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breath and relaxed, imagining himself seeping into nothingness, becoming unnoticeable, invisible, as he’d done many times in his old life. Back then, it was a matter of sliding into shadows, flattening himself against a wall, slipping silently from a room.
    But now…it was real.
    Simon heard the steps coming closer and recognized two pairs of feet. Just fucking great. Sage and Theo.
    Coming down here.
    Nice place for a seduction,
vato.
The computer lab.
    Simon remained focused, for it was still new to him—this ability to become nothing. To shimmer into invisibility. It was so new, in fact, that he hadn’t told anyone about it yet—even Elliott and Quent, who also had discovered supernatural powers since coming out of the cave. He was still trying to figure it out himself.
    Simon had to think about it, concentrate, and breathe carefully. And he’d only seen himself do it once, after they’d arrived in Envy and he had privacy and a mirror with which to practice.
    Shimmering into nothing was pretty much how he’d describe it. One minute he was there, the next…he sort of evaporated after turning transparent and wavered away.
    Sage and Theo had reached the bottom steps. She brushed past him, close enough that he felt her warmth. And smelled the fresh, pure scent that seemed to accompany her every move.
    His concentration wavered, and Simon closed his eyes.
Focus.
    It wasn’t that he wasn’t allowed down here. It was simply that he didn’t want to have to explain his purpose for being there. His lead would either pan out or it wouldn’t and why waste anyone else’s time or energy if it didn’t?
    Now they were talking quietly, and Simon felt in control enough to look over as Sage took her regular seat at a bank of five computer keyboards and monitors. Theo stood behind her, and Simon watched as the other man slowly lifted his hand, pausing over her head, as if to settle it on top of her bright, warm hair.
    Simon turned away and slipped silently, unnoticed, from the lab.
    Thank God he had the power of invisibility—otherwise he might be forced to watch Dragon Boy try his hand at seduction.
    That
would be excruciating.
    In more ways than one.
    Sage dragged her dry eyes open, delighted that the sun had begun to peep over the eastern horizon. Now she had no more reason to stay in bed and try to sleep.
    As she surged up from beneath her covers, Sage glanced at the empty bed in the hotel room she’d shared with Jade, who now shared a room—and bed—with Simon’s friend Dr. Elliott Drake. She yawned, not because she’d just awakened, but because she hadn’t slept much. Weariness curled through her body, but her mind was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. She hated when that happened.
    She slid out of bed and padded to the bathroom, afraid to even look at the rat’s nest of her hair.
    The nightmares she might have expected after her attack had been tempered by other convoluted things. Yes, there’d been some dark moments twisting in her dreams—the suffocating feel of heavy hands and a dominating weight, but thankfully, those images had slid away to be replaced by other, more intriguing, ones.
    Memories of Theo’s kiss on the rooftop…that soft, hesitant brush of lips. The “I’ll take it” response and his sober, hopeful eyes after she told him it was nice.
    The way Simon Japp had appeared moments before, standing at the very edge of the roof,
much
too close to the edge—as if he flirted with danger. The red sun blazed in front of him, swathing him in fire. He stood tall and lean and controlled…yet lonely.
    And then, a very different Simon, dangerous and hard, violence rolling from him as he held her attacker’s life in his hands. The drawn expression, the elegant hand, the spare, swift movements. The very thought of him made her belly tingle.
    Theo’s gentle fingers brushing the hair from her face as she vomited in the bush, offering his shirt to wipe her mouth, then taking her to get some water so she