By Fairy Means or Foul: A Starfig Investigations Novel

by Meghan Maslow

  “It’s not my dick that’s the problem.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “You”—I poked him in the chest—“are purposely being difficult. If you must know, it’s my, well, my dragon. It likes you. We like you.”

  “You talk about your dragon as a separate being? That’s a little freaky.” He didn’t smirk, though he might as well have.

  “I know it’s weird, but since I can’t shift, it feels that way. Like I’m fragmented. I don’t know if you can understand what I mean.”

  “I’m not sure I do either. I’ll take your word for it.” He picked up a pillow and played with the frayed edges. “So you and your dragon like me?”

  “Yes.”

  “And that’s a problem?”

  “Exactly.”

  “So we can’t have sex?”

  “Right.”

  “You realize that makes no sense, right?”

  I sighed. Time for a little honesty.

  “I think maybe Brandsome’s magic affected me in some unintended ways.”

  “Meaning?”

  “My dragon wants to mate you.”

  His eyes widened and his nostrils flared. He didn’t attempt to move away, though.

  “D-Do dragons mate humans?”

  “Not that I’m aware. Like I said, I think something in Brandsome’s magic reacted to something in me. I’m not like any other creature and most of the time that’s been a blessing, but in this instance, maybe it affected me in an odd way.”

  He nodded, his face resigned. “So, it’s not really me you’re attracted to, it’s Brandsome’s magic.”

  “Yes. I mean, no. Sort of.” I ran a hand through my hair. “Let me try that again. I would be attracted to you regardless of Brandsome’s magic. That I’m sure of. But the urge to mate you? That’s got to be because of Brandsome. I think he’s somehow confused my dragon, that’s all. That’s why we can’t do this.” I pointed between us. “Because if I kiss you, I’ll want to fuck you. And if I fuck you, I’m afraid I’ll bite you. You think indentured servitude lasts a long time, try being mated to a dragon. Gives a whole new meaning on the term ‘infinite.’”

  “Wow.” Quinn continued to pluck at the worn edges of his pillow.

  “Yeah.”

  Then he socked me with the damn pillow.

  “Would you stop hitting me?” I snarled.

  So he did it again. When he went to do it a third time, I yanked the pillow out of his hands and sent it sailing across the room. He had the nerve to chuckle.

  “Do you have a death wish or something, human?”

  “You do realize we don’t have to sleep together, right? You could have just told me what was up at the beginning and avoided all this drama.”

  “I was taken off guard. It’s not every day my dragon urges me to mate someone. It’s never happened before.” Did I sound a tad defensive? Yeah, well, it was true. It’d really thrown me.

  His eyes went soft, giving me a look I wasn’t used to receiving, and my chest suddenly felt constricted.

  “I shouldn’t have teased you about it.”

  I grumbled a little. He seemed to know it was all for show. His palm slid to my cheek and I couldn’t resist. I leaned in, enjoying his touch. I’d never felt this urge with anyone before, so you think I’d be freaked out. And I was. Except it felt so good, his hand warm and smooth against the scritch of my stubble. My eyes squeezed shut from the sheer pleasure. I hadn’t even realized touch could be so amazing. Considering the number of bed partners I had in the past, I wasn’t sure whether it was astounding or pathetic. Probably both.

  “You’re so gorgeous inside and out. I’d be lucky to be mated to you, Twig.”

  My eyes snapped open and I tensed. I didn’t need a mate, especially one taken because of some fucked up unicorn magic gone awry.

  “Uh, not that I want that,” Quinn stammered. “I-I just meant . . . I mean, I was trying to compliment you.” His cheeks flamed red again.

  I liked when he blushed. It made him look so young and innocent. Not that Quinn was old or anything. And he certainly wasn’t any more debauched than any other fairy, fae, or sprite I’d met. Why a contract made a difference in that regard seemed silly, but that could be my no nonsense dragon half speaking. Besides, I was kind of diggin’ on humans. Or one human, to be exact.

  A laugh rumbled in my chest and against my better judgment I settled him onto my lap with his back to me, my chin resting on the top of his head, my arms around his middle. He snuggled in, but not before gently elbowing me in the stomach.

