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7. Chapter 7

7

A ldous hadn’t said more than four words directly to Rebecca since she’d signed on with this little outfit after successfully completing Shade’s initiation. Even those four had been underwhelming: “Congratulations, you didn’t die.”

She’d listened to him enjoying the sound of his own voice more times than she could count. But none of those monologues had been directed at her, either.

So what the hell could he possibly need to tell her that required sending his pet wolf out to fetch her to his office?

Letting the stares of the other magicals roll off her back, Rebecca stood languidly from the couch and took a late -night stroll toward Maxwell waiting at the mouth of the hallway.

The only gaze on her that made her feel something beyond wry amusement belonged to Hector. It could have been her imagination, but she thought she felt that energy-sucking, black-glowing gaze of his boring into her now that the boss had called for her instead of him.

So she looked over her shoulder at him as she passed and winked.

Hector growled and folded his arms. His fingers encased in those black leather gloves tapped against his opposite arm.

Then Rebecca knew she’d felt the heavy weight of his gaze, because a second later, she also distinctly noticed its absence.

No one said a word until Maxwell finally pushed himself away from the wall and turned with a blank expression to lead her down the narrow hall.

Only when she entered that hallway behind him did the low murmur of surprised comments and whispered conjectures rise again in the common room.

Let them think whatever they wanted. Hell, let them say whatever they wanted .

As long as Rebecca did nothing to correct their misconceptions, none of them would ever come anywhere close to pinning down the truth about her.

Which, at this point, was the number-one reason she still kept her mouth shut—if not the only reason.

Asking questions, though? Well, that was fair game for anyone.

“What’s this about, then?” she asked, staring at the back of Maxwell’s short-cropped auburn hair, and his wide-set shoulders locked with stiff movement as he all but marched her toward whatever this shit was supposed to be.

No, he didn’t reply.

She could’ve guessed that would happen.

“All right,” she continued. “You wanna leave that up to the big guy to explain. I get it. I just hope you haven’t been talking about me too much behind my back. Don’t wanna give him the wrong impression, right?”

“I don’t think you need any help with that,” he grumbled without slowing or turning around.

“Hey, he speaks .” Rebecca spread her arms and grinned as if he could see her. Which, knowing what she did of shifters, probably wasn’t that far from the truth. “Though now I’m curious what exactly you mean by that.”

For now, apparently, Maxwell was a one-sentence conversationalist. Even if he’d said nothing more only to get her to shut up, he’d still given away plenty with that one sentence.

No surprise there, either. Rebecca had clearly done something to get the boss’s attention.

If she were being escorted to anyone else’s office, she might have expected a gruff show of appreciation for getting the Shade team out of their last pickle with zero casualties. Maybe even a thank you for not leaving behind the massive changeling dickhead who’d screwed the mission for them in the first place.

That second part was admittedly a long shot, but Rebecca was open to all possibilities.

However, she didn’t remember hearing Aldous thank anyone for anything in the last six months, and she had even less reason to believe that was why he’d called her to his office now.

No, whatever this was, a pat on the back would be noticeably lacking.

Nothing she hadn’t seen before.

Certainly not worse than what she’d left behind so many years ago and preferred to leave behind her forever, if possible.

After leading her up two brief flights of stairs leading them in a rough half-circle to the second story, Maxwell stopped in front of the only door on this side of the second floor and knocked with all the authority and discipline of a good Head of Security.

“Enter,” Aldous called.

The shifter opened the door, swung it into the office, then stepped aside for Rebecca to pass him and enter, his hands clasped behind his back and his feet planted firmly, shoulder-width apart. The whole time, he stared straight ahead at the far end of the office and didn’t once look at her as she stepped through.

Rebecca stared openly at him, though, itching to break his diligent concentration on nothing at all.

Somehow, she had a feeling it would take more than a stare to make the guy crack. Especially now that they had both presented themselves to Maxwell’s direct superior.

She fought back a snort when she fully entered Aldous’s office.

Yeah, the shifter was definitely ex-military.

She stopped in the center of the room, which looked more like a private VIP lounge in some exclusive nightclub she’d never heard of.

Black leather couches, darkly shaded lamps, ropes of black-light wiring tacked up around the ceiling’s perimeter, and an enormous armchair on the far side of the room, most likely chosen for its similarities to whatever Aldous envisioned his own throne might look like.

At a glance, it looked more like one of those old electric chairs she’d heard humans once used to murder their murderers. But what did she know?

