by Kaye Draper
She lifted her eyes and they were flinty blue daggers, despite her wry smile. She pinched her fingers together, leaving a small gap—a little bit. Then she held up her forefinger—one time. Grinning an evil grin, she balled up a delicate fist and made a vicious upper-cut in the air.
"Oh, I like her," Oisin said with his signature smirk. "She reminds me of someone else I know." His green eyes landed on me with fake innocence.
I rolled my eyes. So my attacker might never walk again, even though he was a supe. It wasn't that big a deal. Still. No one was going to try that shit on this poor woman. Not if I could help it. "Come on," I said, grabbing the woman's slender arm. "We're getting out of here. Now."
She stumbled a few steps after me, then dug in her heels, dragging us to a stop. I looked back as she shook her head and mouthed the word "no" repeatedly, using her other hand to try to pry my grip away from her arm.
"What? Why?" I said, releasing her. "Why the hell are you staying here. Come with us. If you don't have a place to stay, we've got rooms enough until you get sorted out. But you can't stay here and let that asshole abuse you!"
She gave me a sad look and took a step back, away from us, rubbing the place where I'd gripped her arm.
I ran a hand through my unruly blond waves. "Look, I'm sorry I grabbed you like that. I didn't mean to scare you." Fuck. I was so bad at people and... emotions and shit. "I just don't like the idea that you're trapped here!"
She paced closer and put a hand on my arm, patting me as if to say I was forgiven. She tapped her throat, then her chest, right above the swell of those gorgeous breasts. Her eyes were pleading. She wanted me to understand. And I had no fucking clue what she needed.
I turned to Oisin and shot him a pleading look. He shook his head, brow furrowed. "I don't know," he said sadly. "She doesn't seem the type to put up with abuse out of some twisted psychological need, though. There must be a reason."
A soft hand cupped my cheek and I turned back to the woman. She patted my face, her eyes earnest. "Don't worry," I said, trapping her hand with my own. "I will figure this out. We won't just leave you here."
She took a deep breath and nodded. Then she pulled her hand from mine and hugged me. In a flash, I found myself engulfed in pillowy curves and long, slender limbs. She clung to me like an octopus. How many damned arms did she have? I tried to untangle myself gracefully from this outpouring of emotion, hoping she wouldn't notice how red my face must be right now.
But I felt like I had lost something when she finally let go.
When I turned to leave, Oisin was smirking. "Oh, shut the fuck up," I said, shoving him out the door.
I wasn't about to start flirting with the woman when she was vulnerable and being held captive, much to Oisin and Con's disappointment. Gods.
But it had felt nice, all that softness.
Oisin and I made our way back toward home. "How the fuck are we supposed to get her to leave that place if she won't come?"
Oisin laughed and started to open his mouth. I shoved him, making the graceful fiend stumble. "If you make an orgasm joke right now, I will shave your head when you are sleeping."
He started whistling a jaunty tune instead.
"Asshole."
A moment later, he opened his mouth to actually add something helpful. "He probably has something he's holding over her to keep her there, keep her from running," he said, the words so ugly in that beautiful voice. "That's how you ensure compliance when the person you are using is stronger than you."
I reached for him, but he danced away. "Will you stop with the moping?" he demanded, jumping ahead to walk up the sloping sidewalk to the bookstore. "I'm fine. You're fine. She's fine. We are all fine. I am stating a simple fact. We need to figure out how he's keeping her there during the day."
I sighed. "That would be simple, if she could just fucking talk to us." I threw my hands up. "I'm not a mind reader."
I ran into Oisin's back when he stopped too suddenly in front of me. Peering over his head, I gaped like an idiot.
"Need a mind reader, huh?" A deep, sexy voice said, the tone laced with humor. "Wherever could you find a person who could help with that?"
The psychic sat on the steps to the bookshop, lounging there as if he hadn't a care in the world, a couple of overstuffed duffel bags at his feet. "You know," he said, leaning back against the door. "Bookshops usually sell more books when they aren't closed in the middle of the day."
