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I would bite anyone else that called me a pup, Esme grumbled. But I will overlook it in this case.
‘Very gracious of you, Esme,’ Bastion replied aloud. The griffin’s skills transcended language; he was a coaxer, which meant he could communicate with anyone and everything. He could also encourage people to carry out any action or behaviour that they wanted to. He couldn’t make you do something that was completely against your moral code, but he could make you do something that you’d been toying with. It made him a rare and dangerous commodity.
Bastion looked at Greg. ‘Manners,’ he greeted him belatedly as Greg finally holstered his weapon.
‘Sam,’ Greg replied, calling him by one of his many aliases. He looked Bastion pointedly up and down. ‘You look like shit.’
Bastion was amused. ‘Thank you, brother.’
Greg closed the distance between them and gave him a one-armed hug. ‘Thanks for the potion,’ he murmured, not quite low enough that I didn’t hear.
‘I love her, too,’ Bastion said softly in response. ‘Albeit in a very different way.’
‘It had better be!’ Greg shot back in a low growl.
Bastion held his hands up slightly in mock surrender. Aww: I was feeling all loved.
Jacob shifted his claws back to hands. ‘That’s incredibly useful,’ I said, impressed. ‘Can I do that? A partial shift?’
‘I don’t know,’ Jacob admitted. ‘We can do it because we’ve spent a lifetime shifting. It’s like muscle memory; our bodies know how to do it even without our wolves still sharing our skin. I don’t know if you can do it, you’re relatively new to being a werewolf. But that’s not the full extent of our powers.’ A moment later his head shifted, and where his human head normally resided there was a wolfish one instead. Jacob opened his mouth to let me see his razor-sharp teeth. A moment later, he shifted back.
‘Awesome!’ I enthused. ‘And do you have to go to Common to recharge after doing that?’
Jacob shook his head. ‘No, none of the dark seraph do. Something in our time as gargoyles has moved us to the creature side of the boundary, even though we’re all largely humanoid. We no longer have need of the Common realm.’
‘That is incredibly useful,’ Greg said. ‘How many of the dark seraph did you ask Reynard for?’
‘Only a few,’ Jacob said. ‘For now.’
Greg grinned, looking like a siren who’d sung the perfect song. Soon he would have roof guards that didn’t need to go to the Common realm to recharge their magical batteries.
Tristan was still on four legs and his wolf’s mind reached out to Esme. His tone was respectful. Alpha, since we are shifted, we will patrol the grounds tonight. We hope that by doing so, you will rest easy.
Thank you, Arden, Esme said warmly. We are grateful.
I opened the door to the office and Tristan trotted out. ‘Can you teach me how to shift like that?’ I asked Jacob. ‘Partially, I mean?’
‘I can certainly try.’ He bobbed a bow. ‘There is no time like the present.’
An hour later, a yawn cracked my face again. ‘I believe we have achieved all we can tonight,’ Jacob said. ‘Now it is simply a matter of practising what I have taught you. In the meantime, I will resume my position on the roof.’
‘I’ll join you,’ Bastion said lightly.
‘You’re staying?’ I asked, surprised.
‘For now, Lucy Barrett. For now.’
The two men left and Greg pulled me into his arms. ‘It’s been a long day,’ he murmured. ‘I need some energy to see me through. I propose eating some decadent chocolate cake and then I’ll show you a PowerPoint presentation I prepared earlier. It’s called The Art of Seduction, subtitle: All the Ways I Know to Make You Scream.’
My mind went blank. ‘Yes,’ I said firmly, grabbing his hand and dragging him out of the office. ‘Let’s go.’
He smirked.
Chapter 14
Greg’s phone blared to life; the noise disturbed me but not enough to make me wake up properly. After all, it wasn’t my phone.
‘We’re on our way. Keep him stable!’ Greg barked. Sleepiness swept from my brain at the urgency in his tone.
