added as she shifted to look at each of the Amriany in turn, “I should be able to check if both of them are alive, dead, or presumed something else.”
Gunari pointed a critical stare at Paige and asked, “How do you know this?”
“I’ve got contacts. Isn’t that what you like about me?”
“Americans,” Milosh grunted. “Always talk in circles, but never saying anything.”
Looking out her window, Paige said, “Prophet told me about what you guys did in Denver, so I don’t have any problem with doing what I can to find your partner. In the meantime, you can tell me how you’re so sure about that Full Blood in Oklahoma.”
The speakers mounted in the cabin over their heads crackled, and a feminine voice with a sharp, eastern European accent was transmitted through them. “Is that Drina?” Paige asked, pointing up to the closest speaker.
“We’ll be landing in five minutes,” Nadya said. “Buckle up.”
Paige tugged on the strap of her seat belt to show that she’d never unbuckled it.
“How quickly can you find out about Tobar?” Gunari asked.
“Depends on how long it takes to finish up this Oklahoma business. By the way,” Paige said, cocking her head to one side, “what was this business again?”
Nadya fixed her eyes on Paige, but before she could say anything, Milosh snarled something at her in their native tongue. After tersely responding to him, she looked back to Paige and said, “We need to be more trusting of each other. There is no cause for bad feelings between you and I, other than the rivalry that has existed between Skinners and Amriany for generations.”
As the plane dipped into a landing pattern, Paige felt something in her gut that came from more than just a change of altitude. The Amriany all stared at her expectantly before casting their eyes at each other as if they didn’t know whether to open up to her or gang up to make certain she never got up from her seat.
“We have Dikh Chakano,” Nadya declared. “Far Seers. All they need is a piece of a shapeshifter and they can find them.”
“They need more than that,” Milosh was quick to say.
“Really?” Paige scoffed. “Because I was about to piece together and steal an entire Gypsy ritual with just that last sentence.”
Milosh wagged a blade at her and asked, “You know what my people call an ignorant savage? ‘Skinner.’ See how that word rolls off my tongue like a kernel of shit someone slipped into my soup? When your people speak of us as superstitious fortune-tellers and thieves, ‘Gypsy’ sounds much the same way. If we are to start respecting each other, we can stop spitting these words at each other this way.”
“Fair enough. So what’s the Gypsy method for spotting Full Bloods?”
In a strange way, the word did sound different that time.
Tossing a dismissive wave in Milosh’s direction, Nadya continued, “We have been collecting samples of as many shapeshifters as we could from this country, just as we’ve done for our own. With all that’s happened here recently, there’s a lot more for us to collect.”
“Yeah, the fur’s really been flying.”
If Cole was there, he might have laughed at that. This audience wasn’t nearly as kind.
“More fur will fly in the place we’re going. Since it seems there are already at least two Full Bloods, a pack of Mongrels, and Half Breeds there as well, we may already be too late.”
Now, Paige hoped it was the Amriany who were attempting to pull a cheap laugh out of her. “There are that many shapeshifters in one spot?”
“At least. Possibly more. Our Dikh Chakano was almost knocked from his seat by the amount of power coming from this spot on his map. We got your message while we were in the air, and if you hadn’t already proven to be a valuable fighter, we wouldn’t have wasted the time to get you.”
“And what if I’d refused to help in a fight as lopsided as this one?” Paige asked.
Nadya was quick to reply, “Then we would have taken your weapons and put them to good use.”
Another indecipherable announcement was broadcast through the speakers, but Paige didn’t need a translation. The jet was approaching ground level. She could tell by the lightness in her stomach and the crackle in her ears. “You’re certain the Full Blood that attacked Kansas City is here?”
Gunari nodded. “The sample I bought was collected from a tower where most of the fighting took place during that siege. The seller was trying