by Vella Day
Greer placed a hand on Tory’s arm and led her to the table. “You need a really strong cup of coffee and some food. You’re right in thinking your imagination is going crazy.”
“I didn’t sleep well last night either, which always makes my intuition a bit off.” They found a booth and sat down. As soon as she was seated, it was as if all of her worries lifted. “Much better. I think being here is what I needed.”
Tory lifted her head to look for a waiter when her cell rang. She pulled it from her purse. “It’s Anderson. I wasn’t expecting a call from him.”
“Answer it,” Greer said.
“Hello?”
“It’s Anderson. I’m calling to let you know we’ve had another suicide. This time it was a woman who was a successful lawyer.”
Tory’s heart dropped to her stomach. “Have you tested for that chemical?”
“A preliminary check indicates the same drug was there.”
This was a nightmare. “And so it begins.”
“Yes. If you could let your family know, I’ll call Griffin and ask him to tell the Caspians.”
“I’m at lunch with Greer. I’ll let her know.”
“Thank you.”
She swiped off the phone. “There’s been another suicide.”
“Well, shit.”
Chapter Seven
Kenton was in the café’s kitchen picking up an order when his body ignited. Tory was here, he was sure of it. When he lifted a plate with a warmed muffin on it, he almost dropped it. Drat. He’d hoped she’d come in at some point, but now that she was here, he was anything but calm.
He inhaled and drew on his Fey persona. I got this.
Pretending he’d been a server for years, he walked out of the kitchen, turned right, and headed into the main room. This muffin went to table number six. Keeping his gaze where he was going, he tried not to look over at Tory. Even though he hadn’t spotted her, he could feel her essence pulse toward the back, and the last thing he needed was to drop the plate.
Without a mishap he delivered the muffin, asked if the patron needed anything else, and then turned toward the back. Tory looked up, and he froze. When her eyes went wide, and then a smile spread across her face, it was like watching the sun rise over the water.
Kenton wove his way around the tables until he reached her. He’d met Greer when her mate Blake was searching for her. She might not remember him, but he knew her. “Hi, there,” he said, trying to act very Tarradonian.
“Hi. What are you doing here?” Tory asked.
Kenton straightened his shoulders. “I work here now.”
“Really? Since when?”
“I just got the job. I’m in training. Angelique said she’d have a uniform for me in a few days.”
“That is really cool.” Tory nodded to Greer. “This is my cousin, Greer Caspian. She’s Griffin’s sister.”
“Ah, yes. Blake’s mate.”
She smiled. “Yes.”
There was so much he wanted to ask Tory, but this wasn’t the place. “Can I get you ladies anything?” They both ordered a sandwich and coffee. Tory took hers with cream and sugar, though he never would have guessed. He pictured her as a straight up black coffee drinker. “Coming right up.”
He spun around and filled out the form for the kitchen. While the cook prepared their sandwiches, he went to work making the coffees. Greer had ordered an Espresso, but he wasn’t sure how to make that.
As if Angelique could sense his unease, she seemed to appear next to him. Hell, she probably had just materialized. “Need help?” she asked.
“How do I use this machine?”
“Let me show you.”
Kenton watched, but his concentration wasn’t at its sharpest. He had the sense that Tory was talking about him to Greer. If not that, Greer was grilling Tory about her response to him. Kenton could see the slight glow around her heart, but most likely no one else could. Was Tory ready to admit she had feelings for him? Or would she keep them bottled up, like a good Guardian should?
“That’s all there is to it,” Angelique said.
Darn it. He hadn’t paid enough attention, but he hoped he could remember enough of the steps to do it right the next time. “Thank you.”
“Anything else? Or are you too flustered now that you-know-who is here?”
“Whatever are you talking about, my dear light entity?” He cocked a brow.
“Don’t play that game with me, young man. I can out you quicker than you can teleport.”
He loved the young man part. “You know I will be eternally grateful for this job, and don’t worry, I will respect your ancient wisdom.”
Angelique laughed, just as he’d hoped. As soon as she went back to work, he made Tory’s coffee. Just as he picked up the cup, however, he forgot what heat could do to skin and immediately let go. The porcelain cup crashed to the ground, sending coffee everywhere. Shit! No other server was close by, but the noise in the restaurant instantly dimmed. Kenton waved a hand to make the coffee disappear, and he reassembled the cup into two pieces. Claire, a fellow server, rounded the corner.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I carelessly knocked the cup off the counter. Thankfully, I hadn’t filled it yet.”
Claire bent down and picked up both pieces. “I’m surprised it didn’t splinter. I dropped one once and was finding slivers for weeks.”
Thankfully, Kenton was used to acting calm under dire circumstances. He lifted the broken cup from Claire’s hands and dumped it in the trash. “I’ll tell Angelique to take it out of my pay.”
Claire waved a hand. “She expects a certain loss from newbies.”
Kenton smiled. “Good to know.”
He quickly turned back to the row of cups, picked up another one, and filled it. This time he was more careful and made it to Tory’s table without a mishap. He set the drinks in front of them. “Here you go, ladies.”
