It didn’t bother me. I wasn’t here to be popular. I was here to get noticed. It wasn’t exactlyfollowing my heart, but it was capitalizing on my strengths. I intended to use them to move rapidly up to the top levels of this organization.
Nemi returned to my shoulder as we followed Slade out, and I reflected that I’d taken the first steps to achieving that goal. Where it would get me was yet to be seen.
“Another mission?” I asked as we strode down the stone hallway.
“Sort of. Boss wants a sparring partner.” The big shifter pushed through the door to the stairs, and then began to climb.
Nemi’s tiny feet danced against my neck. Boss? Was he referring to his father? I’d thought he was back at the other stronghold. My curiosity warred with my instincts of self-preservation. I was good, but anyone who Slade referred to as Boss was likely to test my mettle.
My unease grew when we climbed to the uppermost level. The hall here was brightly lit, and the one room we passed with an open door revealed a huge gap along one wall, through which I saw the bright afternoon sunlight.
I was hyperaware of Slade, walking just a bit in front of me. But not so far out of alignment that he couldn’t track me out of the corner of his eye. I had little doubt that he didn’t trust me. Why should he? But was he threatened by me, too?
That would be bad news. Some people might go through sparring partners like I did tortilla chips. This might be Slade’s way of eliminating a potential problem.
Nemi twittered softly, and I let the adrenaline flow through me. One of my first lessons with my grandmother taught me how to channel it so that it added speed and accuracy. Fear could be an effective weapon.
We paused at a closed door. Two fucking huge guys stood on each side of it, wearing the distinctive scales of Dragons.
Slade drew himself up tall before them and met their hostile stares. Clearly, no love lost between them.
For a moment, it was a standoff. Then Slade said, “He’s expectin’ me.”
I actually heard one Dragon grind his teeth, but he opened the door and stepped aside.
The quarters we entered were lavish in the extreme, with a high ceiling, elaborate paneling, and art featured in recesses along the walls. The main living area had one side completely open to the air, and on the ledge beyond it, a group of people milled about.
Slade and I crossed half the room before a tall young man in the center of the group held up his hand, and we stopped. He was handsome in a way women would find appealing, and the air of command the man possessed marked him clearly as theOne In Charge.
But the attractive woman talking to him didn’t seem impressed. She had long white hair in multiple tiny braids, with shining bits of rock amid them, and her eyes glittered a weird combination of blue and crimson.
“You’ll owe me for this, Victor,” she said. “I have better things to do than clean up your loose ends.”
Victor’s eyes glittered metallic bronze. Was he a Dragon, as well as an underlord? Nemi grew very still against my neck, and I suddenly had more adrenaline to channel.
“This loose end is of importance to you as well,” Victor stated. “If my Seer is right, it’s an opportunity we can’t ignore. And you could send one of the coven members. We just need someone who can gate them out of there in a hurry.”
Seer? She had glanced toward a diminutive man standing near the wall. He looked human, if you didn’t see the pointy ears or weird purple eyes. He looked like he’d rather be anywhere else. But he stiffened at her inference. “My vision was very clear,” he said. And then he flinched when her features hardened into a glare. She transferred it to Victor.
“Sometimes it is less trouble to do it yourself,” the woman snapped. “Your Seer better be right.” She turned to the others on the ledge outside. “Let’s get this show on the road, people. I have other things to do.”
I watched in fascination as the four men standing out there transformed into red-scaled creatures that were Dragonlike, but not Dragons. They launched themselves off the ledge, and the three remaining men shifted to their Dragon beasts, one at a time. They each accepted a rider before taking off, with the woman mounting the final one.
As soon as they had vanished, the young man turned to us.
Slade offered a small half-bow. “As requested, sir, your new sparring partner.”
Victor’s eyes locked on me as he approached. To my shock, they flickered from metallic bronze, to blue, and then, to a bright orange. I’d seen a lot of weird things in this world, but I’d never seen eyes quite like that before, and they added to my adrenaline rush.
“What is he?” he asked.
“Don’t know,” Slade answered. “Found him in Drosfi.”
“What are you?” Victor directed the question to me.
Nemi darted off my shoulder to hover around him, which pulled his gaze off me. But it also added to my angst.
“Do you want to trade twenty questions, or do you want to fight?” The dare was out before I could stop myself. Veryestúpido.
