Page 129 of Night's Fall
I was seeing his time atRedLairmight have ramifications for me.
“They didn’t even wait a day,”Imumbled into his throat asIsat in the cocoon of his big, strong body in his office.
“Pardon?”
I blew out a sigh, shook off the rest of my bleariness, and lifted my head to look at him.
“My parents.Theydidn’t even wait a day after learning we were mates before they reached out to try to get…whatever it is they think they’ll get.Thirteenyears,Ihaven’t seen or heard from them.Butthey didn’t reach out to me.Theycontacted thePalace.”
“Are we surprised they’re giving indications of what we already know, they’re pieces of shit?” he asked, watching me carefully.
“No,”Ihuffed and then collapsed against him again. “It’sjust sucky.”
“They’re suspects,Laura.”
My head shot up again. “What?”
“In whatever is going on with someone trying to harm you.It’sanother reasonI’mgranting them an audience.”
“You think they’re behind drugging me?”DearLilith!Itwasn’t just that. “Andattacking me?”
“No.Theyaren’t high up on the suspect list.I’vehad a briefing on them as well.Adetailed one.Theyboth make decent money, but they aren’t in a position to hire goons to attack you.Andthe male we have in custody isn’t talking.Butwhat we do know is, he’s not some average street tough.He’sa skilled mercenary.Andthey cost money.”
HolyHecate.
“Really?”Iasked.
“Yes,” he answered. “I’msimply telling you because you should know they’re being investigated.”
“What else shouldIknow?”
He pulled me closer and sighed.
I felt that with him.
Our cozy night in, sex-fest and cuddle time was over.
Back to the real world.
“The investigators are operating on two theories.Thatone.Theone where your parents dislike your creature so much, are embarrassed by her or whatever their fucked-up mindset about that is, they put a hit out on her.Thereason that seems unlikely is, first, it’s thin because it’s deranged.They’repieces of shit but have given no indication they’re twisted, homicidal pieces of shit.Also, the time that’s passed with no contact between you since you left their home.Ifthis bothered them that much, it would be expected they’d do something in the last thirteen years.Andlast, it doesn’t explain why they shifted targets and aimed at me.”
“No, it doesn’t,”Iagreed. “What’sthe other theory?”
“That someone took pains to discover you were my mate.Andthey targeted you first, in order to dispose of her, so we would be less likely to find one another.”
Oh boy.
I couldn’t sayIknew a whole bunch about this mate business, not ever having one before, and not having parents who explained it to me.
That said, it was exceptionally rare a shifter would lose their beast without losing their lives as well, as in, the human side died, and when that happened, the shifter died with them.
A shifter’s beast was always something strong, cunning, wily or swift.Theyhealed quickly when wounded.Andtheir senses were heightened.Soheightened, they normally heightened the human side as well when they were dormant.Thus, they were hard to kill (why the scientists hypothesized we’d advanced from humans to shifters, because they’d appear to protect us when we were in danger).Therewere some who were weaker than others (like mine), and some were nearly impossible to kill (likeAleksei’s).
But they had evolved to keep their human alive by fighting, outwitting or escaping to stay alive.
On the other hand, part of the protection of a beast was that, if they died, the human part of them didn’t.Inother words, if you killed a creature, in order to kill the being it inhabited, you then had to kill that being.Assuch, once a beast was dead, it would immediately transform back to its being.
However, again, this was very rare.
