Rogue Belador: Belador book 7 Read Free Page A

hoarding dogs instead of killing them, or what it’s doing here. Something’s not right about this.”
    As if anything was ever easy in their world?
    Evalle glanced at the lifeless eyes staring up at the sky. The eyes were flat black now instead of yellow.
    Mission accomplished, right? Why did Lucien have to make her think there was more to this than just life in the underworld of Atlanta’s nonhuman community?
    She wiped ick off anywhere she could. Storm was going to pitch a fit when she showed up bloody. “Do you think the Medb could have brought it in, or maybe made this thing?” she asked.
    “They could,” Lucien said, not committing to his answer. “But this doesn’t fit for any of the covens, even the Medb. This took serious power to control, and I’m not seeing the reason for it even being here.”
    Casper added, “Yeah. Dog theft? What’s with that?”
    Lucien said, “No idea.”
    Evalle still liked her worst enemy as the culprit. “Maybe the Medb coven is behind this, and they just wanted to annoy VIPER because of the sanction. Create havoc. I don’t know.”
    Lucien looked as if he considered that. “I forgot about the Medb getting sanctioned for that rogue warlock in November.”
    “Not all of them were sanctioned,” Evalle clarified. “Just the queen and Cathbad. That doesn’t mean those two wouldn’t order their warlocks to find a creature like this and use it to screw with us.”
    Casper grunted. “It’d be same day, same shit for that coven. They probably sit around laughing about this, because you know they can scry damn near anything and they try constantly to watch this stuff.”
    Lucien and Evalle exchanged a look then raised their eyes to search around the area, as if they could see someone watching them via a scrying vessel.
    Howls and barks grew louder from the room on the other side of the open door.
    Lucien opened the door wide, exposing the animals that had moved forward again, but were still clustered too tightly to be free. He lifted his hands over the invisible enclosure and whispered something.
    Evalle pushed loose strands of hair from her eyes, trying to make sense of all this. “What was the creature doing with all these ...”
    “Watch out,” Casper yelled, dancing sideways the second Lucien freed the dogs. Four-legged beasts shot out in all directions.
    Lucien stepped out and looked around. “Guess that takes care of figuring out what to do with them.”
    “ Lucien! Don’t turn them loose. We need them for proof that our assignment’s completed, and the local authorities can’t get them back to the owners if we let them go.”
    Lucien spit out something angry, which she took to be a curse in Spanish, then raised his hands and did that whispering thing again.
    Howling erupted in the distance and grew louder as the dogs ran back toward them.
    The chain-link fence attached to one corner of the building circled a pool, then connected at the other side. A locked gate opened all by itself as the dogs ran straight for it. When the last one ran through, the gate shut and locked again.
    “Satisfied?” Lucien asked.
    “Yes, thank you.” Evalle raked a hand over her head. She’d poke at Lucien’s weird powers again, but right now she just wanted warm and clean. “We’ll have our people inside Fulton County Animal Services come over as soon as we’re done and pick them up.”
    That strange bullfrog grunting started up again, inside what Evalle had thought was now an empty room. A loud cricket chirp punctuated the weird noise, which could be heard easily now that the invisible enclosure no longer stifled the sound.
    They all turned to look as a shaggy little critter stepped out of the room. It was the size and shape of a bichon frisé, but with salt-and-pepper hair and large owl eyes that were sunshine yellow. Really bright yellow.
    If the eyes hadn’t clued her in that this was not a recognized breed, then the unicorn horn sticking up four inches from its forehead