Heroines and Hellions: a Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection

by Margo Bond Collins

  6

  Blaize

  “So what you’re telling me is that if your boyfriend Drake, Prince of the Autumn Fae court, fails to check in with his family in the next forty-eight hours, then the entire supernatural political structure of the fairy realm is going to break down?”

  “Pretty much.” Cass raised one eyebrow at me. Her expression would have been sardonic if she’d had the energy put into it. As it was, she just looked...blank. “Even better, that’ll probably spill over to our world, too.”

  Oh, great.

  “I don’t even know where to start,” I said, feeling as empty as her expression.

  But Cass was already up and moving toward her closet, opening the door to use it like a screen as she changed out of the yoga pants, tank top, and granny sweater she’d been in until now. “First, we need to see if we can track down the Alpha of the local werewolf pack. Isn’t that supposed to be your specialty?”

  “I don’t know how to negotiate with werewolves. I just track them down and chop their heads off.”

  She moved out of the closet, hopping on one foot as she strapped on a high-heeled sandal. “That’s your answer to everything, isn’t it? Kill first, sort out the details later.”

  “They’re monsters, Cass. That’s what we do.”

  She let her hair out of the clip holding it back and it fell in a long blonde wave past her shoulders. “Well, it’s not what we do today. Today we save fairies.” Snagging a purse off its hook on the back door, she slung it over her shoulder and opened the apartment door. “And if we have to, we negotiate with werewolves. You coming, or not?”

  Wolf and I were still in the middle of the apartment, staring at her with what I suspected were matching expressions of bemusement. With a blink, I moved and followed her out the door. She slammed it shut behind me, barely giving Wolf time to scoot out first.

  “Are you really wearing those shoes to go hunting?”

  “Yep. And I’m going to look great doing it.”

  I felt like a clod, clumping along behind her in my dusty boots, blue jeans, and plaid shirt, while Cass practically danced on the air beside me in her slim black pants, black leather jacket, and high-heeled sandals. The shoes were red on the bottom. I was pretty sure that meant something—like they were expensive.

  I bet her mattress was a hell of a lot more comfortable than the one in my van. It would have to be if four people were okay sleeping on it.

  She led me to the elevator, and I frowned. “You think it might be better for us to take the stairs?”

  “Feeling claustrophobic?” Cass pushed the call button.

  “No,” I said defensively. “Maybe. A little.” The door opened, and Wolf crowded into the elevator behind me until I turned to face forward, and then he sat down so close in front of me that his lupine butt landed on the toes of my boots. I nudged him and he flinched, but he didn’t move off me. I guess elevators made him as antsy as they made me.

  “Seriously,” I asked after a few seconds. “How do you stand being surrounded by this much steel all the time? Doesn’t the iron in the building bother you?” I was uncomfortable for her, and I didn’t react to iron like she did.

  My cousin’s quiet laugh was as light and airy as the rest of her. No wonder she dated fairies. They were probably the only ones who suited her. She was all light and air, the exact opposite of someone who might be weighed down by iron.

  The exact opposite of me.

  “It’s a matter of degree,” she said. “I’d be a lot more uncomfortable in that van of yours, stuck inside driving around all the time.” She flicked her eyes up when she gestured toward the elevator ceiling, as if encompassing the whole building. “Here, I’m able to choose where I live, find the buildings that have less iron in their construction. Or maybe just the ones that have more building materials between me and the metal. Either way, it works—if there’s enough insulation packed around it, I can hardly even tell it’s there.”

  I shook my head. “So it doesn’t bother you?”

  “I didn’t say that. I said I can hardly tell it’s there. Drake says…” Her voice went flat, as if she had managed to forget for just a moment the someone she loved was missing. “Drake says city fae develop a slight immunity to iron because they’re around it all the time. I guess I have, too.”

  Someone she loved was missing. For the first time since she’d told me about all her fairy boyfriends, it really hit me—this was the second time in less than six months that Cass had been faced with the possibility of never again seeing somebody she cared about. Even if I didn’t understand what she was doing with the fairy-court princes, that was real pain I heard in her voice, saw in her eyes. She was hurting over this guy’s disappearance.

