Sunshine: Tales of an Assassin

Chapter Seven

***Katrina's POV***

    I watched as Cora shuddered lightly, and turned walking away without saying another word, but the look of hatred towards me and lust towards Kai that she threw over her shoulder told me she'd be back at some point.  Not being all that eager to talk again for a moment after the Shrew was gone, I snagged another sausage and munched on it thoughtfully.

    "Well, while I'm certain I'll hear about that later, I'm glad I don't have to listen to her now, though I'm going to enjoy having a few words with her manager now."  Matthew had a smug grin on his face now, and I was betting it was over her tripping up and starting something in front of him.

    "Why would you hear anything about that later?"  Kai had a look of confusion on his face, not knowing the history between Cora and I.  I still maintained I should be allowed to zap her, but since she hadn't done anything physical yet, I was ordered to behave.

    "Cora is here as a favor to her clan, she seems to create problems where ever she goes.  Before we met her, the clan she came from requested that when they joined tour alliance that we would keep at least one of their members here working full time, which we agreed to without meeting her, and she was the only one they sent."  Matthew grimaced. "However, she is a good paper pusher and she actually is decent with data entry so we try to keep her in her cage as much as possible, but since she seems to think she was singled out for being special by her clan, she tends to think she can be a total b***h to everyone she sees as below her, and whenever someone fights back, she runs crying to her direct manager about how everyone is 'bullying' her."

    In the mean time, while Matthew has been explaining, I've been working my way through his sausages and my coffee, now that he is down to about three left, I should probably stop.  Matthew pauses, glancing at his plate before giving me the stink eye that I ignored.

    "So she'll report about me to her boss, that will come back on you?"   Kai asked.

    "No, she'll report something else that will make Sunshine look bad, and will try to make it seem like Sunshine did something, and try to leave out the fact that I was here.  I'll handle it, especially since she used something that we tend to avoid saying around here."

    Kai waited patiently watching Matthew, while I just ignored the situation.  It was an unspoken taboo for the others here to refer to humans in any way as pets, since Unity was trying to generate peaceful co-existence, referring to humans as pets was extremely counter productive to that.  I didn't know how he couldn't know about that, most of the others I met knew it.  Since we seemed to be at a standstill and I was getting rather annoyed, I figured I may as well explain.

    "She referred to me as being a pet.  Unless someone grew up in a cave its a fairly well known slur for humans, after the way that humans tend to care for their pets.  To call a human a pet is to say that we are weak and dependent on one of you that keeps us around as a hobby or a lower form of companion."

    "I see.  Why does she think you are human?"

        Matthew and I exchanged a look then looked at him like he was crazy, which, it seemed like he was.  Perhaps he was here so Lydia could try to fix what was wrong with his brain?

    "Because I am."  Kai opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment Matthew got up and started pulling me with him.

    "Boss wants us, Kai, I'm assuming that you are supposed to come too.  Let's go, sounds pretty urgent." 

    That said, we cleaned up our trays and headed out towards Lydia's office, personally I was just as happy not to try and explain my being a human to someone who was evidently unable to sense the differences in others and humans.  With the pace that Matthew set, we remained quiet on the walk, Matthew knocking on the door to Lydia's office when we arrived before going in.  

    When we entered I glanced around, spotting one of the three stooges in the office.  The panther shifter, Nathanial, the one that had been offended before at my nickname for them.  Great.  Still I settled into a chair, Matthew was beside me, while Kai found a seat in a corner where he was watching everyone.  When Nathanial spotted him, I saw his body tense slightly, and his eyes shifting from green to gold, but when Kai settled in the corner, they slowly shifted back to green, the tension draining from his body.

    "So glad you could join us."  Lydia stated rather dryly, and I could only assume we hadn't moved fast enough for her tastes.  "I'm sure you remember Nathanial from last night."

    Matthew and I nodded, keeping our eyes focused on Lydia, while I felt Nathanial and Kai watching us, it felt rather like I was an insect pinned to a board, and I was not really enjoying it at this moment.  

    "Nathanial here has come with a proposition, since one of the females from his clan was taken, he knows another location where Gabriel may show and he is willing to provide information work with us on this with two conditions.  The first being that his clan will be working with Unity, with him as the primary contact for our branch."

    I nodded, as that made sense, from what I recall Matthew saying before, he is the leader of his clan, and most leaders were highly protective of their people, seeing as my department handled situations where things went wrong, it only made sense that he'd want to be the primary contact.

    "And the second part of this?"  Matthew asked, and suddenly I felt like having dealt with the shrew wasn't going to be the worst part of my day.

    "The second part is that since it is my plan, and my territory that this will be happening on, I will be part of the mission, and Sunshine is going to be working with me on it."

