by Rhys Ford
The cop had Hugh hold out his hands so he could inspect them. Ten minutes ago they’d been scraped and bruised from his fight with Rykoff, but feeding off the guy inside had healed him. There wasn’t a scratch on him, which supported Hugh’s story that he’d tackled the man and then done nothing but hold him down until the police came. He’d added a bit about the man going stiff and gasping for breath, which the clerk could confirm if she’d been watching. The autopsy would show a heart attack, most likely.
“What was your business here? You just happened to stop?”
The best lies were ones sprinkled with truth, Hugh had learned. “I’m heading up to Detroit for vacation, and I got hungry and pulled in to grab something to eat.”
The officer nodded and tucked his pen back into his pocket. “Thank you, Mr. Whitby. The paramedics are going to check you over just in case, and then we’ll see if we need any further statement from you. Please don’t leave the scene.”
Hugh wandered over to the ambulance, keeping his distance from the hysterical clerk who was being treated inside. He hoped they could give her something to calm her down. He’d do it himself, but he didn’t think she’d let him anywhere near her. Not that he blamed her. She’d had a hell of an evening.
The same officer who’d questioned him had Rykoff off to the side now, so Hugh took the spot he’d been in earlier, leaning on the bumper of the ambulance. He waved the paramedic away when she tried to poke him.
“I’m fine,” he said, remembering he should be shaken up a beat too late. “I mean, physically I’m okay. I didn’t hurt myself when I grabbed him.”
The paramedic ignored him and slapped a blood pressure cuff around his arm. Hugh swallowed a curse. His blood pressure and heart rate ran low, especially after a good feed. The last thing he needed was a trip to the hospital because the EMT thought he was in shock.
He bit down hard on the inside of his cheek, hoping the sudden pain would raise his heart rate. He stood like he was craning to see what was happening, which drew an annoyed noise out of the EMT, who frowned at him.
“Please sit still while I get your vitals,” she said. “You may feel fine, but you could still have an injury.”
She put her stethoscope against the crook of his arm and started pumping the cuff. His gaze darted to Rykoff again, who was running a hand through his messy hair as the police officer took his statement. He was telling him the same thing Hugh had, adding more details about how the man had jumped him. Good.
“Have you ever been told your blood pressure is very low?” the EMT asked. “What is normal for you?”
Fuck.
“Uh, I don’t know,” he mumbled. What was a normal blood pressure? He didn’t want to spit out numbers that would be unreasonable. “I’m, ah, healthy? I don’t really go to the doctor.”
The paramedic made a low noise. “I’m not happy with your vitals. Sit tight, and we’ll check them again in a few minutes, okay?”
She patted his knee and climbed into the ambulance to check on the clerk. Hugh knew he could refuse treatment, but that would create a paper trail, and he didn’t want that. Supernaturals were supposed to keep a low profile. Being found at the scene of a crime, especially one where the criminal died, was bad enough. He didn’t need to add to the situation by causing a scene about refusing medical care.
They’d let Rykoff be taken for questioning, which had to mean he’d convinced them he was okay. Did that mean fae vitals were closer to humans than vampires were? Or maybe he could glamour or do some other mind control?
Hugh’s limited powers of persuasion hadn’t affected Rykoff at all. He wouldn’t be able to finesse his way out of the paramedic’s concern either. His abilities hinged on manipulating emotions, and the EMT was very professional. She had no emotional involvement for Hugh to pluck at. As for Rykoff—Hugh didn’t know if fae were immune to vampire powers or not. It could be that or a strong set of mental barriers. Very little was known about the fae because they rarely left their secluded realm.
Hugh could barely sit still. Power thrummed through him, roiling under his skin from his feeding. It had been months since he’d been this well fed. He hadn’t drained anyone since winter break, when Ruby had spent the weekend at a friend’s house and he’d dipped down to Chicago to hunt.
He had so much energy. He wanted to run. To fuck.