The chair’s back was so wide and so tall, the entire piece of furniture turned to face the opposite wall, that it was impossible to see the person currently sitting in it beyond a glimpse of his fingers drumming lightly on the flat wooden armrest.

Of course. Only Aldous would have set up his office like this. Of course he’d invite someone to it and sit on his throne with his back to the door.

The room had once been the foreman’s office, back when this building was still in use for its intended purpose. The entire far wall was made of windows, offering a full bird’s-eye view of the main factory floor below, which had since been converted into Shade’s common room.

Lord Changeling sitting up here in his fucking seat of power, gracing all his diligent little subjects below with his ever-watchful gaze.

It would have made an imposing sight, maybe even intimidating, if anyone but Aldous sat in that chair.

Even knowing him as little as she did, Rebecca could only see him as a desperate, self-righteous idiot clawing for control wherever he could and completely oblivious to his own incompetence .

Which made him a hell of a lot more dangerous than a scary-looking dude who could successfully intimidate someone like Rebecca.

In her experience, sure, those guys could be dangerous too, but they spent a lot more time using their brains to determine the right time for it.

“Shut the door,” Aldous commanded.

Maxwell hopped to it like a good little soldier. The office door shut with a soft squeal of its hinges and a gentle click.

Rebecca didn’t have to turn around to know the shifter had stayed to sit in on this fun little meeting. She felt his gaze sweeping across her shoulders and back almost as acutely as she’d felt all the spite and malice directed at her from the two black holes in Hector’s face.

Not even three hours after she’d dragged her team away from certain death at that apartment building, and already, she was racking up hardcore admirers.

How fun.

Hopefully, the stares and condescending glances and maybe a wannabe stern talking to from the fucking changeling in that chair would be the end of it.

Rebecca couldn’t afford any more time than that under the spotlight.

“Now that you’re here, elf,” Aldous began as he slowly pushed himself out of his seat to stand with his back still toward her, “you’re probably wondering what all this is about.”

Being identified by her race when the shifter said it was one thing. But coming from the lips of Shade’s first in command, it sounded like an insult.

Aldous must not have spent a whole lot of time with a whole lot of Elves. Certainly not any like Rebecca Bloodshadow.

Very few had.

“Your powers of observation are astounding,” she quipped, propping a hand on her hip.

The sarcasm went right over Aldous’s head as he set a hand on the top of his throne’s back and turned to face her. “I know.”

What a fucking joke.

This guy knew nothing.

“I see a lot around here, you know,” Aldous continued, stepping around his enormous chair. “More than you probably think. My years of leading this organization have taught me how to notice more than the average magical.”

This whole thing would have been so much more entertaining if Rebecca had someone to share in the amusement with her. But she noticed, standing there in the center of the office, that Maxwell hadn’t moved a muscle beside the closed door .

He didn’t find any of this amusing, either.

She could hear it in the slow, heavy rhythm of his calm and dedicated breath through his nose.

All work and no play. The shifter and the changeling.

Rebecca couldn’t wait to see what made the guy think so highly of himself this time.

Aldous drummed his fingers on the back of his throne again, then gently rested his hand there as he emerged the rest of the way from behind the furniture to face her head-on, with nothing else between them. “And tonight, I noticed you.”

Go figure. The guy was still trying to be clever. It might have worked if they’d just met each other for the first time tonight, but saying he’d noticed her now , after six months of Rebecca running with Shade, wasn’t all that impressive.

Neither was the sight of him standing next to his chair.

The fact that he was on his feet again definitely made a statement after he’d taken such an enormous hit to the back of the head during their mission—the hit and ensuing fall that were both big enough and heavy enough to knock him out cold and leave a huge crater behind in the asphalt.

The linen suit with which he’d replaced the tattered remains of his light-gray sports jacket and slacks looked even worse on him.

That combined with the scratches across his face and the wrapped bandage poorly hidden by the sleeve of his linen suit jacket, plus the beginnings of a black eye he hadn’t bothered to cover with a tweak to his human illusion, completed the ridiculousness of his look tonight.

If he’d been going for Benefic Leader and Murderer, his aim was way off.

This looked more like Creepy-Ass Cult Leader.

Rebecca would have loved to comment on it, but she just couldn’t stop staring.

Apparently, Aldous took her silence as curiosity or intense interest or both. He offered a half-hearted shrug and failed to hide his wince when the movement struck one of his several new wounds.

Zida had done her job well in bringing Shade’s commander back to full consciousness, but that healing had stopped there. Whether it was from Aldous’s impatience or because he thought the proof of his injuries made him look more badass was anyone’s guess.

