I focused on her as I rolled on the ground maybe fifteen feet out, fighting the too-stretchy-to-break straps. Leaping away had been the wrong thing if she was shooting. At least if I was rolling around tangled in clothes on top of her, she couldntaim.
I had a blink of time to see her rise to a shooters crouch, a dark-skinned woman with white hair in a waist-length braid and a young face. She would have looked more at home in an anime convention than holding a big gun made bigger by the silencer on the barrel. I didnt want to do it this way. She took aim at my wiggling body. Dead doesnt pay as much.
And then something dark, shadow-quick, passed over the roof of the car and landed on her. I heard the snap of bone before my eyes registered that Asil crouched on top of her, his face eerily calm with eyes the color of citrines.
Half-breed fae, he grunted, examining her face as I changed back to human. It wasnt an epithet, just an observation. That gun has too much metal for a full-blooded fae to handle even with leather gloves.
I opened my mouth to argue with him instinctivelyZee had no trouble with metalbut the dead woman kept the words in my mouth. My head caught up with events and I realized that, although he seemed to be calm enough, his bright eyes said differently. Id been raised among werewolves and Id never seen anyone, not even Adam, who was pretty damn fast, move that quickly. Just a feeling of motion, then she was dead, and Asil was there.
I pulled the bra all the way off to give myself time to thinkand the scary werewolf time to calm down. Realizing I was standing naked next to a very full parking lot that might soon be filling with people, I put the bra on correctly and pulled up the panties. The sweatshirt lay between Asil and me and I had to force myself to walk toward him and pick it up.
She is also truly gone, he said impersonally. Full-blooded fae are usually harder to kill than this. He patted down her body with a speed that indicated long familiarity with the process. His voice was a little darker than it had been before, a little more strongly accented.
She didnt see you in the passenger seat, I said, glancing at the Mercedes. The windows were darkened beyond strictly legal limits, especially the glass on the back and side of the car. For Marsilia it was a safety measureif she happened to be out too long, the sun would be kept at bay. For me it meant that the fae woman hadnt noticed that there were two of us in the car. The passenger door was opened where Asil had exited.
Careless, Asil agreed, standing up and looking at me. I pulled the sweatshirt over my head and carefully didnt look up to his eye level as I pulled the shirt down.
There was subtle tension in his body to match the predators gaze, and I thought of his warning not two minutes earlier. I wondered if killing a half-blood fae was close enough to human to be an issue. He seemed to be handling it okay so farbut with the wolves, that could change awfully fast. And that calm of his was ringing all sorts of bells in my hindbrain.
We need to hide her before someone walks out to dump their garbage, I told him, approaching him and kneeling. It was a submissive postureeven if I did it to grab the sweatpants that lay at his feet.
He didnt say anything, just watched me. I didnt look up to see him doing it, but the back of my neck felt his eyes. The ground was really cold on my butt, and I pulled the pants on with more energy than usual. Id kept one sock onI try not to think about how ridiculous I must look in coyote form when I have to change without losing my clothes first, but I couldnt help but wince as I looked about for the other sock.
I didnt find the sock, but my shoes were next to the drivers side door of the Mercedes. The sight of the door put the search for my sock, the dead woman, and the werewolf whod just killed her, momentarily right out of my mind.
Damn, damn, damn, I said, putting my hand on the dented metal. When Id knocked her into the car, the would-be assassin/kidnappers head had left an impression in the drivers side doorcars arent as tough as they used to be. My old Rabbit could have taken a blow twice that hard without even noticing it. I took another step closer, and my cold bare toes bumped into warm flesh.
I looked down and met a pair of eyes that had been dark before death fogged them over. The half-fae woman had been stunning, but now, her magic gone, she looked merely ordinary. I glanced at the werewolf who had taken himself away from the body and now stood with his back toward me, facing the nearest apartment building, an apartment building with lots and lots of windows.
Weve got to get the body out of sight, I said.
I had to pull the body out of the way to open the drivers side door and pop the trunk. Asil didnt move, and I didnt ask him to. He wasnt in the way of the doorand he was still scaring me.
She jerked a little when I moved her. I was a coyote, a predatorIve killed before. I knew it was only the air left in her lungs, knew that her floppy head meant a broken neck. But her abrupt motion made me jump and drop her anyway. At least Id moved her far enough so that I could get into the carand I hadnt squeaked.
Only when the door was open did it cross my mind that there was a button for the trunk on the key fob in the hip pocket of the sweats. Guys sweatpants have neat things like pockets in them.
Asil hadnt helped me move the body the first time, but as soon as the trunk was open, he picked her up without my saying anything, grabbing the gun and the cuffs shed used on me when he bent down. Body, gun, and cuffs gave him no trouble. She was locked safely out of sight in the trunk nearly as quickly as hed taken her from alive to dead. He stared at the trunk for a moment and flexed his hands while I stared at him, hoping he wouldnt look back at me.
Ive seen a lot of wolves in human form with those bright wolf eyes. A lot of them. And none of those eyes scared me as thoroughly as Asils had. There was something else at home in Asils head and it had enjoyed killing the woman and would have been happy to continue the little spree. Brans son and chief assassin, Charles, scared me, but I was confident that if Charles wanted me dead, it would be quick and painless. Asils beast enjoyed playing with his victims.
Oh, yes, it would not be a good thing if Asil had to kill again, but I was pretty sure it would take something bigger than me to keep it from happening. After Asils little speech in the car, I would have thought he would have tried harder not to kill anyone all by himself.
I opened my mouth to say something, and the bland little Corolla rolled past us again; the driver waved and shrugged. No parking for Hauptman Security. If I waved and shouted, would they come running or just keep looking for an empty parking space?
Empty parking space.
Shed been waiting right here for us, I thought. Right next to the only parking place, which, conveniently, had a garbage container for her to lie on top ofshed jumped on me from above. I wondered if shed glamoured the spot so no one tried to park in it. I wondered if shed known Tad was here. I wondered
What if she had a partner? I asked, and started not quite running, but moving rather more briskly than a walk toward Sylvias apartment without bothering to put on shoes. A case of frostbite I could deal withnot so much dead Sandoval girls. Shed been looking to take me alive, but hadnt hesitated to pull the gun. How did that play into our villains plan? And if they were willing to kill me, what about Jesse? Had she already visited the Sandovals?
The only reason that I didnt flat-out sprint was Asil. If his wolf was that close to the surface, there was a chance hed decide I was prey if I started running away.