A Hippogriff for Christmas - Zoe Chant Page 0,55

affronted, as if it had to protect Annie’s integrity from him.

You know that’s not what I mean, Beau told it, irritated, as he put his empty glass down on the tray of a passing waiter. Poker’s not exactly easy.

The hippogriff merely rustled its wings as if Beau was being ridiculous, regarding him skeptically.

You may doubt our mate, but I never will.

The last thing Beau felt like doing right now was having an argument with an ornery hippogriff who seemed determined to misinterpret everything he said.

That’s fine, but right now we need to focus, he told it.

The mansion was vast – a maze of glass, timber and rock. So far, he hadn’t had much luck in finding Scott, and if he couldn’t find him in the next hour or so he might simply have no choice but to try to find him in the confusion when the Shifter Patrol Corps team moved in.

But with that comes the risk of him getting hurt or used as a bargaining chip, Beau thought, grimacing.

He’d been creating a mental map of the place based on his survey of it as they’d swooped in to land. The eagle’s sharp eyes and sense of distance and perspective had immediately created a model of the mansion in his brain, which he’d been filling in as he wandered from room to room, calculating what was missing, and which direction he’d have to go to find any sealed-off rooms or sections of the mansion that weren’t being used for the party.

Security guards were posted, but even so, Beau had managed to evade them twice to slip into areas he clearly wasn’t supposed to be in.

But so far, no Scott.

There was still a place he hadn’t checked yet: three large rooms made of timber that sat above the massive glass structure that formed the main part of the mansion.

Unlike the rest of this place, Beau hadn’t been able to see inside them as he’d sailed past earlier. But that made him almost certain that they were whoever owned this place’s private rooms – off limits to the partygoers.

And therefore, by far the most likely place for Scott to be.

And so, of course, by far the most difficult place to get to.

His hope that he might find Scott in a side room or even at one the gaming tables had been wishful thinking, but he’d decided it’d be better to at least eliminate them as possibilities before he tackled the far more challenging task of getting into the top floor rooms.

He glanced around. Security here was heavily visible – the huge, tux-wearing men with gun holsters obviously strapped to their belts who stood at most doorways and the ends of corridors – but not exactly proactive. They mostly stood and stared at people, though that was most likely because no one had caused any trouble yet.

Beau eyed a huge specimen of a man across the room from him. Taking one out quietly was probably going to be a challenge. All of them were probably trained fighters, and it’d only take one false move from him, one out-of-place sound, for him to put himself – and, more importantly, Annie – in danger.

He was willing to bet the guns were loaded with bullets tipped with dragonsbane, too. Despite the name, dragonsbane was dangerous to all shifters, not just dragons. Made mainly from the venom of wyverns, it would slow a shifter’s healing down so that it was almost on a level with a human’s, making a gunshot wound far more serious, and it had a host of other side-effects besides.

So, taking them out is probably not a great idea. But perhaps a distraction might be enough….

Grabbing another drink from a tray as a waiter passed him by, Beau feigned taking a sip out of it as he headed downstairs toward the main entrance. The massive arcing stairway might be impressive and draw the eye, but he’d noticed a small, semi-concealed door behind it, that was, of course, guarded by one of the heavies.

Still there, he noted, as he stepped from the stairs into the grand foyer. The guard was standing in front of the door, brows drawn together, hands folded in front of him. Well, let’s see what it’d take to dislodge him from his post.

Skirting around the edge of a group of men who’d obviously gotten bored of watching the women having all the fun at the tables, Beau picked out one or two who seemed the most likely to fall for the