and that he'd realize at once if anything happened to her. But he couldn't reach out and touch her, couldn't kiss her, couldn't dance with her on the streets of his beloved Venezia while a busker played a love song.
Releasing a rough exhale, he glanced at the comm. He called her every morning and every night, and she sent him little messages throughout the day, but today, the comm was silent. She hadn't been on the station when he called--probably out for a swim in the black--and he hadn't yet received any messages.
"Bo?" One of his knights appeared in the doorway to his office. "We still on for the meeting?"
Bo forced himself to look away from the comm. "Yes." And he got to work--the stronger he could make the Alliance, the more time he could spend away from the HQ without devastating consequences for the organization he'd spilled his lifeblood to grow and keep strong.
It was around two o'clock that he decided to comm Ryujin again, but he got an alert on his phone before he could get to the comm. A jet-chopper was about to land on the roof: ID pings as BlackSea.
Bo left his office at a run, taking the stairs three at a time. It was unlikely to be Kaia, but he swore he could feel her closer than usual. Then he was at the door to the roof and pushing it open against the wind of the chopper's landing. One look at the machine's sleek profile, along with the wave sigil on the door, and he confirmed it was a BlackSea craft. He couldn't identify the pilot from here, but he felt his siren.
Waiting only until the jet-chopper was safely parked, though its blades continued to spin, he ran toward it. The door opened before he reached it, Kaia jumping out into his arms. He crushed her to him, his entire body a buzz of delight. Above them, the chopper's blades began to slow before coming to a standstill.
"I missed you." Kaia's lips on his, her hands on his face, her scent swirling around them. "God, I missed you so much."
Having identified the pilot by now, Bo fell into the kiss like a starving man, the need in him an endless ocean. "Kaia." Another kiss, another wave of piercing rightness. "What are you doing here?" He grabbed her shoulders. "You took the fucking meds." The healer had told him exactly how bad those meds were for her system long-term.
"Stop scowling." She poked a finger into his chest. "I've been working with the healers and the counselors and Ivy Jane Zen. I hitched a ride with Mal for a short test, to see if anything's working." A deep breath, another. "I am on the meds, but it's a lighter dose. I have you deep inside me now and it's changed the balance."
"How?" he asked roughly.
"I can lean on you." Simple, powerful words. "You might get a backwash of my fear."
"Throw it all on me if you can." He'd shoulder every ounce of her pain if she'd let him.
"It doesn't work that way, but"--a determined smile full of affection-- "let's see how I go."
"I still want to shake you." Bo gripped her by the upper arms. "You're in pain."
"No pain, no gain." Then she leaned in and nipped playfully at his lower lip.
Unable to hold on to his protective anger in the face of her innate mischief and his joy in seeing her, Bowen led her out from the shadow of the jet-chopper and toward Malachai, who'd gone to stand on the edge of the building.
"Mal." He shook hands with the BlackSea security chief. "How long can you stay?" How long could Bo keep his mate close?
"Only a couple of hours." Malachai's eyes were human today, but his presence remained that of a serious power. "I figured we might as well hold our meet in person."
That meeting was so Bo could update Malachai on what was going on with the hunt for the traitor in Alliance ranks. Bo continued to refuse to give Mal a name, but he'd shared all other data--trust took two, and Mal had already done his part. "I'm not going to argue."
Lifting his and Kaia's clasped hands, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles right as his phone buzzed. He took it out of his pocke
t to glance at the screen. "It's Lily."
He answered the call audio-only, while Kaia walked over to the edge of the building to look at the view. Their hands entwined, Bo moved with her. "Lil, if it's not urgent--"
"Trey Gunther's been spotted in Venice. Sending through the image--Cassius took it half a minute ago."
Kaia turned to smile at him just as he lowered his phone to look at the surveillance shot. Her smile faded. "Bo, let me see that." She tugged down his hand to get a better view of the screen.
Alerted by her response, Malachai moved so he, too, could view the image. Bo saw no reason to hide it--Heenali wasn't in the shot, though she had to be close; she was as well trained a hunter as Cassius and while she wasn't using Alliance tech resources, she knew Trey Gunther better than all of them.
"Bo"--Kaia's voice shook--"why do you have a picture of Hugo on your phone?"
Chapter 65
I fucked up, baby. I really fucked up.
