To Kill a Fae (Hollowcliff Detectives Book 1)

by C. S. Wilde

  “That’s enough,” Bast snapped, then closed his eyes as if chiding himself. “Captain Asherath told me I would have your full collaboration. Was he wrong?”

  “No.” Lisandra shrugged. “Do remember, however, that you’re here because I want my husband’s killer found. If my independent contractors weren’t so worthless, I’d never have allowed Tagradian police inside my home.”

  “If you need us, you better play nice,” Mera warned.

  Lisandra’s lips parted as if she couldn’t believe Mera had dared to threaten her. Before queen bitch could complain, Mera pulled out her notepad and pen from her jacket’s inside pocket.

  “Were you aware that your husband had a drug problem?” she asked. “We found considerate amounts of fae crystal in his blood—”

  “Out!” Lisandra yelled, not at Mera, but at the two brownies who’d entered the space to dust the furniture. “Now!”

  They scurried away, dropping their dusters in a trembling hurry.

  The Summer Queen took a recomposing breath. “I was aware. My husband had a court of fifty thousand on his shoulders. We provide jobs, sustenance, and trade to our people. Being the center of our family, of our court… It took its toll.”

  “Do the circumstances of your husband’s death seem odd to you?”

  “Of course!” Lisandra raised her chin. “He was murdered by his human drug dealer. The despicable worm probably drugged him senseless before doing the deed.”

  Bast shook his index finger. “You’re telling this to your court, but the police informed you about the details of his passing. Specifically, that Sara Hyland was already dead by the time your husband found her. Also, remember that you’re legally bound to tell us the truth.”

  “I’m bound to nothing. Your laws are not my laws, Tagradian,” she snapped, as if Bast was a dirty traitor.

  He raised his brow. “Funny. Your ID says the same, Tagradian kuata.”

  That one was easy. “Kuata” meant “sister”.

  “A ridiculous piece of paper means nothing to me.” Huffing, she nodded at Mera. “Next question, pesut.” Her lips curled with the word, as if pesut meant piece-of-trash.

  Fine, then.

  “Were you aware your husband was seeing his drug dealer? Romantically, I mean.”

  Fury burned inside the queen’s green irises. “I will not be humiliated in my own home.”

  “We’re not humiliating you.” Mera held the urge to roll her eyes. “We’re trying to solve your husband’s murder. And if you keep dragging out the investigation, we’ll start thinking you might’ve been involved in his death.”

  Lisandra stepped closer, nearly slamming her flat chest against Mera’s own. Only now did she realize the Summer Queen was as tall as Bast, but if things came to it, Mera could easily kick that living twig’s ass.

  “Dirty whore. You better understand to whom you speak,” Lisandra snapped through gritted teeth. Magic thrashed in the queen’s core before a red miasma whipped atop her skin.

  It smelled like strawberries and rust.

  Bast took out his pad and pen from his vest’s pocket and began scribbling. “Lisandra, I’d hate to write you down for a misdemeanor. Can you imagine the scandal if I took you down to the station in cuffs?”

  Being submissive was clearly hard for Bast, but he was much better at it than Mera. To her own credit, though, she hadn’t yet punched the Summer Queen, so she called that a win.

  Lisandra chortled. “You wouldn’t dare, Sebastian.”

  A raging darkness swirled in the serenity of his blue eyes, a gaze sharper than daggers that sent shivers down Mera’s spine. “Try me.”

  Lisandra swallowed dry. She must know what Bast was capable of, and it clearly frightened her.

  Shooting him a fake grin, she gave in. “I’ll collaborate, inspector.”

  “Good. Let’s say you were disgruntled given your recent loss, and that you apologized to Detective Maurea, yes?”

  She eyed him with raw fury. “Get done with your business and leave.”

  “Did your husband have any enemies?” When Lisandra glared at Bast as if he was daft, he corrected himself. “Did he have enemies who hated him enough to kill the woman he might have loved?”

  “You’re casting a wide net, Detective.” Someone answered from behind them.

  Mera turned to see a male dressed nearly identically to Zev Ferris. He had an open linen shirt that showcased ridiculously ripped abs, black leather pants, and an array of golden looped earrings lining the edges of his pointy ears. A trimmed goatee and strong eyebrows decorated his sun-kissed skin. His reddish, shoulder length hair was straight and slightly mussed.

  ‘Hmm, after-sex hair,’ her siren purred. ‘This one knows how to have fun. Maybe we could join in next time.’

  You unbearable horny bastard!

  The faerie approached with a charming grin and shook Mera’s hand, which was a near miracle considering how stuck-up these Sidhe could be. “I’m Zachary Ferris. Son of the late king.”

  “The heir,” Bast added as Zachary also shook his hand.

  “Yes, and probably the main suspect since I’d benefit the most from my father’s death. But I assure you, detectives, I did nothing to him or that poor woman.”

  At least Zachary wasn’t in denial like Lisandra, and he seemed eager to help.

  The Summer Prince went to the middle of the living room, facing them… well, he focused on Mera, not Bast. “Forgive my mother’s behavior. She’s stuck in the old ways. I, however, see a collaboration between our kinds as essential to keeping Hollowcliff, and all of Tagrad, united.”

  If Mera hadn’t been on duty, she would’ve swooned over such a charming prince. Then again, she swooned over Bast constantly, even when she was working.

  So… yeah.

  ‘You’re lucky there’s a sofa between you and the prince,’ her siren cooed. ‘Otherwise…’

  Otherwise nothing, you ass.

  “Prince Ferris.” Bast cleared his throat. “The woman found with your father carried a fetus with magical DNA, but the child wasn’t his.”

  The cap had phoned in with the puzzling results that morning. It only added to the mystery of the case.

  “We believe the woman was used as bait,” Bast continued. “Were you aware of their relationship?”

  “Unfortunately, no.” He rested both hands on his waist. “Father occasionally enjoyed the pleasures of human flesh, but it was always with different women.” He eyed Mera with a hint of lust, and Bast’s nostrils flared.

  “How about you?” He asked drily. “Do you enjoy human flesh, Prince Ferris?”

  “Sometimes. Humans can be extremely titillating. Don’t you agree, Detective?” Eyeing Mera up and down, he licked his lips. “Fine specimens, they are.”

  Poseidon in the trenches, she blushed. Mera couldn’t believe she’d given this faerie the satisfaction. He was clearly teasing her, but her thirsty siren loooved the attention.

  “Where were you on the night of September the second?” Bast pushed, his face a stone mask.

  “At a party downtown. Not that our city is riddled with those cameras humans love so much.” He shrugged apologetically to Mera. “I hope the testimony from my friends will suffice. I’ll ask them to collaborate, of course. I want to help in any way I can.”

  “We appreciate it. Thank you.” Mera narrowed her eyes at Lisandra, who stepped closer to her son. “Where were you on the day of the murders?”

  Ignoring her, the queen turned to Bast. “Tell your pet I was enjoying the company of a friend.”

  “Which friend?” Bast asked as he scribbled on his notebook.

  Lisandra seemed taken aback by that, but answered nonetheless. “Barrow Sundgin.”

  “King of the Autumn Court, and your cousin, if I recall correctly. Interesting.” Bast nudged Mera with his elbow as he wrote on his pad. “By company, she means they were fucking.”

  “Excuse me!” Lisandra snapped. “My husband wasn’t faithful, so why shou
ld I be? He fucked everything with two legs without regard for my honor, for our family, for anything. Only his damn cock mattered!” She spewed the words as if vomiting.

  Mera watched in horror, but from the corner of her eye, she noticed Bast shooting his darkness toward the floor. Neither Zachary nor Lisandra noticed because Mera and Bast were standing behind the couch.

  “That unborn bastard was probably his; run your tests again and you’ll see!” she went on, tears brimming in her eyes. “That scumbag fucked everyone except his own wife! I’m glad he’s dead!”

  “Please pardon my mother,” Zachary wrapped both arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “As you can imagine, this whole ordeal has been quite difficult for us.”

  “Absolutely,” Bast assured. “We’ll be out of your way.”

  Mera frowned. “We will?”

  Widening his eyes at her, his lips curled over his teeth. “Yes, Detective Maurea. Queen Lisandra is clearly under distress.”

