I swung away, an apology hovering on the tip of my tongue, and flipped my karambit into my other hand. I kept my gaze averted, afraid of the disgust I would surely see reflected in his eyes.
“Sorry, it’s just a reflex,” I muttered.
“Don’t apologise, I shouldn’t have grabbed you,” he said, his voice suddenly gruff.
I contemplated correcting him, but instead I let it go. We could stand here all night and argue semantics, but that wouldn’t get either of us anywhere.
“Look, we both screwed up…” I hesitated as he raised his gaze to mine once more. It never ceased to amaze me that, where Grey was concerned, every word that left my mouth could have such loaded meaning. We had definitely both screwed up in the past, but dragging that up was just opening a can of worms I had no interest in.
“Today,” I clarified. “We both screwed up today. So the least I can do is hear you out. But talk fast, Grey. I’ve got a flight to catch.”
“I want you back,” he said, and my heart slammed to a halt as my mouth went dry.
Chapter 2
“Division 6 needs you back.” He watched me expectantly as my stomach dropped into my boots and my heart started to beat once more. He wasn’t here because he wanted me back. He was here because the bigwigs in Division 6 decreed it. And I’d been stupid enough to think, for a moment, that he had meant something else. Would I ever change? Would I ever stop wishing things could be different?
The sad truth was, probably not. When I’d walked away the last time, I swore to myself I wouldn’t ever get sucked in by Grey again. And yet, here I was, hearing him out. Anger bubbled in my veins, and I clenched my fists by my sides, gripping my blade hard enough for my fingers to cramp.
I stared at him. His gaze was unwavering, and the hint of a smile played around his lips. Despite the anger swelling in my chest, a giggle bubbled up inside me and spilled out before I could stop it.
“They said you were quite sane,” he said, watching me with sudden concern.
“Whoever they are, they need to reassess their information, because it’s sorely lacking.” Crouching down next to Man-Boy, I cleaned my blade in the grass before attaching it to the loop on the side of my trousers. Then I studied the dead ogre in an attempt to get my thoughts and feelings under control. Focusing on my weapons always had a way of calming me down.
“I have a proposal for you,” he said, moving closer.
“Uh-huh. You know, the last guy who said that kept me locked in his dungeon,” I said, no trace of bitter hatred in my voice. I’d been working on my feelings. Or, at least, the last fourteen shredded punch bags suggested I was working on them. I was making progress too; the latest one had lasted longer than a week.
Grey paused, and I watched him through half-lowered lashes as he tried to control his reaction. I had that effect on people. Apparently, my humour ran on the dry side of things, making it difficult to tell when I was being serious or just sarcastic as all hell. Unfortunately, in this instance I wasn’t being sarcastic, and I had the scars to prove it. Not that Grey would see them.
“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”
“Didn’t realise I was supposed to.” I straightened up and met his gaze head-on. He didn’t say anything, but I could see his frustration bubbling beneath the surface. “This proposal, what’s it about?”
“It’s a delicate matter; we shouldn’t discuss it in the open. I know a place down the road from here… if you’d let me take you for a drink, I could…”
I cut him off with a wave of my hand as a snort of laughter escaped me.
“You’re telling me it’s a delicate topic of conversation? You just watched me kill an ogre, and you’re worried someone might overhear us? I think you’ve got your priorities all screwed up, mate,” I said, keeping my whip at the ready.
“I’m aware of your infraction, Jenna.” He cast a sideways glance at the unmoving mountain of rotting ogre. He’d start to smell soon. That was the weird thing about ogres—they rotted into the ground so fast it was almost as though the earth itself wanted to reclaim them.
“Infraction?” I tried to keep the irritation from my voice. “Don’t you mean community service? This piece of shit was raping, dismembering, and eating the young human women of this country. He’d have done the same to me if I hadn’t killed him first. I wouldn’t call saving countless lives an ‘infraction,’ I’d call it a bloody good job!”
He raised one perfect and utterly maddening eyebrow at the pitch in my voice, and I could have sworn his lips twitched slightly upwards. His seeming indifference to the ogre’s crimes only served to enflame me further, and I tightened my grip on the whip so that it dug into my palm.
“Still,” he said, “your objection to his habits was not brought before the Faerie Courts, and you made no attempt to contact the authorities with your information. Instead, you chose to go outside the law, vigilante-style, as it were, and ensnare the creature on your own. That was a considerable risk. One might even call it foolish.”
His voice held an edge that I hadn’t expected—he was angry. His words hit me like a slap in the face, and I took a step back, drawing a deep breath. Describing the ogre’s crimes as nothing more than a group of undesirable habits that needed to be broken was more than I could take, hitting a nerve I’d thought I’d long since dealt with.
“I have a thing about murdering, raping scum,” I said through gritted teeth. “You’d be wise to remember who you’re talking to, or the ogre might not be the only one I have a problem with.”
“Look, I didn’t mean for it to sound so cold.” Grey scrubbed his hand over his eyes, and when he looked at me again I was suddenly aware of his exhaustion.
“You never mean it, Grey.”
