“If Mastering vampires is akin to herding cats, mastering shifters is akin to herding bull elephants.”
“So you’re saying you don’t envy him.”
“Not in the slightest.” He put his phone away, looked at me. “Are you up for a field trip?”
I smiled. “As long as I can take my sword. I’m curious to learn more about our defecting shifter.”
“You aren’t the only one, Sentinel,” Ethan murmured. “We should probably warn Luc we’re going.”
“Why? What could happen at the house of a dead shifter beside a toxic neighborhood? I’m sure everything will be fine.” I didn’t bother to hide my sarcasm.
“We’re clear,” he called out, and Paige came back with a thin black easel. She set it up, then placed the poster in the crossbar.
“Unfortunately,” Ethan said, “I won’t be able to volunteer Merit quite as early as I’d imagined. Gabriel has a lead on the shifter who was killed, and he’s asked us to check it out.”
“No worries,” Paige said with a smile, and she probably meant it. “I’d like the chance to take a look before I assign anything to Merit.”
The Librarian came back to us with a tablet and cord in hand. He plugged it in, arranged it on the tabletop for Paige to use. “Thank you, Arthur.”
His cheeks flushed with pleasure. “You’re welcome,” he said, then put his hands on his hips, surveyed the setup.
“I think we’re good to go here,” Paige said.
“Excellent,” Ethan said, putting a hand at my back. “We’ll get to our business with the shifters. If there are any developments—if you learn anything—please let us know.”
“We will,” Paige said, settling herself into a chair. “And good luck.”
“I’ll grab my sword,” I said when we’d left the library and were back in the hallway again.
“I’ll advise Luc of the call, the trip. Meet you in the basement.”
And we went our separate ways.
CHAPTER SIX
FOUR ON THE FLOOR
Despite our plan, I met him on the first floor near the staircase, just leaving his office, a glossy box in hand. “What’s that?”
“A gift for Gabriel, should we end up at Little Red.” He opened the tabs on the box, showed me the neck of a bottle of what looked like good Scotch.
“Excellent. This is random, but don’t you think Paige is just gorgeous?”
We took the stairs to the basement. “I don’t think there’s a way I can answer that question without incurring your wrath.”
I smiled at him. “As long as you don’t touch her, I’ve got no problem with your agreement. I don’t think her attractiveness is debatable. And if you do touch her, I’ll slice your fingers off and feed them to a River troll.”
“River trolls are fruitarians.”
“Not the point.”