  “Oh, yes. Of course, Detective Dhay,” she agreed, catching his cue. She turned to Zachary and Lisandra. “Thank you for your time.”

  “Thank you, detectives, for trying to find my father’s killer.” Zachary led his mother out of the living room. “Come on, let’s get you some rest.”

  A sprite with red hair and skin, who wore a golden maid’s uniform, showed Bast and Mera the way out, and once again, they took the elevator.

  “Bast, what—”

  He shushed her. “Fae might not favor cameras, but we do have word-triggered spells.”

  As soon as they left the building and waltzed into the sandstone pebbled street, or maybe it was a sidewalk—she couldn’t tell, they all looked the same in a sort of medieval manner—Mera pushed again. “Okay, what did you find?”

  “First, Zachary Ferris is a fucking liar.”

  “Really? I thought he was quite collaborative.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Of course you did, horny pants.”

  She slapped his arm, but he didn’t seem to mind.

  “Come on, kitten! You believed that bullshit about being stronger united? It’s been the government slogan for centuries!”

  He did have a point. And Zachary’s eagerness to please hadn’t exactly felt natural.

  She crossed her arms and huffed. “Maybe you just don’t like him.”

  “Obviously.” He pulled out a phone from his pants’ pocket and wiggled it at her.

  “You have a mobile?”

  “Of course not. It caught my attention when sunlight hit the half that wasn’t covered under the couch. The maid must have missed it during the cleaning, so I had to distract Lisandra before she saw it, too.”

  “Wait. You caused her meltdown on purpose?”

  He gave her a sideways grin. “Pushing someone’s buttons is a specialty of mine.” Handing her the phone, he motioned to the screen. “Go on. Work your human magic.”

  Thankfully, the device wasn’t password protected.

  The battery was nearly empty, but as Mera scrolled through the screen, hope bloomed in her chest.

  “Bast, there’s an email account linked to this phone. It’s in Zev Ferris’ name.” Excitement sent her heart beating in a frenzy. “This belonged to him.”

  They’d hit the freaking lottery!

  Mobiles were a must in the human, vamp, and shifter’s boroughs, but most fae and witches hated them. Maybe it wasn’t the iron they feared. Maybe it was the fact that any technology more advanced than basic electricity was a sort of magic of its own.

  A magic they didn’t understand.

  A magic that threatened theirs.

  “Are we really doing this?” she asked, mostly to herself.

  It was not just wrong, but illegal. They had practically stolen someone else’s property.

  First, Bast should have obtained consent from the Summer King’s family to take the phone, since it was in their property and not in a crime scene.

  Second, he should’ve bagged the phone with gloves instead of setting his fingerprints all over the device. And third, they should’ve handed the phone to Bast’s precinct instead of checking what was inside themselves, but could they trust them?

  Bast had said it himself, the light courts’ influence reached everywhere.

  He furrowed his brow at her, as if she’d said something stupid. “Of course we’re doing this.”

  Well, when in Tir Na Nog…

  “First things first.” She tapped the screen and blocked the GPS, proceeding to check Zev Ferris’ messages.

  There were several between him and Sara Hyland. Some were flirtatious but they didn’t indicate a romantic relationship. Sara had given him free doses of fae crystal and normal meth in exchange for certain favors. Like when Zev sent his Summer thugs to protect her, during negotiations with a dangerous leopard shifter.

  As far as Mera could see, the Summer King was using this phone to communicate solely with Sara. However, Sara’s roommate had never seen her with a mobile. They hadn’t found one at the crime scene or at the dorm either, which probably meant the killer had taken the phone.

  Mera scrolled through the messages until their most recent exchange.

  “We need to run away,” Sara texted.

  “I can’t. I’m the Summer King,” Zev countered. “Come to me. I’ll keep you safe.”

  Two days later, he received one last message from her, just four hours before Sara drew her last breath.

  Her message read, “He knows.”

  Chapter 11

  A mobile was harmless to faeries, but it still scared them. Metal, technology, most of it was taboo in the fae state, which was why Mera had to hide the phone on their way to Bast’s house. As soon as they arrived, she dropped on the leather couch and pulled it from the inside pocket of her jacket.

  “Once we’re done, we can hand in the phone to my captain,” Bast said. “He’ll do the right thing.”

  Mera raised one eyebrow at him. “He might put us under investigation.”

  “He won’t.”

  “Well, I don’t trust—”

  “I do.”

  She studied him, trying to decide her next move.

  Bast had proved himself an excellent detective. Sure, he might be a bit of a loose cannon, but that was normal for a fae. Also, he’d saved Mera’s life, so maybe she should give the guy some credit.

  “Fine. But I’ll send the phone’s contents to my precinct too so they can have a look.”

  Bast’s mouth opened to oppose, when she cut him off. “No offense, but you said it yourself. The light courts have little birds inside your precinct. Even if you trust your cap, he can’t work alone. Someone’s bound to get involved, and that someone might be trouble.”

  Bast scoffed as he loosened the collar of his shirt. “We did fine on our own for years, kitten.”

  “You weren’t alone because you had him, and he had you.” She tapped the phone to her temple. “Or am I wrong?”

  He sighed and crossed his arms, studying his own feet, but he didn’t deny it.

  “It’s just a safety measure,” she reassured.

  Politics and power plays were a sort of magic in their own; a magic neither Mera nor Bast mastered.

  “Fine,” he spoke quietly as he headed to the window, watching the landscape ahead.

  It was obvious he hated the current state of Hollowcliff P.D. in Tir Na Nog. Sure, most of his peers were corrupt, and Bast himself had to bend the rules to get things done every once in a while—like they did now with the phone. But none of that meant he was a bad cop. At least not in Mera’s book.

  Turning her attention to the phone, she kept scrolling. “I can’t find anything relevant, other than the fact Zev Ferris was really into drugs.”

  Sara wasn’t his only dealer. He had contacts with low fae from the slums, and some vamp criminals.

  She checked his gallery and found a ton of pictures. Odd, since fae abhorred photos—some still believed it trapped their souls. They preferred magical paintin
gs, which in retrospect, weren’t that different.

  A breath caught in her chest. “Bast, Zev was into BDSM. Look, that’s the sprite who welcomed us to the penthouse.” She showed him the picture of the green female with her back slammed against a wall. She wore a spiked black leather collar, and leather strips around her wrists and ankles. She was fully naked, while her tied hands covered her crotch… but not exactly. Two fingers stuck out and seemed to rub on her sex.

  She was pleasing herself.

  Bast curled his lips in disgust. “He used his power to take advantage of her.”

  Mera narrowed her eyes, trying to see what he did. “She seems to be enjoying it.” She scrolled to the next pictures, which showed Zev and the sprite in some elaborate positions.

  “No, she isn’t,” Bast snarled. “She’s there because she has to be. Maybe he threatened to fire her; maybe he threatened her with something much worse. Hard to tell when it comes to those light court bastards.”

  “That’s a logical assumption, but a little far-fetched, don’t you think?” She showed him another picture. “I mean, she’s clearly smiling.”

  Bast gave her his back and waved his hand as if to dismiss her.

  Ass.

  Mera got up and went to her luggage. She grabbed her laptop and the universal cable charger for her phone, which worked as a USB stick, and returned to the sofa.

  Removing his hairband, he let his long silver mane cascade behind him.

  Bast took off his vest, then his shirt, but he didn’t glance at Mera, a certain anger in the way he moved.

  It was painful how well those pants fit around his naked waist.

  Was he taking them off too?

  “I’m taking a bath,” he announced curtly before heading to the bathroom.

  Mera watched him go, the hard muscles on his back moving in perfect synchrony, his tanned skin so smooth it might be made of silk.

  Without meaning to, she licked her lips.

  ‘Angry Bast needs to relax,’ her siren whispered. ‘We can help him.’

  Quiet…

  ‘Sex in the shower,’ she pushed. ‘Get your ass up right now!’

  Trying to ignore the sound of rushing water that came from the closed door, Mera took a deep breath. She downloaded the contents of the phone, drafted an email to Julian and attached the files. She was about to hit send, but hesitated.