“And do you know why I noticed you tonight?” The slimiest kind of smirk spread across his lips.

Rebecca couldn’t help but notice that where the bloated, spit-flecked lips of his last-minute monster shift had been—the image of which had been hard enough to get out of her head without looking directly at the imbecile to whom those lips belonged—there was now a new, quickly healing cut, with the guy’s regular green flesh showing through around the edges.

She almost couldn’t stop staring until she realized he was waiting for an actual response.

She had to say something .

He wanted her to tell him why he’d noticed her ?

“We were out on the same mission tonight,” she said. “That might’ve had something to do with it.”

Then again, maybe the question had been rhetorical.

Aldous stepped away from his chair to walk slowly toward her, as if he thought this whole show on his part would be an effective intimidation tool as he just kept talking. “This last mission report was interesting, to say the least. And if I weren’t so open-minded, I might even call it frustrating. Because as I understand it, the weapon I designated for retrieval tonight wasn’t actually retrieved.”

No shit.

Was that really his main concern right now?

She offered a casual nod in response. “Good to see someone filled in the missing details for you.”

“What’s missing , elf, is that weapon.” Aldous continued toward her, slowly placing one foot down in front of the other, like he thought he’d mastered the art of a good prowl. As he moved, he looked her over from head to toe, his green-eyed gaze lingering on select body parts—a look that never went unnoticed by any woman ever when she found herself on the receiving end of it.

Rebecca was no exception.

A truth to which the changeling seemed particularly oblivious.

“But it isn’t just about not having completed this mission,” he continued, drawing ever closer. “The weapon isn’t gone . It’s not beyond my grasp . It’s not even still with the enemy.”

He stopped two feet in front of her and blinked quickly in a poorly masked attempt to work through what was probably a nasty wave of vertigo after the giant concussion he’d given himself. Then he looked her up and down again, his tongue poking out like a grotesque little worm from between his lips.

“According to the mission report,” he added, “the weapon your team was supposed to retrieve tonight ended up being entirely destroyed.”

Her team? Please. As if the guy hadn’t been right there with them the whole fucking time .

Rebecca kept her hand on her hip, meeting Aldous’s gaze with a silent, unamused challenge within her own, and waited for the real kicker of this impromptu meeting to reveal itself.

“I hear you’re the one who destroyed it.”

And there it was.

This guy just didn’t know when to stop talking or when to cut his losses. Now that he stood so brazenly close to her without even bothering to hide his wandering gaze along her body, Rebecca’s attempts to not laugh in his face felt a lot easier.

Keeping her mouth shut the way she wanted, however, was now a little trickier.

“You don’t need to thank me,” she told him. “It just had to be done.”

His eyes widened slightly, then the changeling let out a derisive snort. “You misunderstand me. I didn’t call you in here to thank you.”

“But you should have,” Rebecca quipped. “If that weapon had gotten off its second shot, none of us would be here right now.”

“A risk every member of Shade willingly takes when accepting any mission. As far as I’m concerned, your orders never included wiping out your target acquisition.”

More of this your bullshit, like the guy had absolutely nothing to do with the apartment building or chasing Edwardo down or completely failing to draw the griybreki and his gang into a useful conversation.

Like they’d planned .

Hell, even a useful battle would’ve been better than what they’d actually experienced tonight. If Rebecca’s team had only needed to hold off one enemy’s attack, the outcome would have been completely different.

Which this sneering dipshit knew full well.

“I’m not interested in excuses,” Aldous snarled through his slimy smile.

Rebecca’s stare on him didn’t waver. “In that case, you’re welcome.”

A quick flash of surprise flickered across the changeling’s glowing green eyes. Then his upper lip twitched, and his smirk returned as he leaned even closer. “Now’s the part where you tell me how the fuck you managed to destroy it.”

With a sigh, she quirked her lips and pretended to actually think about it. “Probably the same way you managed to leave a giant crater in the parking lot. I have a feeling the use of my magic was a little more intentional. But what do I know, right?”

When the guy bared his teeth at her, Rebecca gave up trying to figure out if that was supposed to be a snarl or a smile. Then she barely stopped herself from asking if he needed to put a timeout on this conversation so he could take a quick trip to the bathroom instead.

“We have a problem on our hands.” Aldous continued forward before stepping around her in a slow circle, eyeing every inch of her in the process.

Rolling her eyes, she turned slowly with him to keep this idiot in front of her at all times. His tactics just weren’t working.

