Page 72 of Muzzled

She shrugged. “Sure. I can handle one more night of that thing in my head. But I’m not sitting out there with the mosquitos waiting for you to come back. You’re walking.”

The twins looked away. Hades spoke up when Ryan merely stared at the window. “I will not be allowing Orion’s immediate return.”

Confused, she glanced back at Ryan. “But the Pirithous?”

“Bo and Alex will be taking over the hunt,” Hades answered. “Orion is needed home for a while.” He stood up and walked over to her, his harsh features softening as he knelt down, a small light in his hand. “May I?”

He lifted her hand and ran the UV light over her skin, revealing the faint swirled pattern of her skin tone. Tugging out of his hold, she shrunk away from him. “Yeah, I don’t go places that have those lights,” she muttered, sliding her hands under the blanket. “What’s that about?”

Passing the light behind him to Ryan, he got to his feet. “Chimera,” he said softly, motioning for Bo and Alex to follow him. “We’ll leave you two alone.”

Ryan followed them out the door, their voices whispering in the hall for a moment before he returned, tossing the small flashlight into the dresser drawer. “So, what would you like to do today? The Flats? Maybe pick up some supplies and set up at the festival?”

Rubbing the spot Hades had shone the light on, she looked up at him. “What’s a chimera?”

He held his hand out to her and helped her to her feet, then passed her purse over as he pocketed the room key and his wallet. “Back home, something you don’t want to mess with,” he said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Here, it’s a human with two sets of DNA. Or a cat with two sets, I suppose. Anything with two sets of DNA.” He held the door open for her, then pulled it closed and wrapped his hand around her fingers. “Sometimes it presents through different hair colors or eye colors. Sometimes it’s internal or on a cellular level only. And sometimes, it manifests in skin tones.”

After opening the car door for her, he walked around and got in, then adjusted the mirror as she buckled up and put her purse on her feet. “So what exactly are you saying?”

Putting his sunglasses on, he backed out of the parking space. “Where to?”

“The festival,” she huffed. “Continue.”

“Shouldn’t we pick up a few things first?” he asked, ignoring her order. “Or is Logan setting up for you already?”

Staring him down, she refused to answer. “Ryan.”

His jaw flexed a few times, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. “Micah, I’m trying real hard to keep a clear head right now. Make sure we have a good day, maybe even a good night, before I’m back underground indefinitely.” He signaled and turned onto the street. “Could we maybe agree that this conversation ends when we get to the festival?”

She nodded, watching the tension rippling along his arms and across his shoulders. “Promise.”

With a deep breath, he locked his attention on the road. “You’re a chimera. A blending of two DNAs. That image on the wall in your suite is essentially what happened while you were in utero. You were fathered by one man, another baby by the Pirithous bloodline. The Pirithous bloodline wasn’t strong enough to survive, but you were. You absorbed it and in doing so, now carry the curse. It explains why the Pirithous scent was everywhere yet concentrated nowhere.”

She knew her jaw had dropped as he passed a bus and turned onto the bridge. “But your job is to elimi—”

“Yes, I know what my job is,” he interrupted, his chest rising. “I also know it’s not happening. Hades has agreed to allow the passage of time to take care of the line. Providing you don’t procreate. And providing you don’t go feral.”

Blinking against the harshness of his words, she sat back in her seat. “Feral. Like Eli did.”

“We’re working on the theory that eliminating the shade may reverse or at least stall out any movement toward that.”

His business tone was back, a complete detachment drawing a thick line between them.

“What happens if I do?” she asked, knowing the answer but needing him to say it out loud.

“Bo and Alex will be tracking the situation. Should that happen, it will be addressed.”

The situation.

Her fingers wrapped around the door handle. “Pull over.”

“I’m not letting you out in the middle of the bridge,” he replied tersely.

“Pull. Over.”

He nodded, slowing as the festival crowds walked along the end of the road. Turning onto a side street, he threw the car into park and jumped out, beating her to the sidewalk. “Please don’t go.”

“The situation,” she growled, side-stepping around him. “The situation is terrifying enough for me when youaren’tbeing a total dick. But this?” she snarled, waving her arm at him as she stormed away. “Now I have to be watching my back for you, too? Youandyour brothers? And the Lord of the underworld? Not to mention his psychotic wife. Oh, and a cursed bloodline that has the potential to turn me into a killing machine.” Clutching her purse as he caught up to her, she shrunk back. “You owe me a head start.”

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