--Message from Trey Gunther to Heenali Roy
KAIA'S BRAIN STUTTERED as it tried to absorb the unexpected new input. "When was this taken?" she asked before Bowen could answer.
"Less than a minute ago," he said grimly, then returned to his call for a short moment. "Lil, send me the location."
Malachai stirred as Bowen hung up. "I think you'd better explain."
"We know this man as Trey Gunther." Bowen's words made no sense. "He was deeply involved with one of my lieutenants for months." Her mate's hand tightened around hers. "She's the one we suspect of directing Fleet ships your way--and she's currently AWOL, searching for Trey." His voice had turned ice-cold during the briefing, the glance he shared with Malachai filled with something Kaia didn't want to see.
"No," she said. "No." There was no way Hugo would've sold them all a lie.
Bowen caught her gaze. "I don't know what's going on, Siren, and I'm not going to judge your friend before I meet him--but we find out the truth today." His phone pinged.
One glance and he was moving, tugging her along with him while Malachai prowled at their backs. "His hotel is within walking distance." Shoving through the door, he began to head down the stairs. "He had to know we'd spot him once he entered Venice. It's almost as if he came here on purpose."
Kaia, her heart pounding a staccato beat, could only think of one thing. "Hugo's alive." Her other half dived in a dance of joy. "He's alive."
Bowen led her out a door and onto the snowy cobblestones of Venice. She'd never before visited this city full of water that many of her clanmates loved, and for a moment on the roof, she'd wondered . . . but now, she barely glimpsed anything of what they passed, the sun glittering off the snow to shatter brightness against her irises.
Hugo was alive.
But there was a dark thread in the joy that she couldn't ignore. If Hugo had escaped his captors, why hadn't he let anyone know? And why did Bowen say his name was Trey? Surely that had to be a mistake.
Her breath coming in rough pants, she barely managed to keep up with her mate as he took them through the streets and alleys of Venice. Water and snow sparkled around her. She'd read that Venetian canals had been filthy once upon a time, but that had been more than a hundred years earlier. The residents of the city had funded a massive system that meant you could swim in it without coming to harm.
And why was she thinking about that when Hugo was alive!
Bowen came to a sudden stop, his hand locked with hers. His breath puffed the air, but he wasn't out of breath any more than Malachai. As for Kaia, she wasn't afraid, her fear subsumed by the chaos that twisted black tendrils through her mind.
"My man is in that building." He pointed three buildings down on the right. "Trey--Hugo--is in the small hotel directly opposite."
"I want to see him," Kaia said. "Hugo never lies to me." Yet, if he'd been living a secret life as Trey, he'd told her many lies.
"You're both sure it's the same man?" Bowen asked.
Kaia nodded, while Malachai rumbled a flat "Yes."
"Did he disappear for days at a time from Ryujin?"
"Yes, but that's just Hugo," Kaia pointed out. "He liked to swim to visit faraway clanmates. Then he'd work a chunk and disappear again." It was no more odd a pattern than any other for a water changeling.
"Trey told us he was a salesman." Bowen's eyes swept the alley. "It made sense he'd be in Venice for a few days, then on the road for a couple of weeks."
Her stomach twisted, her face hot. "I need to speak to him. I can't believe it otherwise."
"I know." Her mate brushed his hand over her hair. "You'd never betray a friend."
Swallowing hard because he knew her, understood her, she tried to break their handclasp--but Bowen wouldn't allow it.
"I want to speak to him alone."
"It's too late," Bowen murmured, his eyes on a petite dark-eyed and dark-haired woman who'd just run into the building. "Heenali's here. No time for stealth." He moved rapidly toward the door of the hotel, his phone to his ear. "Cassius, can you see through to the room?"
Whatever the answer was, Bowen slipped away the phone and they entered the hotel by the front door. The man on duty at the small desk looked at them with wide eyes. "Third floor," he whispered. "Room 308."
Realizing the hotelier must've been the original informant, Kaia followed Bowen up the stairs, Malachai at their backs. The door to room 308 was wide open . . . and Kaia heard the sound of a desperate "No!" echoing down the hallway before they reached it.
All three of them slammed into the room--and Kaia lost every whisper of breath in her body.
