Immortal Coil (17 page)

“
Your
Majesty.” Hunter nodded to the King and then the guards. They’d been in this situation too many times before and Hunter knew the sooner he left the easier it would be for them to get
Constantine
calmed down. Rebirth would be a kindness to his King.
And execution one to the Jester.
But neither was going to happen while Regis was in control. Court was simmering with discontent but not one coterie seemed confident enough in its strength to make a play for the throne. Not against the Handmaiden’s chosen coterie.
Although perhaps that wasn’t true.
Someone had broken the law. They’d shared bodies with humans, created human mages, and tried to take the medallion.
Very likely
Zenobia
, doyen of the Major Green Coterie.
Something was stirring, Hunter just didn’t know what.

Hunter left
Constantine
moaning and clutching his hoard, and headed to the Chamberlain’s Office to finally get in his report before dinner. It sat at the end of the Greater Promenade, one of two major corridors that crossed, making the heart of the Primary Level at Court. The office’s enormous, plain double doors lay open—they only closed during a security lockdown, and that hadn’t happened for a good four hundred years—and beyond lay a 20th century, modern-office maze: partitions, desks, water coolers, photocopy machines, and rows and rows of shelves and cabinets filling the area.

I feel like I’ve stepped from one nightmare into another.

He felt her shiver again and knew it had nothing to do with the office.
I’m told the environment is good for productivity.

Anaea
snorted.
I doubt that.

He could sense her fighting to keep her tone light. He didn’t want to draw her attention to the emotions he could sense her struggling with, but didn’t know how to distract her.
This, my dear, is the heart of Dragon Operations.

Every Clean Team, every head of Coterie Security, those drakes placed in key human positions, and the head of Identification Replacement, all went through the Chamberlain’s Office. Not to mention the covert teams few drakes knew about: Internal Inspection—assigned to monitor dragon activities; and the mysterious
Asar
Nergal
—assigned to eliminate any human-mage threat accidentally or purposefully created by dragons. And given that Hunter had killed two mages in the
Elmsville
hospital,
the
Asar
Nergal
obviously weren’t doing their job.

Hunter wove around cubicles to a small office, complete with large glass window and closed vertical blind, at the back of the maze.

All the day-to-day minutiae of running a small kingdom also went through the office, although the Chamberlain’s Second-in-Command oversaw that. Tobias, the Chamberlain, was most concerned with following the Handmaiden’s directive to keep dragon-kind a secret from humanity and in doing so, safe from themselves.

Hunter crossed the threshold into the office and Tobias looked up from his computer monitor. He narrowed his muddy brown eyes and pursed his thin lips. “So it is true.”

Anaea’s
presence trembled then abruptly stilled. Mother of All, just let her make it through this and dinner.

“Too busy to watch me fight?” Hunter forced his tone into a casual drawl.

Tobias leaned his massive, six-foot-five, all-muscle frame back into his deluxe office chair away from the delicate antique writing desk. Hunter always thought it strange that the brown drake would upgrade to a chair with lumbar support but keep the rickety desk with its spindly legs. But he supposed it was only as strange as a former pirate, who still kept the dark, wild pirate hair and attire, becoming the most efficient security manager dragon-kind had seen in a thousand years.

“Tell me there weren’t more complications than this.” He gave Hunter a pointed stare. “And the mess you left was only on the bridge and in the hospital.”

Anaea
shrank back from the look.

“The job’s done.” Maybe if he was brisk the interview would be short. He hated reporting in the first place, and he had less patience for it now. Not with
Anaea
on the verge of a breakdown. He needed to get through this dinner, switch bodies, and ensure payback for the situation.

“And?”

“
Capri
will also need to make a trip to the Rest Well Hotel in
Elmsville
.” Come on, come on. Assign the homework and be done with it.

Tobias typed something into his computer. “You know I’ll want a report.”

Of
course,
and Hunter would do it as soon as
Anaea
was safe and his hunt for the drake responsible for this was over.
“Absolutely.
But I’m late for dinner already so I’ll do it later.”

“Like all
your
other reports?” Tobias raised a dark eyebrow. It was a fight they’d been having for centuries. Tobias hoarded his paperwork and Hunter gave him a hard time about it.

Hunter sighed. “I’ll get Grey to do it.”

What,
is this high school?
Anaea
asked. He could feel her forcing the quip but at least she was still trying.

Something
like
that.
Please just let her hold it together. The knowledge of dragons and magic were just too much for a human. It had been proven time and again. He’d thought with her strength of will she’d resist the soul sickness long enough for him to find a new body and transfer out. But now he wasn’t so sure. Her emotions sat on a razor’s edge. The slightest thing could push her into a spiral that he wouldn’t be able to save her from—or save himself, either.

“Grey wasn’t there,” Tobias said, jerking Hunter’s attention back to him.

“Do you really think that matters?” Hunter’s reports were sparse at best. Grey’s secondhand account would be as wordy as if Hunter had
wrote
it, probably more.

Tobias’s gaze lifted, focusing on something—most likely someone—behind Hunter.

“Oh, man, I never thought I’d see the day. Hunter a woman,” a husky feminine voice said.

He clenched his jaw and turned to face
Capri
, a red-haired beauty whose petite figure disguised how lethal she was even in human form.
“Hello to you, too.”

She chuckled, not bothering to hide her amusement at his predicament.

Tobias cleared his throat. “Hunter left you another cleanup.”

“Are you kidding me?”

