Raoul turned his head. Eyes more wolf than human contemplated the bloody strips of torn clothing, the bones not yet carried away by scavengers.

He fantasized about his return to the compound. Imagined mounting his father’s wife, claiming her just as he would everything else belonging to his sire.

A snarl escaped thinking about the way she’d been forced to remain overnight in the prisoner’s cage. He’d caught the scent of semen when he finally returned to consciousness as a wolf. If her womb thickened with child, he’d rid her of it, just as he would have rid her of Eston if he’d been freed during the wreck as the hyenas and dragon lizards had been.

Better that he hadn’t. Part of Raoul recognized that. He’d seen the way Hyde used the toddler to tether the mother.

He could decide later what to do about his half-brother, whether it would be smarter to return to the compound with him and receive a hero’s welcome, or leave him at the place where the healer intended to take him in the morning.

Raoul’s thoughts lingered for a moment on the healer and the Were. They were going to be his best chance at recapturing the being their companion had freed. He hoped he’d be able to track them to the place they called home—after they got rid of Eston. He’d left them when he realized Eston would recognize his human form and show no fear, making them suspicious of him and eradicating any advantage he might have if he needed to use them.

Raoul stood, cock still in hand. He widened his stance and let loose another stream of urine, pissing on what little remained of his father, shaking the last drops from his penis when his bladder was empty.

He stepped over the shackles that had once held the prisoner, the being he’d thought of as a human-demon from the moment they’d found him alive in the foothill settlement, imprisoned in a church basement, his clothes bloodied and torn as if he’d been massacred along with the rest of the people there but had come back to life. He’d smelled human then, too. But no ordinary man would have survived whatever happened to the settlers.

The presence of the priest at the compound the day before, arriving with the men who’d taken the lion when they left, was enough to confirm Raoul’s belief that the tattooed man was a demon kept trapped in a human body by the sigil-inscribed collar.

Finding the dead dragon lizard next to the creek was added proof. The woman couldn’t have killed it; no human armed only with knives could have.

Raoul was glad the guardsmen hadn’t recaptured the human-demon. If they had, there would be no chance of getting him back, no point in lingering in Oakland. They’d be the ones to make a profit.

He’d only risked returning to the ambush site in order to scavenge clothing and the cash Hyde thought was so cleverly hidden. Now the sight of the truck stripped of its useful parts, blackened by fire, enraged him.

The human-demon was all that remained of the valuable cargo, and if he didn’t hurry, he’d lose his chance to collect what was rightfully his. The man left behind to travel with them to Oakland had probably already reported to the priest what had happened.

It would be easy enough for the priest to learn from the guardsmen that the prisoner had escaped. By daybreak tomorrow, those in his pay would be hunting the human-demon.

Raoul gnashed his teeth in frustration. Working for the Church was out of the question. They’d use him and then call him an abomination before making sure he met his death.

He had no way of gauging the human-demon’s strength, but the chains and restraint chair along with the dead dragon lizard were warning enough. From the tracks he’d followed, it seemed that the prisoner had split away from the woman who’d remained behind to unlock his shackles. He’d gone a couple of miles before turning around and backtracking, then following the female and rejoining her.

It didn’t surprise Raoul. In the wolf’s form he’d smelled the desire between the two of them when they first saw each other.

It was probably the woman’s blood that had drawn the dragon lizard. Drops of it lay along the trail leading away from the truck, and he’d caught the scent of it when she first appeared after the ambush.

As with Hyde’s corpse, the scavengers had already gotten to the dragon lizard’s carcass. It was hard to tell exactly how it had been killed.

There were slashes. Raoul had seen that much. He thought the demon might be powerful enough even in a human form to possess talons when the need arose. It would explain why his wrists had been shackled on short chains to his waist.

Regardless, the demon-possessed human lusted enough for the woman to follow her. Knowing it gave Raoul an advantage.

He could use her in setting a trap. He could use the healer and the Were as well. But he still needed more help if he was going to recapture the prisoner and deliver him to a buyer.

The most logical place to go was to the maze. Who else besides the Church would be interested in acquiring a demon-possessed human?

Once he’d gone with Hyde to one of the gaming clubs that didn’t screen for nonhumans during the daytime. They’d watched on a big-screen television as Anton’s demon hunted the maze.

Anton and his assistant Farold wouldn’t question his story about surviving an ambush. They’d seen him with Hyde before and thought he was human—or if not, they didn’t care.

Telling them about the loss of the dragon lizards would add credibility, as would the Church’s interest in the prisoner. Involving them would mean the loss of at least half of his profit, if not more.

He hated the thought of it, but he didn’t see any other way. If the priest’s men located the human-demon first, he’d get nothing.

Raoul finished searching through the items thrown from the truck by guardsmen as they tore it apart looking for things of value. He rolled the salvaged shirt, pants, and shoes into a bundle then changed back into the wolf’s form so he could travel through the night. His father’s things weren’t the right size, but they’d allow him to slip into the red zone at dawn and go to the maze.

ARAÑA woke alone and knew an instant of panic—not from the close confines of the space she was in, but from Tir’s absence and the loss of his skin against hers. She sat up, aware of the meshed ceiling only inches above her head, high enough to allow a lion to walk easily and a human to sit, wide enough for a couple of Weres, in either of their forms, to lounge comfortably. Levi’s lair was just that, a hollowed out place fortified by wire and steel scavenged from the human world and hidden beneath the rock and wood of the natural one.

Air and light and sound filtered in, enough of it so she knew it was morning and Tir was close by, cooking something. Her stomach rumbled at the smell of roasting meat.

She glanced around the lair and found her clothes missing, guessed he’d taken them outside and placed them near the fire to dry. In the hopes of being less noticeable when they got to the city, she’d washed the blood out of them before they’d taken shelter for the night.

A blush rose to her cheeks at the thought of emerging from the lair naked. It was foolish to feel shy after all she and Tir had done together. She knew it, but flaunting herself didn’t come naturally to her.

For the first twelve years of her life she’d been trained to modesty—even her nightgowns had been flannel and cotton versions of the long dresses that covered her from neck to wrists to ankles. It had been easy to shed the restrictive clothing for shorts and tank tops, but she’d never lost her reticence even though she often saw men and women swimming naked when boats joined together to form impromptu floating cities.

She wasn’t ashamed of her body or embarrassed by the sight of others naked, but she’d never slipped into the water during those times. At first it was because she feared someone would brush against the spider and die as a result. Then later, as she matured, she didn’t join them because her bare mound set her apart from the other women. She’d worried…