by Karen Lynch
That made me look at her escort, whom I’d only given a cursory glance, and my stomach did a little flip when I met the cold, assessing stare of Lukas Rand. Our gazes locked, and for a moment, I felt like a moth hypnotized by a deadly flame. Unlike the moth, I could sense the danger and break free from its pull.
Lukas and Victoria made a striking couple as they walked in my direction, the picture of wealth and elegance. I didn’t suffer from poor self-esteem, but it was impossible not to feel a little dowdy here in this grand hotel and in the presence of such beauty.
“I hope I didn’t make us late,” the actress simpered coquettishly, running a hand up and down his arm. “But I had to take that call from my agent. I hope you understand.”
Lukas smiled at her. “We have plenty of time.”
I turned my back on them and strode to the exit. There was nothing else I could do here tonight. My time would be better spent preparing for the new job Levi had given me when I dropped off the peri this afternoon. And I needed to get home to Finch, who had been alone for far too long.
The doors slid open, and a blast of cold, damp air hit me, along with the flash of a camera. I scowled at the small pack of paparazzi. There was always someone famous staying at the Ralston, so I wasn’t surprised to see them there.
“She’s no one,” a short, bald pap called.
“Thanks,” I muttered as I passed them.
A fog had rolled in while I was in the hotel, shrouding Manhattan in thick mist and distorting the lights and sounds. I could barely see ten feet in front of me as I headed to the Jeep, which I’d had to park a block away.
I was so wrapped up in thinking about my parents that I didn’t register the footsteps behind me at first. I looked over my shoulder, but whoever was back there was hidden by the swirling fog. It was very likely we were just walking in the same direction, but the memory of all those times I’d felt like I was being watched had me walking faster.
My heart began to pound when I heard the footsteps keeping pace with mine, and I broke into a run. It was hard to judge distance in this fog, but I should be almost to the Jeep. If I could just get in and lock the doors –
“Oomph!” I cried when I barreled into a male elf walking toward me.
He steadied me and took a step back.
“I’m so sorry,” I panted.
“No harm done.” He smiled, but it did nothing to ease my anxiety. If anything, it made me want to put more distance between us.
I moved to go around him, and his hand snaked out to latch onto my arm. “Why the hurry?”
“Let me go.” I tried to wrench my arm from his grip, but elves were a lot stronger than they looked. Balling my free hand into a fist, I punched him hard in the face.
“Bitch!” He grabbed his bleeding nose but didn’t loosen his hold on me.
“You’ll get worse than that if you don’t get your hands off me.” I stomped on his instep and followed that with a punch to the side of his throat. His grip slackened as he gasped for air.
“You had one job,” said a male voice as a second elf emerged from the fog in the direction of the hotel. “Why didn’t you just glamour her?”
The elf beside me spit blood and glared at the newcomer. “I tried, but it didn’t work,” he griped in a nasally voice.
“She must be wearing one of those talismans,” mused his friend as he drew near. “At least, you managed not to lose her.”
I faced off against the elf who must have followed me from the hotel. “I have no money or jewelry, so you’re wasting your time.”
His chuckle made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “Don’t want your money, little girl,” he drawled as he took a step toward me.
Chapter 7
My heart thudded against my ribs. “Do you know what the punishment is for attacking a human?” I asked as my hand inched toward my pocket.
“I don’t see any agents or bounty hunters around here. Do you?” my pursuer taunted, stalking me.
“Yes,” I said the second he was within striking distance. His entire body seized when I hit him with the stun gun, and he began to spasm when I kept the prongs pressed to his chest. Stun guns worked on faeries, but you had to give them a bit more juice for it to be effective.
His legs gave out, and he crumpled to the sidewalk. I turned to give the first elf the same treatment, but he released me and fled into the fog.
The elf on the ground tried to roll to his hands and knees, but his body wasn’t cooperating. I bent down and gave him another good jolt until he collapsed facedown. Better safe than sorry.
I patted my pockets, cursing myself for not carrying a pair of Fae shackles on me. That wouldn’t happen again.
“What is this?” asked a new voice.
I let out a tiny scream and jerked up to face the tall figure standing a few feet away. Expecting another elf assailant, I was shocked to see Lukas Rand standing there.
I put a hand over my racing heart. “Jesus! Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to creep up on people?”
Ignoring my question, he pointed to the prone elf at my feet. “What happened here?”
“He and his friend jumped me. The other one got away, but this one wasn’t so lucky.”
Lukas’s brows drew together. “Why did they attack you?”
“I was a little too busy fighting them off to ask,” I quipped dryly. I took in his expensive tux that looked so out of place on the foggy street. “What are you doing here? Did you lose your date?”
He crossed his arms. “My date is waiting for me at the hotel. What I’d like to know is why you were at the Ralston.”
A tiny shiver went through me at the hard edge that had crept into his voice. “Why do you care?”
“I make it my business to know what’s going on around me,” he replied coldly.
I matched his stance. “Not when it’s my personal business.”
The fog shifted, and two more faeries appeared on either side of Lukas. I recognized Conlan and Faolin, the latter looking even more hostile, if that was possible.
