With Pride

by Kaye Draper

  With Pride

  Gesa’s Menagerie Book 3

  Kaye Draper

  Copyright 2019

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Coming Soon

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  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  I shared a smile with Oisin at our human companion's childlike joy. We reached the fairgrounds and shelled out cash to have our hands stamped with a silly-looking red tent symbol. Con was talking a mile-a-minute about how he always wanted to ride rides at the fair when he was a kid, but rarely ever got to because he was raised by a combination of priests and the foster system. I gazed around the grounds. Most of the truly epic rides had been packed up. The posters said today was the last day of the carnival. I wasn't sure how long this hokey operation lasted, but fall was coming, and in upper Michigan, that meant snow could start falling any day now.

  "They still have the merry-go-round set up," Con observed.

  I rolled my eyes. "Kiddie rides?"

  Oisin ignored us both to get in line for the slow, garish ride with the obscenely loud music.

  Con followed him, the usually reserved human turning to stick his tongue out at me. "At least Oisin knows how to have fun."

  The redheaded fae beside him looked up at Con with a wicked smirk. "Yes, Oisin does know how to have fun. You don't know what you're missing."

  Con must be getting used to the innuendos. His pretty brown skin barely turned pink when Oisin made a dig at the human's lack of interest in men. "I'm good," Con said with a rueful smile.

  Oisin elbowed him and laughed, stepping onto the ride and rushing to claim a thoroughly inaccurate gryphon figure. He climbed atop it with his usual nimble grace, flung his long braid over one shoulder and gave us both an imperious look from his perch. The look was completely destroyed when he waggled his eyebrows at me and leered, rocking his hips suggestively. "Gesa, look! I'm riding a gryphon."

  I rubbed a hand over my face in mock frustration and climbed onto the turtle next to him, glad the place wasn't busy. "You're an idiot."

  If this was how they acted, I was never taking the two of them out in public again. They were worse than pre-pubescent kids.

  Con climbed on the ridiculous looking dragon behind Oisin. "Hey," the human said, patting his brightly-painted steed as the ride started to slowly rotate. "Are dragons real?"

  "No," I said, at the same time Oisin nodded and said "absolutely."

  I stared at the fae. "They went extinct like hundreds of years ago."

  Oisin shrugged. "As far as you know."

  I glanced back at Con, almost relieved to find him back in nerdy professor mode. "Really?" he breathed. "I always wondered if dragons were invented when ancient man found bits of dinosaur bones and had to make up stories to explain them."

  Oisin snorted. "Nearly every myth mankind has made up had a basis in fact at one point." He shrugged. "Dinosaurs though? That they got all wrong."

  I gave Con an apologetic look as his human brain went kaboom. "Dinosaurs aren't real?"

  The music had ramped up to its top ear-splitting volume, so we all rode our animals in silence, Oisin cheesing it up and pretending he was doing death-defying tricks by riding with no hands. He got a shout from the control booth when he grasped the pole the animal was attached to, spun around it and landed standing up on the poor creature's back.

  He winked at Con as we exited the ride—much to the distraught operator's relief. "See Con, I should join the circus. Why humans think standing on a running horse is an accomplishment, I'll never know. I've shot a bow that way more times than I can count."

  I shook my head fondly at the fae. "Just don't ask him anymore details, Con. It probably involved hunting humans."

  A bit later, after Con and I slurped down our chilidogs—or, as Oisin called them, "artificial, poisoned meat tubes"—and got ourselves a couple big cotton candies, we headed toward the tents on the far side of the fairground. Con had moved on from his freak-out over dinosaurs being the misappropriated remains of various ancient supernatural creatures and was now analyzing the mechanics of fake fortune telling and divination. He didn't even notice when I stole the last of his cotton candy. His loss.

  He stopped talking as we approached a purple and green striped tent with a hand-painted sign offering palm readings and tarot card readings by the one and only White Ghost.

