Page 42 of Flesh and Fury

She laughed. “Wow, you do have a vivid imagination.”

“Not really,” Ari said, smiling as they stepped into the large hotel lobby.

Eoghan caught his eye and gestured at his bag then looked at Rana. “Excuse me for interrupting.”

“No problem, Marshal,” she said.

“I’ll get us checked in. Give me your bag and I’ll leave it at the bell station until you’re ready for it.”

“Sure.” Ari slid the bag off his shoulder, noticing how Two Trees, Uwaite, and Red Crow were standing a few feet away,deep in conversation. He handed the bag to Eoghan and then turned back to her. “I’m sorry. Where were we?”

“You were telling me you didn’t think I was a honeybee, an opossum or something else silly,” she said.

“Oh, yeah, a centipede,” Ari said as she laughed. “Don’t laugh. In the first two months I worked here, I met all of those.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said, looking as shocked as she sounded. “There are honeybee shifters?”

“Oh, yes, and apparently the one I met invented the personal computer,” Ari said, grinning at her.

She bent over, clutching her sides. “Now you’re just making fun of me.” She was delightful.

“No, I’m really not. The honeybee has a whole other name now, but he invented the personal computer along with Steve Jobs and that Wozniak fella.”

“Oh, you are so funny, Marshal.” She giggled like a schoolgirl with a crush. “So, are you going to ask me what I am, or have you figured it out yet?”

Ari leaned down, enjoying the harmless flirtation as much as the next guy. “I can tell whatever you are, it’s a hell of a lot tougher than Andy Red Crow.” He glanced over at Red Crow who looked up and glowered at him from where he was standing. Clearly, he’d heard what was said but Ari was having so much fun, he really didn’t care. The guy had been giving him and Eoghan dirty looks since the airport. He spotted Eoghan coming over and waved before looking back at Rana. “Looks like we’re ready to find a place to sit down and talk.”

Eoghan walked up. “All checked in. I left our bags at the front desk. In case anyone wants to know, there’s a business center on the parking level with conference room space where we can be alone to talk. It’s probably why Priest booked us in here.”

“That’s great,” Ari said as Two Trees, Uwaite, and Red Crow walked over. “They’ve got conference rooms downstairs,” he said.

“Yeah, we heard,” Red Crow growled. “Along with everything else you said.” He turned and stomped off toward the elevators.

Eoghan exchanged a glance with Ari, and Ari shrugged. “What’d you say?” he asked.

“Nothing important, Eoghan. Nothing of consequence.”

Chapter Thirteen

EOGHAN

They took the elevators to the lower level of the hotel and followed the signs through the narrow basement corridors to the business center. The room had fluorescent lighting, cubicles, computers, all kinds of charging stations, and a single land line telephone. It smelled almost unused and was unoccupied.

“There it is,” he said, pointing toward the conference room sign at the far end. As they all headed through the empty space, he was unsure why they even needed the privacy of the conference room. Then again, a herd of visiting businessmen may come stampeding through the door at any moment. They followed Joe and Alo with the two Colorado shifters bringing up the rear. Eoghan was pretty sure he could feel the hostility coming off Andy Red Crow in waves at his back.

Funny that Priest had said that young Andy was on board without hesitation. Maybe he’d been getting heat from some of the elders in his clan, but he doubted that. Or those same elders hadn’t liked the fact that Rana Fields was helping him out. Was he doing this to rebelagainsthis elders? Whatever his problem, Eoghan’s goal was to get him to lay it out on the table. He’d always believed that talking out things before they became bigger problems worked best.

As they stepped into the conference room and flipped on the light, he absently wondered if Severin and Invictus were experiencing any resistance from the Wyoming clan leader. Hesmiled to himself, thinking about how scared shitless he and Ari had been when they’d first met the fire-breathing dragons. As they sat at the circular table and faced each other, Eoghan decided he should be the one to start things off. After all, he was the senior agent from the office who’d asked for the help of these clans.

“First of all, thank you for meeting with Marshal Brown and me. Without your help, we’re not sure we’ll be able to defeat Tillis Bradshaw and his vampires.” When Rana and Red Crow just stared at him, he looked over to Joe and Alo, exchanging a glance with Ari next, and then looking back at them. Deciding he might as well be up front, he slid his phone out of his pocket and nodded at Ari to do the same. He pointed to the Faraday cages sticking out of each phone.

“We flew all this way to ask in person because we have a problem at the Agency. I know that you’ve been in contact with John Townsend but not how much he’s told you about that.” He nodded at Alo and Joe. “Our friends from Tahoe are also aware of a spy at our L.A. office as well as whomever is doing this in I.S.R. headquarters in D.C.”

“What is that?” Red Crow asked, pointing to the small device in the charging port.

Eoghan picked up his phone and handed it to Andy. “That’s a Faraday cage,” he said. “It blocks any passive monitoring of our conversations or our locations from anyone who might be listening in.”

Rana’s eyes widened. “You really think someone from the Agency is spying on you?”

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