Lycan Legacy - Paladin: Tales of Luna White - Werewolf by Veronica Singer (funny books to read TXT) 📕

“Manny, I’m sorry I snapped at you. I don’t like being stared at.”

Mike coughed to interrupt. At my nod, he said, “Luna isn’t like other women. She grew up in a cult that practiced nudity, so sometimes she forgets the effect she has on men.”

Mike pulled my plate of well-gnawed bones away and slid another whole chicken in front of me. “So if you see her naked, she is not coming on to you.”

He looked at me a long moment before continuing, “She’s also a lot more ‘touchy-feely’ than most women. It’s how she was raised.”

“Yeah, she’s as ‘touchy-feely’ as a cactus,” Manny jibed.

Mike struggled to hold in a grin. “After you get to know her, I mean.”

Manny licked his fingers, then reached for a napkin. “So, you and Luna aren’t…?”

“No!” we said in unison.

Mike continued, “Luna is happily married to a man I consider a brother. I think of her as a sister.” Mike locked gazes with Manny and said, “I suggest you do the same.”

Manny took a drink of Coke, then laughed loudly. “So I’ve been hired by a touchy-feely, wily, female nudist, who definitely is not a witch and definitely doesn’t work for the CIA, to rescue hostages in Saudi Arabia.” He nodded to himself. “If this was a movie on TV, I’d switch channels.”

Mike joined his laughter. “Don’t feel bad, Ell Tee. Ever since I met Luna, my life has been a series of unbelievable adventures.”

Dinner finished, Manny headed upstairs to shower and get ready for tonight while Mike and I cleared the table.

Keeping my voice low, I said, “Mike, our odds just improved. Silkworm is back.”

“Who the hell is Silkworm?”

“You should remember. Mason and I used her to climb that cliff to get to you the first time we met. Mason got her in a trade with Jorōgumo, the spider-goddess.”

Mike shook his head. “I don’t remember much from that night. That was before Mason fixed my eyes.”

“Let’s see if she remembers you,” I said.

I opened my mouth to call her, then stopped. She had responded to mental commands before, so I sent Silkworm, come here please.

It took a few seconds, but my bag in the living room rustled and Silkworm slithered into the dining room.

Mike jumped back and scrambled for a weapon. “An albino snake!”

“No, Mike. This is Silkworm.”

The knotted ball rose to meet my hand and I continued, “Silkworm, this is Mike.”

Mike calmed but stayed alert. “I thought you couldn’t bring strange magic to this country. Ariel said it would irritate the local gods.”

“Silkworm doesn’t register as magic,” I said. “I don’t really know what she is. Just that she saved my life more than once.”

Mike scoffed. “Okay, you’ve got a sentient clothesline for a pet. What good does that do for us?”

Silkworm slid closer to Mike and raised her head to waist height, then tilted it in query. Her tail rose to head-height, looped back on itself and formed a knotted hangman’s noose. The noose closed with a snap.

“Okay, it’s dangerous,” conceded Mike. “It might be useful—”

He squinted and leaned closer to Silkworm. “She has a soul! Not like a human, but there’s something there.”

Mike extended his left hand slowly, like you would approach a strange dog to let her sniff.

“Hello, Silkworm. Nice to meet you.”

Silkworm nodded gravely, then turned to me, like a cat turning away from an unwelcome house guest.

“She says you’re on probation,” I said.

“She talks? I didn’t hear anything.”

“No, she doesn’t make sounds. I just know her moods.”

The shower sounds stopped. Manny would be back downstairs soon.

“Silkworm, please go back to your bag. You might freak Manny out,” I said.

Mike nodded agreement. “She freaks me out and I’m used to this stuff.”

Silkworm nodded and wriggled back to my bag in the living room.

Manny came down a minute later, drying his shaggy gray hair with a towel.

“Good, you cleared the table. We can set up our demo.”

In a few minutes, more than a dozen blocks of C-4 were laid out on the table.

Manny smiled proudly and gestured at the explosives.

“See, boss? Aren’t you glad you hired me? With these, we can break into any compound in the country.”

I took a long sniff and sighed. There was no easy way to say this.

“Manny, you got scammed. Half of those are fakes.”

15

“Fake? Are you crazy? I tested these,” Manny said. His face tightened and grew red. “I’m the demolitions expert. What do you know about C-4?”

“I know what C-4 smells like, and this stuff smells wrong.”

“It smells like the real thing to me,” said Manny, then, in disbelief, “Where the hell where you that you were close enough to smell C-4?”

“At the mine, Manny. I told you I owned a mine.”

“That ‘gold mine’ comment wasn’t a joke? This is unbelievable.” Then he laughed. “If I’d believed you, I would have asked for twice as much money. You can afford it.”

“No, Manny, I can’t,” I said. “The gold was a byproduct of what we were really digging for, and the mine’s played out. It’s barely making enough to cover overhead. That BITCHCoin was the last of our available resources.”

I stared into his eyes, alpha to warrior, and growled. “I don’t lie to people I work with, Manny. I didn’t lie about the mine and I’m not lying about the C-4.”

Mike raised both palms in a calming gesture. “Luna, maybe you’re smelling the difference between the commercial grade C-4 we use in the mine and this military grade C-4.”

“Mike, you know how good my nose is. I know the smell of both the civilian and military types.”

He scrunched up his nose in thought. “Where’d you smell the military stuff?”

“I got a good whiff of military grade C-4 when I killed the ensign to break out of that prison in Alaska.”

Mike nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. I’d forgotten about that.”

At Manny’s shocked look, I added, “I didn’t want to kill him. But he had a deadman switch. He would have killed a lot of innocent people.”

Manny made a ‘time-out’