Pursuing Paige (13 page)

After several minutes of silence, she slid
forward and peeked out from beneath the trash container. It looked
like her pursuers were gone. As silently as she could manage, she
extricated herself from beneath the container and made her way out
into the alley. All was quiet.

Now what to do?

She couldn’t stay here, since it was only a
matter of time before her pursuers realized she hadn’t left the
alley and came back to search for her. Yet leaving the alley seemed
too risky. Magick was also an issue. What if they could use it to
track her?

She looked skyward, wishing she could fly.
That’s when she noticed something interesting. Periodically a set
of a pull down metal stairs were attached to the side of the
buildings. If she were at home, she’d say they were fire escapes.
Here she didn’t know what purpose they served. That made the
thought of ascending one a scary thing. What would she find at the
top? For all she knew, there were a bajillion mages up there doing
the polka.

Up there her chances were uncertain.

But down here they were assured. Down here,
she had no chance. Those mages would return, search every inch of
this alley, and find her.

She stared at one of the pull down stairs for
several seconds before going to one and pulling it down. It made an
awful, metallic sound that made her flinch. Lifting herself up, she
began to climb, her slippers far too slick on the metal bars for
comfort. Heights were really not her thing.

When she reached the top, she cautiously
peered over the smooth lip of the top of building. Nothing. It
could be any rooftop in an American city, aside from the shiny
metal the mages used in the construction.

She climbed over the edge and pulled the
ladder up behind her so it looked like no one had touched it from
the alley. It was a waste of time. When they returned to the alley
and found no sign of her there, of course the ladders leading
upward would be a source of suspicion.

Her gaze darted around. She needed to find a
way out of here and soon. Then she needed some of those ugly
puritan clothes to blend in.

* * * * *

Kaiden and Jarek stopped on the outskirts of
their territory and shifted to human form. They’d each been
carrying a bag in their teeth since they’d left the house. The bags
were filled with the traditional clothing of mage males. Torrent
kept much of it on hand in case a situation like this arose and
they needed to blend in with the habitants in mage territory.

They dressed in silence, each of them
understanding completely how the other felt. Kaiden’s heart had
been lodged in his throat ever since they’d discovered the woman
they loved had been taken. Their only objective now was to get her
back. Nothing else mattered.

Torrent was not far behind them. He, too,
planned to enter mage territory to free Paige. They’d argued with
him about it. Torrent had a prophecy on his shoulders. He, alone,
was meant to begin the takedown of the mages. He couldn’t be
endangered. He was too important.

But Torrent had argued that he had no idea
how his fate would come about. It was up to him to follow his gut,
and his gut told him to help them free Paige. Ultimately, Kaiden
and Jarek weren’t going to deny any help, no matter the cost.

Kaiden looked over at Jarek and nodded slowly
before they both stepped over the perceived line that divided
Lycaon and mage territory. It was the first time they’d ever
ventured this far from their homes and they were armed only with
stories about how mage cities looked and how the people in them
behaved. By all accounts, mage society resembled first world human
societies, although self-expression wasn’t as allowed and magick,
of course, played a huge role in their culture.

They would need to be cautious, quiet and
remain as low profile as possible. That would be a problem
considering they would be far taller and broader than any mage
male. Thanks to spies that had gone in before them, they at least
had a decent lay of the land and knew where the mages would have
taken a Lycaon prisoner. It was likely that Paige would be held at
the Hall of Judgment, right in the middle of the massive city.

Once they’d donned their somber clothing, so
different from that of the mage hunters they normally encountered
in the forest, and so much more elaborate and constricting than
their regular clothes, they walked toward the boundaries of the
city. It was a long way and their feet pinched in the tight, stiff
leather shoes they wore.

By dawn the edge of the city was visible,
cutting a jagged line across the sky in the distance and small
hamlets had begun popping up on the outskirts of it. The villages
were mostly still asleep, though the odd mage was awake, getting
ready to go to work. The mages watched them pass with interest and
Kaiden and Jarek made the decision to split up. Alone, each of them
were noticable. Together they were probably a walking freak
show.

Jarek nodded at Kaiden and headed off toward
the west, while Kaiden went east. Their plan would be to meet at
the Hall of Judgment in the middle.

Hopefully they would do it both as free
men.

The hamlets soon gave way to a solid, larger
area of population. Torrent had told them these were called
"suburbs." The mages drove metal vehicles called transports that
were small and fast. Jarek kept to walkways heading into the city
and wished for one of them. He'd been traveling more than twelve
hours by foot.

Inside the city, he tried not to gawk like an
outsider would, but was hard. So many people and so many shiny,
sharp buildings. It was nothing like the Lyacon villages that were
such an integral part of the natural world around them. Yet for all
the people and busyness here, it was very quiet.

In a Lyacon town, the people were happy,
boisterous. They talked with each other loudly, laughed, joked, and
called out to one another on the streets. Here the people simply
went about their business without facial expression or comment.
Their comportment, along with their somber, modest dress, gave the
impression of sadness and soon Jarek's footsteps became heavy.

He had a map in his pocket, but dared not to
check it for fear of drawing attention to himself. Instead he used
his sense of direction, a flawless thing, to direct him closer to
the center of the city.

In order to keep his mind off the fact he was
surrounded by people who wanted nothing better than to rip him
apart, he focused his mind on Paige—her soft skin, the gentle look
in her eyes, the curves of her body, the sound of her voice.

Paige was heaven for him in the center of
hell.

Jarek rounded a corner and came face-to-face
with a mage constable, a broad, short man dressed in black. His
scowled up into Jarek's face. "Who are you and why are you
here?"

Oh, no.

* * * * *

Paige hid in the recesses of a closet,
hearing the sounds of a mage family that had just woken up.

