by D. N. Hoxa
I put my hands on Julian’s cheeks and pulled his head down. “Look at me,” I said, and when he met my eyes, for a second, I was afraid. He’d completely transformed into another fairy I didn’t know. “Please. Go to my room. Wait for me.”
Please, please, please…
When his brows shot up, I almost sighed in relief. His eyes, a light violet again, searched my face as if he’d just seen me for the first time. All of a sudden, I found myself in Dylan’s cabin in Finger Lakes again, the place where we’d had our one and only kiss. Warmth spread from my chest to the tips of my toes. Red touched Julian’s cheeks, and he finally nodded. I held his eyes as he walked backwards and into my room. The door closed, and it felt like a spell was lifted off me.
“What the hell was that?” Bender whispered from behind me.
Clearing my throat, I spun around to face him. No matter how being close to Julian had made me feel for a second—this was not the time for any of it. So I narrowed my brows at Bender.
“I called you here to ask for your help and to help you in return! You didn’t have to be such an asshole.” He’d insinuated Julian was a coward and that he’d run away from a fight when that simply wasn’t the truth.
“Was he…is he your boyfriend or something?” Bender asked, and it was like a slap to my face.
“No!” I said way too fast, my voice high-pitched. “For God’s sake, Bender. This is serious. Stop dicking around!”
“So you believe him? You really think there’s some fairy guy who’s killing his own kind and wreaking havoc in the fairy realm, just like that?”
I laughed. “Of course I do.”
“Have you actually seen this? If it’s the truth, how come nobody stopped him already? We both know how strong fairies are in their realm,” he said.
“There is no reason why Julian would lie to me about something like this, Bender. And nobody can defeat Galladar because his magic absorbs other fairies’ magic. That’s why he needs me.”
“You can’t seriously be considering this, Wayne,” he said, shaking his head and smiling like he was hoping this was all a joke.
“I’m not considering it. I’m doing it.”
“Holy spell, you’ve lost your mind!” Bender cried. “He’s a fairy!”
Stab me in the chest. Slap me across the face. Shave my head all the freaking way—but never say that to me. Ever.
Bender realized what he’d said a second too late. He bit his bottom lip, his eyes full of regret. But that regret didn’t matter now. I really believed that people spoke the truth about how they felt both when they were drunk and when they were angry.
“I’m a fairy, too.” That hadn’t mattered before when I fought side-by-side with him against the Hedge witches. Or maybe it had—I’d just been too naive to see it.
“Wayne, I didn’t mean it like that,” Bender said, but he didn’t even try hard enough to sound sorry. That’s because he wasn’t. Not really. It dawned on me in that second that no matter what I did in this world, I’d still be just the fairy. If a person I considered my friend thought that way, why wouldn’t everybody else?
“It doesn’t matter, Bender. I told you why you’re here. If you help me, I’ll help you. Do you accept?”
With his hands on his face, Bender sighed and shook his head ten times before he looked at me again. He looked exhausted all of a sudden, but I was exhausted, too. And offended.
“I do,” he finally whispered.
“Good. That means that you’re going to work with Julian. If we’re all going to work together, there will be none of that bullshit between you two again. Okay?”
He took a step back as if I’d attacked him, but the look on my face told him that there was no other option on the table.
“Fine,” he mumbled. He didn’t agree with me—obviously—but I trusted he’d keep his tongue in check at least until this was over. He said it himself: he needed my help. The coven needed that money. The only way he was going to get it was by playing nice and making sure we managed to get the dragon blood back from Xander Ramos.
“Wait here.”
In my room, Julian was sitting on the edge of the couch with his head down, hands folded together, elbows resting on his knees. He didn’t look up when I closed the door behind me and rested my back against it.
“I said it to him, and I’ll say it to you: you didn’t have to be such an asshole.”
“I can’t trust a man who doesn’t trust me, and if I can’t trust him, I can’t work with him,” Julian said. His anger had completely disappeared. Now, he just sounded sad.
Reluctantly, I went and sat next to him on the couch. “Trust isn’t something you can expect to be given to you on the first encounter. Trust needs to be earned.” I hadn’t asked either of them to trust each other, but I had expected them to trust me.
“How can you be sure that he hasn’t reported me already?”
I flinched. Just the thought of Bender doing such thing had my flesh covered in goose bumps. “Because I can. I am. If we’re going to get that dragon blood back, we need to work together, Julian. That means you have to behave like an adult. Both of you.”
“He thinks I’m a coward,” Julian whispered. “I wonder if he’s right.”
My eyes almost popped out of my skull. “Bender didn’t know what he was talking about, Julian. Leaving your home and coming here to find me took guts. You did it because you knew no other way to help your people. I would have done the same thing.” I wouldn’t have liked it, but I would have done whatever was needed, even if it meant running away for the moment.
“What if we can’t find the dragon blood?” he asked. That question terrified me, too.
“Then we’ll find another way. And if we can’t do that, either, we’ll just wait for Galladar to come to us and kick his ass right here in good ole Manhattan,” I said to try and brighten up his mood. I could only see his profile, but I think he gave me half a smile.
