Free Preda's Voice (Guardians of Vaka Book 1) by Carolyn Gross

was also breathing in that white smoke. Blackness crept in on the edges of her vision. Preda tried desperately to hold her breath and stand. As soon as she was on her feet, a sudden and sharp pain exploded over her left hip, and she let out an involuntary scream.
    The last thing Preda remembered thinking before losing consciousness was how disappointed Foxy and Al were going to be that she had already gotten herself killed—in an airport bathroom, no less.

11
    “P uerto rendezvous at eighteen hundred tomorrow,” Will said after he hung up the phone.
    “Well, that could have gone worse. Could have gone better but definitely worse,” replied Jim.
    They were sitting on the patio of a local dive restaurant in Buenos Aires. Both wore relaxed clothes and postures. Will, however, couldn’t feel further from relaxed. “I’m just glad she’s going to be here tomorrow,” he murmured.
    Jim stared at him for a minute. “I was really starting to wonder, but now I think I know. You have feelings for her, don’t you?”
    Will glared at his friend. “I’m a Kait. I’m bred to protect her. You don’t know what that’s like. I don’t even know her. She hasn’t spoken a word to me. Remember? Besides,” he continued, “I think you had feelings for half the girls in that place. I could barely get you to leave.”
    Jim laughed. “I really did like that school.”
    They were staying in a cheap hostel down the street from the restaurant. Puerto Madero, the waterfront, was only a few miles away. After some discussion about plans, Will decided they would scope out the rendezvous location after paying their tab.
    While walking, both projected airs of tourists exploring the city’s back roads. Will, however, was scrutinizing every person they passed for unusual behavior. Kait were known to have a sense for the Soundless, and even though he was young, Will was unusually gifted. He’d never actually encountered one in the field, though.
    Jim was a much better actor and was keeping up the front that he was inebriated and celebrating. Will laughed at his friend’s behavior while they moved through the city. Jim was a member of the Landi family. They were the largest of the families, and their lineage was composed of many thousands. Landis tended to have ranging skill sets, but the most prominent was mechanical ability. This made them invaluable on missions.
    Jim was extraordinarily talented with security system overrides. His puzzle-solving and mathematic scores were off the charts. That was one of the reasons he had been chosen to accompany Will on this particular mission.
    Will felt a twinge of guilt as he thought about the potentially bright future his friend had had before he got them both into this situation. In Will’s mind there had been no alternative action. He shook his head as he considered Preda. It had been Will’s dream ever since he was a child to meet a Vozia. Preda didn’t live up to the image in his head, but there was something overwhelming about her presence. Maybe it was just a product of his Kait nature.
    As they walked down to the waterfront, Will smelled the air. It smelled of salt and wind. It was beautiful here. He was going to be sad to leave it, but at the same time, he yearned for the freshwater of his home.
    The two stayed off the main roadways and stuck to the back alleyways. Here and there they came across vendors selling “homemade” trinkets to unsuspecting tourists. Jim purchased a few bracelets, and Will nonchalantly assessed the landscape. While Jim pretended he knew how to haggle with the seller, Will visualized the rendezvous point at the end of the street.
    It was really nothing much to look at—just a corner of an abandoned warehouse. The only thing that made it unusual was that Tamron Fox owned it. From that corner a person could survey every vantage point. That included this alley and the waterfront itself. It was amazing how well Tamron had researched it. There was even a small