She'd wasted no time finding a way off the
roof and had located a door leading to a stairwell almost right
away. Inside what had appeared to be an apartment building, she'd
tried every door, desperate to find a hiding place. When that had
failed, she'd found an open window at the end of one of the
corridors and had slipped out onto the window ledge.

It had been terrifying.

Someone not as lithe and muscle trained
probably would have fallen to their deaths, but she'd managed to
inch her way along the ledge, hoping hard that no one on the street
below looked up. Once she'd found an open window, she'd slipped
inside. The room, a bedroom, had been empty and she'd found a nice,
deep, dark closet and curled up.

That had been last night.

Sometime in the night the men from the Hall
of Judgment had pounded on the apartment door, asking if the people
who lived here had seen anything unusual. It had caused an alarm in
the apartment. Her unwilling hosts had been up for over an hour,
peering anxiously into the night beyond their bedroom window.
Little did they know the awful Lycaon threat lay curled in the
recesses of their closet. She was so menacing with her light
dancer’s body frame and deadly slippers, after all.

Finally they’d fallen back to sleep and she
had, too. Even snatches of shallow, interrupted sleep were welcome
at this point. At one point she’d dreamt of Caroline and had called
her name over and over in her mind as she’d slept. She’d woken with
tears still wet on her cheeks.

The front door slammed and no more sounds
issued from the apartment. Still, she waited for an entire hour
before she cautiously inched past the threshold of her hiding
place. After verifying that the occupants were gone, she stole a
dress, an odd white hairpiece that women all wore, and a pair of
ugly, clunky black shoes. Dressed like a mage female, she slipped
out of the apartment and made her way down the stairs toward the
exit.

Guards stood at either side of the front
door. Unable to turn away without drawing suspicion, she set her
shoulders, channeled all the confidence she didn’t feel, and headed
straight toward them. She hoped with every fiber of her being they
weren't using some strange magick that would detect a lie.

She attempted to walk right past them, as if
she owned the world, but one meaty mage hand reached out and halted
her. "Do you live in this building?"

"No, sir." That was no lie, after all.

"What is your purpose for being here?"

"I'm just visiting."

The guard peered down at her. "Where is your
identification?"

Oh, shit.
"I left it at home this morning, sir. What
is going on here? I'm late and can't be delayed any more than I
already am."

"We're seeking an escaped criminal."

Her heart skipped a beat at being labeled
that way. Really harsh considering her only crime was being part
Lycaon. "That has nothing to do with me.” Again, not a lie. She was
no
escaped
criminal
.

“Truly?” The mage’s eyes narrowed. “Your hair
and eye color is the same as that of the woman who escaped the Hall
of Justice yesterday.”

Her heart thumped wildly in her chest. It was
time to take a risk and she didn't like it at all. Not one bit. It
flew against her sense of self-preservation and was crazy as hell.
Yet, she had no choice, not if she ever wanted to see Jarek and
Kaiden alive again.

“
Many women have my coloring, sir.” She
didn’t have to feign being completely pissed off. “The Hall of
Justice is exactly where I’m going right now. I
work
there. If one of your guards wants to accompany
me, I would welcome the escort, but be quick about it. I’m
late."

The guard stared at her for a long moment.
Finally, he stepped aside. "I can’t spare anyone to walk with you,
but have a good day, mistress. Glory to Magica."

She nodded solemnly. “Glory to Magica.”

Her knees were dangerously weak as she
stepped past them and on to the sidewalk beyond. The blood in her
veins flowed way too fast as she forced her legs to move forward.
She walked down the sidewalk, disappeared around the corner of the
building and let out the breath she'd been holding. Dizzy relief
made her lightheaded.

Now for the second part of her plan. She
hadn’t been bluffing; she really did need to go back to the Hall of
Judgment.

Although she’d technically only just met
Kaiden and Jarek, she understood them in a way she'd never
understood anyone. She knew with every ounce of her heart that they
were already in the city, intent on rescuing her. She also knew
that the first place they'd go was the building where they would
think she was being imprisoned. They would not expect that she'd
escaped.
She
could barely
believe she'd escaped.

No, the only way to save Jarek and Kaiden was
to reenter that house of horrors.

Gods, this was the dumbest thing she'd ever
done. Also, the most important.

“Show your identification” the guard growled
into Jarek’s face.

Jarek quelled his shock and reached into his
back pocket, pulling out a slim plastic disc. It was fake, of
course, but no mage male could be caught on the streets without
one. Torrent had told him that females were allowed a little more
leeway, especially if they were thought to hold a high seat in mage
society.

"I'm on my way to work," said Jarek. "At the
Hall of Judgment. I’m an interrogator." He had the build to carry
off that claim.

The man narrowed his eyes. “I haven’t seen
you in the building before.”

“I started just last week.”

"Ah," answered the guard as he handed back
Jarek's bit of plastic. "So, do you know if they've caught the
fugitive yet?"

"Caught...the fugitive." His mind stumbled
over the words.

Could they mean Paige? She was such a
slight little thing. How could she have possibly escaped custody?
Yet, this was
Paige
. She was
small, but she was also strong in body, mind, and will. Maybe
she
had
escaped.

He recovered nicely. "Not that I know. I hope
when I arrive at work we will have some good news." He placed the
back of his hand to his forehead in a traditional mage gesture.
"Glory to Magica."

"Glory," answered the guard as he made the
same gesture. "Have a nice day."

Jarek nodded and continued on. That could
have gone an entirely different way. He'd been lucky. He hoped
things were also lucky for Kaiden.

His mind raced as he considered the
implications of Paige escaping. Unfortunately, he didn't know if
the mage had been talking about her or some other unfortunate
person. That meant he had no choice but to continue.