Deliverance by Dakota Banks Page A

head. “I can give you one simple explanation why I’m on edge about this. It’s about guilt. Yanmeng’s gone. Other people I loved have died, and I haven’t been able to stop it.”
    Just as she ducked back into the shelter of the lab bench, she saw the tall man pick up a piece of broken glass from the floor.
    Maliha knew his intent as though their minds were one.
    She rolled out from behind the bench and planted a star in the wrist of the nearest gunman. He screamed and dropped the gun. As she passed by him, she finished him with a blow to the throat, and then turned her attention back to the real danger in the room. She launched a throwing knife at the tall man. He was in motion as she threw, and instead of skewering his heart, the knife landed in his arm. It didn’t stop him from carrying through the action he’d started. He yanked Claire’s head back and slit her throat with the piece of glass.
    No!
    Blood spilled and she knew Claire was gone.
    Hound didn’t answer for a while. She knew he had the same kind of memories from his days in Vietnam, and had been helpless to save some of the men he worked with every day.
    “Things have piled up on you lately. It kinda comes with the territory, doing what you do,” he said softly. “When you were Ageless, you killed without guilt. Now that you’re partly human—or whatever you are—you experience both love and loss.” He paused. “Would you do without love?”
    “There’s one form of love I almost wish I’d never opened up to. Lucius is gone, Jake is . . . maybe not the one for me.”
    Hound looked at her quizzically, but she didn’t elaborate.
    “I think I’m responsible for Yanmeng’s disappearance, and Arnie was just an opening act,” she said. “If Yanmeng dies too . . .”
    “Let’s not put him in the grave, yet. Maliha, you’ve got to bend on this. Let us help in the way we need to.”
    Trying to calm her fears, she said, “All right. Just remember I can’t be everywhere at once.”
    “We’ve never expected you to be.”
    “What about Eliu—the safe room for her?” Maliha said.
    “What do you say we leave it up to her choice? The new democracy.”
    Maliha felt something slipping through her fingers that she knew she’d never get back. She was letting go of some degree of power she’d held because of her abilities.
    Master Liu told me to learn humility. Maybe this is part of walking the mortal path.
    “Okay.”
    There was a knock at the door. Eliu didn’t have a key. Maliha assumed it was she, even though the doorman was supposed to announce guests. She ran to the door as Hound told her to slow down and check it out first.
    It wasn’t Eliu. A small box sat right outside the door. Hound shoved her aside, looked each way down the hallway, and then headed for the emergency stairs at a run.
    With her heart dragging the floor, Maliha brought the box in and opened it.
    Inside, wrapped in paper towels, was Yanmeng’s index finger. She recognized the scar he’d gotten a long time ago in a tactical knife fight. There was a note demanding her presence at a meeting spot, alone.

Chapter Thirteen
     
    M aliha wrapped the severed finger in a clean cloth and put it on ice in a cooler in the vague hope of reattachment, making sure that the flesh didn’t rest on the ice. It would be ready for transport immediately, but she didn’t think Yanmeng would be recovered in time for that. There had been a clean removal with a sharp instrument, perhaps a skillfully wielded knife or even a sword.
    She grimaced. I’ve seen it all too often, a finger or hand cut off and sent to someone to intimidate. I should know—I’ve done it.
    Her phone rang. It was Chick.
    “Got a lady name of Eliu to see you, with luggage. Okay?”
    “Yes, send both up.”
    “Christ,” Hound said. “Should we hide all this?”
    “I suggest we put the box and envelope away and tell her everything. She can decide what she wants to see,” Amaro said.
    “Sounds good. Use