Hugo was lying on the crisply made bed as if he'd come into the room and decided to have a short rest. But his eyes were open and he was smiling up at the woman who held his head in her lap. Blood trickled from the corners of his eyes. ". . . fucked up." Husky words.
"Hugo." Kaia ran to the bed, and this time Bowen let her go.
The petite woman Bowen had called Heenali gave her a savage look before her attention flicked to the door and to the men who stood there. "Bo," she said, her voice as harsh, "we need medics."
"I've already sent the alert."
Hugo's reddened eyes turned to Kaia, the smile in them brilliant. "Kaia." He gripped at her hand. "I'm sorry."
"No, you don't get to be sorry." Kaia held on tight. "You stay alive and then we'll figure it out." She could smell a chemical trace around him. "What did you take?"
He coughed and blood flecked the air. "Didn't. Was given." He touched a small prick on the side of his neck. "Didn't even notice. Don't know when."
Heenali brushed his hair back from his face. "Just breathe," she ordered. "You breathe, Trey."
"Hugo." He looked up into the other woman's eyes, a plea in his. "Don't hate me. I love you. Came back for you."
"Hugo." No hesitation, no anger. "I could never hate you. I love you, you idiot."
Hugo's lips trembled. "Was so stupid, lover. Poker debts. Bad. Said they'd forgive if I--" His body racked by a worse spate of coughing. "If I convinced you to move a few ships off-route, made that dossier, spread rumors about Bowen Knight."
Even as Kaia struggled to accept what Hugo had done, she was listening desperately for the paramedics. When Bowen came to place a hand on her shoulder, she looked up at him. "Where are they?"
"Close," he said, a darkness in his gaze that told her he didn't think it would matter.
But Kaia couldn't believe that, couldn't imagine her best friend gone from this world. He was foolish and feckless and careless, but he laughed with all his heart and he was meant to be the crazy friend who'd spoil her children and teach them mad pranks.
"I thought you were smuggling," Heenali said as Malachai came to stand in Hugo's line of sight. "I didn't care about a little smuggling if it made you happy."
Hugo's eyes were losing focus, but he found Malachai. "I didn't know," he said desperately. "Until they sent me that picture of two of our own the night before I left, along with the reports of the ship movements and how th
ey linked up to our vanished, I didn't know they were the ones taking our people. Didn't know what was true in the dossier and what wasn't."
Kaia's heart grew cold; his words were so close to what George had said. How many of her clanmates had been taken in, made to play a small role in a much larger and deadlier game?
But Hugo wasn't done. "Knew you'd figure it out once Kaia gave it to you."
"You shouldn't talk so much," she said. "Save your strength."
Heenali nodded. "Yes, be quiet."
But Hugo's eyes were fixated on Malachai. "Tell Miane I didn't know." Tears in his voice. "Please, Mal."
Malachai shifted to touch his hand to Hugo's brow, giving the other man the comfort of clan. "I will. I give you my word."
An exhale before Hugo said, "I tried to fix it. I tried to fix my mistake."
"What did you do?" Malachai's deep voice.
"Hacked everything." His eyelids fluttered. "Ran and hacked. Inserted Trojans earlier. Hated being blackmailed. Hacked them. They found me, but I found him fir--" His words trailed off into nothing.
* * *
*
"HUGO!" The cry came from Kaia and Heenali at the same time, two women who loved this man in different ways. Bowen had been ready to dislike the changeling male for the rumors he'd spread about Bo and for having a place in Kaia's heart, but all he felt at that moment was pity and sorrow. Hugo could've been a younger brother who'd lost his way, he was so oddly innocent in his stark acceptance of his mistake.
Sirens sounded close by, but nothing could save Hugo. Whatever poison had been shot into him, it was lethal--and it had been done stealthily enough that Cassius hadn't noticed--or it was slow-acting and Hugo had carried it with him into Venice.
Hugo struggled up into consciousness again, his unfocused gaze somehow locking with Heenali's. "I found him. Tell Miane I found him."
"Who?" Malachai demanded. "Who did you find?"
"Sold out our people." Slurred words. "My friend. Your friend." This time, the coughing was so violent it shook his entire body.
"Who, Hugo?" Malachai demanded.
"Stop it!" Pulling out a weapon, Heenali pointed it at the BlackSea security chief. "Let him rest!"