Too bad Rykoff had made it clear he hated vampires. Hugh would love to see what he was like in bed. If he was a quarter as fierce as he’d been while they were fighting, he’d be well worth the effort.
Would Rykoff be rough in bed? He was stronger than Hugh, which meant Hugh wouldn’t have to hold himself back. Excitement rippled up Hugh’s spine, his breath quickening as he thought about what it would be like to have Rykoff underneath him.
He shifted his gaze from Rykoff to the paramedic when she joined him a moment later.
“Okay, let’s get that blood pressure one more time.”
Hugh watched her carefully as she took his vitals again, relaxing when she seemed satisfied.
“That’s better.” She took the cuff off him. “No chest pain? Dizziness?”
She shined a light in his eyes.
“No, I’m fine.”
Horny as hell, but it had brought his blood pressure up, so mission accomplished.
“You could still go into shock later,” she said, packing things up. “Give your doctor a call or go to the ER if you experience shortness of breath, light-headedness, or anything out of the ordinary tonight, okay?”
He nodded. “I will.”
The officer was still talking to Rykoff, so Hugh walked over to his car and sat on the trunk. This was shaping up to be a terrible vacation, even if he had just drained someone.
Rykoff was fae, and unless he was mistaken, so was Ruby. Hugh had to learn whatever he could about them from Rykoff, and that would probably be a difficult task, given that the guy had tried to smash his head in an hour ago. Fae were a mystery in the supernatural community. They were one of the few groups that didn’t take part in the governing councils tasked with protecting the supernatural secret. It had never been an issue before, since they stuck to their own realm. Until now, apparently.
Hugh wasn’t used to not having any inkling what other people were thinking. He could read everyone but Ruby, and luckily the kid wore her emotions on her sleeve.
As far as he could tell, Rykoff had none of Ruby’s tells. He was stone-faced, his emotions held firmly in check. Hugh was flying blind.
At least he wasn’t actively trying to kill Hugh anymore. That was a plus. Though who knew if the truce was temporary or not. They hadn’t exactly had time to negotiate terms when Hugh had dashed off to kill the bad guy.
He dangled his feet off the trunk and rested his head in his hands, listening to the surrounding conversations. Two officers were talking about a baseball game. The techs were chattering about inane things as they processed the scene inside. Rykoff was feeding the cop who was interviewing him a load of crap about why he didn’t have his driver’s license on him.
Shit.
He needed to get Rykoff out of there before the cop ran him through the system and came up empty.
One of the perks of being registered with the Greater North American Supernatural Council was having help in situations like these. He’d worked for the council before adopting Ruby, when he’d taken a big step back from everything related to the supernatural world in an effort to keep her safe.
Hugh didn’t know what kind of safeguards, if any, the fae had to protect them from discovery. He sure as hell wasn’t going to wait around and hope Rykoff had enough sense to pull himself out of this.
He hopped off the trunk and jogged across the lot. His muscles screamed for a real run, but he forced himself to keep a very human pace. Rykoff looked about two questions from an explosion when he got to him.
Luckily the cop was frustrated too, which Hugh used to his advantage. He pretended to stumble and put his hand out to brace himself, g
rabbing the officer by the shoulder. He drained off the frustration and focused on replacing it with euphoria.
“This is an open-and-shut case. Isn’t it nice for a change to have things all wrapped up so neatly? I bet when you run the attacker’s prints, you’ll find a lot of unsolved cases too. This will be great for your career. It was lucky for you that Rykoff and I were here and were able to take the attacker down.”
The cop’s eyes glazed over briefly, and he grabbed a hold of Hugh.
“Careful there, Mr. Whitby. You wouldn’t want to come through a violent crime unscathed and then fall in the parking lot afterward.”
Hugh grinned and sent another burst of goodwill through their link before he let go. “Thanks for catching me. I was coming over to see if you had everything you needed from us.”
