by Amy Sumida
“So far,” I said.
“Then take me up on my offer.” He held his glass aloft, and a waiter hurried over to refill it. “Investigate me while I help you find those humans. By the end of your search, you'll know whether or not you can trust me.”
I stared hard at Daxon.
“How can you help me?” I finally asked.
“You said that you encountered my magic. Do you happen to have any evidence?”
“Of course I do.”
“Such as pieces of the bomb?”
“Yes; nearly a whole sphere. Why do you ask?”
“I know my work, Your Majesty,” he asserted. “Get me that nearly-whole sphere, and I will tell you who I sold it to.”
I inhaled sharply.
“Ah; I seem to have your attention.” Daxon chuckled.
“You have more than that, Tromlaighe,” I said with a wicked grin. “You have a bargain... another bargain.”
“Not so fast,” he purred. “I deserve something in return, don't you think?”
“You just said that you wanted me to know the truth,” I countered. “And for the Councils to see you in a better light.”
“Frosting.” He shrugged. “That's just a bit of knowledge and esteem. I want something tangible, like you'll be getting.”
“What?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“If you accept my suit and we become lovers,” he said carefully, “I want one night of complete submission from you.”
I choked on my wine. “What?”
“One night, Seren,” he repeated. “I'll be compromising my desires for you, the least you can do is give me one night to see if you might enjoy things my way.”
“That's only if, I accept you as my consort?”
“I don't take unwilling women,” he growled.
“I didn't mean to imply that.” I held up my hand apologetically, then sighed. “All right, Daxon. If we end up together, you'll have your night.”
“Complete submission,” he verified with a scorching look. “Anything I wish to do with you?”
I laughed. “Submission is one thing, Daxon, but you're not getting a promise of anything out of me.”
“Fair enough,” he agreed with a brilliant smile. Then he lifted his glass. “To getting to know each other better.”
“To finding the truth.” I clicked his glass with mine.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Are you out of your damn mind?” Killian roared. “You said you wanted to fight this, and now you're going to spend the entire investigation with him?”
“Killian.” I sighed.
“I've been that guy, Seren,” he growled. “I've spent an investigation with you and used it to my advantage. You're giving this man the easiest way in.”
“Easiest way in?” I lifted my brows at him.
“You know what I mean,” he huffed.
“It's not like I'll be spending every moment alone with him,” I reasoned. “There will be several people assisting us.”
“Just as there were several people with us,” he countered. “We still managed to fall in love.”
“And you're worried that I'll do the same with him?”
“Aren't you?” He countered.
“No, Killian.” I shook my head. “I can't because this guy would be bad for me on so many levels. Even if he's not technically a criminal, his behavior is going to be brought into question, and the Human Council is not going to approve. Laws will be altered; I'm nearly certain of it.”
“So, he may not be a criminal today, but he'll be one tomorrow?”
“Most likely.”
“And the Queen of Fairy can't fuck a criminal?”
“Killian,” I growled.
“What part of that sentence did you object to, Your Majesty?” He asked as he eased closer. “The part where I named you queen of an entire realm or the fucking?”
“Well, we know I don't object to the later,” I purred as I wrapped my arms around his linebacker shoulders.
“I don't like this, Twilight,” he whispered against my lips. “I have a really bad feeling.”
“I can't rationalize taking any other option.”
“I know.” He kissed me then laid his forehead to mine. “I even understand, but I can't help what I feel.”
“Just remember what I feel for you, and trust in that,” I offered.
“Okay.” Killian pulled me into a hug. “But if that son of a bitch fucks with you, I will shift into a snake and eat him alive.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I called my Uncle Dylan and told him about Daxon's offer. I left the Call of Danu out of it and made it sound as if Dax wanted to make nice with the Councils. Dylan sent my Star's Guard, Councilman Lance, and the five extinguishers from Oregon down to LA with the empty glass sphere that had contained Daxon's magic. He also asked me to garner as much information about the process of bomb creation as I could. Dylan said that our technicians had analyzed the glass dust—the particles produced by drilling into the sphere—and found magic within the glass itself. This hadn't surprised Dylan, who had expected there to be a ward in place to hold the trom-laighe within the glass. But he still didn't know what warding had been used; the spell hadn't come up in his database—which irritated him to no end.
My Guard, Lance, and the extinguishers met Killian and me at our hotel the next morning. We were staying at the Standard in downtown LA; a modern hotel with a young vibe. The staff didn't look twice at the purple in my hair or even at Killian's eyes. In LA, we were tame. No one batted an eye at my Guard either, not at Torquil with his long, bright blue hair, or Gradh with her darker cerulean tresses.
Humph, did I attract blue-haired fairies, or what?
We got them a room, and then I said goodbye to Killian. He was not happy about that part of the bargain and had complained over and over through the night. I finally told him that this was exactly what Tiernan and Raza had to go through, and that shut him up. But Killian wasn't heading back to San Francisco. Well, he was at first; he had to drop off the car at Gentry. But then he was using the rath to twilight to Oregon. He would be handling the investigation on that end of things and stocking my new house with supplies.
