No, I hadn't, mainly because I'd sensed something evil down there. I'd been right, too, because that was where the hellhounds had come from.
But why have the hounds down a completely different tunnel from the one that held the cuneiform transport stones? Had they been protecting something else entirely – like a gateway onto the gray fields? Had the hellhounds only been unleashed when we'd sprung the trap by falling through the floor?
And was that trap – as well as the cuneiform stones – the only way into those tunnels? Given how tight the tunnels were, I couldn't imagine someone Lucian's size actually using them with any sort of regularity. Not without doing himself major harm, anyway. And while it was easy enough to get into the warehouse via the broken loading-bay door, the building was surrounded by a barrier that prevented energy forms from entering – and he had been energy, even if he'd been forced to remain in flesh. Still, how hard would it have been for someone – be it Lucian himself or Lauren – to have woven exceptions into the spell? Not very, I'd imagine.
And that meant that maybe there was another entrance into that other tunnel somewhere inside that building.
All that is more than true, Azriel commented. But if that barrier is still active, neither of us may get back in.
I frowned. Why would the barrier prevent me from entering again?
Because we now share a life force and it altered your genetic makeup, Azriel commented. You may technically be flesh-based, but my life force now runs within you. That fact may make the shield react.
There's only way we can test that theory.
Yes. But not before you eat.
Don't nag me, Azriel.
Someone has to. His mental tones were grim.
"I'm gathering," Ilianna said, her voice dry, "that given the silence and your sudden, somewhat annoyed expression, you and Azriel are having a telepathic spat."
"Sorry, Ilianna," I said immediately. "And yeah, we were."
She smiled. "Tell him I'm on his side."
"Hey," I said, feigning hurt, "you're my friend, not his."