by R. Cooper
Catch a killer so he’d be off the streets and coincidentally, Cal and Benedict would get assigned to some other detectives who had a magic problem, and Ray could take a few weeks of his built up vacation time to disappear into the woods.
That was all he was asking for. That and to be left alone.
It wasn’t meant to be. His only warning was a waft of fresh candy-apple warmth, and then Cal was swooping into his lap, his head against his shoulder, his ass pressed tight to him, his arms sliding up to encircle his neck.
The whole station was watching, Ray could tell, felt the hairs at the back of his neck rise.
It felt so good. Natural. He looked away from Cal’s eyes and whatever it was they saw.
“Orange Blossom.” Callalily, it echoed through his mind. He wanted to say it.
“Fido.” Cal offered him a come-hither smile, madden-ingly familiar, and Ray couldn’t take it. He moved his head to the side, caught Penn and Benedict staring, along with every uniform and civilian in the bullpen. The detectives at least attempted to be discreet.
“Oh my God.” Benedict made a face. “You know you’re at work, right? Gross. No PDAs please.”
“Seriously,” Penn added, though the look she gave Ray was filled with too much understanding. Her eyes were sad, her eyebrows raised. Ray shook his head, confusing her, he could tell, and then frowned and pushed Cal out of his lap.
Cal’s expression was frozen as he twirled to his feet. He looked honestly shocked, without a sign of his adorable fake pout.
“As to the case.” It was Penn who broke the silence and let Ray look at someone else. “After the last one had… suffered considerable damage… perp still broke his neck. Maybe a coup de grâce, who knows? He was certainly dying anyway.”
“So what?” Ray had to clear his throat. “He just suddenly escalated to… animal-level violence after all the other, more efficient kills? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Ooh, well,” Cal stepped away from him then, slid over to lean against Penelope’s desk. He looked unhappy as he held a hand over the surface. “Bens and I have a theory about that.”
“Right.” Benedict was glaring at Ray. It was a pretty decent glare, considering his knees were probably knocking together. Then he turned to Penn too. “The chalk. It’s at every scene, or almost.”
“It could speak to signature.”
“Or it could speak to spells. Specifically, circles. Specifically, demon circles. Cal thought of it today, and it’s not that farfetched. The other day you told him you smelled sulfur….”
At their silence and blank faces, Benedict must have misunderstood and assumed they didn’t get it. “You know, you make an initial circle to stand in and summon a demon to do your bidding. Then when you need the demon again, you can make a quick new circle, and do it again. As long you’re inside the intact circle, you’re okay—”
“There hasn’t been a case of that in decades.” Two of the first magic laws on the books had been the laws against demon enslavement and demon enslavement with malicious intent.
Penn gave a low whistle. “Imprisoning a demon against his will is a felony alone. Using him to commit murder….”
“And no serial killer is going to let a demon do his dirty work—if you’ll forgive my sexist use of the word his, but statistically most serials are male,” Benedict explained politely to Penn, who grinned. Her teeth made Benedict look like he was reconsidering his statistics.
Ray rubbed his nose. He’d met a demon or two. They all smelled exactly the same, like fire and brimstone. Sulfur. But even with their reputation, murders like these hadn’t occurred to him as being demon related.
Crap. The danger was actually worse than he’d anticipated. It didn’t make what he was doing any easier.
“So then.” Cal licked his mouth and twisted to stare at him again. Light shone from his hand, and then he opened a drawer in Penn’s desk and dug around. Then Penn’s face became a study in malicious intent for a moment as Cal pulled out a sandwich baggie of unwrapped sugar cubes.
“What are you doing?” Penn was almost twitching. “Have those always been in there? In my desk? Is that how you do it?”
“Not everything is magic, you know. And I wasn’t sure they were still in there.” Cal tried a charming smile, then shrugged when that didn’t work. “What? It isn’t like you got ants. And we have a bigger issue, remember? We’re back to my theory. That all this is about Ray.”
The redirect worked. They all looked back at Ray.