I watched Killian drive away with an ache in my chest. I didn't want to worry him, but I had a funny feeling about this too. Not bad exactly; just a tingle that something was not as I perceived it to be. I would have to be on my guard around Daxon Tromlaighe. You didn't get to be king of any kind of underworld without knowing how to work people, and I was eighty percent sure that he was working me. I stared at my phone for thirty seconds before I dialed his number.
“I have it,” I said into my cell phone.
“And good afternoon to you too, Your Majesty,” Daxon's sexy, low voice teased my ear.
“Hello, Daxon,” I said with forced sweetness. “How are you today?”
“I'm fantastic, Queen Seren,” he purred. “May I simply call you 'Seren?' All of this 'Your Majesty” stuff is tedious.”
“I think I can handle that.” I smiled despite myself.
“Thank you, Seren,” he made my name into a seduction. “Now, you say you have the bomb remains?”
“They just arrived with the extinguisher team,” I confirmed. “When can we get started?”
“I await your pleasure,” he whispered.
“You're at the club?”
“No, actually, I'm not.” He went serious and rattled off an address. “Come at your leisure; I know I will.”
He hung up, and I rolled my eyes.
“Fucking unseelie,” I huffed as I put my phone away.
The extinguishers chuckled, but my Guard just smirked—they knew where my irritation was stemming from, or who, rather.
“Is he ready to assist?” Lance asked eagerly.
“Excited?” I asked with a grin.
“I am,” he confided. “I'm hoping he'll show us how the bomb was created.”
“You and my uncle both,” I huffed, and then something
occurred to me. “The Human Council hasn't ordered you to recreate them, have they?” I asked with horror.
“No!” He protested, just as horrified. “It's simple curiosity, I assure you.”
“Good,” I said. “It's bad enough with one supplier. Besides, those bombs are only good on humans.”
“It seems like we're always outgunned,” Extinguisher Ralph Sullivan muttered, and the other men nodded in agreement.
“Yes, I know,” I sympathized. “But that doesn't mean that we give up, does it?”
“No, Ambassador!” Ralph straightened.
“We're going to find out who's behind these disappearances and stop them,” I added. “Because that's what we do; we keep humans safe.”
“You're damn straight, Ambassador!” Extinguisher Jared Kavanaugh grinned brilliantly at me.
“Excellent.” I nodded. “Now, remember that when we deal with this weasel. I realize that you may be harboring some antagonism for him; he is the man who constructed the bombs that were used against you, after all. He's also annoying and arrogant, kinda like my unseelie husband. I think it must be a dark fey thing.”
The humans chuckled, even Lance. My Guard only nodded to each other; suspicions confirmed. Dealing with one arrogant unseelie was hard enough, to have to subject myself to two of them was brutal.
“But we need him,” I went serious. “This guy runs the Fairy Underworld; if anyone can help us find the kidnappers, it's him.”
“Fuck, this guy runs it?” Extinguisher Jared hissed. “That kid at Gentry did good. He sent us right to the top.”
“That kid is over two-thousand years old.” I smirked at Jared as his eyes went round. “But yes, he did good. I'll be sure to send him a muffin basket.”
“There's a fairy underworld?” Torquil asked the rest of the Star's Guard.
“Oh, yeah.” Conri smirked.
I shot Conri an annoyed look. “You knew about it?”
“Sure.” Conri shrugged. “I used to go to the sylph strip clubs all... the...” His voice faded away as Gradh glared at him. “Uh, I mean; yeah, I'm familiar.”
“How did I not know about it?” I growled.
“It's an underground,” Conri huffed. “That implies that it's secret, and you were an extinguisher—the main type of people they wanted to keep it secret from.”
“Why didn't you tell me about it after I became princess?”
“Why the hell would I tell my new princess about the fairy scene in HR?” Conri made an amazed face. “I like being a knight.”
“Yeah, all right, fair enough,” I huffed.
“We have the SUVs waiting on the street,” Lance said. “Are we heading out now, or should I tell them to park?”
“We're going now.” I started out the main entrance of the hotel. “How the hell did you manage to keep three spots out front of ...”
I stopped talking as I saw the FBI emblems stuck in the windows of the black, standard-issue, extinguisher SUVs. They must have borrowed the cars from the SF Council House; the FBI cover was an old Human Council trick. Every extinguisher was given FBI credentials too; just in case they got into a sticky situation with some fey-ignorant humans.
Extinguisher Clay Sullivan was sitting in the driver's seat of the first SUV, wearing dark sunglasses and a hard expression. Extinguisher Jack Teagan and Luke Kavanaugh were in the two SUVs behind Clay's, looking just as intimidating. No one dared to approach them.
