by Zoe Perdita
“A few tidbits I found interesting. Some junk. My clients have particular tastes,” he said and pointed at one of the things he’d put on display that morning—an old gas lamp with the slightest tinge of magic about it. Not enough to worry him or to keep him from selling it to someone else. Not like some of the other objects.
“They sure do. It’s a bit tatty. You’d think all of the stuff in Montgomery’s house would’ve been nice. Looks like he didn’t take care of most of it the way his family would’ve wanted him to,” she said and frowned at the lamp.
“I suppose,” Ari said around a yawn.
Then her eyes lit up, and she smiled. The wrinkles around her mouth deepened. “Nothing you want to get rid of, is there?”
“Not without cash in exchange.”
Margaret laughed again. “You can’t blame me for trying.”
Ari’s mouth pulled into a smile. He really couldn’t.
Now that she was here, she reminded him of what Fisk said. Everyone at the estate sale yesterday would’ve known what room he bought. And if they were looking for whatever was in there, maybe that’s why they sent those unfortunate foxes to rob him.
“Did you recognize any of the other buyers yesterday? They looked like they were from out of town.”
“I know! Big turnout. I figured it was because it was such a high profile estate with Bradley Montgomery dying like that, and the rumors about him and the blond guy,” she said, her voice dropping conspiratorially.
Ari clenched his jaw. He’d never talked about his love life with her before. And it’s not like he wore a stamp on his forehead that said: “super gay” or something. Still, that familiar pit opened in his stomach, ready to clench and kick her out if she started a bigoted rant. Wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to do that with someone he wanted to trust.
“What blond guy?” he made himself ask.
“Oh, really handsome young man. Apparently, they were lovers or something. I mean, why else was the guy in his house being taken care of? And the rumors are he got a bunch of money after Montgomery died. His name must’ve been in the will.”
Okay, that wasn’t quite bigoted as it was grossly misinformed, but Ari bet a large portion of Haven City (the part that paid attention to local news stories anyway) was equally confused about the matter.
“You’re right. Who knows? Did you get a chance to talk to any of them? The other buyers?”
She screwed up her eyes for a moment in thought. “No, I didn’t. But those two in the leather jackets looked out of place, didn’t they? I swear I heard them talking about looking for something, and they tried to get past those big fellows blocking off the rooms, but they backed off really quickly. Strange having bodyguards at an estate sale.”
His mouth went dry, and he sipped the last of his coffee in a large gulp. “Did you hear them say what they were looking for?”
Margaret’s eyes grew large behind her glasses. “Well, dibs and dabs, but I’m not sure you’d believe me if I told you. It sounded like a bunch of crazy talk, because they said they were looking for the Demon’s Sword. I didn’t see anything in there that looked like a sword. Did you?”
“Nothing,” Ari said, honestly, since his haul didn’t include a sword either. And he hadn’t noticed one, especially not a magical one. Though, the foxes had to be looking for something magic. A normal sword wouldn’t hold that much interest to an old family unless it slew a dragon, which wasn’t likely for something called the Demon’s Sword.
“Oh, too bad! I wished you had it so I could see what it looked like. Might want to be careful though, if they’re really looking for something I don’t think they found it. The man and woman had a fight after you left. Loud one out in the parking lot. Those bodyguards had to escort them away. Not something you see at most sales.”
Ari nodded.
Frowned.
At least he had a lead on who might’ve broken into his house. Now he needed to find out what the Demon’s Sword was, and if he actually had it. Magical objects could have names that didn’t disclose their actual nature. The sword could be the lantern or something, just to throw those who sought it off.
And the person who would know the most about an object like that was the same person he didn’t want to talk to at all.
The stupid jealous alpha he kicked out of his house this morning.
Cage.
And Ari thought his life couldn’t get any worse.
6
Felan blamed his alpha pride for not marching back inside and apologizing right away. Still, Ari wasn’t even a shifter, and he hardly ever apologized. Unless he’d done something truly terrible, and he didn’t do that often.
