I crossed my arms and watched Lugh open the top drawer of the oldest-looking filing cabinet. “So Nialle does have hidden storage here?”

“He has an entire hidden room.”

I raised an eyebrow and shone the flashlight around again. There was nothing to suggest a hidden room here, but I guessed that was the whole point. “Where? It looks as if the basement actually runs the full length of the house.”

“It does.”

“Meaning he’s robbed space from under his neighbors’ house?”

“No. He’s just gone down another level.”

With the drawer fully extended, he reached in, felt around for something at the very back of it, and then grunted in satisfaction. A heartbeat later, what I’d presumed was the solid, filled-in section under the rise of the stairs slid silently aside, revealing steps leading down into deeper darkness.

“Nialle really was sneaky,” I commented. “What would happen if someone tried moving the filing cabinet?”

“Nothing. The switch is fingerprint activated and wireless, so even if the cabinet was moved or the switch found, it wouldn’t matter. You stay up here and keep an eye on things.”

“Things” meaning our possible follower, I knew. I nodded and squatted on my heels, keeping my back against the newel as I pulled out my phone, checked for reception, and then began scanning the various social media sites for anything of interest.

It was a good half hour later when I caught the first whisper of unusual movement in the air. I scanned the shadows clustered around the shelving units but couldn’t see anything. Yet that whisper of movement was getting stronger. The rat—or whatever else it was—had entered the room and was slowly making his or her way around the far end of the shelving units. I sent Lugh a warning text and asked him to start making some cover noise to distract our intruder, then shoved my phone away and placed my flashlight on the floor, shining its light up to the ceiling. The glow would be just bright enough for me to see where I was going when I was behind the shelving.

As a metallic clatter rose from the hidden room, I padded softly along the wall. The air’s whispering kept me informed of the intruder’s movements, but right now, I was more concerned about stopping him from escaping so we could question him.

Once I reached the shaft, I squatted and carefully lifted one edge of the flagstone until I could get a good grip on it with both hands. Then, with a silent grunt of effort, I thrust up and moved it back across the shaft. After placing one side down carefully on the first little ledge, I gently lowered the rest of it.

Just as the wind whispered her warning.

The shifter was coming at me.

Fast.

Chapter Two

I glanced up sharply but couldn’t tell if the figure was male or female because it was little more than a blur of movement.

I dropped the flagstone, drew my knives, and pushed backward, hitting the wall hard enough to force a grunt. As a fist skimmed past my nose, I slashed with one knife, ripping through leather and flesh with equal ease. Blood splattered lightly across my face and arm, but the figure made no sound. It—she—simply twisted around and came at me again. I backed away, dodging her blows, the knife blades gleaming a deep and deadly blue as I cut and stabbed in response. But I wasn’t a trained fighter and, as one of her blows got through and scraped my cheek open, I knew I had to end it. Fast. Before more than just my cheek was bleeding.