  I raised an eyebrow at Oisin. The level of cheesiness was bound to be off the charts. "A man who walks between realms," Con read in a dramatic voice as I lifted the tent flap for him. "Nice buildup."

  I followed Con inside, Oisin behind me. The interior of the tent was small and dark, lit with candles and hazy with incense. It probably set a nice mood for gullible idiots looking for new excuses to make poor life decisions. I walked around, looking at the little knick-knacks strewn about the place. An array of faux-silk pillows was arranged on the floor around a low, Korean-style table. A small shelf behind it held a few decks of tarot cards and an assortment of stones.

  I reached up and flicked the tail of a red paper lantern with my finger.

  "Hello," a woman said, appearing from the back of the tent, where a curtain partitioned off a private section. She was dressed up like a hippie, in flowing skirts and too many bangles. The scent of too much patchouli oil made me wrinkle my nose in disgust. "How many readings today?"

  Con glanced at Oisin and I. "Um. Just one, please," he said sheepishly.

  The woman collected his money amid lurid descriptions of the wonder that awaited and how Oisin and I should really have our auras examined by their psychic.

  I managed not to burst out laughing at her oblivious babble. But it was a close call. Our auras were invisible to most humans. But they were probably the strongest ones for blocks around. Humans were so strange sometimes.

  Our own human shifted from foot to foot as the woman left. It was comical. He knew this was all a farce, but I could tell a part of him wanted the magic to be real. I wondered what it was he wanted to know so badly. I tended to just assume Con was more...normal than Oisin and me. We were fucked up enough for all of us. But maybe Con had his own issues.

  I circled back around to the front of the tent to examine a low table full of kitschy crap, picking up a Japanese dragon carved out of soapstone.

  "Oh."

  Oisin's soft intake of breath hit me at the same time as the hint of an unfamiliar, muted magic.

  I put the dragon down and turned to see my fae with a completely unreadable look on his perfect face. "A fox," he whispered so only my gryphon hearing would pick it up.

  I followed his gaze to the back of the tent, where the fortune teller had emerged. I blinked, not sure what I was seeing, but agreeing wholeheartedly with Oisin's assessment. A tall man draped in silk robes had emerged from the private section of the tent. He was wearing a brightly-patterned scarf in a messy wrap around his head, in a sarcastic nod to his mystic status. His skin was so bone-white it made even Oisin's pale-ass complexion seem dark. The man's hair was so light blond, it was nearly white where it peeked from under his turban and arched over eyes the translucent almost-blue of ice. He should look completely stupid in that get-up, but there was this ethereal pull to him. And goddamn, if he didn't give Oisin a run for his money in the hotness department.

  I cleare
d my throat and crossed my arms over my chest like this was just an ordinary day. Nothing to see here. The man's attention flicked from Con, standing by the table, to me, then moved to Oisin. A slow smile spread over his face as he picked up the tarot cards and a black stone from the shelf. He turned and took a seat on one of the pillows. He placed the items on the table and leaned back on his hands, his sly expression rivaling the fae beside me for implied mischief.

  "Well now," he said in a soft, deep voice, as he removed the dumb turban and tossed it aside, revealing that his longish white-blond hair was shaved on one side. The shaved side of his head was tattooed with blue ink in a twisting design. Probably a ward of some sort. "What can I help you with today? The standard reading, or something a bit more...exciting?" His pale eyes slid from me and Oisin to Con and back, the question implicit—did the human know the rest of us were something else, or did the fortune teller need to keep pretending?

  I sighed. "Con, you wanted to see how fortune tellers pull off their fake routine. Still want that tarot reading you paid for, even if it's real?"

  Con glanced between us with wide brown eyes. It was almost comical. He turned to the man reclining on the cushions, and the hope in his voice was almost painful. "You're real?"

  Oisin paced forward, all predatory grace. Oh, this was going to be trouble, I could just feel it, see it in the way my wicked fae moved. I braced myself and followed, remaining standing when the fae terror sank down to his knees on one of the pillows, his emerald green eyes riveted to the man across from him. I kept a bit of distance, just in case of blood splatter. I really couldn't afford to lose anymore clothes. "Maybe you should show us what you can really do," Oisin purred.

