A Reaper's Love (WindWorld) by Charlotte Boyett-Compo Page B

morning.”
    “How do you know he’s a Rogue Reaper?” the
same director, Gilbert Charles, asked.
    “Darkyn Sorn sensed him,” the Supervisor
said then held up his hand to forestall the director asking another disruptive
question. “Sorn went to Somalia to capture an asoon puksa causing
mischief over there and caught a whiff of the Rogue. He tried to triangulate
his whereabouts but the bastard shut down completely, hiding himself from the
Prime. That’s how we know he’s powerful and that he’s Reaper.”
    “Sorn is the Alpha at Tearmann?” another
director wanted clarified.
    “Yes,” the Supervisor said with an annoyed
sigh. “He is Panthera.”
    “ Asoon puksa ?” Director Charles
queried.
    “For the love of Alel!” the Supervisor
snapped. “The creature has the upper body of a giant and the lower body of a
bird of prey! It devours large animals and the occasional human. Satisfied? Now
stop interrupting me!” He swiveled his eyes around the table. “All of you!”
    “Our apologies,” Director Charles mumbled.
    “We need to find this balgair ,” the
Supervisor stated. “We need to find him and question him. On the surface it
looks as though he is fighting for our side but he may have some nefarious
agenda of his own.”
    “In other words we need to know if he’s a
good witch or a bad witch,” Director Nealson quipped.
    “Or just a flying monkey,” Director Charles
said with a chuckle.
    “Are you finished being stupid?” the
Supervisor bellowed.
    Chastened, the two men looked down at the
table with their lips tightly compressed.
    “Sorn told his Supervisor the man is very
powerful. If he can shut out a Prime Reaper as commanding as that Alpha, he is
a force with which to reckon,” the Supervisor turned his attention to Taylor.
“I know you don’t want to go back into the field again but I need to send Albright.”
    Taylor’s forehead creased. “We no longer
have a psychic link available to us,” he said, glancing quickly at his mate. “I
don’t know how effective we would be together.”
    “You wouldn’t be going,” the Supervisor
told him.
    “You want to send me alone?” Laci asked.
    “Hell no!” Taylor snapped. “She isn’t going
on any missions without a backup!”
    “Then send Darkyn with me,” she suggested.
    “That’s not going to happen, either!”
Taylor said. “He’s not mated.”
    “No, but I am,” she reminded him.
    Her mate snorted. “Apparently not at the
moment.”
    “I am mated ,” she said firmly. “To
you.”
    “The balgair has already had a
run-in with Darkyn,” the Supervisor said. “He managed to hide from our man so
sending Tearmann’s Alpha is out of the question. Apparently he had no trouble
homing in on a fellow Reaper but he won’t sense you coming, Albright. You
aren’t hosting a hellion so he won’t be able to scent you in that way. All we
need to find out is if he’s what he seems or if he’s got something evil in
mind.”
    “Will she be able to discern that?”
Director Charles asked.
    “She’s a very talented cognitive empath,”
the Supervisor said. “Of course she will.”
    “What makes you think he won’t recognize
her for what she is?” Director Hallicun inquired.
    “There are psychics of myriad varieties all
over the world. I’m sure he recognizes each of them when he comes into contact
with them. He won’t be expecting one to be more interested in him than any of
the others who sense he is one of them.”
    “If he is as powerful as Darkyn says,
wouldn’t he shut down the psi signals he’s giving off in order to hide from
those able to sense him?” Taylor asked.
    “He can’t keep powers that intense hidden
all the time,” the Supervisor said.
    “And especially not when he’s going after a
target,” Laci put in.
    “Precisely,” the Supervisor said. “I
understand you are concerned for her safety, Reynaud but we don’t need Albright
to interact with him. We just need her to evaluate him from a