Page 2 of Countdown to Murder
Aaron lifted an eyebrow. “Putting her into that situation was a risk.”
Fawn shrugged. “We intended to tell her who she’d been guarding when the school year was up, but the princess got drunk one night and spilled the beans. Mira maintained her composure until she could call someone else in to take care of her charge before she requested a video call with her therapist. During this call, Mira cried for the first time since we rescued her, and from what we can gather, for the first time in nearly two decades. They flew me to her that night, and I held her while she cried enough to make up for the decades she hadn’t. I could see inside her head, Aaron. She will never have a normal emotional profile, but she needs a job she can feel good about, and I believe the bodyguard job is a good fit for her. It utilizes her skillset in a positive way. It makes her the opposite of a weapon.”
Nathan ran his hand through his hair and looked to Aaron. “We need skilled women. I’d like to meet her, at least. We can pair her with Panda for a trial runif the initial meeting and testing goes as I expect it will.”
“There isn’t a doubt in my mind she’ll pass every test we can give her with flying colors. Her training will have made certain of it.” Aaron shook his head, as if his words weren’t enough to show us how bad of an idea this was. “Besides, Panda prefers to work alone.”
“He does, but he’ll also give us an accurate report of her ability to handle the job.”
Fawn had been in the same room as Panda a few times, and he was still a mystery to her. He’s a large lion, a close friend to the Amakhosi, and is allowed to live in the same territory, which is practically unheard of. Also, Panda’s mind was a brick wall. Abbott had told Fawn that Panda existed outside the lion hierarchy, that he was seen as a big cat, but not necessarily a lion. This made no sense to her, but his interactions with the Pride seemed to back this up. She didn’t doubt Abbott for a second, but she didn’t understand. Now, it almost sounded like Aaron and Nathan thought Panda would have more insight into Mira than others might, which intrigued Fawn all the more about the lion named Panda.
Chapter One
Mira
I was in a room with two male lions, a dragon, and a wolf. All in human form. All male.
And the dragon was kicking my ass.
“Does the owner of the company personally spar with every new hire?”
I moved in with the intention of kicking the side of his knee, but he blocked the kick and punched me in the face hard enough I heard my cheekbone shatter an instant before the blinding pain hit, but I didn’t let it slow me down. He was still recovering from the strike, and he’d left himself open. I faked him with the beginnings of a right jab to the rib cage and caught him off guard with a left punch to a pressure point just inside the shoulder. His body crumpled in on itself in reaction, and I kicked him in the face. He grabbed my leg and ripped my knee until it pulledapart and was useless, and I finally backed off, hopping away on my one good leg without letting my guard down. Kicking was now out, but I could still use my hands.
“It’s over,” he said. “Done. You shouldchangeand heal.”
I shook my head. “It’s over, yes, but I canchangelater.” At home, where there was no danger of being seen naked. No danger of my snake getting pissed and biting the man who’d just decimated us in a fight when no one had managed to do so in at least ten years.
Aaron shook his head. “Not an option. I need to meet your snake. One of us needs to hold you and run with you without being bitten.”
“It’s part of operational protocol,” the blond lion said. “If there’s only a spot to get one person in, you can ride in as a snake in a backpack. We need to know you have control.”
If I admitted I didn’t want to be naked around them, then it would become a thing. Better to walk with dignity and make them think it didn’t matter than to let them know I hated being naked around people.
It hadn’t mattered before I’d gotten in touch with my fuckingemotions. Now, it was like my damned soul was naked when I didn’t have clothes to hide behind.
“The snake has been conditioned tochangeback to human when placed on the clothes she shifted out of.”
With a final glare at the Dragon King, I allowed the shift to happen, and I made certain to keep my willpower in front of the snake’s.
The snake’s brain can’t feel emotion, nor is there logic, or even thought, really. Most snake shifters have no control of their animal, but I’d been trained in some of the most brutal ways imaginable, so I’d learned to control the snake. To an extent, anyway.
I slithered out of the clothes and glided across the floor to the dragon. He lifted me, ran with me a short time, and handed me to one of the lions, who put me inside his shirt. The snake didn’t like being in a wad, so she wrapped around the lion-man’s torso and stuck her head out of the shirt’s neck. He ran through a door, into the sunshine, down a street, through some woods, and then finally back inside and to the gym. He stopped at the clothes, ripped his shirt off, pulled the snake from around his body, and settled her on the clothes.
The snake curled up on them.
* * * *
Panda
I’d reminded Nathan I don’t do partners, but he was adamant that this was going to happen. Nothing I said was going to change his mind, which was why I found myself running through the woods behind the Drake offices, inthrough the back door, through the building, and back to the old school gym. I’d never seen a king cobra snake in person before, and I’d had no idea how big they are. Her head and flared neck were as big as my face. Her body was coiled around my torso more times than I wanted to count. Her tongue touched my face more than once, but I refused to turn and look at her.
Everyone knows I prefer to work alone. I can work with a team when my skillset is needed on one, but for the most part, I’m the operator who’s sent in when someone will need to die.
And for that, I prefer not to have witnesses.
Nathan had lost his fucking mind, pairing me with a reformed assassin.
It isn’t like I’m an assassin, exactly. More like, I’m the one who takes out the bad guys we know the human justice system would never be able to handle. If a vampire or rogue shapeshifter is terrorizing someone under our protection, for instance.