“Lukas, you left without telling us,” Faolin growled.
Lukas didn’t take his gaze from me. “Something came up.”
Conlan grinned. “Jesse James, I didn’t expect to see you again so soon. And what’s this? You starting fights again?”
The elf groaned and tried to push up off the ground. I put my foot on his back to hold him down. “Stay.”
I looked up to see the three faeries watching me. Lukas raised an eyebrow, Faolin glowered, and Conlan laughed. All three reactions grated on my already frayed nerves.
“What?” I snapped.
Conlan held up his hands. “Don’t mind me. I’m just enjoying the show.”
“What do you intend to do with the elf?” Lukas asked.
“I’m going to turn him over to the Agency and let them deal with him.”
Upon hearing this, my attacker fought to rise. I let out an aggravated sigh and gave him another jolt from my stun gun. At this rate, the thing would be out of juice soon.
“If you don’t mind, I need to get this guy shackled before he wakes up again.”
“You just happen to have Fae shackles on you?” Faolin looked seconds away from lunging at me. “How convenient.”
I looked from him to Lukas to Conlan to see the three of them were watching me suspiciously now. Even Conlan had lost his smile and seemed more alert.
“Yes. All bounty hunters have them,” I informed the nosy trio. “And I’d call it decidedly inconvenient since I left mine in the Jeep.”
Lukas tilted his head to one side. “You’re a bounty hunter?”
“I’m so sick of people asking me that,” I muttered between gritted teeth as I reached into my back pocket for my ID card.
Faolin jumped in front of Lukas, snarling like a rabid dog and forcing me back a few steps. If I hadn’t been so annoyed, I might have had the sense to be scared.
“Whoa. Chill, Cujo.” I whipped out the card
and held it before me like a shield. “It’s not my best photo, but I don’t think it will kill you.”
Lukas stepped around Faolin and took the card from me. He studied it for a moment before handing it to Faolin, who turned it over in his hands, looking for what, I had no idea.
“So, bounty hunting is what brought you to the Ralston tonight?” Lukas asked in a voice that had lost a little of its bite.
“No.” I dragged out the word for emphasis. “As I said, it was personal business.”
He narrowed his eyes, clearly unsatisfied with my answer. Too bad. I didn’t owe him or his friends any explanation about my activities.
Faolin sneered. “And you just happened to run into us.”
“Hey, you guys followed me, in case you’ve forgotten.” I snatched my card from him. “Now if you don’t mind, I have places to be.”
Faolin looked at Lukas. “What do you want to do?”
Lukas’s dark gaze burned into mine before moving away. “Let her go.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say “How kind of you,” but I bit back the retort. Now that the adrenaline rush from the attack was wearing off, I remembered these faeries were dangerous, possibly criminals, and not people I should be messing with. Compared to them, the elves that had attacked me seemed as harmless as Finch.
I bent to help the elf to his feet, but Conlan nudged me aside. Picking up the half-unconscious faerie with ease, Conlan tossed him over his shoulder and turned to me. “Lead the way.”
I wasn’t too proud to accept help, so I showed him where the Jeep was parked nearby. I’d started keeping a duffle bag of hunting gear in the back, and it proved to be a smart decision now. After I shackled the elf’s wrists, Conlan put him in the cage. A small shudder went through the big faerie when his hand accidentally brushed the metal.
“You always drive around with an iron cage in your Jeep?” Conlan asked as I padlocked the cage door.
“It’s part of the job.” I didn’t bother explaining this was my father’s Jeep, and he and Mom mainly used it for work. For everything else, we used her car.
I closed the rear hatch. When I was done, I turned to find him watching me inquisitively. “What?”
“You’re different than most human females I meet.”
I scoffed softly. “You need to work on your pickup lines.”
Conlan chuckled. “I mean there is a lot more to you than I first thought. I’m still trying to figure you out.”
“Good luck with that. Half the time, I can’t figure me out.”
That got a hearty laugh out of him, and I smiled in return. I couldn’t figure him out either. He seemed too easygoing to be a part of Lukas Rand’s circle, but something told me he could be as dangerous as the rest of that group. I needed to remember that.
I climbed into the Jeep, waved goodbye to him, and drove away. Within seconds, he was swallowed up by the fog.
Traffic was heavier with the dense fog, and it seemed to take hours to get to the Plaza. The drive was made worse by my prisoner, who woke up after ten minutes and railed at me nonstop. I tried singing, but of course, that didn’t work on him. The elf hurled insults and threats at me until I was ready to stop and gag him. I would have stunned him again, but I’d drained the stun gun’s battery already.
The moment we entered the Plaza, the elf shut up, cowed by the half dozen armed bounty hunters in the lobby. I was getting used to the curious looks by now, and I ignored them as I towed the elf to the elevator.
Levi was gone for the night, so I turned the faerie over to another bond agency. Neither of us would earn a fee for the elf’s arrest, but the bond agency was legally required to process the arrest. He grumbled the whole time I was filling out the stack of paperwork, and I was glad to get out of there and away from the two of them.
