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“I’m not delivering myself to your lair like a brunch quiche,” she says with a snort. “How dumb do you think I am?”
“Moderately dumb,” I answer honestly, “but with street smarts and solid instincts. You can be useful to this mission, assuming you can learn to follow orders.”
“Follow orders,” she huffs, so outraged, it would be funny if we weren’t about to be discovered. “You’re a piece of work, man. Seriously.”
“Take my hand,” I say, holding out my palm. “Now,” I insist as the voices outside get closer. “If we’re caught by the staff, word will get back to Colin, and he’ll suspect we’re up to something.”
“Fine, but—” Her words end in a gasp as her fingers brush mine. I grip her hand tight and magic us both into a puff of mist.
Mist is a larger drain on my energy than shifting into my bat form, but it’s the best bet for remaining unobserved.
Blaire fights me the entire way through the open window and across the garden to the equipment shed tucked behind the largest rosebush, managing to be vexing even in mist form.
When we’re out of sight behind the shed, I release her with a grunt. “A note for next time, don’t fight me,” I say, adjusting my tie as she sags back against the weathered wood, gasping for breath. “If you were able to free yourself from my control while in mist form, you’d evaporate.”
“Evaporate?” she pants, pressing a hand to her chest.
“Yes. Your body would never be found.”
Her eyes widen but almost immediately narrow to angry slits again. “Do anything like that again, and I’ll kill you.”
I smile. “Noted.”
“I’m serious,” she says, the quiet rage in her voice lifting the hairs at the back of my neck. This woman might do all right in Nightfall, after all. She has the spunk to make it as a near human in a supernatural community. I bet the wolf shifters will go crazy for her.
They like their women a little…feral.
“Noted,” I repeat again, “but for the record, I mean you no harm, Miss Wonderfully. We’re on the same side of the current fight. If you want to spare your sister a life married to a man whose heart belongs to another, I suggest you do your best to remember that.”
“Fine,” she says, still glaring at me like she’d enjoy separating my flesh from my bones with a potato peeler. “But as soon as we put an end to their engagement, we put an end to this. From that moment on, we don’t talk, we don’t fight, we don’t so much as glance each other’s way in the grocery store. Got it?”
“I don’t require groceries,” I say dryly. “And if I did, my staff would fetch them for me. But yes, I understand your point, and I couldn’t agree more. The sooner pretending you don’t exist is my new reality, the better.”
“Awesome,” she seethes.
“Indeed,” I agree, which only seems to escalate her fit of pique.
Lifting clawed hands into the air and rolling her eyes toward the heavens, she lets out a long, low growling sound and storms away, wobbling a bit in the grass in her high-heeled boots.
I watch her go with a smile, actually looking forward to our meeting tomorrow. I wasn’t lying when I said ignoring her sounds delightful.
But irritating her?
Well, that’s rather delightful, as well.
Chapter Three
Blaire
Thursday, October 23rd
I wake to the sound of a squawking chicken and fumble for my phone, squinting in the sunlight streaming through my bedroom window. A quick glance at the screen reveals it’s already eleven a.m. and that it’s Cassandra, AKA Casey, calling.
But I knew that already.
Casey squawks like a chicken laying an egg when she’s surprised—has ever since she was a baby—leading to a family nickname and my choice of ring tone for my eldest younger sister.
“Hey,” I mumble, my voice rough with sleep. “What’s up?”
