Pink Princess Fairytini (Fairy Files #2) (20 page)

Mr. Elderwood looked away. “The fairy king, no offense princess, he burned down a village right next to ours. Said all the people in it were rebels, but we knew them. They were just like us, just trying to take care of their families. They weren’t rebels.”

“And were things better with my mother in control?” I looked at Mrs. Elderwood, but she too averted her gaze.

“Yes,” she said. “Much better.”

Great, so no one wanted to talk to the princess, either. “I was in Rubalia recently, and I heard talk of people changing. I saw shadows in the forest and some claimed the shadows were from the nightmare realm, that they were seeping into people and changing them.”

“I didn’t see any of that,” Mrs. Elderwood said, still not looking at me. The police arrived and I wasn’t able to push them any further. I relayed what they’d told me, minus the fae stuff, to the human police and went outside to find Frost.

He was leaning against the brick wall of the building, tapping his foot to the guitar and tambourine music flowing down the street from a couple of buskers on the corner. He didn’t see me right away, and I studied his face for several long moments. He looked easy, a slight smile turning up the corners of his mouth.

“A song you like?” I asked, stepping closer.

He met my gaze slowly, like he was waking up from a dream. “My mother used to sing me to sleep with this song when I was a boy.” He spoke just above a whisper, as though he was being respectful, reverent of the music.

“It’s pretty,” I said in the same low voice. “Do you talk to her often?”

“Who?”

“Your mother.”

He shook his head and something closed off in his face, in his eyes. “How’d it go in there?”

I shrugged and told him what I’d found out. “They are as wary of speaking to the princess as they are of speaking to you, maybe more so.” I hated to admit that I might be hindering rather than helping the case. “Interesting that they said Benny the dragon told them to contact you if they had any trouble.”

He shrugged. “I figured word was being spread by someone. Why do you have that look on your face?”

“Because Benny the dragon is a bit angry with you at the moment, right? And if they’d called the police first they might be closer to answers. What if Benny’s helping the kidnapper?”

“By directing the fae to me for help? Nice to know what you really think of my skill as a private investigator.”

“The fae aren’t going to be really comfortable until they learn to assimilate,” I said, trying to work it out in my head. “Benny gives them jobs and apartments amongst the humans, but sends them to you for their problems? Something just doesn’t make sense. He should tell them to go to the police first and you second.”

Frost shrugged. “Maybe Benny doesn’t like humans. I think you’re overanalyzing the situation. And it’s not like I’d keep the police out of it if I thought they’d help.”

I nodded, because what he said made sense, but I couldn’t stop the itch at the base of my spine that suggested I was missing something. “But then why are they afraid of you?”

“Let’s go back to my office and check out the information Benny gave us. Maybe we’ll find some answers.”

My phone rang as we were getting on the bus. “Hey, Harvey,” I said, trying to sound cheerful and not wrung out and worried.

“Hey, babe. Can I take you to dinner, tonight?”

My stomach growled and Frost shot me a look. With his wolfy hearing he had caught Harvey’s invite. “Go,” he said. “I can look over this alone.”

But I didn’t want him to look it over alone. I wanted to be the second pair of eyes that might catch something he missed, put to good use some of the nonsense I’d been learning from Vin and Hieronymus. “I’m actually working the case with Frost,” I said. “But we’d love your help. Maybe we could get take-out at Frost’s office and look over what we’ve got.”

“Sure,” Harvey said, with no hint of disappointment in his voice. In fact, he sounded downright thrilled. “I’d love to help. I’ll be right over, and I’ll bring food. What do you want? Thai? Subs? Pizza?”

“Sounds good,” Frost said, a bit of a growl in his voice.

“Just bring yourself,” I said, not wanting Harvey to have to hit ten different restaurants on his way to Frost’s. The image of him hiking down the city streets with loads of take-out in his arms made me giggle, and I suspected I was getting punchy. “We’ll order something from the office.”

I hung up and looked at Frost. “That okay?”

“Sure,” he said. “But it’s not very romantic for you. I could have done this alone.”

“Don’t you know me at all?” I asked. “I don’t believe in romance.”

