Chapter Nine #2
“How bad do you think it will be?” Bene asked quietly.
Unbearable, my dragon lamented.
But Bene meant the missions we might be assigned.
I shrugged. “Something dangerous, for sure.”
Bene flapped a hand, unimpressed. “I can do danger.”
“Remember, we’re expendable,” I said.
“Speak for yourself, man.”
I grimaced. “What I mean is, Gordon will only give us jobs he wouldn’t risk his best men on.”
Bene’s eyes went wide in alarm. “You mean, canary in a coal mine type thing?”
“Yeah. Canaries in a coal mine rigged with explosives. Canaries deep behind enemy lines, outnumbered and on their own.”
“What did I do to deserve this?” Bene started. Then he caught himself with a rueful shake of the head. “Okay, scratch that. I do deserve this.”
I made a face. Each of us had screwed up, but none of our crimes warranted a death sentence. But, hey. Maybe we would get lucky.
Bene faked a cheery grin. “Well, maybe we’ll get something to break up the monotony.”
Yeah, right. He was starting to love this place as much as I did — but for different reasons, I hoped.
My claws strained under my fingernails as my dragon fought to emerge. If Bene so much as looks at Mina the wrong way…
The great ass comment was evidence that he already had, but I couldn’t blame him for that. But if he got it in his big, blond head to get anywhere near that great ass — or any other part…
Touch her and you’re dead, my dragon rumbled.
The message must have carried — a miracle, given the thickness of his lion skull — because Bene backed away with his palms up.
“Maybe not such a great ass after all.”
My growl grew louder.
“Uh…I mean…” He backpedaled on the comment. “Just kidding. Anyway, you know me, man. All work and no play.”
Ha. More like all play and no work, like most lions.
“Speaking of which, I think I hear Roux calling…” Bene inched away.
A lie, but it reminded me of the scent I’d caught in the woods, so I followed him inside. We found Roux going over his messages in the drawing room.
He looked up. “What?”
I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. “Round up Henrik. We need to check the woods.”
“Trouble?” Roux’s eyes lit in a mixture of hope and wrath.
I shrugged. “We’ll see.”
* * *
Hours later, I leaned back in an armchair and sighed at the ceiling. We’d spent the entire day searching the woods with only a quick break for lunch. Now, it was just shy of dinnertime.
“Nothing, huh?” Henrik asked.
I shook my head. No. Nothing concrete, but I still couldn’t shake that feeling of trouble on the horizon.
Of course, trouble was pretty much a permanent fixture on my horizon. The question was, what kind of trouble and how far — or near — it lay.
Trouble for me was more or less normal. But trouble for Mina…
My fingernails dug into the upholstery.
Henrik twisted his lips into a scowl. “Those cats wouldn’t find a litter box if it were right in front of them.”
I scowled up at the vampire. “Who’s less useful — the guy who gets off his ass to search or the vampire who doesn’t bother leaving his clubhouse in the first place?”
Henrik yawned, revealing his fangs. “Why bother if it’s no use?”
I took a sip of whisky and went back to ignoring him.
Nothing worse than a guy who didn’t pull his own weight.
But Roux and Bene had impressed me out there.
As felines, they might not have the amazing noses of a bear or — next best thing — a wolf.
But man, could they leap, climb, or slink their way into the most inaccessible places.
And neither had complained the way the average dragon or vampire would.
If it weren’t so muddy, this would almost be fun, Roux had even chuckled at one point. It came out in rumbly tiger-talk, but his words sounded in my mind.
Lions were fussier than tigers, and Bene had started out by daintily picking up his paws. At one point, I’d found him perched on a log, wetting a paw and patting his mane into place. But even he had been a good sport about it.
Definitely too muddy, but yes — kind of fun, he’d agreed in the end.
It had been fun — or, at least, invigorating. That sense of a hunt, of having a mission…
I gazed out the window. A mission was definitely a good thing. With any luck, Gordon would come up with something for us soon. Something not too suicidal, I hoped. That would also get me away from Mina and the sensations she stirred in me.
I downed another sip of whisky. Maybe that would help.
Bene entered the drawing room, freshly showered like me, but far more chipper.
