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Animals were so much better at seeing reality than humans were.

“What does big wolf look like when he is man?” Mulan asked in a whisper.

I chuckled softly at her question and kept my voice low as well. “That’s Isaiah and he’s their alpha leader. He’s very tall with long blond hair, wide shoulders, and has a very fit body. Werewolves are nice if ya can tolerate their pheromones.”

“Where I lived in China, we did not have wolf shifters. We had only panda ones. Wild pandas are fierce. Have you ever wondered what werewolves are like as lovers? Not that I am unsatisfied with high demon. I am just curious about such things.”

“Werewolves are energetic lovers,” I said, remembering the one I dated in school. “Unfortunately, they think they own ya afterward. I had to be cruel to the one I dated so he’d leave me be. Isaiah doesn’t tempt me.”

“But young guardian tempts you. Conn and I found you asleep with him.”

I nodded and sighed. “Rasmus has a way of calming me when no one else can. If he’s using magick to do it, I haven’t caught him.”

“Do guardians smell like birds?”

Giggling, I tilted my head and grinned while I thought about it. “Rasmus smells like sandalwood mixed with the air by a waterfall. I like his scent. It soothes me.”

“Will you make him real boy-toy now?”

My sigh cut through the night. “I’m getting used to him, but I don’t have time for a lover. His kind keep mucking up my life. I want to go back to tracking trolls and doing work where it’s clear who the bad guys are.”

“Trolls stink. I have chased many of them from crop fields. They steal from farmers.”

“Their stink makes them easy to track,” I said, chuckling as we walked. “Demons don’t stink.”

“No, they do not,” Mulan said, sighing long and loud. “They smell like cinnamon rolls mixed with herbal ritual fire. It evades all your senses.”

My grin was wide as we followed the wolves. It lasted until the pack yipped to each other and suddenly split into two groups. One group loped off to the left. The other, led by Isaiah still, continued straight ahead.

I stopped and waited for the guys to catch up. “The wolf pack split. They must be following two scent trails.”

“I’ll follow the ones who went left,” Rasmus said from behind me. He jogged off into the woods and disappeared.

Conn joined us as we continued on after the rest. “Werewolves talk telepathically. If I listen very hard, I can sometimes catch their communication. If I heard right, the ones Rasmus is following smelled death. Isaiah sent two of the older wolves to investigate.”

I frowned into the dark and hoped Rasmus could handle dealing with what the wolves found. “Zara admitted to killing five of the missing women. She takes something from them and makes a serum that keeps her young. Her immortality is not natural. She was supposed to die like the other females. I understand her doing what she could to avoid that fate, but she can’t keep killing young women.”

“You have sympathy for her,” Mulan said.

I nodded. “I havea littlesympathy, but it won’t keep me from doing what I have to do to stop her. My primary job is to protect innocent humans.”

Isaiah howled softly from somewhere ahead. “That’s the alpha calling us,” I said.

“Do you understand the werewolves as well?” Conn asked.

I chuckled at his question. “Not the howling, but I understand males well enough. He’s not calling to the men with him because they don’t take a step without him saying it’s okay. It’s not all that hard to figure out he’s calling to me to hurry up.”

Conn chuckled as we picked up our pace. We soon arrived at a point where the forest stopped at an unkept grassy area. Two buildings were barely visible in the dark.

“Mantle first,” Conn ordered.

I didn’t argue. I pulled his magick to me and called a sword of the same material. If nothing else, I needed the sword to cut through the overgrown plants and grasses in our way.

Conn shifted to demon form in a size matching the human one he generally stayed in around Mulan. Giving us a look and a grunt, he headed off in the direction of one of the two buildings. Since he chose first, I had no choice but to explore the other.

“I am with you,” Mulan said, pulling out her shaman staff. She extended it until the turtle shells clacked. Stopping, she took a hair tie from her pocket and secured the shells to the staff until they made no noise when she moved.

I grinned at her. “I never realized how useful girlie things could be until I met ya.”