It was the cat shifter who’d been part of the attack on me in the parking garage when this madness had first started. And once again, he hadn’t come alone.
Chapter Four
"WELL, WELL, WELL," HE ALL BUT PURRED. "Imagine meeting you again."
"Yeah, just imagine." I shoved the note into the back pocket of my jeans, then flexed my fingers. He wasn’t alone. I could smell a second man trying to creep around the lockers, obviously hoping to come up behind me. "Where are the rest of your friends? Oh, that’s right. Two are dead, and the other is in the hands of the Directorate. Are you sure you want to do this a second time?"
Several people scurried out of the locker room. Obviously, the guy attempting to creep around the back had spooked them. Such brave souls, leaving a woman to tackle two men alone. Of course, I wasn’t exactly defenseless, but they wouldn’t know that.
His quick smile was all teeth—not vampire teeth, but razor-sharp feline teeth. He might not be a full shifter, and he might not be able to take on full feline form, but he had extraordinary control over the bits he could change. Like his teeth, and the nails that were even now elongating into claws.
But as I watched him closely, waiting for his first move, anger surged—an anger so thick and deep that it stole my breath. It was all I could do not to flow into Aedh form and rip him apart.
I took a deep, quivering breath that did little to tame the fury.
It was scary, that rage. Really, really scary.
He made a motion with his claws. "Hand that letter over right now, and we’ll leave you in peace."
I clenched my fingers against the urge to leap for his throat, aware that the second man was getting closer.
"Sorry," I said, barely keeping my voice even, "but I had a nice little chat with the man who ended up in the Directorate’s clutches, and I know for a fact that’s not true."
He smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant sight. "Orders can change, you know."
"Whether they’ve changed is not the point." Heat swirled across my skin. Azriel had taken form on the other side of the lockers. Was he taking care of the second man or at least running interference? I hoped so. I said to the first man, "And I’m hardly going to hand you a note I haven’t even read yet."
"That," he said softly, "is unfortunate."