Kate Daniels 02 - Magic Burns

Eat it. It’s good and you look like you need it.”
    I didn’t think I’d hold it down, but as soon as the first bite hit my mouth, I knew I would want seconds.
    â€œHow is she?” I asked between bites.
    â€œShe’s doing good.” The werehyena raised her eyebrows and nodded. “She’s one tough bouda.”
    â€œBuddha?”
    â€œBouda. Werehyena. Although if you want to get technical, your girl is…” She cut herself off. “If you want to get technical, it’s not my place to tell you. Call us boudas. That’s the proper way to do it.” The bouda sniffed. “Company. I love visitors for dinner.”
    A familiar man strode from the trees, moving with a purpose. Six two, with skin the color of coffee grounds, he looked like he wanted to punch somebody. A long black leather coat hid most of him, but what little showed of his chest under a black T-shirt suggested he was all muscle. His swagger suggested he was all mean. In daylight on a busy street, crowds did an excellent impression of the Red Sea before Moses at his approach.
    He stopped a few yards from the porch.
    â€œWow, knock me over with a feather. The chief of intelligence himself at our doorstep.” The bouda grinned and her smile wasn’t friendly.
    â€œHi, Jim,” I said.
    He didn’t look at me. “The man wants to know what’s going on. And he wants her at the Keep. Now.”
    â€œTalking about yourself in the third person now, are we?” The bouda smiled.
    Jim leaned back, his chin high. “Curran wants information. Don’t make me walk into this house uninvited.”
    The bouda’s eyes flashed crimson. She let loose a strung-out hysterical cackle and leaned forward, showing him her teeth. Her face twisted into a hungry grimace. “Make a move, cat! Break the law. Test the jaws of Kuri’s daughter, if you dare. I’ll smile wide when your bones snap under my teeth.”
    She snapped at him and licked her lips. Jim’s face wrinkled in a snarl. Two hyenas circled from behind the house like sharks, clicking and growling.
    I got up and nodded to Jim. “Give me a minute. As a personal favor.”
    His face gave nothing away. Slowly, deliberately he took two steps back and waited.
    Inside the bathroom, Andrea sat on marble, barely visible behind the female and Aunt B. The male bouda ran his fingers through the wet mass of blond hair on her head, searching for something.
    â€œI have to go…”
    The boudas parted, revealing Andrea. She was covered in short fur, her skin dappled with uniform black spots. I’d never seen a body that proportionate in beast-form, except for Curran’s. The only flaw was her arms: they reached down too low, almost brushing her knees. It took me a second to register the fact that she had breasts. Normal human breasts. Most female shapeshifters in half-form had tiny breasts or a row of tits.
    She looked at me. Her blue eyes and her forehead said human. Her dark muzzle and jaws signaled hyena. They melded seamlessly into each other. The effect was a revolting but somehow unified whole.
    â€œFound it.” The male hooked something with his claws.
    Aunt B braced Andrea’s head. “Do it.”
    The male plucked a small dark object from Andrea’s skull, sending a few drops of blood flying. She groaned quietly. Aunt B let go, and the male leaned in and licked Andrea’s neck gently.
    â€œI do believe Raphael’s in love.” The female bouda grinned.
    Andrea clumped a wet towel to her head and looked at me. “Kate? Where are you going?”
    The words came through startlingly clear, her voice completely unchanged.
    â€œCurran wants to talk to me. He sent Jim, and it’s best I go.”
    Andrea took a deep breath. “I’m beastkin.”
    By the way she pronounced it, I understood the word must have some sort of deep significance but it flew completely over my head. My face must have said as much, because Aunt B folded her hands in her lap. “Do you remember Corwin?”
    â€œThe catwere. He died protecting Derek.” Lyc-V was an equal opportunity virus. It infected humans and animals alike and stole fragments of its victims’ DNA, sometimes inserting human genetic code into an animal. Very rarely the result was a beastwere, an animal that shapeshifted into a human. Most were idiots and died quickly, but some, like Corwin, learned to speak and