Oisin stopped his statue routine and paced forward, nudging the guy's leg with an immaculate black dress shoe. "Move, little kit." He put a hand on the door to let the wards know we were friendly, then slipped a purely mundane key into the lock.
The taller guy stood. He loomed over Oisin, and I let out a snort. Gods, that must be what the fae and I looked like next to each other, because I was about the same height as the lanky guy. Oisin was such a midget. I started to laugh. Then I remembered what the fae had been through with his family and I felt bad for poking fun, even in my head.
Gods. What was wrong with me? I missed the simpler times, when it was just me, bumbling through life on my own, not having to...people.
I shoved between them when Oisin opened the door, making my way into the dusty shop. "Well, here you go," I said with a fake smile. "Here's the shop you wanted into so badly. Please, enjoy your shopping experience."
The psychic looked even younger today than he had at the carnival. He was wearing a hoodie and jeans, and the long part of his almost-white hair was pulled up into a manbun, he scooped up his bags and glanced around the shop. "Gods," he muttered, "what a dump."
Oisin snorted. I shrugged. He wasn't wrong.
"But," he hurried to add, his face serious as he poked around. "You know, the space isn't bad. I could set up my tarot readings over in that corner to bring in more revenue for the bookstore. He pointed to an alcove with a bay window. "And we could put all the paranormal books and stuff on those shelves. Put in some Persian rugs. Use that old table."
"Did you need something, little foxy?" Oisin said, slipping off his jacket and hanging it by the door.
The psychic weirdo stopped his yammering and paced closer to Oisin. "Look, I'm sorry if I offended your faeness somehow," he said, reaching out a hand toward Oisin's shoulder, his face confused, but serious. I knew the feeling. It was hard, at first, to tell whether Oisin really hated your guts or just wanted to have really aggressive sex. Fae.
Oisin side-stepped the guy's hand and gave him an emerald dagger glare. "Do not touch me. No matter how tempting that might be, child."
The taller guy frowned, then looked at me in question. I shrugged, though I knew exactly what Oisin's problem was.
He didn't want the guy to look inside his head.
I smiled.
The ancient bells above the door jangled and Con came in, carrying his briefcase and wearing his nerdy professor get-up. He must have finished up his student meetings early. Gods he was so adorable. And normal. Unlike everyone else around here. "Hey guys," he said, taking in our visitor with a raised eyebrow. Then he glanced at me. "Why is Gesa smiling like that...it's kind of creepy. Did you break her?"
I slouched against the front counter of our run-down business establishment. "Because we know how to figure out what the mute woman needs."
Oisin came to me and pulled me down into a biting kiss. "Have fun with the children," he said as he pulled away. "I'm going upstairs to tend the plants."
I stared after him as he ran away. What the actual fuck?
"Did you break him too?" Con demanded, hands on his hips. "What the hell have you been up to today, Gesa? I miss all the fun."
I heaved a sigh. "Make us some coffee and meet me in the office and I'll fill you in." I gestured toward the tall blond guy who was wandering around the store picking up dusty books and putting them down again. It didn't escape my attention that he was putting some of them aside into a new pile as if he was organizing his inventory. "Come on, Mr. Mind Reader. I'll show you the office."
Chapter 4
I sat at my desk. The psychic—whose name, it turns out, was Hisashi—draped his lanky form sideways across one of the mustard-colored antique wing-backed chairs as he sipped one of Con's amazing coffee creations. I was happy to find someone else who knew how to enjoy the finer things in life, like sugar and fat. Oisin and Con's obsession with black coffee was so strange.
"So, how does your ability work, exactly," Con asked, leaning forward in his own chair, his mug of coffee clasped between both hands. "I'm sorry if that's a rude question. I'm pretty new to this whole magic thing."
Hisashi just shrugged. "I'm pretty hard to offend. Unlike some magic users." All three of us glanced upward, where Oisin was still hiding with his plants.
The psychic sipped his coffee. "Besides," he said with a grin, "you fed me. I owe you." I glanced mournfully at the plate that sat on my desk. It had once held some truly amazing apple and cream cheese muffins. Now it held only crumbs.
Con laughed. "It's not a big deal. That's what I do around here. File paperwork, dust books, and feed raging hordes of supernaturals. Or...just two really hungry ones."
