She thought he even muttered something rude under his breath as she passed by, but she wasn’t sure enough to call him on it. There was definitely something off about his reaction though. Certainly it was a far chillier welcome than the guards had given her when she first arrived in Seattle. She added it to her mental list of problems to be dealt with as time allowed.

She punched in her authorization code on the keypad and yanked the door open. As she started down the hallway, a familiar figure stepped out of the hall on the right. He turned to walk in the same direction she was heading. Great. Larem was the last person she wanted to see right now.

She dropped back, hoping to avoid any contact. Her ruse didn’t work; the man stopped to look back at her. Except it wasn’t Larem after all. Given that there was only one other male Kalith who might be roaming these halls, he had to be Barak q’Young.

He waited for her to catch up with him. “You must be Sasha.”

“I am, and you must be Barak.” She smiled, mostly from relief.

Barak glanced at the briefcase she held in a tight grip. He gave her an odd look before asking, “Are you heading toward Devlin’s office? If so, I’m walking in that direction myself.”

When she nodded, he fell into step beside her. “So how are you finding life here in Seattle? How does it compare to your home in Missouri?”

At least one of them was capable of carrying on a conversation. “It’s really lovely here, and definitely different from Missouri. Not better, just different. You visited with Devlin, didn’t you? So you’ve at least seen some of the area.”

He nodded. “My trip was quite brief, but I did get to see part of the Ozarks. Very different from the mountains here. What I remember the most was the heat.”

She laughed. “Yes, it does get pretty steamy in the summer. Thank goodness for air-conditioning.”

“Indeed.” He slowed to a stop. “Well, here we are. It was a pleasure to finally meet you. Perhaps you’d like to join Lacey Sebastian and me for dinner one evening.”

“I’d like that,” she said, finding that she really meant it. “Just let me know when.”

He continued on, cutting through the cluster of desks to where Blake Trahern was talking with Cullen Finley. Both men nodded in her direction as she made her way over to where Devlin was leaning in his doorway obviously waiting for her.

“Am I late?”

“Nope, right on time. Come on in.” He straightened up and led the way into his office. “Coffee?”

“Nothing, thanks.”

She pulled her chair around to the side of Devlin’s desk, hating to have the huge expanse of scarred wood between them while they talked. Somehow sharing the corner of his desk seemed friendlier than sitting on opposite sides.

“Have you had a chance to go over the list I e-mailed you?” Devlin said as he sat, his chair creaking in protest. “Just so you know, I did ask some of the guys for their input.”

There was a twinkle in his eyes that made her wonder how much editing he’d had to do before sending along their suggestions.

Knowing D.J., she bet there’d been some doozies. “I take it that a few of the ideas were more interesting than appropriate. Care to share?”

Devlin laughed. “‘Interesting’ is a tactful way to put it. But, yeah, a couple were quite creative and possibly illegal in some states.”

While he spoke, she set her laptop on the edge of the desk and booted it up. “Okay, now you’ve got my imagination running wild. Tell me your favorite, and I promise not to repeat it, or even ask who came up with it.”

The Paladin leader shoved his long hair back out of his way as he gave the matter some thought. “Beer on tap in the barracks down in the tunnels almost made the list.”

She grinned at him. “While I can understand the appeal, the thought of unlimited alcohol mixed with swords sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Yeah, that’s why I had to say no.” Clearly he regretted that being the case. “But otherwise, I tried to make sure that anything that made the final cut would offer the greatest bang for the buck and have the most impact on the Paladins themselves.”

“Overall, you did a great job coming up with some pretty creative ideas. We can’t afford to do all of them, at least not immediately, but I’d still like to send all of the suggestions back to the Board. I think they’d benefit from hearing what’s really needed from the actual boots on the ground.”

“Sure, go ahead.” But Devlin seemed skeptical.

“What’s wrong?”

“Look, Sasha, I know you mean well, but I have asked for almost everything on that list at one time or another, and I’ve always been shot down. There’s never enough money or personnel or some other lame-ass excuse.”

Just that quickly his good mood was gone, along with her own. She was getting tired of having to defend the Regents and everything they did for the Paladins. Rather than try that tactic again, she steered the conversation back to the list.

“I can’t speak for decisions made in the past, but here’s what I can do now.” She turned the screen so he could see it. “Of your top five items, I thought these two should be given the most priority.”

She highlighted the ones she meant. “If you agree, first thing tomorrow I’ll submit the request to purchase more physical therapy equipment for the gym and to hire three more trained medics to work in the labs. I like the idea of recruiting candidates with military backgrounds. It only makes sense.”

