The exchange was made, and his phone began to chirp as she inundated him in reams of research and legwork. He rousted Xander from the desk so he could sit and read over it uninterrupted.
From the corner of his eye, he watched the Cooper’s hawk circle the sitting area before taking up a spot on the other end of the couch from Cora. “I have questions,” he announced as he folded his long limbs delicately on the leather cushion. Normally he was the one Vasi tapped for complicated interrogations. The tall blond came off as an idiot, a bit of a buffoon to Devon’s driven straight man, but his around-the-way style disarmed more suspects than any of them and coaxed more confessions and lead information inadvertently than any threats or hard sell did.
“Knock yourself out,” replied, her cajoling, silky tone immediately drawing Vasi’s eyes to make sure she wasn’t gearing up to rush anyone and stab them in the neck with some sort of previously hidden or improvised device. Satisfied she was lounging with her hands laced across her stomach and feet on the coffee table, he went back to his reading. Xander, more or less, could fend for himself, and Devon was there if he needed backup.
“Why doesn’t your family recognize you? They’re all over this building.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Do you look like you did when you were twenty?”
A slow, amused smirk curled his lips. “More or less.”
“Then I count as less, I suppose. Not the first time.”
“And Finn? You grew up with him and he didn’t know you?”
Her annoyed hum brought Vasi’s eye to her but when she didn’t do more than shift positions and retie her robe, he let it go. “That one’s a little more complicated.”
“Explain.”
“I look a little different, yes, but in both cases, I’ve been using a technique…” she hedged, her tone clearly one of calculation and deliberation.
“I’m listening,” he coaxed, his tone friendly even if the look in his eyes was nowhere close.
She hissed a breath in, clearly reticent. “There are methods... used by other magical beings, to disguise—”
“A glamour,” Vasi cut her off and rolled his eyes. “Just say it’s a glamour. You’re using a glamour.” It wasn’t legal, by human or shifter standards, but like any black market item, the emphasis was always on ‘market.’ And there were so many other problems to address, her using illegal magical implements was not even on the radar.
That tripped Devon’s interest immediately. “So then you don’t really look like that?”
Cora’s lips twitched. “Like what?”
“Like this sexy chocolate smoke-show with legs for days?” That comment brought the room to a screaming standstill as all eyes turned to him. “What? I’m not the only one who was thinking it.”
She coughed, choking out her thanks while Xander merely side-eyed his partner. “Anyway. Have you been lying to the prince this whole time? Does Finn know what you really look like?”
Vasi kept up the computer screen but watched her closely as she answered. “He does.” Satisfied with her open body language and immediate answer, he let it go, because while she was a trained liar, she did seem fairly devoted to his best friend.
“How’s that work?”
“I really don’t look like I did when I was a kid. I went through a very serious Ugly Raven period, like the Ugly Duckling but fewer feathers and much, much angrier.” Xander chuckled and waved a hand for her to continue. “The glamour is just in addition to my own physical changes. And it doesn’t work on sex partners.”
“Interesting.” His Day Shift compatriot sat forward and looked like he was going to continue that line of questioning until Vasily cleared his throat loudly. He did not need that much information about his best friend’s sex life, thank you very much.
The blond man’s blue eyes met his and he nodded before turning his attention back to Cora. “Do you know the person who hired you?” The change of topic was jarring, but that info was of great interest to all involved.
“Maybe.” Her tone was bored and a quick glance at the couch showed she hadn’t moved and Vasi decided to let it ride.
“Maybe you know or maybe you don’t wanna say?”
“I haven’t met them in person for this job, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know them. They reached out to me, so clearly I was on their radar at some point.”
“And you really believe someone is gunning for the prince?”
“I do.”
“And that involves you staying close enough for him to stick his dick into?”
“Xander.” Devon’s choked warning was swifter than the Night Commander’s.
“Keep it civil.”
