Onorio superpower. But I hadn’t known he could twist humans. From his body language, I was pretty sure he hadn’t known he could either. The smell was distantly familiar enough to make me wonder if the other Onorios I had known had tried that with me. I remembered a fight in a workout room once, where the scents had been vaguely similar to this. And right after that I had claimed I was Leo’s Enforcer. Dang, dang, dang. Had the other Onorios tried to tie me to Leo? Or worse, to Grégoire? Was this ability why Leo had been so mad at Bruiser, because he refused to use this talent on me? Crap. I hated to be so suspicious.
Eli caught my eye and nodded to Bruiser, hand gestures saying he’d be right back. He left the cottage, silent, officially my second, which meant half bodyguard, half champion. My friend and chosen brother. He was pulling on a cold coat when he closed the door, leaving Bruiser inside with his prey, alone.
“Is Bruiser okay without you?” I asked.
“Yeah. He’s good, in control. He doesn’t like what he is or what he can do, but he understands it’s necessary. Bruiser has access to Alex via comms. If something goes wrong, it will likely be magical in nature and nothing I can help with. But.” Eli looked to the tree line rather than at me. “George’s acting in opposition to his basic nature. He’s doing things by choice that he was forced to do when he was under Leo’s thrall. Things he did to you. Once again he’s doing things he isn’t proud of. He’s not going to be a happy man for a while after this.”
It was odd hearing Bruiser referred to by his real name, and I gave a belated truncated nod. “I didn’t ask him to. Or make him.”
“Course not. And that might be even worse. He’s doing it out of necessity, not under compulsion.”
“Yeah. I get that. I just don’t know what to do about it.”
“Be human for him a little more often.” Eli barked with quiet laughter. “Give him some of that sweet, sweet lovin’.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“But a good-looking, hunky, amazeballs idiot, right?”
I laughed, which he had surely intended.
“On the other hand,” he said, “there’s Shaddock.”
“What about him?”
“That guy has power, Janie, way more than was apparent before you promoted him. He claimed the vamps who attacked the sweathouse, and they were all at least fifty years old. It took all of an hour each.”
“That’s fast. But then . . .” I grimaced. “Shaddock has access to Amy Lynn Brown and . . . he actually made Amy Lynn. Maybe there’s something extra about him, something Leo missed? Something we all missed?”
“We’ll keep an eye out.” Eli looked grim and I wondered if there had been a good reason Leo refused to promote Lincoln Shaddock to MOC. Something I hadn’t known about when I gave him the city.
“Yeah. Thanks.” I turned away, stopped, and turned back. “I’m glad you’re in my life.”
Eli gave me a battle-worthy smile, which is to say, not much of anything. “Somebody’s got to keep you alive.”
Together we tramped through the snow, me barefoot, more ice balls working their way up under my toe pads and toenails. The snow-sleet frozen mixture was now crusty and about fourteen inches thick. I held up a paw-foot and shook it. I said, “It’ll be a bugger to get the ice out of the hairs on my feet.”
“Bet that’s not something you ever expected to say.” I showed my fangs to him and he chuckled before he continued. “You going to talk to Soul?”
“Try to. You know why she wanted to jump in icy water instead of coming inside?”
“No idea. I’ll stay out of the way.” He faded into the trees. Softly, from the snow-covered forest, he added, “Hey, babe. Try to not get killed.”
CHAPTER 15
Not Cat and Mouse, Beast thought. Beast and Boar.
I heard Soul before I saw her, and from the way the splashes slowed and stopped, she knew I was near. The faint breeze carried my scent to her even before I approached the high bank and looked down. In the icy pool made by the mountain stream, she was swimming, unexpectedly naked. I wasn’t rude enough to stare, and couldn’t be sure, but I thought she might have fins instead of hands and feet. Her silver hair was swirling on the surface, caught in a current I didn’t see or moving all by itself.