by Kaye Draper
He laughed again, then reached across the table to squeeze my hand, leaving a tingle of magic behind. "Seriously. Let me help. I'm bored out of my fucking mind in this city."
I sighed. "I'm not sure what you could do, honestly. And if you think hunting loser supes and missing humans that someone wants found is more fun than tending to a bunch of drunks, you're wrong. So wrong."
He smiled, a real one this time. "I'm sure it's quite glamorous. Still. I think we'd make a good team. My brains and your brawn." He gestured grandly. "Saving the world from creeps everywhere."
I laughed. "Something like that."
He reached for my hand again, threading his long fingers through mine. His eyes sparkled with mischief. "We'd make a good team in other ways too."
I sipped my latte and tried not to blush or salivate. Seriously, I needed to get a grip. A shrink would say I tended to overcompensate for my shit-tastic treatment and oppression in the clan, but this was just stupid, even for me. "Seducing me won't get you a spot on the monster hunting squad," I said dryly.
He didn't remove his hand. His thumb started stroking the back of mine in slow, tingling sweeps. "Are you sure? Maybe we should test that theory out."
I laughed. At him. At me. At this whole situation. "Okay."
He blinked at me, his green eyes wide for a moment, his fluid motions screeching to a halt. "Really?"
I grinned. "No."
He huffed a sigh and lifted his chin a notch, all haughty fae lord. "You wound me."
I let go of his hand. Reluctantly. Because I'm stupid.
"I'm sure you'll survive. Just a flesh wound for a flirt like you."
He held his coffee cup with both hands and for just a moment, I thought I did see hurt there—or something like it. Loneliness maybe? Fae really didn't do well outside their clans. Mostly because the rest of us couldn't stand them.
His smirk returned and he leaned back in his chair, all casual fae grace and snark. "Well, I was going to tell you I saw that kappa at the club again last night. And that he was with a rather easy to identify patron. But since you don't need the help...."
I growled, making a nearby customer jump and look around in surprise. "What's that going to cost me? The rest of my life caught in a fairy circle prancing about naked?"
He stared at me for a beat, a slight flush coloring his sharp cheekbones. "Or we could go to your place."
I snorted. "Seriously. Fae."
He relented and leaned his elbows on the table. "Okay, for you, just this once, the intel is free. He was with a snobby suit named Darek White who owns a swanky hotel downtown. No poor lost boys involved this time. And I'm pretty sure the whole city would collapse if White disappeared."
I stood and scooped up my coffee. I had Googling to do. On impulse, I leaned down and brushed my lips against the corner of that snarky mouth. Long fingers caught the back of my head before I could move away, pulling me closer as sharp teeth sank into my bottom lip, just shy of pain. He followed the bite up with a sweep of his tongue that erased the sting and turned my mind to mush. "Tease," he whispered against my skin.
I stood and got the hell out of there before I did something even more stupid.
Chapter 6
Oisin tucked his hands deep into the pocket of his coat as he strolled down the sidewalk toward his new home. The late summer air was starting to take on a fall bite, and it reminded him of his old home as it tugged a strand of hair loose to whip across his face.
Fall was a season of change—the world preparing for the death and stillness winter would bring. The earth gave up its final harvest, while reminding you with a cold finger down your spine that you'd better prepare for what was to come.
If he were back at his old home, there would be bonfires and feasting, magic and orgies in the wooded lands owned by his clan. It was a time for enjoying the wild places one last time before winter drove them inside to seek shelter until spring.
An older part of him missed this, wanted to stretch his magic and glory in his own wildness. But he pushed the urge away. His eyes traveled over the landscape of concrete and metal, plastic and glass. The few trees here were so young they had no dryads. The other magical creatures he passed were buried under their own pain and fear. This was a place for the lost. Only the clanless or the insane gravitated to human cities.
The wild thing in him immediately yearned for their new gryphon friend. She hadn't been tamed, the way so many here were. There was a kindred spark inside her that called to him, urging him to shift with her, to run and hunt...and more.
