"Laura Anne Gilman - Retrievers 03 - Bring It On" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gilman Laura Anne)

A furry, leather-palmed paw struck the side of her face, not as hard as it might have, but harder than a
love tap.

тАЬWhat the hell was that for?тАЭ she asked, her hand going to her face as though expecting to feel blood, or
at least heat rising from the skin. Thankfully, heтАЩd kept his long, curved black claws away from delicate
human flesh.

тАЬSelf-pity.тАЭ The demon climbed back onto his chair, bringing his sandwich with him and watching her
with those dark red eyes that were the mark of his breed. тАЬDoesnтАЩt look good on you.тАЭ

тАЬGreat. The entire lonejack community is freaking out over what might or might not be Council-directed
attacks on them, the fatae are claiming that humans are targetingthem, my love life is going seriously
weird, and IтАЩm getting slapped for self-pity by a four foot tall polar bear with attitude. Who has jelly in his
fur.тАЭ

P.B. took a bite out of his lunch, and swallowed, ignoring her last crack. тАЬYouтАЩre wallowing, Valere.
LeeтАЩs dead. HeтАЩs gone. Move on, or youтАЩre going to be distracted at the wrong time, and get yourself
dead, too.тАЭ He relented, only a little bit. тАЬDamn it, I liked him, too. I trusted him.тАЭ

тАЬYou didnтАЩt get him killed.тАЭ

тАЬDidnтАЩt I?тАЭ

That made her look up and meet his gaze.

She had known the demon presently sitting in her kitchen for years. Almost ten, in fact. In all that time,
he had been effective in his job as courier of privy information and items, witty in his comments, and
aggressive in his refusal to get involved in anything other than his own life. In short, the perfect lonejack,
even if he was a fatae, one of the nonhumans who were part of theCosa Nostradamus, the magical
community.

All that had changed over the past six months, when P.B. had somehow, for some reason, gotten
tangled up in the vigilante attacks against other fatae; human vigilantes, preaching hate with guns and bats.

Wren had friends among the fatae, more than just this one demon. She was ashamed now to admit that
she had shrugged the first attacks off as random violence; not acceptable, but normal enough. Prejudice
happened. Violence happened. That was life, unfortunately. She had been angryтАФbut not proactive. The
question of who these humans were affiliated with, how they knew about the fatae: those things hadnтАЩt
been dealt with the moment the severity of and prep behind the attacks became clear. The fact that she
had been ears-deep in a job was no excuse.

Shehad been worried enough to ask her friend Lee to keep an eye on the demon when she and Sergei
had left for Italy to Retrieve the Nescanni parchment, the тАЬlittle jobтАЭ the Silence had hired them for. But
that had been just to keep her friends out of trouble. P.B. had then inveigled Lee into helping him with his
investigation into the human vigilantes who seemed to be targeting the non-human population. That
investigation had led to the two of them meeting with various fatae leaders, trying to prevent the anger
against humansтАФspecifically, TalentsтАФfrom growing out of control. What had been a relatively simple
case of hate crimes then blossomed into a potentialCosa- wide chasm.