A Hippogriff for Christmas - Zoe Chant Page 0,59

eyes. “Humans. You can’t take them anywhere.”

The woman laughed lightly, shaking her head and seeming to return to organizing the returned chips.

Beau scanned the poker room, finding Annie in the crowd, her head bent down over her cards. Before he needed to make another move, however, she lifted her gaze, as if she’d felt his eyes on her.

A frisson of electricity shot through the air between them, and Beau knew she understood the situation immediately.

Sure enough, a moment later he saw her frown, shaking her head, before she sighed and laid her cards face-down on the table, clearly folding and leaving the game. He watched as the woman sitting next to her looked up in clear dismay when Annie began to stand up, urging her to stay for the next hand, but Annie firmly shook her head, gathering up her chips and her purse.

She arrived by the desk a moment later to cash her chips, flashing Beau a small, tight smile – and although his hippogriff cried out at the delay, he knew that her trying to leave the room with them wouldn’t be allowed.

Beside him, he felt Scott stiffen, sucking in a quick, shocked breath.

“Annie?! What the hell –”

Beau reminded him to keep quiet with a none-too-gentle squeeze around his arm, and he trailed off mid-sentence. There’d be time for Scott to ask questions later, if Annie wanted to answer them.

“How’d you do?” Beau asked, trying to keep things light.

“Oh, you know how it goes – well for a while, but I got overconfident. Sorry, I’m coming out with a little less than what I came in with.” She frowned as she accepted the cash from the woman at the desk. “Though I guess I got some other stuff too.”

She opened her palm, revealing –

Is that a manticore’s claw?! Beau thought, staring incredulously down at what Annie was holding. And… wyvern venom? Griffin blood?! What the hell?!

He shook his head. All of those items were highly prized, and extremely illegal to sell – or, in this case, bet in a poker game.

Annie clearly wouldn’t have known what the items were, though. Beau just hoped she wouldn’t mind too much when the Shifter Patrol Corps took her winnings in order to try to trace where they’d come from.

“He’s had a bit too much to drink,” Beau said, indicating Scott. “Best we get him home, I think.”

Annie’s eyes traveled to Scott, widening for a moment, and she didn’t quite manage to suppress her nervous swallow.

“Oh – sure. Right.” She nodded. She was obviously nervous, but Beau knew she was doing her best, and, considering the situation, she was doing amazingly well.

We need to get her out of here. Immediately.

His hippogriff lifted its head, eagle eyes searching for something – though Beau couldn’t tell what.

No arguments here, Beau told it. The sooner Annie’s out of here, the better.

The hippogriff didn’t seem reassured.

Beau looked around, checking for anyone following them as they made their way down the curving stairway. The heavies were at their posts, not seeming to be paying any attention to them whatsoever. The guests were only paying attention to their drinks and to each other. No one was looking at them at all.

And yet, Beau couldn’t shake the cold feeling of unease in his gut.

His hippogriff was nervous, its talons splaying and contracting, wings ruffling, back legs nervously shifting.

I dislike this, it repeated.

You and me both, Beau told it. Something isn’t right here. I can’t – it’s like my senses aren’t working properly.

He glanced at Annie, but of course, she wouldn’t have noticed anything. A human simply didn’t have the same kind of sensitivity to these things that a shifter did – the heightened awareness and senses, the powerful ability to tell when a situation was dangerous.

Right now, Beau’s senses felt… deadened.

But it hadn’t come on all at once. It had been building slowly, ever since he’d found Scott in the upstairs room.

Right now, his hippogriff could tell something was off. But what, and what direction it might be coming from, he couldn’t tell at all.

But we’re almost there, Beau thought, grim-faced, hauling Scott across the foyer. They were almost at the front counter. In a moment, Annie would have her coat, and then they would be out the doors, he would shift, and then –

Beau froze as a rich, velvety voice rang out from behind him.

“Surely you didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you?”

Chapter 13

I knew there was something wrong here.

Hauling in a deep breath,