  “It’s not funny,” he groused.

  “It is.”

  We stayed like that until his body relaxed and sleep claimed him. I couldn’t help but admire his trusting expression as I laid him down on the bed. He didn’t stir other than to turn into me. Should I sleep on the floor? It would be safer for us both.

  Fuck it.

  I lay next to him, with as much room as possible between us. As long as we weren’t touching I was sure it would be fine. My dragon rumbled in agreement. Whatever fairy I had in me also seemed pleased.

  12

  The last time I woke to a blowjob, I’d been attending an incubus party in the demon realm. At the time, I was annoyed to be jostled from sleep, my dick chapped from all the sex the night before.

  Incubi and succubi were reasonably okay as far as demons went. Other than sucking out all your vital essence until you were nothing but a dry husk of yourself, that is. But evidently, half-dragons had a lot of essence to give. And I sure gave it freely that night. Blinking my eyes open, I tried to remember that particular incubus’s face—since they were demons they’d refused to give names as that would give me power over them—but there’d been too many that evening for any of them to have stood out.

  Not so this morning. I knew exactly whose lips wrapped around my cock and I heartily approved. My legs spread farther apart to better accommodate Quinn and his magical mouth. I groaned and forced the sleep from my eyes.

  Quinn sealed his lips tight over my dick as he slid up and down in a maddening rhythm. When our eyes met, he hummed around my cock, his lips stretched over my substantial girth, and I almost came right there. Debauched, he was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.

  My fingers slid through his hair, tugging, but not controlling his movements in any way. Keeping my hips still was more of a challenge, the urge to thrust into his hot mouth a temptation I could barely resist.

  Quinn boasted a talented mouth, his gag reflex almost non-existent. Still, he couldn’t take me all the way, though he gave it a good try. A hand wrapped around my spit-slick base, moving in time with his mouth, the stimulation maddening. A tingling spread through my limbs and my balls drew tight to my body, aching for release. I didn’t want it to be over so quickly.

  When Quinn pulled off with a pop, he grinned, confident in his skills. He swirled his agile tongue around my tip and flicked my slit. My breath stuttered. Swollen lips, a wicked smile, and an attitude to match were not bad things to wake up to in the morning.

  As he slowly slid back down, I growled. He hummed in response, the vibrations going straight to my balls. My heart thrummed with each caress of his tongue and I struggled to draw enough breath, his touch licking my body with fire.

  “Quinn, I’m going to come.” Only fair I warn him if he wanted to pull off. Tugging lightly at his hair, I stiffened, trying to hold back, the blood pounding through my veins and pooling in my groin.

  Instead of releasing my prick, he sunk down as low as he was able and swallowed. His throat squeezing around my cockhead sent me over the edge. My vision whited out as my hips thrust into his wet heat. I cried out, my body convulsing as pleasure like I’d never experienced zinged under my skin and sunk into my bones. Shuddering, I unloaded in his mouth.

  Quinn swallowed several times, his eyes growing comically wide with the amount. A small trail of come dribbled down his chin and was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.

  When I was
thoroughly spent, I collapsed back onto the mattress, my breath coming in ragged gasps. I’d been on the receiving end of a lot of blowjobs, but his lit me up like an overheated phoenix. My body pulsed with satisfaction and my emotions—something I didn’t usually associate with fooling around—crackled with an unfamiliar warmth.

  Quinn laid his head on my thigh, his breath ghosting over my softening cock. I continued to stroke his hair, enjoying the feel of the silky strands against my fingers. A soft kiss against my thigh was my undoing. So gentle I almost didn’t feel it. Almost.

  I shuddered as though he’d taken a lash to me. And in a way, he had. Keeping my grip tender, I tugged at his hair until he rose and settled on my chest.

  “Good morning,” I said, my lips twisted into the semblance of a grin.

  An affectionate smile greeted me back, his eyes sparkling.

  “Morning.”

