Knight in Leather

by Holley Trent

  Ethan pinched her ass and then started for the suites, dragging Colin along with him. “I’ll show you a beast,” he called over his shoulder.

  “Maybe later.”

  I hope so, anyway.

  She turned to Simone and Thom and cleared her throat. “Spill it.”

  Simone blinked. “Spill what?”

  “Are you two fucking?”

  Thom raised his eyebrows and passed a hand over his hair. “No need to hash words, aye?”

  “Are you? Are you cuckolding Heath?”

  “No,” Simone said.

  “I need more words.”

  “The situation is complicated.”

  “I need more words than that, too.”

  “Okay.” Simone groaned. “Suffice it to say that fairy commitments make a weird snowflake-shaped configuration sometimes and, occasionally, there are people like me with a certain amount of power who don’t get just one lover.”

  “What?”

  “Like I said. It’s complicated.”

  “But you both have mates.”

  Thom nodded.

  “And…they know that you’re…”

  “Well, we don’t fuck when they’re not around.” Simone scoffed. “That’d be rude.”

  “Okay, so you have…an arrangement.”

  “Yes. That’s a polite enough label. We have an arrangement ordained by the same weirdoes who threw Heath and me together. If anything were to ever happen to Heath—knock on wood—I’d become Thom’s, and so on. The connections keep the flow of power among the leadership stable, I guess.”

  “Elaborate on that and so on.”

  Simone chuckled dryly and smiled with obviously false cheer. “Maybe later?”

  Dasha narrowed her eyes at her friend. “I’m not going to forget, so don’t get your hopes up about that.”

  “The situation isn’t as perverse as it sounds,” Thom said, chuckling.

  “Probably not for you. How many people do you get to fuck?”

  His sharkish grin was his only response, and Thom wasn’t much for grinning.

  Oh, boy. Dasha wasn’t sure she even wanted to know anymore.

  She turned back to Simone, and leaned in to whisper, “I don’t have to take another mate, do I? I don’t think—”

  “No,” Simone said soothingly. “The drive isn’t going to be there for you simply because you’re human, and I seriously doubt that Ethan feels the pull, either.”

  “Ethan?” After all the shit she’d put herself through to allow the man to get close to her, Dasha didn’t want to share. “Wait, he’s not going to—”

  “Yo!” Daryn stepped around the corner of the office at that moment with Siobhan on her heels.

  “Hail, Tommy!” Siobhan called over.

  “How goes it, Princess?”

  Siobhan grunted and shrugged. Turning to Simone, she said, “I found a guy to do those, uh…” She wriggled her eyebrows lasciviously. “Parking lot improvements we were discussing.”

  “And by improvements, you mean…”

  “You know what I mean. Not even a Barbie doll would be able to fit her Corvette onto the lot while construction is happening.”

  “And when is this set to start?”

  “As soon as your convention booking leaves.”

  “Ooh,” Dasha said. “You should put a note on the website that there’s construction imminent. That’ll probably deter folks from booking.”

  Simone stuffed her hands into her pockets and nodded sagely. “I’ll get Perry to make the update. I used to maintain the site myself, and suffice it to say it looked like I did. He won’t let me touch anything on the backend. Says I’ll screw up his code.”

  “Where’d that fairy learn to code websites, anyway?”

  Thom unfastened his duffel bag from the side of his bike and chuckled softly. “He’s self-taught. He’s always been the bookish type. If he weren’t in this crew, he’d probably be up to his eyeballs in old scrolls trying to glean the knowledge of the elders or some such shit.”

  “How did he end up on your crew?”

  “Well, I can answer that one,” Siobhan said, “since him getting drafted was sort of my fault.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She let her breath out in a sputter. “Everyone in the realm has to serve Mum and Dad, or the palace in general, right? And for a certain number of years, generally prescribed by how pissed she is at a given person on a particular day. Heath’s crew was just one avenue of service. I believe that Mum assigned Perry to Heath simply because he was so unsuitable. Perry had asked for a specific job with one of the teachers, and I told Mum that she’d be silly not to give him what he wanted because he’s so bloody brilliant. But, because I opened my big mouth…”

  “She tossed him to Heath.”

