Free Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur Page A

shift,” Liander said with a frown.
    Riley nodded in agreement. “It’s usually impossible to stop mid-shift and retain characteristics of both forms.”
    I leaned back in the chair and lightly spun the empty Coke bottle. “I don’t think these things partially shifted. I simply think they weren’t able to take full form.”
    Her frown deepened. “Did they smell like shifters?”
    I shook my head. “But they didn’t smell human, either. Although the man in charge did .”
    “Why would a human be interested in your father’s whereabouts?” Liander asked. “It’s not like humans can see or use the gates.”
    “They can if they’re sorcerers,” Riley commented. “Although I can’t imagine a sorcerer powerful enough to see or use the gates doing his own dirty work. Did you get the license plate numbers?”
    I grinned. “If I hadn’t, my teacher would have clipped me over the ear.”
    “Too right.” She grabbed a pen and notepad from the counter behind her, then slid them across the table at me. “Write them down. I’ll get Rhoan to chase them down for us.”
    I scrawled the numbers on the notepad, then pushed it back. “I don’t get why they’d attack me, though. Given they had my bike bugged, why wouldn’t they have just followed me, like the reaper is?”
    “Is that reaper here?” Liander asked suddenly, looking around with a frown.
    “He said he was keeping his distance.” Though given how much I actually knew about the reapers, he might very well be in this room, just invisible to sight and senses.
    “Good,” Liander muttered, then leaned back in his chair and scrubbed a hand through his thick silver hair. It was streaked with a deep purple today, which would clash horribly with the orange nail polish if he actually decided to use it. “These people obviously bugged your bike when you were at work, so it might be best to get dropped off and picked up for the next couple of days. Especially given the hours you work.”
    I wrinkled my nose at the thought of having to rely on someone else but, at the same time, I could see the sense in what he was saying. I wasn’t stupid. Nor was I looking to meet those men again soon.
    “Is there any way we can find out who they might be working for?”
    “I’ll get Rhoan to nose around and see if there’s any word about shifters who can’t fully shift,” Riley said. “In the meantime, you’d better head to your mom’s and talk to her about your dad.”
    “But Mom’s told me everything she knows about my father.”
    Riley gave me a tolerant sort of smile. “Trust me, a mother never tells her child everything about their father. There are always secrets.”
    I could feel the smile teasing my lips. “So you’re saying there’s stuff about Liander that none of your children know?”
    “Of course,” she said, voice solemn but gray eyes dancing. “I’m sure if they ever found out what terrible taste in nail polish he has, they’d be mortified.”
    Liander scooped up a bit of chocolate cake and tossed it at her. I laughed as she ducked, her movements vampire-fast. The cake splattered across the counter behind her.
    “I was testing it for an upcoming movie,” he said. “The heroine has red hair.”
    “Yeah, believing that,” Riley said drily, then glanced at me. “As to why those men would attack you rather than follow, we really won’t know until we track down the people behind the attack and talk to them.”
    “What about talking to the thugs themselves?”
    “If we find them, we will. But given their propensity to attack rather than talk, I suggest you keep out of their way—at least until we know who they are and what they’re up to.”
    It might be the sensible option, but it wasn’t one that was likely to get me any answers. I whirled the Coke bottle around again, watching the reflections dance in a dozen different directions. Sort of like my thoughts.
    “Risa,” Riley said sternly, “don’t even consider going after them.