“Could still be a vigilante. A coincidence.” He didn’t believe that, not anymore. But it only reinforced his determination to do what he had to.
“To quote my father, ‘there’s no coincidence in homicide’,” Cal declared coolly.
“Even if you’re right.” Cal was probably right. Ray knew it, but had to argue for the case, to be sure. “Why me? I had no particular problem with these guys.” They only kept on staring at him, all of them. “No more than any other scumbag. Quit it,” he snapped. “I’m not a murderer.”
But just as he’d had to argue for the case, Cal looked at Benedict and laid it out anyway.
“You did threaten to break that guy’s neck.”
“And very publicly. Everyone knows you did and that you could. Physically, I mean. But the last one,” Benedict countered like he was in debate class. Maybe they’d taken that together in high school too. “That last one….”
“But it’s what the wolf would do, right? If you let it loose. If the person deserved it enough.” Cal fixed Ray with a thoughtful look. His wings flapped, then settled. Penn made a noise like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
Ray only leaned back, dropping his head to stare at Cal. He didn’t deny it. Anyway, Cal had seen him with Kirkpatrick, had clearly drawn his own conclusions.
“So,” Cal finished, and then nonchalantly opened the bag of sugar. “I think you were either being framed or it was meant to impress you.” He popped a cube into his mouth, making a strangely sour face as it dissolved on his tongue.
“But—”
“We all kind of want to impress you from time to time, Branigan.” Like there was no sugar in his mouth, Cal’s lips twisted. “You have no idea how hard it is to… look at you.” He ducked his head and stopped talking.
Ray had a feeling Penn’s eyebrows were up. His own were down. But no matter how hard he stared, Cal wouldn’t look back at him.
“Okay, fine.” Ray made a show of giving in, and Cal raised his head, though his eyes stayed safely on Benedict for another few moments. “I’ll stay here.”
There were cots downstairs if he had to sleep. A shower in the gym. And he was in a police station. “Penn’s got my back.” So did the others. Werewolf or not, he was one of them.
“Damn straight I do.” She nodded, but reached out and grabbed Cal’s hand. He smiled tightly at her and sucked on another cube of plain sugar.
Of course in the station it would be harder to avoid Cal, or so Ray thought, but then it didn’t seem to matter. Cal and Benedict took chairs next to Penn as they all worked out a new suspect list, one full of people who would either want to frame Ray or claim his attention, and Ray had to think of every criminal he’d ever arrested who’d sent him cards from prison or promised revenge.
It was difficult work. Partly because Ray had made a lot of arrests, and partly, mostly, because at every sound he looked up to find Cal. Cal seemed to be having more trouble than usual staying in one spot. He had wandered to every desk but Ray’s. Ray was painfully aware that his desk was the one place where Cal normally would have settled.
Cal wouldn’t sit there now. Wouldn’t want to be around him after a rejection like that. Knowing it was the right thing to do didn’t make it any easier.
After an hour he had to get up, stalking toward the bathroom just to get away. He scanned the halls as he went, though no one would be foolish enough to try anything in a police station.
He was only inside a moment before the d
oor swung open behind him so hard that he jerked around. Cal was almost sparking, vivid and lovely even in horrible lighting.
“In a bad mood, Ray?” Only it wasn’t anger in Cal’s voice, in the wind, and Ray took a step forward before he could think better of it. Cal’s hand stopped him. He was hurt. So hurt. “Or is it that I’m a fairy and you can’t be seen with me? I didn’t think you were like that.” Cal was practically gasping out one realization after another. “You… you’re not like that, Ray. You never have been.”
He raised his chin to look Ray right in the eye. It called to mind Nasreen’s words again. There was such certainty as he stared at Ray, like he knew everything, but then a moment later he was dropping his head and turning to direct a look at himself in the mirror. Whatever he saw there made him flinch.
He smelled of doubt and still so much pain that Ray ached for him. He moved forward again, this time Cal didn’t stop him.