Unlike Maxwell—still standing beside the closed office door, rigid and silent and scowling—Rebecca didn’t have the kind of a military training that had ingrained in her the discipline of not moving a muscle when addressed by a superior, alleged or otherwise.

Plenty of other things had been drilled into her, sure, but that was totally different.

Aldous’s sneer returned when he finally realized he wasn’t getting a free pass to walk behind her during this meeting. Then he stopped trying to circle her faster than she could turn to keep him in her view before he shamelessly stepped toward her again. “I don’t have my weapon. Edwardo is still alive and kicking. Your mission failed to produce any of the desired results.”

What a revelation.

“Hey,” Rebecca said, not once taking her eyes off him. “Sometimes, shit happens.”

“And I’m not happy about any of it,” he snapped. “You really stepped in it this time, you know that? I wanted that weapon in my hands and at my disposal. That’s impossible now because of you.”

She pressed her lips together and almost grunted at the effort of not bursting out laughing when she replied with a simple statement. “Real hairy fucking pickle, huh?”

“But don’t worry. I’m sure we can figure out a way for you to make it right.” He looked her over from head to toe, then ran the tip of his tongue along the edge of his upper teeth. “To…make it up to me.”

Oh, no fucking way.

Was this really about to become what she thought it was?

A huge grin broke out across her face. “That one’s easy. I did already save your life.”

Any other living creature with half a brain would’ve stopped to consider that little detail in this situation.

Aldous stepped toward her again.

“You could have whatever you want in this place,” he said, practically moaning out the words now. “Your own suite. Unlimited rations. Some nice new clothes. ”

His gaze settled on her mouth as he bit his bottom lip. “Don’t go back to your room tonight. Stay here with me, and you can have all that. Plus, I’ll wipe the slate clean for you. Pretend like your insubordination in the field tonight never even happened. It’s an easy choice, really.”

Wow. The nerve of this little cretin.

It just didn’t get more delusional than this.

“I can make things so much easier for you, Rachel,” he said, his tongue poking out of his mouth again as he ogled her from less than two feet away.

“Rebecca,” she corrected, fighting back another laugh.

Aldous blinked as if she’d just slapped him. “What?”

“I know. It’s one of those minor, insignificant details. But just for future reference, my name is Rebecca.”

He finally looked up at her eyes again, possibly seeing a real person there behind them, and shrugged. “Whatever. The choice is very simple. Not difficult to make. And I will give you everything you never knew you wanted.”

Bullshit. He thought this would make her life easier?

What Aldous didn’t know was how much harder Rebecca Bloodshadow could make his life if she wanted. Nightmarish, even.

But this was just too amusing to rip out by the root just yet.

Disgusting? Yes. Pathetic? Absolutely. But amusing.

“Trust me,” she murmured, holding her ground against his laughably evident advances. “The obvious choice is staring me right in the face.”

His creepy little smirk returned. “Is that a yes?”

“I don’t know. Can I take a minute?”

He didn’t answer, but he didn’t back away, either.

Then Rebecca turned her full attention to Maxwell, who still stood inside the closed door, hands clasped behind his back.

Through this whole thing, the shifter had put in a decent effort when it came to hiding his reactions. Even still, Rebecca had absolutely noticed the tightening set of his jaw, the heaviness seeping into his breathing pattern, the twitch of muscles in his shoulders and one side of his neck as he actively fought to keep a grip on himself.

Clearly, Maxwell wasn’t a fan of Aldous’s methods, either. It didn’t look like he’d expected this kind of offer from their leader and not quite in this way, either. Still, he remained the loyal guard dog all the same.

She just couldn’t help herself.

“What do you think?” Rebecca asked him.

His blank gaze that had focused so diligently on the other side of the room with a hard emptiness, like he’d forced himself to be both present and not present, flickered toward her. The shifter frowned but said nothing .

“Hey, easy, Max.” Rebecca lifted a hand toward him as if to cut him off mid-sentence. “Rein it in a little, huh? No need to get so worked up about it. I got this.”

Maxwell’s frown deepened, but he still refused to get involved.

So much for getting a little backup from her fellow operative.

Aldous frowned so deeply, it made him look considerably more clueless, and he actually stepped to the side in front of Rebecca to block her view of the shifter standing sentry beside the door. “I’m only going to make you this offer once.”

“Well that’s a relief,” she said dryly. “Because I’m only gonna tell you this once. You can take that offer, Aldous, and shove it up your ass.”

Damn, it felt good to finally spit that out.

The second she said it, though, she knew she really should’ve kept her mouth shut.

For all their sakes.

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