Wind and saltwater spray hit his face a heartbeat later. In front of him, Malachai’s muscles bunched before he focused on what Bowen carried. “With me!”

Bo was conscious of Krychek staying in position on the edge of the deck while he pounded inside the city with Kaia. Healers swarmed over her the instant he put her on a bed in what appeared to be a large infirmary. A wet Miane Levèque appeared seconds later dressed only in a large black T-shirt that hung off one bare shoulder; she put her hand straight on Kaia’s skin.

Unable to break his own skin-to-skin contact with his mate, Bowen looked at BlackSea’s First. “Will she be all right?” It was impossible to ignore the brutality of the blow to her face; the bright light in the infirmary highlighted every break in the skin, every inch of black bruising. How had she even spoken to him? Her cheekbone looked to be shattered and one eye socket was dangerously sunken in.

Miane snapped her head toward him, her eyes nothing human . . . nothing animal, either. Not as Bo understood it. She was a wholly alien creature at that instant, with thought processes he couldn’t predict. “Does Krychek have location markers?”

Bo nodded.

“Go.” The order was directed at both him and Malachai. “Find the bastards—keep at least one alive for questioning.” A sudden, unexpected touch of her fingers to his shoulder, the punch of alpha power behind it a thing that rippled along the mating bond. “I have her.”

Conscious they could lose the cowards who’d taken Kaia unless they acted at once, Bowen forced himself to break contact with her and headed out with Malachai. They arrived on Lantia’s eastern deck to find ten cold-eyed BlackSea men and women pointing guns at Krychek. The cardinal had an amused smile on his face. As well he might—he was so fucking powerful he could probably telekinetically push all ten to the far corners of the city before they ever pulled the trigger.

“Stand down,” Malachai ordered before taking guns off two of his men. “We may be bringing in unfriendlies. Re-arm and stay alert.”

Nodding, the two men raced off.

“Krychek,” Bowen said at the same instant. “We’re ready.”

They were inside the room where Kaia had been held less than a heartbeat later. Krychek broke the lock using a small pulse of telekinetic power. Taking the gun Malachai held out, Bo went and opened the door with care. A glance outside showed a narrow and dark wood-paneled hallway that led to a flight of steps. Whatever this boat was, it was small. Which meant it probably didn’t have much of a crew.

But Kaia had said “others” so there had to be at least three.

Going quietly up the steps, conscious of Malachai and Krychek behind him, he took extreme care emerging into the light. No bullet whizzed past his head. No shout went up. He looked around, realized they were on a small fishing boat. A net lay crumpled against the hull to his left alongside other tools of the trade. He could see the silhouette of one man at the helm out front, complete with a captain’s hat.

Another man stood at the opposite end of the ship—behind Bo—and seemed to be scanning the retreating horizon with binoculars. Bo could just barely glimpse a third man along the right side of the boat, closer to the captain than the one with binoculars. He, too, had his attention outward.

It was the male with the binoculars whose hand was bandaged. Fucker.

Moving his own hand back behind him, he counted off the number of sailors for Malachai and Krychek’s benefit. A touch on his wrist told him the message had been received. He changed the hand motions to point in the three directions where the men were located. Then, once that message was understood, he pointed to the stern, telling the others which target he was taking.

After that, there was nothing but speed.

Bo erupted out of the belly of the ship, heading straight for the man with the binoculars. Shouts went up as he was spotted, but it was far too late. He took down the man who’d brutalized Kaia before the bastard could do anything but drop his binoculars to the deck. And yeah, Bo took great pleasure in smashing the butt of his gun into the fucker’s face, crushing his cheekbone and smashing his eye socket. “That’s for Kaia.”

He was ready to murder this asshole and dump him in the ocean, his rage a cold wave, but his mind flashed to Kaia’s sadness as she spoke of BlackSea’s vanished, Miane’s words about bringing in at least one live abductor ringing in his head. “You’re alive only on sufferance,” he said as the man coughed and tried to rise from where he’d fallen to the deck. “Stay the fuck down or I’ll blow off your pathetic head.”

Sadly the asshole wasn’t stupid enough to disobey.

Gun on him nonetheless, Bowen looked over to see both the captain and other crewman similarly captured.

Krychek’s capture was floating five feet in the air, helplessly flailing his arms and legs. The whites of his eyes showed bright against the deep tan of a man often out on the water.

Krychek slipped his hands into the pockets of his pants. “Would you like to return to the city?”