Guess the hospital hadn’t been a simple clean and go. Of course, he hadn’t expected it to be simple, but a drake could hope. He’d need lots and lots of orchids, just as soon as he took care of his situation.

“Am I going to find the local P.D. swarming that place, too?”

Oh, probably. But he wasn’t going to point it out. For a water drake,
Capri
had a whole lot of fire. He could see why Grey was so interested in her. Too bad it was as plain as day she wasn’t interested in him.

“Not a problem,” lanky Gig said from halfway behind the doorframe, his perpetual state of disarray still obvious even dressed in a Victorian-styled suit. Maybe it was the mussed hair, since the suit would probably look clean and tailored on anyone else.

Capri
glared at him. “That’s because there won’t be anything for you to do at the hotel.”

Gig ignored her, his gaze locked on Hunter in wide-eyed admiration. Damn, even hopping into a woman hadn’t discouraged the hero worship. And if Hunter wasn’t careful, the kid would get himself killed over it.

Which, at the moment, wasn’t on the top of his list of problems.
He shrugged. “Grey’s report of my misadventure will be on your desk eventually.”

Capri
barked another laugh and Tobias glowered. At least that was business as usual.

Now, onto ‘business unusual.’
He headed to the feast hall with two hurdles down.
Only the feast and the rebirth ceremony to go.
Thank goodness he’d regained possession of their body. Everything could go smoothly now until Grey found him a replacement.

You okay?
he
asked
Anaea
. He didn’t know if checking in would push her over the edge, but her growing silence was unnerving. And with her building strong soul magic shields around her thoughts, he couldn’t tell what she was
thinking,
only feeling.

Yep.
Just trying to keep my eyes closed for the rest of the rollercoaster ride.

Funny how just a few hours ago she couldn’t even keep her thoughts private.
She certainly was a fast learner. But that didn’t surprise him. Her situation was beyond bizarre and she’d adapted to it all. He damned well was going to make sure she didn’t go crazy and lose that which attracted him the most: her spirit.

It burned to know she was under such stress and there was little he could do about it. Meeting Tobias and Grey and learning the truth about dragons was difficult enough, but Constantine and his Jester was worse, particularly now that
Anaea
realized the Jester had lost his mind by body-sharing, just as she and Hunter were doing.

He rounded a corner and found Grey leaning in the doorway of an antechamber.

“So?” Grey asked, straightening and stepping into the dim room.

Hunter followed him in and the ensorcelled light brightened. Every time that happened he was reminded of how much dragons owed to the Handmaiden: discovering and shaping Court, and
enspelling
lights, air currents, room-to-room delivery systems, and other magical features. Even if all she did was rebirth dragons, there was no way dragon-kind could survive without her.

“Is it you?” Grey kept his voice low and his gaze on the doorway.
“Or... her?”

“Her name is
Anaea
.”

“Jeez, Hunter.
You know her name?”

“Kind of hard not to when I’m in her head.”

I heard that,
Anaea
mumbled.

“Yeah, but you’re using it.”

“Tell me you found a suitable replacement,” Hunter said.

“I’ve got Cole on it.”

Swell. How many more drakes could he get involved in this disaster? “You couldn’t have gone out and taken care of this yourself?”

“Cole is discreet, he doesn’t know any details, and he can slip almost anything past Tobias. For all he knows, I’ve taken up pathology.”

“Fine.”
Hunter supposed it would have to do. He ran a hand over his head. The stubble, usually his preferred haircut, felt out of place on
Anaea’s
scalp. “Let’s get this over with.”

He strode out of the antechamber too fast and wobbled on the heels, unfamiliar with balancing on that kind of shoe. Grey grabbed Hunter’s arm and snickered.

“Now I know it’s you and not the woman.”

Hunter jerked out of Grey’s grasp. “She has a name,” he growled.

“
Yes,
and better balance.” Grey wasn’t even trying to hide his amusement. Why did everyone have to find this so funny?

“When I get an appropriate body back I’m kicking your ass all over Court.”

“Merely incentive for me to find the smallest, wimpiest man I can.”

Hunter swallowed another growl. He really just wanted to slug Grey, but with
Anaea’s
strength the silver drake would likely mistake it for a love tap. Instead, he focused on making it the rest of the way to the feast hall without falling over.

This night couldn’t end soon enough.

He’d eat his meat then leave.
In and out.
No problem.
Really.

He stepped through the enormous arch into the mostly empty feast hall. The room could hold close to two thousand but was only set for the hundred and fifty drakes attending the
pahar
dinner. Their tables huddled at the far end near the dais, making the room look desolate instead of grand. Less than a thousand years ago the hall had been full. It was a testament to their declining ranks and the growing disinterest toward Court activities among the younger dragons.

He squared his shoulders. Walking the length of the room to his seat beside
Regis’s
at the royal table unsettled him more than any other duty as Prince’s Assassin. But it was necessary if he wanted to keep his position in the Royal Coterie. His heels clicked on the polished marble floor and the room fell silent before he’d even reached the first tables.

Everyone looked at him. Every doyen of every coterie—major and minor—their seconds and thirds, their mates, their advisors, and every coterie’s security detail. Any one of them could be responsible for the human mages, although he had a short list of suspects.

He ground his teeth.
Fine.
They could look all they wanted. He’d still won the
wasu
tahazu
. He was still
Regis’s
Assassin. And if he told himself that enough times perhaps he wouldn’t feel like an insect on display.