  “Bingo.”

  “We try to keep him at home base as much as we can now,” Thom said. “There’s no reason to have him out adventuring when he’d serve us just as well feeding us Internet leads.”

  “I’m sure he appreciates the consideration,” Dasha said.

  “I’m appalled that you would think we’d be so blind to the needs of the crew.”

  “It’s just hard to think of you as anything but a bunch of motorcycle-riding rogues.”

  “Because we all have the exact same personality, right? We’re more or less interchangeable?” Thom smirked.

  Dasha sighed. “Stop trying to put words in my mouth. You know damn well you’re not interchangeable.” She certainly didn’t want to swap out her fairy for any of the others. They were nice guys and all, but none of them pulled her attention like Ethan.

  All four of her cheeks burned at the thought of him.

  “Where are you staying?” Simone asked Thom.

  “With you, I guess. Do me a favor and call Nadia. I told her you would as soon as I got in. I’m going to go drop this bag and chase down Heath.”

  Simone started immediately toward the office and Thom toward the cottage.

  Left with Siobhan and Daryn, Dasha folded her arms over her chest and clucked her tongue. “So…am I right to be suspicious that I’m not catching all the nuances of what’s going on between them?”

  “Probably not,” Daryn said, “but don’t feel bad. I imagine the arrangement wouldn’t be particularly straightforward to anyone who didn’t have a fairy brain. Ooh!” She damn near tittered with excitement. “Did you hear? Eldora said the elves could take around a hundred Sídhe immediately. They’re making room now.”

  “Why does that have you so excited?”

  “Because my family is one of the ones that doesn’t have major magic. They’d give up the few piddling powers they have if doing so meant they could leave the realm unmolested. They’d have no problem living at the North Pole for the time being. It’s cold there, but there’s a bunch of them. They’ve got the benefit of body heat and could just huddle together. All you need to do is get word to them.”

  “Me, huh?”

  Daryn shrugged. “Well, once you get inside, I’m certain Ethan’s folks could get word to them. There are means of communication in the realm that don’t exist here.”

  “I’m leaving as soon as Colin is ready. Write a note or do whatever you have to do.”

  “Who’s Colin?” Daryn asked.

  “The hell if I know. Ethan and Thom brought him back.”

  As if on cue, the door to the suite Perry shared with Matt slammed and Ethan headed over with the leaner man at his heels.

  “Oh, shit,” Siobhan muttered.

  “What?” Daryn asked.

  Ethan immediately looped his arms around Dasha’s neck from the back and pulled her close.

  “That Colin?” Siobhan asked.

  The Colin in question had stopped in front of the vending machine in the courtyard and was peering through the glass at the candy bars. “What the hell was Heath thinking?”

  Daryn not-sot-subtly patted down her hair. “Uh, so, who is he?”

  “The biggest jer
k in the Milky Way. There’s a reason he lives in the swamps.”

  Colin sauntered over, his thumbs hooked into the belt loops of his borrowed jeans, feet still bare. His gaze locked on Daryn. His lips quirked up on one side in the most lecherous smirk Dasha had ever had the pleasure—or displeasure—of seeing in person.

  He strutted closer—rudely close, at that—and looked Daryn up and down. “My, my. I think you’ll do just fine.” He drew in a long inhalation and moaned. “You smell nice for a land-dweller.” He sniffed again. “Fertile. How do you feel about fuckin’ a man with fins, baby?”

  Daryn seemed to be processing the words on a delay. Her smile lingered too long. Then it drooped. Her already-pale skin blanched, and her teal eyes went fiery.

  “Bastard.” The slap she gave him across his cheek before stomping away was hard enough to start World War Sídhe.

  But Colin just sighed and rubbed his cheek. “She’ll come around, right?”

  “I can’t believe this shit,” Siobhan said.

  “What the hell just happened here?” Dasha asked.

  “Unless I totally just misread the situation, which I doubt, another crew member has a mate.”

