Inked

where the rectangular drains had been slapped together. They formed dangerous ledges underwater, vying with rocks and bottles and submerged sandbars to see which could trip me first.
    “Why would the gang kidnap your boyfriend?” a voice demanded.
    I whirled to find Jamie right behind me. All the noise had muffled his footsteps, and I hadn’t heard him approach. “I’m not real clear on that yet,” I said, lowering my gun. “But Caleb’s right. You shouldn’t be here.”
    “And you should?”
    “This isn’t Corps business. It’s personal.”
    “And what d’ye think it is for me?” Jamie demanded. “I’m not about to let Toby’s killer walk free!”
    “You’re the one who just said we should leave!”
    He threw his hands into the air. “Because no one’s here! Tartarus dwellers are very conscious of the weather—they have to be. They probably cleared out hours ago—”
    “Not this group.”
    “Are we going to do this or not?” Caleb asked, appearing out of the gloom.
    Jamie rounded on him. “I don’t even know why you’re here!”
    Caleb raised an eyebrow. “I see better in the dark than either of you. And you can’t take on a whole gang on your own.”
    “ There is no gang! If they were here, they’d have to be in the old shantytown. There’s no other caves in this drain.” Jamie sloshed around a bend and up the tunnel with the surefootedness of someone who knew where he was going. Caleb and I followed as best we could. “There!” He pointed at a decaying ward that was buzzing fitfully, showing glimpses of the room beyond. “And as you can clearly see, there are—”
    “A whole lot of Weres in there!”
    Caleb threw out a shield as Jamie dove for one side of the entrance. I stayed where I was, scanning the group for Cyrus. He wasn’t there, but the guy I’d fought at the market was. He was easy to pick out with all his hair singed off on one side. He met my eyes and a shiver went through the group, a mass change that left us staring at eight full-grown Weres—for about a second. Then they melted into the back wall and were gone.
    I ran after them—or tried to. But the ward over this entrance wasn’t just for show. I hit what felt like solid rock and bounced back. I watched the ward flicker on and off while Caleb and Jamie were debating whether or not the tunnel could hold up to the blast necessary to take it out. And then I jumped through the next time it failed.
    I lost the tail of my coat when the ward flicked back on again, but no skin. I was across the room in a heartbeat, barely slowing down at the wall. It was an illusion—it had to be—because Weres could do a lot of things, but dissolve into thin air wasn’t one of them. I missed the hidden door slightly, and banged my left shoulder on hard stone, but then I was through.
    A long tunnel stretched out in front of me, supported by wooden braces every few feet like an old mine shaft. It wasn’t lit, and visibility was no better than it had been in the drain. But unlike the tunnels outside, this one was absolutely quiet—no rushing water, no rattling cars, no pounding footsteps. It was as silent as a tomb, and wasn’t that a great mental image.
    I jumped when Jamie and Caleb came in behind me, even though I’d been expecting it. “Something’s wrong,” Caleb said, an array of weapons hovering around him like a lethal cloud.
    “What gave it away?” Jamie asked testily, throwing up his own shields. He looked pissed, maybe at me for rushing ahead without backup, maybe at himself for overestimating the gang’s intelligence. Or possibly the long, silent corridor was creeping him out, too. “The fact that with Were hearing, they should have heard us coming a mile away?”
    “Yet instead of ambushing us in the tunnels or attacking when we showed up, they run?” I added, ripping the leech off my wrist. There were no civilians here.
    “All of that,” Caleb agreed, just as a Were came out of nowhere, slashed at his face and leapt back through the opposite wall.
    “Caleb!” I saw him fall, but didn’t have time to grab him before the tunnel was suddenly full of Weres.
    One lunged for me, and by the time my conscious mind registered it, I was already moving. My elbow slammed back into my assailant’s ribs, my body turned into the movement, and I used the momentum to spin my opponent face-first into the nearest wall brace—and was thrown back against the opposite wall hard enough to stagger me. Then the