Enemies(24)

“Bastet,” I said, stepping onto the elevator before she could acknowledge me. Her knowing smile evaporated, but I could feel one of my own straining to break loose on seeing this presumably imperturbable woman caught off balance within three seconds of our first meeting. “How goes it?”

“Sienna Nealon,” she said, recovering quickly. “Of course you would know me because others in your service have known me.”

“If by ‘in my service,’ you mean rattling around in my head,” I said with a sharp smile, “then yes, that’s right.”

“Bast,” Janus said, stepping onto the elevator. He wore a smile of his own, but it was pure, deep amusement that wrinkled his brow. “You seem to have been taken a bit off your guard.”

Bast gave a smile, but it was shallow and insincere. “I’m used to knowing strangers but not being known.”

“Kind of a funny attitude for a goddess to have,” I said. “Weren’t you the object of worship once upon a time?”

Her nostrils flared in subtle irritation. “That was long ago. I prefer to work behind the scenes nowadays.”

“Sure,” I said with a nod. “It’s probably something you just get over after a while, being worshipped by thousands of people. It’s all, ‘We love you,’ ‘We adore you,’ ‘You’re beautiful’—” I pretended to look her up and down. “Well, you know, at least, you probably were once upon a time. After a couple thousand years, it’s understandable—”

“You really are quite adept at getting under a person’s skin, aren’t you?” Bastet said, looking at me sideways.

“I believe you’re a fan of doing the same,” I said coolly.

“So, how do you know me?” she asked, arms folded. “From Bjorn?” Her smile grew nasty. “Or that passing introduction I had to your boyfriend before—”

“Bast,” Janus said quietly, “Sienna is our guest here. It would be nice if you were to treat her as such.”

Bast seemed to consider this a moment, never taking her eyes off of me. “She has claws, Janus.”

“And you don’t?” he asked with more good humor than I would have had if it had been me with a potential recruit I was trying to impress.

She gave a catlike smile. “My claws are reserved for when I really need them.”

I smiled back at her. “So, they put a scratching post in your office, huh?” Her smile faded. “Litter box?”

“She’s not funny,” Bast said. “I thought she would be funnier.”

“I save my best quips for when I’m punching someone in the face.”

The elevator dinged and opened on an office floor, rows of cubicles with workers manning them, quietly tapping away at keyboards or having quiet conversations. The whole place was unremarkable, just like the fourth floor of the Directorate, really, with offices around the perimeter behind glass, sunlight shining in from behind. As the elevator doors opened, no one from the cubicles seemed to take any notice of us.

A face appeared at the edge of the elevator door, sliding around. Curled blond hair followed it, falling around the thin shoulders of a small-framed girl I knew all too well. Her hair shone in the sunlight that flooded the room, and she wore a sweet, mischievous smile that she shot at Janus. “Hey, sweetie,” she said to him, making my stomach turn. She looked to Bast, and her smile dimmed. “Bast,” she said, then turned her head to look at me, and her face went vaguely malicious. “Sienn—”

I took pride in the fact that she didn’t see my punch coming, that it shot out in a flash, that it crumpled her nose as if I had smashed a paper cup filled with liquid. I was even prouder and oddly emotionally gratified when blood squirted out and she fell back onto her flat ass, stunned, like she was a kid on a playground who had just been knocked down unexpectedly and was about to let out one hell of a cry. Her face was crumpled in pain, and it brought a malicious smile of my own to the fore. “Kat.” I shot a look at Bast. “Declawed.”

Bast shrugged indifferently. “Still not funny.”





Chapter 10




“Are you quite able to control yourself?” Janus asked, standing in his office with me in one chair and Kat in the other. It was a smallish room, about ten feet by ten feet, with glass windows surrounding us and giving us a view into the offices next door. It reminded me a little of a newspaper office in an old movie. The blinds were open, affording us a view of the bullpen of cubicles outside, which had been even quieter as Janus had helped Kat into the office, his disappointed gaze bidding me to follow.