---
Auri peeled away toward the side lane with the graceful certainty of something nocturnal returning to its preferred work. A runner there saw only the outline of a woman-shaped shadow before he found himself dragged backward into deeper darkness by hands and force he had not earned the right to name.
Mira looked at Sekhmet once, and he answered with a short nod.
She moved at once.
The Crimson Gorgon crossed the yard like something shaped by two ancient predator instincts that had been forced to improve each other. She did not move like a bird, and she did not move like a serpent. She moved like a perfected compromise between both. Her lower body carried her in silent, predatory bursts that made the distance disappear far too quickly. One guard at the side loading door had just enough time to see crimson hair and think the wrong kind of thought before one of the snake heads spat.
The venom struck his neck and jaw.