  Colin chuckled softly. “Aren’t I a lucky duck?”

  “You’re a shit-stain, Colin, and I swear to any god who’ll hear me that—”

  “That you’ll what?” Hestia popped into the conversation with her usual stealth, frightening Dasha as always, but Ethan didn’t so much as flinch behind her. He must have caught one of her obscure pre-arrival signs.

  Siobhan crooked her thumb toward the jerk whose smirk had actually fallen away. He couldn’t very well smirk and gape at the goddess at the same time.

  “That I will beat him until he’s nothing but an oil slick in this parking lot if he gives Daryn any bullshit.”

  Hestia straightened the shoulders of her robe. “Well. That match was my idea.”

  “Pardon?” Ethan asked.

  “Oh, yes. I didn’t exactly forget, but the matter simply fell out of the forefront of my mind. I arranged the match ages ago.”

  “Which is what, in goddess terms?” Siobhan asked tartly. “Fifteen minutes?”

  Hestia wagged a finger at the princess. “Careful. I generally only have your best interests at heart.”

  “You’d been more or less ignoring us until Simone got your attention.”

  Hestia pushed up one elegant, indignant eyebrow. “So you think. These things take time, Princess.”

  “Is that what you do when you’re away for so long? Think up new ways to make us miserable and then try to sell the misery to us as blessings?”

  Even Dasha thought the princess was crossing the line to impertinence, but as she didn’t particularly want Hestia’s attention on her at the moment, she kept her mouth shut.

  Ethan seemed to be adopting the same strategy.

  “Well, he’s not your mate,” Hestia said reasonably. “He’s Daryn’s, and these things aren’t arbitrary. Mate matches never are.”

  “So, you think they’re actually compatible? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “She certainly smells nice,” Colin said, his smirk having returned.

  Hestia poked him hard in the shoulder. “I’m not always going to run to your defense, you scoundrel. Clean up your act. You’ve got a tough road ahead of you. Mate or not, that one’s not going to fall so easily into your arms.”

  “I thought fairies were supposed to be easy.”

  Siobhan lunged toward him, but Ethan’s reflexes were obviously well honed. He got between the princess and the scoundrel and put up his hands. “Easy, now.”

  Hestia massaged the bridge of her nose and shook her head. “I didn’t come here to referee. Once I leave, you’re on your own, Colin. They can beat you black and blue and I won’t interfere.” She dropped her hand, only to prop it against her hip, and cleared her throat.

  “I don’t like when you clear your throat,” Dasha said. “The sound always makes me think pain and suffering will follow soon after.”

  “No pain. No suffering. Just a favor that needs to be done.”

  “By whom?”

  “You, dear. I need to phrase this in such a way that I don’t step on Mielikki’s toes.”

  “I don’t think you need to worry about her. She doesn’t really pop in the way you do.”

  “Just because you don’t see her doesn’t mean she isn’t around. She’s always been a little less…” Hestia crinkled her nose and made a waffling hand gesture. “Overt in her interactions with her favored ones. Some goddesses might get annoyed with me speaking with you at all. She’s generally slow to temper, so I’ll just come out with the request.”

  “What do you need?”

  “I need you to fetch a fairy for me. Since you’re going into the realm, anyway.”

  “Um. I’m going into a very specific part of the realm, so if that fairy doesn’t live within a three-minute walk of the portal, you’ve got the wrong girl.”

  Hestia waved a dismissive hand. I’ve got the plan all worked out. When you get there, you just need to get hold of Fergus so he can open the tunnel between the Gotches’ little patch of forest and the palace.”

  “Why the hell would she want to do that?” Ethan asked. “My parents don’t try to get near the place. They had Fergus close down that tunnel eons ago to make Rhiannon have to work harder to travel to them.”

  “Yes, but I’ve got everything arranged.” Hestia fixed her gaze on Dasha and pulled a small, silver-colored envelope from the folds of her robe. “All you need to do is blow the contents of this packet into the face of whichever guard approaches the tunnel, and then wait.”

  “What’s inside?”

