Timeless Moon by C. T. Adams, Cathy Clamp Read Free Book Online

brilliant chemist with a talented python tongue that could identify anything he tasted. "The dead body wasn't her."
    Rick said a silent prayer of thanks, and muscles he hadn't even realized he'd clenched relaxed as he settled deeper into the chair.
    "The thing is," Lucas spoke soberly, "she was hurt. Somebody had cleaned up the area, but Angelique found faint traces of her blood, and there was a grave containing a dead viper, a South American rattler, not far from the scene. It has all the ear-markings of an assassination attempt gone bad."
    Rick sighed audibly. "It's not like it's the first time, Lucas. The snakes have been trying to assassinate Josie since she was a teenager."
    The older man nodded. "True. But we're worried. Unfortunately, I don't dare send anyone after her that she doesn't know personally. If she didn't kill them outright, she'd at least damage them, and I don't have any agents to spare." He sighed. "I had sent Tasha to see her on another matter some time ago, but I've lost contact with her." He growled. "I'm hoping it's a temporary setback. I can't afford to lose any more of my agents."
    This was the second or third time Lucas had referred to Wolven agents in the possessive. Rick had always assumed Fiona had taken over when Jack left to join Congress. "You don't have any agents?"
    Lucas sighed, but it ended with a light growl, and his scent was filled with annoyance. "I'm in charge, at least temporarily. Jack's dead, as I said. Fiona's unavailable."
    Amber spoke up, her voice still a little unsteady. "Fiona and Raven Ramirez, her second before the council added my position over them both are on forced medical leave at the order of the Council."
    The council had ordered the two top people in Wolven on medical leave? Rick didn't know Ramirez but he could just imagine Fiona's reaction to being benched. He nodded to both Lucas and Amber. "You have my deepest sympathies for dealing with Fiona while she's on forced leave. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy." Rick was only half joking. Still, Lucas was a big boy. If anybody could handle an ill-tempered cougar it was him.
    Rick had disliked Fiona from the minute she'd walked into the same room with him for the first time. Either she hadn't known he was an empath, or she hadn't cared enough to shield herself. Rick had felt her emotions as clearly as anything he'd sensed in his life: ambition unfettered by anything more than the most rudimentary conscience; ethics that were best described as … flexible. It hadn't surprised him at all when he'd heard the rumor that she'd slept with Raphael Ramirez knowing full well that Amber was mated to him and pregnant. Bitch.
    One-sided matings in the Sazi world might be the norm, but that didn't make it any easier. To fall in love with a person who might or might not share your devotion … it was one of nature's little cruelties in exchange for the dubious blessing of being Sazi. He'd always wondered what might have happened if he had been mated to Josie —if pleasing her had been foremost in his mind, instead of his own selfish interests. Despite what the songs on the radio repeatedly told him, love doesn't conquer all. Not even among the supernatural community. Sometimes it just makes things worse.
    The bedroom door opened and Charles appeared, looking a little better, but still fairly ill. Charles turned to Amber, his expression grim. "I hate to do this, my love, but I'm ordering an investigation into Fiona's activities."
    Her brows shot up and she half-stood —shock plain on her face. "Charles!"
    He held up a hand. "I don't believe she's betrayed us. I can't believe that. But at the very least she's been negligent, and that negligence has cost lives. We can't be certain yet that one of those lives isn't Aspen's. I know she's your only remaining baby sister, but —"
    A variety of emotions ran across the woman's face, and every single one of them beat against Rick's mind until he visibly winced. Apparently, she'd