A single hard nod from Bo and the entire boat appeared next to Lantia. Meanwhile, Krychek looked like he was out for an evening stroll, not as if he’d just transferred a large vessel and multiple people across half an ocean.

Bowen looked to the other man. “These three Psy?” He’d felt no psychic strikes against his mind, but that could simply be because the three were disoriented and terrified.

“No, human.”

“We’ll take it from here,” Malachai said to Krychek. “BlackSea owes you.”

“No. The payment’s been made.”

Malachai’s eyes connected with Bowen’s after Krychek teleported out, a silent question in them. Bo just shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to speak of his devil’s bargain. A bargain he’d make again and again to bring Kaia out of danger. “Later.”

Nodding, Malachai threw a rope over the side and the boat was soon secured against Lantia.

Their three captives quivered as they were made to disembark, then get down on their knees on the exposed deck of the city. Miane appeared seconds later, still dressed in nothing but that large black T-shirt that hit the tops of her thighs and fell off one shoulder. Bo suddenly realized it was the same one Malachai had been wearing during their call. It should’ve made her look like a teenage girl playing dress-up with her boyfriend’s clothes.

But Miane Levèque was no girl, the power that burned in her a chilling cold.

Her inhuman gaze found his for a split second. She nodded.

Kaia was safe.

His heart slamming, Bo kept his gun trained on the captives—and forced himself not to pull the trigger on the one with the bandaged hand and the broken face. He’d made the call not to kill on the boat and now he was on Miane’s city; this was her show to run.

“You took one of mine,” Miane said silkily to the three. “Talk.”

The captain began to babble. “We rescued her. She was flounderi—” His words ended in a fleshy thump of sound as Miane backhanded him so hard that he hit the deck with violent force; he spit out a bloody tooth when he struggled back up onto his knees.

“Lie to me again and you go into the ocean.” Miane didn’t raise her voice, the menace of her all the more deadly for being so contained. “Now, I’m going to ask again. Why did you take one of mine?”

Chapter 71

Miane Levèque is beautiful the same way a shark is beautiful. Sharp, clean lines and lethal strength—but with a vicious bite. Do not underestimate her.

—Consortium briefing on the major changeling alphas

“I JUST GOT paid!” It was the crewman with the smashed face, his words thick but understandable. “Easy money, he said!” Indicating the captain. “Just had to help him snatch a dolphin for a black market collector. I didn’t know she was a person until she shifted in the net!”

“Then why did you have a knife to cut her face?” Bowen’s finger began to press down on the trigger.

“Bo.” Miane’s voice, a soft reminder of what was at stake, not an order.

Alpha to alpha.

Grinding his teeth, he nodded to tell her he was back in control.

Miane said, “Throw him in the blue.”

Screaming, the male tried to fight but it was no use. Malachai and Bo threw the fucker overboard and Bo kept him in the icy water at the point of his gun.

“And you?” Miane gave the other crewman the full impact of eyes gone eerily other. “Would you like to lie to me, too?”

A sudden wetness in his pants, the acrid scent of ammonia rising into the air.

“Seawater,” Malachai said shortly and was soon passed a dripping metal bucket.

The BlackSea security chief doused the crewman.

Whimpering, the crewman hugged his arms around himself. “He’s my uncle.” A glance at the captain. “Said he had a big contract, needed crew.”

“You knew you were taking a changeling.”

The captain’s nephew threw up at Miane’s quiet words. Malachai washed that off, too, but it was obvious the spineless male who’d been willing to stand by while another man brutalized an unarmed woman was too fucking terrified to speak now that he was faced by predators with far sharper teeth. Miane turned her attention back to the captain with the bloody cut lip and missing tooth. She smiled at him and it was a smile that was of the black, of sinuous, cold-blooded things.

“Fuck it,” the captain said, a tremor in his voice. “I wasn’t paid enough for this.” He began to tell them everything he knew, while the crewman in the water started to turn blue.

In short, the captain admitted he was known for being open to gray-market or black-market jobs. He’d carried illegal drugs, smuggled exotic animals, indulged in other criminal behavior. When he was suddenly offered a significant five-figure sum for work that didn’t even take him out of his preset path to another job, he’d jumped at the chance.

“I was already in the area—I got sent a general location and told specifics about exactly which dolphin I needed to snatch,” he continued. “Larger than an ordinary wild dolphin, tiny notch in the top part of her fin, swimming without a pod in a specific direction. Man I spoke to said they’d spotted her heading my way.”