“You’re too good to me, Winter Wayne,” Julian whispered, and with a sigh, he stood up. “And I can’t promise you I’ll behave like an adult, but I can promise you I’ll try.”
Without waiting for my reply, Julian walked out of the room.
Thirteen
I could hear my own heart beating. That’s how silent my office was. The noise from the street couldn’t even make it through the door and the window when Julian Walker and Eli Bender looked at each other like that. Like they wanted to kill each other with a single look, then bathe in the goddamn glory.
I cleared my throat because the tension was suffocating me. Too much testosterone. I wondered what they’d do if I left them alone…
Julian sat behind my desk and Bender across from him, and I stood to the side, resting my shoulder against the wall to look like I was relaxed, but I wasn’t. I chose to stand because I wanted to be prepared if the witch and the fairy decided they didn’t give a shit about the greater good and wanted to settle matters with their fists. Or magic. Or both.
“So…we need a plan,” I started when it was obvious that they weren’t going to do much, expect stare at each other. “A very good plan because we don’t get second chances with this one. To do that, we need to know our strengths and our weaknesses.”
I waited. Are these guys even blinking? I still waited.
Nothing.
“Okay!” I continued. They didn’t even look at me. “Our strength is that for now, we’re the only ones who know that Xander Ramos has the dragon blood powder.” At least I hoped so. I’d told nobody else about it, and what were the chances that another paranormal could steal it from the ECU? Slim. Very slim. “Our weakness is that there’s only three of us. Xander has a lot of people around him, wild ones who won’t hesitate to go full wolf on our asses.”
Moving excruciatingly slowly, Julian folded his arms in front of his chest. “He’s a werewolf. He wouldn’t know what to do with dragon blood powder, even if he wanted to.”
“He obviously stole it to sell it,” Bender
said, his voice full of mock. “But if we wait around for the dust to settle and for him to decide to put the word out about this, the ECU and everyone else they hired will be all over it.”
I flinched. Bender was right, except I knew Xander Ramos. Or at least I thought I did. “Xander isn’t one to sit and wait around for anything.”
“So let’s give him a call,” said Bender. “Make him an offer he can’t refuse. That’s a sure way to lure him out and get him in a position where we have the upper hand.”
“And attack him at the exchange,” I finished. “I don’t know…” I didn’t know if Xander Ramos was dumb enough to fall for something like this.
“You’re thinking about this the wrong way,” Julian whispered.
I raised a brow in question as Bender’s cheeks turned scarlet. “And you’re thinking about it the right way?” I said and Julian nodded. “Well, then, why don’t you enlighten us?” And stop being so smug about it. I kept that last part for myself, though. I didn’t want to give Bender the chance to start a fight.
“Like I said, a werewolf wouldn’t know what to do with dragon blood powder. Neither would a vampire or a witch,” Julian said. “And since you’re sure that he’s not the type to sit and wait around for anything, then he already had a buyer before he bothered to steal the blood from the ECU.”
My mouth opened, but no words came out. Bender didn’t make a single sound, either.
“The only people who would want dragon blood are fairies,” Julian continued, raising his brows at me as if to ask me if I still didn’t get it. But I did. I understood perfectly now.
“It’s only a matter of finding a fairy rich enough to afford something like that.” Xander Ramos stole the blood for money, so he was going to ask for a lot of it. If Julian was right, he probably had already asked for a lot of it even before he stole it. The deal was already made. If we were lucky, the exchange was yet to happen.
“These are all just assumptions here. We don’t even know for sure that Xander Ramos has the blood,” Bender said.
“Oh, he has it. Trust me, he has the blood.” I was willing to bet my life on it. I could almost see Xander searching for the perfect person to tell—probably a fairy—about it. I could hear him make the promise that he could deliver, and I could feel his greed and his joy when he made the deal with whoever could afford it.
“What’s the fastest way to search for rich fairies?” Julian asked.
I was already walking to my desk and to the laptop on it—which happened to be right by Julian’s hands. “I can use my piece of crap program, but I doubt too many fairies are registered on here. Don’t you have people you can ask?”
Julian’s jaw clenched. “I’ve lived my life on Earth as a witch,” was his answer.
Bender already had his phone in his hands and was typing something. “If the fairy is registered with the ECU, we’ll find him.”
“We will?” Surprised, I looked at him over the screen of my laptop.
“As a coven official, I have access to some parts of the ECU data base, including the list of registered paranormals.” Holy spell, how awesome was that? Maybe working with Bender after all of this was over wouldn’t be the worst of ideas…
“How fast can you get us the name? I don’t want to rush you or anything, but if the deal has already been made, the exchange is going to happen right away.” The fairy who bought the blood would be impatient, and the sooner Xander got it off his hands, the safer he’d be.
“It might help to narrow the search down,” Julian said, and he didn’t even seem all that pissed off now as he looked at Bender. “Seelie fairies are the only ones who work with the ECU and generally play by the rules here.”
“Florida,” Bender said. “Florida is full of Seelies. It used to be a problem back when I worked with the ECU.”
“Makes sense.” Seelie fairies were summer fairies so they were obviously going to want to live in a warm place.
