Psy & Changelings 06 - Branded by Fire

sharp, incredible green. Her brothers were all gorgeous on their own, but collectively, they made temperatures rise like nobody’s business. She’d spent half her teen years scaring off the girls who’d come sniffing after one or the other. Not that the idiots had been grateful.
    “You look good, sis.” Putting her on her feet after another squeeze, Bas let her get into her seat.
    “Yeah, nice dress.” Grey actually sounded sincere.
    Mercy looked down at the short, royal blue cheongsam she’d bought in this very part of town. With her hair pulled up into a high ponytail and some makeup on her face, she felt good. Even if the knife-edge of need continued to twist relentlessly in her stomach, immune to the practicality with which she’d held Riley at bay this afternoon. “Thanks, Shadow.”
    “How come he gets a cool nickname?” Sage muttered. “I get Herb.”
    “Hey, don’t knock it,” Bas said. “You want to be called Frenchie instead? Sounds like the name of a fucking condom.”
    They all choked on their oolong tea and one of the waitresses fluttered over, ready to offer all kinds of help. She saw her brothers check out the petite beauty— men —but though they gave her charming grins, they didn’t extend an invitation. Clearly disappointed, she took the order they finally put together, and headed off.
    “What?” Mercy looked around the table. “You guys take up a vow of celibacy?”
    “Now that you ask,” Grey murmured, brown eyes twinkling.
    “Hah.” She snorted. Grey might be the quietest, but he was also the most cunningly feline. “I’ll believe that the day I”—Normally, she’d have said “sleep with a wolf” but since that option was out, she settled for—“grow wings and fly.”
    Bas put a hand on her back, as if checking for wings. “This stuff is really soft.”
    Sage, next to her, fingered the sleeve. “Yeah, it is. How come we rate getting you in a soft, pretty dress?”
    “How come I rate the three of you all shiny and spic-and-span?” She raised an eyebrow at their outfits. Jeans, shirts, and T-shirts, nothing out of the ordinary. But all new, or clean and pressed, much nicer than necessary for dinner with their sister.
    “We thought we’d go dancing.” Grey winked. “You’re coming.”
    “I am?”
    “Yes. We need you as bait to draw the other women.”
    And since Mercy was a sucker for her brothers when the three of them ganged up on her, she went dancing with the demons. The serving staff at the restaurant looked so mournful as they left that she wrapped an arm around Bas’s waist and shook her head. “I don’t think the three of you should be allowed out in public together.”
    He swung his own arm over her shoulders. “And I just know I’m going to have to punch someone for trying to paw you in that dress.” He sounded very eager.
    She didn’t remind him that she was fully capable of punching out people on her own. Bas was her brother—he couldn’t help protecting her. As Riley couldn’t help it. It was like a switch went off in them at times. Mercy could bend when necessary, she wasn’t always a hard-ass. Bas had in fact, punched out people for her. She could deal.
    The problem with Riley was, he didn’t seem to have any give in him. She didn’t want her only glimpses into his soul to be after the crushing darkness of nightmare. For her cat to trust him, he needed to trus—
    “Hey.” Bas squeezed her shoulder. “Where did you go?”
    She glanced ahead to where Grey and Sage were strolling, checking out the window displays in the adjacent shops. “I’m dealing with stuff.”
    A silky pause. “What’s his name?”
    “As if I’d tell you.”
    “You chased off my last girlfriend.”
    “She was a hyena.” Not literally, but in heart. “Wanted you for your money.” Bas was smart, crazy smart. He made money on the stock market simply by breathing. Which was why he was in charge of DarkRiver’s financial assets.
    “My ego bleeds.” A hand rubbing pitifully over his chest.
    “We’re going to be wiping up blood for weeks, it’s so colossal.”
    He hugged her closer. “Come on, you can tell me. It’ll be our secret.”
    “And you’ll go hunting him the second I’m distracted. I don’t think so.” But she hugged him back. “So, no new hyena for me to chase off?”
    “I’m still healing the scars from the last one.” A piercing look. “I know who it is.”
    “No, you don’t.”
    “Riley.”
    Her mouth fell open.