The woman was stunning, though she somehow seemed to think otherwise. She was young, and perhaps being raised in these modern times had something to do with her self-deprecating manner. She felt herself too large and loud to fit in here among the delicate humans. But when Oisin looked at her, he was reminded of the Amazonian women he had met once upon a time. Or one of the fabled Valkyries. Warriors. For all her imposing height and size, she moved with predatory surety of her lion side, all sleek muscle and power.
Her body didn't promise softness or beg for protection the way some females did. Instead, it called to a part of him that wanted to feel the strength of her wrapped around him and glory in the challenge of possessing her, of pleasing an equal.
He shook his head. He was losing his mind.
A small smile lifted the corner of his mouth. He wanted the big, blond gryphon, but he was under no illusions that he would possess her. If anything, he would be hers, not the other way around. And he was just fine with that. He had no problem with belonging to someone...if he was given the choice.
Oisin knew he couldn't run from his clan forever, but he refused to let the weight of his impending capture suffocate him. He would live while he could, take what he wanted from this world so the memories of his freedom would accompany him into the dark.
He whistled softly to himself as he rounded the corner, nearly back to his big, empty living quarters. He had never felt so alone until he left his clan. But perhaps he wouldn't be lonely much longer.
He reached out a hand for the ornate wrought iron door handle, but he froze. A feeling of unease flitted over his skin, making the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He bared his teeth and sent his senses out around him, feeling with his magic, tensed and ready for a fight. Surely his father's thugs wouldn't come for him in broad daylight in the middle of a human city. But then, this was his sire he was talking about—the man would murder a sea of innocents to get to Oisin, to find a way to drag him back and secure his own power.
Oisin took a breath in through his nose, scenting. No one was near. There was no surge of magic. No hoard of deadly mages. Only pedestrians and the occasional forlorn supe.
Still, the feeling beat at his chest, pulling at him like a compass. Something was amiss. If it wasn't related to his own safety.... Fae could sense the emotions and state of their clan members, due to the bond between them. But he had severed that bond. The only person in this city he gave a damn about was a cheeky, muscle-bound gryphon. But surely he wasn't that attached so soon.
He dropped his hand from the door and turned around, whistling again, a smile on his face. Finally, the wild side of him whispered, prey.
Chapter 7
When I got home, there was a letter in my mailbox. An embossed thing on delicate vellum paper inviting me to tea with Gerard's mother—my future arranged mother-in-law.
I crumpled the invitation up and threw it in the dumpster before I even went inside the apartment building proper. How did a race as powerful as fucking gryphons, for fuck's sake, remain so firmly entrenched in the dark ages?
This was why the supes needed to loosen up and join the rest of the world. Their little clans and prestigious families had divided themselves so thoroughly they failed to keep up with the times. The current climate of social and political change would massacre the entire gryphon culture, if anyone really understood what went on.
Gryphon women were expected to be strong and f
ierce—but still defer to their menfolk. We were expected to be strong enough to fight alongside the men, but still soft enough to raise a family. We were the sum product of the king of the land and the king of the sky, lion and eagle, but we respected duty above silly things like freedom or enlightened thinking.
Well, not we, per se. I stopped being one of them the moment I flipped off my parents in front of the mayor and all his cronies and left the clan. Shunning was an actual thing in gryphon culture. One more medieval bit of nonsense.
My mother was still trying to get me to come to my senses, but I expected the formal dismissal from society to come any day now—probably hand-printed on vellum like my tea invite or the pretentious wedding invitations I knew my mother had already chosen.
Ugh. My uterus shriveled at the thought.
I emptied my pockets by the door, flinging keys and change into the wooden bowl there. My knife and gun stayed with me. The supes I hunted often spent so much time in their own little world they forgot human weapons could be just as deadly as teeth or claws. Though I did have to be careful about that. The ones out here on the street were a bit savvier than the ones back home.
Dropping my holsters on the desk, I flopped into my worn, comfortable computer chair and searched for information on Derek White.
