I handed him the Dublin Daily. “ ‘Jada’ outed me.”

He scanned it then rose and stalked naked to the shattered counter upon which my lovely antique register used to sit, silver bell tinkling as I rang up orders. Whatever he was looking for wasn’t where he’d left it. He rummaged beneath wreckage then returned with another piece of stained, crumpled paper.

I smoothed it out.

The Dublin Daily

August 3 AWC

EMERGENCY ALERT!

NEW DUBLINERS BE ON GUARD!

We’ve just received confirmation that there are TWO deadly copies of the PSYCHOPATHIC, EVIL Sinsar Dubh in Ireland!

One has possessed MACKAYLA LANE. The other has possessed

DANI O’MALLEY

who now calls herself JADA. See photos below.

MACKAYLA LANE and JADA are under full, terrifying MIND CONTROL of the deadliest books of black magic that have ever existed! They CANNOT be saved.

They’re PSYCHOTIC AND DANGEROUS!

They must be KILLED to be stopped!

Contact WeCare if you have information on their whereabouts. DO NOT APPROACH THEM YOURSELF!

Help us PROTECT New Dublin!

Join WeCare today!

I frowned. “Wait, what? This doesn’t make any sense. She’s not, right?” Surely in the past few days she hadn’t released Cruce and fallen under his control.

“Not that I’m aware. Ryodan’s been keeping close tabs on her.”

“Who would print this and why?”

He cocked his head, studying me intently.

“You thought she posted the first one and I printed this in retaliation.”

He shrugged. “If someone throws you to the sharks, drag them in with you. Makes two of you against the sharks. With few exceptions, humans will unite to defeat a common predator before resuming their personal vendettas, creating multiple opportunities for escape.”

I loved his logic, clean, simple, and effective. “I probably would have just protested my innocence. Printed a Daily of my own denying it all.” Rather than turn on Dani, even if she had turned on me. I would never admit to anyone that I’d killed a Guardian. I hated myself for it, hated the idea someone may have watched me do it. I wanted a name. It’s creepy to think someone knows something terrible about you and you have no idea who they are.

“Reason never works. There’s an inherent bias in the system. The attacker has the offense, which makes the defense appear defensive, therefore guilty. If neither you nor Dani printed these, someone wants both of you targeted, on the run or dead. And with two simple pieces of paper, achieved their aim. These are posted all over the city. I saw a small mob forming outside Dublin Castle, demanding the Guardians take action.”

Which is why he’d thought it was Jayne who came after me. The castle had been commandeered after the walls fell to house Guardian garrisons and what passed as the city’s only hospital. “But why would anyone believe this? WeCare didn’t offer a shred of proof. Besides,” I groused, “their writing is positively juvenile.”

“Fear, boredom, and a sense of helplessness have bred many a witch hunt. He who controls the presses…”

“Controls the populace,” I finished. “Don’t they realize we have far bigger problems? Like the fabric of our planet being destroyed?”

“They’re blaming the black holes on you and Dani. The mob was ranting that the magic you’re using is so destructive it’s tearing the world apart.”

“And you don’t worry they might be on the way here right now?” I said tartly. To further damage my home. My hands fisted.

“I might have sidled into that mob and let it drop that I saw two young women dancing naked around a glowing book in a cemetery on the edge of town.”

I snorted. “And it worked?”

“The promise of naked women and violence has always been irresistible bait for frightened men. Still, it’s only a matter of time before they come.”

He pushed up like a graceful dark panther, muscles rippling. He didn’t look as forbidding when his body wasn’t covered with black and crimson tattoos. I rarely saw him with his skin unblemished. Beautiful naked man. My skin smelled of him. I didn’t want to shower it off but the paint had to go.

He offered his hand, pulled me to my feet. At the last moment his head fell forward and he inhaled. I smiled. We smell good to each other when we fuck. People should always smell good to each other when they fuck or they’re fucking the wrong person.

“I have work to do,” he said, and I caught the hint of regret that we couldn’t just forget the world, stay devolved. Life was so much simpler when we ignored everything but each other.

“We have work to do,” I corrected. I wasn’t sitting on the sidelines anymore.

“I. Get cleaned up. We leave within the hour.”

Before I could even open my mouth to argue, he was gone, vanishing in that fluid way of his, either too fast for me to see or blending into objects like a chameleon as he moved from one to the next.

A disembodied voice said, “I’ll ward the store against humans. You’ll be safe here until I return. Ms. Lane.”

I bristled. I’d been “Mac” to him for the past hour, deep inside his skin, taken him deep inside mine.

With two tiny words he’d erected that formal wall between us again.

“Ms. Lane, my ass,” I muttered. But he was gone.

—

Precisely one hour later we left by the back door, stepping into the alley between BB&B and Barrons’s garage. I loathed leaving the store with all the windows shot out but Barrons assured me no harm would come to it.