Page 20 of Klaus

Her smile was wide, genuine, and her eyes warm and sparkling. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever reach out at all.”

Her dry wit hadn’t suffered in the few days we’d spent apart. “There have only been a few things to take care of here. Otherwise, it’s been a real holiday.”

She grew serious. “Is everything well? Have there been any problems?”

I glanced toward the closed door, wondering if any of them were listening outside. There was enough ambient noise from the running of computers and whirring of cooling fans that I thought our conversation was private enough.

“I think I may have picked up on a foreign presence today. Alan has asked that my lion patrol the area.”

“Did you see anyone or anything?”

“No, and neither did Bonnie, while she flew nearby. But I know what I smelled.”

“I would certainly never question you,” she said, waving a dismissive hand as she mulled this over. “Do you have any thoughts on who it could’ve been? Have you seen anything else out of the ordinary?”

Ainsley’s face flashed at the forefront of my mind. Yes, she was outside the ordinary. Far outside. So far, I couldn’t get her out of my head. I’d been looking for her for days, my eyes searching for her particular shade of hair with its long curls. For her fine features, her full mouth and high cheekbones. The sort of face a man wanted to draw close to his.

Something told me this was not what Mary was questioning me over. “Nothing before today.”

“And how do they seem to be adjusting? Any problems?”

Again, Ainsley came to mind. Whatever was bothering her wasn’t Mary’s concern, of course, which was why I kept it to myself. “If anything, they seem to have adjusted unnaturally well,” I admitted, lowering my voice even though I knew it meant nothing to do so. Their hearing was just as sharp as mine, even while in human form.

“They would,” she observed with a wry smile. “In case you hadn’t noticed, you shifters tend to keep your emotions to yourselves.”

“Is that the case?” I growled, only partly serious.

“When it suits you,” she replied before sighing. “I know you well enough to know it’s useless to ask whether you’re thinking along the lines I am.”

“That there is not, in fact, an enchantment to keep threats away from the mountain? That if a group of mercenaries already managed to make it here, anyone can manage it? That perhaps the enchantment, if there ever was one—debatable, if you ask me—has worn off or was only intended to work prior to the invention of satellites and other technology?”

“And that the group killed in the lab weren’t the only ones involved,” she finished. “I’d feared that this could be the case. I’ve had associates in the United Kingdom working on this for me since we liberated the laboratory weeks ago. They haven’t come back with anything concrete, as the group which performed the kidnapping and testing appears to be a highly covert operation.”

“I would imagine,” I muttered. “But we know something they don’t know. We know of the antidote.”

What good would it do against the sort of weapons used previously? Neither of us dared voice the question, but it was on both our minds. I knew her well enough to know that.

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