Hisashi smiled at him. "So, you do the important stuff while they go around getting into trouble, then. That's cool."
I cleared my throat. This bro-bonding was awesome and all, but we had shit to do. "Back to the magic?"
Both men looked at me and smiled like they were humoring a kid. I checked the urge to throw something at them. The stone paperweight would probably kill Con. And I didn't know what the other guy was, so I gave his healing abilities a fifty-fifty chance. Dead bodies in my office would be a pain in the ass.
Hisashi sat up in his chair, running his big hands around his coffee cup and looking into the depths of it as if he were hoping to find some sort of deep, meaningful life answers there. "You saw it at the carnival. I can do psychometry—I touch things, or people, and I get glimpses of stuff. Memories, sometimes little visions of the past or the future. Usually it's whatever is most important to the person or object that comes up to the surface first."
He glanced at Con, his pale, frosty eyes questioning. Con nodded. "It's okay to talk about it. What you saw when you touched me was pretty important to me, so that makes sense."
I sipped my coffee and tried not to be insensitive by demanding to know what the hell had happened in the tent. Con knew me though. "It's okay, Gesa. Really. I'm not like you and Con. My secrets and fears are human. Small."
I opened my mouth to argue that bit of bullshit, but he shushed me with a wave of his hand. "When I was born, my parents tossed me in a dumpster and left me there. Like I was a used tissue or an old toaster. Garbage. A priest found me. Between the church and the foster system, I turned out okay. But...it was rocky sometimes. And I have to admit, I always wondered, you know—why did they do it? Who just...throws away their baby? Why...didn't they want me?"
Hisashi pressed himself back in his chair. I got the distinct feeling of soft fur under my fingertips again. A swirl of cool, soft magic lifted my hair, then seemed to curl around Con. I saw his tense shoulders relax out of the corner of my eye as I watched the psychic comfort the human without touching him.
I'm sure Oisin wasn't the first person to tell Hisashi to keep away.
Oh Gods, now I was worrying about other people's emotions again. Someone help me.
"So," I said, making a massive effort to adult. I would rather run away like Oisin, but someone had to run this pseudo-business we were operating. "What are you?"
Hisashi tilted his head, his gorgeous ice-blue eyes drilling into my own. "You can't tell?"
I waved a hand. "Magic is really more Oisin's thing. And he has a really fucking bad habit of not sharing with the class." I made sure to raise my voice, so it carried up the stairs. The little shit still hadn't told me what the hell Derek fucking White was.
I shrugged. "I only recognize the auras of beings I've met before. I could tell if someone was a garden variety shifter, if I get close enough. And I sure as shit know what a prissy fae aura feels like." Again, raising my voice so it carried. "But others, like you and the girl we're supposed to be helping...I can tell you're supes, obviously, and that you're nothing I've ever met before, but that's about it."
"He's a fox, obviously." Oisin's smooth, lilting voice made me tense, but I managed not to startle this time. He lounged indolently against the threshold in the doorway of the office.
I narrowed my eyes. "Yes. I get it. He's hot. That's not what I asked."
Oisin smirked at me. Hisashi grinned. "I'm hot?"
I rubbed a hand over my face and groaned. "Not another one. I can't survive another Oisin in my life."
"Gesa," Oisin said, crossing the room to come lean a hip on my desk. "You are the most beautiful, strong, amazing woman I know." He reached out to tuck a wayward strand of hair behind my ear. "But you are so dense sometimes, darling."
I growled at him, grabbing for his arm so I could break his little wrist. But he was across the room leaning against Con's chair before I even got close. I knew I wouldn't catch him. It's the thought that counts.
"Oh Gods, are they always like this?" Hisashi asked, turning to Con with wide, innocent eyes."
Con shrugged and took a drink of his coffee. "You're the psychic. You tell me."
"They're always like this," he said, deadpan. "Even in bed."
I nearly shot coffee out my nose, and I spilled it on the desk when I set my mug down too fast. Fumbling for napkins, I mopped up the mess I'd made. "Why? Why does every fucking conversation always come back to my sex life? We were talking about how Hisashi can help us rescue that poor woman from that nasty old man."
