Free Master of Darkness by Angela Knight

white T-shirt he’d worn beneath it clung to his powerful chest. “Then it’s up to her. I . . .”
    The door to the gym banged open. The twins jumped. Miranda spun, reaching for her magic, aware of Justice, Tristan, Belle, and Conal tensing to fight.
    “The wards!” a woman called in a voice as Southern as pecan pie. “Somethin’s probin’ the wards!”
    “And it’s evil,” a male voice added, so powerful and resonant with authority it reminded Justice of Morgan Freeman the time he’d played God.
    Yet nothing human came through the door.
    A white, long-haired cat galloped in, following what Justice first mistook for the biggest freaking parrot he’d ever seen. The bird’s plumage was bright scarlet, gold, and orange, its tail a blazing swath of color as it winged into the room.
    The bird landed on Conal’s shoulder, and Justice realized it was in fact an eagle. Or some kind of predatory bird, anyway; it had a raptor’s beak and claws that looked like it could disembowel a deer. Magic glowed in its savage golden eyes.
    “Where in the hell did you get a phoenix eagle?” Tristan stared at the huge bird with wary respect.
    “He didn’t ‘get’ me anywhere,” the eagle said in that Freeman rumble. “I got him.”
    The cat leaped into Aislyn’s arms, visibly shivering. “Oh, who cares, you big ol’ feather duster? We have problems! That thing will eat us all!”
    “What ‘thing’?” Justice asked.
    Miranda knew damned well they wouldn’t like the answer.
    * * *
    The two bodyguards lay dead in a wide splatter of drying blood on the pavement outside the DCN Corporate Center. One corpse still gripped his gun. Judging by the scent of gunpowder wafting from the barrel, Justice thought he’d gotten off at least one shot.
    Not that it had done him a damned bit of good. Both mortals had been bitten by something with one hell of a lot of teeth—and a much bigger set of jaws than any werewolf’s.
    “The snake didn’t do this.” Justice knelt beside Tristan, Belle, and Miranda, as all of them studied the ragged wounds. One man had been bitten almost in two, while the other had bled out after a bite amputated his thigh. “No snake has this many teeth.”
    “If it had been the cobra, it probably would have eaten them both.” Tristan rose and drew his sword, his eyes flicking restlessly over their surroundings. “Though considering these bastards are Shifters, I guess it could be the same monster in a different form.”
    “The magical signature doesn’t feel the same.” Miranda frowned thoughtfully down at the corpses. “But that may not mean much.”
    “Scent’s not the same either.” Justice inhaled again, once more picking up a trace of oily musk under the reek of drying blood. “Does smell reptilian, though.”
    “Don’t you dare leave those girls, Conal Donovan!” Belle snapped into her cell phone as she paced around the corpses. She and Tristan had persuaded the Sidhe to remain in the building’s penthouse, guarding his sisters and the trio of enchanted animals they called “familiars.”
    The cat was positive the DCN Center was under attack by something nasty. Apparently she’d been downstairs, begging a treat from her favorite feline-loving guard, when the security cameras caught something big moving through the dark outside. Danu had magically summoned Essus and taken the elevator up to Conal’s penthouse. Meanwhile the guards went out to investigate.
    Where they promptly got themselves killed.
    “We’ll find the Beast who did this,” Belle assured Conal. “Arthur told me he’ll send reinforcements as soon as they finish the cleanup in Mirpur.”
    She stopped her pacing to listen, then shook her head. “No, I’ve put an invisibility spell over the scene. The police won’t be called unless you call them. Which I wouldn’t suggest you do until we’re sure the killer isn’t hanging around waiting to eat a few cops.”
    Miranda spotted something on the pavement and