He nodded. “That was one of Laurel’s suggestions, but the guys agreed. With more medics doing triage and treating the more superficial stuff, the Handlers can get started on the serious wounds and the dead faster.”

Sasha couldn’t help but shudder at the images that came flooding back. The blood, the screams, the dead and dying.

Devlin cocked his head to the side and stared at her for several seconds. “Flashback?”

“Yeah, it’s getting better, but every so often it takes me by surprise.” She mustered up a small smile. “If you want to yell at me some more for what happened, go ahead. You won’t be saying anything I haven’t already told myself.”

“Actually, don’t take this wrong, but all things considered I’m almost glad it happened.”

Although she wouldn’t have wished it on her worst enemy, she’d had the same thought herself.

Devlin continued, “I know it was tough on you, and you probably still feel guilty about what happened to Larem. But now you have a lot better understanding of what it’s like for us down in the trenches. It will make you a better Regent than most.”

Okay, that surprised her. How did he know that was her dream? She sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “I never said I wanted to be appointed as this area’s Regent.”

“You didn’t have to paste your ambitions on the nearest billboard, Sasha. If all you were here to do was assess the situation, you would’ve shown up, reviewed a few files, and then headed back to St. Louis. Besides, if your stay was going to be temporary, you wouldn’t be moving into Laurel’s condo. Not to mention the way you keep poking your nose into places where it doesn’t belong.”

Okay, she was tired of hearing that last part, too. “Other than the tunnels, as administrator I should have free access to all facilities. How else am I supposed to know what’s going on?”

He held up his hands in surrender. “I don’t mean to piss you off, but I’ve seen my share of do-gooders come through here over the years. I’m smart enough to take whatever you’re willing to give me to make things better for my men. That doesn’t mean I’m naive enough to think that this new enlightened attitude will last. It never does.”

She fought to control her temper. “Once again, I can’t change what was or wasn’t done in the past. I’ve already said I’ll order the equipment and hire the medics. That still leaves some money in the budget. We can talk about other options later if you’d rather.”

Devlin pinched the bridge of his nose. “I think we got off track here. I really do appreciate what you’re doing. I even believe you’d like to see some changes in how things are done. I’m just saying don’t be surprised if these funds suddenly dry up when you try to use them.”

He obviously believed every word he said. A sense of dread settled in the pit of her stomach. What if he was right? Would the Board backtrack on their promise when she sent through the authorizations to utilize the funds? She’d already processed the request for additional funding for Laurel’s studies. If approval didn’t come through in the next couple of days, Sasha would start pushing.

“Let’s go over the rest of the list. I’ll do what I can.”

He nodded. “That’s all anyone can do. At least you’re trying, which is more than Kincade did in all the years he was here.”

As praise went, it wasn’t much. But then she was here to do a job, not to win any popularity contests.

“Okay, how about item number three?”

Chaz looked around for something to kick. According to Rusty’s latest report, his daughter had come within a hair’s breadth of getting herself killed. What the hell had she been thinking? Civilians weren’t allowed in the tunnels for good reason.

He’d talked to her since the attack, so she’d obviously survived the experience. But why hadn’t she reported the incident? He was her father, damn it! This was exactly the kind of thing that made him wish she’d chosen another career path. One that wouldn’t get her killed by crazies.

To make matters worse, she’d been saved not by the Paladins but by one of their fucking pet Others. The last thing Chaz wanted was for Sasha to come into contact with those freaks. God knows, the Paladins were unstable in their own right, but no one knew for certain what caused the Kalith to turn into Others. The bastard could’ve turned on her as easily as not.

The thought of a phone call telling him his little girl had been butchered was the stuff of nightmares. He had half a mind to hop the next flight to Seattle and drag Sasha right back to St. Louis where she belonged. The only thing stopping him was the knowledge that he might not succeed and that she’d never forgive him for even trying.

He also wanted to know where Rusty had been when all this was going down. George had made it clear to the guard that his primary duty was to make sure Sasha was safe. Yes, he had to pull enough shifts to make his transfer to Seattle seem legit, but screw that if it meant he couldn’t manage the job he was really sent there to do.

At least for now Sasha was safe and had hopefully learned her lesson. He’d only seen the aftermath of the battles Paladins fought and that was horrible enough. He’d had nightmares for days after seeing a dead Paladin come back to life. Talk about a freak show!