Hour of the Dragon - Heather Killough-Walden Page 0,170

its shoulder holster and held it pointed downward as he ran across the street.

After he’d hung up with Sterling he’d made a few select calls, gotten the information he needed from a scryer who’d mailed the address to him in a text, and then he’d sent a message to Katrielle. Backup was on the way, but if that storm overhead was any indication, time was of the essence. He couldn’t afford to wait.

Once he was across the street, he stopped beside the building’s front door and listened. He lifted his chin and inhaled slowly, concentrating on the surrounding scents. It was next to impossible to isolate any of them in this gale; he could only scent that there were humans nearby and that they were female.

He allowed his vision to shift next. He knew his eyes were taking on a yellow glow when his vision sharpened, contrasts became clearer, and hot and cold differentiated themselves by color.

And then the wind switched again and James caught the unmistakable scent of Time Enough perfume. His partner’s signature fragrance, accompanied this time by the scent of her shampoo and soap, and a hint of cinnamon toothpaste. She must have been coming straight after a shower.

James swore under his breath and willed his eyes to shift back, returning to human sight a split second before he heard a car door slam shut down the street. He turned to see his partner running toward him from her pickup truck, which she’d parked right behind his. The wind caught at her hair and clothing, freeing long strands from her ponytail to send them whipping around her face.

“Henry!” she whisper-called under her breath, trying to be loud enough over the building storm that he would hear her, but not so loud that anyone else would.

He ran to meet her, his teeth clenched in anger he fiercely tamped down. “Tess, what the hell are you doing here?” He felt his eyes heating up and forcefully willed them to remain brown. This was not the time and place in which he wanted to reveal his true nature to her.

But her expression was confused and even a little hurt, which threw James. “Henry, you jackass, tonight’s poker night! When you didn’t show, Madds and I got worried. She helped me track down your car.”

Crap, he thought as he glanced back at his car, which had a tracking device on it like most cop cars did. She’s right. Sterling’s call had thrown him into trouble-shooting mode and he’d forgotten to call and cancel. “Tess, you need to leave,” he told his partner firmly. This was absolutely the last place he wanted her right now.

But he didn’t know why he bothered; she was not the type of person to be derailed. She looked him up and down, noting the gun in his hand. Then she looked him in the eyes, and he knew she was reading him. She was human, so she couldn’t read him the way a vampire or incubus could. She simply knew people. And she knew him.

“Detective James,” she said carefully, using a no-nonsense tone. “I need you to tell me what the hell is going on here.” She pulled her weapon as he had and pointed it down in the same practiced manner. “Right now.”

“Damn it,” he hissed, his jaw clenched. He ran a hand through his hair, but it did no good. The wind shoved it right back into his face again. He glanced back at the building and the storm swirling directly above it. He saw her gaze follow his.

“Holy Mother… what the hell is that?” she asked.

He had just about decided to use one or more of his decidedly non-mortal abilities on her to get her to go home before it was too late when suddenly the roar of the wind was overshadowed by the long, terrible moaning of metal being stretched and rendered apart. His attention fixed on the building, his ears pricking and his eyes focusing. As he watched, the outer wall of the building began to tear apart horizontally, the edifice ripping itself in two right down the middle. Somewhere inside the building beyond that widening tear, a male voice shouted out a command to “get down.” This was followed by more ripping metal before there was a scream that was most likely one of Faith’s wayward friends.

James had time to do only one thing. He spun, grabbed his partner by her arms, and yanked her into his body, bending himself over