The woman who had activated the air vents stepped lightly around unconscious bodies on the floor. She reached Durin and lifted his eyelids. “For once,” she said, “I would have liked for us to have a meeting without it descending into a brawl!”
A lithe man in an all-leather getup approached her. He wore nothing beneath a black vest, showing off the planes of muscles in his upper arms. I had to stifle a giggle at how tight the leather was over his butt. The outfit would have been ridiculous on anybody else. My attention landed on the daggers strapped to his hips. Everything about him screamed fighter. Even the bondage getup didn’t diminish that.
“My Lady,” he said to the woman.
“What happened, Bill?”
“The little girl attacked Durin.” He pointed up at me. Uh oh.
Astrid chose that exact moment to bring me back down. Kai put his back to me. The level of aggression in the room spiked again. I felt it as a slow scrape across the skin on my nape. Nobody was as surprised as I was when the woman didn’t immediately order me to be arrested. It was clear by the way the other shifters gathered around her that she held a position of authority.
She crooked a finger at me. “Come with me.”
“She’s not going anywhere,” Kai said. His bicep flexed as he curled his hand into a ball. The woman glanced from Kai to me to Astrid and back to Kai again. I was too far away to be sure, but I could swear her nostrils flared.
“The girl just attacked my mate,” the woman said. “In shifter territory no less. I have every right to do whatever I want with her.”
“Yolanda.” It was a warning if I’d ever heard one. His voice became low, gravelly.
She rolled her eyes at him. “I see you still haven’t gotten yourself a sense of humour. Do you want her around the pack when they begin to wake?”
Kai glanced about as though he was only just noticing that we were in a room full of unconscious shifters.
“Fine,” he said. “But I’m coming with her.”
“I thought Nephilim were meant to be more enlightened,” she muttered. “Apparently not.” She waved her hand, bidding us to follow her through a door behind the dais.
Astrid boxed me in so that I had no choice but to follow. “What about Sophie?”
“The kitchen witch?” Yolanda asked. “She’ll be fine. Which is more than I can say for the dozen or so of my people who tried to get at her past Max.”
The knot in my stomach eased a little. Not enough to still the apprehension that curled around me as I was led through a short corridor and into the small office.
“Shut the door,” Yolanda said. I’d never heard more authority from someone in a night gown. I imagined Jacqueline would be the same.
Yolanda stepped behind the desk and spread her arms out indicating the chairs in front of her. There were four. Kai pulled out one of the middle chairs and pointed at it. I sat down hard. Kai hunkered down to my right and Astrid to my left.
I eyed the leather-clad shifter and the two other hulking dudes who had followed us. They were failing miserably to make themselves unobtrusive leaning on the back wall. The one closest to me had arms as wide as my torso. Their attention was fixed on Kai. It figured. Even though I’d been the one to throw a blade at Durin, he was still the bigger threat.
“Talk,” Yolanda ordered.
All eyes settled on me. I scratched at my head, my throat suddenly parched. “Ummm...”
Yolanda’s dark brows drew together. Her delicate features weren’t pretty per se, but she had an air of undeniable confidence about her. She reminded me of a cat. Placing her hands on the table, she laced her fingers together.
Kai reached out to grip the arm of my chair. The toe of his boot came down on the heel of my sneakers. A tumultuous rush of heat burst in my chest. I could almost imagine him barking an order for me to open my mouth. The irritation burned away some of my hesitation.
“I thought I saw something in the banquet hall,” I said.
“Something isn’t a very good descriptor,” Yolanda said. “We had guards posted at all checkpoints. Every single shifter in that room would have sniffed out anything dangerous.”
I scratched at my chin. “I can’t explain it either.”
“Well, you’re going to have to. Not only have you attacked my mate, but you’ve attacked a Council member. You’re not going to get out of here alive unless we get a good enough explanation.”
The arm of my chair cracked. Kai retracted his hand and curled and released his fist. When I looked up, his face was completely neutral. He turned his head but instead of looking at me, he searched for Astrid behind my shoulder. I swallowed hard as acid slowly dripped into my gut from the lump of metal that my heart had turned into.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said. “I thought I saw a shadow moving across the floor. I tracked it, and right before I tossed the demon blade, I could swear I saw a humanoid shape condense in the mist of shadow.”
I was looking at the floor. My feet were now tucked tightly together. “Did anybody else see this thing she’s describing?” Yolanda asked.
I heard rather than saw the guards shake their heads. Beside me, Astrid did the same. Kai remained silent.
There was a knock on the door. The Bulging Beast guarding it sniff. He glanced over my head at Yolanda. She must have nodded because he opened the door. Nora and Mani rushed in.
They took one look at the situation and Nora’s expression clouded over. “This is exactly the reason why we need a Council representative,” she said. “You’re questioning a minor without a guardian.”
“Your ridiculous human rules don’t apply here.”
Nora came to stand behind my chair. She placed a hand
