Page 65 of Warrior's Reign
“Alright, keep me updated. It would have been so convenient if Vohn had just said a name out loud.”
:Nothing is ever that easy,: Icolo said. :Were it, I doubt my services would be so often required.:
Reign finished her drink, swiped her wrist unit to pay the tab, and left. “Give me the new guy's location,” she decided. “I'll follow him.”
:That’s unnecessary,: Icolo said.
“Maybe, but I have some time and I want to see how he moves with my own eyes. I’ve got to keep in top condition.”
:Does your Vykhan not keep you in top condition?:
A response would only dignify him.
Glancing down at her wrist unit, a map flashed onto the small screen. She followed, a smile tugging at her lips. It felt good to hunt.
* * *
:Reign, he knowss he is being followed,: Martha said, voice sharpening. :Hiss route is evasive.:
Reign swore softly. “I must be out of practice. How the hell did he make me? Icolo, you don’t have a visual yet?”
She’d suspected a half mile ago. After slipping out of the club, she’d slid into a dark alleyway and activated her blue skin tint. It was coming up on its max number of uses—again, a budget issue, damnit.
She hunted on foot since the mark hadn’t taken a transport. The streets were still crowded this time of night, especially in the entertainment district. She could pass for Yadeshi to a quick, casual glance. She was shorter, curvier, and her facial structure was all wrong, but only if you were paying attention.
:Reign, the mark’s body temp is 39.5°C: Icolo said. :We could be dealing with a shifter.:
“I figured. He called me a bitch.” Just her luck. He’d smell her if she got too close, recognizing her scent from inside the club. “He’ll know it’s me. I’m aborting. Keep the drone on him.”
:I lost him,: Martha said.
“Did he cloak?”
:Likely.:
“Alright, I’m heading in. Recall the drone, I can’t afford to lose another one this quarter.”
She ended the comm and turned on her heels. It hadn’t been an entire waste of time. They now knew a species, and could determine the skill level of the person assigned to conduct surveillance on her. There were no coincidences. . .all this circled back to Vykhan and his op to flush out moles in palace security. But it was beginning to feel more and more like there were multiple players, perhaps allies where one wasn’t fully aware of what the other was doing.
Which meant it all circled back to Ibukay, because Reign in and of herself was about as important as gum on Ibukay’s imperial shoe.
Politics. At least life wouldn’t be boring.
Reign pulled up directions and rerouted towards the nearest transport hub. Cheaper than ordering a private flier, especially since she was stretching her salary to cover her team’s operating expenses until the business accounts were replenished.
Experience or instinct warned her a flash second before the air above her shifted. Reign threw herself out of the way, rolling to her feet with a laser blade in her hand.
A figure in a bulky hoodie rose to their full height, having landed on silent toes, face obscured. Tall, broad, moving with the preternatural grace of nothing human.
Definitely shifter. What kind of shifter? It mattered. Not Eshai, though.
They inhaled, head tilting.
“Why are you tracking me?” the raspy baritone from the club said.
So he was gonna play dumb. Though he couldn’t know that Reign had been listening in, only who she was and that she had followed him from the club.
“I think we may be working for the same person,” she said cautiously after sifting through several possible replies.