The man-boy at my feet groaned, letting us know he was starting to come round. At least I hadn’t done any permanent damage; no doubt Grey would add assaulting his new partner to the list of infractions for which I was responsible.
“When did you become so hostile?” Grey asked suddenly, and his question caught me utterly off guard.
“When you and Division 6 turned your backs on me,” I said, allowing the full weight of my bitterness to fill my voice.
Grey’s expression hardened. “Is that how you see it? You don’t think that maybe you were the one who turned your back on us?”
“Really? That’s the best you can do? Division 6 was only too happy to kick me to the curb when Crest came looking for me.”
He pressed his lips into a grim line, and I could just make out a vein pulsing in the side of his jaw. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one getting irritated. Served him right; whoever had sent him here to talk to me had obviously lost their marbles.
“He was a citizen of Faerie, and there was a procedure to follow. If you’d given us a chance, we could have cleared the debt.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “Tell it to someone who cares.” He didn’t understand, and he never would. But then he hadn’t been held captive by a psychopath. He didn’t know what it was like to be owned, to be a slave with no rights over your mind, body, or magic. I’d escaped Crest once, and when he’d come calling the second time with the weight of the Faerie Court behind him, I had done what I’d deemed necessary to survive.
As the man-boy climbed slowly to his feet, I closed the gap between Grey and me. Levelling my gaze at him, I leaned in toward him, and his dark eyes widened in surprise.
“You can take your proposal and shove it. I’d rather rip out my own fingernails than go and work for you lot again. You can tell Division 6 I said that, by the way,” I said, addressing Man-Boy before returning my attention to Grey. “We’re done.”
I turned away and started back down the road. I half-expected Grey to come after me, but I heard him telling the man-boy to let me go.
As far as I was concerned, Division 6 could crawl back into whatever hole it had dragged its mangy corpse out of, and if Grey was wise, he would give me a wide berth. If he came sniffing arou
nd again, his new partner wouldn’t be the only one with a sore head.
The air was suddenly split with the sound of sirens, and I cursed beneath my breath as I realised they were heading in my direction. Dealing with the local law enforcement was the last thing I needed.
“You slimy…” I cut off as I glanced over my shoulder and found myself alone with the dead ogre. “Great, bloody great,” I said to the air. “You know this won’t endear me to you lot,” I called out as the sirens drew closer, the pulsing lights now visible against the night sky.
If Grey could hear me, he gave no indication, and I stayed where I was. If the authorities caught me running away from the crime scene, I’d be in far bigger trouble. No, the best thing I could do was let the bruises that were beginning to bloom across my skin do the talking for me. Anyway, they’d take one look at the ugly oaf and refuse to believe I’d singlehandedly taken him down. Even when you were preternaturally-enhanced, sexism was still alive and well.
Blowing out a long breath, I raised my hands over my head and dropped to my knees as the first of the Gardaí cars pulled to a stop in the middle of the road. I zoned out, choosing to ignore the worst of the commotion that erupted around me. Until they took me to the station, there was no point in trying to explain what had happened. The nearest officer pulled out a set of handcuffs and wasted no time in dragging my arms behind me, securing my wrists in place.
If Grey Cooper believed I would help Division 6 after a stunt like this, he had clearly lost his mind.
Chapter 3
The sound of the cell door slamming behind me did nothing to improve my mood. Just as I’d suspected, the Gardaí had not believed me when I’d told them the creature rapidly rotting into the ground was the same one responsible for the sudden spike in murders. But that was the problem with Ireland, a country built on the romanticised notion of magic and the creatures that wielded it. Those in charge behaved like the preternatural community were all happy-go-lucky fairy-tale stereotypes. They had an image to maintain. If people knew the truth, that it wasn’t all ‘top o’ the mornin’ to ya,’ pots of gold at the end of every rainbow, and fairies on toadstools waiting to grant wishes, but instead grotesque creatures with sharp teeth, backstabbing selkies, and monsters as old as the world itself who would sooner eat the beating heart from your chest rather than grant a wish, then tourism would definitely take a nosedive.
I lay on the thin rubber mattress that covered the cement bench doubling as a bed. Despite my lack of height, my feet still dangled over the edge, and I knew without a doubt that, come morning, I wouldn’t be able to feel my feet.
Placing my hands beneath my head, I waited. No way were they going to leave me locked in here for the night. Once they checked the body out properly, there would be questions…
I closed my eyes and tried to count to ten, but I only made it as far as four before irritation got the better of me and I scrambled back onto my feet. Moving toward the solid metal door, I balled my hand into a fist and pounded against it hard enough to cause it to rattle in its frame.
If I really wanted to, I could have battered the door, bending it until it ripped free of its moorings. But that would frighten the humans, and frightened humans usually led to one thing: dead preternaturals. For all of their weaknesses, humans had definitely managed to create some pretty impressive means of destroying those who threatened them. But who could blame them?
“Hey, anyone out there?” I shouted through the door before pressing my ear to the metal in an attempt to pick up any signs of life on the other side.
Only the faint stirrings of the officers working down the hall reached my ears, and I sighed.
I stared around at my surroundings and shuddered. The last time I’d been in a room this small, with a locked door between me and freedom, it hadn’t ended well.
