by Tegan Maher
"Dain O'Farrell!" she hissed, panic creeping into her voice. "Do you have any idea what this means?"
I glanced at Bob, who just shrugged.
"Yeah," Blake said, sighing. "I know exactly what it means."
Well then, please, I thought, waiting impatiently while he paused, do tell already!
"It means we're gonna have the weight of the faerie kingdom crashing down on us like a ton of bricks when they find out one of their princes has been murdered on our property."
Oh, crap, I mouthed to Bob, whose brows about shot off the top of his head.
Just my luck. First, an angel's murdered on my shift, now a faerie prince. At least this time, I wasn't a suspect. I hoped.
CHAPTER FIVE
"CAN WE GO NOW?" I ASKED once he was off the phone.
He snorted. "Are you out of your mind? No. You're the one who found the body."
"What about me?" asked Bob. Jolene's waiting for me and she'll be worried."
Blake shot him a don't BS me look. I know as well as you do that Jolene is already in bed. Still"—he turned to Tempest—"would you mind popping over and letting her know what's going on?"
My little fox flipped her fluffy tail and narrowed her luminous sapphire eyes at him. It would have looked a little adorable to anybody who didn't know her, but she was peeved. And worried.
"You won't let them do anything to Destiny if they get here before I'm back?"
Blake threw up his hands. "You're going to be gone all of twenty seconds! And besides, why would you think I'd let them do anything to Destiny?"
She studied him for another second, then popped out. Despite his twenty seconds guess, she was gone for several minutes. We were already seated at the bar when she reappeared. "Sorry it took me so long. Jolene was worried."
"Yeah," Blake said, sipping on his soda. "Me too."
He'd asked us about every guest that had come and gone that day. The only person I could think of who was out of place was the guy who'd shoved him earlier.
"Was he a faerie, too?" Blake asked when I mentioned the shove.
I thought about that for a second. "Honestly, I couldn't say. They were so far away, all I could see what he was wearing, not his ears or eyes." I paused, unwilling to be dragged into the middle of a royal faerie mess. Blake knew me well enough that he noticed.
"Spill it, Maganti," he said. It made my heart ache a little because he'd called me by my last name when we were a couple when we were goofing around. This time, he wasn't kidding though.
I pulled in a breath. In for a penny ... "I overheard him tell Dain that he'd been warned after the brothers got in between the shoving match." I put the words in air quotes.
"Those were his exact words?"
"Yup," I said, half-regretting getting involved already. I hadn't told them anything the brothers wouldn't have, but now I was sucked in, hook, line, and sinker. Until the case was solved, I'd be answering the same questions over and over to a bunch of entitled asshats with enough money at magic at hand to destroy me if they didn't like what I had to say. Lovely.
My ears popped and Lucy appeared at the end of the bar. Gone was the smiling, fun-loving woman I'd spent time with a couple of months before. In her place was a businesswoman, dressed to the nines in a crisp black suit, who was steel to the core. Two Men in Black lookin' dudes popped in too, one of either side of her.
"Where is he?" she asked, her tone brusque.
Bob motioned toward the path. "Around the building. You can't miss him—just ask Des."
I shuddered at the memory of how he'd felt when my toes had first struck him. Solid, but with just a little give.
Lucy gave him a wry look. "I'll do my best. I've seen enough crime scenes that I think I can manage not to trip over the body."
Frowning, I turned to Blake. "I thought she was just the president of the resort?"
He shook his head. "She does fill that role, but between the three of us"—he motioned to himself, then Bob and me—"do most of the heavy lifting. His role comes into play when major decisions are made about the resort. No, her full-time job is as a lead investigator for the Council of Magic."
Well, that explained the comfort with dead bodies.
Bob started to fill my water, but I shook my head. "I'll have something stronger, please. It's turning into a beer kinda night."
Blake agreed, and Bob poured all three of us a draft. While we waited for Lucy and her gorillas to do their thing, we sat in awkward silence and sipped.
"So where's Colin been?" Blake asked and I cringed.
Colin was my werewolf ... something. I'm not sure what. There was definitely an attraction there, but we had a ways to go before I was going to call him my boyfriend.
"He's off on a job," I said, "Trying a land-dispute case up in Louisiana. Two covens are fighting over the same field, and he's trying to resolve it rather than watch them beat themselves out of a ton of money going through human the court system. He'll be down tomorrow or the next day probably."
"I see," he said, his jaw clenching. I don't know why he kept bringing Colin up. I went out of my way not to rub Colin in his face, but that didn't mean I was going to stop seeing him. Blake had cheated on me with his secretary back when we were engaged.
He'd only kissed her, but that had been enough for me to call off the wedding, though he'd felt terrible about it. He claimed he didn't know what had come over him, but I was wary about what he'd have occasion to feel terrible about once we were married and had broken it off.
I'd met Colin a couple months back when he was at the resort on business. The fallen angle who had been serving penance by managing the tiki had gone and gotten himself poisoned, and Colin had been one of my own personal suspects, until he'd saved my life. Since then, we'd been hanging out, just getting to know each other. There was mega attraction, but I'd already learned you couldn't base a relationship on just that, so we weren't in any hurry to speed things up.
