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also instructed the field agent to seize the digital files. When she hung up, Mara opened her eyes and sighed.
    “Good,” she murmured. “I was afraid he was going to get away.”
    “On my watch?” Felicia said lightly. “Nah.” The girl was obviously more cognizant than she’d let on. She’d likely been playing possum, waiting for a chance to escape. Smart.
    “He’s going to be pissed at me.”
    Instinctively, Felicia knew the girl referred to Knox, not Toby or Aaron. “Probably,” Felicia agreed. Felicia started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. She stopped for a red light about five blocks away. While she was waiting for it to turn green, the dharmire—Mara—sniffed.
    “I just wanted to see what he sees. Goddess, it’s not fair that he gets to travel and we don’t. We fought for freedom but we’re still prisoners.”
    “You didn’t take a bus here, did you?”
    She shook her head. “I teleported. I’d been to the Greyhound Station before, a couple of years ago with my parents. I’ve always wanted to come back, but Knox talked me out of it. Now that I can teleport on my own . . .” Mara shrugged.
    Felicia smoothed a hand over the girl’s silky hair. Moonlight and morning dew, she thought, just like Noella’s. “He’s trying to protect you. From people like that man.”
    “I know. I hate that he’s always right.”
    The girl’s head lolled as she seemed to fall asleep. Felicia continued to stroke her hair. She swallowed tightly as she thought of Knox; as always, desire and affection were what she felt first, followed swiftly by guilt. She’d never be able to have one without the other.
    “Not always,” Felicia whispered. “But enough to be damn annoying.”
    When the light turned green, she drove through the intersection, then pulled over to text her boss. Kyle was likely with Knox at this very moment. After they talked, Knox would want to see Dr. Barker’s lab notes himself. Then he’d teleport back to the Dome. Who knew? Maybe Mara would be home before Knox found out she was missing.
    Felicia gave Mahone a rundown on what had happened, including the fact she’d fired her weapon. Even with the videotapes, the paperwork would be a pain and she imagined going back, making good on her threat to shoot Mara’s “friend” in the balls. But her priority was getting Mara safely home. Whether she chose to tell Knox all the details was her decision. Felicia certainly wasn’t going to narc her out.
    Not when she was so committed to avoiding Knox herself.

    Several hours had passed since Mahone had rocked Knox’s world. In that time, Knox had read all the files Mahone had given him. Now, he stared at the man he grudgingly respected but certainly didn’t trust.
    Regardless of whether Mahone was telling the truth, Knox had no choice but to agree to his offer. He’d do anything to save his dying clan, and that included leading a team of half-Otherborn. The team’s first mission?
    Recover the antidote for the synthetic virus that rendered human blood incapable of nourishing vamps. The very virus the FBI had created and distributed just before the beginning of the War.
    Talk about ironic.
    The real kicker was that the existence of the antidote was presumed, but not confirmed. With more questions than answers, Mahone’s so-called Team Red would have its work cut out for them.
    Even so, for the first time in a long time, Knox felt hope.
    It was a hope he tried to temper, as well as disguise with genuine skepticism. “What guarantee do I have that this antidote really exists?”
    “None. You already knew our scientists, like yours, were searching for an antidote. Now you know exactly what I do. The project leader, Dr. Neil Barker, was murdered two weeks ago. A week before his death, Dr. Barker thought they were close. He’d developed a formula that appeared to reverse the effects of the vamp vaccine after it was injected into lab rats and cadavers, or mixed with human blood samples.