He spent the day at his office trying not to think about his brother’s ghost watching Ari in the shower (it was something Kian might do), and growling at inappropriate times so much so that he was glad it was summer vacation and none of his colleagues were around to hear him.
His phone sounded as he was getting ready to leave the office. A text from Tyler. For a moment, before he glanced at his phone, his heart told his brain it might be Ari.
No such luck.
Coming tonight?
Felan ran his hand over his face.
Right. He forgot about the weekly plans he made with Tyler. After everything with Ari, it completely slipped his mind.
Felan sent a reply and left his office.
They met at the coffee shop down the street from Tyler’s tattoo parlor, the one that Quinn currently worked at. He’d asked Tyler why Quinn wanted a job when he got most of Montgomery’s money after the bastard died.
At the time, Tyler gave him a flat look. “He spent years trapped in a house. You think he wants to do that again? Hell no. He loves working there. You should see what he does with the desserts. Fancy as shit. He’s thinking about going to the community college too. Culinary school.”
“And what did you say to that?” Felan had asked.
“I told him he could do whatever he wants.”
That moment told Felan a lot about how much Tyler had grown up in the past few years. How much he’d gone from a lost teenager into a young man with a solid head on his shoulders. And he had a mate who saw that and loved him for it.
Now, that thought turned Felan’s stomach sour. Not on Tyler’s behalf but on his own. Since Ari couldn’t stand him, and Felan couldn’t blame the healer right now for that.
“What the fuck are you grimacing for?” Tyler asked, a cigarette in his mouth. He sat outside the cafe, a drink on the table in front of him. The sun took its time setting over the river in the summer, and the light stung Felan’s eyes. The water didn’t look as dingy as it usually did, and he blamed that on the sun too.
“Long day. How’s work?” Felan asked and sat. He caught Quinn’s eye through the window, and the unicorn nodded.
“Fine. Got a whole shop full of dragons who want additions to their tats, so I can’t complain. You look like shit scraped over someone’s shoe,” Tyler said and took a sip of his drink. It smelled like tea, and Felan would bet all the money in his bank account that Quinn put him up to drinking it.
He smiled, despite the utter lack of desire to do so in his veins. “I said it was a long day. Long night. Long year.”
Tyler looked at him, his watchful eyes searching. “You smell like that healer. And blood. Did something happen near Ari’s place this morning? A witch came into the café talking about it, and Quinn texted me.”
Their relationship was supposed to be based on Felan giving Tyler emotional support to keep him clean, but maybe they’d moved beyond that by now. Tyler felt more like a younger brother (like Kian, his brain said, and he scowled at it) or a son. Felan sighed. “Ari’s house was robbed by a few foxes. They knocked him out and then were killed. Killed by a shifter that no one can seem to find. No—it wasn’t me. But the detectives on the case do think it was a wolf.”
Tyler snorted. “It’s Alwen and Sharp, right? They always pop up when shadow folk are involve
d.”
Felan never thought about it that way. He’d have to put his pride aside and thank them the next time he saw them for all they did, not only for the city, but for the shadow folk too. He thought living a double life as a professor was difficult. Imagine being a cop.
“Yes. Ari called them. He’s an old friend of Alwen’s from when they were children.”
Felan hadn’t met Ari until later, and when they did meet, Seth was at college and Ari was already running his shop and working as a healer alongside his grandmother. They never got a chance to properly meet before Kian died, then there was no point.
“Is the healer okay?” Tyler actually sounded concerned, and he snubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, brow furrowed.
“He’ll live. Bump on the head is all,” Felan said, a growl creeping out at the end.
Before Tyler could question him further, Quinn popped up. His longish hair was held back with some kind of clip and he had a purple apron tied around his lithe frame. He was the kind of strikingly beautiful young man that took everyone’s breath away the moment they saw him, almost elvish in his good looks. Still, Felan preferred his green-eyed healer to this ethereal being.
