Page 30 of Elven Shadow

Aldous frowned so deeply, it made him look considerably more clueless, and he actually stepped to the side in front of Rebecca to block her view of the shifter standing sentry beside the door. “I’m only going to make you this offer once.”

“Wellthat’sa relief,” she said dryly. “Because I’m only gonna tell youthisonce. You can take that offer, Aldous, and shove it up your ass.”

Damn, it felt good to finally spit that out.

The second she said it, though, she knew she really should’ve kept her mouth shut.

For all their sakes.

8

For a moment, it looked like Rebecca might have accidentally stumbled upon Aldous’s self-destruct button—which tended to take out everything else within a square mile, too.

He choked on his next breath, lashes fluttering rapidly again as he seemed unable once more to decide between a sneer or an attempted smile. Maybe even a laugh.

There was still a chance he’d keep his cool somehow, but that only meant he would aim his full focus at a different target.

Like her.

And there was no tellingwhatkind of screwed-up punishment his stunted little mind might cook up on its own.

Leaning closer, Aldous turned his head as if turning his ear toward a hesitantly shared secret. “What was that?”

She couldn’t help glancing at Maxwell again, even more amused now to find the shifter had already been diligently watching her after a response like that.

After shooting an exaggerated grimace toward the Head of Security, she answered Aldous’s question with, “Do youreallywant me to repeat it?”

The changeling’s nostrils flared, his teeth grinding together in his skull, the fronts of them bared in a snarl that looked more like the grin of an evil genius without the genius part. Then he sucked on his teeth with a wet squelch and murmured, “You’re going to regret that.”

Rebecca wrinkled her nose in mock hesitation. “You know, I really don’t think so.”

Aldous slowly lifted a clenched fist toward her, which now trembled.

He must have been working terribly hard to keep from turning into a rampaging moron three times his regular size in an office built above the common room, with a fantastically clear view from below of everything happening inside that office.

“I could take you out with a single move,” he snarled, brandishing his fist in her face.

Mentioning the fact that he hadn’t taken out a single griybreki tonight with a whole plethora of moves didn’t seem like a worthwhile expenditure of her own breath.

“With a single word, even,” he hissed, then glanced up at his Head of Security watching the entire exchange as if this kind of thing happened all the time.

Maxwell stiffened further, his scowl unchanged just like the tension in his jaw and his arms. But now there was an added flash of surprise in his gaze when he looked quickly away from Rebecca to stare at Shade’s leader instead.

Was thatconcernbehind his eyes?

“I’m not here to argue with you on any of those points,” Rebecca told him firmly.

It would have been a fruitless endeavor, anyway. If Aldous believed he was made of the fucking blood of the old god Akskashirim, chances were no one in either world could ever convince him otherwise.

Which made him even more dangerous than she’d thought.

Stupidity was one thing. Willful ignorance disguised as zealous dedication? That was on a whole new level.

After glaring at her a moment longer, Aldous shook his fist in her face one more time, then spun around to walk back across his throne-room turned office.

Only when he’d removed himself from her personal space was Rebecca convinced Zida had juiced him up with one of her more virile potions to escort their commander that much more quickly out of his stupidity-induced recovery.

A hint of overly sweet, tangy orange laced with an undertone of formaldehyde wafted through the air behind Aldous’s swift departure across the room.

---