I ended up at the airport. I had to meet Lucian here later, anyway, and it was certainly the last place anyone would think to look for me.
I re-formed in a dark corner within the parking lot, releasing my grip on my phone and wallet as I dropped inelegantly to the concrete floor. My body shook and my head spun, and for several minutes I could do nothing more than simply lie there, my lungs burning as I dragged in thick, ragged breaths.
Becoming Aedh had its price for those of us who weren’t full-blooded—and for me it meant a complete inability to do anything other than battle for breath for several minutes after re-formation.
When the debilitation finally started to ease, I pushed upright and cautiously rocked back on my heels. Several more minutes passed, and the stabbing pain in my head settled to a more durable ache behind my left eye. An ache that matched the one in my leg.
The other bad thing about becoming Aedh was its effect on my clothes. They disintegrated just fine, but re-forming them was trickier, as the magic didn’t always delineate bits of me from the other particles. Which meant I often ended up with a dust-like sheen covering my skin rather than fully formed pieces of clothing. Thankfully, my jeans had come out of the change almost intact, showing only a small patch just under my right knee. My underwear and bra hadn’t fared as well, hanging on in barely there strips that tickled my skin. My leather jacket, like my jeans, had a patch missing from the right elbow and was a little tatty around the bottom hem, but otherwise had come through in one piece for a change.
It was probably just as well that I’d left Azriel with the book. And that I hadn’t attempted to shift shape with him in tow.
I climbed carefully to my feet. The pain remained, constant yet bearable. The bullet wound had finally stopped bleeding, so I unwound the bloodstained bandage and tossed the scraps into the corner. Thankfully, my jeans were dark, so the blood wasn’t really noticeable.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. Metal and plastic weren’t affected by the shift into—or back out of—particle form, but unless they were touching skin, they wouldn’t actually change. Which is why I’d wrapped my hand around my phone and keys before I’d shifted. I knew from experience that there was nothing worse than metal and plastic stuck in the middle of your particle form.
"Hunter," I said into the phone. The voice recognition swirled into action, its screen flaring with a vivid mosaic of color as I limped toward the elevators.
Her face appeared on the screen and she did not look happy. "This is not what I call immediately."
Well, suck it up princess, I wanted to snap, because it’s the best I could do. I wisely didn’t say it, though, and was grateful she wasn’t here in person. Pissing her off wouldn’t be the wisest move right now, given she was all that stood between me and an extermination order.
I simply said, "Sorry, but something important came up," then updated her on what had happened at Alston’s house, as well as what Azriel had said about both the creature and Alston.
"So," Hunter responded, her voice a purr that was pure satisfaction. "Catherine is slated to die regardless of what we do. And in a manner that most becomes the bitch."
"Yeah, she loves you, too," I said.
Hunter laughed. It was not a pleasant sound, sending chills down my flesh. "I’m sure she does. Did you ask her to write up a list?"