Destiny's Child (Kitsune series Book 3) by Morgan Blayde Read Free Book Online

the word.
    “That’s right,” she said.  “Momma’s here.”
    Taliesina churred in my mind, a happy sound of inquiry.  Mommy!
    “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you ever again,” Cassie promised.
    I tried to squeeze out another word or two, but couldn’t.  I flopped my head and stared at the nightstand.  A pitcher and cup rested there.  I wanted a drink.  Bad.
    “Oh!”  Cassie reached over and filled a cup, bringing it to my face.  “Ice chips.  They want you to start on these and not go straight to liquids just yet.”  She dropped some of the ice in my mouth. 
    I sucked the cold hardness, savoring the relief. 
    “It would have been better, if you had to be hurt, to have been in human form.  You could have healed yourself by turning into a fox.  Still can, if you’ve the strength.”
    Now she tells me how it works.
    Virgil entered the room, only to be impaled on Cassie’s words.  “You’d better not have a job for me.  I’m not going anywhere until Grace is ready to leave this place.”
    “Necessity never waits on convenience.”  Virgil approached the bed.  He shifted his gaze to me but kept the conversation going with Cassie.  “But this is your job.  Apparently there are a number of ex-ISIS members that have been kicked loose from the system for one reason or another.  Grace will need protection while I get things sorted out.”
    “Well, as long you’re here, tell me what these nuts wanted at Shaun’s,” she said.
    Virgil touched the bed’s siderailing, standing opposite of Cassie.  He said, “Grace is tired.  She needs rest to heal.  We can take this discussion out into the hall.”  He switched his attention to me.  “I’m glad you made it, Grace.  I was worried…”
    Long repressed snarkiness stirred within me.  “Yeah, for Cassie.  You kept calling me by her name.”
    “It’s not like I had both of you there in your fox forms for comparison,” he said.  “Hey, I brought you a gift.”  He held up a tawny, stuffed bunny with an equally stuffed orange carrot.  He put the creature on the bed next to me, and grinned.  “In case you get hungry later, my little fox.”
    “What do you mean by ‘my’?” Cassie demanded.
    “Grace works for me now, part time anyway.”
    “What?  When did hell freeze over?  No way am I allowing that.”  Her voice went low, threatening, as her narrowed eyes blazed.  “That operation against the Miko was a one-time thing.”
    “Grace is a minor,” Virgil said.  “The Human Potential Institute has custody of her, and we have a contract with them for her services.”
    Cassie’s hands choked the bed’s side-rail beside her.  I half expected the steel to bend and break at any second.  She said, “Among my people, Grace is considered a child for the first few hundred years, and under my clan sign, not HPI’s.”
    First few hundred years?  How long am I gonna live?
    Virgil used a black-gloved hand, specifically his pointer finger, to stab the air, emphasizing a point.  “But you’re not among your people.  The laws of the United States apply.”
    A rapping at the door stopped a knock-down-drag-out in its tracks.  The door opened and Shaun entered, eyes shifting, absorbing the antagonism instantly.  His jaw knotted with anger, but his voice emerged as calm and gentle as his eyes.  “If you two are going to fight, do it outside.  Grace doesn’t need this.”
    The hell I don’t!  Someone get me popcorn and a drink.  No, on second thought, what I need is to be left alone with Shaun so he can soothe me with his bedside manner.
    “I’m going,” Virgil said.  “I just wanted Grace to know we’ve got guards on her door and in the surrounding rooms.  More of my own people are on the way.  Until they get here, were relying on local law enforcement. Also, I’ve notified your mother”—his eyes flicked to Cassie a moment—“your other mother, that you’re here.  Your school knows, too, so there