Page 26 of The Manticore's Fire

To her surprise, it drew a wry smile from the male, and he inclined his head faintly in acknowledgement.

“What you need is a representative,” she continued as she mulled it over. “Someone from the outside who can present your case to Zayman and bring the kingdom into negotiation.”

Samir’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully on her. His smile, when it came, was all sharp teeth and cunning as he regarded her.

“My dear Abby, what a fantastic idea.”

She smiled as she sipped her coffee. Of course it was. Although her family never really expressed any interest in her ideas, she believed that she was quite good at finding solutions. Humming in agreement she swallowed another mouthful of coffee before lowering her cup. “I’m glad you think so. Of course, it might be a little tricky unless you have friends hidden around here that you’ve captured over the years. You’re going to needsomeone brave enough to risk potentially being slaughtered just for being in your company.”

“That is no issue,” he purred. “I have you, after all.”

She sputtered on her next sip and coughed harshly, her eyes tearing up at the sting in her lungs. “Sorry? What?”

“You shall do it,” he said with a sharp finality in his voice. “We will go to the city, and you shall be my representative to negotiate for the safety of the desert.”

Abby stared at him for a long moment, not certain whether or not he was joking. “Surely you jest. No,” she laughed weakly. When he did not so much as crack a smile, her voice sharpened with denial. “No! Are you crazy? I was sent here to hunt you. I can’t be your representative. Hunters don’t represent on behalf of the monsters they were hired to kill, especially not to their employer. At minimum I could be fined with violating my contract… and then I would most certainly have to say goodbye to any chance of officially joining the guild. Worst case, I’m executed for assisting you.”

Samir sighed impatiently and sipped his own coffee. “You act as if I would truly allow that to happen. If they try to harm you, I will simply burn the city and all its inhabitants to the ground and reclaim my desert in its entirety. The villages and smaller towns may even thank me for ridding them of the ruler who has set his yoke around their throats.”

“We are not doing that either,” she replied flatly.

He blinked his bright green eyes guilelessly at her. “I am uncertain as to how you think I should proceed then. All I have is you. If you do not represent me, I will eventually be forced to level the city anyway. Here, with you by my side, they at least have a chance.”

She groaned, slumping in her chair. “You’re really going to make me do this, aren’t you?”

“It is your idea,” he purred.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t planning on it beingmeexecuting it,” she muttered. She rubbed her hand over her face. “You really don’t have a single friend who might be able to pass for human?”

He hesitated briefly. “There is a wind spirit that can make itself appear human-ish. So long as he keeps his magic under control… and does not become angry,” he amended. “Or get overly excited. He can be unpredictable when he is excited, and I fear that he is the excitable sort.”

“Perfect. I’ll just be blamed for a man-eating manticore and a deadly, ‘excitable’ wind spirit terrorizing the city then.”

“Again, I will remind you that I don’t eat men. That infers swallowing. At most I just chew as much as I absolutely must and spit them out.”

She snorted out a soft, somewhat hysterical, laugh. “Perhaps you should hang up the protector role and go around extolling the virtues of spitting over swallowing. Some men have a hard time following why anyone wouldn’t want to swallow.”

Samir gave her a puzzled look that she waved off.

“Never mind.”

She rubbed her brow and sighed heavily. She was most definitely not getting out of it, and he had a point. If Zayman was continuously sending hunters after Samir, sooner or later things would escalate when the manticore finally had enough and went on the offense. It was unconventional but this was her chance to save lives… and really wasn’t that a hunter’s purpose?

“Fine. Fine. But there are going to be ground rules,” she snapped, jabbing a finger in his direction, aimed straight at his nose. “Foremost of which will be no killing or destroying anything unless there is absolutely no choice. And absolutely no harming innocent people.”

His brow lowered, obviously not pleased with her tone, and his wickedly barbed tail swiped angrily but he nodded with a sharp tip of his head. “I would never harm an innocent, but Ihave conditions too if I must abide by yours. Such as allowing me to protect you even if it is all snarl and no bite. I will trust your judgment, but you will trust my control.”

“Well, we do all know that you are the king of control,” she muttered, thinking again of how long it had been since he had bothered to touch her.

How the hell did he simply turn all that passion off so easily? She was starting to feel a restless itch that was about to drive her mad and fueled her irritable mood. He gave her an arch look, but she again waved it off. She certainly wasn’t in the mood to explain the odd mechanics of her mind and libido when it didn’t even make sense to her.

“So, how are we going to get into the city?” she sighed.

The infuriating male met her question with one of his odd shrugs. “You are the hunter and accustomed to dealing with humans. How would you suggest that we gain entry without rousing immediate suspicion?”

An idea rose to the surface so unholy and so unlikely that it seemed both genius and supreme idiocy at the same time. She licked her lips nervously. What did she have to lose? Apparently, it wasn’t her life if Samir was to be believed, but if she failed, she wasn’t certain if she could face the repercussions.

“Well… do you have any chain?”

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