The cop looked a bit dazed but nodded. “The clerk was lucky you were both here. I don’t think this was the first time that perp did this, and we can all rest easier knowing he’s not going to hurt anyone else.”
Hugh nodded. “Definitely. You have my contact information if you need anything else. We’ve had a long night, and we’re going to leave now.”
“Yes. I’ll be in touch if we need more details. Both of you should go get some rest.”
Rykoff looked angry but followed Hugh when he walked away. He waited until they were out of earshot before laying into him.
“What did you do to him? I told you I won’t abide you harming humans.”
“I didn’t hurt him,” Hugh snapped. “You’re the one traipsing around without a human cover story. He would have tried to run your information, and then what?”
Rykoff scowled. “I move through the mortal realm as I please.”
“In a car you don’t have a license for, you mean.”
“I do not require a vehicle to travel.”
Wait, what?
“This truck stop is in the middle of nowhere. The only way to get here is off the interstate. How did you get here without a car?”
A small smile curved Rykoff’s lips. “Magic.”
Hugh doubted that. Magic had a very noticeable scent—like burned ozone. And there wasn’t a trace of it here.
The ambulance had left, but the parking lot was still teeming with police. Unless Rykoff’s method of travel was inconspicuous, he wasn’t getting out of here anytime soon. From the look on his face, he seemed to realize that around the same time Hugh did.
“I opened a portal. I can move through the mortal and fae realms through them,” he said with a sigh.
Hugh grinned. This was his chance to find out more about the fae.
“Well, then, it seems you might need a ride. How fortunate that I have a car.”
Chapter Five
“YOU MAY drop me at the next exit,” Rykoff said as Hugh merged onto the interstate.
He still didn’t look good. His skin was sallow, and his wounds hadn’t healed. He appeared weak—if Hugh didn’t know better, he’d say Rykoff was human. Hugh wondered if summoning a portal took a lot of energy, because that wasn’t something Rykoff had much of at the moment.
“The exits out here are pretty far apart. We’re in the middle of nowhere, if you hadn’t noticed.”
“My task preoccupied me, and then I came upon you attacking a human. I am not here to sightsee.”
“If you were, you sure landed in the wrong place for it. We’re about two hours from Detroit, which is the biggest city around here but also not really a place on many tourists’ to-do lists. And really, we’ve established that the human in question was far from an innocent. I’d think even the fae would agree he needed to be dealt with.”
“The fae rarely meddle in the affairs of humans. When we do, it is to protect the innocent from supernatural threats such as yourself.”
Hugh ignored the obvious taunt. “Why were you at the truck stop?”
“I was on the trail of a rogue. A fae who left the realm without permission and needs to be brought back to face judgment.”
“So there aren’t fae who live here? In, what did you call it? The mortal realm?”
Rykoff wrinkled his nose. “Precious few. The mortal realm doesn’t have much to offer the fae. Humans view nature as something to tame. The fae rely on it for survival. We have a symbiotic relationship with it—it’s not something that can easily be sustained here.”
Fucking hell. What did that mean for Ruby? She was a healthy kid by human standards, but if she wasn’t human, was she okay? What did the fae need to survive?
“You said back at the truck stop that you couldn’t heal there. What did you mean by that?”
“Fae draw our life force from nature. I need to be surrounded by it to heal.”
“But it was like flipping a switch. You had me bested, but when I got you up against the dumpster it was like all your strings had been cut.”
Rykoff looked at him, like he was gauging his trustworthiness. Luckily, he seemed to pass, because Rykoff continued.
“The iron,” he explained. “It weakens us. That much of it, with skin-on-skin contact? I didn’t stand a chance. I thought you had used it strategically.”
Jesus. Ruby was allergic to iron. She’d had several bad skin reactions and once landed in the ER after eating a portobello mushroom he’d cooked in a cast iron pan.
“And what kind of nature do you need to heal?”
“Ideally, I need the forests of the fae realm. But here any large stand of trees and grass will do. For minor wounds, at least.”
