Leaning over, she peered hard at the skin. His perfectly unmarred skin. She grabbed Ryon’s wrist and rubbed his palm with the pads of her fingers. No mark at all!

“I’ll be damned!” Releasing Ryon, she sat back in her chair and looked away from the small group as the total impact of everything she’d seen and heard in her short time here hit her full force.

Really hit. Micah was part of a paranormal black ops team, and the nonhuman type of evil truly did exist. As an LAPD cop, she faced danger every day, but even that couldn’t begin to compare to the world she’d stumbled upon and was now up to her neck in trying to grasp.

I wear a badge, carry a gun, and until today I walked around confident that I knew who the bad guys were and was sure of my ability to handle them. Then I find out I’m an insignificant bug on the stalk of the universe. Monster food.

Dinner forgotten, overwhelmed, she rested her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands. She was in no way prepared for this. How the hell was she supposed to help Micah?

A gentle hand rubbed her back and she started, sitting up to glance at Sariel. His expression was warm, understanding. No one except Dean had bothered to comfort her in years, and the small kindness almost did her in. But she wouldn’t cry. She never did.

“It will be all right,” the Fae man said, smiling faintly. “Trust me.”

“What, so you’re a PreCog like Nick?”

“No. But you’re not without your own gifts and I have a feeling they will serve you well in your quest.”

“You mean I have some sort of talent, like Micah?” He nodded and she perked up some at the idea. She thought of the Dreamwalking thing Nick had told her about. “Cool. What’s my gift? How do you know?”

“Humans are so impatient.” He sighed, then shook his head. “How I know isn’t important, and it wouldn’t be as effective for you if I told you the nature of your gift. You must experience it for yourself to accept and use it.”

“Great. I want answers and I get Yoda for a sidekick,” she muttered.

“Who?” Sariel looked baffled and the rest of the group chuckled.

“I think she’s going to fit right in,” Ryon said.

Before anyone could comment, a Goth guy walked in who commanded not only Rowan’s attention but that of everybody in the dining area. He walked like a graceful cat and looked like a cross between a rock star and a gunslinger. Even among these men, he was unique. And no wonder—this was the man she’d seen shift to human from panther form.

“Who’s that?” she whispered to Sariel.

“Kalen Black,” he answered in a low voice. “One of the new recruits, but extremely powerful. He’s a Sorcerer and Necromancer.”

“Jesus.”

Kalen rapped on the table to get their attention. “Hey, Nick wants to see the Pack in the meeting room, pronto. The intercom’s not working, so he sent me to round up you guys.”

The guy named A.J. glanced up hopefully. “Me, too?”

“Sorry, man, not yet.”

Too green, Rowan thought. Outwardly disappointed at being excluded, A.J. heaved a breath and went back to eating. The bald man with him, however, wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood. As did Jaxon, Zan, and Ryon.

Jaxon shot an intense stare at Kalen. “We going wheels-up?”

“Yep, after sundown. He’s got the details on where we’ll find our two missing guys, and hopefully a bunch of Chappell’s scumbags, too.” Kalen’s green gaze found Rowan briefly. He nodded an acknowledgment of her presence, then looked at his friends. “Let’s go.”

“Wait,” she called to them. “I want to sit in on this meeting.”

“No can do,” Jax said over his shoulder.

“This is my brother we’re talking about! You can’t just—”

“That’s exactly why we can—because he’s your family and you’re way too emotional. And if Nick wants you to know more, he’ll tell you.”

“I’m getting damned tired of that answer!” They filed out, ignoring her, and she pounded a fist on the table. Frustrated, she glared at Kira. “Tell me this gets easier.”

“Dealing with a bunch of overbearing alpha males?” The blonde snorted. “Right.”

“That’s what I was afraid of. Same macho attitude, different location.”

Fine. They’d left her no choice but to resort to desperate measures. If the Pack thought they were leaving in the night without her, they were in for a big surprise.

Rowan crouched in a dark corner of the huge hangar, waiting. Despite her training as an officer and the dark jeans and shirt she wore, there was a better than average chance that she would get caught. She was only human, armed with nothing but stealth and maybe some luck. The team, with their super-senses, might very well detect her presence and make her stay behind, something she couldn’t allow to happen.

Using one of the compound’s SUVs as cover, she peered around the back end and studied the hulking shapes of several vehicles in the dim light coming from a wall fixture far across the vast space. Among them she counted two private jets, three SUVs, a couple of motorcycles, and several cars and trucks that she suspected were owned by the team members. The crowning glory was the three big Hueys at the far end, situated under a roof hatch that would open to allow them to take off.

The main problems were not knowing which mode of transportation they’d take, and how she’d manage to stow away and hide.

From the corner of her eye, she saw a faint glow. Startled, she whipped her head around to watch as a ball of neon blue light grew brighter, larger. Edging backward, she gaped as the ball shimmered into the form of a man—or rather, Sariel.

Crouching, he grinned at her, his beautiful wings spread. “Hello.”

“All right, that’s going to take some getting used to. What are you doing here?”

“Establishing myself as your partner in crime, of course.”

She appreciated the irony, considering. “Hey, that’s nice of you, but I don’t want you to get in hot water with Nick.”

The man looked alarmed. “He would wish me to bathe with him as punishment for assisting you?”

“No.” Rowan choked, not quite stifling a laugh. “‘Hot water’ means to get in trouble.”

“Oh.” He waved a hand. “That doesn’t concern me. What can he do to me, after all?”

She studied him thoughtfully. “True. But why do you want to help me?”

Amber eyes returned her gaze in the darkness, turned sad. “Because if I had anyone who loved me as much as you love your Micah, I’d want her to come for me.”

Aw, shit. Sudden moisture stung her eyes and she blinked it away rapidly. Reaching out, she touched his face. This gentle being’s words and that simple act forged the beginnings of a real friendship. She felt it to her soul. “That’s a good enough reason for me. So, how can you get me past the wolf squad?”

“Simple. I’m going to cloak your presence and you’ll accompany them without them even knowing!”

“How?”

He shrugged. “An easy invisibility spell that even the youngest of Fae children can perform. Causes quite a ruckus around the palace, I can tell you.”

Picturing it made her snicker. Good thing human kids couldn’t do that trick. “Okay. If you work your magic on me, how long will it last?”

“The farther you travel from the source—me—the weaker the spell will become until it fades altogether and you’re revealed. No matter where you are, though, it will only last a few hours at most.”

“I’m impressed.” She thought about it. “I think that’ll work. By the time it wears off it’ll be too late for them to bring me back here. I hope.”

“That’s the idea.”

Staring at her intently, Sariel laid a hand on top of her head and uttered a soft incantation in a language she didn’t understand. After a few seconds he released her, apparently happy. “Is that all?” she asked.

“Yes. I can see and hear you, but nobody else will for a while.”