Cora’s snort of amusement eased Vasi’s mind. “No one bitches at James Bond for banging his marks.”
“M does. Question stands.”
Vasily closed his eyes and consciously unclenched his jaw. With these two at the helm it was gonna be a long night.
Chapter Eight
FINN
The smears of pink and purple across the sky announcing the impending arrival of the sun were what greeted Finn’s exhausted eyes before he went around the room closing each and every opaque curtain before falling back into the disheveled bed. He had no intention of greeting the day, cheerfully or otherwise.
It was hard to imagine that two days ago, he’d had a relatively normal existence. He’d walked into a bar to get a drink and relax and his whole life had been slowly pulling apart ever since.
Meeting Coretta Westgate, LeStrange, whatever the hell her name was, had been simultaneously the best and worst things to happen to him, ever. Because now, in addition to his father dying and his wantonly cruel brother taking the throne soon, he had to deal with someone actively trying to kill him. Admittedly, that could have happened regardless of her being there, but he was still going to blame her. At least a little.
He groaned in annoyance into his pillow as he pulled the blanket over his head. Why did she have to be so fucking amazing? And brave. And smart. And apparently quite cunning. When he thought of her, naked but for her ultra-soft bathrobe holding off the world at gunpoint, she was fire personified. The way she moved left him half-drunk with lust and that was before she ever opened her mouth. She was practically fucking perfect in person. And yet…
On paper, she was an F5 tornado produced by a Category 5 hurricane. Cora was a divorced ex-spy who was prepared to kill his brother on his behalf if it came down to it. Talk about making family reunions awkward as all hell. And that was just his family. Her own family had cast her out, for not joining the family business, for marrying a non-shifter, or conversely, she left rather than be tied down to outdated notions of familial obligations. It depended on which side you heard, but oh man, news of that had bathed the palace in Corvid gossip for weeks. She was ‘escandala’ personified. It was a wonder she would come back and do anything for his family at all, especially since it put her in such close proximity to her own.
Rolling over with a growl and harrumph, Finn shielded his eyes from the emptiness of the room with his forearm. Strange as it was, a part of him felt bad that he didn’t really remember her when they were younger. Her sisters were classical beauties, tall, elegant features, he seemed to remember Brendan seeing one of them for a short while in high school. Something about the coolly sensual beauty of the class valedictorian meeting the royal badboy.
That could have been his story with Cora, if both of them hadn’t been so trapped in their own little worlds. Two bookish younger siblings, dedicated, determined. In his mind he associated her with pigtails with weaponized solid plastic ball hair barrettes wearing dark blue plaids, maybe glasses? He hadn’t been much better, growing into his current body somewhere around the summer of his junior year. By then the shyness had cemented as a mostly-permanent fixture for him and while he saw and occasionally interacted with her and her family, there was never a hint of… well, anything.
A soft knock at his inner door caught his attention, and t
he scent of food and livestock that followed the door opening moved his feet to the floor.
“Don’t shoot! It’s just breakfast!” Francis called softly into the room before rolling the cart in. Poor kid looked like he hadn’t blinked since the previous day and like he couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
“No worries, kid. She’s not here.”
“Ohthankthegods.” The young Hircine man about melted into a puddle just outside of the sitting area. A few deep breaths were all it took for him to collect himself to roll the cart to the bedside. “If you don’t mind me saying so, Highness, your girlfriend is a bit… scary.”
It was telling to Finn that his first impulse was to refute that she was his girlfriend rather than her being scary. His inclination to truthfulness was going to get him caught up if he wasn’t more diligent. “Certainly before coffee she is,” he agreed as the young man poured. “She was very sorry about upsetting you yesterday, she was just…” it took him a moment to settle on a word, “startled. It wasn’t your fault.”
Francis shrugged and gave Finn an easy grin. “No worries, Highness. Once my asthma calmed down, I was fine.” He turned to leave and made it about three steps before he turned around with a remarkably serious expression. “I’m glad actually.”
