“I’m not even going to ask.”
Shepherd and Blue joined us, Viktor’s wolf pressed to her side.
“The other numpty hasn’t come out of the toilet yet,” Christian informed me.
Blue pointed. “Well, go get him.”
“Fecking not. He’s taking a shite, and I’ll not be going in there. It’s toxic. And don’t light up one of your smokes,” he warned Shepherd. “One strike of the match, and this whole place could go.”
Realizing Christian was dead serious, I chuckled.
“What was that you said?” he asked.
I strode past him. “Nothing. I just had a tickle in my throat.”
The dogs were sniffing each other’s butts, peeing everywhere, and one black Lab scurried after a hyperactive Siamese cat.
“What the fuck?” the worker exclaimed from a distance.
When we entered the hall with the cats, one of them was lying in front of the bathroom, swiping its paw beneath the door at the man inside.
I startled the cat when I flashed up to the door. The man opened it, and he jerked his head back at the wild scene. One minute, he’s doing his private business. The next, he’s staring at a woman in a sumptuously revealing gown, a rough-looking guy dressed like a wealthy drug lord, a bearded man in leathers, a wolf protecting a fierce woman in a blue cape, and animals wreaking havoc everywhere.
Before he could speak, I clapped my hand on his shoulder. “Lights out.”
A very conservative shock knocked him down, and he fell to my feet, still conscious. When the stench wafted from the bathroom, I backed up. “Oh God, I regret everything,” I said, covering my mouth and nose.
The man gripped my ankle as I tried to flee the malodorous fumes corrupting my senses.
“Christian, get over here and charm him!”
Christian folded his arms, a crooked smile winding up his face. “I support women’s rights. This one’s all yours, Precious.”
The man’s feet were halfway inside the bathroom, holding the door ajar.
“Let go of me!” I kicked my leg like a mule caught in a barbed fence.
To my horror, one of the dogs ventured into the bathroom to investigate. I bent over and gripped the man’s wrist. He looked in his twenties and not very built, so I didn’t want to pump him with too much juice and kill him. Instead, I twisted his wrist and released his hold. Then I dragged his body toward my team, who watched on with amusement. “Someone take care of him.”
“I’ll do it.” Shepherd squatted and put his hands on the man’s chest. “Christ. What the hell did you eat?” A red light pulsed, and within a few seconds, the man nodded off. “Sweet dreams.”
When the brown dog emerged from the bathroom, he was smacking his lips and wagging his tail.
We backed up toward the main doors as the dog jauntily approached.
Christian tripped over a shih tzu and fell hard on his back. “If that tongue comes anywhere near me, I’m asking for a raise.”
Shepherd chuckled darkly. “I think that’s Raven’s line.”
I stared at the unconscious man. “I didn’t know you could knock people out.”
Shepherd petted a black Lab that pawed at his legs. “Technically I can’t. Not like you. But I have a little sensory magic stored up that helps with insomnia. I got it from a narcoleptic. Figured it might come in handy someday, so I pulled the sensation from him just when he was nodding off.”
Blue furrowed her brow. “Huh. Do you ever use that on Hunter to put him to sleep?”
Shepherd frowned and stopped petting the dog. “My kid isn’t a science experiment.”
“Sorry. I don’t know much about family rules with Sensors. You guys engage in sensory exchange during sex, so I just assumed that using your gifts on each other was normal.”