That wasn’t good news for Ruby and their postage stamp yard.
Rykoff shifted in his seat and pulled a polka-dotted sock out from underneath himself. Hugh’s apology was barely formed when Rykoff cut him off with a feral shout. Hugh had to stop him from lunging across the console. He held him at arm’s length, fighting to steer the car as Rykoff went ballistic.
“How dare you defile a fae youngling! Did you think I wouldn’t be able to catch the scent? Where are you keeping the youngling? What have you done to the child?”
Goddammit. Rykoff was holding one of Ruby’s socks. She must have left it in the car, and he’d probably tossed it onto the passenger seat without thinking. It was next to impossible to keep shoes on that child. She stripped them off, along with her socks, at the first opportunity.
“I haven’t done anything!”
“I should have killed you. You talk of not feeding from innocents, yet you have clothing belonging to a fae youngling. How many children have you killed?”
He didn’t feed off children. He wasn’t a monster, no matter what the world thought of vampires. Most of them weren’t. They were predatory by nature, but there was a moral code among them. Adults were fair game, but not children. Never children.
Hugh bit back his response and focused on navigating the car to the side of the road. They’d barely passed a dozen cars since they’d left the truck stop, but he didn’t want to drive while Rykoff was actively trying to claw his way over the center console to attack him. In Rykoff’s weakened state, there was no real risk of him injuring Hugh, but Hugh didn’t want to hit another car because he was distracted.
“The fae child. Where have you hidden it?”
Could he trust Rykoff with the knowledge of Ruby’s existence? All signs seemed to point to no.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Hugh forced the words out, fear making his throat dry.
“How did you capture the youngling?”
He wasn’t going to give this asshole any information about Ruby—not their familial connection and certainly not her name.
“I can smell the child all over this vehicle now that I have the scent. You must have bathed in their essence, you soulless bastard.”
Wait. Rykoff was saying he could smell Ruby. That must mean she did have a scent, and that it was just masked from Hugh. Fascinating.
“You can smell her on me?”
“Her? So the youngling is a female? Where have you hidden her?”
Shit. So mu
ch for not giving away any details about her.
Hugh fisted his hand in the fabric of Rykoff’s shirt and pushed him back against the window. “Why can you smell her when I can’t? Why don’t you have a scent either?”
Rykoff sneered at him. “The girl smells like all fae do. Of wildflowers and sunshine. The same scent I carry.”
“What makes you think the child is fae?”
Rykoff snarled wordlessly, his eyes glowing in the dim light. The hatred in them was unmistakable, even if it wasn’t accompanied by the hot-sour tang Hugh could usually taste in a person’s aura.
“The child is unimaginably precious. Fae younglings are rare. You will die for what you’ve done.”
Ruby was unimaginably precious, but it wasn’t because she was fae. She was his daughter. It was his job to keep her safe, and right now that meant figuring out what the hell she was so he could do whatever was necessary to protect her.
Rykoff had to know he was outmatched. He hadn’t healed from their last fight, and Hugh was stronger than ever thanks to feeding. Yet Rykoff was willing to put his own life in danger to avenge a child he’d never even met. The way his voice shook when he talked about her told Hugh more about him than anything else could.
Hugh made a split-second decision.
“She’s not dead.”
Rykoff snorted. “Even if you left her alive, she’s as good as dead. Her scent is thick on you.”
“Her scent is on me because we live together. I assure you she’s safe.”
That made the fae even angrier.
“You keep her as chattel to feed on?”
Hugh’s stomach roiled at the thought.
“Of course not! I’ve never fed on her, and I never will.” He hesitated, then decided to put it all out there. “She’s my daughter.”
Rykoff went still.
“Your daughter,” he said flatly.
“I found her when she was seven days old. She’d been abandoned in a dumpster like the one at the truck stop,” he said. “I took her in, and I went through the proper human channels to adopt her.”
“You found her? Impossible. Stole her, more likely. No fae would abandon their child.”