Graham moved his tongue over his lips, but they remained dry. Since the ordeal in the desert, Misty hadn’t seen him drink anything except a few sips of coffee, and the water he’d licked so erotically from her. She hadn’t seen him sleep either.

“We aren’t dreaming, are we?”

Graham shook his head. “Don’t think so. It feels real, smells too real. That’s good.”

“Good? Why good?”

He gave her a grim smile. “Because if Oison shows up, this time I’ll kill him for real.”

Misty put her hand on his, finding his skin fever hot. “We need to fix you. You’ll die like this.”

“Not if I kill the Fae first.”

“But what if even that doesn’t release you from the spell? I never got to tell you about Ben.”

“Ben?” Graham asked sharply. “Who’s Ben?”

Misty related what had happened the afternoon before, Paul bringing Ben to her office and what Ben had said.

Graham listened, eyes narrowing. “Like I said, who the hell is Ben?” he asked when she finished.

“I don’t know, but if he has a legitimate way of curing you, I’m willing to listen to him.”

Graham gave her a dark look. “You’re too trusting. How do you know he wasn’t Fae?”

Misty shrugged. “He didn’t look Fae. Not like the hiker, anyway. Or like Reid.”

“Yeah, well, half Fae can look very human and be just as deadly, rotten, jerk-ass bastards.”

“Like I said, I don’t know,” Misty said, holding on to her patience. “I asked Cassidy to have Diego check him out, but I haven’t heard back yet.”

“And it’s not like I have a cell phone on me now,” Graham rumbled. “You didn’t happen to bring one, did you?”

“I left it at your house,” Misty said. “Anyway, they didn’t work out here before.”

“Before, we were in the desert north of Las Vegas. Are we there now?”

“Have you tried to find out?”

“Look around you,” Graham said. “See a way out?”

When Misty had been in this cave before, she’d approached the fountain from the entrance between the rocks, then turned around and went back the way she’d come. But the cave was gigantic. She couldn’t tell if she was in the same place she’d been before or not.

“How did we get in here?” she asked. “You can’t expect me to believe Shifters dug a basement that leads fifty miles out of town.”

“No.” Graham tilted his head to gaze at the ceiling, which was lost in darkness. “I think it’s on a ley line.”

“A what line . . . ?”

“Ley line,” Graham said. “Magical lines that radiate around the world, many with gateways to Faerie. The sucky thing is, Shiftertowns are sometimes built on ley lines. The Austin Shiftertown has one. My Shiftertown in Elko didn’t, but Bowman’s in North Carolina does. I didn’t think the Vegas one did; but I know there’s a ley line up by Hoover Dam. Probably the same one or a branch of it.”

Misty listened in surprise. “Why would Shifters build on the ley lines if they’re gates to Faerie? I thought you hated the Fae.”

Graham moved his gaze to her, while he absently petted the cubs, who were still huddled against him. “We didn’t build the Shiftertowns, did we? We were sent to them. Not our choice. Probably another Fae conspiracy—they’ve been trying from the beginning to make Shifters slaves to them. But I’m not letting Dougal or these little guys ever come under the Fae. Fae are cruel, evil shits, and we should eradicate them.”

“I am pained to hear it.”

Misty jumped. The tall Fae who’d been the hiker stood behind Graham, a long sword in his hands. He hadn’t been there a moment ago, and he hadn’t appeared with a bang or even a faint sparkle. One moment he’d not been there, and this moment, he was.

The cubs were on their feet. But instead of cringing against Graham, they were snapping and snarling at Oison.

Graham let out a sudden groan and clamped his hand to his side, right where he’d been shot. To Misty’s horror, the wound began to flow with blood. Graham sat in silence after the first grunt of pain, but his face lost color as the blood poured out.

Misty was on her feet. “Stop it!”

“He was only cured of the wound because of me,” Oison said calmly. “I can reverse the spell anytime I wish.”

“Wasn’t a cure,” Graham said through his teeth. “A curse, more like it.”

“I helped you, Shifter,” Oison said. “I took away the pain. I stopped the bleeding and ensured you didn’t take sick. That is not a curse. That is me helping the being I wish to see at my side. What I did is no different from you keeping your nephew safe from the wolves who torment him, or the cubs from predators. I look after my own.”

“Don’t even . . .” Graham rose to his feet, holding his side all the while. It pained him to stand, but he shook off Misty’s hand and got himself upright. “Don’t pretend you’re my pack leader or anything like it. You know damn all about being a leader.”

“And you know everything about it, which is why I want you.”

Graham dragged in a breath. “Well, I don’t want you, ass**le.”

Graham changed to his wolf so suddenly Misty blinked, and at the same time he leapt at Oison. Oison lifted his sword, and brought it down . . .

“No!” Misty screamed. She knocked into Graham. She couldn’t impact much of his momentum, but she managed to change his path so the sword didn’t reach him. The blade scraped across Misty’s side as Oison swung it, biting deep before the Fae yanked it back.

She heard snarling, huge and ferocious from Graham, small and vicious from the cubs. Then pain. Nothing but pain.

It flooded her body, blotting out all sight, all sound, all other feeling. She must have fallen, but Misty didn’t register it, only found herself facedown on shining black rock. She heard cries of agony she didn’t realize she was making.

Kyle licked her nose, yipping in distress. Graham was roaring, his blood splashing down on her, or maybe that was her blood. The pain was complete, erasing past and future, any pleasure Misty had ever experienced. There was nothing but hurting, and she’d never feel anything but pain again.