Crimson Wind by Diana Pharaoh Francis Page A

side. Alexander scowled at it.
    “Scooter’s been sending me love messages. I thought I’d better go see him before I stopped breathing.”
    “That’s why you’ve been looking like death warmed over,” Niko said. It was not a question.
    Max shrugged.
    “You shouldn’t have gone alone,” Niko said. “What the hell are we for if you don’t bother to use us?”
    “Don’t you trust us to have your back?” Tyler demanded.
    “Of course I do. Don’t be dumber than you have to be,” Max said impatiently. “This is my problem. Not yours. He’d have killed you.”
    “Looks like he almost killed you,” Alexander pointed out as he shrugged out of the shredded remains of his shirt and dropped it onto the ground.
    “A couple of times,” she admitted. “But he didn’t, because he needs me alive.”
    “For what?”
    “That is the billion-dollar question. If you figure it out, let me know. Anyhow, it’s over, at least for now.” She pushed her hair behind her ears.
    “What do you mean, for now?” Niko demanded.
    “Scooter is going to be patient until I get back.”
    “Back from where?” Alexander, Tyler, and Niko asked in unison.
    “California. My family is in trouble.”
    “Your family?” This time it was Thor. He looked astonished. “You have living family? How old are you?”
    Before she could answer, her phone rang with a high-pitched sound few but Shadowblades could hear. She reached into her pocket and flipped it open. Alexander could hear Giselle’s voice on the other end.
    “Where have you been? I’ve been calling you for the last fifteen minutes. I need to see you. Now. There’s news.”
    “I heard,” Max said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
    She snapped the phone shut and looked at the gathered men and Tutresiel. She flashed a grin at the angel. “Scooter would have kicked your ass up to your throat,” she said, then headed for the stairs.
    Alexander fell in at her heels, followed by the others. Tutresiel brought up the rear, the shaft too small for him to fly up.
    No one said anything. Alexander was too glad to see her alive and too worried about what might happen to her when she left. Was she going to try to go to California alone? His jaw set. He would not let her. She could order the others around, and they had to obey, but he was not part of Horngate, and he was not going to sit on his ass while she ran off by herself to get killed. You will be Prime.  Not if he could help it.
    They followed Max as she wound through the corridors toward Giselle’s suite of rooms. She stopped and turned around.
    “Don’t you all have somewhere else to be?”
    None of them answered, standing firm without so much as a twitch to suggest that they might be thinking of leaving.
    She sighed exasperation. “Giselle wants to see me.”
    “Fine,” Niko said.
    “After that, you’ll see us,” Tyler said. “We’ll wait.”
    She glared, then shook her head. “Bunch of fucking mother hens,” she muttered, and started away again.
    Alexander grinned with bitter humor. For once, he was one of them, a brother-in-arms. Tutresiel even seemed welcome in the effort to gang up on Max and make her cooperate. It was a twisted version of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
    Giselle’s suite lay at the bulbous end of a broad passage on the south side of the mountain fortress. Max approached the pair of polished oak doors, pausing outside to check her phone. Her expression was shuttered as she shoved it back into her pocket. Whom was she expecting to hear from?
    She turned to look at her companions. “This could take a while.”
    “We’ll wait.” Niko crossed his arms, his square jaw jutting.
    Max eyed him balefully. “Remind me later to kick your ass and show you who’s in charge.”
    “Whatever lights your fire,” he said, not moving.
    She turned away and knocked on the heavy doors, then thrust them open. Beyond was a spacious sitting room decorated in shades of cream and purple. The walls