Shepherd's Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

position on the shelf, then returned to his desk. “And I would consider it a personal favor.”
    I laughed out loud, the movement causing me to wince after the beating I had taken with the Newborn last night. “I’m guessing that personal favors are frowned on by your HR department, aren’t they?”
    He pressed his lips together, letting me know he was in no mood to deal with my attitude. It doesn’t take much with Richard. Stress is something he has learned to accept in his life. Attitude from others is not. Retired military, he was accustomed to absolute obedience, which is not something he ever got from me. Today his hair looked grayer than normal. I always thought of him as approaching the sixty-year threshold, but he could have been closer to forty years old after dealing with me for so long. Standing at 5’7 , he didn’t exactly tower over his officers, but he had earned their respect, as well as their fear.
    Then again, if size really did matter, I wouldn’t be the human equivalent of an alpha in a house filled with a pack of wereanimals.
    “Alex,” he ran a weathered hand through his gray hair. “This isn’t going to hurt you and it will go a long way towards making my life a little less complex.”
    “And yet, while I’m out simplifying your life, mine somehow gets more complex. What I’d like is for my life to be a little easier.” Somehow I managed to avoid glaring at him.
    Richard had a unique ability to calm others, and he was particularly good at working that skill on me. Today I wanted to stay mad at him. Frustrated, I waved my good hand at him. “Why is it that I’m spending my days pet-sitting a half wild pack of Weres and vampires and you’re the one who needs an easier life?”
    Closing out of the computer screen he was on, his voice reflected a hint of amusement. “If memory serves, I believe that I have assisted you with a favor or two in the past, and working with my department already makes your life easier.”
    “Fine.” I walked to the corner of his desk and rested my hip on the edge. “I’ll tell you what — you stop tracking my every move and I’ll figure out what’s up with your neighbor’s cat.”
    “No,” he said, “in a voice that implied it should have been obvious. “
    Joseph had been of the mind that I shouldn’t be too difficult to find at any given time. Given my propensity for leaving whenever I wanted as a teen, I can’t say that I blamed him. At the age of thirteen, I received my first implanted microchip that tracked my location. As a teen, I was barely aware of its existence. Joseph had always valued his freedom and my safety was his only real concern.
    However, Richard had somehow inherited Joseph’s concern for me — and that was becoming more and more of a problem. Being tracked did not lend itself to a lot of private time. Besides that, he never showed up at a time that was convenient — like when I was getting my ass handed to me by a Newborn. If he was going to track me, he may as well make use of the technology to make sure I stayed in one piece.
    “As much as I hate to admit it,” he murmured. “You’re too valuable to lose. Not to mention that Joseph would climb from his grave and stake me if anything happened to you. Besides, you haven’t brought in Azrael’s Handler yet. Consider it a penalty.”
    “Yeah, but I brought in Azrael. Use him to find the handler.”
    Lowering his eyes he said, “Azrael expired in the tank.”
    Expired. There’s a word for you. The tank was admittedly a place no creature — human or preternatural — would want to spend any time, but it’s the safest way we had to contain a vampire. It looked like a medieval torture device. Hell, it probably had been at some point. The tank was essentially an upright coffin. Prisoners were placed inside and the doors were closed as long spikes penetrated the ankles, wrists and shoulders of the accused. In the case of vampires, the coffin-like contraption was filled