Page 81 of Walking in Darkness

“You won’t. I’ll make sure everybody knows that you’re fairly new to our world,” Hudson said. “Now, up next are the merfolk, who will be there.”

“Holy shit, seriously?” Kit asked.

“Yes. Generally speaking, mers don’t concern themselves with the matters of land dwellers, but the hunters have targeted the mers also,” Hudson said. “Fenton Moss is the current chieftain of the Golden Reef colony. Their territory is in the ocean, of course. A mer community is called a colony.”

“This… is a lot, but it’s also incredibly cool. I mean, seriously, this is a paranormal romance author’s dream,” Kit said. “Oh, I bet Austin is in heaven. So much material there.”

“Which he isn’t allowed to use,” Hudson pointed out.

“Oh. I see. Well, I guess that makes sense, considering who his mate is.”

“Now, the restaurant where we’re having this meeting—the owner is Isadora Ocho,” Hudson said. “She’s a paranormal—an arachne—but she’s—”

Kit set his fork down abruptly. “Hold up. Just back that information train right up. She’s a what now? Because the word you said sounds an awful lot like arachnids.”

“An arachne is a creature who can create strong webs, and they bear some physical resemblance to spiders,” Hudson agreed. “They still look humanoid when they transform, though.”

Kit stared at Hudson, his mouth hanging open. He finally shut it and gulped. “Shit. A spider? Fuck, I hate spiders.”

“There are a lot of paranormals who feel the same way,” Hudson said. “Even the big, bad daemon elder feels that way. But Isadora is a powerful ally and a friend of mine.”

“Be nice to spider woman. Got it. Jesus.”

Connie snickered. “Don’t be surprised if she takes an interest in you. She certainly has Austin. She seems to have a soft spot for you cute little gay humans.”

“Okay, no, I’m not thinking about that right now. Nope. Is that everyone?”

“It’s everyone who has agreed to meet,” Hudson said. “There’s a witch’s coven in San DeLain, but they claim they’re not in the targeted group, so they refused to get involved.

“Which is stupid and shortsighted,” Connie groused. “Hunters kill witches because they aren’t human.”

“Very true,” Hudson said, taking the last bite of his dinner. “Any questions, Kit?”

“Only a million,” Kit joked as he wiped his lips with the napkin. “But concerning this? No. I’m going to go check and see if I have the appropriate clothing. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”

“Hey, Kit?” Hudson touched his braid. “Braid your hair like this again for me, please?”

“Happily.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE – KIT

THEY ARRIVED at the restaurant with no problem. There were limos, sports cars, and SUVs parked all along the street.

Mitchell got as close as he could and parked. They’d brought the limo since there were so many of them. And every last one of them was dressed in black leather.

As was Kit. His pants and knee-high boots were pretty boring, in his opinion, but the black shirt, well, that was all him.

There were jagged strips of black mesh across the front and back that exposed areas of skin. He finished the look off with a couple of silver bangles and long, dangling black pearl earrings.

And, of course, he left his hair down and braided a section next to his face like Hudson had requested. He and Hudson were the only two who had the braid, though.

Mitchell opened the door, and Hudson’s inner circle exited first, then Connie. Since Hudson was royalty, Kit figured he would go last, but as Kit went to get out, Hudson rested his hand on Kit’s knee.

“Wait.”

“Huh?”

“You go last.”

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