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Daire leaned against me, one arm slipping around my waist. His head on my chest, though he still stared at the doorway. No purring, because we couldn’t risk alerting anyone stupid enough to come this way. But I immediately felt better.

A faint scuff on concrete snapped my head around back the way we’d come, but I already knew it was a Blood. I caught a whiff of salty fish reek. :What the fuck are you doing over here?:

In the darkness, Okeanos’ skin gave off a hint of eerie green bioluminescence. His eyes flared and he jerked to a halt. :Oh. Well. I’m not much use out of water, and I don’t wield a weapon. I didn’t know what else to do, and I didn’t want to bother the alpha or our queen.:

:You’ve come to the right place.: Daire lifted his head. :This is the party corner.:

I didn’t know how to make friends. Daire stuck to me because he was easy that way. But Okeanos was alright. More than alright. We’d shared a beer or two in Paris with the Zaniyah crew, and he’d actually been hilarious, once he let down his… er… tentacles. Though maybe that’d been the alcohol. I didn’t get the impression he got out much, though Aima weren’t usually affected by liquor or drugs. :Hell yeah. Join the fun.:

The three of us stood silently in the shadows for a few minutes. But boredom quickly allowed my mind to flash back to horror scenes I didn’t want to remember. The horrible shrieky sounds Tanza made. Nearly inaudible even to my enhanced hearing, so damned shrill and high it made my nerves quiver with sensation.

Sweat trickled down my face, and my shirt clung to me. :Tell me a story. Something funny.: Daire started to lift his head, and I grunted softly. :Not you. Okeanos. You were a laugh a minute in Paris.:

I couldn’t be sure in the darkness, but his bioluminescence burned brighter, so maybe he was blushing. :I don’t think alcohol agrees with my biologics.:

Daire snickered in the bond. :Maybe that’s why krakens destroyed ships at sea. Not to get the people but to drink all their ale.:

:In the old days, they always carried barrels of ale on their ships,: Okeanos said seriously. :It kept better than water during their months at sea.:

Curdled black blood on my tongue. Taste so bad like I’d licked a dead moose’s asshole full of maggots. Ugh. Gotta get out of my own fucking head. Ships. Sea. What the fuck do I know about fucking pirates? Desperate, I blurted, :Scurvy.:

:Exactly.: Okeanos nodded. :Their food didn’t keep well either. Salted meat. Sometimes a dry cracker-like bread. Though it often got weevils after a few weeks.:

:No one likes to eat weevils,: Daire said.

:Except fucking birds,: I replied. :Bet Nevarre would eat a weevil.:

:Only if it was nicely toasted first,: Nevarre said in the bond. :Makes them taste like peanut butter.:

:You’re full of shit.:

:Meet me on the Green. Loser eats a toasted weevil.:

:Ha, you think I was born yesterday?: I couldn’t resist a grin as I shook my head. :No fucking way am I tossing a log if I might have to eat a fucking worm.:

Though my smile slipped. I breathed deeply, pushing Daire away so I could focus and clear the scent of his warcat’s fur out of my nostrils. :We’ve got incoming.:

Normally I’d tell Rik after fucking up in the woods the last time we hopped home from the beach. But he was busy guarding Shara’s back, and she’d put G in charge of the exits. So I made sure he heard, even though he’d heard my complaints earlier even when I hadn’t meant to direct them to him. :Human. On the stairs.:

Silently, I shifted closer to the door, my back to the wall, ready to grab the human as soon as they stepped out. Okeanos and Daire paired up deeper into the shadows, just in case the human got past me. Daire sprouted his claws, and Okeanos shifted enough to lengthen his arms into squirmy tentacles.

Guillaume filled our Blood bond so deeply I could almost feel him breathing on my neck. I cracked my lips open and breathed again, taking in all the scents possible. :Just one. Female. Smells familiar but I can’t place her.: Pause. Deep breath. :Gunpowder. She has a gun.:

:Our queen’s orders were clear.:

Kill. No questions asked. Though I didn’t like that it was someone Shara might be upset about losing later.

I didn’t shift, not even my hands. I didn’t need to, even if the woman shot me. But I wasn’t going to give her the chance to see me. The door creaked open, spilling light from the stairwell. She moved quietly. For a human. I let her step into the hallway. Then I simply closed my hands around her head and twisted. Damn near popped her fragile little head clean off.

She slumped in my grasp, and I quietly laid her onto the floor, just in case she had someone listening for a sign of trouble. I allowed the door to shut naturally, turning the hallway back into nothing but darkness.

Heart beats passed. I listened. I breathed. Nothing.

:All clear,: I told G.

:Can you identify her?:

Daire crouched beside the body and turned her over. :It’s Angela, one of Gina’s assistants. She went shopping with us in Dallas and guarded our queen’s jewels when we traveled to Mexico.: