by Quinn Loftis
Her eyes settled on what she immediately knew was going to be a headache for her—and she did not need any more headaches—a large attractive bartender drying glasses on the other side of the bar. He was alone at the bar and, due to the early hour, only a few patrons sat scattered at various tables, each glued to their cell phones, none paying her any particular attention. Though Peri generally leaned toward causing as much drama as possible, she supposed confronting the beast now when there weren’t many witnesses might be the wiser course. It’s a pity the wiser course is always the most boring.
She walked toward the bar, her steps slow and measured, as she continued to watch the male. He was concentrating a little harder than was necessary on the simple task and Peri nearly laughed. He was well aware that she was there and he knew who and what she was.
Once she reached the bar, she took a seat on one of the many, uncomfortable stools. “I’ve never understood why the stools in these places are so damn uncomfortable. You’d think you’d want to keep patrons here longer, not torture their asses until their finally forced to stumble home early,” she said, continuing to watch the bartender closely. His shoulders tensed ever so slightly, and, had she not been watching so closely, Peri would have missed it.
When he finally looked up at her, his eyes were glowing. Peri clucked her tongue at him. “Naughty wolf, do not challenge me here in front of the humans. You know what I am. And I will not hesitate to introduce myself to you in such a way that will be very unpleasant for you.”
“No introductions are necessary,” he growled out. “I know exactly who you are, Perizada of the high fae.”
“What are you doing so far from your pack, Jericho?” Peri asked the wolf hoping to illicit some reaction by mentioning his former Missouri pack.
“We live a long time, sometimes a change is necessary,” he responded and she detected a small amount of bitterness in his voice.
“Mmm, hmm. True, true. But it’s very strange for a wolf to leave his pack, isn’t it? The ties between the members are strong, not to mention the tie you have to your Alpha. Were you running from something? Perhaps, the death of your true mate?”
“Don’t,” he snapped. “Don’t ever speak of her.” She could see that the pain of his loss was still very close to the surface. This didn’t surprise the fae. It was unnatural for a wolf not to follow his true mate in death. For Jericho to still be here, alive—having not completed the Blood Rites, was an insult to his mate, or at least that’s how he felt about it.
“Have you moved on?” Peri asked nonchalantly. “You know that some mates left behind in this world still find love, despite the fact that their true mate is gone. No, it’s not like what you had with your female, of course, but it could ease the loneliness.” Why in the hell was she giving this fleabag advice? She mentally kicked herself.
“Are you concerned about my well-being, fae?” Jericho sneered. It was not a good look on him.
“I have more concern for an ingrown hair on a pixie’s ass than I have for you,” she shot back. “I’m here investigating other matters.”
“Since when did the high fae become detectives, sticking their noses into wolf business?” Jericho’s teeth were beginning to grow and his hands were shaking as he continued to dry the same glass he’d been drying since she’d started speaking to him.
“Oh come now, there aren’t any high fae detectives here, just little ole me—a gal trying to get herself a quick drinky-poo. There’s nothing wrong with that is there. It must be pure coincidence that I happened to come into the one establishment where a rogue wolf, hundreds of miles from his pack, is dutifully tending bar. Yep, pure coincidence.”
“Don’t insult my intelligence,” Jericho snarled. The words were garbled and slobber flew from his mouth as his canines lengthened. The glass in his hand shattered and claws began to grow from his fingertips.
Peri slammed her hand down on the bar and pushed her magic out in a flash of light. No, the light or sound wasn’t necessary, but she’d admitted already to having a flair for the dramatic. The room stilled. The humans, completely unaware that she’d suspended them and their minds, took no notice. In their own minds, they were still moving and talking. Nifty little trick, she smiled to herself.
Peri could feel the light pulsing around her body. She didn’t fully reveal her power, but it was enough to put the wolf in his place.
“Are you challenging me, wolf?” Peri said smoothly, as though she could flick her finger and wipe the floor with him—which she could. “I thought I made it clear at the beginning of this little encounter that it wouldn’t be wise to do such a thing.”
Jericho took a step back and averted his gaze as the glow receded from his eyes, and his teeth and claws returned to the normal human length. Peri might not be an alpha wolf, but she was more dominant and more powerful than the man before her and he knew it. So at least he wasn’t as stupid as she had thought. But she probably shouldn’t be giving him the benefit of the doubt just yet. Sometimes stupid took time to present itself.
“We’re not causing trouble, Perizada. We’ve done nothing to warrant your scrutiny, or anyone else’s.
“That’s where I would have to disagree with you. I have reason to believe that you have something very important that belongs not only to me but also to another pack and another male. And, well, I guess I need to add that she also belongs to her two psychotic best friends.” Peri made a motion with her hand as if to wipe the comment away.
“What could we possibly have that belongs to you?”
“And a pack, a male and—”
“The two best friends, I get it,” he snapped.
“Psychotic best friends. That is a distinction you cannot leave out, and I suggest that you remember it just in case they ever decide to visit Oceanside.”
Jericho crossed his arms in front of him and leaned back on the counter behind him. It was a deliberate pose to make him appear relaxed, as if he didn’t fear the being before him. “We don’t have anything that is not ours.”
Peri nearly reached out and slapped the cocky wolf. He’d chosen his words carefully. He could have said that they didn’t have anything that belonged to her and the others, but instead he’d deliberately said that they don’t have anything that is not ours. It was a passive aggressive attempt to put Peri in her place. He clearly knew who she was looking for and he was making a claim on Sally.
“So the pretty brunette with big brown eyes and the sweetest disposition, like, ever, who answers to the name, Sally, isn’t working here?” Peri held up a finger to stop him from answering. “Let me just tell you before you speak. If you lie to me—and I will know, believe me I will know—it goes back to that whole high fae detective thing, then I will hurt you…badly. If you know me at all, then you know that I am not bluffing. I’m sure someone has told you before that it is a very, very stupid idea to lie to a high fae, especially this high fae. Don’t be stupid, Jericho.”
He was quiet for a few minutes before finally letting out a resigned sigh as he unfolded his arms and ran a hand through his hair. “Yes, we have a new employee named Sally, which is a very common name in the human world,” he added hastily. He paused before continuing. "And she does have brown eyes, but she isn’t a brunette, he added quickly. And she knows nothing of the supernatural world so she cannot possibly be the same girl. She is as completely oblivious as the rest of the human race.”
Peri sucked in a slow breath as she considered Jericho’s response. She stared at the wolf for a few silent moments, narrowing her eyes.
“It’s the truth, I promise,” the wolf said, holding up his hands.
But Peri had no doubt about the veracity of the wolf’s words. The fae’s mind was spinning with possibilities. Oblivious. He said that she was oblivious to the supernatural world. Her chest was tight as she considered the possibilities. Only a few supernatural beings were powerful enough to perform the kind of magic that was capable of wiping memories so completely. It sure as hell wasn�
��t done by someone who wanted to play nice and be friends. Whoever had done this wasn’t just powerful, they were desperate. The person or persons were messing with some big, big mojo—memory modification, bond magic, pack magic. They were opening up all kinds of Pandora’s boxes. This was not good.
Sucking in the breath she’d been holding, Peri composed herself and finally spoke. “Does this clueless, not brunette named Sally work today?” Peri asked, needing desperately to see for herself whether or not Sally remembered her.
He shook his head. “She’s off until tomorrow. She’s been working double shifts.”
“Then I will return. Thank you for your time, Jericho.” Peri snapped her fingers and suddenly the room was filled with chatter and movement once again. She placed her hand on the pixie’s arm and flashed them from the room and back outside. She didn’t want her back to the wolf as she left the room, and she didn’t want to look like a character in a bad western by slowly walking backward to maintain a visual on him. So better to just take her native form of travel. The humans hadn’t noticed because Peri hadn’t wanted them to notice.
“What do you think?” the pixie asked once they were outside.
“I think you need to take me to where Sally lives, as quickly as possible,” Peri answered as she mulled over the things that Jericho had told her.