An hour or two later I had a headache and a permanent sneer plastered on my face. Derek White was such a bland name it was probably fake. The dude owned several highbrow properties in New Paradise and in other cities throughout the country. Mostly hotels, casinos, and clubs. Places where people went to escape. Or to spend or lose large amounts of money and engage in whatever form of debauchery struck their fancy.
He was also a fucking noted philanthropist with bottomless pockets. So, if he had anything to do with the human-snatching, there probably wasn't much I could do about it.
I found a photo of White on one of his hotel websites. Tall, solid and dark-haired, with a smile that oozed charm like an overly sweet confection. And just like the sweet, that charm was meant to hook you and pull you in for more, get you addicted worse than any drug.
I'd bet my over-sized panties he wasn't human. I was looking at the face of a predator. Someone who didn't just think he was better than all the piddling little humans around him. He knew.
Interesting.
What did that have to do with a stinky kappa stealing humans? My tiny bird brain hurt. "Time for whiskey."
I had just poured myself a slug of the golden cure-all when my doorbell rang. Insistently. Five times.
I took my glass with me and sipped as I walked. Who the hell would come to my little apartment to bother me? I opened the door and stared at my mother and my not-fiancé. She opened her mouth to say something and I spun on my heel and returned to the kitchen to fill my glass to the brim. This was going to take a lot of whiskey. Sure, self-medicating was a dangerous game, but at this point it was all I had.
My mother trailed into my apartment like she was royalty, her gold heels clacking on the fake hardwood as she glanced about and gave a little sniff, her head tilted, nose up, as if she smelled something rank.
"Is this where you've been hiding all these months?" She smoothed a hand down her perfect, cream-colored sweater dress as if some part of her might have gotten dirty just by walking into the room. She was nearly as tall as me, but not half as muscular. Where I looked like I spent my days at the gym—or chasing down low-level bad guys and beating them into submission—she was all sleekness and fierce allure.
But all I saw when I looked at her was betrayal. I saw the disgusted face she made when I overreacted and told lies to get attention. The way the fine lines at the corners of her eyes crinkled when she chose social station over her own fucking daughter.
Gerard smirked at her comment. His darker coloring was rare among our kind. Which made him exotic. A chick magnet. People fawned over him all the time.
I must have reversed polarities or something. Because I didn't want to fawn. When I saw his sculpted face, I just wanted to punch it. Repeatedly.
"What are you doing here?" I said, taking a gulp of my drink. It burned, but I breathed through the pain. It was more pleasant than a visit from my mother, that was for damn sure. At least I'd feel good for a while after the whiskey's pain. The thing that birthed me couldn't make that promise. No, when I saw her, all I felt was the stifling fear that came from being held down and used, quickly doused under self-protective numbness.
"Well, I knew you weren't going to come to your senses, dear," she purred in her no-nonsense, I'm-the-boss voice. "So, I thought a visit might be a good idea. Don't you have any sense of hospitality? Offer us tea. Seats. By the Gods, girl, you know better than this."
I rolled my eyes. "Get out."
Gerard still wore that smarmy, panty-dropping smirk as he padded toward me like the alpha lion he was. "Come now, Gesa. I understand your need to stretch your wings a bit before the big day. But honestly, we just wanted to come see how you were doing."
He reached for me. I growled. He dropped his hand.
"I'm not marrying you, fuckhead. I never was."
He only shook his head. I narrowed my eyes. There was more to this than I knew. There was no way a male gryphon would take these kinds of slights unless he had something to gain. My eyes slid to my mother, wondering just what the hell she was up to. Probably trying to restore my tarnished reputation somehow.
My doorbell rang again. "Mothersucking bastard fuckers."
Mother gasped in feigned surprise at my language. Gerard walked around poking at my meager belongings, well used to my outbursts. After all, unreasonable outbursts were what I was known for. It was a wonder he felt safe in my presence. The last gryphon male I touched had ended up in a coma.