Ten minutes later, after more awkward silence poor Bob had done his best to fill, Lucy and her team strutted back around the corner of the tiki. She began grilling Bob and I about everybody who'd been there that day. We reviewed the pushing match and went over who all'd been there again. I got to the point that I was frustrated from answering the same questions over and over.
"I don't know what else we can tell you," I said, and Bob nodded and yawned.
"We've been here since before noon," he added. "We've told you about every person that was here, every interaction, every comment the brothers made ... there's nothing else to tell. Check the surveillance cameras."
That was one of the few times in the almost four years I'd worked with him that he'd gotten snippy, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was over it. It had been more than an hour since we'd found the body and we were both bone-tired and had to do it again the next day. Except we'd be putting up with pissy people taking it out on us because they couldn't come and go as the pleased.
"Fine, then," Lucy said, then sighed. "Sometimes I get a little myopic and tone deaf when I'm investigating and forget that other people have lives outside of the investigation. I'm sorry. You two go home and get some rest."
That was more like the woman I'd met at a party we'd had not too long ago—a party that had been held in my honor, no less. I'd been awarded employee of the year and given a fat check and two tickets to the Angel's ball, which was coming up soon. Most of the fat check was still sitting in my savings account, but I'd gotten a heck of a deal on a smart TV and gaming system on Prime Day.
Tempest, who'd been curled up in front of her fan sleeping, yawned and hopped onto the bar. "It's about time. I'm starving and want my bed."
"So what about the body?" I asked. "We can't just leave it there."
"Oh," she said, flapping a hand. "We got rid of the body before we came back in here."
Well, then. That just gave me a whole new level of respect for her. Forget about her being my boss—never piss off a woman who can get rid of a b
ody in ten minutes flat without even messing up her nails.
CHAPTER SIX
IT WASN'T UNTIL I WAS halfway home that I realized I probably should have apparated; there was a killer on the loose, after all. Something told me that murder was specific, though, so I kept moving.
While I was going over things in my head for the hundredth time, I remembered the way the brothers had been teasing Dain that morning. They'd said something about a woman, and he'd replied it was just a flirtation. Now that I knew they were princes, I had to wonder if maybe that woman had read a little more into the relationship than Dain had. The wrath of a woman scorned and all that.
Rather than risk being overheard, I spoke to Tempe through our link.
Do you remember the brothers teasing Dain about a woman this morning?
She was quiet for a few seconds.
I wasn't paying much attention until I caught sight of a bird behind him. But yes, now that you mention it, they were teasing him about a leggy brunette, I believe.
I remembered that the gist of the conversation was that he couldn't get serious. Tempest remembered before I did.
He said the woman he married should at least have a pulse.
So, a leggy brunette without a pulse ... oh no. Marissa's form came back to me from the day before, along with her comment about handsome men, and one in particular.
I bit my lip as I walked along the pathway toward my cottage. I considered myself a crazy good judge of character, and I couldn't see her as a murderer. She was here specifically to avoid that, in fact. The only way I could see her killing anybody was by accidental exsanguination if her bloodlust got the better of her.
But my brain flipped back to Dain's not-so-kind comments. Through no fault of her own, she wasn't stable in her current state and I had to consider whether or not she might have accidentally flipped her lid if Dain had rejected her because she was a vampire.
Anything was possible, but I still didn't see it. Other than trying to adapt to life as a vampire, she seemed normal and even nice; somebody I'd probably be friends with.
Lost in thought, I didn't even see the truck sitting in front of my cottage until I was almost on top of it. I grinned and my heart gave a stupid little jump when Colin came out onto my porch.
"Holy cow, woman! It took you forever to make it that last hundred yards."
Laughing, I said, "How do you know?"
He cocked a brow. "Werewolf hearing, remember? He crinkled his nose. And smell. He leaned closer to me and took a deeper sniff, frowning.
I pushed him away, still smiling. "Quit it, weirdo."
"No," he said, narrowing his eyes, then holding me at arm's length to look me over—and not in a good way. "I smell death on you."
When I heard the concern in his voice, I stopped struggling. "Yeah, you do. But it's not me, so come inside and I'll tell you all about it. I want to get out of these clothes."
He bent down to scratch Tempest behind her ears and she butted him with her head, then walked underneath his hand so that she got a nice stroke all the way down the black stripe that marked her white fur from her ears to the tip of her tail.
My phone dinged with an incoming text as we were stepping across the threshold. I pulled it out and was surprised to see a text from Blake telling me to take the next day off. As a matter of fact, Bob and I were both to stay home and he suggested we leave the property altogether.
Colin went to the fridge and pulled out a beer. "I know you have to work tomorrow, but—"
"Actually," I said, cutting him off and raising my phone, "that's what that text was about. I'm now off tomorrow. Blake suggested we both take the day and go off-resort. He wants us off the radar of the faeries until he can get a handle on things."
He poured me a glass of wine and handed it to me and I gave him a questioning look.
"I know I didn't ask if you wanted wine or a glass of tea, but I figured if you came home smelling like a dead faerie, you probably needed it whether you asked for it or not."
