Satsu walked steadily through the Hub, towards Lukas’s office. Today was the day. The end of her overnight shift had aligned perfectly with the start of a meeting between Lukas and Lord Faust. Lukas’s office would be empty at the same time Satsu had an excuse to be roaming the halls. This was what she’d been waiting for, and Satsu was ready.

Third shift meant the cramped halls were mostly empty. Satsu rested her fingers lightly on Max’s head as they walked. Good luck she’d brought Max with her today, rather than the hounds. Hansel and Gretel were coming along—they’d passed their certification for active duty a month ago—but they still had a great deal of training ahead before they’d be useful for Satsu true purpose.

Max, on the other hand, was a pro. He’d sensed the shift in Satsu’s mood as they finished their work. Usually, the end of a night of demon sniffing meant play time as a reward. But Satsu was still serious, and that meant Max was still serious. He was a good dog.

As they passed the entrance to the administrative wing, Satsu wrapped shadows around them both. She could sense there weren’t any other people close, but there were cameras down this hall. Cameras that didn’t need to see what was about to happen. So Satsu called for the nima to hide her from sight.

No one among the Wolf—not even Andreas—knew the true extent of Satsu’s adaptations. According to clan records, Varya Satsu was an empath and nothing more. But then, there were a lot of details left out of the records on Varya Satsu. Not the least of which, the fact that she didn’t exist.

Ancestors bless the Wolf and their desperation. It wasn’t like they had hordes of qualified soldiers volunteering to join the front line of the endless war against the demons. It meant when an empath like Satsu showed up with her rare and vital gift, they didn’t ask questions. When she said she didn’t want to talk about her past, they let it go.

Not that the past of Varya Satsu wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny. The Serpent knew their business. Satsu could answer any question anyone thought to ask. But life was easier if the questions just never came up.

Halfway down the hall, Satsu told Max to sit. He was in between cameras here. He wouldn’t be visible unless he moved. She knelt down in front of him, eye to eye, making certain she had his attention. “Guard and distract,” she commanded. She felt his understanding and acceptance.

She left Max there and went the rest of the way to Lukas’s door on her own. It was locked, of course. Satsu took a moment to stand still, eyes closed, listening as hard as she could. Reaching out with her nima-granted senses, she double and triple checked that no one was near.

She was alone. This was the best chance she was going to get. Satsu went to work.

This was the most delicate part, and required focusing on two complicated things at once. She had to maintain the shadows that hid her from the camera at her back, while at the same time calling on the nima to change her, to reshape her body into a different one. This trick required incredible power and incredible skill. Not one etheric in a thousand could pull it off. This was why she had one of the most critical spy postings in the Empire. And this was why—Satsu was sure—Lord Miyōshi had forgiven last year’s breach of protocol with Roman.

Satsu had to close her eyes as her flesh twisted and melted and reformed. It wasn’t painful, per se, but a part of her always felt like it should be and braced for agony that never came. She did feel squeezed, overly warm, dizzy. But when she opened her eyes again, it was the tired, thin face of Hayashi Lukas staring back from the reflection in the glass-covered security panel.

Satsu pressed her—Lukas’s—palm against the glass, spoke in Lukas’s voice. “Open.”

A quick brush of light as her palm and retina were both scanned. This part was easy; Satsu had been Lukas before. She knew the door would open for her.

No cameras in Lukas’s office. He had too many sensitive meetings in here, and you couldn’t trust the AIs not to gossip. But Lukas’s security included more bio detection, so Satsu kept his body on. It would make a quick escape more complicated, but there was nothing she could do about that.

Every clan handled security differently. No Serpent in the Empire would trust important data to biometrics. For the Wolf, it was a reasonable risk. The etheric gift was rare in their ranks—the full adaptation that allowed for actual shape change was virtually unheard of. And even then, to be able to shift seamlessly from body to body and back—the number of people in the entire Empire with this skill could probably be counted on two hands. The idea of someone like Satsu in a position to break in—what were the odds?

Even so, Satsu didn’t dare risk this more than once every year or so. So she had to make it count.