  I rolled my eyes. The flirting never stopped with him. Gods.

  The psychic leaned forward and put his elbows on the table, the wide sleeves of his robe falling back to reveal forearms corded with lean muscle. He turned a hand palm-up and gave Oisin a challenging smirk. "Step right up, little elf."

  Oisin laughed and kept his hands firmly to himself. Interesting. "Oh no, Con here is the one who paid for a reading. We're just here to watch."

  The man let out a short laugh. "Someone is afraid." He turned to Con. "Please, come sit down. I don't bite. Usually." He gave Con a wolfish grin.

  I studied the stranger throughout all of this. I could sense his magic. I knew he was a supe, but I had no idea what kind. I thought I had a pretty good instinct for these things, but lately I was meeting a suspicious number of unknowns. My gryphon didn't like it one damned bit.

  Except the man was gorgeous.

  But that didn't matter. I tried to keep my serious face in place. Given my resting murder face, I doubt I was giving anything away.

  Con sank down to sit cross-legged on the cushion next to Oisin. "No tarot cards?"

  The man shook his head and smiled. "Nope. Those are just for show when I work with the normies." He waggled the fingers of his upturned hand. "All I need to do is touch you."

  Oisin snorted. "I'll bet."

  I kicked the fae in the ass from where I stood, though the effect was ruined by the pillow he sat on. Must everything be an innuendo?

  Not that I blamed him. The psychic had long, square fingers, strong hands. I gritted my teeth. He looked to be in his early twenties. Tops. I was at least ten years older. That was just wrong.

  Con took a deep breath and reached out, placing his hand in the other man's, his darker skin a flaring contrast to all that white. The psychic closed his eyes and was silent for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes, they had a silvery shimmer to them, there for a moment and gone. He pulled his hand out from under Con's, then reached out to pat the other man on the arm. "You weren't unwanted," he said softly, eyes steady on Con as if he was the only one in the room. "She wanted to keep you, but your father was scared. He thought you might be a supe. So, he made her get rid of you." He sighed. "She loved you so much she named you before she gave you away. Wrote your name on a little piece of paper and tucked it into your blanket."

  I was so confused. I moved around Oisin to get a better look at Con's face. There were tears gathering in my human's eyes.

  "What the fuck did you do to him?" I demanded.

  Frosty blue eyes flicked up to meet mine. "I gave him a reading."

  I growled, but Con awkwardly patted my thigh from his seat on the ground. "It's okay, Gesa. He didn't do anything to me. It's just...." He looked at the man. "Thank you. I... that really means a lot, if it's true."

  The psychic lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "It's true, dude. But you believe what you want."

  Con stood and moved toward the exit. "I just...I'll be outside." He beat a hasty retreat and I let him go, knowing he needed a minute, even if my possessive gryphon side wanted to rush off after him.

  "Would you like a reading?"

  I glanced back to find the psychic looking at me. His eyes traveled from the tip of my combat boot-clad toes to my face and he smiled. He held out both hands on the table. "I bet we'd find something interesting."

  I shook my head. "No thanks. No one should have to deal with what's in here," I tapped my head in illustration.

  Oisin stood and the psychic followed suit, coming around the table to stand between us, his expression growing more serious. "One little glance? I feel like this is important."

  I stared into his blue eyes, startled to realize we were nearly the same height. At six-three that didn't happen too often. "Are you going to make me cry too?"

  Con slipped back inside, and I glanced at him, my defenses softening. Maybe if I let the charlatan do his thing, it would tell Con whether what he'd heard was true. I heaved a sigh. "Fine. But just...if you see something awful, keep it to yourself."

  Oisin shifted closer, a graceful hand ghosting over my low back. "I'd volunteer for the touching," he said with a smirk, "but you know how it is."

  I glared at him. I did know how it was. The fae was keeping some massive secret from me and he was afraid someone was going to blurt it out. The fucker.

