Page 53 of Beauty At Stake
Shinsato cursed in Japanese. “That fool! Malai pulled this crap in front of Witches?!”
“Yes, High Councilwoman.”
“I've heard enough, Ambassador. We will speak to Lady Malai and her team, then issue our judgment. I'll have someone notify you of our decision.”
“Thank you, High Councilwoman Shinsato.” I inclined my head.
“Thank you, Ambassador. I'm glad you didn't hide this from us. Such behavior is intolerable.” Then she waved a hand over her crystal ball and my ball went misty.
I looked over at Killian.
He nodded. “You did the right thing, babe.”
“You said I should forget to report it.”
“No, I said youcouldforget to report it.” He straightened out of his lean. “Because I could see how it was hurting you. But as a soldier, I know that you never compromise the mission over stupid shit like that. All Malai had to do was talk to you, and you could have straightened her out. But instead, she scried her king behind your back and broke her oath. I'm not saying that I wouldn't break an oath or even compromise a mission if I had a good reason. But I don't think she did. Plus, she fucking pissed me off.”
“What did you say, Dad?”
I looked past Killian to the bedroom doorway where Rowan was standing.
Killian winced as he turned to face our daughter. “I said someone fudging pissed me off.”
Rowan grinned. “I don't think that's the word you used.”
“Yeah, all right. You caught me. It's a good thing that you know better than to repeat that word.”
“Do I?”
“Ro-Ro, stop tormenting your father.” I left Killian's office, patting him on his thick shoulder as I passed by. “Let's play a quick game of Operation before we go back to Earth.”
“Yay!” Rowan cheered.
Killian groaned. “I hate that board game. The buzzing scares me.”
Rowan cheered louder.
Chapter Twenty
I had forgotten all about the five vampire hunters we apprehended. I even forgot about the three Losuc had rescued. Star had not. When we arrived, he was in the front room of the vex house, speaking with Losuc even though it was only a little after 6 AM in Thailand. They stopped their conversation to update Killian and me.
“Losuc just received a text ordering him to rescue the vampire hunters,” Star said.
“The vampire hunters.” I glanced at the room that they'd put the last bunch in. “Right. Did you track the phone?”
“Burner,” Extinguisher Gavin Sloane said from the couch, where he sat with a laptop and the other extinguishers, all of them with mugs of steaming coffee. “But I got the closest cell phone tower. She was in Bangkok when she made the call.”
“Good work,” Kill said. “And what's with the names out here? It's as if the Thai people wanted the rest of the world to have a giggle.”
“The rest of the world does not solely speak English,” Star drawled. “In Thai, the word 'bang' means 'body of water' and kok—that's kok, you cretin—means 'olive tree.' And so Bangkok is a village near the water and olive trees.”
“You're loads of fun at parties, aren't you?”
Sallales snickered.
Undeterred as usual when it involved bringing the levity, Killian went on, “And you know what I mean. Don't act as if you don't. There's even a town called Krabi.” He deliberately mispronounced the name, making it sound like Crabby. “Isn't that Spongebob's friend?”
“You're either thinking of Mr. Krabs or the Krabby Patty,” I said in the tone of a college professor.
