Read Online Unbinding by Eileen Wilks - Free Book Online

could head his way, someone else stopped her with a hand on her arm.
    This time it was Benedict. “Hunter’s right. The little girl was gone. I didn’t see her return, but I smelled it when she did.”
    “I imagine Nathan did, too.”
    “Something changed with him just now.”
    She tipped her head, curious. “Does he smell different?”
    “I don’t know what’s different, but something is. I want to know what.”
    “You do realize he can hear you, don’t you?” Not that Nathan seemed to be paying any attention to them. He was leaning against the wall beside the restroom door that had closed behind Dell. “Benedict, I need to talk to Cullen. It’s important.”
    He frowned but released her, his gaze fixed on Nathan. Benedict’s colors were calm enough, but a deep reddish violet was spiking through the wary pewter that dominated at the moment.
    Oh, yeah, this would be interesting. Kai shook her head and started again for Cullen. Arjenie followed her, so Benedict did, too.
    “What just happened?” Cullen demanded of Ackleford.
    “Hell. I was hoping you could tell me.”
    Cullen shook his head. “Something happened. I know that, but it was over too fast. All I saw was a flash of power. The little girl’s okay?”
    “Seems fine. There’s some confusion about whether she really disappeared or not. The officer here says—”
    Kai broke in. “She really disappeared. Cullen, you need to check her for magical contamination. The others who were bitten, too.”
    Piercing blue eyes zeroed in on her. One more unlikely thing about Cullen—when all his shields were up, she couldn’t see his thoughts. Kai had only met four beings who could completely shield their thoughts from her, and three of them needed a few thousand candles on their birthday cakes. It made no sense that Cullen would have shields on a par with the Eldest and the two Queens, but he did. All Kai had to go on with him were the things everyone else could see and hear.
    Right now, he looked and sounded irritated. “Why?”
    “Dell had to remake my blood. That’s why it took so long. I couldn’t tell what she was worried about, and she was in too much of a hurry to wait until I sensed it, too, but there was something in my blood she considered dangerous. That same something might be in the others’ blood, too.”
    “Dammit.” Cullen turned his frown toward Cammy’s mother, who wasn’t paying attention to anything but her little girl. One of her friends was arguing with the police officer, insisting Cammy had truly disappeared. The officer now seemed to think Cammy had been there all along. Amazing how people could remake their memories to fit what they thought must be true.
    Cullen studied mother and daughter for a moment, then sighed. “I can’t tell without a closer look. If I find something, I’m going to have to look at all of them, and that is going to take time. Time I ought to be spending studying the residue, dammit. How many people were bitten?”
    Ackleford answered. “Lieutenant Jenkins tells me nineteen have reported being bitten, but that may not be a complete count. There were forty-four people on the patio.”
    “Are they all still here?”
    Lieutenant Jenkins didn’t like being left out. “Damn straight they are. My orders were clear.”
    The next voice was Nathan’s. He’d joined them so quietly Kai hadn’t noticed. “Some orders can’t be followed. At least one person is missing. Someone was in the ladies’ room ten minutes ago. It’s empty now.”
    The lieutenant curled her lip at him. “People
do
leave the restroom.”
    “There’s only one exit. She didn’t use it.”
    They didn’t believe him, of course. No one here had any idea what a Hound could do, and it didn’t look like Nathan meant to tell them.
    How could he be positive there’d been two people in the ladies’ room if he hadn’t seen them enter?
    He heard them.
    Benedict accepted that. Kai’s fellow humans looked skeptical. Even if Nathan was