  I held out my hand and slanted a look at my fae lover. See, Oisin, this is how adults overcome their fears. "Feel me up."

  The man moved closer, his scent of smoky incense and something wild wafting over me. "Gladly," he said, sliding his hands over mine, his fingers resting at my wrist, stroking over my pulse. He closed his eyes and took a breath. I waited, feeling nothing but the barest hint of magic flowing over my skin, cool and light like mist.

  He opened those strange silvery eyes and his grin stretched even wider. "Gods," he breathed. "Yes. Absolutely. Take me with you, you amazing beast."

  I pulled my hand away, reluctantly. "What?"

  He glanced at Oisin, then at Con, and laughed. "A female gryphon with her very own pride of crime-fighters. It's like a raunchy manga." He put his big hands on my shoulders and squeezed. "Please, Gesa. Let me come with you? The carnival is ending, and I'll be back to working odd jobs 'til summer. I can help you."

  I just stared at him, wondering what the actual fuck had just happened.

  Oisin chuckled and the man released me to glare at the fae. "You think I'm joking?" He ran a hand through his hair, setting the white strands standing on end in weird angles. I absolutely did not want to pet the shaved side to see what it felt like under my fingers. No more touching the barely legal psychic. And how the fuck did he know my name? "I work as a psychic at a damned county fair," he said to Oisin. "Get me the fuck out of here, man."

  My fae tilted his head and smirked up at the strange man. "How old are you?"

  The guy narrowed his eyes. "Probably a fuck-ton younger than you, old man, but why don't you just give me your hand and I'll check?"

  He held out his hand, one corner of his lip twitching, ruining his glare. Oisin pointedly crossed his arms. "There are much better things to do with a magical touch than invading people's minds," he said with a little lift of his perfect nose. "Not that a child like you would know anything about that. Would you like me to give you the ta
lk?"

  The man stepped closer, getting into Oisin's personal space. Oh Gods. The fae was going to kill him. He was going to pull his magical fairy blades from the air and there would be so much blood, and I would have to take care of Con while he puked. The air shimmered between them as their magic collided. I stepped back and put myself in front of Con, just in case. Humans didn't bounce back from maiming the way we supes did.

  "I'm not a child," the taller man breathed, bending so his face was a hair’s breadth from Oisin's. "I see things you only dream about, little man."

  I didn't see anything, but I had the strangest physical sensation of pointed ears and soft fur under my fingertips. Con inched closer to me, leaning up to whisper in my ear. "Are they going to fuck now? Because I'm not staying to watch that."

  I snorted a laugh. Both supernaturals froze and turned to glare at me, clearly having overheard us. They were completely different, but somehow, they both had that same haughty arrogance. It must be a magic-user thing. "What?" I said, holding my hands up. "By all means, carry on. Don't let us interrupt...whatever that was."

  Oisin flung his long braid over his shoulder to rest on his back as he walked away from the psychic, his haughty fae poise in full-on spoiled prince mode. "Goodbye fox. It's been interesting."

  I raised an eyebrow as he walked past me and left the tent. Turning to the psychic, I gave him a shrug. "Fae."

  He winked at me. "You love it, though."

  Con laughed so hard it was insulting. "God, you have no idea. The first time I heard their foreplay, I thought I was going to have to call the police to report a murder."

  I turned to gape at my human. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" I shoved him toward the exit. "That's it. No more hanging around Oisin. He's corrupted your damned brain. Where did the nice Con go?"

  I shoved Con out the exit, pausing when a big hand wrapped around my upper arm and pulled me to a halt. "Gesa," the strange psychic said in that soft, deep voice. "You'll need me. Soon." He let go of me and winked. "See you around, babe."

  Babe? Babe?

  I retracted my talons before I could commit murder and exited the tent of horrors to join Oisin and Con, who were having some sort of heated discussion, their heads together as Oisin gestured wildly. They stopped talking when they saw me. I frowned at them in warning. "Care to share with the class, boys?"