Quinn beamed at Tyler and set down another cup of iced tea, rich with spices and sugar. “You looked like you could use some tea too. It’s our special hibiscus blend today. Enjoy.”
Tyler watched Quinn saunter inside, and Felan let out a chuckle that lightened his heart a bit. He might not get a happy ending, but the people he loved did. Maybe that’s the price he had to pay for his sins.
And, at the very least, the tea was good. Cool and refreshing, and not loaded with caffeine to keep him up half the night wondering if he should go back to Ari’s place or not. He shouldn’t. He knew that.
But if his mate was in danger . . . . Shit.
“Fuck. I’m gonna regret asking this. But what happened? He kick you to the curb again?” Tyler asked and frowned heavily. His fingers tapped wildly out of sync on the table.
“You aren’t my therapist.”
“You have a therapist?” Tyler asked, eyes widening from their usual narrowed state.
Felan shook his head. “Not anymore. Ari and I fought. It’s—” If Amy wasn’t having the time of her life in Paris, she’d have worked the information out of him by now, and he knew it. “We fought. Mostly about things that happened before. Things that made him hate me, and I said something I shouldn’t have. That’s it.”
“That’s it? So? Go say you’re sorry and give him a cake or a bunch of parsley or whatever healers like.”
“Parsley? I think I could do better than that. And parsley isn’t magic,” Felan said, because he never could turn off the professor side of his brain, even if he wanted to.
“You know what I mean. Aren’t you worried about him if some weird shifter broke in and killed some foxes?” Tyler asked, dropping his voice so the people at the neighboring tables couldn’t hear.
Of course he was worried! But—Felan didn’t have an excuse. It was just the alpha being too pissed and stubborn to do anything.
Pissed about Kian.
Ari keeping Kian’s haunting from him. If it was Kian, which Felan wasn’t completely convinced of yet. He’d give Ari the benefit of the doubt, but he was a scholar. He knew the difference between hearing about something and seeing it with his own eyes.
“He doesn’t want me there, and if I show up unannounced again, I’m not sure what he’ll do,” Felan admitted. “He asked for space; I’m giving it to him.”
“But you’re going to keep watch from down the street, just in case, aren’t you?” Tyler asked and a smug smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
Felan shrugged. He may have said something to his beta about keeping an eye on the Victorian for a few days and alerting him if anything went amiss. “Why? Do you want to help?”
“I have tomorrow off. But if I get arrested for loitering, you’d better bail me out.”
“Isn’t that what Ken’s for?” Felan asked, and Tyler kicked him lightly under the table.
“Shut up. I don’t do that shit anymore.”
“I know. I’m proud of you,” Felan said and meant it.
Tyler scowled at him though his cheeks reddened all the same.
Even though he told himself he wasn’t going to do it, his car took the wrong exit and he ended up at the top of Ari’s street. The yellow crime scene tape had disappeared, and he smelled his beta’s son, a teenager, upwind. The young man’s car was parked up there, and he was probably bored out of his mind, but they’d do this for Felan.
They wouldn’t fail him.
Still, this was his mate.
His problem.
The lights in the Victorian were on, but the car wasn’t in the front of the house. Maybe Ari put it in the garage after what happened.
Felan counted at least five lights on in the house. One upstairs in Ari’s bedroom. Another from the hall and three downstairs in the sitting room, living room and entryway. The only reason Ari would have his house lit up like that would be if he had company.
The alpha grumbled at that thought, and Felan willed it to shut up. It had caused enough trouble today already. No need to make things worse.
A shadow moved in the sitting room, one that looked larger than Ari, and Felan’s blood chilled.
Kian?
Or, more logically, someone else?
But if he charged up the steps and burst in, Ari really might never speak to him again.
Dammit.