“Follow me,” her little comrade said cheerfully. It was apparent that the pixie was quite proud of herself.
“Stralina,” Peri called. The pixie stopped and turned to look up at her with wide eyes. “You’ve done a good job.” The pixie continued to stare at her in awe. Peri’s brow drew together. “Everything okay?”
“You’ve never called me by my name,” Stralina told her.
Peri batted a hand at her. “Yes I have.” She couldn’t have possibly been that oblivious to the little being, could she?
Stralina shook her head. “I would remember if Perizada of the high fae had called me by name.”
It hit Peri then why this was so important to the pixie. Names were powerful. To know someone’s full name meant that you could have some measure of power over them and Peri realized that Stralina had given Peri her full name when they’d first met. She’d trusted Peri that much already. She bowed her head ever so slightly at the young pixie and placed a hand over her heart. “My deepest apologies, Stralina Rivertree, you have earned my trust and therefore my confidence.”
Stralina looked as if she was going to cry and Peri really, really didn’t like it when people, or pixies for that matter, cried. “Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” she said briskly. “Let’s go check out this chick that supposedly isn’t our Sally,” Peri snorted, thinking of how ridiculous it was that Jericho thought that he could lie to her.
She followed the pixie down the sidewalk wondering if they were going to walk the entire way. “Please tell me she lives close because my legs aren’t use to carrying around my butt across long distances.”
Starlina laughed. “It’s not far. She walks to work every day and walks home every night.”
“Great,” Peri threw her hands up. “Costin is going to love that. Not only is his mate working in a bar as a bartender, fraternizing with her coworker bartender—who happens to be a werewolf, but she is also walking at night, alone. Yep, he’s going to be doing a jig he’ll be so thrilled.”
“Actually,” Stralina corrected her. “She has an escort. One of the bouncers always walks with her.”
“Male bouncer I’m assuming?”
The pixie nodded as Peri let out a string of curses. “How many bloody males is she hanging out with?” She made quotations around the words hanging out as she said them in a tone that suggested that it was the most repugnant thing a girl could do.
Peri couldn’t fix the issue right that moment so there was no sense in dwelling on the problem of Sally’s current playmates. Starlina was true to her word and stopped in front of an apartment building on the next block. It was a quaint building with flower pots on either side of the stairs blooming…something. Peri didn’t do plants—a flower was a flower to the this high fae.
“Are we visible?” Starlina asked.
“I’m not an amateur stalker. Of course we aren’t visible,” Peri said, giving the pixie a look of indignation.
Starlina held up her hands and took a step back. “No need to get testy. I just wanted to know if I needed to be hiding my true form.”
“I totally got you.”
The pixie’s brow rose as she looked up at Peri.
The high fae shrugged. “I hang out with American teenagers. It’s like learning a foreign language.”
Peri walked up the steps with the pixie in tow, pausing before she reached the top. She felt as though, if she came face to face with Sally—their Sally—then everything would be real. It would no longer seem like the worst dream of her existence; it really would be the worst dream of her existence. But, as usual, life, AKA, the Fates, don’t give a flying fart if you need a moment to put your big girl panties on. It just shoves you right out there with your girl stuff waving at everyone.
Sighing, Peri continued on. As her foot hit the top step, the door directly in front of her opened and Peri was face to face, give or take a few stairs, with Sally—their Sally. And Jericho was right, she didn’t have long brown hair. She had chin length, purple streaked hair. And the kicks just keep on coming, Peri thought. Guess there’s no reason to pull your big girl panties up if the Fates are just going to keep planting their foot on your backside.
“Whoa,” Peri said, stumbling backward and nearly falling down the stairs. She watched as Sally dug through her purse, oblivious to the two supernatural beings staring directly at her.
“She doesn’t look like she did before,” Starlina said.
“So she didn’t have chin length hair with blonde and purple streaks in it?” Peri asked, unable to take her eyes off of their lost healer.
Starlina shook her head slowly. “Definitely didn’t have that.”
