Blade Song - By J.C. Daniels Page 0,25

let myself acknowledge the fact that I wouldn’t take time away from the job. The boy needed help. I needed rest and I’d let myself take it, but I sure as hell wasn’t going go down for a day just because I had a sore throat. After another look at my neck, I explained what had happened and looked up to find her watching me with resignation in her eyes.

“Just what were you thinking, goading a cat-shifter that far?” Colleen asked.

I shrugged and prodded my throat again. Earlier, the flesh had felt hot to touch, inflamed, I guessed, but it was better now. This was definitely better. “I wasn’t trying to. He’s just an asshole.”

“Pity. He’s hotter than hell,” she murmured.

“All the good ones.”

We met each other’s gaze in the mirror and grinned. “The hot ones are either taken, one of the walking dead or not worth messing with.”

He definitely fell into the last category.

Flicking a glance at my watch, I said, “I need to go. He’s been out there fuming almost fifteen minutes now. If I push my luck, he’s probably going to try his hand at breaking your wards.”

“Let him try. He’ll end up hurting more than he can possibly imagine. It will serve him right.” She sniffed.

I shrugged. “Nah. Not worth you having to rebuild them.” I grabbed my things from the couch and stood up. “I…ah…I need a favor. It’s…”

Her eyes went dark.

There wasn’t much that would have me hesitating with Colleen and she knew it.

“What is it, sweetie?”

“The job I’m on. The boy.”

“The runaway.” She inclined her head.

“Yes.”

Her child had run away, too. Her sick child, the one she’d lost.

“Can you ask if anybody has heard anything about him? He’s close to spiking. He’ll probably set off alarms wherever he goes.”

Her face twisted in sympathy. “That’s a dangerous mess there, Kit. Why did they drag you into this? Don’t you know better than to take jobs like this from the cats?”

“Hell, yes. I…” I rubbed my hands over my face. “It was the boy.”

“The boy,” she murmured. “What did they do, show you a picture of him? Sing you a sad song about him?”

“Like a song would bother me.” I plucked a non-existent thread on my vest.

“A picture, then. Damn it, Kit. How do you land yourself in this kind of trouble?”

“Beats the hell out of me,” I muttered.

“Well, it looks like they are already working on that.” She reached up and touched my throat.

Truer words…

We made it to the car before Damon spoke.

I enjoyed the reprieve.

But the second the doors closed, he laid back into me. “You don’t seem to get this…you’re stuck with me, Kit.”

“Nope. Not quite getting it yet, sorry.”

He leaned in, staring at my face, then he cocked his head, studying my throat, craning his head to look at my face. When he went to push my hair back, I smacked his hand away. Surprisingly, he let me.

“Your voice is different.”

“Allergies,” I lied. “Colleen’s a wonder. I didn’t have the tea I usually drink so I came by for a refill and had a cup while we chatted.”

“Liar.”

I didn’t respond.

“You had her heal your throat.”

I tapped my nails on the steering wheel and contemplated the night sky as I started the car.

“Shit. I…” The thick slashes of his brows dropped low over his eyes. “You’re weaker than I thought. You’re not human and…hell. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that much damage.”

Years of abuse had taught me how to hide my emotions. I hadn’t had to use it as much in recent years, but I was going to have to brush those skills back up, I suspected. Starting now.

Without responding, I put the car into drive and pulled off.

“How human are you?”

I turned on the radio.

He turned it back off. “I asked you a question, little girl.”

Sighing, I looked over at him. “Where exactly is it in your job description or in that so-called contract that you get to bully me? How much human blood I carry doesn’t affect the job I’ll do.”

He stared at me.

I could feel the weight of it as I sped back toward town.

But when I reached over and turned on the radio, this time, he was quiet.

Ah…finally. Silence.

Chapter Six

There was a time when the town had been called Winter Haven. Full of snowbirds and pretty little houses and condos.

Now it was a hell-hole for some of the wolves and cats and witches who didn’t want to fall in line with the local packs, and who