the shattered look on her face or the grim expressions on the others’.
When they reached a dark SUV, Cynthia climbed in the back seat with Emma and gave Todd directions. Once they reached Emma’s home, Cynthia dug out her keys and used the spare Emma had given her to unlock the door.
The TV was still on.
So much had happened since Seth had popped in and told her they needed her at the network that Emma couldn’t believe so little time had passed.
“Wow,” Cynthia said, looking around. “This place looks fantastic.”
Emma hadn’t realized until then just how long it had been since she’d had Cynthia over for a girls’ night. “Cliff helped me fix it up.”
Cynthia and Todd both swung around to stare at her.
Ignoring them, Emma shuffled into her bedroom and dug out a pair of pajama pants and a loose tank top, adding panties and a bra in deference to Todd’s presence. “I’m going to take a shower,” she mumbled.
“Okay.” Cynthia whispered something to Todd, then joined Emma in the bathroom.
Emma found a faint smile. “You planning to join me?”
Cynthia laughed. “No. I just don’t want you to be alone.”
Emma didn’t either. “Thank you.”
“Anything you need, I’m here. Todd is, too. I hope you don’t mind, but I told him to order a couple of pizzas. He was wringing his hands and looking adorably anxious because he wants to help but has no idea what he should be doing right now.”
“He’s a good guy.”
Cynthia smiled. “Yeah, he is.”
Aside from cooling her puffy face, the shower did little to make Emma feel better. Her eyes continued to water like a leaky spigot. Every limb seemed heavier. She just felt utterly and completely exhausted. Too much to partake of the fragrant pizza Todd had ordered. “I think I’m just going to go to bed.”
“Okay.” Cynthia followed her into the bedroom. “You want me to sit with you?”
“Yes, please.” Emma curled up under the covers with her knees practically touching her chest, faced the wall, and closed her eyes.
Cynthia sat behind her on the bed and leaned back against the headboard, reaching over to rub Emma’s shoulder.
“Would you turn the TV on?” Emma asked after a minute. “It’s too quiet.”
“Sure. Anything in particular you feel like listening to?”
“I don’t care. I just need something to drown out my thoughts.”
“All righty. You got it.”
Soon tense music and explosions filled the bedroom as Cynthia chose what sounded like an action flick.
Emma closed her eyes, trying to visualize whatever took place on the screen.
But all she saw was Cliff’s face and the love and finality that had filled his glowing amber eyes as he’d cupped her face and said, “Thank you. For everything.”
Cliff blinked. Dark arboreal giants towered over him, their limbs forming a complex canopy. Stars winked down at him between the branches. Cool ground cushioned his back.
Flexing his fingers, he curled them around crisp brown leaves, pine needles, and soil.
Slowly he sat up and looked around.
Where was he?
Several moments’ thought failed to enlighten him.
The stars in the sky and darkness beyond the forest indicated it was nighttime. But nighttime where? He and Bastien usually hunted on college campuses.
Again he glanced around.
This was not a college campus.
And Bastien was nowhere in sight.
He rose, every limb oddly heavy.
His ears felt funny. Like someone had stuffed cotton in them or something.
Had he been tranqed?
He sniffed.
Trees. Soil. Decaying leaves. And smoke.
He glanced to the right. The smoke didn’t smell like the kind produced by burning wood in a fireplace or cooking over a charcoal grill. It reminded him instead of the smoke that had suffused the air the morning mercenaries had attacked network headquarters.
He faced that direction.
Was network headquarters through there? Had mercenaries attacked it again?
He waited for alarm to fill him at the prospect, but it didn’t. He felt oddly… detached.
Voices floated to him on the breeze, managing to penetrate the cotton in his ears. Using them as his guide, Cliff stumbled forward.
After a minute or two, the trees and foliage began to thin. Then he stepped out into a large clearing.
About fifty yards away, a group of men and woman garbed all in black clustered together on a cement slab.
He looked around. Why would a cement slab lie in the middle of a clearing with no other structures in sight?
Two figures raced toward him.
Bastien and Melanie. Both drew him into a hug.
“What happened?” he asked dully. “Did I have another break?” It would explain why the voices in his head had gone eerily silent and