Then he exhaled so hard his hands shook.
HE WENT home, but he was barely inside for half an hour
before he knew the sight of his living room, his bedroom, and
especially his bathroom weren"t going to let him sleep, no
matter how tired he was.
He hesitated over a few numbers, friends, hook ups
from a long time ago, Lex, and then swore and decided work
would have to do. He called Nasreen again and wasn"t
surprised when she didn"t answer. It could mean anything:
that she was busy, that she didn"t like being involved with
the police, that she didn"t like Ray. She wasn"t in any trouble
that he knew of.
Nonetheless, he was awake, and his protective instincts,
along with a few others he intended on continuing to deny,
were on overdrive, so he slipped his coat back on with
sudden urgency and grabbed his keys. He"d known deep
down without Cal saying so that she would testify or do
whatever she had to for Audrey—Miss Conti. But he still had
to see that she was all right.
Any half-fairy could mock him for being soft and too
worried later. He was in the fairy part of town in minutes,
driving past strings of decorative mini-lights, and yard upon
yard of twirling ribbons that had been strung around all the
streetlights, and a succession of trees almost always in
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bloom no matter what time of year it was, and grassy lots
filled with flowers and ponds and toadstools.
Los Cerros was supposedly proud of its vibrant fairy
community, had even renamed the central street in this
neighborhood Seelie Court in their honor. Yet it had taken
someone as well-known and connected as Cal"s father to get
the city and the PD to even
consider
a fairy consultant at the
department in lieu of an actual fairy officer. It was no wonder
the police weren"t exactly trusted by other Beings, why even
Cal would assume that Ray would reject his presence out of
hand when they"d first met.
Ray could have, though not for the reasons Cal had
thought then. All the warnings, explanations, caveats, that
Cal"s father had given him had not been enough to prepare
Ray for the sparkly, half-dressed tease flirting with him one
minute and revealing too much knowledge about him and
the case the next.
Three days. It had taken Ray three days to see the
obvious when he should have known it from the second he"d
first stumbled over his own words to stare at Cal like he was
the most beautiful thing he"d ever seen, like pure joy, even
with his arms crossed and a sulky expression on his face
right until he"d turned to meet Ray.
Of course, he
was
the most beautiful thing Ray had ever
seen, but at the time Ray had just thought it was the fairy
allure. The glamour. The same thing that had made Cal
smell so good to him, had made his every word somehow
innately fascinating. Now of course, he knew that his body
had been trying to tell him what his brain had still been
figuring out: that Cal was everything he"d ever wanted.
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It was no wonder that he"d let himself be taken off guard
by Cal"s appearance in his home. Standing there in pants
he"d had to throw on, with his house filled with the scents of
the sex he"d just had with another man, the truth had finally
hit him and hit him hard.
Ray swallowed.
If he wanted, Cal could be close to him that very
moment, giving him that look he had first given him in the
station, like Ray was chocolate wrapped in gold foil. Cal most
likely lived around here. Ray wasn"t sure, but it was easy to
picture. He"d never been to Cal"s house as he"d never let
himself look at Cal"s address information, not trusting the
wolf not to find it on those bright nights and claim it, to run
in and claim Cal too. But he thought of it now, Cal could be
close. If he wanted it would only take minutes to find him.
He could apologize for everything: lying, kicking him out of
his car, his home, or just pull him up and give Cal the kiss
he"d been asking for, for the past two years.
Instead, he parked the car, yanking up the parking
break with too much force.
There was a cacophony of scent hitting him from all
directions the moment he was out of the car. Baked goods
and days at the beach and the perfect bowl of ramen
noodles. Violets and cannabis and pure, clean soap.
Peppermint. Baby powder. Yet he wouldn"t even have to try
hard to find Cal among all of that perfection.
Fighting away the thought because that wasn"t why he
was there, he arrived at Nasreen"s doorstep, knocking and
hoping the information on her state ID was correct. He had
no idea why he jumped when she swung open the door. But
he started, almost guiltily.
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Her fairy allure was stronger up close. She"d put on a
short, toga-like robe to answer the door, but it fell off one
shoulder. Her legs were visible above the knee. She smelled
less of candy now, outside the shop, and more like starry
nights, the moon on the water, but her sparkle was like
polished sand. He detected salt too, faint and bitter, but this
time he knew the source. Her eyes were barely dimmed by
the tinge of red around them.
It stole his breath. He had never seen a fairy"s tears. He
hadn"t believed they were real. He instantly wanted to know
who had made her cry and punch him in the face and then
wasn"t certain if it was just the sight of her tears or his usual
tendencies to hunt down criminals.
Branigan on the hunt.
Cal, naturally, hadn"t been too far
off with that statement.
“Detective!” Nasreen hopped back only to pounce
forward when he stepped inside. “Wait, what, is it Audrey?
Has he come back? Has he hurt her? That ass—”
“It"s fine. She"s
fine
. That"s what we"ve been trying to tell
you all day.” Ray stared until she was still, or at least
everything about her but her wings and glitter were still,
then glanced around her house. It was tiny. He instantly had
the urge to hunch his shoulders.