“Oh yeah?”
With his head cocked to the side he looked like the world’s most earnest golden retriever. “Yeah. Everyone needs someone in their life to look after them, back them unconditionally. You have that in her. It’s a good thing.”
That his mind filled in ‘for a price’ made his chest hurt but he nodded his understanding. “Thank you, Francis.” It would do no good to point out the crushing naivete there, a naivete he himself was guilty of, but he did appreciate the sentiment. Pushing away the salt and pepper shakers to keep from using them by accident he shook out his napkin. “Good day.”
“Good day, Highness.”
* * *
CORA
She slept like hell, but that wasn’t exactly unexpected. Alone in a strange place, not exactly under guard, but definitely not free, family lurking in every shadow and around every corner, it was enough to tune up her aura, so it looked like one of those plasma orb lamps she loved as a kid. A sound caught her attention, a knock at the inner door of the antechamber that had her laying her hand on her gun in the bathrobe. She wouldn’t pull this time unless she had to, but she was wary when the breakfast cart was wheeled in, not by the young goat to whom she owed an apology, but a whole different animal. A longhaired black wolf, to be exact, doing his best to pretend he wore sheep’s clothing.
“Good morning, Miss Westgate.”
Brendan was all smiles, slicked back hair and muscular forearms visible below his sleeves as he wheeled the cart into the room next to her bedside. He was dressed in a royal blue button-down shirt that emphasized his eyes with the sleeves rolled up and gray trousers with razor-sharp creases, giving him the air of artfully messy, dressy approachability. “Did you sleep well?”
“Morning, your Highness. I slept fine, thank you. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Cora found him deceptively pretty, his beautiful face a beacon to bring you closer for much darker ends. Him being in the same room with her made her uneasy, but being alone with him? Yeah, that made her wish she had a sharp-edged weapon. The comforting weight of the pistol in her pocket did nothing to dispel her disquietude where he was concerned.
“Well, a little birdy told me you could use some company this morning, so I thought we could spend some time getting to know each other.” Pausing in the middle of the room, he looked from the sitting area to the bed, a slow and decidedly lecherous grin slithering over his lips. “Would you like this in the sitting area or in bed?” His voice made his preference quite clear.
Clutching the robe around herself like armor as she made her way to the sofa, she gestured toward the table. “This is perfect, Highness. Thank you for your kindness.”
“Of course, my dear.” His smile seemed genuine as he unveiled the steak and eggs and fruit with a flourish, but she still kept an eye on his hands. If he truly was homicidal, she didn’t want to get taken out by something he slipped in her food.
Cora felt a little better about her situation, since the place setting he put out in front of her came with a steak knife. She waited until he was seated and tucking into his breakfast to pick at the pile of berries and fruit on her plate. “So what would you like to know, Highness?”
“You simply must call me Brendan,” he instructed as he held up a carafe of coffee for her.
She nodded and he poured. “Then you must call me Cora.”
The corner of his lips twitched but he didn’t look up from his plate. “Thank you, Cora.” Her name was a purr on his lips that sent a chill straight up her spine. “Are you enjoying your stay?”
“Yes, thank you. Your brother was kind enough to offer after the previous night's drama.” She played the simpering socialite enough, every breathy whimper and shaky bite of fruit was second nature to her. Playing games with apex predators had a high price if you lost.
“Of course he did. He said you saved his life.” He laid his hand over hers with a look of earnest gratitude and a gentle squeeze. “You'd think he'd be more grateful.”
She glanced longingly at the bacon and just couldn’t trust what was on her plate where he was concerned. “What do you mean?”
“One would think he'd be more intimate with the girlfriend who saved his life. So tell me, what did my dear brother do?”
“Do?”
“Well,” he gestured with a bite of steak on his fork, “considering the prince’s girlfriend is no longer staying in his suite, what would you think?”
