deliberate kind of man.
“So I jump up into the cab of my truck, and as I’m pulling the door shut, I glance down.” His face turned grim. “SUV was all blacked-out, but it had a glass sunroof that wasn’t and I could see right through it. I saw a man in the front passenger seat and a woman in back. She was covered with a blanket, but her face was all scarred-up and bruised and she looked fucking thin.”
Bo could guess where this was going. “You intervened?”
“First I went and grabbed a couple of buddies who’d just brought in their trucks. Was a slight risk the driver of the SUV would return first and take off, but the dude in the car, he gave off a Psy vibe. I knew I needed backup.”
Bo nodded; humans were very good at identifying Psy. They had to be. It was a survival mechanism. Some family lines had developed an eerily accurate second sense about Psy in the vicinity, though they were all quick to state that it wasn’t itself a psychic skill. Bo had never quite bought the latter. After all, Psy, changeling, and human came from the same original stock. And evolution, it never stopped. “Your buddies all human?”
“No,” the trucker replied. “One of them was changeling—I figured he’d stay standing even if the Psy took me out.” Isaac turned and spoke over his shoulder again, and once more, his voice was too quiet for the microphone to catch.
“I went up to the front passenger-side window, knocked,” he continued after turning back to the comm. “Guy rolled it down, asked if he could help me. I asked what the hell was going on with the woman in back, and he said they were taking her to a hospital after finding her on the side of the road. Sounded plausible but that was when she woke up and said, ‘Help me.’”
Isaac shrugged. “That was enough for us. I smashed in the back window to unlock the door while my changeling friend hauled the Psy half out of the window to hold his attention. Our other friend kept a lookout. I’d just got the woman out when a second Psy came running out, hit me with a telepathic blow.”
The truck driver rubbed his temple. “It was hard as hell but not debilitating. I don’t figure he was that strong, but he was strong enough to weaken us and that gave him a chance to help the other Psy fight off my changeling friend. I think they would’ve come for the woman but I pulled a gun.”
Another shrug. “Got to have protection on these isolated routes, especially when I’m moving expensive high-tech equipment. So they hauled ass instead—one of my buddies got a partial plate. I’ll send it through.”
Bowen nodded. “The woman, you didn’t take her to a hospital?” He’d figured out she had to be behind Isaac, in the cab of the truck.
Shaking his head, Isaac lowered his voice. “She was freaked out, begged for me to get her to the sea.” He blew out a breath. “Her eyes . . . I never saw eyes like that. Like the blackest part of the ocean, no light, no shadow.”
Bo felt the hairs rise on the back of his neck. He thought of BlackSea’s request to track another black SUV, considered the plea made by Isaac’s passenger, and he wondered . . . “Can you describe her to me?”
“Five four, black hair, light brown skin, heritage from the Pacific Islands maybe. She won’t give me her name.” He paused. “It looks like someone took a fucking hunting knife to her face.”
Bo’s hand clenched on the phone. “How long before you reach the ocean?” Isaac didn’t seem like the kind of man who’d make the woman wait.
“Six hours,” the trucker replied. “I was pretty inland when I found her.”
That gave Bo plenty of time to get in touch with BlackSea. “I think I know who she belongs to—give me a little time to see if I can confirm.” Hanging up to Isaac’s curt nod, he pulled up the contact information of the man who’d tipped off the Alliance about that little cell of anti-human fanatics.
Malachai Rhys.
Beside the man’s name was a title: BlackSea Security Chief.
Bo didn’t expect his call to be immediately answered—the water changelings had a reputation for preferring their privacy and making it difficult for anyone to get hold of them. And right now, they were understandably pissed off at the Alliance.
However, Malachai picked