Snarling at the Moon (2 page)

“Whatever you are thinking would be a very bad idea. We were not chosen for our charm. My mate, Tony, and myself were selected because we are the primes of our species. The avatars of the bird spirits. Ancient gods in living flesh.”

Serapha cleared her throat. “Was I drooling?”

“No, but from your file, you have been living wild. The more we let our beasts out, the harder it is to remember societal niceties.”

“Fine. You have a point. I will try and behave.”

Teal grinned, and they sat down to work on details of the agreement for the fey match. Serapha mentioned the four-week limit and Teal wrote it in.

When the contract was done, Serapha signed it, got her charm to pay for goods and services and Teal took her on a tour.

Serapha quirked her lips. “So, why is everyone staring?”

“You look a little wild. It is around your eyes and in your clothing. The fey insisted on a new spa being set up, and I think you are an ideal candidate for a full workup if you are willing.”

Serapha looked down at the smears of dirt on her hands from working with the stove before she left. “I think a mani-pedi is in order.”

Teal didn’t hesitate. She grabbed Serapha by the arm and hauled her bodily to the building that didn’t even have a sign up.

“Emmy, Stephan, head to toe and everything in between. She needs a heavy soak and I don’t know how much peeling. You are working with layers.”

Serapha scowled. “Hey!”

“It’s true.”

She sighed and grumbled as the two determined badgers approached her. She let them coax her into a back room, and once she was naked, she was bundled into a shower, a bath and a steam room with a speed that made her dizzy.

For the first few moments with Stephan, she had felt nervous, but as he simply looked at her skin and not her body, it made it easier.

Serapha finally sat still in the steam room and let the heat soak in. She moved her head and felt the scars of the bladed collar and the scent-gland removal tug with every motion. She was basically here for the free stuff. What fey in his right might would want an angry, scarred and fanged mate? They prided themselves on appearance and her appearance was definitely lacking.

* * * *

Atter watched the dust-ruffled woman being led away from their group, but he wanted to keep staring.

She held her head high, her hair needed a good scrubbing, but it was thick and lush with a white streak in it. The sharp teeth that she displayed when they stared at her were a little surprising.

His lips quirked when a tiny movement drew his attention. Her hands had claws that were receding as she walked away with the female guardian.

His two companions dismissed her and turned to watch the approach of the male guardian.

Tony sorted their small medallions and marked them like pets.

Atter scowled and one of his companions commented.

“We are to be marked like animals?”

Tony paused and a wave of glittering darkness moved across him, more power than the fey had felt in decades.

“You are marked as fey courting shifters. The shifters that are amenable to your attentions are wearing bracelets with a matching stone. Their charms will glow when you get near them. It will help you identify when you get close. Everyone here who does not live at the Crossroads, wears a charm. It identifies you for purchases, opens your quarters and lets you buy anything here. It also shifts with you.”

Atter watched his companions perk up before watching the woman across the way settle with the other guardian. Despite the surface grime, she had a settled appearance, a calmness that he did not associate with the shifters he had met in his life.

Tony followed his gaze. “Don’t even think about it. We only brought her in because your seers pinpointed her as a potential for a match. I sincerely doubt that she will be receptive to you.”

“Why not?” Atter looked down at himself. He was pleasant, he was charming and his beauty was remarked on by both sexes.

“I will tell you when I show you to your guestrooms for the duration of your stay if you are still interested in knowing.”

Atter’s interest was aroused. “Please.”

With all the paperwork taken care of, they went on their tour of a place Atter had only dreamed about setting foot in. The power of the shifters was all around them, in the very ground the walked on. Threads of human and fey magic coursed along and made things tolerable.

Atter looked around for sight of the woman who had come in on a wave of fey magic tangled with that of shifter enchantments. He nodded to the other fey in the bar and on the street. A handful of familiar and exotic faces were in the Crossroads, and he and the other two he arrived with brought it close to ten.