  His hard-on pressed into my abs. Rolling us so I ended up on top, I pressed him into the mattress, the urge to mate him growing strong once more. Before I gave into the desire, I slid down his body until I hovered over his groin. It only took me a moment to loosen the laces on his breeches before sliding them off his hips and down his well-muscled legs.

  “Mmm, what do we have here?” His cock bobbed out, red and dripping with precome. For a human, he had nothing to be ashamed of and I licked a stripe from his base to his tip, enjoying the catch of his breath, the way his body stiffened beneath me.

  “You don’t need to—”

  “It’s my pleasure,” I practically purred while using my tongue to taunt him, even dragging my teeth over his head lightly. Just enough to tease. Quinn shuddered and a filthy curse slipped from his lips.

  “No one usually bothers—”

  “I do.” I took just the tip of his dick into my mouth and sucked. Quinn bucked, his hands spearing through my hair in a harsh grip. I loved every second of it. I encouraged him to thrust into my mouth, urged him to fuck me fast and hard. I wanted to feel it, feel him chapping my throat.

  He met my eyes again, a question in his. I moaned, letting him know what I wanted. He wavered and his hips stilled.

  I pulled off with a pop.

  “Quinn, I want this. I can tell you do, too.”

  “I’m not allowed. . . .”

  “You are with me.”

  After scanning my face for any trace of a lie, he gripped my hair again, just this side of painful. Mmm. I rumbled, letting him know I approved. He yanked me back onto his cock and if I hadn’t just come I would have lost it with that move. I opened wide, taking him to the back of my throat. His hips ground against my face as he held me on his dick, my breath temporarily cut off. I took everything he gave me, relished his control.

  He wasn’t shy or hesitant now that he recognized my own desire to have him use me. His fist held my hair in an iron grip and he yanked me up, breath rushing into my lungs before he shoved me back down.

  Normally, my dragon half wouldn’t allow anyone to dominate me. Now it purred from Quinn’s ministrations. We were both in accord on that one. When he rolled us over again so he lay on top, I arched my neck to take even more of him, my nose firmly against his groin.

  He pistoned in and out, my abused mouth wrapped tightly around him and providing suction as I hollowed my cheeks. His hips stuttered and I increased the pressure.

  After another few thrusts, he threw his head back and roared. My dragon approved, especially when his seed filled my mouth. I swallowed most of it, keeping just enough so that when he shuddered and rolled off me, I sprung up and locked our lips together, feeding it to him.

  He grunted, not expecting the tongue fucking, but after letting him use me, I needed to let him know I could give it as well as take it. His arms wrapped around my neck and we rocked together for a long moment.

  I was hard again, but more importantly my fangs had dropped. Pulling away so I wouldn’t accidentally hurt him, I rested our foreheads together, our harsh breaths mingling.

  “Wow,” he said.

  I couldn’t agree more. I was in so much trouble.

  13

  After a sparse breakfast on deck with Pie, Quinn and I stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the rail watching the edge of the desert rapidly approach. We’d shaved more than a day off our travel time.

  A small outpost, not much more than a few ramshackle buildings, lay in front of us.

  “Land, ho,” Pie called from the lookout.

  “No kidding.” I shook my head good naturedly. The Dishonorable Princess slowed to a stop, the anchor dropping and the sails deflating. I squeezed Quinn’s shoulder as we turned to say goodbye to Pie.

  “Safe journeys to ye,” he said, his eyes glassy. “I enjoyed having company, I did. Ye made this bird’s days a little less lonely.”

  “We’ll come back,” Quinn vowed. “I know there has to be some way to help you.”

  “Quinn, don’t promise something you can’t be sure—”

  “Don’t concern yerself, Mr. Quinn. I’ve waited one lifetime to see me Captain again and I’ll probably be waitin’ more. Ye just take care of yerself. I heard strange things about that thar sprite. Ugly things. Even for a salty old pirate like me.”

  Quinn and I walked down the gangplank. As we waved to Pie, Quinn called back, “I’ll look in my books and let you know if I find anything.”

  The Dishonorable Princess weighed anchor and we watched as the galleon’s sails caught wind that only the ship could feel and sailed off through the desert. Soon it disappeared over a dune.

