The Skin She's In by Margo Collins (online e book reader .txt) 📕

I wasn’t technically on duty, but the next Shield wasn’t supposed to check in until at least another hour had passed.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes, we are here in Dallas to meet with the lamia.” The man had a deep Hispanic accent.

“Yes,” the woman added. “We need to speak to her as soon as we can.”

A sense of déjà vu swept over me, making me dizzy and leaving me reeling toward the desk, where I sat down with a thump into the office chair.

“That’s me,” I said. I finally decided there was no advantage to be had in hiding any longer. “I’m Lindi Parker, the lamia. What do you need?”

“It’s werewolves. They’re coming to get you,” the man said.

I sighed in relief, and the rest of the room seemed to exhale at once, as well. “The werewolves attacked this morning. We survived. Everything’s fine.” I interlaced my fingers and set my elbows on the desk, dropping my chin down into my hands. “Thanks for coming in, though.”

But they were both shaking their heads. “Whatever you saw today,” the man said, “it wasn’t the werewolves we’re talking about. That was a small group.”

“What’s coming next is an army,” the woman added.

I shot my gaze toward Kade, who, along with everyone else in the room, seemed frozen in place. “Tell me what you know,” I finally said. “Tell me everything.”

“We don’t have much information. But we know for sure that the werewolves are coming for you,” the woman said. “They’re determined to make sure the lamias are wiped out for good this time. And they’re building an army to do it.”

Oh, hell.

This wasn’t nearly as close to over as I had hoped.

I glanced around the room, at the people who had joined me today to help me fight to protect Serena.

If I had to go up against an army, this was exactly the group I’d choose.

One by one, each one of them nodded, answering my unspoken question.

“The werewolves are coming?” I asked, then answered without waiting for a response. “Let them.”

One thing I knew for sure: their army would never expect what we’d have waiting for them when they got here.

Chapter 24

“I’M TOMÁS, AND THIS is Bronwyn,” the cat-shifter said.

“Call me Bron,” the bird added.

“I’m sorry we didn’t call,” Tomás said, “but I’m pretty sure your phones have all been tapped.”

I blinked down at the phone on my desk, trying to remember everything I’d said on it in the last few days.

“What do you mean, take out the lamias for good?” I asked.

“I mean,” Tomás said, “they plan to kill you and the children.”

“Kill the children? The babies? The lamia babies?”

Tomás nodded. “As far as we can tell, that’s the plan.”

My heart started to race, my eyes filling up with tears. “We can’t let that happen. We have to stop them.” I turned around and glanced at Kade, who was still holding Serena. “You need to get her out of here.”

A sudden knock on the door sounded and everyone other than Tomás and Bron jumped, and Tomás added, “That will be Brian and Jeff. Brian drove us in from Shreveport. Jeff is...going to need some help.”

He moved to the door and opened it wide enough to let another man, slightly younger than Tomás, slip through the door, supporting another older man around the waist.

“No sign of anything yet,” the new arrival said, helping the other man to a chair. I couldn’t tell much about Brian—he was good-looking, in a bland sort of way.

I could tell even less about Jeff, as he had been beaten beyond easy recognition. He had salt-and-pepper hair and was about 5’10”. His eyes were swollen shut, his lips puffed and purple, most of his exposed skin crusted in blood, and one arm hung at an odd angle. He slumped down on a chair, either unconscious or in so much pain that he might as well have been.

I was sure these two were also shifters, though I couldn’t tell what kind.

Kade leaped out of his chair, handing off Serena to Eduardo so he could begin examining the man. Kade also waved Jeremiah out of his seat and pointed at the dark-haired female shifter to take it so he could look her over, too. “What happened?” he asked.

She stared at him warily, but only for a few seconds before her bright, dark eyes flitted around the room, and she moved to sit.

Definitely a bird.

“Torture,” she said shortly. Her voice was deeper than I had anticipated, scratchier, almost.

But not a songbird, as I first suspected.

Tomás saw me watching them. “She’s a raven,” he said. “I’m a jaguar.” His voice was almost defiant as if daring me to comment on the oddness of their pairings.

I gestured around the room, introducing everyone by their name and animal. “Dr. Nevala—that’s Kade right there—is a mongoose shifter. He’s my boyfriend.” The jaguar shifter blinked a couple of times but managed to keep his expression neutral otherwise.

“Jeremiah over in the corner is a hyena—and his partner, Shadow? She’s a Hunter.” This time, Tomás did twitch. I glanced at Shadow out of the corner of my eye and found her grinning openly at me. I allowed myself a smile in return.

“You’re not going to find any judgment here,” I said.

Tomás nodded.

In the meantime, Kade had finished a quick examination of Jeff and convinced Bron to let him check her wounds.

“How many times have you shifted since this happened?” Kade asked.

“Just the once.” She sounded tired, ragged. “We drove straight here—there wasn’t time for anything else.”

“We didn’t know how far they were behind us,” Brian added. I realized that still, no one had told me what kind of shifter he was.

“We’re hoping that blowing up part of the casino slowed them down,” Tomás interjected.

“Pardon me,” Jeremiah said in his beautiful, lilting African accent. “But did you say you blew up a casino?”

Tomás shrugged and nodded toward Bron. “They pissed me off.”

Eduardo snorted aloud at that. Shadow nodded her approval.

“Okay.” I tried to get my thoughts in