“What? Are you okay?” Kalinda’s heart raced.
He fanned himself and yanked at his tie, his face turning red as a tomato. Kalinda counted at least three large veins popping out on his forehead. His charger gripped his shoulders, keeping him upright as she growled at Kalinda.
What was going on?
“She’s poisoned me!” Leo wheezed.
Kalinda shook her head. “I’ve done no such thing. What are you talking about?”
Orion jerked, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water before he slumped over dramatically. “Dead. I’m dead.”
She would have laughed at the picture in front of her if she wasn’t surrounded by pissed-off lions and lionesses with her staff’s lives in the balance. Heat spread through her limbs, a sign her magic was about to pop a filter.
Great. Just great.
“Mr. Viscount, the meal was cooked and delivered just as you ordered. Your charger sniffed for anything out of the ordinary. If you need the assistance of Warlock Cyrus, he can be called immediately.”
They were shifters. There was no way any ingredient in the food would have made it past their noses.
Kalinda turned and snapped her fingers at her girls, hoping they’d get the signal and go. Silva, her white hair pulled into a messy bun atop her head was the smallest of them all, her delicate pointy ears a sign of her Fae ancestry. But she was quick, darting between the shifters to each girl and yanking them behind her.
“I’ll call Cyrus right away,” Silva announced.
I’m giving that girl a raise.
The heat in Kalinda’s body built, hotter and hotter, spiraling from her heart and out through her fingertips. Without thinking, she touched Orion, spreading magic to him as well.
Calm. Be calm and talk to me.
His eyes glazed over, and he smiled.
Orion started wheezing again and spluttered, “P-pretty. Such … dark … skin. Y-you’re g-gorgeous. You want to be my Nubian princess?”
Whaaaat? No, he didn’t. Seriously? Did he just go there?
Okay, that wasn’t what she’d expected to happen.
“Thank you,” she said with a tight-lipped smile. “Now, what’s wrong with your food?”
“I could make you Prima.”
As in the head female of a Pride? Um, no thank you.
She flashed him her most diplomatic smile. “I appreciate the offer. But first, let’s talk about what’s wrong, okay?”
“Remove your hands from the Leo!” The charger—what was her name? Oh, Roxi—jumped between Kalinda and Orion, breaking the connection. He immediately went back into spasms, flopping down to the ground and screaming again.
“You’ve poisoned me! I can’t breathe. I’m dying. Can’t you see I’m dying?”
If you can talk, you can breathe. Melodramatic much?
Dang it, she wasn’t supposed to be thinking like that. She took a deep breath and backed away from Roxi with her palms up in a placating gesture.
“I just wanted to make sure he was all right and see what the issue is. He ordered the Thai noodle in peanut sa—”
“Peanuts.”
Kalinda’s ears were bleeding, she knew it, and she knew she heard several glasses shatter from Mr. Leo’s newest interpretation of Minnie Riperton’s skillset. Hitting high notes like that really should have crushed his vocal cords.