Metal scraping against metal grated on my ears, and I hopped back from the door as it swung outwards. The man-boy I’d met earlier stood framed in the doorway, the artificial overhead lights playing across his skin and casting his face in shadows. He looked far more authoritarian than he had earlier. Despite his neutral expression, I could feel his irritation. I couldn’t really blame him; his right eye was beginning to swell shut and darken nicely, and by morning he would have a black eye any bruiser would be proud of.
“What do you want?” I said, eyeing him with disdain.
“I’m here to get you out,” he said blandly. His stance was loose and at ease, but there was something about him, something in the way his arms hung at his sides and the openness of his chest that suggested he was prepared to put me on my ass if I so much as breathed out of turn. Not that he could. He was strong and he had youth on his side, but that meant he was untrained, and experience trumped reckless and uncoordinated strength any day. Grey, however, was a different matter, with his broad shoulders, well-defined muscles, and years of experience under his belt. I’d never fought him outside the training yard, but I had a feeling he could snap me in half before I even had a chance to touch him if we faced each other as true opponents.
Meeting Man-Boy’s gaze, I consciously let the tension in my shoulders seep away. Taking my frustration with Grey and the Division out on him was more than unfair.
“Get me out?” I said. “I thought I was pretty clear I want nothing to do with you and your cronies.”
His lips thinned as he let his gaze wander down over me. “It’s been a while since I’ve heard anyone use that word,” he said, “especially when describing the Division.”
“I have other names for it, but I thought I’d be polite. Keep pushing and that politeness will go the same way as my patience.”
“Why are you so prickly? I’m here to get you out,” he said with an exasperated sigh.
“Riiight, and what, the police just happened to turn up after I killed the ogre?” I snorted. “Give me a break. We both know you and Grey called them to haul my ass to jail just so you could get me out and make it look like the Division was doing me a favour.”
“Anyone would think you had trust issues,” he grumbled, before stepping out of the way and gesturing to the hall. “You are free to go, Ms Faith, no strings attached.”
I stared at him, suddenly uncertain. I’d been so sure that as soon as I expressed an interest in leaving he would hit me with the hard sell. Had I misread him? It hardly seemed likely, and yet…
I scooted out past him into the hall and headed down the corridor. Each step away from him had me waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Ms Faith,” he called out, and I halted.
“Yeah?” I turned to face him.
“There is one stipulation.”
Goddess, but I hated being right. “What’s that?”
“The Gardaí want you out of the country tonight. While they appreciate what you’ve done, they don’t want or need vigilante justice.”
“Vigilante justice? Pretty sure if they’re calling it that then it’s actually considered a crime. So why let me out at all?”
“Because you are not human, and your crime falls under the remit of Division 6.”
“And let me guess, you guys are letting me out through the goodness of your hearts?”
He smiled at me then, making me think of a cat who had cornered a mouse. Well, if he thought I was a mouse then he was sorely mistaken.
“We’ll be in touch. Your things are at the front desk, and there’s an officer waiting to take you straight to the airport.”
“I told you I won’t work for you,” I said defiantly.
“Go, before they change their minds and charge you with murder,” he said, completely ignoring my words. His dismissal only irritated me further, and the fact that he was right, and I knew it, was downright infuriating.
“And Grey, where is he? Why couldn’t he tell me all this himself?”
“He had important business to deal with,” Man-Boy said, “so he left me here to clean up your mess.” It was a deliberate attempt to wound me, and while I kept my expr
ession empty his words still hurt. But then what did I expect? After what I’d said to Grey, I’d have been more surprised if he had turned up himself.
Spinning on my heel, I headed down the hall and into the main office. I ignored the glances cast my way from the human Gardaí and didn’t stop until I reached the front desk.
“Division 6’s lackey said I could pick my things up here,” I said, meeting the disapproving glare of the same officer who had booked me.
Without a word, he thrust a familiar leather bag across the counter toward me.
“Thanks,” I said, moving toward the door.
“This used to be a nice place,” he said suddenly, catching me unawares.
“I’m sure it was,” I said pleasantly, leaving out the ‘before young women started turning up dead,’ part from my sentence.
“Until your kind turned up,” he added.
Tension knotted the muscles in my neck and back, and it took all of my restraint, or at least what little I had left, to keep walking toward the door.
“Never satisfied by what we give you, always wanting more. Greedy, murdering bastards, the lot of you,” he said. “If I had my way, I’d put you all down, starting with you.”
“Would you really?” I turned to face him. “You think you give us anything? We, who were here before the first humans ever took a stumbling step upon the earth?”
I paced toward him. “You’re only here because my kind have allowed it. Because we chose to live side by side with humanity. And yeah, there are some bad apples in the barrel, but you humans have your fair share too.” I sucked in a deep breath and reined in my anger.
There was no point in taking my frustration out on him. He was just one of the many humans who believed that anything that wasn’t human was inherently evil. And on some days, I would have agreed with him.
“You’re all monsters,” he said, as Man-Boy appeared in the doorway.
“What the hell is going on out here?” he demanded, cutting across the other man’s tirade.
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