  “Oh, just a bit of magic that relays specific instructions.”

  “It’s a spell,” Siobhan said, shaking her head. “If you’re rolling up your sleeves like this and getting your hands dirty, whoever that fairy is you’re trying to get out must be very important to you.”

  “He’s important to many, including a woman living outside the realm, even if she doesn’t know yet. Him being freed of his binds to Rhiannon is important. He is needed elsewhere to put other plans in motion.”

  “Plans that have nothing to do with us, I’m guessing,” Ethan said.

  Hestia shook her head. “Not directly. And I am not the goddess who bestows this gentleman favor. In this case, I am merely a messenger who has agreed to pass the mission on to you.”

  “That doesn’t sound like something you’d do,” Siobhan said.

  Hestia shrugged in that graceful way she always did. “The outcome is important to my fellow, and she made a convincing argument.”

  “And I take it he can’t wait for the Great Fairy Escape?” Dasha asked.

  Hestia cringed.

  Dasha had never seen the goddess cringe.

  “No,” Hestia said flatly.

  “What are you not telling us?” Ethan asked.

  “I’ve already said too much,” Hestia said. “Any more, and I may inadvertently lead your actions in ways that would break the code of conduct for beings like me.”

  Siobhan dragged her hand down her face and let her breath out in a sputter.

  Hestia locked her gaze on Dasha.

  “What?” Ethan snarled.

  Hestia opened her mouth, closed it, shook her head, and then vanished.

  “Shit.”

  Dasha got a sinking feeling.

  She turned in Ethan’s arms and looked up at him. “What was that about?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine, sweeting, though you’re wise to be suspicious of her coyness.”

  Colin grunted. “When they clam up like that, it’s usually for some dastardly reason.”

  “You would know, right?” Siobhan asked him tartly.

  “Why would he know?” Dasha asked.

  “His disrespect toward fairies is because he isn’t one. In spite of who is mate apparently is, he thinks we’re lesser. He’s a demigod. His father
is Poseidon. We may never know who his mother is, but I’d imagine his sunshine and roses demeanor came right from the sea god himself.”

  Colin grunted. “Never met my mother, actually. I mean, I’m sure she was there when I was born, but my father had no need for her beyond that.”

  Siobhan drew in a long breath, clenched her fists at her side, and let the breath out slowly. Whatever meditative effects she thought that action would have obviously didn’t work. Her bright blue eyes were clouding over and her fair skin was turning a sickly greenish gray.

  “Shit,” Ethan muttered. He unhanded Dasha again, tossed Siobhan over his shoulder, and ran faster than a man his size should have been capable of.

  Not fast enough, though. Before he could round the corner of the motel office, Siobhan sent out a torrent of magic that even Dasha with her human senses could feel, and the energy was nasty.

  As the magic hadn’t intended for her, she didn’t get the full-bore effect. It made her cough and scrunch her nose at the foul scent it carried, but forced Colin onto his knees.

  Evidently, he couldn’t draw breath. Mouth gaping and eyes bulging, he scratched as his throat and gagged.

  Dasha didn’t know what to do. Obviously Ethan had tried to stop what he suspected Siobhan was working up, so Dasha figured that maybe she shouldn’t let the guy die.

  She canted her head and put her hands on her hips. “Can demigods die?”

  Colin coughed and clawed at his throat.

  “Is that a yes or a no?”

  He pointed to his back and pantomimed pounding.

  Scoffing, she walked over to his kneeling form. She delivered a hard smack to his middle, upper back with the flat of her hand.

  He fell forward, wheezing and sputtering on the asphalt. “Damn, she packs a wallop.”

  Dasha knelt beside him and grunted sweetly. “You know, these folks are serious about their friendships. You might want to be careful what you say around them.”

  He coughed some more—violent, unproductive coughs that had him going red in the face and retching at the end. When he finally got control of his lungs, he dragged the bottom of his shirt across his sweaty face. “Fairies don’t make friends. They just use each other for what they can get.”

  “Really? Because that’s not what I’ve observed in the past six months. These people care about each other.”