The Bright Soul was a charming bed and breakfast, and when the host was revealed to be a djinn, it filled they fey with a bit of relief. They were in familiar territory, and Teebie was delighted to show them around.

Tony grinned. “Teebie can answer any questions you have, and I know there will be a few.”

Atter raised his hand. “I would still like to know about that earlier matter.”

Tony smiled and nodded to Teebie. “I am just going to give Artur Atter Nightsong a little briefing on some of the shifter-fey issues he might come up against.”

Teebie nodded, retrieved the other two fey from the tea party they were having and showed them to their rooms.

Tony waved Atter through a door and into a sitting room.

“Have a seat.”

A trolley with coffee and snacks floated into the room and settled next to them as the door closed.

Tony sighed. “Teebie is a very good hostess.”

“Tell me about the other woman. The grubby one.”

Tony poured the coffee and handed a cup to Atter.

Atter reached forward and snagged a cookie.

“Are you familiar with the penchant some of your kind have had for keeping shifters in private zoos?”

Atter scowled. “I am aware of the practice.”

“Well, the woman you saw was one of those held shifters. She was put into a crush box that forced her into her animal form, a bladed collar was put around her neck and under her skin, and they surgically removed some of the signature aspects of her beast.”

Atter put the cookie down as his stomach roiled.

“Surely the healers could have helped her.”

“If she had been healed within a few months of the surgery, yes. She did two years as her beast, and when she came out, she could not fully shift her teeth and the scars are still with her.”

He nodded and asked, “Why was she so unkempt?”

“From the reports we have, because of the surgery, she is no longer considered to be a shifter by her family. She has been living alone since she was set free by the Guild, and with no family resources and her physical appearance—the fangs—she cannot work for her living. She is living wild.”

“Her family rejected her for what was done to her?”

Tony sighed. “You have to realise that each type of shifter has a different method of communication that goes beyond speech. There is sound, sight and scent. If any of those signals are tampered with, it makes it hard to communicate once shifted. Despite what the fey think, we have a highly organized social structure within our animal forms. When something tampers with that, it makes the other members of that society uncomfortable, and uncomfortable animals bite. It was for her own safety.”

Atter scowled. “I have an animal form, but it isn’t like that.”

Tony snorted. “I know. What you call an animal form is just a shape. If you are invited to join lives with a shifter, you will understand what I am speaking about. But you wanted to know why she looks the way she does, and that is why. Now, welcome to the Crossroads. Teebie will show you to your room.”

Atter nodded and rose to his feet, setting the coffee down. “Thank you for shedding light on the situation. I did not think that any of those who were taken by my kind would be willing to consider a fey as a mate.”

“She does not blame all fey, only the one who took her.”

With that, Tony left the room and Teebie entered.

“Please come with me.”

Atter was still trying to imagine what had been done to the woman with the slow smile and bright eyes. He followed his hostess to his room, unpacked his bags and wondered where the dark-haired beauty was staying.

Watching Emmy dig months of dirt out from under her nails would have been more fun if Stephan was not hauling a comb through her hair. The conditioner hadn’t done much.

She winced as he tugged. “Now you know why I just braided it.”

Stephan finally commented. “What is it made of, steel cable?”

Emmy grinned and Sera laughed.

“No. I have always had really thick hair. When it is straight, it will hang that way for weeks without tangling. Too much time in the bush and no hot water and well...you are dealing with it. Sorry.”

“No hot water?”

“Well, I can use the pump and heat it up on the stove, but my hair needs to unravel under water. I didn’t have a big enough bucket. Doing it dry just takes too long.”

Emmy chuckled. “Stephan, fill the sink.”

His chair squeaked and water flowed. “Anything to speed this up. Emmy, move your station.”

It was obviously a brother-sister act that she was dealing with. They not only looked similar, but they smelled like they were family.

