"The difference being?"
"You get to ignore my advice. But if you do and things go wrong, I get to say I told you so."
Petrov snorted. "That's the most honest job description I've ever heard."
Dimitri turned back to the notepad and the questions they needed to answer. Two parallel tracks, a mind merge to evaluate, an escape to plan, an enhancement proposal to fake, and a deadline counting down like a clock attached to a bomb.
And underneath all of that, quietly and insistently, the ache in his gums that reminded him that his body was changing, and that soon he wouldn't be able to hide the transformation.
He ran his tongue over his canines again. The right one shifted.
Not much. Just a fraction of a millimeter. But it was enough.
He had days. Maybe less.
"Let's start with the questions for Dave," he said. "Petrov, walk me through the neurological considerations."
Petrov cracked his knuckles and began to write as he spoke, while Dimitri synthesized, filtered, and tried to hold all the pieces in his head at once.
His gums throbbed.
His throat burned.
And somewhere deep in his jaw, a tooth that had been human for twenty-nine years was getting ready to fall out and get replaced with a fang.
7
ANNANI
The doorbell rang right on time, announcing Mia and probably Toven as well. Annani was certain that her cousin would accompany his mate and most likely try to argue against the idea of her using Mia to enhance her powers and insist on doing it himself. It was not that he had anything against Mia working with Annani, but it was misplaced machismo. Toven did not want his sweet, delicate Mia to be anywhere near the big bad wolf without him there to protect her.
Annani planned to tell her cousin that the wolf was still partially paralyzed and quite toothless, but she doubted it would convince him.
She would have shared her musings with Kian, but he was so focused on the news he was reading on his phone that he had not even noticed the doorbell.
A moment later, Ogidu ushered her cousin and his mate inside, and the sour expression on Toven's face confirmed Annani's prediction.
His hand was resting on the small of Mia's back, his jaw set in that particular way that she still remembered her Khiann had assumed every time she had come up with another idea that he had not agreed with but tried to be supportive of.
"Good afternoon." Annani rose from her armchair. "Thank you for coming."
Kian stood up as well and walked over to shake the hands of their guests, and the look he exchanged with Toven was laden with understanding. He was not a fan of her plan either and would have much preferred for Toven to be the one interrogating Navuh.
"Please, take a seat." Annani gestured toward the sofa and turned to Ogidu. "You can serve the tea now."
"Of course, Clan Mother." Ogidu inclined his head and retreated toward the kitchen with the smooth, slightly hurried gait that made him look like a caricature of a real butler. He was trying so hard to imitate human behavior, but that was precisely why he was failing. It was like an actor on stage who was a little too loud for the part he was playing or moving his body in an exaggerated manner. But he was slowly changing. The sentience that had been growing in the Odus was not dramatic, but it was unmistakable, and Annani found it fascinating. The implications, however, were a little unsettling.
She had never treated her Odus as things, and neither had her children, to whom she had assigned an Odu each. They had always been part of the family, but now the rules were changing, and at some point, they might decide that they no longer wanted to serve her and her children, and if that ever happened it would be devastating. The Odus had stayed by her side through thickand thin, as the humans liked to say, and she could not imagine life without them.
Mia sat on the sofa Annani had indicated, but Toven remained standing, looking too agitated to be able to sit.
"Please sit down, Toven." Annani returned to her chair and smoothed her skirt. "You are making Mia anxious by your hovering, and she is already anxious enough."
Toven cast Mia a questioning glance and frowned when she nodded, confirming Annani's assessment of her mental state.
"I'm not hovering," he grumbled.
Annani motioned at the couch again. "We are having tea in my sitting room, not storming a fortress."
