to take large prey and failed. “I’m not always the same person when I shift shape. My brain works different, I think different, I feel different, I perceive enemies differently.” She shook her head, face in a snarl. Looked at Beast. “I beg forgiveness.”
Beast does not forgive. Beast kills enemies. Beast snarled at her, showing killing teeth.
“I’ll be up to the house when Jane shifts back,” she said.
“To talk to the holder of le breloque?” he asked. “The one you just tried to kill to get the crown? I don’t think so. If I knew how to kill you, you’d be dead.”
Soul laughed, sound angry and dull and wrong. “I am well aware of your desire to kill me, Eli Younger, but I am now in control of my former murderous tendencies. That said, I’d kill every human and para for twenty miles if it meant averting a war.”
“War?”
Soul did not answer. Asked instead, “Are you going to talk to the pretty witch?”
Eli did not answer, but body smelled frustrated. Angry.
Beast did not understand “not answer.” Was confused.
Soul sighed. Smelled fishy and bloody and not human. “I won’t try to take the crown again. But you let that witch get away and you’re dumber than you look.”
Beast wondered if water drops in soul home showed what would happen if Eli did not mate with witch. Wondered if Soul was pushing Eli to one place in future.
Eli blew air through nose. “Stay away from my partner. Come on, Janie. Let’s get you a steak.”
Am Beast. Not Jane. But followed Eli to eat dead cow.
* * *
* * *
I shifted back to Jane in the shower and woke lying on the chilly tile, thinking over Beast’s thoughts and concerns, and worried about Soul’s attack. It was out of character and it didn’t make sense in any way. I wasn’t sure how to address the attack or if I should even try. I had a hard time letting things ride, but this seemed like one of those times when I needed more info and intel before I jumped in trying to fix it all. Soul had some seriously big teeth and I had a feeling that I might not survive being bitten again. My scarlet leather jacket was ruined. Fortunately I still had a box of new military-style armor Eli had ordered.
After I rubbed the CBD oil over my belly and dressed, I went looking for Bruiser. Merlin had changed the music on the sound system; Chris Stapleton was crooning “Tennessee Whiskey” through the speakers. It was soothing music, not martial enough to plan a war.
Bruiser was sitting at the bar, a cut-crystal glass half-filled with amber liquid in one hand. He smelled of tension and frustration and shame. He had just bound a human to himself with his Onorio magic and he hated it. Likely hated himself. I slipped up behind him and slid my arms around him. Rested my head on his shoulders. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you did that for me. I’m sorry I’ve made our lives so difficult.”
“Leo. Leo set all this in motion. Not you. You’re keeping us alive and free.”
I said nothing. We were alone in the kitchen, dim lights under the cabinets giving a faint light.
“I learned things from her,” he said. “Not enough to pay the price of my soul for what I did. But I learned things. You told Shimon that the white werewolf ate his brother, but he already knew that some part of Joses/Joseph was still alive. He knows Joses’s heart is in New Orleans, and I don’t know how he learned its location except from Edmund’s mind, gleaned during the final minutes of his possession. Shimon wants the heart and wants Brute dead. And wants you dead for feeding Joses to the wolf.”
I drew in a breath, slow, steady. “Is Jodi in danger?” Jodi worked for NOPD and was from a witch family. And she had Joses’s heart.
CHAPTER 16
Once We Finish with the Mustache Twirler
“I’ve called Jodi in New Orleans and told her to check on the heart and make sure it’s in a safe place. Jodi says she’ll put it in a null room and get back to me.”
I said nothing. Just hugged tighter. Silence was a powerful tool for giving someone space to talk. Or not. As they wanted.
“I was blood-drunk for nearly a hundred years. When I came out of it I was angry. Angry for all the things Leo had me do, things that seemed right, at