deserve that shit - not even for choosing a reject to mate with.
Fuck. Maybe it was better that she lose the pregnancy. Did he really want to condemn a child to his DNA?
"You're coming, too?" she asked him, like she wasn't really tracking.
"Yup. I'll be right there."
When Phury hung up, he looked back and forth between them, his yellow eyes narrowing. "Okay, so they'll take us the second we get there. I'll have Fritz get the Mercedes warmed up, but I'm driving."
"I'm sorry," Layla said as she stared up at the great male. "I know I've let the Chosen and you down - but you did tell us to come to this side and...live."
Phury put his hands on his hips and exhaled. As he shook his head, it was clear he wouldn't have picked any of this for her. "Yeah, I said that. That I did."
Chapter Thirty-two
Oh, great unleashed power, Xcor thought as he regarded his soldiers, each of them armed and ready for a night of fighting. After twenty-four hours of recovery following that group feeding, they were chomping at the bit to get out and find their enemies - and he was ready to let release them from the warehouse's underspace.
There was only one problem: Someone was walking the floor above.
As if on cue, footsteps traversed the wooden hatch over his head.
For the last half hour, they had tracked the progress of their uninvited visitors. One was heavy - a masculine form. The other was lighter - a feminine variety. There were no scents to catch, however; the underground level was hermetically sealed.
In all likelihood, it was just a pair of humans passing through - although why two non-vagrants would waste time wandering around such a decrepit structure on a cold night, he could not guess. Whoever they were, whatever the reason they came, however, he would have no problem defending his squatter's rights, such as they were.
But there was no harm in waiting. If he could avoid slaughtering some useless humans here? It meant he and his soldiers could continue to use the space undisturbed.
No one said a thing as the walking about continued.
Voices mingled. Low and higher. Then a phone went off.
Xcor tracked the ringing and the conversation that ensued, walking in silence over to the other hatch where the speaker chose to stop. Going still, he listened hard, and caught one half of a very uninteresting conversation that gave nothing away as to the identity of the parties.
Not long thereafter, the unmistakable sounds of sex filtered down.
As Zypher chuckled softly, Xcor glared in the bastard's direction to shut him up. Even though each of the trapdoors had been locked from below, one never knew what kind of trouble those rats without tails could bring to any situation.
He checked his watch. Waited for the moaning to stop. Motioned for his soldiers to stay put when it did.
Moving in silence, he proceeded over to the trapdoor in the far corner of the warehouse, the one that opened up into what must have been a supervisory office. Unlatching it, he palmed one of his guns, dematerialized out, and inhaled.
Not a human.
Well, there had been one here...but the other was something else.
Over in the corner, the outer door clapped shut and the lock was engaged.
Ghosting across the way, Xcor put his back against the warehouse's sturdy brick wall and looked out of one section of the cloudy glass windows.
A pair of headlights flared down in front, in the shallow parking lot.
Dematerializing up and out of a busted pane, he shot forward to the roof of the warehouse across the street.
Well, wasn't this interesting.
That was a Shadow down there, sitting behind the wheel of the BMW with the driver's-side window down, and a human female leaning into the SUV.
Second time he'd run into one in Caldwell.
They were dangerous.
Getting out his phone, he called Throe's number by finding the male's picture in his contacts, and ordered his soldiers to go and fight. He would deal with this departure alone.
Down below, the Shadow reached out, pulled the woman into him by the neck, and kissed her. Then he put the vehicle in reverse and drove off without looking back.
Xcor shifted his position to keep up with the male, going from rooftop to rooftop, as the Shadow headed toward the club district on the surface roads that ran parallel to the river -
At first, the sensation in his body suggested a change in wind direction, the chilly gusts seeming to come