The Burning Claw
Page 66

“You might find that I’m perfectly capable of doing a striptease while wearing a tutu. But just because I’m capable doesn’t mean I’ll do it. You might find the same situation there. If they are not in a state to be helpful, then I suppose you should sit on the info for a few days. Decide if you should tell Vasile or Decebel in private. Vasile, certainly, can keep a level head.”
“Fine,” She huffed at him. “We’ll do it your way but in exchange I expect that striptease. You better get to finding a tutu, Wolf.”
“As my lady commands,” he responded in that slow, sexy, voice that he knew made her want to kick saving the world to the curb and go home to him.
“Play fair,” she growled at him.
“Then I’d never win.”
She laughed out loud as she felt him pull back from her mind. He was wrong. Her mate was cunning and patient. All he had to do was wait for her to make a mistake in whatever little game they were playing and then he’d make his move. He only cheated because it amused her and he liked pleasing her.
“So have we got a plan now?” Stralina asked her.
“Was it that obvious that I was having a conversation in my mind with my mate?” Peri asked the pixie.
Stralina lifted one shoulder. “Well, your face sort of moves around. Like your eyebrows raise, or your mouth tilts up or down. Your forehead creases and occasionally you huff or roll your eyes. So it’s like you are responding with your face to something no one else can hear.”
Peri stared down at the little female for a few seconds before shaking her head. “You could have just said yes. I didn’t need the play by play.”
“Since you talked to your mate, do we have a plan?” she asked Peri again.
Peri held her hand out and tilted it from side to side. “Meh, we have a loosely thought out next step.”
“So, a plan,” Stralina added.
“A plan implies that you have looked at all of the other available options and decided the best possible action based upon likely results. We have not looked at all of the other available actions and we have no idea of the likely results,” Peri countered.
“What’s another option?”
“Going home and making wild monkey love with my mate.”
“And another?” Stralina asked again, un-phased by Peri’s response.
“Repeating the aforementioned option,” she answered without pause.
This time the pixie laughed. “Right, so we aren’t going to look at any other available options. I think we’re good where we are.”
Peri nodded. “I sort of thought that would be how you felt.” She placed her hand on the pixie’s shoulder once again and flashed them to Vasile’s office.
The normally calm, organized room was a big, loud chaotic mess, and Peri briefly wondered if she’d somehow flashed them to the wrong house. But then she heard Jen’s voice.
“Us standing around like a bunch of yapping hyenas isn’t helping us find him,” she growled at her mate. Decebel snarled back so viciously that Peri took a step toward the couple as though she needed to protect Jen from her mate. Which was ludicrous because Decebel, nor any mated male, would never intentionally harm their mate. They’d sooner rip off their own man parts.
“I know what I need to do in order to find my Beta, female,” Decebel said to Jen with amber eyes lit up like Christmas lights. “I do not need you pointing out the obvious to me.”
Okay, Peri had never seen Decebel like that, not with Jen. And by the look on her face, Jen hadn’t either. She’d had enough of the chaos. Where the crap was Vasile?
“ENOUGH!”
“Oh, there he is,” Peri whispered to herself as Vasile strode into the room, his power radiated off of him and reached out across the silenced room.
“Chaos divides. Disagreement, disharmony, keeps us idle. How many times have we faced darkness together? We’ve never let it tear us apart and we aren’t going to start now.” His eyes roamed over each of them, pausing for a moment when they landed on Peri. She inclined her head as he held her stare. When he finally looked away, he didn’t speak immediately.
Peri took the moment to glance around the room to take stock of who was present. Alina was in the corner holding Slate. Decebel was leaning a shoulder against the wall, his arms folded in front of him, and he looked about as pleasant as a raging bull. Jen stood a few feet from him and her head refused to turn in her mate’s direction. Rachel and Gavril were standing with Zara, who was holding Titus’ hand. To Zara’s credit, she didn’t look like a scared rabbit. Go her. Fane stood next to Jacque looking as brooding as ever and next to them was Lilly and Cypher. Peri’s eyes widened when they landed on the last two people present.
Vasile still hadn’t resumed talking so Cyn wasn’t interrupting when she stepped forward with the Prince of the elves at her side and spoke.
“We have news,” Cyn said in her matter-of-fact way.
Peri tilted her head granting the warrior to continue.
“The King of the elves isn’t dead. He’s very much alive, and with his resurrection he has brought the Order of the Burning Claw to our doorstep.”
 
 
Sally stepped into The Dog House surprised to see that there was no one manning the bar. Granted, there were only a few customers and they were regulars so the lack of responsible employees wasn’t a big deal. But Jericho never left the bar, like ever.
She waved at the patrons who bid her hello, and she walked back to Cross’ office. Sally had just stepped into the hall that led to the office when she heard voices. They sounded angry and she immediately knew that she should back away and mind her own business. So like any person who was too curious for her own good and didn’t have good survival instincts, she stood there and listened.
“You’re sure it was Perizada?” Cross asked.
“Are you kidding me,” Jericho snapped back. “There’s no mistaking her and no forgetting her once you’ve crossed her path.”
“She can shift her form, glamour herself at will,” Cross pointed out. “Your eyes could have been fooling you.”
“The power coming off of her was too great to be anyone else. It was her.”
“Fine,” Cross growled. “It was Perizada. Now, what did she want?”