Page 37 of Monster Queen Rising

"Thaw's awake. Vance is going to give us the rest today."

I turn to him.

"She gave Dean a word at three last night. The one we've been waiting on."

"Linden."

For months it has been a machine with no face. A door that opened and closed. Hands in gloves. A voice behind the glass with no name.

You cannot hunt a machine. You cannot get your teeth into a door.

Now it has a name.

The heat is up my spine before the cup leaves my hand — not fear, the other thing, the thing that wants to be hunting. It climbs. Throat. Wrists. The ache in the jaw where the teeth want to drop. I'm on my feet before I decide to be, and the cup goes over off the arm of the chair and empties across the boards.

Crull is on his feet too. Four feet away. Hands at his sides. Amber on mine.

"Hold Fen."

I breathe.

The shift hovers. Does not extend. He is six feet off and not crossing, and there is nothing in this yard to point it at, and he knows that's the problem — not that I'm scared, that I want to go. I stay because he's there.

I sit back down.

It retracts. My hand is shaking. He does not name it.

He goes inside. Comes back with the pot, rights the cup, fills it. Sets it by my hand. Sits back down.

"Pack in the kitchen at nine. Madison too. She asked."

I drink the coffee.

I go.

The kitchen at nine.

Thaw at the table. Harek at the wall. Crull in the doorway. Vance in the chair, hands cuffed in front of her.

Madison at the counter. Hand on her stomach. The sweater doesn't hide it anymore. Color good. Hair up.

Dean at the network terminal, a map open, a pen in his hand.

I come in.

Vance lifts her eyes.

The shift surfaces.

Her eyes drop to the table.

I stay where I am.

Crull has not crossed the room.

Thaw looks at me.

"You good."