Then a car pulled into the Victorian’s drive—Ari’s compact car, and Felan’s heart throbbed that much harder.
So Ari wasn’t even home yet.
That meant . . . . Dammit.
He didn’t honestly know what it meant, other than the shadow in the house definitely wasn’t Ari.
The healer climbed out of his car, stared at the house for a long moment, then walked up to the front door. He was going to go inside with it like that.
Felan climbed out of the car and moved down the street before he realized he’d made up his mind to do so. He ran, legs pumping, and silently cursed himself for being so predictable. So chained to this one person that he’d do anything to protect him, even if Ari wouldn’t return the favor.
“The lights!” he said and charged up the walkway as Ari got to the door. “Someone’s inside!”
Ari glowered at him and shoved open the door. “I know. I called a friend to come over and watch the place while I was out. What are you doing here?”
An unimpressed looking cat with caramel colored hair stood inside and raised an eyebrow. “This that alpha who won’t leave you alone? I know the feeling.”
“Sorry about this, Seb. I thought you’d be less likely to lift anything than Fisk,” Ari said and sounded like he actually meant the apology.
Seb grinned, just slightly wicked. “I am. Nothing here I want anyway. Though I swear you have a ghost. Something kept messing with the piano until I turned on the lights.”
Both Ari and Felan stared at him.
“Did you see him?” Felan asked first.
The cat’s green eyes burned into him, sizing him up. Most other shifters couldn’t pull that look on a wolf and get away with it. But cats generally didn’t follow most shifter rules either. “I saw a shadow, but not anything with features. Can I leave? Ian whined when I said I was coming over, and he’s going to pout all night if I’m not back for dinner.”
Felan didn’t ask, but the name was familiar. Ian Black. This cat was most likely his mate. Looks like neither of them could escape mated pairs lately.
Fate trying to tell them something? Too bad Ari seemed content to ignore it.
Ari nodded, and Seb slipped out the door, hands shoved into the pockets of his pants. Then the healer finally looked at Felan again, glaring.
Felan cut him off before he could say anything. “I’m going, but I’m keeping an eye on you out there, whether you like it or not.”
Ari sucked in a brea
th, and Felan prepared himself to get yelled at. “Ever heard of the Demon’s Sword?”
Felan blinked. He hadn’t expected that, but his scholarly side was quick to respond. “Yes, I’ve come across the name several times in my research, especially when it came to Old World lore. Why?”
Ari got the same look he had when someone tried to serve him a plate of food he despised when he was starving. Like he knew he should thank them and eat it, but bringing himself to do it was damn near impossible. “That’s what those foxes might’ve been looking for. I told Seth, and he said he’d look into it. But that just means he’ll probably come to you.”
Felan’s brows furrowed. Something that ancient got into the Montgomery’s hands? This is why the old families were dangerous. He didn’t need to tell Ari that. The healer already understood. “If we’re lucky, it’s a cheap replica. Nothing to worry about. But I’ll see what I can find out about the real sword. Sleep well.”
Ari grumbled something under his breath, and Felan stood still, wondering if he should move in and hug him or escape before the healer could say something that would rile up the alpha again.
The decision was made for him when a fox with a baby showed up. Must’ve been the same one from the day before.
The fox in question was young, possibly still a teenager, with a swish of copper hair and sharp amber eyes, similar to the cat who’d just left. The baby was bald and fussing in his arms, and he looked helplessly between the two of them before settling on Ari.
“Come on. I’ll take a look at her again,” he said, kinder than usual, and threw Felan a look that said it all.
Leave.
I don’t need you.
Even if the alpha didn’t agree, he wasn’t in the mood to argue. He’d help his mate because that’s what mates did, even if Ari didn’t want him.
As Ari and the fox disappeared into the healer rooms, Felan peeked into the sitting room and had the same feeling he’d gotten that morning. The sensation of someone watching him, and he frowned at himself for the chill that raced up his spine.