Black Wings, Gray Skies (Black Hat Bureau 4)

Now that I was home, I could relieve him, handle the electrician, and do a thorough sweep of the store.

“Clay plans to use him as the BOB.” At my blank expression, he explained, “Body opponent bag.”

Poor Aedan would be eating a lot of foot-scented mat then. “What about Clay?”

“He’ll work one-on-one with the students to correct their forms and boost their confidence.”

That sounded like the best allocation of their talents. “And you?”

“I’ll be teaching at the front of the room. Aedan will partner with me, as required.”

“To prevent any hand-chopper-offering.”

“Yes,” he said a beat too slow for it to be the only reason.

Before the blood oath, I would have suspected it was an excuse for Asa to beat Aedan senseless.

Now I figured he wanted Aedan trained to protect himself, and the girls, against threats.

Like my cousins.

Or my grandfather.

Or my grandmother.

Pretty much anyone related to either of us qualified.

“There is one thing. Two, actually.” I cleared my throat and pointed to his head. “What about those?”

“The one element missing from Clay’s story was a clever witch.”

“Mmm-hmm.” I arched an eyebrow at him. “You’re buttering me up to cast a spell on you.”

“You already have.” His lips twitched in the promise of a smile. “The day I met you.”

“That was terrible.” I snorted a laugh. “You must be scraping the bottom of your barrel of one-liners.”

Enjoying the ribbing, he gestured to his horns. “Would you mind?”

Innate fae talent left manufactured glamours in the dust, but I could spin a concealment that would hold for a few hours with Colby’s help. The tricky part was intangibility, making them both unseen and unfelt.

“Not at all.” I dusted off my pants. “Let me grab my kit from my room.”

Past the sagging door, I dug through my clothes from yesterday until I located the necessities.

Asa stood in the hall, testing the hinges and drawing his bottom lip between his teeth.

“I can fix this.” He smoothed his thumb over one of the dented screws. “I’ll buy supplies while I’m in town.”

“Hmm?”

The ease with which he stood there told me last night had been a release in more ways than one. As if our roles had been reversed with that one act. He was looser, more relaxed, while I was ready to volunteer for the full-time job of Asa’s lip biter.

One taste of him had me craving more, more, more with a familiar urgency reserved for juicy hearts.

More kisses.

More caresses.