specific threats against her safety.”
She paused to shuffle through her file and passed a couple of stapled sheets to Baron. A quick glance confirmed that they were photocopies of letters. Newsprint font but printed out. Nice. Whoever it was had an appreciation for the old ways if with a high tech twist.
“Given what’s in there, he’s asked us to take care of the protection detail instead of leaving it to his own team, who—I believe—are all human.”
Baron nodded and handed the sheets to his brother to read. They were read and put into Duke’s pocket. He knew without asking there was no point trying to get them back. Like most dragons, Duke was a hoarder, an affliction Baron had escaped. Thank fuck. Their place was already filled to bursting with all Duke’s crap, so he dreaded to think what it would be like if both of them were the same.
“That’s understandable. I wouldn’t trust any serious security to humans either.”
Hammond started at his words but Baron ignored him. He spoke the truth. There were too many things out there that weren’t human for any of that species to successfully defend against them. He and Duke were just two of them.
“You mentioned a twist?”
For the second time that night, Duke surprised them by speaking up, his question directed at Iliona. So far he’d completely ignored the human in the room. Which was probably a good thing. For the human.
“Yes…well.” Iliona frowned. “Croft is insisting on just one guard—”
One guard. One of them. So not going to happen. Both brothers began to shake their heads but she held up her hand for them to hear her out.
“.…but the seer team is telling me he’s not giving us all the info and have put a high level alert out.”
He shivered at the mention of the seer team. Mostly female, they were way weird. Gave him the total creeps whenever he ran into them in the office. Their habit of holding a conversation with him from next week freaked him the hell out.
“So you guys are going solo on this one, but I need you to infiltrate under one ID. Remember the whole thing we did with the Perez holdings job? I need you to do that.” She looked from Duke and back at him, her face blank but he could easily read the worry seeping from her pores. She wasn’t sure they would agree, and from the smell of it, she needed them to. He knew the job she meant.
Last year they’d needed to get bodies inside a warehouse where some asshole was manufacturing pixie dust, a new drug aimed at paranormals with the added benefit of killing any human who took it stone dead. Whether or not that was after the best high of their lives was debatable. Considering the official photos of some of the bodies, contorted in pain even in death, he was going with not.
After discarding plans a through to f, they’d managed to get a load of operatives in with be-spelled sacks that were bigger on the inside, but since neither he nor Duke could be spelled in such a manner, they’d had to resort to different methods. Instead, Duke had shifted, his human body shifting to the shadow form before his full dragon form, and settled over Baron’s back like a large, living tattoo. It wasn’t the most comfortable method to use, and itched like fuck whenever Duke moved, but it worked.
He didn’t say anything, just grunted, and then changed tactics. “So what’s it got to do with the police?”
“Ah, yes.” She folded her hands over the file again, a posture she used often. Perhaps to make herself look older than her years and more authoritative. He wanted to tell her she needn’t bother with all that. If any operative in the agency didn’t take her seriously, there was a good chance they’d end up having a chat with either Cal or Gran, or, if they were really unlucky, both. “We have an understanding with the police department that should certain individuals come to us, we will pass any and all information that may help an on-going investigation over. Laurence
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