if he wanted us in his club anymore. He’d only given me two hours, but Houdini needed a taste of his own medicine. He worried that showing me favoritism would cause his employees to break more rules. It sounded to me like someone needed a little chaos in his rigid structure.
After towel drying my hair and putting on a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, I sat on the bathroom floor. I had thrown up twice, but my stomach had already absorbed most of the blood. Crawford’s dark light had a more caustic effect than his blood, however. It tangled with my own and made me sick in ways I couldn’t articulate. It felt like insects were crawling beneath my skin and devouring me from the inside out. When the chills came on, I sat against the wall and hugged my knees to my chest. It always took a day or two for another Mage’s light to leave my system. The darker the light, the worse the energy hangover. It lived inside every cell of my body and invaded me like a virus.
When a knock sounded at the door, it took every ounce of energy to stand up and answer.
Blue glanced around before she forced her way in and shut the door. “Are you okay?”
I returned to the bathroom and slumped to the floor. “You wouldn’t happen to have a bottle of tequila, would you?”
She sat across from me with her back to the sink. I could always tell when Blue had come out of a shift. Her brown hair was long and silken, but even more so when she changed back to human form. No tangles, shiny, and perfectly straight.
Meanwhile, I looked like something the cat spit up. I drew up my knees, the pain bone-deep.
Blue sat cross-legged and studied me. “I saw everything.”
I pursed my lips. Not much I could add in my defense to killing a man in cold blood.
Her blue eyes narrowed as she looked away. “I could have stopped you.”
“Viktor won’t blame you.”
“Of course he won’t. I’m not telling him what happened.”
My jaw slackened. “What?”
She shook her head. “I saw the video. No matter what reasons we give him, he won’t support what you did. It’s not because he wouldn’t have wanted justice, but he has rules that keep our operation running. We only have permission to kill declared outlaws or in self-defense. Now that the car is gone, along with the phone and video, we don’t even have evidence to justify your actions. But I know what my animal saw. She has sharp eyesight. It’s abhorrent, and I would have done it myself. It’s not what he wanted to do with you—it’s what he did to those children.”
That took me by surprise. Blue was loyal to the core, and keeping this from Viktor jeopardized her standing with Keystone. Especially if that Crawford guy turned out to be important and someone opened an investigation that led back to the group.
“I’ve got a promising lead,” I said, switching topics.
“Is that so?”
“That guy who helped clean up the mess—he made me an offer. Pass the word to Claude. If Flynn gets cold feet, maybe Claude can get some info out of him. He’s got a crush on our boy. Tell Wyatt to keep a closer eye on my tracker from now on.”
“I will.” She wrung her hands. “After you left the scene, I called the house to tell them it was a false alarm. You sat behind those buildings for a long time, and I was afraid Wyatt would send Shepherd to check it out.”
“Thanks.”
“Did you learn anything about the fighting ring?”
“It sounds like a legit operation. It’s still illegal, but nobody’s kidnapping these girls and forcing them to fight. In fact, they’re paying them a shitload of money. Life-changing money.”
Blue’s lip curled, and she sat back with one knee bent. “It doesn’t matter if they make it legit. Cage fighting has a bloody and dark history among Shifters. We don’t like it. Even if other Breeds are in the ring and they’re doing it freely, it’s a mockery to what we suffered. This isn’t comparable to boxing or any of those human sports. It has deep ties to slavery, and wealthy people are profiting off disadvantaged people in less powerful positions. Don’t let them dress it up for you. Just remember that those girls wouldn’t be dead if they hadn’t gotten involved.” Her eyes flicked up. “You be careful.”