He was silent, but I could feel his irritation.
David buttoned up his shirt and gave me a rueful smile as he sat down again. “A therion is a shape-shifter with two primary forms. One of mine happens to be that of an Asiatic lion.”
“You’re like a werewolf, but with a lion instead of a wolf?” I asked, then craned my head to look behind me, where the moon was beginning to clear the horizon. “Is it a full moon?”
“Therions can shift at will, Francesca,” Ben said, taking my hand and rubbing his fingers across mine. It was a possessive move that I knew had its origins in the eye candy David had provided. I smiled to myself. “The myth about the full moon is a human fiction, nothing more.”
“Oh.” I looked back at David, my mind struggling to cope with the fact that he was a lion. “I thought . . . This is really stupid, I know, but I have to ask . . .”
“You thought vampires and werewolves hated each other?” David grinned at Ben. “That’s a fallacy, too. For one, the therions who favor wolf forms tend to be a very tight-knit group, and don’t mingle much with outsiders. For another, therions have no reason to dislike Dark Ones.”
“I’m glad to hear that. So, people in your . . . er . . . pride are disappearing, too?”
“Too?” Ben asked.
“There are a lot of things disappearing around me lately,” I told him. “My mother and the Vikingahärta, to name two. And Imogen’s boyfriend.”
“That’s no great loss,” Ben said in a tight voice.
I just bet Imogen loves it when you give her boy-friends a hard time.
If she had better taste in men, I wouldn’t have to.
Spoken like an overprotective brother.
“These disappearances have been going on for years, so I’m afraid they’re not related to yours,” David said, rubbing his face wearily.
“All right, but what does Naomi have to do with anything? And why is Ben letting her touch him and slobber on him and think she’s his girlfriend?”
Jealous much, sweetheart?
Perhaps. Or perhaps I just don’t like seeing a friend hooked up with someone who’s not good for him.
That gave him something to think about, I noted with satisfaction. Until, that is, it struck me that he didn’t protest being called a friend. And then I realized that I had better take some responsibility for what I wanted, and not dump it all on him. I couldn’t think of anything worse than to realize I had fallen in love with him, only to find out he didn’t reciprocate the emotion.
Okay. I will admit that I’m the teensiest bit jealous. I don’t like her touching you . And kissing you. And pushing her boobs on you. And while we’re on the subject, do you have to put your arm around her? It makes it look like you’re enjoying it when she rubs herself all over you , which from what I’ve seen is pretty much every time you’re together.
Yes, that’s just a teeny bit jealous.
I ignored the laughter in my head to deliver a glare at him before turning my attention back to David.
“Benedikt said you weren’t happy about that. I’m sorry, but Naomi is familiar with members of the European therion community,” David explained. “We needed someone who could get into her confidence, and that required an unknown. Benedikt offered to do the job, and although I know you don’t like it, he’s been tremendously helpful to us by allowing Naomi to believe he’s romantically interested in her. He found the group that we believe is organizing the abduction of therions across Europe.”
“Agrippans?” I asked, remembering the word he’d used.
“Yes. Do you know what an Agrippa is?”
I shook my head.
“Originally, it was the name of a book of mystical spells. A few millennia ago, the word came to be applied to the people who created those books, the seekers of knowledge who spent their lives locating and learning magic, which they offered to wield for a price.”
“Sort of walking encyclopedias of magic?”
“More or less. They hired themselves out to support their endless thirst for knowledge. Today, there are three Agrippan sets: one in North America, one here in Europe, and one in Africa.”
“I don’t see the connection between a seeker of knowledge and missing therions,” I said.
“Neither do we. Yet,” Ben said, his thumb sending little tendrils of heat up my hand with every stroke of it across my fingers.
“Benedikt’s been pressed hard by Naomi to join the local tyro—that’s a ceremonial meeting of Agrippans—so he can be inducted into the group, but he’s resisted so far.”
“Oh? Why?” I asked Ben.