each of us had contributed to the skirmish. I dropped onto the sofa across from Snap and released Pickle from my purse.
Omen was frowning. “Hey,” I said, aiming a teasing kick at his calf. “We just escaped a vicious ambush with all lives and even body parts intact. What more could you ask for?”
He swiped his hand across his narrow jaw. “I’m more concerned about how those pricks found us in the first place. There’s no way they should have been able to determine that we’d head to Austin from Chicago, and even if they had, we weren’t on the right course.” He aimed a particularly icy glance at the imp.
I hadn’t had enough time to recover from the whole fleeing for my life bit to consider the implications of the attack. “That’s true. I didn’t mention where we were headed to Ellen or Vivi, so it couldn’t have come from them.”
Ruse glanced back toward us. “The hotel was the first place we’ve been in one spot for any significant length of time since we stormed the museum and then hit the road. Could the Company have tracked your phone, Sorsha?”
I shook my head. “I’ve had it off except when I was using it while we were on the road, just in case.”
“It’s possible they were tracking something else.” Omen’s gaze settled on Snap. “Didn’t any of you find it odd that our devourer’s cage opened on its own to release him when we came for him? The Company’s scientists had already called in back-up. Why would they want us to leave with him rather than be caught?”
“I figured they got scared that we’d find them before back-up arrived,” I said. “But yeah… They didn’t have any reason to worry at that point. It was because his cage opened that we got suspicious.”
Snap had stiffened against the leather seat. “I wouldn’t have helped the people who locked up me and Antic and the others in those metal boxes.”
“Of course you wouldn’t have, not on purpose,” Omen said in the same unexpectedly gentle tone he’d used with Snap before. He stepped closer to the devourer, studying Snap’s lean frame from head to toe. “But you might have without even realizing it. There’s a trick I’ve seen hunters use when they want to collect a lot of little shadowkind at once. Some of the lesser creatures tend to congregate together. They catch one and fix a tracking mark of some sort on it, then release it and let it lead them to the others.”
I’d heard of that too. They marked the creatures’ bodies with a little silver ink that wouldn’t vanish even if the creatures slipped in and out of the shadows and that created a resonance they could detect with a specialized device. A shiver tickled through me. “You think the Company scientists put a tracker mark on Snap? Wouldn’t he have noticed?” The lesser shadowkind might ignore a little discomfort in their relief at being freed, but Snap was more aware than that.
“Possibly not, if it was small enough. He hasn’t used a physical body long enough to be all that aware of what’s normal in the first place.” The hellhound shifter motioned for Snap to stand up. “Let me check you over. We don’t want them tracking us any farther than they already have.”
Snap got to his feet, his eyes wide. “They attacked us because of me? I never thought—if I’d realized—”
“We know.” I scooted close enough to take his hand, although I didn’t know how much real comfort that would give him. Still, I ran my thumb over his knuckles in as soothing a gesture as I could offer while Omen leaned in, practically sniffing the devourer with his houndish senses.
“Here,” he said abruptly, grasping Snap’s other arm and turning it to tap a spot just below his elbow. “There’s just the faintest hint of it…” He grimaced. “Not on the flesh, but there’s a bit of a regular scar here. They must have cut you open and etched it right on the bone.”
A shudder ran through Snap’s body. “There is something there—a bit of an itch. I thought that must be normal.” His head jerked up. “I can’t stay. You’ll have to go on without me. I could return to the shadow realm—they won’t be able to follow me there. Then you’ll all be safe.”
Like when he’d run from us when he’d been afraid of how we—how I—would see him after he’d devoured that man in front