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The guard closed the door behind us and I looked around.
We stood in a corridor I actually recognised. The one which ran past the audience room.
It was there that Blue started toward without looking back to see if we followed. Evidently he trusted the woman to herd us if necessary. If that was the case, he was hemitheos too. She didn't seem the type to take an order from a mere shifter.
What about the last man then? He was shorter than the other two and with less hair, but looked like a nice enough guy. Apart from the whole 'being one of our captors' thing.
I offered him a smile. The one he gave back was nervous. His eyes darted to his companions.
Okay, one hundred dollars on that guy being a shifter. Good to know.Reallygood to know. The odds were slightly better. We’d gone from totally fucked to pretty screwed. Or would be if we hadn't stopped outside the audience room.
Still, I filed away the information. Just in case.
Blue tapped on the door before he pushed it open and stepped inside.
Devlin's screen was folded up and leaned against a wall, but the room was otherwise the same.
A man sat in Devlin's chair, long legs draped over the arm. When we entered, he swung around and slowly stood. He glanced at Bain for a moment before his eyes settled on me.
He pressed the side of his finger against his lips, as though considering me for a long, silent moment.
"So this is Viva," he finally said.
I smiled, more sarcastic than friendly. "Hey. That's me. And you are—"
"Seth," he said simply. With his dark hair and shrewd eyes, he resembled Helene too much to be a coincidence. I made another hundred dollar bet with myself that they were brother and sister. Or lovers. Maybe both.
What? Okay, maybe that was going a bit too far, but this was the Vault, so who knows?
"I'd say nice to meet you,” I drawled. “But, really, next time send an invitation. The whole truck thing was overkill." And, you know, the rest of it.
One of his eyebrows twitched. "Would you have accepted?"
"Hades no," I replied. "Not unless you gave me a bloody good reason to." I eyed him sideways.
"I'd heard you were feisty," he said approvingly. "I would have sent an invitation, but you're a difficult woman to pin down." He waved toward a chair. "But here you are at last."
I ignored his gesture. "Yes, here I am. It seems like a lot of effort to kill me."
Seth chuckled and lowered himself back into his chair.
I liked it better this way. I could look down on him, not the other way around. Curse him for being so tall.
"Why would I want to kill you?" he asked, as though the idea was the most ridiculous thing he ever heard. "You're one of us."
Movement to my right caught my eye.
Gwendolyn entered the room in time to hear Seth. She snorted, but softly, like she didn't want him to hear.
If he did, he gave no sign.
"One of you, hmmm?" I asked. It might be better to ignore Gwendolyn for now, but I kept her in my line of sight. "Why send people after me, if not to kill me?"
"Not kill," Seth said again. He seemed agitated for a moment, but his smile was back almost immediately. "We wanted to free you."
I barked a laugh. This guy was out of his tree. "Free me? From what, life? Hard pass, thanks, buddy. Can we go now?" I would have turned away, but I suspected turning my back on him would be a bad idea.
Seth stood and loomed over me, his face pink in annoyance. "I wanted you freed of the shifters," he growled. "The wolves, specifically."