“Heya.” He dropped onto the couch and started lifting his feet to the coffee table. Before I could snarl in warning, he caught himself, grimaced, and put his feet back on the carpet.
“So, all that searching for nothing?” Henrik crowed.
Bene snorted and folded his arms behind his head. “Nah. It was good to be out. And now, we can rest easy that there’s nothing there.”
I pursed my lips. Maybe he could rest easy. I wasn’t about to.
Roux joined us next, looking at his watch.
“Two minutes to go,” Bene said, reading his expression.
An army marched on its stomach, and judging by the rumbling, the others were as famished as me.
Roux took the chair beside mine and looked out the window. “What do you think?”
I did my best to keep my voice casual. “Hard to say. I’ll do a few more flybys tonight. Just in case.”
I wasn’t going to get much sleep anyway. Not with one corner of my mind fixated on Mina and another on what might be lurking out there.
“Did you tell Mina?” Henrik asked.
“Tell Mina what?” she demanded, appearing in the doorway.
I glared at Henrik, though the bastard just looked amused.
“Tell Mina about what we found in the forest,” Bene said smoothly. “Biggest mushroom I’ve ever seen. You have some serious fungi out there.”
I rolled my eyes. No way would Mina buy that.
But somehow, Bene pulled it off by chuckling. “I was going to bring it back and ask Madame Picard to bake some magic cookies for us, but I figured she might not approve.”
Mina’s expression said she didn’t approve either, but whew. The comment had been enough to distract her.
“Should you even be up and around?” I asked, suddenly anxious. “Shouldn’t you be resting? Concussions are serious, you know…”
I knew because I’d spent an hour on my phone researching it. Shifters didn’t have to worry about such things, but humans did.
“I’m fine,” she insisted. “Really.”
“You do look better.” Bene leaned closer to her in surprise. “Wait. You actually look good.”
She stuck her hands on her hips. “Gee, thanks.”
“No, I mean…” Bene stepped closer. “Your eye. It looks better. Much better. Wow.”
I’d developed a habit of keeping my gaze glued to the floor around Mina, because anytime our eyes met, sparks flew. But now, I looked up — and did a double take.
Without thinking, I marched over and cupped her jaw, tilting her face gently to the light.
Her mouth fell open in a protest, but our eyes locked, and yep. Sparks. A whole Bastille Day’s worth — plus everything we Swiss ignited on August first — along with a burst of heat that raced through my veins.
Her features mirrored her grandmother’s fine porcelain, so my hand wrapped a long way around her face. And, hell. It took everything I had to fight the urge to kiss her.
“Wow. Much better.” Roux was just over my shoulder, but his murmur came from miles away.
Mina’s lips twitched, making my breath hitch.
Focus, I ordered myself.
Her eye was still bruised, but barely a shadow now rather than the bulging rainbow of ugly colors I’d expected. How was that possible?
Henrik leaned in and hooted. “Now I understand.”
Mina’s eyes cut from me to the vampire, making me hate him more than ever.
“Understand what?” Bene asked.
“She’s not human.” Henrik stabbed an accusing finger at Mina.
She jutted her chin defiantly. “Never said I was.”
“Wait a minute. Not human?” Bene came closer, wrinkling his nose to sniff.
Mina stepped back, out of my grip.
Dragons didn’t whimper, but man, did I come close.
“Do we have a problem, gentlemen?” she asked icily.
Bene stuck up his hands. “No problem. Not at all.”
My head spun. If she wasn’t human, what was she? I’d spent a night curled up beside her and hadn’t sensed a thing. No trace of shifter, definitely not a vampire… Maybe a witch?
My gut roiled in a mixture of joy and fear.
If Mina were human, she would be marginally easier to resist. But supernaturals lived, loved, and lusted on a totally different level. If she was half as attracted to me as I was to her, the pull would be impossible to fight off — for both of us.
“Shifter? Witch? Psychic?” Henrik demanded.
I glared. He had no right talking to my woman — er, a woman — like that.
Mina turned on her heel and marched out of the room, muttering over her shoulder as she went.
“Dinner’s in five minutes. Don’t be late.”