“Right,” he said with a grin. “How could I forget?” He paused. “I got a call while you were in with the Elderwoods. My people found Neil.”

“Where is he? And why aren’t we headed there now?” I asked.

“He’s in Sarsaparilla, but his circumstances seem to have improved quite a bit. Someone paid him a lot of money and he’s been laying low. He moved to a new, much nicer apartment, but the place wasn’t rented in his name. We nabbed him because he’s finally emerged and started working again, reconnected with one of the people we asked to call if they heard from him.”

“Who rented him the apartment?”

“Hieronymus Le Fleur.”

I’ve learned it’s safest not to trust anyone. Especially not my family
. –Chloe Frangipani

However it might seem, I always have your best interests at heart, dear
. –Althea Frangipani to Chloe Frangipani

I took a deep breath and tried to clear my vision of the red that had settled there. “My mother paid Neil to destroy my club?”

Frost held my face and brought his close, enclosing us in our own little world. “Just breathe. We’ll talk to Neil in the morning, and we’ll get him to admit that he trashed your club in exchange for money.”

“Then we’ll go talk to my mother and find out why the hell she destroyed my club.”

Seeing that I’d calmed a bit, he let go of my face and leaned back. “If that’s what you want, but I think you might have more success getting answers from Hieronymus.”

“He might not have the answers.”

Frost shrugged and stood as the bus slowed for our stop. “But we should start with him, so we don’t have to go back to Rubalia. I’d prefer not to take any more time away from the case.”

“I don’t have any way to contact him,” I said. “He’s coming back on Saturday to train me.”

“Three days. Can you wait three days? It will give us time to prove a financial link between Hieronymus and Neil, and for Neil to explain that link. He’ll also have to explain why he stopped working for you so suddenly. I’ve tipped the police off to where he is, since he’s a suspect in the theft.”

I sighed and followed him off the bus. “He’ll just say he saw that the club had been closed by the health department and he found another job.”

“He’s going to have to explain where he got all the money.”

“And why would my mother pay for an apartment for him? Why not just pay him cash?”

“It never hurts to have ears in the Non, I would imagine,” Frost said. “Maybe she’s got him doing some spying for her.”

“Maybe,” I said, considering it. “But who would they be spying on?”

“Any one of the fae who’ve recently immigrated to the Non. Really, the options are endless.”

We walked into his office, only two of his employees still hard at work, and went back to his inner office. “Send Officer Harvey back to see us when he gets here,” Frost said.

“Got it boss,” a young guy said, without looking up.

Frost shut the door and sat down next to me at one of the two chairs in front of his desk, so we could look at the files together.

“It’s a journal,” I said, pulling out the slim notebook. “Is it Benny’s?”

Frost shook his head. “Benny’s been in the Non for fifty years. He wouldn’t have a first-hand account of the war. This was probably brought over by someone who migrated after the war.”

I flipped through the book. Only about half of the hundred pages were covered with writing. “And this is all he had?”

“Probably not. But it’s likely the most relevant and the most concise. Benny is many things, but he’s not a liar and he doesn’t renege on his deals.”

“He just might omit certain convenient details,” I said, remembering that I’d given my blood to Benny in exchange for information about Buddy, only to find that he’d given me the most basic information – Buddy’s Rubalian identity and the clan he’d grown up in.

“Let’s find out,” Frost said. “We’ll take turns reading it.”

Frost read ten pages aloud, revealing only what we’d found in Rubalia – dark shadows and people acting strangely -- before Harvey arrived with food. He’d only gotten Thai, and Frost seemed happy enough with that. We took a break for dinner and started reading again as soon as we were done eating.

“Wow,” Harvey said, when we’d finished. “Do you suppose it happened as quickly as he said it did?”

“Yes, I do,” I said. I felt a bit shell-shocked. The land of nightmares didn’t possess monsters in the sense I’d imagined, but something infinitely more frightening, beautiful, suave, and alluring. People who twisted and turned everything they touched. Like the vampires of fiction, they could only walk in the shadows, shadows that belonged to them, that they used to suck their victims dry, to put them in their thrall and control them. The writer wasn’t sure how they’d traveled to Rubalia, but he knew they’d arrived less than a month after the shadows first appeared. And they’d been beaten back at great loss of life to the people of Rubalia.

