“You like, Mistress?” The Beast asked her in her own voice.
Cassie shook her head and crossed her arms over her breasts, feeling exposed.
“How did you do that?” she demanded. When Commander Sylvan had said that The Beast was an Imposter able to take any form he wanted, she hadn’t quite believed him or understood the implications. But watching the nearly seven-foot-tall male turn into an exact replica of herself, brought the truth home.
The Beast smiled her own smile at her and then, to Cassie’s immense relief, turned back into himself again. Or at least, he turned back into the self she knew him as—his Beast Kindred form.
“It’s a talent of my people,” he said, shrugging modestly.
“I bet it’s very useful to his Slimefullness,” Cassie remarked. “You must be able to play any part he wants you to in his, um, productions.”
“There is that,” The Beast agreed amiably. “Well, except for the underwater parts.” He shrugged. “Can’t grow working gills. I mean, I can simulate them, but they won’t actually help me breathe underwater.”
“I would really like to know more about you,” Cassie told him. “You’re a fascinating male.”
As she had hoped, playing to his vanity worked. The Beast puffed up his chest and gave her an arrogant grin.
“I am, aren’t I? Well, Mistress, if you’d like, I can take you on a tour of the palace before First Meal. I’ll tell you all about myself along the way.”
“I’d like that,” Cassie told him. “Er—could you just give me a moment to get ready?”
“Sure. I can wait.” He shrugged and threw an uneasy glance at Stone, who was still glaring silently at him. “Uh, is he coming with us?”
“My body-slave goes everywhere I go,” Cassie said firmly. “But don’t worry—as long as you don’t touch or threaten me, he won’t hurt you,” she added.
“He couldn’t if he tried,” the Beast sneered, but he took another step back as Stone began to growl again.
“Just give me a moment,” Cassie told him again and shut the door firmly in his face.
Thirty-Four
“Why did you agree to let that bastard take you on a tour?” Stone demanded, the moment the door was closed.
“Because…” Cassie took him by the arm and towed her reluctant partner away from the doorway, in case The Beast was listening. “Because,” she said again, in a low voice. “We need to get close to him—need to gain his trust if we’re ever going to get him out of the palace and back to our ship! You know we can’t arrest him in front of Gozeriam! We can’t afford to blow our cover that way.”
“I don’t like it.” Stone’s eyes had a murderous red glint far back in their pale blue depths. “I don’t like you being anywhere near that fucking bastard, Cassandra. He’s a murderer and a rapist!”
“We agreed this was how it would go,” Cassie pointed out patiently. “I mean, not exactly like this, but the plan has always been for me to gain his trust and lure him out of the palace.”
“I know, but now that I see him in the flesh, I just want to rip his fucking head off!” Stone’s eyes were more red than blue now and his voice had dropped a whole octave to a menacing rumble Cassie could feel in her bones when he spoke.
“Stone!” she exclaimed, really worried now. “Are you going into Rage? Because if you are, stop. We can’t afford for you to blow our cover!”
“I don’t want him near you!” Her partner’s voice was a muted roar and Cassie thought she had never seen him so angry.
It surprised her—she never would have guessed that Stone would go into Rage for her. Kindred warriors usually reserved that kind of berserker fury for when they thought the woman they loved was being threatened or hurt. And Stone didn’t love her—at least, not as more than a friend.
“All right, all right!” she tried to soothe him. Standing on her tiptoes, she reached up and cupped his face in her hands. “Look at me. Look at me, Stone,” she commanded quietly.
At last her partner’s red eyes shifted from the doorway down to her face.
“It’s going to be all right,” Cassie promised him. “I won’t be alone with him—you’ll be with us every minute. He’s never going to touch me—I promise.”
Stone took several deep breaths as though he was consciously trying to calm himself. Slowly, the red glint of Rage faded from his piercing blue eyes.
“All right,” he said at last. “All right. Forgive me, I just… I could not bear it if anyone tried to hurt you.”
He gathered Cassie into his arms in a sudden, bone-crushing hug that made her gasp.
“Stone!” she exclaimed, as her feet left the floor. “Can’t…breathe!”
“Sorry.” He loosened his grip but didn’t put her down. “Cassandra,” he murmured, burying his face in her hair. “I cannot lose you. Nothing must happen to you.”
“It won’t, Stone—nobody’s going to hurt me. Not with you nearby.” Hesitantly, she stroked his back and shoulders. She had never known her partner to be so possessive and she wondered uneasily if it had anything to do with the physical intimacy they had shared the night before. Hadn’t Stone said that it was difficult to give your body without also giving your heart? What if he had been talking about himself when he said that?
But no—he had specifically said he only wanted to be friends, Cassie reminded herself. She needed to be careful not to read things that weren’t there into her partner’s actions.
He’s just being extra protective because we’re in a strange place with a known murderer, she told herself. It’s just the Kindred in him coming out—they’re always protective of women.
She patted her partner’s broad shoulders again.
“Put me down now, Stone. We have to get ready to go—he won’t wait out there forever.”
“Very well.” With great reluctance, her partner at last put her back down. But he held her close for a minute more, searching her eyes with his own. “Promise me,” he growled softly. “Promise you’ll be safe. Swear you’ll never be alone with him even for a minute.”
“How could I be when you’re with me every minute?” Cassie asked him reasonably.
“All right.” This seemed to make Stone feel better because he at last released his hold on her.
Cassie stepped back, feeling a little like she’d been hugged by a grizzly bear. Stone was always so careful around her that she was often able to forget his immense physical size and strength. But just now she had felt it, in the panicky tightness of his hug—a vice-like grip that could have squeezed her in two if the big Kindred wasn’t careful.
It made her damn glad that Stone was on her side.
The Beast had better watch out if he wants to avoid being pulverized, she thought. If Stone has even the least provocation to pound him, he’s damn well going to annihilate that asshole!
But speaking of “that asshole,” he was waiting outside their door to give her a guided tour of the Palace. Hurriedly, Cassie ran to her carry-all cube and started pulling out an outfit to resize.