A Hippogriff for Christmas - Zoe Chant Page 0,41
declaration to one side. “But with the weather the way it is… well, let’s just say I learned my lesson about not doing dumb things while flying.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, I can understand that.” Annie said, nodding. She stretched her arms above her head, yawning. “Well, as much as I hate to say it, I guess we should have a shower and get dressed.”
“That’s a shame. That sheet is a good look on you,” Beau said, appreciating the way it fell and exposed her side and hip as she stood up.
“Speak for yourself,” Annie shot back, giving him a grin over her shoulder as she disappeared into her bedroom.
With a warm, wide smile, Beau followed her.
It was early evening and the sky was dark, a few flakes of snow falling from the sky as Annie drove them back to the bakery to pick up Beau’s car.
They’d managed to get out of the shower after only one false start – Annie’s shower was really not big enough for two people anyway – and the drive was only fifteen minutes or so.
Beau turned his head, contemplating the way Annie bit her lip as she took a corner, concentrating hard in the slippery conditions.
She really was perfect, he thought as he looked at her – everything he’d ever dreamed his mate would be. Beautiful, funny, and determined. He could already see all of that in her face when he looked at her. The prospect of getting to know her – of finding out everything there was to know about her, and about how he could protect her and dedicate himself to being the best partner he could for her – made him more excited than he knew how to express.
“Okay, we’re here,” Annie said as she pulled up, stopping the car. “The shop will’ve closed hours ago, so I guess that lump there must be yours.”
She pointed to the car-shaped mound in the parking lot, covered with a fair amount of snow. Clearly, it’d been falling fairly heavily while they’d been otherwise occupied.
“I’ll help you scrape it off,” Annie said, reaching for the snow scraper beneath her seat. “Shouldn’t take too long.”
“Dragon’s fire breath doesn’t seem like such a bad idea now,” Beau said as they got out of the car into the frigid air. “This’d be over in a moment if I were a dragon.”
“Believe me, I’m happy with you just the way you are,” Annie said, smiling.
It was as they trudged toward the snow-covered car that Beau first detected it. It was a scent he’d know anywhere – that most people would know anywhere, and which definitely didn’t belong here.
Kerosene.
The scent was strong enough that his shifter senses had picked it up right away, but not so strong that Annie had noticed it yet. Beau whipped his head around, seeking the source, as his hippogriff rose up within him, beak opened in a mighty screech.
Something is wrong here.
Beau narrowed his eyes, focusing all his attention. He didn’t want to worry Annie before he knew there was any reason to, though. Bringing his hippogriff’s senses to the forefront of his mind, he scanned the darkness, the eagle’s sharp eyes immediately spotting movement in the alleyway between the bakery and the shop next door.
There.
“Annie, wait here a moment,” he said softly, leaving her side. “I’ll be back in a second.”
“Beau? What’s –” Annie started to ask, but cut herself short when she saw the serious expression on his face.
Beau nodded to her in what he hoped was a reassuring way before he moved quickly and silently to the front of the building, out of sight of the alley. When he got to the wall he glanced around the corner quickly – just long enough for him to see a crouched shape by the wall, and to determine that it was definitely where the scent of kerosene was strongest.
His hippogriff spread its wings inside him.
A shifter. We can sense it.
Like all shifters, he could sense the presence of other shifters, even if he couldn’t tell what they shifted into. It wasn’t so uncommon to come across them when you weren’t expecting it. But now, Beau frowned.
A shifter rustling around in the alley next to Annie’s work?
He didn’t like it. In his experience, there were only one or two reasons why someone was scurrying around in the dark with a tank of kerosene.
He’d have to deal with this quickly, and hopefully without scaring Annie. If the person in the alley was a shifter, they’d know what