Clay cracked a smile when I slipped into the passenger seat of his car. Some of my Guard joined me while the rest of them, the other extinguishers, and Lance divided themselves between the remaining SUVs.
“Hey, Ambassador, good to see you,” Clay chirped.
“You too, Extinguisher Sullivan,” I said, then gave him the address.
“Yes, ma'am.” Clay nodded and pulled us out into LA traffic.
The address took us to Holmby Hills, and in case you're unfamiliar with LA, let me explain what this means; Daxon was filthy rich. Holmby Hills didn't just have mansions; it had mega-mansions. We're talking forty million at the lower end. Everyone in the car gaped at the high walls and iron gates that guarded vast acres of prime real estate rolling up to stone palaces that a few lucky bastards got to call home.
“This unseelie has done well for himself,” Gradh noted.
“No, shit,” Conri murmured.
We found the address and stopped our train of vehicles before an iron gate. I lifted my brows at that. Fairies were allergic to iron; in a fatal way. Having a gate of the stuff was a big middle finger to Daxon's own DNA. It made me like him more.
There was an intercom, and a gruff voice answered our buzz. Clay gave the voice my name, and the gates started to glide open. We drove through with the other SUVs close behind us and maneuvered a winding road bordered by forest, up to a circular drive with a marble fountain in its center. The house angled around this circle in an L shape; one main building on our left with a long wing on the right. It was built from the kind of stone blocks you expected to see in human castles, but these didn't have the look of age to them. Mullioned windows were framed by white wood within those stone walls, and manicured rose vines climbed around them in military precision.
I stepped out of the car and just stared.
Fairy castles are amazing. They're magical and far more beautiful than any human home could ever be, even this mega-mansion. Fey castles represented dominion and strength. They were a sanctuary for our monarchy and a repository for our history. But this building represented a different kind of royalty. In some ways, it was just as hard-won as fairy castles were. Plus, I'd been raised as an American human; I couldn't help but be impressed.
The fact that Daxon was a fairy, that he had come to this world with nothing but his ambition and magic, made the other half of me take notice too. What had it been like for him; to journey here and claw his way to the top? I thought about the old Unseelie Court and wondered if Daxon had left because of it. My first experience in Unseelie had been terrifying. I couldn't imagine living in the Unseelie Court as it was back then.
“Ambassador?” A man stepped out of the main doors. He was burly, with wide shoulders that strained the confines of his dress shirt, and dark curls that refused to be tamed. He was also armed; with human weapons.
I looked at the shoulder holster in surprise.
“Well fuck me sideways,” Conri said. “It's a cu-sidhe cowboy.”
“Sir Conri,” the man nodded. “Cowboys wear hats on their heads and pistols on their hips.”
“Yeah, but 'cu-sidhe with a gun' didn't have the same ring to it.” Conri smirked; no doubt pleased as punch to be recognized and given his title.
“Fair enough,” the cu-sidhe conceded, then turned to me. “My name is Desmond; I'm Daxon's second in command. If you'll follow me, Your Majesty?”
The place was even more impressive on the inside, but where the exterior was traditional, the décor within had a more modern feel. Well, modern meets medieval. There was a lot of black leather and sharp lines with open spaces, but the walls were adorned with weapons... fey weapons.
“Nice,” Torquil nodded as he admired an elven bow.
I shivered; I'd nearly been killed by elf-shot recently.
“Daxon's down in the lab,” Desmond said. “He's preparing the equipment to analyze the remains. You did bring it with you?” He paused to glance back at me.
“Yes, we have it,” Lance answered, holding a leather case aloft.
Desmond nodded and continued down the hallway. He led us past several closed doors and then down a winding staircase. There were more closed doors in the basement, and voices filtered out through most of them. It looked as if Daxon had a whole army living with him, and we had to walk through his barracks to get to his lab. Which meant that whatever was in that lab was worth protecting.
We came out into an open room with a kitchen, dining area, and lounge. Several tough-looking fairies were relaxing there. They all focused on us as we walked through. Desmond
waved them down, but every eye followed our progress. Conri didn't even crack a joke; that's how tense it was.
I didn't say anything either, but I looked at each fairy carefully. Daxon had a mix of unseelie and seelie fey here, just like at Enchantments. There were redcaps with bloody hats, goblins grinning maliciously, and trolls hunched in upon their bulging muscles sitting beside winged tengu, hairy rikshas, and sharp-faced gremlins. And those were just the lesser fey; I had no idea what kind of magic the sidhe who sat among them possessed. One seelie man stroked a finger over his tattooed arm and pulled a knife from the ink. He played with it as he stared my Guard down.
It was as if Daxon had gone to the two courts and collected the baddest motherfuckers he could find. At least there were no twilight fey there.
“Son of a selkie,” Ainsley whispered as we stepped into a slim hallway. “Was that a riksha? I haven't seen one of the bear tribe in years.”
“I'm liking this less and less,” Conri muttered. “There's enough magical firepower in that room to give even us a run for our money, Princess.”