“There’s nothing here about them taking children,” Frost said. “But clearly their last attempt to take over Rubalia failed, so maybe they’re trying something new.”

“You think they’re crossing over to the Non?” Harvey asked, his hands fisting. “And taking our children?”

I loved his possessive and protective attitude toward the fae in the Non. “Maybe not directly,” I said. “But they could have twisted someone in Rubalia to their will.”

“Right,” Frost said. “We need to go back to the Elderwoods’ and see if I can pick up a scent of shadows to track. I didn’t scent anything outside their door or their building, but maybe we can find something in the vicinity.”

“I’ve got an early morning,” Harvey said. “So I’ll leave you to it.”

“I’ll walk you out.” I stood with him.

He took my hand tight in his and we walked out together. In the hall, he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me hard. “I miss you,” he said. “I want to take you out, but I’m not sure we’ll ever get the chance.”

“I don’t need fancy dates,” I said. “I just need you. Thank you for understanding my hectic schedule.” He kissed me again and it spawned an idea. “Why don’t you stay at my place? I’ll crawl into bed with you when I’m done here.”

“That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all day,” he said, taking the extra key I handed him. When Mercury moved in, I’d had several copies made. Harvey gave me one last kiss and was gone.

I headed back into the office and found Frost changed, his demeanor tense, his expression grim. “Done saying goodbye to Romeo?”

“Yes,” I said, ignoring his grumpiness. “Let’s go track the kidnapper.”

We walked around the building three times with no luck. We didn’t want to go upstairs and bother the Elderwoods again, and we figured the kidnapper had to have started on the ground outside the building. But we found nothing.

“Unless this shadow can walk through walls or fly, I don’t know how they got to that room,” Frost said.

“Maybe there are just too many other smells layered over the shadow scent.”

He shook his head, his body tense with anger and frustration. “The shadow scent is unmistakable and, unless the Elderwoods lied about when the kid was kidnapped, I should be able to catch a whiff.”

“So the shadow has to be a fae who can fly, unless you know fae who can walk through walls.”

“No,” he said. “Flying fae it is.”

“Or the Elderwoods lied. Want to talk them, again?”

“No. We’ll stop by tomorrow. Let’s go home and get some sleep.”

Though I was exhausted, I was also wired and restless. It had been too long since I’d been out dancing, since I’d blown off the stress in my favorite way, but I had a gorgeous man in my bed waiting for me. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll see you home. We’ll take my bike.”

I was in no mood to wait for the bus, so I didn’t argue about riding on the back of his motorcycle to my place. I managed to keep some space between us and kept my thoughts on my boyfriend and not on the way Frost’s muscles rippled under his shirt.

“Thanks for the ride,” I said, when he pulled up outside my building.

He gave me a smile and watched until I was inside, standing beside the doorman. I rode the elevator up and stepped out into what could only be described as the seventh level of hell.

Nothing ruins a good plan so much as someone else’s good plan
. –Chloe Frangipani

It’s better not to plan anything. That way you’re never disappointed
. –Althea Frangipani

Sandra and Brace stood at one end of my living room and the old lady and five burly cousins we’d seen in Houston stood at the other. They were all screaming, except for Brace who seemed to be meditating, and weapons had already been drawn. Sandra had a butcher knife from my kitchen and the old lady had what looked like a BB gun. One of the cousins had a switch blade and another had a baseball bat. My condo was the largest I’d ever lived in, but all of those angry people in it made it look tiny.

“Enough,” I shouted. No one acknowledged me. So I marched in between them, held up my hands, and tried again. Still nothing. The shouting continued as though I wasn’t even there. In one last ditch effort I shouted, “Police!” and everyone, Sandra, the old woman, and the five cousins, hit the floor.

They hit the floor and didn’t move. Didn’t make a sound. I wondered if they’d all fainted at the mere mention of police. I met Brace’s brown eyes over the still bodies and he shook his head. “They’re fine. I put them under a sleep spell. Didn’t mean to put Sandra under, though.”