"Don't worry," Hisashi said to me, his chiseled face completely serious. "You learn how to manage your pride eventually. I've seen it."
I glared at him. "I do not have a pride. I am not a fucking male lion." I waved a hand at Oisin and Con. How the fuck did we even get on this topic? "I just happen to have a polygamous relationship with two men. Get with the times."
Hisashi frowned, leaning forward to put his elbows on his knees. "But...what about the others?"
Nope. I wasn't going to ask.
"The woman at the shop," I tried for the millionth fucking time to get us back on track, "if you read her, can you tell us what's keeping her there? And also, what the fuck are you. I know you aren't just a fox shifter. They don't do magic like that."
The beautiful man—boy, I reminded myself, boy—stood and set his coffee cup on my desk. "If I show you mine, you have to show me yours," he said with an eyebrow waggle that rivaled Oisin for lewdness. "I've never seen a gryphon...up close."
I growled again. He laughed. Then he took out his manbun, letting the longer side of his hair down. I gaped at him when he started undoing his fly. Completely unconcerned, he dropped his pants and pulled off his hoodie, standing there in his socks, a delicious pair of boxer-briefs, and a t-shirt.
"The tails get caught if I have too many clothes on," he said with an apologetic shrug. Then he inched the waistband of his boxers down to an uncomfortable level. I think Oisin stopped breathing. I was having a bit of trouble getting enough air myself.
Hisashi held out his arms and closed his eyes. Magic swirled around the room, like a cool, silky caress, teasing, ruffling my hair and pulling at my clothes and the papers stacked at the desk. It made the fine hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stand up, like we were all getting a mild static charge. I watched as the beautiful man standing before me half-shifted.
If I thought he was gorgeous before, I was wrong. His human glamour was nothing compared to this. He opened his eyes and looked at me, waiting for my reaction. His features were a bit sharper, his almond eyes that liquid silver color above his high cheekbones. Soft, white fox ears sprouted from his head, partially covered by his hair, which was no longer even remotely blond. It was pure, snow-white.
A huge cluster of long, puffy white fox tails floated and twitched around him like a halo. I coul
d see where waistbands and restrictive clothing might suck ass. The base of that outcropping of tails took up most of his lower back and the top curve of his ass. One ear twitched as he waited patiently for me to finish inspecting him, his thumbs hooked suggestively in the front of his boxers, just below an amazing Adonis V over his hipbones. His expression was calm, but his eyes pleaded with me for something I didn't understand. Just what was he wanting from me?
"So... you’re a fox then," I said, as if this was completely normal behavior for a fox shifter.
He smiled at me, the expression lighting up his face. He was happy to share his secrets with me. Unlike some people. "Nine-tail. I'm a nine-tailed fox."
Oisin had stopped slumping against Con's chair. He now stood behind it, his graceful hands clutching the top in a white-knuckled grip. "You have all nine, even though you're so young?"
Con looked at me and lifted his eyebrows. I shook my head. I had no clue what the hell was going on. He was better off getting out one of his mythology books.
The tension in the air was so thick I could hardly breathe. "Well, it's hardly a glamour. You of all people can tell that." Hisashi shot back. "Stop hiding, little fae. I won't hurt you."
Oisin's eyes narrowed at that, and his snotty confidence poured back into his body. "I'm not afraid of you, you fluffy pet. I just don't want you getting your childish magic all over my aura."
This time I looked at Con for answers. He was the mythology professor. His eyes had gone all glazed over. Uh-oh. We were going to get a lecture. I had to stop this madness.
"Okay," I said firmly. "Pop quiz, and you are both going to fucking answer me this time. And sit the fuck down. Um...if you can sit with tails."
Hisashi shifted back to full human form and put his pants back on. The universe wept, but I was strong.
He settled back into his chair, while Oisin walked over and perched his ass on my desk again. "Okay," I said, calling this shitfest to order. "Hisashi, you are a nine-tailed fox. I only vaguely remember what that's all about from when I was in school. Give us the abbreviated history lesson."