  “Do you really think there will be anything in your books?” I asked.

  Quinn shrugged. “I really don’t know. I didn’t study phantasmalogy in school, but I knew a couple witches who were said to be able to trap and expel ghosts.”

  “Huh.”

  “Nothing in fairy magic that you know of?”

  “No, but that doesn’t say much. I didn’t come to my father’s people until I was a teenager, so I didn’t even try using it until the Elder. Besides, I don’t seem to have a lot of fairy magic.”

  “So all fairies have rudimentary magic and then each family has something specific to that lineage, right?”

  “Close enough.”

  We began walking toward the small outpost where we’d replenish our supplies. We could both use a hot meal and a couple large steins of water. By my calculations we were a half day’s journey to Rottingvale Quagmire. Best to start out at first light tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we wandered by a rickety sign proclaiming, “Hammershore Outpost: A Livable Community.”

  I rolled my eyes. If you needed to announce it, chances are it wasn’t. Not that Lighthelm’s slogan proved any better—Lighthelm: Always Turned On. Seriously, they needed to hire someone to work on this shit. Dragons were much more to the point and chose kickass names for their domiciles.

  “Why is the sign so high off the ground?” Quinn cricked his neck to get a better view. “They think we’re giants or something?”

  “Exactly.”

  He gave me the side-eye. “You’re joking, right?”

  “Nope.”

  He swallowed audibly. “So . . .”

  I shrugged, then started for the center of the outpost. I didn’t need to turn around to know Quinn followed, muttering about crazy PIs and their even crazier sidekicks. I grinned, but made sure I didn’t turn around so he could see it. He really was a funny human.

  We followed a poorly cleared path through tall grasses until we saw several ramshackle buildings ahead. Fortunately, we’d just be passing through this livable community.

  “Nice place,” Quinn deadpanned.

  “It’s livable,” I added.

  “That remains to be seen.”

  We continued through what had to be the center of the outpost, looking for a watering hole. It didn’t take us long. Another sign announced, “The Watering Hole and Inn.”

  “Creative folk.” I snorted, and then pushed through rickety swinging doors into a dimly lit saloon. An e
lderly cyclops barkeep shuffled down the counter toward us, setting down small pink doilies at each place along the way. Macramé hangings and weavings of cute Cerberus pups and adorable Pegasi foals littered every inch of wall space. Romance novels filled a large bookshelf near the bar. Not that I had a lot of time to look, but I did see a well-worn copy of Fifty Shades of Fae.

  “What’s with the grandma couture?” Quinn whispered from the side of his mouth. I shushed him when the cyclops came out from the bar to greet us.

  “You looking for a hot meal or just to quench your thirst?” The cyclops was at least twice my size. So, small for a giant. Scanning the room, I noticed we were by far the smallest creatures at the inn.

  “Both.”

  A group of giants sat at a nearby table taller than Quinn, their voices falling silent as we moved further into the interior. Unlike my fairy brethren, giants’ features were coarse, as if they were carved from a particularly soft stone that slowly wore away in the wind. The leaves—and in some cases whole branches—in their dreadlocked hair and beards gave them an unkempt, feral look, which probably served them well. The dainty gold-leaf tea cups in their hands undermined the impression just a bit. Not that I would tell them that.

  Many sets of beady eyes silently watched our trek to the bar. Several giants clutched knitting needles the size of swords, their skeins of pastel-colored yarn forgotten as they followed our progress. Another table held an ogre and a motley-skinned troll hotly debating cross-stitch techniques, all but ignoring our presence.

  I didn’t have to turn to Quinn to know he gawked at them. Giants and especially cyclopes hated cities, so were only seen in the most rural areas of the Elder. I’d had several dealings in the past with giants. While they looked fierce—and could be if attacked—the ones I met were more interested in being left alone than bothering anyone.

  I nodded toward the different tables, then purposely turned away from them.

  “Quinn, you need to look away,” I said under my breath. “They’ll see your staring as aggression.”

  “They’re staring at us,” Quinn hissed from the side of his mouth again.