Everything was on wheels, and soon, Sera was lying with her hair in the sink and the warm water swirling around her ears. Stephan was making happy, satisfied noises and Emmy finally finished the cleansing and scrubbing of Sera’s fingertips.

Emmy pulled out the bottles of polish, and she looked at them. “Are you sure about this?”

“With the dress that you brought out for me, trust me. I remember how I used to look. Hot-rod red is always a good look.”

Emmy sighed. “And the toes?”

“Everyone needs a little acid green in their life.”

Stephan was humming happily as his comb started to make progress.

Sera leaned back and let them take over her extremities. Her beast was confused, but her human was very happy.

The entire process had taken three hours, and Sera wanted nothing more than a cheeseburger, though the dress she was wearing said evening out at the ballet.

She thanked the exhausted Emmy and Stephan and watched as they high-fived each other over the transformation of her appearance.

“We will send the clothing that I picked out for you over to the Bright Soul. Anyone will be able to lead you there, but if you get lost, go find Teal or Tony or a blue woman. She is your hostess, Teebie.”

“So, you are throwing me to the wolves?” Sera arched her newly shaped eyebrows.

Emmy chuckled. “Wolves, elves, whatever you stand still for.”

“Fair enough. How do I look?”

Stephan put his hands on his hips. “You are lovely. If I had not been here for every moment of the transformation, I would not have believed it.”

“Aw, shucks. That is so sweet. Now, where can I get a burger?”

Emmy held out her hands in a plea. “Get them to cut it in half so you don’t ruin your nails and don’t bite your fingers.”

“Yes, ma’am. Have you already burned my clothing?”

Stephan gave a beatific smile. “Three hours ago.”

She made a face and Emmy picked up the large basket full of clothing, makeup and toiletries. The shoes for the evening were already on her feet and others had been delivered to her room, wherever that was.

Lifting her chin and closing her mouth to conceal her extended canines, she headed out the door of the spa and followed her nose to the café near the end of the block.

To her surprise, one of the fey got to the door before her and he held it open. “Good evening, my lady.”

She smiled tightly and nodded her head in thanks. Sera passed him and entered the café, moving to a booth on the side of building and settling into place as her doorman slowly followed her.

“Lady, I see you are eating alone. May I join you?”

She waved for him to sit; amusement grew inside her. This was going to be hilarious.

A waitress named Molly brought them menus, and Sera smiled slightly.

“I will just have a cheeseburger with bacon and fries, and a cup of water with lemon, please.”

The elf sitting across from her addressed Molly as well. “I will have a salad with chicken and a cup of tea.”

Sera tried not to roll her eyes. She enjoyed salad now and then but not just chicken. She had grown up in a large family with a taste for large meals in the evening and boisterous activity afterward.

“So, lady, when did you get in? I have not seen any new arrivals through the shifter portal.”

She cocked her head and took in his startling green eyes and mink-brown hair. He looked like a tree come to life.

“I arrived a few hours ago, but I had something to do.” She quirked her lips.

“Ah, it must have been while I was in the forest. It is really quite something.”

That settled that. He was one of the forest fey that she had heard of since she was a child. She had never seen one before, so she stared a little too long.

“Are you as entranced by me as I am by you?”

Sera blinked and leaned back. “No. I just have never seen a forest fey before.”

He sighed in disappointment. “Pity. You are entrancing.”

The burger arrived and she daintily cut it into four pieces. “Thank you, but hold that sentiment.”

She opened her mouth, let her lips slide back to show her teeth, and he jerked as she bit ravenously into the burger.

Her admirer was out of the chair and out of the café in under twenty seconds. Sera sighed, and when Molly brought the salad over, Sera pointed to a spot near her left hand. “Put it down here. It has been a while since I have had food this good.”

Molly looked to the empty space. “Did you scare him off?”

“He thought I looked sweet and pretty. Like many men, he was fine until I opened my mouth.” Sera winked and took another bite of the burger. Molly laughed, patted her on the shoulder and walked back to the kitchen.