“I heard a crash,” Tory said.
“I knocked a cup off the counter. It’s now in the trash.”
“Is that so?” she asked.
Did she see what happened or was she teasing him? It was bad enough to be working, but to be clumsy at his job was even worse. “Let me see if your food is up.”
Kenton almost teleported to the kitchen before he remembered where he was. Drat. He wasn’t sure he was cut out to be ordinary.
“I for one think he’s adorable,” Greer said once Kenton headed back to the kitchen. “What are your plans for him?”
“What are you talking about? I have no plans.”
“You should ask him out. Go to the movies or something. If he lives in the woods, I bet it would be a treat for him.”
“I’m sure he would enjoy it, but why are you pushing me on this?” Greer never pressured her to date.
She lifted her coffee and took a sip. “I like a man who takes initiative.”
“Initiative?”
“It’s clear he took this job to impress you. I don’t think the Forresters need to work.”
Tory wanted to understand her cousin’s logic. “Why is that?”
“No one else in the family works, and yet they seem to live okay. I’m thinking they have money back on Feyrion.”
That did make sense. Even if her cousin knew something, Greer could be rather tight-lipped. “Fine. When he comes to the jewelry store to check out our settings, I’ll ask him out.”
Greer smiled. “I’ll hold you to it.”
“In the meantime, I want to figure out who or what is driving these random people to take their lives.”
“You always do put obligation before enjoyment,” Greer said. Thankfully, her tone didn’t hold any judgment.
“It’s our way.”
“It is. You seem to be very focused on this crime. Let me know if you need me to do anything.”
“I will,” Tory said.
As soon as they finished eating and then paid, they headed back to the store. Tory went upstairs to speak with Camden. W
hen she stepped inside, she spotted her brother Ramsey. “Is Camden around?” she asked.
“He’s in the back room.”
It didn’t surprise her that Ramsey didn’t even ask what she wanted with him. In back, Camden was hunched over a pile of rocks. “Hey there,” she said.
He held up a finger, moved a few rocks around, and then looked up. “Hey, cuz. What can I do for you?”
Tory pulled out the piece of paper that contained the chemical compound found in the victim’s blood. She explained about the five deaths. “I was wondering if you could see what this chemical is.”
“I’d be happy to. Can you give me a clue?”
She explained what she knew, which wasn’t much. “The mind-altering, together with the chemical signature, doesn’t fit a dark Fey, a dark lighter, or a dark entity.”
Camden whistled. “I take it Anderson is at a loss too?”
“Yup.”
“I’ll check it out when I get home and let you know.”
That was all she could hope for. “Thanks.”
With that chore taken care of, Tory took the elevator to the first floor. For the rest of the day, she tried to figure out what she would say to Kenton when she spoke to him next. She didn’t have his number, so she wasn’t sure how to contact him to ask him out. She would have thought he would have at least asked for her number. Or had she been too convincing in making him believe their one dinner together wasn’t a date? Darn. Their time together might have started out innocent, but she felt something when she was with him. Could she really be fated to a Fey though? Angelique was a white entity, and she was mated to Tory’s older brother, so anything was possible.
Maybe one of the Four Sisters of Fate would know, though she wasn’t sure if they would tell her even if they knew. Ugh.
When it came time to close up the store, Tory was a bit disappointed that Kenton hadn’t stopped by. It wasn’t like he had to leave right after his shift in order to drive home. That would take half a day. Griffin had mentioned that during the Malpan mining tragedy, Kenton was there one second and gone the next, implying he could teleport. Tory needed to make a list of all of the questions she had for the intriguing man.
“You look sad,” Greer said.
“I am a little.”
Greer cocked a brow. “I think someone is smitten.”
“And what if I were?” Tory was a realist though. If they were meant to be together, then it would happen.
“I’d be happy.” Greer ran a hand down Tory’s shoulder.
Since they both planned to fly home, Tory locked up while Greer headed up the four flights to the roof, since she was still a little skittish riding in the elevator after the dark entity had sabotaged it. Tory wasn’t afraid. She took the elevator and waited for Greer to arrive.
“See you in two days,” Tory said as they stepped into the fresh air. Greer had the day off tomorrow.
“Let me know if you-know-who stops by,” Greer said.
Tory smiled. “Oh, I will.”
“Are you going to stop off at Angelique’s Coffee Shop tomorrow?” Greer asked.
Tory had thought about that. “I don’t think I will. If Kenton is interested, he will make the next move. If he doesn’t, then I’ll have my answer.”
Greer nodded and then shifted. Her cousin lived in a nearby condo whereas Tory had purchased a small home on the edge of town. Once she spotted her place, Tory was tempted to continue flying to give her time to think, but she figured a drink would do wonders for her—or a girl’s night out. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to sit in Wings though, since the last time she was there was with Kenton. She landed and rushed inside.
“What is wrong with you?” she said out loud to the empty kitchen.
Tory never mooned over a man. Why Kenton? Was it because he was mysterious? She hoped that was all it was.
After she poured a glass of wine, she sat on the sofa, toed off her shoes, and relaxed, debating her next move.