Wait a second…what was I? Seelie or Unseelie? Holy spell, the question had never even crossed my mind before. I wanted to ask Julian about it right away. If anybody knew, it would be him, but considering the circumstances, I decided to keep my mouth shut until all of this was over. Hopefully then, we’d have time to really talk.
“My team will get back to me with news,” Bender said and jumped to his feet. “I need to go for now. I’ll be back.” And he strode toward the door before he even finished speaking.
“Hey, wait a minute!” I followed him outside. “You’re leaving now?” I didn’t think it wise to be separated. The exchange could be happening at any moment and we needed to be ready.
“I’ve got some personal things to take care of,” Bender said. He refused to meet my eyes and looked at his feet instead.
“You can’t tell anyone about him,” I whispered. Maybe I didn’t need to, but one could never be too careful.
“You insult me, Wayne.” He took a step back.
“Bender, I don’t want it to be awkward between us.” He was my friend—my only friend. I didn’t want to lose him over anything.
With a sigh, Bender lowered his head for a second. When he looked at me, he seemed a tiny bit more relaxed. The lines at the corners of his eyes weren’t as pronounced, and his brows were no longer narrowed.
“It can never be awkward between us, Winter.” There he went again, calling me by my first name. I had no idea why that surprised me so much, but it did. “We got through Hedge witches together. We’ll get through this, too.”
He wanted it to sound like a promise, but instead, he sounded nothing more than hopeful. Without waiting for my reply, he turned around and crossed the street as fast as his legs would carry him.
Feeling stranger by the second, I went back to my office, hoping to be able to speak to Julian. But my office was empty. Julian was no longer sitting at my desk, and the door to my room was closed.
Fourteen
Wasn’t it sad?
Julian Walker, the man I’d spent most nights dreaming of for the past few months, was in my room, probably sleeping on my couch, and where was I? At the Spell Licked Liquor, drinking cheap vodka and feeling sorry for myself.
Did I mention that I was alone?
A group of two witches and a werewolf barely out of teen-hood sitting at the corner of the bar were laughing loudly, and the voice in my head said that they were laughing at me. I slowly turned around with my drink in hand, and rested my elbows on the counter.
Yep. All three of them had been looking at me right until they saw my face, then pretended to be staring at the table like it was a thing made of fucking unicorns. Ugh. Would taking this ever get easier?
I doubted it. Full of anger, sadness, and vodka, I dropped the money on the counter without even looking at Hailey the bartender and walked out of the bar. I should’ve just stayed at my office. I shouldn’t have cared that Julian locked himself in my room like a little boy. Let him deal with whatever he was dealing with. It had nothing to do with me.
No matter how many times I told myself that, though, it didn’t work. So I caved and I went out for a drink. Now, night had fallen, and the road looked strangely curvy to me. I didn’t remember anyone making any changes in Geraldine Street, and I definitely didn’t remember having this feeling of being followed before, either.
I stopped and turned around in the middle of the street. Paranormals walked by me both ways, minding their own business, some looking at me and looking away, others looking at me, flinching, then looking away. Same ole same old. Maybe I was drunker than I thought.
Shaking my head to try and clear my thoughts, I walked towards my office again, but the feeling didn’t go away. Someone was looking right at the back of my head. Abruptly, I turned the corner and hid behind the sign of a store at the side of the street. My beads buzzed with excitement. Who the hell was following me? Julian? Because if he was, I swore on my life that I’d kick his ass for being such a fucking kid.
A few seconds later, I risked a glance at
the street to my left, right where I’d come from. Nobody was looking my way. I was going to start laughing at myself, at how ridiculous I was being, when red hot pain hit me on the back of my head and spread through the rest of my body like wildfire. Warm asphalt on my face—or the other way around. Footsteps by my head, but before I could turn to look at my attacker, they hit me on the head again. Darkness swallowed me whole right after I realized that this was definitely not Julian.
***
The bright light above me intensified the throbbing pain in my head. Opening my eyes was like getting out of bed when it was freezing cold outside. My eyelids were so heavy. My limbs, too. I couldn’t move them at all.
But wait…I couldn’t move them because they were tied.
Memories rushed back to me, together with the panic that finally popped my eyes open. Julian, Bender, the bar…holy spell, I had been kidnapped!
It took a few blinks before I could see anything around me. The bright yellow light came from a large bulb in the ceiling. I was lying on a white sofa. It was so soft, no wonder I hadn’t wanted to wake up. The fireplace to my right was huge and made of grey and yellow stones. The white carpets, the floor to ceiling windows across from me, the black table in front of my feet—everything around me screamed expensive. Even the white curtains looked like they were made out of silk and everything smelled like jasmine. Probably not the time, but I was envious of whoever lived in that house.
“She finally comes around,” someone said from behind me. I would have jumped to my feet, but they were tied—just like my hands. Not only that, but my gun was gone. So were my knives. Shit. I was completely defenseless because I hadn’t bothered to make or even buy spell stones to hide in my braid.
When I turned my head, shivers washed down my back. Xander Ramos was coming towards me from what had to be the most beautiful kitchen I’d ever seen.
