Page 7 of Crimson Shifter

He smirked. “Not today,” he said, placing the blade in my hands.

I tested the weight of it, running my fingertips over the decorated hilt. “It’s beautiful,” I admitted.

“It was passed down through my family for centuries,” he explained. “It’s never failed me.”

I moved to give it back to him, but he shook his head.

“We'll get you a holster before we leave,” he said.

“Why…why are you giving this to me?”

He smirked, holding up his hands and wiggling his fingers, the normal vampire hands shifting into razor-sharp claws.

“I have my own blades,” he said before he let out a deep sigh. “And because you're definitely going to need it.”

CHAPTER 3

Talon

“Ican't believe your private plane includes table-side human service,” I said directly into Cassandra’s mind, my panther eyes watching the human offer itself to her.

Cassandra graciously thanked the human but declined the feed, and he bowed as if she was royalty before scurrying to the back of the plane where its private bedroom was.

We'd been in flight for three hours, the entirety of which I’d posed as Shadow, Cassandra’s panther pet.

Shifting was part of who I was, but being forced to shift and maintain it for long periods of time definitely made my skin itch. That could also be because of the connection I’d had to construct between us, using my shifter magic to create a bond to link us so we could speak without me having to shift back. It had been hard to do, taking me twice as long as it ever had before, thanks to her barely lowering her mental shields for me.

The discomfort could also be because I was completely trapped in this horrific invention called an airplane. I’d flown before, after being awoken from stasis, but that had been an entirely different kind of flight. One where I was surrounded by my brothers as we did our best to acclimate to modern times. And while I’d definitely come to appreciate the technology of thisage, there was something about being trapped at thirty thousand feet that had all of my primal instincts firing.

I paced up and down the aisle, only speaking to Cassandra mind-to-mind, an exhausting trick that only worked if I was in my shifted form. And since she would be my only ally on this mission—as much as I could call her an ally—she was the only one I’d be able to communicate with.

“Is this how you grew up?” I asked. “Private planes, endless champagne, and free-flowing blood whenever you liked?” I stopped pacing, sitting back on my haunches in the aisle and looking at her where she sat in the aisle seat.

I suppose I never really considered how big Shadow actually was until I stepped into her skin, but even sitting I was eye-level with Cassandra.

She pined those dark brown eyes on me, flashing me an unnerving look that I’d seen a lot of the last three hours. “It sounds all well and good when you put it that way,” she finally answered me, sending the words down the temporary bond. “But just because I grew up with finer things doesn't mean everything was fine growing up.”

Intrigue rattled through me, and not for the first time. The female was the perfect vampiric specimen on the outside—stunning, elegant, and with a rich history and expertise on the inner workings of the vampire court. But on the inside? I hadn't been able to figure out who exactly she was. She had traitors’ blood in her veins, and had behaved awfully in court to win the king's affections. But somehow both my king and the queen had forgiven her, which made her even more of an enigma to me.

Her eyes trailed the length of my panther body one more time, and that unsettled look shaped her features again.

I released a low growl. “What?” I asked. “Did I get a detail wrong? Did I miss something about your precious pussycat?”

Her luscious red lips parted at my calling her deadly panther a pussycat, and if I could’ve smiled, I would’ve.

“No,” she answered. “You've managed to replicate Shadow completely. It's unnerving.”

Pride swelled in my chest. “I have been doing this for centuries, you know,” I said.

“Yes, and how grand it must be to blink and become something else entirely,” she said the words with a bite of sarcasm that didn't really reach her eyes. Her features screamed longing and curiosity more than the barb she’d intended.

“Oh, come on, Cassie,” I said into her mind, using the shortened version of her name that made her cringe every time I uttered it. “You know a little bit about shifting yourself, even if you can't do it as spectacularly as I can.” She tilted her head as if she wasn't catching my meaning. “I've seen you in court,” I continued. “Every single time your high-heels touch the marble floor, you become someone else. And if the rumors are true, you even altered your appearance once a few years ago—a splash of ink in the shape of our king's mating mark?”

Anger turned her features sharp, her fangs flashing as she bared them at me. She seemed to think better of it, and quickly smoothed out the rigid lines on her face, retracting her fangs as she white-knuckled the hand rest with her fingers. “You’re an asshole,” she said. “Do you know how hard it is to want to strangle you when you’re taking the shape of the only creature I've ever actually loved?”

The severity of her words hit me dead center in the chest. I shifted on my haunches, an involuntary whimper of apology escaping my panther throat.

Fuck me, I hadn't even considered that goading her while in this form would not only hurt her, but could very well blow our cover. Cassandra would never lay a finger on Shadow in anger, but if I kept it up, she wouldn't be able to hold back for long.

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