"You even know it was a faerie?" I asked, then felt badly for calling poor Dain an it. "He, I meant."
"Yeah," he replied. "Just like most every creature, faeries have their own distinct scent, both as a species and individually."
We made our way to the couch and he took one end, then patted the spot beside him. "Now how about you sit down and tell me why you smell like that."
"Lemme change clothes first," I said, setting my glass down on the coffee table.
"Five minutes," he said. "I'm dying to know." He realized what he'd said when I arched a brow at him. "You know what I mean; no pun intended."
I headed to my room and peeled off my clothes, giving my feet a good stretch when I pulled off my socks. I was going to have bunions by the time I was thirty-five at this rate. When I pulled the scrunchie out of my hair and ran my hands through it to shake out the tangles, it felt like heaven. I pulled on a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt and padded back downstairs.
Colin was flipping through the channels, but muted it when I plopped back down beside him. Tempest was curled up on her pillow on the other end of the couch and cracked a sleepy eye open when I sat back down. I felt a little pang of envy that she could drop off to sleep like that; I had a feeling my night wasn't going to be nearly so restful.
"So tell me all about it," he said, draping his arm across the back of the couch behind me.
I recounted the story, leaving out the part about Marissa. I wasn't sure what to do with that information yet.
He mulled over all I'd said for a few minutes as I sipped my wine and reviewed the day's events in my head yet again.
"You're supposed to leave the resort for the day tomorrow, so how about we take a trip to Abaddon's Gate? I have a friend there who keeps a finger on the pulse of different politics, and he may be able to offer some insight."
Abaddon's Gate was a city meant only for paranormals. It wasn't accessible to humans, so in addition to being a hub for gossip about the magical community, it also had a ton of great shopping opportunities of both the magical and mundane sorts. You could find fresh-baked bread and awesome restaurants sitting right beside shops that offered magical potions, herbs, talismans, books on spells and mystical lore, and even psychics and mediums—real ones, not the frauds you'd find in human communities operating out of a shop with a neon sign.
I always wondered why, if they were psychic like they claimed, they could read every single person who walked into their shop and were always vague. Real psychics weren't like that. The universe had a strange way of disseminating information as it saw fit, not on demand.
"You're in grave danger," or "your luck is about to change," were bunk. As far as I was concerned, those type of statements applied to everybody. It was all a matter of perspective. I could fall in the pool, hit my head, and drown, so if I did that after a psychic told me that, I'd have to say she was right. That didn't mean she saw it coming though.
On the flipside, the city had a dark underbelly, but all cities did. It was just like any other place on the planet. As long as you took appropriate precautions and didn't put yourself in stupid positions, you were fine.
My cousin Mia, an earth witch, ran a holistic shop there, and offered all sorts of beauty products, health aids, candles, and, of course, individual herbs. It had been a while since we'd visited and her familiar, Calamity, was Tempest's sister. It would be nice to catch up. Plus, I was almost out of sunscreen.
"That sounds like a fabulous idea," I said. "I need some stuff anyway, and the last thing I want is some faerie knee-breaker pounding down my door looking for information I don't have."
"Yeah," Colin said, a frown marring his face, "I'm not keen on them finding you anyway, at least not until they've had a chance to calm down. The O'Farrells aren't just royalty, they're the royal family. They're going to be kicking every rock the can until they find who killed him."
The thought wasn't comforting, but it didn't worry me too much. For one, I wasn't going to be
home. For another, I hadn't done anything wrong. I said as much and Colin sighed.
"Unfortunately, guilt or innocence isn't going to mean much to them. Under normal circumstances, they're a fair people. But this isn't normal circumstances and I don't want you in the line of fire if they're putting vengeance ahead of justice. You didn't do anything, but that doesn't mean they won't become ... invasive ... to make sure you're telling everything you know."
Fabulous, a daddy-bear faerie whose boy had just been killed was willing to fly through my melon like a psychic sausage grinder rather than take my word for it. The idea of getting out of Dodge sounded better and better by the minute.
CHAPTER SEVEN
COLIN HAD TURNED THE TV to some cooking competition that I normally enjoyed, but I couldn't get my thoughts to settle.
My mind flashed suddenly to Marissa. She'd mentioned a cute guy, and the brothers had teased Dain about a leggy brunette. The descriptions, though vague, could apply.
I wasn't even aware I was chewing my cuticle, a habit I had when I was thinking about something, until Colin lowered his arm from the back of the couch to tap me on the shoulder farthest from him.
"Spit it out," he said, turning down the volume and examining my face with narrowed eyes.
I pulled my hand away and placed it on my lap, feigning nonchalance. When he didn't buy it, I pulled in a breath and huffed it out.
"Fine," I said, then told him about my suspicions.
"There are at least twenty vampires on this resort right now," he said. Since they were the only creatures besides zombies—yes, they're real, but human TV has it all wrong—who lacked a pulse, narrowing down the list of creatures Dain could have been talking about wasn’t exactly brain surgery.
I'd already considered that. "Yeah, but none that are either unattached, in the right age range, or fit the physical description."