A renewed spark of anger danced in his eyes, but he held it in check. His chin rose to a haughty angle. “I was confirming how much shit you were willing to take. Always important to know the limits of those you’re working with. That can be enough for now.”
He didn’t want to find out what he’d get in the face if he started up his tests again. I eased myself off the car and brushed my hands together. “Excellent. I’m glad we got that sorted out. You all can even enjoy a little bro time hitting up that hacker for more dirt while I’m meeting with the Fund tonight. Wins all around.”
As hard as I’d been working to stay part of the shadowkind quartet’s investigations, I had to admit I was looking forward to getting in some human socialization. Of course, I wouldn’t have chosen to be climbing up walls while I did it.
I eyed the rock-climbing gym Ellen had told me to meet the group at skeptically before stepping inside. The vast room smelled like rubber and sweat. Carabiners clinked and voices echoed off the high walls. A pang ran through my still-healing shoulder. Well, I’d grinned and borne it through worse in the past few days.
Vivi was waiting by the check-in desk, decked out in a tee and velour sweatpants—both white, naturally. She bounded over at the sight of me.
“Interesting change in scenery, isn’t it? Come on, sign the waiver and get your gear. Ellen and Huyen booked a private alcove, but we’ve still got to look as if we’re using it to actually climb while we’re talking.”
I laughed. “A workout and a debate in one. This should be fun.”
Vivi hefted a climbing harness over her slim shoulder. “Do you really think they’re going to argue that much about getting involved? These Company of Light people are obviously into some seriously shady shit.”
“Yeah, but I can’t tell them about most of that without giving away how much I was hiding from them before. And you know how a lot of the members are—they don’t want to extend any more effort than showing up to chat at the meetings and writing up a few outraged emails.”
It didn’t appear that all that many members had even made the effort to show up at this new location. In our reserved alcove, Huyen had already scaled nearly to the top of the wall. A few other regulars were poised at various points lower down, their feet braced against the handholds that looked like something out of an abstract art exhibit. Ellen and one of the younger guys were standing near the edge of the wall, the guy pitching an idea to her in a low, urgent voice.
“We’d raise so much more money that way. It’s not really lying. Okay, so we wouldn’t actually be trying to save the abused dogs in the photos, but we are rescuing some kind of creatures—and some of them are furry!”
Ellen didn’t look convinced. Since most of the mortal population would never have believed the shadowkind existed—and the ones who lived mortal-side weren’t in any hurry to draw attention to that fact—we couldn’t be completely truthful about our goals when we campaigned for donations. Slapping photos of a cause that wasn’t ours to gain sympathy points rubbed up against our leaders’ conscience.
“Sounds like a great idea to me,” I said as I passed them, clapping the guy on the shoulder and shooting Ellen an encouraging smile. Maybe that was how the Company of Light could afford a gazillion people on staff and fancy equipment out the wazoo: pictures of cute fuzzy animals in distress.
“Huyen and I will talk it over,” Ellen said to the guy as Vivi and I picked our spots along the wall. “You know we try to avoid outright falsehoods—it could come back to bite us if anyone follows up.”
Okay, so there were practical reasons to avoid blatant lies too. Knowing the Company as well as I did now, they just offed anyone who poked their nose too far into their business.
As I hooked up my equipment, another sort of hook-up slunk into the space with all the shine of a storm cloud. Leland dropped his harness at his feet and stared up at the wall gloomily.
After spending so much time around my supernaturally stunning quartet, it was hard to remember what I’d found particularly attractive in that boyish face and top-heavy physique. Especially since these days my ex-friend-with-benefits turned even more sour whenever he glanced my way.
He was all the evidence I needed that I had no idea how to make an even semi-romantic relationship work with a fellow human being, let alone a shadowkind. All we’d been doing was hooking up, and somehow I’d failed to handle that well enough to end things on good terms. I wasn’t even sure what exactly Leland had wanted that I hadn’t been delivering, since he’d never outright asked for us to become more—or acted interested in anything about me other than what I could offer between the sheets.
Men. Maybe I should stick to one-night-stands from here on out. How big a catastrophe could I create when I spent less than twenty-four hours with a guy?
Huyen had bounded down the wall with impressive springiness, and the other members who’d been partway up descended as well. Ellen beckoned us together into a circle.
“Why are we meeting here?” one of the other women asked. “Is something wrong with the theater?”
Both of the Fund’s leaders glanced at me. “Sorsha came to us with a somewhat… unusual situation,” Ellen said. She tapped her fingers against her lips, and I wondered what popcorn flavors she’d been experimenting with to stain the tips that shade of purple: lavender? Eggplant? “For the sake of caution, we decided it was best to discuss it in a setting we’ve never used before. Sorsha, why don’t you explain the rest?”
I dragged in a breath and laid out the scenario to the other members the same way I’d explained it to Ellen and Huyen, as succinctly as I could. I was just finishing up when one of the gym employees ambled our way.
“Hey,” she said. “Everything all right over here?”
It must be getting noticeable that we weren’t using the equipment. “Just doing a little catching up before we climb some more,” Huyen said cheerfully, and shot us all a look that said, Get moving.
Time for the fun part. I checked my rope and gripped it tightly before wedging my foot against one of the lower holds. Leveraging my weight with my good arm, I hefted myself up. Maybe I’d just hang out right here.
“We need to look into these people,” I said over my shoulder to the others, who were gathering along the wall around me. “Find out where they’re operating out of, how they’re raising their money, and anything else we can about them. But we’ve got to be careful to make sure they don’t catch on that we’re interested. Whatever we find out, we can pass on to the higher shadowkind and they’ll decide how to handle it.”
Those higher shadowkind would just happen to be the ones I was currently shacking up with.
“I don’t know about this,” said a middle-aged guy named Everett as he edged his way from one handhold to another. “It sounds like this organization is very… intense. If they do find out we’ve been meddling with their business, how are they going to crack down on us?”
“Hey,” Vivi said, bouncing a little against the wall. “We’ve managed not to clue any outsiders in to what we’re actually working on for however long the Fund has existed, haven’t we?”