Even with such a radical change in her appearance, there was no denying that they’d found Sally Miklos. But this girl clearly didn’t know that she was mated with a new child. “She’s in for a shock,” Peri muttered to herself as they watched Sally head down the stairs.
Just as she was walking past Peri, Sally stopped. She put her hand on her head as though she was in pain. The high fae leaned forward and took a breath, about to whisper to her. But the scent that hit her nostrils gave her pause. It couldn’t be, she thought. Needing confirmation, Peri, in her invisible state, placed her hand on Sally’s shoulder. Some magic coated the young healer like an oily film and it was all too familiar—Alston. She concentrated on the way it felt and searched her memory, attempting to determine the exact type of magic he’d used. But it was unknown to Peri. Whatever it was that Alston of the high fae had cast over Sally, it was beyond Peri’s power to undo, at least not immediately.
Peri swallowed down the massive lump that had formed in her throat at the discovery of her comrade’s betrayal. She’d deal with him. Before the magic settled and the air cleared, Peri would strip him of his power. She had a fate worse than death in mind for the fae scum. He would become like the humans. He would know illness; he would know wounds that would not heal. He would experience growing old and then he would do the one thing that fae didn’t do—Alston would die a natural death.
Sally’s movement caught Peri’s eye and the fae snapped out of her revenge plot.
“She’s been having more and more headaches,” Stralina explained.
“Her own magic is attempting to fight off what has been done to her.”
Peri placed her hand on Sally’s head and whispered softly in her own language. Suddenly the girl’s shoulders relaxed and she dropped her hand from her forehead.
“Okay,” Sally mumbled. “Not that I’m looking a gift horse in the mouth, but that was weird.” She was talking to herself, so obviously some things hadn’t changed regardless of the altered memory. Peri
stepped back and watched as Sally continued on her way.
“Can her memory be restored?” the pixie asked.
“Magic that alters the mind can be very dangerous,” Peri answered. “If tampered with by another magical being who didn’t cast the original spell, well, that can be deadly. The good news is her memory can be restored. The bad news is it can’t be restored immediately, not all at once. Her memory will have to be revealed slowly, over a period of time. And time, as always, is not on our side.”
The high fae and the pixie watched as the girl with short blonde, purple streaked hair, haunted eyes, and Sally’s face, walked away from them.
“Tell me why I am letting Costin’s mate walk away please?”
Starlina raised her shoulders to her ears and held her hands up next to them, palms up. “I got nothin’ boss.”
“You are supposed to lie to me. Give me some touchy feely pixie encouragement about how we need to handle this delicately and that we can’t freak her out and I’m doing the right thing, yadda, yadda, blah,” Peri lectured, finally looking away from Sally’s fading form.
“Okay. Yadda, yadda, blah,” Starlina said as she patted Peri’s leg reassuringly. Then she looked up at the high fae and grinned, giving her a thumbs up. “As you say, I totally got you.”
Peri rolled her eyes and placed her hand on the pixie’s head. “There was no touching in my directions. You touched.”
“You’ll get over it.”
Peri smiled to herself as she flashed them from Oceanside. The little pixie was going to do alright if she could hold her own with the likes of Perizada.
They appeared in Jen and Decebel’s suite at the Serbian mansion. Peri knew that it would be empty. The Serbian Alpha and his mate would be on the way to their meeting with Vasile by now.
“Why are we here?” Stralina asked.
Peri’s smile was wicked as she answered. “Because this is the Alpha’s suite. It will annoy the crap out of Jen’s mate to have my scent all over his territory.” Just as quickly as the smile had appeared, however, it vanished as Peri computed all of the information she had gathered. The biggest kick to the gut had been finding out that it had been Alston who had cloaked Sally’s memory. “He was supposed to be a good guy, dammit,” Peri whined. “What is it with all these fae jumping off the good ship lollipop and hopping on to the bad ship rotten apple? Do they offer better health insurance? Perhaps, they have some company perks that the good guys just can’t compete with.” Peri ended her monologue with a very dignifying foot stomp.
