Lion's Dangerous(Kings of the Jungle #1)(65)

Silently, the avians exited, leaving Ares and Jude alone with the lone representative of the dragon clan and a corpse.



       
         
       
        

Carnage was the only word appropriate for the scene in the bathroom. A body lay face down on the floor. It was a man. He wore black from shoulder to foot. His dark hair was matted with webs, old and starting to gray. Something best described as blood still pumped from its veins, wettest and thickest between its legs. A pair of long, wicked knitting needles lay off to the side with a soaked length of rope twisted into a noose.

Like Jude, the dragon had manifested some of his shifted form characteristics. His skin was leathery, his hands and feet talons. The mirror reflected his wings, folded up tight below his shoulder blades. Under the bathroom's fluorescent light, his ebony skin gleamed blue to match his blazing eyes. He crouched in a congealing pool of black fluid, steadily pecking at the glinting surface of the puddle with his claws. As Jude stepped inside, kicking the corpse's boots aside to make room, the dragon looked up.

"The bird was doing what birds do, but these bastards are poison." The male lifted his clawed hand to show four tiny, speared spiders decorating the tips of his talons. "They're thriving in the blood like it's birthing fluid."

Flicking the dead, wet spiders aside, he resumed his work.

"Lily said something about babies." Jude raked his hands through his hair and swore. "Damn it, I didn't connect the pieces in time."

"She punctured something when she stabbed him. An egg sac or something." The dragon reached over and flipped the body with an effortless flex of muscle. As he did, a new cluster of spiders scurried from the dead man's open fly. A hole gaped behind the open zipper, its edges ragged. "There are thousands in there, too many to kill like this. I'm going to torch them. Since it's your woman's territory, I need your permission."

Dragon's fire would incinerate the shop and consume the entire strip of businesses. Jude exchanged a look with Ares, who stood in the doorway, his features deceptively impassive. Even though Ares played his cards close, there were some habits a lion couldn't fully hide from his pride. One of those habits, Jude knew, was keeping Lily company in the neighboring salon, making the strip mall a joint holding.

Ares acknowledged the question with a slight nod. "Five minutes," he said, before turning and melding with the shadows of the dark store.

Once he was out of sight, Jude stood. He met the dragon's eyes. "Burn it down."



* * *

Rubbing her clean hand over her face, Lily surveyed the empty salon. The neon lights in the big window still glowed, casting the interior in a blue glow. The scents of acetone and warm wax didn't exactly ease her but they were removed enough from her day to day that she was able to draw a deep breath and gather a few shreds of her tattered nerves. 

"I had a late client," Alexa said as she walked down the line of pedicure spa stations and started water running into each basin. "I didn't know … I'm sorry I didn't hear anything. If I'd known you were in trouble … "

"You would've done something. I know." Lily stiffly walked to one of the filling foot spas and thrust her filth-coated hand beneath the spray. The greasy stuff stubbornly clung to her skin.

"Hang on. I'll take care of that," Alexa called from the other end of the long room. After turning on the faucet in the bathroom, she returned, wheeling a cart filled with the tools of her trade.

She hooked a stool with her foot and sent it rolling toward Lily, and then dragged over one of her own. Sitting, she gestured for Lily to do the same and started lining up squeeze bottles labeled in blue permanent marker. Lily was restless, wired. She needed to move but made herself perch on the stool. As Alexa squirted chemicals on her hand and started to scrub with a brush, Lily stared at the dark door. The slats of a closed blind blocked the parking lot.

"Stop thinking about it," Alexa said.

"I can't. It was … I knew the guy. He had a good reason to want to hurt me. I didn't think he would, though. After the accident, I was absolved of fault. Katt was furious, but he wasn't insane. The man I saw tonight-he was a monster." In the most literal sense of the word. The horror that had erupted from his flesh … she shuddered, knowing not even Alexa's chemicals would sanitize her nightmares.

But there was no remorse. He'd stolen from her, stalked and terrorized her in her home. He'd meant to rape and kill her tonight. If she hadn't stabbed him, he would have done worse to her.