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conducting clandestine research on the dead for the Council’s R&D department. His mission was to determine why the Skilled lived longer than Normals. Without warning, his team was disbanded and he was imprisoned on trumped up charges of dark Necromancy. After his release a couple of years ago, he’d stayed under the magical radar.
    Until Quaos.
    Not only were they trying to steal Hexcalibur, but they’d reanimated a corpse using Simeon’s old research notes. Simeon fled to the paranormal back alleys known as the Underground because he knew the Council would blame him.
    Which they did.
    Putting a death sentence on his head for violating his parole was a bit of overkill, though.
    The issue ran deeper than the Council’s overreaction. Raising the dead took significant amounts of power. Imbuing that corpse both with willpower and the ability to regenerate new cells—especially after I beheaded it—was unheard of. There was simply no way a group as powerful as Quaos could exist without someone on the Council knowing about it.
    Our leaders were a lot of things, but blind wasn’t one of them. Quaos being involved in both the attack at my folks’ place and using Simeon’s old notes to resurrect a body had to be connected.
    But knowing there was a link and finding one were two separate matters.
    Despite all my efforts, Quinn’s father was still on the run with the Quaos zombie. Considering he’d been screwed twice in as many decades, I doubted he’d ever return.
    And I was to blame.
    Quinn had never held a grudge for dragging her and Simeon onto the case, but I still hadn’t forgiven myself. Had I not sought his advice after killing the zombie, he’d have never been connected with the body. And when the two of them fled to the Underground, I’d tried to prove their innocence, only to lead their enemies straight to them.
    I wanted to tell her how sorry I was, again, that I’d let her down. That I was still hell-bent on keeping my promise to uncover the people behind her father’s betrayal. That I would do everything in my power to prove that I was worthy of her affection. But those were words for another time, preferably in person.
    Besides, someone was coming down the hall.
    “Listen, I need to run. Apparently the inquiry board has finished for the night.”
    “Okay. See you soon.”
    The line went dead. No matter how long we talked, it never felt like enough.
    Maybe I needed to do something about that.
    I shoved the phone in my pocket as the figure approached.
    “Hey, Shifter,” Mick said. “Long day, eh?”
    “Yeah. Those debriefs were painful.”
    Mick rolled his eyes, then plopped down next to me on the bench. “I’ve never had a good experience in those chambers. Every time it’s the same questions. ‘How could this happen?’ ‘Who’s going to pay for it?’ Blah, blah, second-guess, blah. It’s easy to armchair quarterback a mission when you spend your days in a nice, cool office reading reports. Freakin’ politicians.”
    I nodded.
    “I heard you really gave them a beating.” He sounded intrigued. Maybe even a little awed.
    “Lost my cool is more like it.” My chest tightened with embarrassment. “I’m an idiot.”
    “Idiot or not, you apparently got the board riled up. Rancid Rancin was all sorts of pissed after you stormed out. They decided to postpone the next debrief until tomorrow just to give her time to calm down. Not that I mind,” he added with a grin. “Because it was mine.”
    “Rancin’s had it out for me ever since I started working here at HQ. Maybe this was just my subconscious way of getting back at her. You know, a cheap shot before I retreated to the safety of my home.”
    “Speaking of which, what are you still doing here?”
    I shrugged. “I ran out of steam halfway to the exit. Wound up calling someone for moral support.”
    “The girlfriend?”
    I shifted uncomfortably. “It’s complicated.”
    “Ah,” he said. We fell into silence, then he stood. “Well,