Page 79 of Break Out the Girl

Montgomery leans back, a sickening grin spreading across his face. “Oh, it’s a beautiful twist this time. But I don’t want to spoil it for you—or give you an unfair advantage.”

“Touché,” I reply. Inside, however, I am assessing him with the cold, clinical detachment of my beast.

I watch the way his soft, heavy jowls shake as he laughs, the thick layers of expensive fat around his neck, the lazy, bloated decadence of a man who has never had to fight for a single thing in his life.

I long to wrap my coils around that throat, choke the life out of him.

Wait.

So instead, I look out the tinted glass at the passing trees. Montgomery has no idea how easily I could destroy him, here in the leather luxury of his ostentatious vehicle.

But this man is Il est au bas de l'échelle. The bottom of the ladder.

And I shall destroy this organization from the top down—his time will come but for now I will have patience.

28: AURORA

“Motherfucker!”

“Keep your head in the game, fuckwit,” Basil mutters from the driver's seat.

“I’m trying,” I snap at him.

It’s all very well to be critical, but increasing a spell to encompass two huge shifters is not easy.

Basil rolls his eyes. “They’re dog meat,” he nods to Tally and London, “if you can’t work that shit out,”

Young Basil is not helping my anxiety or my concentration.

I move a couple of steps further from the LandRover, focusing on my two beasts. Tally stands in his massive, golden-furred wolf form, his jaw tight and his ears pinned back.

Beside him, London is fully-shifted and currently in a handstand and counting Mississippis. “Hold still!” I hiss at him. I still haven’t mastered enough of this cast to keep them both covered for more than a few minutes.

“This time,” I whisper to myself, swallowing the lump of dread in my throat and forcing my hands to steady.

My fingers begin the intricate, rhythmic sweeping patterns my magic tutor made me practice. Professor Altman.

She had not been patient with me, and had no problem sending electric shocks into my body if I didn’t perfectly execute her demands.

I had been a lazy student. I didn’t want to learn those stupid spells. The one that kept my hair neatly styled instead of using hairspray. The skin shimmer spell, that left a ‘delightful’ glow on one's cheeks.

So very useless and a waste of time.

Except this "lady's utility charm" is turning out to be absolutely necessary to our plan.

Should have paid better attention.

Too late now.

Once again, I alter the intent slightly, changing the focus from unladylike odors, to innate creature scent.

The air swirls around my hands.

This is good.

Now I’ve got to size-up.

The cast collapses again.