“It’s like you and my dad are just ganging up on me, telling me not to live in the clouds, that I should know about reality and not just my rainbow-colored Ray dreams. But they aren’t.” He was urgent and serious, something in his expression familiar as he stepped back to the wall and let Ray loom over him. “And I’m not an idiot—”
Ray grabbed his hands, then glanced around, though he already knew the room was empty. “Of course you’re not.” His voice was rumbling, his temperature rising to be so close again.
He felt the pull of Cal’s scent, his confusion, lingering hurt, but he was already staring up and leaning toward Ray. Ray slid a hand to the wall. Cal’s breath was on his lips.
“Ray. Ray Ray. Should I… should I tone it down? My mom…. My dad. Look I… whatever they say, I know it was probably why….”
Cal’s hand turned into his, and Ray took his hand back from the wall to stroke his fingers over Cal’s wrist. The wrist that had been offered to him in too many teasing gestures to count. Cal was frowning at him, breathing hard. “But that isn’t you, Ray. It’s never been you. I could tell that with one look, even if I was so confused at first.”
“You were confused?” It was easier than asking about that first look.
Cal nodded slowly, studying Ray all over again and streaming out more nonsense. “Mom was always saying humans are weird, but they’re not really, just different, and you’re not human anyway and my mother is a little… odd I mean, she’d have to be, to hook up with my dad, because, bleh, what is that about anyway?”
“He’s a good man, your father.”
Cal just snorted.
“Of course you’d say that, with your cop bond and your ‘the work is everything’ mentality.”
“You’re a part of that work too.”
“Hmph.”
Which meant he’d gotten the best of Cal, something so rare that Ray nearly smiled. His heart was hammering in his ears, but when he inhaled, when he looked, there Cal was.
“There is no answer to that except that I’ve never heard him say that. Or you for that matter. What?” Ray must have looked surprised. “I wasn’t joking about impressing you, Ray, you have to know that. What I would do to get you to take me ser—well, you know.”
Ray frowned, feeling a bit lost. They’d already slept together. If that’s what Cal was talking about, then he wasn’t making sense.
“Cal.” They were alone. There might be no better time. “What do you….” He had no right to ask that after today. He shook his head and gentled his tone with effort.
“I thought fairies couldn’t lie,” he offered softly instead, watching Cal’s mouth make a circle. “Your father thinks the world of you, and you know it. He’s the reason you’re here. Why you work here, I mean.” Ray was hot all over suddenly, as though he’d said something wrong. “He… just wants what’s best for you.”
“Please,” Cal scoffed. “What he thinks is best for me without ever asking me or telling me what he’s planning
or—” Cal suddenly narrowed his eyes without letting go. “And he, like a few other people I know, knows nothing about fairies and their finer emotions, and if you want me to not jump you, Ray, you need to stop touching me.”
“I’m considering it, Snapdragon,” Ray snarled back at him, suddenly on the verge of jumping Cal himself. But he made himself release Cal’s hands. Cal’s smile at that pushed him just a bit closer. “I’m not the one who left this morning.”
Which, damn it, wasn’t what he’d meant to say at all. Cal lit up, literally. “Oh, is that why you’re pissy?” he cooed, and Ray hurriedly stepped back.
“Look, you shouldn’t be here, Cal. Parker. You need to go. You’re brilliant, but we don’t need you here. I don’t. And—”
“You are such a liar, Ray.” Cal’s voice went from fond to annoyed in two seconds. He was close to yelling. “You are such a damn liar. I can’t believe you! You’re not even good at it!”
The door burst open, and Ray twisted to stand in front of Cal, ignoring the flurry of protest until he saw Ross, and his heart slowed back down to what it always was around Cal.
Ross was staring hard at Cal behind Ray’s back before he focused on Ray.
“There a problem, Detective?” he asked with attitude, but his dark mood wasn’t directed at Ray.
“No.” If he could control his breathing, that might be believable. The last thing Ray needed right now was for word of this to get out. “No, there’s no problem. I was just leaving.”
Somehow he didn’t think he was fooling anyone, least of all Cal. But that he could deal with. Later. Much later. When this was all over, and it was safe, and he had the release of the woods to look forward to.