“We caught him, and he"s not getting out anytime soon.
I made sure of it.” His huff of air was
almost
a satisfied
growl. Nasreen stopped.
“Do you do that for everyone? This, for everyone? Show
up at their house and call them and….” She waved a hand.
She could have at least said thank you. Ray focused on the
wisteria vine that was growing
through
a cracked window
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inside her house. It wasn"t his job to repair her home. “Is
this because of Cal, because….”
“I just wanted you to know. He"s in jail. Audr—Miss
Conti is safe. You"re safe.” Her eyes were steady on him, and
he remembered anew that one of the fairy curses was
supposed to be showing people the truth. It was just a story
of course, but he had to tear his eyes away from the creeping
vine to stare impassively back at her. “If you"d answered my
calls, I would have said it over the phone. She"s safe.” He
was actually surprised that she hadn"t already known that.
Somehow he"d assumed that she"d be with Audrey or would
have seen her in the past hours.
But then it wasn"t a surprise, not after seeing the
shimmering trails on her cheeks, knowing as he did that
Audrey hadn"t accepted her attentions.
Nasreen instantly relaxed, melting down onto her sofa
and then blinking back up at him.
“I am so very glad to hear that,” she admitted with a
sigh, as though that hadn"t been obvious to everyone.
“Audrey is… I have not found anyone like her. Not in my
lifetime.”
Again, the loveliness of Miss Conti"s hands aside, Ray
didn"t understand it. Maybe it was simply that he preferred
men. Or maybe fairies just liked to chase after what they
couldn"t have, which was a weak argument even in his own
mind, because there was nothing guaranteed to make you
more miserable than wanting what you couldn"t have, and
fairies were never miserable for long if they could help it.
He tossed his head, then gestured for Nasreen to close
her robe, a gesture she ignored or didn"t comprehend. Ray
went back to the case, the work.
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He wanted a scotch. Maybe he ought to drop in on
Calvin Parker when this was over. He and Cal had their
disagreements, mostly over Cal"s career from what Ray could
tell, but Ray had always found that a talk with Calvin Parker
got him back on point.
“You"ll have to testify to keep him there. ID him out of a
photo lineup.” Ray should have brought one with him. If he"d
been more professional and not distracted he would have. If
he"d had any real reasons to be here right now except that he
couldn"t sleep and a curiosity he ought to be denying. He
refocused. “I just want to warn you, it won"t be pleasant, the
trial, but….”
“I don"t care.” Nasreen stuck out her chin. “Audrey will
need me with her, and I want that man to go away and leave
her alone.”
Ray was pretty sure that disbelief was all over his face
despite his efforts to hide it. Nasreen"s mouth flattened, only
for a heartbeat or two, then she was smiling. She shrugged,
and her robe slipped. Possibly on purpose. Ray looked away,
looked back when she scolded him. “We aren"t as bad as
people have made us out to be. Why do they always act as if
we were made of….” She gestured for a word.
“Spun sugar?” Ray suggested weakly, and she huffed.
“Yes. Even you, Detective.”
“I don"t—” He"d once tried to convince Cal he liked
fairies but had long since given up. It was less complicated
than the truth. “I know. I know there are… exceptions.”
She made a noise, and Ray shifted as he changed the
subject.
“I looked up your name, what it meant. It"s very pretty.”
There wasn"t a single rose in her house, however. He didn"t
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think about Cal"s house, if he had a yard filled with flowers
in every color. “I know most fairies have floral names, but….”
It was too hard to explain his ongoing game with Cal. But he
thought she knew from how she considered him. She sat up
pulling her feet underneath her.
“One of the few old stories that is
not
true is the one
about knowing our names. You know, having power over us
if you know them.”
He hadn"t known that one, but he snorted.
“Old stories about werewolves are almost never true,” he
remarked, and pulled at his tie. He loosened the knot. The
lies still hurt. He looked over, back at the broken window.
“But most of ours are. It"s the new ones that don"t make
sense.”
Ray stopped thinking about old movies and fixing her
window to stare at her. She wasn"t really suggesting that
fairies kidnapped people by dazzling them with magic until
years had gone by, was she?
She bounced to her feet and skipped back to her
kitchen. “In the time that we didn"t live with humans, they
forgot everything. They live such short lives.” She tutted as
she returned, then extended a thin china plate filled with
pieces of what smelled like nougat. “Candy?”
“No, thank you.” His stomach twisted at the thought of
candy, except possibly the strawberry cream on Cal"s mouth.
It had been so tantalizing close. He changed his mind and
grabbed some nougat before he could stop himself and
chewed to banish the scent memory on his tongue.
“Cal has a favorite, you know,” Nasreen volunteered,
making Ray"s heart kick. She sucked on her nougat as she
returned the plate to her kitchen. “He loves it all, but he
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likes it best when I make Rahat El Halkum—Turkish
Delight.” She giggled as she came back in to drape herself
over the couch. She had a new piece of candy in her other
hand, a pale pink cube, and she was licking confectioner"s
sugar from her fingertips. Ray glared at her, fairy or not.