“What’s it been?” Greer asked. “Three days since you’ve seen Kenton?”
Tory let her shoulders sag. “You don’t need to rub it in. I needed information from a Fey, and he provided it. That was all. Just because I suggested he stop by didn’t mean I really thought he would. Kenton was probably just being polite.” Damn, but she had believed him.
Greer leaned against the jewelry counter. “If it doesn’t bother you at all, why does it look as if you haven’t slept?”
Having a super intuitive cousin wasn’t helping. “I’m trying to figure out who would have wanted to compel those five people to kill themselves.”
“You are such a liar. You want to see him again. Admit it.”
While solving the case was important, so was seeing Kenton. “Fine. Kenton intrigues me. After all, he is a Fey.” She didn’t need to go into detail about how he affected her body.
Greer chuckled, shook her head, and then turned around. Just as Tory went back to work on her necklace design for one of their patrons, the front door buzzer sounded, jump starting her nerves. When she looked up, her hand froze. It was Kenton.
Greer pressed the button. “Lookie who is here,” she said in a sing song voice.
“Kenton! Come in.” Tory debated walking around the counter, but she liked the safety of having something to rest her hands on.
He looked around and then faced her. “Do you have a moment to show me some of your work?”
“Absolutely.” Since Tory understood he wouldn’t be buying anything today, she altered her pitch somewhat, showing him the process she went through in creating a design and why she picked those elements.
Kenton asked great questions throughout her small lecture. When she finished, Tory waited to see if he would suggest they share another meal together. When he didn’t, she decided to do the asking herself. “There’s a good action adventure film showing in town. Would you like to go?”
His eyes widened, and she swore he was trying to figure out a polite way to turn her down. “I’ve never been to a film before.”
“You’ve never gone to the movie theater?”
“No. I’m on Tarradon to keep the riff-raff from entering your realm, though you don’t need to remind me that my family and I have failed a few times.”
She shook her head, thankful no other customer was in the store. Tory nodded to the cameras. “That’s a shame.”
“Aw. I understand. Yes, a movie would be great.”
“How about we take in an early show and then do dinner afterward? I like to dissect the plot with someone who’s seen it, too.”
He smiled, and the area around her heart heated again. She placed her palm over it and rubbed, hoping to quell the pulses. She never had any form of heartburn before, though it seemed to only happen when she was near Kenton.
“Sounds great. I get off work at five. Can I meet you back here?” he asked.
“Perfect.”
“I can go home and change if need be,” Kenton said.
She wasn’t about to ask him to travel across the realm just to put on something else. Besides, she thought he looked good in jeans and an Angelique Coffee Shop shirt. “I’m sure Angelique would appreciate the walking advertisement.”
Kenton laughed. The buzzer sounded, signaling another client. “I’ll let you go then. I have to be back at work anyway. See you in a few hours.”
“See you then.”
As soon as Kenton left, Tory’s endorphins soared. What was it about that man that made her so happy?
Chapter Eight
A date. Kenton Forrester had an actual date with Tory Sinclair! That meant he hadn’t alienated her. Yet. She had to know he teleported to work every day, which implied she was fine with that. How she felt about being with someone full of magic was another matter. His goal was to learn to blend in. As soon as he received his first paycheck, he planned to open a bank account. While he didn’t have a country identification card, he had no problem creating one. Sometimes magic came in handy.
Kenton walked back to Angelique’s with more pep in his step. He had intended to give Tory the communication bracelet, but now he was glad he hadn’t. He wanted to have at least one date under his belt before giving it to her. He planned to wear his in the hopes she asked about the small stones adorning the edges. Only her bracelet had the large Orlandan gem in the center.
When he returned to the coffee shop, he instantly sensed something was off. Not spotting Angelique in the main area or behind the counter, he went to her office and knocked.
“Come in.”
He pushed open the door and immediately closed it. “Did you feel anything strange in the café?”
“Strange?”
“It could be my imagination, but I had the sense some darkness is here or had been recently.”
Her face paled. “Thank you for letting me know. I had no idea anyone else was in town, so to speak. If you wouldn’t mind, could you go out there and do a sweep? I’ll be out in a minute. We don’t need to alert this person that we suspect something. Two magical beings walking in at the same time might set off his radar.”
“Sure, though I suspect I might have alerted him already.”
He spun around and had pulled open the door to leave when she called to him. “Kenton?”
“Yes?”
“What do you think it is?”
He didn’t need to even think. “A demon.”
Her hand trembled. “I’ve never met one.”
That didn’t bode well. “You’re lucky, but if you do sense something, I highly recommend you ignore it. I’ve only taken out one who managed to sneak through our portals to Feyrion, and it required the magic of all of my siblings to eliminate him.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, but I’m not without my powers too.”
“I know.” Kenton had never questioned Angelique about the extent of her abilities.
He didn’t want any harm to come to his friend and hoped that if a demon were in the shop he was there to have something to eat and nothing more.
When Kenton headed down the hallway toward the counter though, all darkness was gone. Good. Perhaps the demon had sensed Kenton’s presence and left. He better not have come to pick out his next victim.