Body Master Read Free Page A

even justify it with Riley’s death. No one would question her. No one would care if one more Shifter died.
    But her orders were to bring in Shifters alive whenever possible, and she was a good agent, like Riley. She wouldn’t disgrace his memory. Not today.
    Today, she lifted the tranquilizer gun, aimed, and hit Jack the Ripper in the heart.

CHAPTER TWO
    S eneca knocked once and walked into her boss’s office. He looked up from behind the placard that read XCEL: Extraterrestrial Criminal Enforcement Locality, New York City Division, and motioned for her to sit down.
    Director Rory MacGregor was as solid on the inside as he was on the outside. A twenty-year veteran of the politics and bullshit that went along with running a newly created, clandestine perimeter law enforcement operation like XCEL. Seneca was pretty sure he’d started with a full head of hair when he was assigned to this post last year. He was a good man, and he hated Shifters as much as she did.
    “You barked?” she asked wearily, but already she could tell it was something bad. Although at this point, “bad” was relative.
    MacGregor closed the file he was reviewing to give her his full attention. “I have some news you aren’t going to like.”
    If MacGregor thought she wouldn’t like it, it was beyond bad. “I had to go over and tell Riley’s wife that the man she loved, the father of her four children, had been killed. Nothing can be worse than that.”
    His expression didn’t change. “You have a new partner.”
    Her mouth dropped open. “Riley’s body isn’t even cold yet. What the hell?”
    MacGregor muttered, “News travels fast.”
    “What, are they lined up in the wings?” she said testily.
    “You weren’t supposed to get him until the end of the month—”
    “What? And you didn’t tell me?”
    MacGregor said, “Because I knew you’d react like this.”
    If she wasn’t so pissed, she’d be speechless. “Like someone who already had a partner?”
    He raised a hand. “It’s for the good of the agency—”
    That was crap. “We don’t break up partners,” she said. “We don’t work that way. You don’t work that way.”
    “I do now,” he said. “You have a new partner.”
    She squinted as he pursed his lips until they turned white. There was more. “And?”
    There was a long pause, which really worried her because MacGregor was a blunt, direct kind of guy. “And he’s a Shifter.”
    She blinked once. She’d been up all night and all day after handing Jack over to the cryogenics boys to put on ice, taking Riley’s body to the morgue, and consoling Mara. It was 4:00 P.M. now, and her sleep-deprived brain wasn’t firing on all pistons. Because she thought she heard MacGregor say that her new partner was a Shifter.
    “Come again?”
    He looked at her apologetically. “It wasn’t my idea. This comes from the top. A new initiative.”
    She shook her head, disbelief turning to dread. “This is a joke, right?”
    He pursed his lips again. Sonofabitch, she thought. “What the hell kind of initiative puts a shapeshifter on the force that’s supposed to be getting rid of them?”
    MacGregor gave a big sigh. “Apparently, this one.”
    Well, she was wide-awake now and all she wanted to say was, Are you fucking crazy? Luckily, a few responsible brain cells thought better and she said, “No. We aren’t doing this.”
    He held up his palm. “Don’t even try. This is bigger than you or me.”
    Apparently he hadn’t heard her the first time. “Okay, let me rephrase. I’m not doing this.”
    MacGregor pushed back in his chair and regarded her for a serious moment. “If you don’t take him, the Committee will shut us down.”
    She leaned over his desk. “We go out there and face death every night. We’re the only thing standing between the public and murderers who come in all shapes. How can the Committee even think about shutting us down?”
    He shrugged. “Because they’re paying the bills?”
    She