He moved forward, brushing past Ross and forcing the man back. He didn’t turn to look at Cal, but he could hear him, smell him, just a few steps behind him all the way back to the bullpen.
IT WAS a long day. Ray was starving and dizzy with exhaus-tion after only a few hours and trying not to show it to the frowning, furious half-fairy staring at him from too far away. Cal was stiff and scowling as much as a fairy could scowl, eating sugar cube after sugar cube like he needed the boost. Almost unhappy.
Ray just stared back, or pretended to ignore him, and focused on solving this damn case. Until finally, around shift change, Cal left, making the sudden, dramatic announcement to Penn that if he left he’d be missed.
“To be missed, one of us has to be gone,” Ray tossed back, because it was painfully true, and Cal narrowed his eyes before disappearing out the door. Benedict glared at Ray again as he followed Cal out.
Penn then turned to him, and Ray pulled up another name from the list on his computer to get a location. His nose itched with Penn’s concern, but he raised his head, straining to detect every drop of Cal’s scent as it faded. When it was just the ghost-smell, he bent back to his work and didn’t comment.
It was going to be a longer night.
WELL after dinnertime, one of his dinnertimes, when he could tell without looking that the moon was high, and he still hadn’t eaten, Penn had plopped candy from the break room vending machine onto his desk and frowned at him until he’d opened it. Chocolate covered almonds. Which was some protein at least, though every sweet, crunchy bite made him think of Cal.
Whom Penn was not mentioning. Which from her was as bad as her saying something, and because secrets between partners weren’t a good idea, he finally turned to her and put his hands out on his desk.
“What?”
“I’m pretty sure I don’t need to know anything.” She kept her eyes on her work and spoke like he had asked something else entirely. “After watching you two dance for a few years, I think I’ve got it, thanks.”
“It’s not what you think. It’s not his fault,” he said instantly, and she blinked rapidly a few times.
“No one said it was. In fact….” She tapped out something on her keyboard, then made a note. “What do you really think about his theory, now that he’s gone? You believe him, don’t you? You have this whole time.”
Not what he was expecting. But Ray looked down at his list of names. Even if most of them were still incarcerated, it didn’t mean anything. Not with magic involved. “I can’t think of anyone who would do this. But coincidence is… unlikely. He’s right.”
“But you still don’t like it.” She looked at him at last. “It’s why you sent him out of here—one of the reasons anyway.”
Ray jerked, then gave her an evil look, setting his jaw. “I can’t help that I need him to be safe and—”
“I know you can’t.” She smiled softly. “I know, Ray. But he’s going to figure it out too.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He glared at his computer screen, then went quiet as Penn’s phone rang. She looked startled as she answered, then calmed and started to nod.
“Uh huh,” she murmured about six times, probably well aware that Ray didn’t have to prick up his ears to know it was Cal on the other end of the call. Calling her. Ray yanked at his tie, then decided to listen to more than just tone, right as Cal ended the call.
“And since he’s listening, I’ll say goodnight. Anyway I—” He didn’t finish. In true fairy fashion, he hung up without saying goodbye.
“He’s worried. About you.” Penn filled Ray in, in case he was in any doubt. “Also still mad. Do you think he’s hidden candy everywhere?”
“Of course he has. And he’ll get over it.” Probably. And if he didn’t, he still wouldn’t be near Ray, which was a good thing since Ray was apparently some sort of target. He wondered if Benedict and Cal had bothered with another protection spell, because he highly doubted that if they had, they would have thought to put one on themselves too.
“Will he? I’m supposed to make sure you actually stay here and that you eat. Want some more ‘dinner’?”
He narrowed his eyes. “No. And I still don’t think I’m the one anyone should be worrying about. If someone is out to…” He hated to say it. “Woo me with this crap, then they could have at least done their research. There are better ways to get me to take you seriously than offing criminals or pretending to be a werewolf. All I need is a bad guy with a sick crush on me who doesn’t know the first thing about….”