It was after midnight when I finally let myself into the apartment, and all I wanted to do was collapse on my bed. I might not even stop to kick off my boots.
I expected Finch to be asleep, so I was surprised to find him sitting on the back of the couch waiting for me. I felt a familiar pang of guilt about leaving him on his own all day. He was pretty independent and could feed himself, but the last week had been even harder on him than on me. At least, I could go out and search for our parents.
“Hey, buddy, sorry I was gone so long.” I hung up my jacket. “You holding down the fort?”
He whistled shrilly and signed, Someone tried to open the door.
Alarm shot through me. “What? When?”
Not long ago. But they couldn’t come in.
I turned to stare at the door. I’d lived here my whole life, and not once had anyone tried to break in or cause any trouble in the building. The entire borough had heard of my parents, and no one was stupid enough to mess with them.
We had either been visited by an incompetent burglar…or a faerie had tried to come in uninvited.
I headed for the office. “Come on. Let’s see who our visitor was.”
I sat at the computer and logged in. We had security cameras on each floor and in the stairwell. My parents took the safety of their family and residents seriously. In addition to the cameras, the whole building was covered with fire wards. Because of Mom and Dad’s work, our apartment was also protected by a powerful anti-faerie ward. Any faerie who wanted entry had to be granted access using a secret incantation that was known only to us.
I brought up the camera feeds and checked the activity log for the last hour. The cameras had built-in motion detectors that logged every time something moved in front of them. I watched Gorn arriving home at eleven thirty, and a few minutes later, the front door opened again. Two tall people, males judging by their size, entered the small lobby. Both wore long coats with hoods pulled up to obscure their faces, and they kept their heads down, deliberately avoiding the cameras.
The two males headed straight for the stairs and reappeared on our floor. They looked at Maurice’s door as if uncertain about which apartment they wanted. Then they approached our door, all the while carefully keeping their faces hidden.
The video went fuzzy for a good thirty seconds. When it cleared, it showed the backs of the two strangers as they hurried down the stairs. It didn’t take a genius to know they had tried magic to open the door. Only Fae magic could affect technology that way.
Finch whistled, and I looked at him. Faeries, he signed.
I nodded and sat back in the chair, watching the mysterious faeries leave the building without once revealing their identities. Whoever they were, they knew what they were doing, which ruled out a random break-in.
A chill went through me. Why would faeries try to break into our apartment? I wasn’t naïve enough to think my parents didn’t have any enemies among the Fae, considering their line of work, but most of their jobs dealt with lower faeries. Those two who had come here tonight were definitely Court faeries.
What had they been looking for? It was too much of a coincidence that I was attacked by elves on the same night two faeries tried to break into my place. Tennin had said the goren dealer was an elf. Could my attackers have been working for him? And why would they come after me?
What didn’t make sense was the Court faeries. As far as I knew, they didn’t work with lower faeries, and they certainly wouldn’t do the dirty work for one.
I massaged my temples as a headache started to form. Exhaustion and stress pressed down on me, and I would have given anything for one of Mom’s hugs or Dad’s warm laughter. I’d never realized how much I’d taken the little things for granted until I no longer had them.
Finch walked across the desk to sit on the mouse. Are you sad?
I summoned a smile I didn’t feel. “I’m just tired. I’ll feel better in the morning after I get some sleep.”
Are you going out tomorrow? he asked.
“Yes. We have another job to do.”
Will you look for Mom and Dad?
“I’ll never stop looking for them,” I promised him. I thought about t
he discoveries I’d made today, from finding my mother’s bracelet to talking to the porter at the Ralston. It had to be enough to warrant the Agency sending someone over to the hotel to investigate. “I think it’s time I paid a visit to the Agency.”
* * *
“State your business,” said one of the four security guards stationed in the lobby of the building that housed the headquarters of the Fae Enforcement Agency.
“I’m here to speak to an agent about a case.” I passed him my ID card, and he inserted it into a scanner.
He nodded and returned the card to me. “Level seventeen.”
“Thanks.” I pocketed the card and headed for the elevators. To get to them, I had to pass through the body scanner, an experience I did not remember fondly from the day I’d come to get my new card. The two granite posts were embedded with a Fae stone called lurite that created a powerful ward for detecting weapons. Not even bounty hunters were permitted to bring weapons into the Agency.
I grimaced when my entire body suffered from an intense pins and needles sensation. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to make me shudder after I’d cleared the scanner. If the scanner detected a weapon, it held the person until one of the security guards freed them. I couldn’t imagine enduring it for that long, which was why I’d double-checked to make sure I was carrying no weapons before I’d entered the building.
I took the elevator to the seventeenth floor where I had to sign in with the receptionist there. She gave me a visitor badge and directed me to sit in the crowded waiting area. You’d think bounty hunters would get preferential treatment because we worked for the Agency, but no, we had to wait like everyone else.
An hour passed before someone called my name. I glanced up from my phone to see a thirty-something man with close-cropped brown hair looking around the room expectantly.
“Here.” I stood and walked over to him, noting the ID badge clipped to his breast pocket that read Special Agent Daniel Curry.