“I’d think that it wasn’t my business to pry.” She grabbed a strawberry and popped it her mouth, careful to watch the food he chose versus that he eschewed. It was not at all beyond the pale to think he’d poison her if he had the opportunity.
His soft chuckle made her tighten her hands on her cutlery. “Fair enough.”
“So then I’m curious as to what your thoughts are.” Fighting her shift became more of an active job as her apprehension rose. As it was, her eyes were gold and there was no reversing that for the moment. Damn if she didn’t wish for more clothes, though.
His nose twitched as he sipped his coffee, regarding her over the rim with a smarmy kind of sneer. “Knowing my brother as I do, I knew there’d be trouble in paradise, but it takes a special kind of idiot to screw up this soon.”
The bluntness of his statement startled a bark of laughter out of her. “I…” she giggled in spite of herself, he’d caught her so off guard. “What makes you think he’s the problem?”
“Honestly?” She raised her mug in a gesture for him to continue. “Experience. He’s terrible with women.” Leaning back with his cup of coffee, he sighed dramatically. “Oh, his face and his brawn get him far, but when it comes to closing the deal, well…” Brendan shrugged as if he were truly sorry about this state of affairs. “My understanding is their time with him is less than satisfying. Frankly, a woman who saved his life should be lavished in every way possible, not left to fend for herself in a strange place. I’m sure there’s many a man in this wing of the palace who would be more than happy to take care of any wishes, wants, or desires you may have, my dear, if you but say the word.”
It was hard to squelch the shock that flooded her senses at his shamelessness. Even if she wasn’t his brother’s girlfriend he was so far out of line, he was two or three coloring books over. “And I suppose you’re such a man?”
His golden-eyed slow blink was a mirror image of Finn’s, the first time she’d really seen a similarity between them, and it spooked the hell out of her. “Perhaps. I just believe that a breathtakingly beautiful and refined woman such as yourself deserves to have a man who appreciates and can meet,” his voice dropped to a rumbling growl, “all your needs.”
“I…” Cora licked her lips and reached for more coffee in an effort to avoid
meeting his gaze. Fortunately the deep brown of her skin allowed her to hide the flush that came from his blatant flirting. This was certainly a strange start to the day. “At the moment Finn and I are quite happy, even if we have had a difference of opinion on a few things. I do, however, appreciate your concern, Brendan.”
“Of course, my dear.” He swept to his feet then, all grace and swirl like smoke as he moved to brush a quick kiss across her cheek and ghost his fingertips down her neck to her collarbone. “But do keep me in mind in the event your circumstance should… change.”
Brendan was fast, too fast for her to casually break his fingers for touching her and she hated that she had to let him get away with that one. He left with a wink and it was another five minutes of silence before she felt comfortable enough to relax into the couch cushions. Goddess, this job was going to kill her, or she was going to end up in jail, one or the other.
* * *
FINN
He had just grabbed his wallet and keys to leave when Cora came stomping through the door. Well, as much as one could stomp in her sky high black heels with the red soles that went with her gray dress that appeared to be part silk toga, part cling film, all unreasonably distracting. She was on the phone, and the look on her face could have quailed generals, and when he opened his mouth to ask, he was met with the single finger of direction. That direction being, “I’ll deal with you in a moment.” Not exactly how he anticipated their reconciliation starting.
“Yeah, we’re on our way there now. I’ll advise.” Snapping her phone into her clutch that matched her shoes, she fixed him with the yellow-eyed glare he’d come to view with concern.
“Where are we going?” He slipped his keys in his pocket as subtly as he could manage and hoped she didn’t notice.
“You need a doctor; we have to go.” The low pitch of her voice telegraphed the seriousness of the situation to him as it showed how fragile her grip on her shift truly was.
Hoping to alleviate some of her stress, he folded her hand in both of his. “We don’t have to go anywhere. I have a doctor. I can just summon them here.”
A Killing Moon Page 9