Aphrodite's Flame Read Online Free PDF Page A

frowned at her. “Yes?”
    “You ... you’re see-through!”
    Uh-oh
. Mordi glanced down and realized that she was right. The power cell on his cloak must be fading, because its power of invisibility was fading right along with it, leaving him looking like some sort of specter.
    He nodded politely to the woman, then moved to the far side of the pillar. As he walked, he shifted forms, turning himself into a sleek black Labrador retriever. There didn’t seem to be any policemen around for that to be a problem.
    He padded back out, this time finding Clyde more by scent than anything else. He loped in the Outcast’s direction, realizing but not really caring that the blond woman was slowly backing out of the station, her baby pressed tightly to her breast.
    Mordi plunked down on the cold concrete and started scratching. In front of him, the approaching train rumbled to a stop. Mordi tensed, preparing to follow Clyde onto the train.
    But Clyde stayed perfectly still, and soon, Mordi saw why. Romulus, tall and blond and dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, a backpack slung casually over one shoulder, stepped off the train and onto the platform.
    Mordi’s tail wagged. He’d been
right
.
    As Mordi watched, however, Romulus did nothing suspicious, didn’t even glance in Clyde’s direction. Instead, he checked his watch, then looked at the newly installed electronic board that dutifully announced the next train would be arriving in seven minutes, preceded by an express that wouldn’t stop but simply zip through the station at high speed.
    With what sounded like a sigh of annoyance, Romulus crossed to the pillar near Mordi, pulling out a stick of gum as he walked and popping it into his mouth. As soon as he reached the pillar, he dropped his backpack on the ground. Mordi fought the overwhelming urge to lift one leg and mark the thing.
    No
. Dignity, remember? In all things, dignity.
    Romulus stood and unfolded a street map of Manhattan, holding it up to the light and twisting and turning. Mordi yawned, a deep doggie yawn, but neither Romulus nor Clyde seemed to hear or otherwise notice him.
    Clyde walked toward the pillar, then reached into his pocket and pulled out an old candy wrapper. He dropped it into the nearby trash can. And, Mordi noticed, he did a little bit more than that. In fact, had Mordi not been watching the two of them so closely, he doubted he would have caught the subtle act. But right after dropping the candy wrapper, Clyde dropped a single slip of paper into the now-open backpack.
    Then Clyde kept on walking, right toward the stairs that led out of the station.
    The tempo of Mordi’s tail-wagging increased. A bone-deep desire for revenge urged him to follow Clyde. The Outcast had always looked down on him and, petty though it might be, Mordi could think of little more satisfying than sinking his canines into Clyde’s gluteus maximus.
    But, no. That urge could wait. He was only one dog, after all, and his self-appointed mission was to catch Romulus in an act of treason. Romulus might not have directly acknowledged Clyde—thus deftly dodging
that
violation—but the note passed from Clyde might just prove the link between the two.
    Mordi needed to get that note.
    Romulus hadn’t moved, so Mordi assumed the Protector intended to hop the next train and get out of the station that way. Fine. Mordi could simply follow him on. There didn’t seem to be any transit police around; the odds that anyone would try to apprehend a dog on the subway were reasonably slim.
    The station started to fill with the distant rumble of the approaching express train. Romulus picked up his backpack and started to move toward the edge of the platform. Mordi didn’t hurry to follow. This train, after all, was an express. It was the next that Romulus would be catching.
    Whoosh, rumble, rumble, whoosh
. The deep bass of the train filled the station, and Mordi wanted to howl against the sound grating on his canine ears.
    To the