I refilled my whiskey and went to open the door. It was a big ol' party up in here.
"Hello, beautiful beast," Oisin smirked at me from the threshold, gorgeous red hair spilling over his shoulder in a loose ponytail, his clothes as perfect and out of place as always. Gray trousers shot thought with silky stripes of muted mauve, a green cashmere sweater that matched his sparkling eyes, and a structured forest green peacoat that looked like something a male model would wear on the runway.
I stared at his smirking mouth. He wore that expression far better than Gerard. "What are you doing here?" I had just seen him like two or three hours ago. Didn't he have a life? Although, what did lonely fae bartenders do when their cheesy club was closed? My mind was wandering. Oh. Probably needed more whiskey. I took a big gulp. With my metabolism, it wouldn't keep me numb for long.
Oisin tilted his head, his emerald eyes narrowing as he watched me. "I just had this feeling you were up to some sort of trouble." He held out his arms. "So here I am, darling."
I blinked. Fae. Fucking fae. I had no doubt whatsoever that he was telling the truth. At least a partial truth. He probably could sense chaos—or maybe, in my case, pain and encroaching panic. And of course his kind would head right toward it.
"Kind of busy right now," I said, tilting my head back toward the living room, where my mother and Gerard had come to lounge on my beat-up furniture so they could snoop and see who was at my door.
Oisin's eyes sparkled as he took in my mother and the alpha asshole on my couch. "When you said you wanted to introduce me to your family, I didn't think it would be so soon, sweetheart!" He stood on his tiptoes to kiss my cheek, his soft lips caressing my ear as he whispered, "invite me in, Gesa."
I rolled my eyes. Why the fuck not. Maybe being in the presence of the fae would send them running, since my shitty apartment and bad attitude hadn't done the job. If the little fae could make them leave, then I wouldn't have to get blood on my carpet or get the cops involved. "Come on in," I said, stepping back to gesture inside with a big grin plastered on my face.
He swept by me and paused to hang his coat on the hook by the door, like he'd been here a million times before.
I watched my mother out of the corner of my eyes as I remembered
those manners she had been harping about. I raised my glass and said, with exaggerated politeness, "Thing That Birthed Me, Gerard, this is Oisin. Oisin, this is my genetic donor and the dog crap she tracked in on her shoe. Would you like a drink?"
Gerard coughed. Oisin slid an arm around my waist and led me to the kitchen as if this was all quite normal. "I'll have what you're having, sweetheart."
I nearly gagged at the pet name, but my mother looked like she was going to have a stroke, so I smiled and went along with it instead. "Sure thing."
Once we reached the relative privacy of the kitchen, Oisin leaned against the counter, smiling to show his sharper-than-usual canines. "Oh, this is fun. I take it your mother likes fae about as much as the rest of gryphon society?"
I handed him a glass and poured out a finger of whiskey. He waved his hand in a graceful "keep going" gesture.
"She's a manipulative, old-fashioned cow," I said blandly. "And that other asshole is my fiancé. Well, they think he's my fiancé. Despite all the times I've said to fuck off. And to think, eagles are supposed to have such sharp hearing."
Oisin raised a slim red brow, his smooth skin wrinkling with surprise. "Fiancé? And one chosen by your mother? Gods, they're as bad as the fucking fae."
I snorted and took a gulp of my drink. "You have no idea. Dark ages shit."
He nodded, expression going dark and dangerous. "Most supe clans are that way, unfortunately. That's why I told mine to fuck off."
He raised his glass and I toasted him on that sentiment. "Unfortunately, mine followed me," I said, shaking my head. "Did you have some information for me?" There must be a reason he was here, other than chaos.
"I—" the clacking of my mother's heels as she approached the kitchen cut him short.
"Gesa, don't neglect your guests. Why don't you bring the drink service outhe—"
Right before she swept into the kitchen in all her haughty perfection, Oisin waggled his eyebrows at me and winked. Then he pushed me back against the counter and dragged my head down for a scorching kiss.