the raging glare. “Mia, let me see you. Colin needs to see you.”
A silent struggle pulled between them. Finally, a soft whisper. “Colin.”
The Terriot prince wrenched from his brother’s grip to throw himself against the bars. “I’m here, Mia. I’m here to bring you home.” The female in the chair began to pant raggedly.
“Mia, where are you?”
“I don’t know. It’s dark. I can’t see you. I miss your face. Get me the hell out of here.”
At the sound of her familiar tone, Colin slumped against the bars, too overwhelmed with relief to answer. Silas took over the questions. “Mia, it’s Silas. I need you to help me. Where are you? Concentrate.”
They waited in tense anticipation, but her answer was no help. “I can’t tell.”
“That’s okay. Let me help you see. Trust me.”
She began a jerky panting then went still, eyes black and sightless. “Walls. All around me. It’s cold.”
“Have you been there before? Look everywhere.”
“It’s too dark. Wait. Boxes? Crates. Familiar. I smell earth, the river.”
“A grave!” Colin threw himself against the bars, wild with panic. “She’s been buried alive!”
Max put up a hand to silence him, then bent low to address MacCreedy. “Ask her if she’s in a box.”
His question was greeted by another long silence then a confident, “No. I was. Not now. There’s space. A small room. I’ve been here before. I-I can’t remember. My head hurts. Colin, find me. Bring us home.”
“I will. I’ll find you, baby.”
“Colin?” Her voice faded away. “Hurry.”
Dark eyes rolled then slowly focused on Max. “That the best you’ve got, Shapeshifter?” came the mocking voice.
“Mia!” Colin cried, clutching at the bars. “I’m going to kill you, you bitch!”
She laughed at his threat. “You’ll have to go through her. Or should I say them, first.”
Max crossed to the bars to speak low and calm to the Terriot prince. “How do you want to handle this? It’s gonna get dangerous.”
“If we let her go now, she’ll run. I could lose them both.” Anguish twisted Colin’s features then they firmed, becoming hard as well as brutally handsome. “Push her out. Expel her like the demon she is. It’s what Mia would want.”
Impressed by the other’s courage, not knowing if he could have made that same choice, Max nodded to Silas.
MacCreedy turned back to the creature glaring at him in bold defiance through Mia’s dark eyes. She spat and snarled, “Do your worst. I’m stronger than you are, half-breed.”
“Perhaps,” Nica murmured against her ear, “but not against both of us. I know what you are, and when I see your true face, I’ll know who. Then I’ll destroy you before I move on to the rest of your kind. You don’t know me, so you don’t fear what I can do. But you will. Then we’ll have your secrets and theirs. This will not be pleasant.”
“You’ll be harming your friend.” A weakening bravado shaded that warning.
“She’s one of us. She can take it. You won’t be so lucky.”
The figure in the chair snapped taut, arching, eyes rolling back as the pair’s combined psychic energies probed deep. Together, they peeled back the layers of darkness smothering Mia’s vibrant spark. When close, so close, their enemy shrieked, blood streaming from her nose and eyes. Then a wild laugh shocked them into hesitating.
“Enough! Take the bitch. I’ve learned what I needed. I’ve seen your weakness. We’ll meet again. Then things will end differently.”
Mia’s body went boneless.
With a roar, Colin gripped the bars. Massive shoulders straining, he unleashed the same tremendous burst of primal strength that had ripped his mate from their mangled vehicle. Hinges groaned and twisted. Chain pulled taut until links snapped, opening the way for him to kneel on hard stone before her, big hands covering those small and still.
“Mia, come back to me!”
For a long heartbeat, no response. Then lashes flickered. Eyes opened slowly; dark gaze unfocused then centering on the hopeful stare. The corners of her mouth tipping upward.
“Hey, Dreamboat.”
Colin Terriot’s megawatt smile burst wide.
– – –
Wrapped in a blanket within the warm circle of her mate’s arms on the parlor sofa, Mia recounted what she could remember, which wasn’t much.
She recalled the accident. Her hand clutched Colin’s tight. She’d been aware of his presence, of his worry, of his pain while drifting somewhere outside of consciousness. Then nothing until Silas’s thoughts grazed hers.
“Could you tell where you were being held?”
An apologetic shake of her head at Cee Cee’s question. “Just a sense of the familiar, that I’d been there, that I’d recognize it in