Page 32 of Shifter's Dream

Grey rolled onto his back and retreated into himself, unable to move, barely able to breathe, fighting hard to get himself back under his own control.

“Hey asshole,” Azer said from Grey’s every cell. “I know you're supposed to be moonstruck and all, just struck dumb by that divine flower, but don't use your condition to ignore reality. Get real with yourself, Grey, before it's too late.”

Grey didn’t say a word. He couldn’t. His head rung like a bell, his body twisted on the ground.

Then Azer said what Grey would die not to know.

“Burton'scavortingwith her, too, you know.”

Grey shook his head.No. He wasn't. No.

“He is,” Azer said. “Accept it, he is, and I haven’t seen him kill his own kind.”

Grey finally managed to speak. “Haven't you been paying attention?” he gasped. “Burton chose to let all the females die, to save the one, not that it did him any good.”

Light bobbed in Grey’s enclosure again. Grey ground the heels of his hands into his eyes.

“Don’t be so sure about that,” Azer said like he was nodding. “Burton's gone his own kind of kookoo, but he's at least trying to do right.”

Grey pushed himself up into a sitting position. “What's right?” he groaned.

“Not what you’re doing.”

“Oh yeah, and how about you? Sleeping with how many women in order to make sure Rhen'sshiftendon't die? I never knew you could spell passive aggressive with only the letters A-Z-E-R.”

Azer laughed, chuckled low and deep, but then the laugh cut off abruptly, and Azer said, “Change your mind about your path in life. It’s not too late.”

This time it was Grey’s turn to laugh. “Ah, an angel’s life must be nice for you to be so naive. I’m not redeemable. I’m crazy, remember?”

Azer stiffened and Grey could feel it in his own body. “Heads up, the rest of this won’t be private,” Azer said to him in an undertone. “Be smart.”

Grey nodded into the darkness. He and Azer working together again. It was just like old times. But which choice would he take? The demon or the angel?

The demon, of course, even he know that was all that was left to him.

20 – Fathers and Fiends and Flowers

Grey could feel Rex listening from somewhere outside the cells, but only because Azer helped him.

“I’m almost used up,” Azer said, his voice echoing stronger than it had before, so that Rex could hear. “Soon he won’t be able to get anything more from me unless he has me killed.”

Grey knew what he was supposed to say. He would play his part for now. “He can’t kill you?” he said out loud, also projecting the thought inruhi, wanting to be sure Rex heard it.

“No, only an agent ofRhencan kill me,” Azer boomed.

“How?” Grey said, wondering how anyone was supposed to believe he was still an ‘agent ofRhen.’

“With my daughter’s pendant.”

“Then I guess Khain will never get what he wants,” Grey intoned.

Azer laughed and his tone twisted. “Unless he makes you kill me.”

Grey laughed, too. Why not, it was all preposterous, right? He felt Rex wanting to bolt, to run and tell his master what he’d heard.Sit tight, Rexie, I guarantee you it’s going to get better.

“What happens if you die?” Grey boomed, really getting into it.

Azer didn’t speak for a beat. Chastising him? Or adding dramatic flair? That was the problem with angels, you never could tell, even when they thought they were being obvious.

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