    I can feel Matthew practically vibrating beside me with the need to say something, but before he can, Lydia raised her hand, keeping Matthew, and myself silenced for the moment.

    "I have already agreed to the terms that he has set, so Sunshine, meet your first ever partner for a mission.  I'm sure the two of you will have plenty to talk about.  I'll let the two of you go, and discuss, perhaps our gym may be the best place to work out the details, as it will have fewer ears.  Matthew and Kai, I need the two of you to stay here, as I need to talk to you both."

    I sighed internally, knowing that I was going to be stuck with one of the stooges for a bit, though I was betting that Lydia recommended the gym so I'd hit a bag instead of an i***t male.  Nodding I get up and motioned for Nathanial to follow me as I headed out the door towards and towards the gym that was designated only for my department.

******

***Nathanial's POV***

    I had the feeling that Katrina, or I guess for now Sunshine, wasn't exactly happy with how things had played out between last night and today, not that I could honestly say that I blamed her now that I had time to think back over everything that happened, and to be fair, had it been reversed with several people behaving the way we had messing up a mission that I was on, I'd have probably given them some less than flattering names as well.

    Walking behind her, I still couldn't help but admire her form, even if I still worried that as a human she wouldn't be able to keep up with the rest of us and that taking on this warlock may get her seriously wounded, if not killed.  She may only be a potential mate, but she was still a potential, and my inner panther was more drawn to her than some of the others I had met, they just hadn't sparked much interest from the beast, even if the man had approved, but we both needed to agree and I couldn't see how he could be so interested in her.

    As we were walking I saw a rather unattractive woman in skimpy clothing walking our way with a rather nasty smirk on her face as she looked at Katrina, before attempting a what she must think was a seductive look at me. 

    "Seems your keeper forgot to hold your leash, maybe you should be a good little pet and go back to your keeper, I'm sure this fine specimen of a man would rather have some one of more importance helping him."  The thing strolls up to me, and I smell the subtle scent of dry grass around the perfume she has on.  Hyena, one of the few types of shifters that run almost strictly with matriarchal power structures, which also means when one is a b***h, she tends to be an extreme b***h.  

    "Well Cora, I'll be sure to send him off with someone like that when I see them, in the mean time, I'm following orders from my boss, and I'm sure you have some John waiting for you on a corner some where."  Katrina's voice was more polite, and cheerful than I'd heard it before, but I could feel anger radiating off of her.

    "Given how many men I've seen you with today already, I'm pretty sure that would apply to you more than me, pet."  The woman replied with menace, closing in on Katrina.  I couldn't help but start getting annoyed at the way she was talking to Katrina, and I really didn't like the way she kept calling her a pet, didn't she have any idea what Katrina does here.

    "Just because I'm around men, doesn't mean I am spreading my legs for all of them, unlike a certain shotgun we have working here."  Katrina's voice was still polite, and I could see a cheerful smile on her face, similar to what she had the night before, when she did something to that witch, and I was beginning to wonder if that was part of how she got dubbed Sunshine.

    Evidently though, the other woman took exception to the term that Katrina said, and I could see her eyes shifting and her hand clenching, I moved getting ready to protect Katrina who glanced at me and shook her head slightly, still smiling in that chilling way.

    "I really wouldn't do that if I were you, shot gun."  The look in her gray eyes was almost daring her to do something, a fire there that belied the words she said.  What was running through this human's mind?

    The woman raised her hand and started to swing it to slap Katrina, and I fought with myself not to move to protect her as my instincts were screaming at me to do, a growl forcing its way out of my throat, but even as I growled, Katrina was already in action.

    She blocked the slap, grabbing and twisting the offending arm back up and behind the shifter who was struggling before doing  something that made the woman collapse as if all her bones had suddenly dissolved.

    "That will wear off in about thirty minutes shot gun, and before you think about reporting me again, just remember, I have a witness for this to you being about to attack me, and I'm sure your boss would love to hear how such a strong shifter was taken down by a weak little pet."

    With that, Katrina stalked away from the shifter, and I hurried to catch up, rather impressed with the way she handled the situation, though I was still wondering about one thing at this moment.

    "Why did you call her shot gun, and why did that bother her so much?"  I couldn't help but wonder what guns had to do with this situation at all, but my question did get Katrina to laugh, a low throaty laugh of a woman who was fully enjoying herself.

    "You've never heard the term before?"  she asked between laughs.

    "Can't say that I've heard it before, no."

    "Oh, then let me explain, she is just like a shot gun, one c**k and she is ready to blow."  With that Katrina continued to snicker, obviously in a better mood than before, and I started to realize there was much more to this woman than I originally thought, I might actually be beginning to understand why my panther was so interested in this fearless human.