Lukas kept both computer records and paper files. Satsu unlocked both his machine and the file cabinets with retina and fingerprints. She slid a portable drive into the computer and set it to copy everything, then pulled a tiny scanner from her pocket to go through the papers.

She skimmed as she copied, frowning at what she read. Satsu had expected bad news, but this…

It had been a hard interval for the Wolf. Demon activity had been high coming off the last Eclipse, and it had never gone down. Even worse, as the next Eclipse approached, the demons seemed to be escalating into a frenzy even worse than the last one.

Satsu had known there’d been casualties. The nature of her work meant she had contact with a large number of the scouts and soldiers of the clan. Not just deaths, but people rotated in and out for injuries. More out than in, lately.

But these numbers—they were worse than anything Satsu had imagined. The Wolf were suffering, which was bad news for the Empire.

At the back of the cabinet, tucked into an unlabeled folder, Satsu found something different from records of attacks and personnel. Satsu shut off the scanner. All the recorded data would go to Oshiro Hamilton, as it was supposed to. But this…this was different.

A journal? Nothing so formal. But it definitely seemed to be a notebook where Lukas worked through his thoughts. Most of it within parameters of what Satsu would have expected—Lukas concerned about dwindling numbers, sketchy outlines of proposals to request help from the other clans, worry about Lord Faust and some plan she was considering that Lukas didn’t bother to detail. But in the midst of all that—

…I’m letting things get to me. Affecting my sleep. Weird dream last night of being on the Dark World and a demon was with me. A woman. Tempting, like they can be. We talked. Surreal. What the fuck, subconscious? And there was something so tempting

I need a break.

From there, he moved back into brainstorming propaganda for new recruits, but the passage stuck in Satsu’s head. That dream, and its echoing similarity to the dreams Roman had suffered through last year.

It was strange. And maybe it was nothing. But Satsu read over the passage several more times, committing it to memory. Next chance she had to report to Lord Miyōshi, she would give him this.

Barking erupted out in the hall. Warning from Max. Satsu slid the drawer closed, pulled her drive from the computer and shut it down, all in the space of a breath. She wrapped herself back in shadows and started the change back to Satsu as she was walking out the door, thankful for the extra few moments Max had bought her.

“Max!” she called as soon as she had her own voice back. She dismissed the shadows, broke into a run. “Max!”

She came around the corner to see Lukas crouched down, Max’s collar in his hand, and Max wriggling all over as he tried to lick Lukas’s grinning face. “Caught him for you,” Lukas said.

“Max.” Satsu’s voice was a stern reprimand, but she whispered through the nima how pleased she was with him. “Behave yourself.” She took hold of him, gave Lukas a calculatedly exhausted smile. “We just came off shift. He’s always a little riled up after.”

“Aren’t we all?” Lukas stood. “And it’s fine. We’re all buddies here.” He patted Max’s head and Max licked his hand. Max was happy. Lukas was one of his favorite people. This part wasn’t acting for him.

Satsu didn’t like having to lie to Lukas. She didn’t like lying to Andreas or to Roman or to any of the numerous friends she’d made among the Wolf. But this was her job. This was her duty to the Serpent.

“It’s lucky I ran into you,” Lukas said, changing his angle to scratch behind Max’s ears. “Something’s come up on Cradle, and we need an empath down there.”

“For what? For how long?”

Lukas’s eyes slid away from hers, and Satsu felt the unease moving through him. “You know I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important.”

What could possibly be happening on Cradle? The Wolf homeworld was as close to a quiet paradise as any planet in the Empire got. “Anything you need. You know that.”

“Thanks. And…this one’s to be kept quiet. Even from Roman and Dre. I mean, obviously they’ll know you’re going.” He flashed a thin smile. “But if you could keep the details to yourself…”

“I can keep a secret,” Satsu said. Utterly sincere.

“Good. You’ll want to pack for an extended trip. And only bring the dogs you’re absolutely sure of.”

Whatever this was, it sounded serious. “I’ll head down to pack right now.”

Pack…and make her report.