  Shit, shit, shit. I wasn’t going to be able to half-ass this. Not if I wanted…

  Wanted what? To be able to call on Cass if I ever needed her? That was definitely part of it. But even thinking that made me feel cold and callous. Then what? Wanted to do right by my cousin?

  Possibly.

  It was good enough for now, anyway—it gave me a reason to keep going, to help her track down her Autumn Prince boyfriend.

  The elevator thumped to a halt on the first floor. When the door slid open, Wolf all but bounded out into the lobby, almost bowling over one of those little bulldogs we had seen earlier. It yapped at him, and he didn’t even stop long enough to do more than throw a growl over his shoulder. I heard a snicker and turned to find Cass almost laughing.

  Almost.

  “Okay,” she said. “Let’s see what we can find out.” She strode out the door but then stopped on the sidewalk, pulling out her phone.

  “What are you doing?” I asked. She seemed to know where we were going, so it seemed strange for her to suddenly stop and check her phone.

  “Calling a Lyft.” She tapped the screen a few more times and put the phone back in her purse with a tight grin. She may have been grim, but it felt like the old Cass was shining through somewhat. She always liked getting out there and doing stuff.

  “Lyft?”

  “Like a taxi.”

  “Why? I can drive.”

  Cassidy tossed a look at me like I was crazy. “We don’t have time—we’ll never find parking. This will be much quicker.” She peered down at Wolf. “I doubt the driver would be okay with a werewolf in his car. Then again, we are in San Francisco.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Another smile flitted across her face. “They’ve probably seen much stranger things.”

  7

  Cassidy

  The Lyft driver kept flicking his eyes in the rearview mirror to look at the werewolf in the back seat with Blaize. Usually they were more talkative than this, but this one was oddly quiet, like he was afraid to ask.

  To be honest, in his shoes, I would be, too. But, like I said, this was San Francisco. He must have seen far weirder things. Surely.

  “There’s a bar in SoMa where we should be able to get some information,” I explained from the front passenger seat. I left out the crucial parts that would take the driver from thinking we were strange to throwing us in the looney bin.

  Blaize watched the buildings go by as we started and stopped our way down Market Street. All the people walking around, the cars, the homeless people holding up signs at every light.

  For someone who roams in the middle of nowhere, San Francisco must be overstimulating, I thought.

  “Reminds me a little of Vegas,” she said. “Less shiny, though.”

  I winced inwardly at my moment of urban prejudice. Right. Just because she preferred hunting in the wilds of the Wild West didn’t mean she never hit cities.

  “I do hate driving in cities,” she murmured tiredly. “Too much traffic and honking.”

  The Lyft driver snorted in agreement.

  “I don’t even own a car here,” I said. “Parking in my building is $425 a month.”

  Blaize’s mouth opened, then closed shut as she thought better of it. �
�Suddenly, my little mattress doesn’t seem that bad,” she muttered, looking out the window again.

  The Lyft driver pulled over to the curb in front of the bar on Folsom Street, and I thanked him as we made our way out of the car.

  His eyes flicked to Wolf again, and he licked his lips nervously. “No problem.”

  And he sped away.

  “Definitely easier than finding a parking garage,” Blaize mused, watching him leave.

  “Especially in SoMa,” I agreed.

  Blaize looked at the bar, which had a flickering neon sign. It looked rundown, like no one had bothered touching it up in decades.

  “The Moon Moon?” she asked incredulously. “We’re going to The Moon Moon?”

  Yep, that was the name of the bar. Someone in the pack must have gotten drunk and thought that was a good idea. They could have tried a little harder to be inconspicuous.

  Then again, you’re the one with three boyfriends.

  Hopefully I’d still have three boyfriends after all this. I shuddered to think what would happen to Orin’s and Avery’s homes if the Winter Court seized control of the Autumn Court. Kellan wouldn’t stop at just one.

  He’d try for all of them.

  “Who said werewolves were smart?” I sighed.

  Wolf let out a low bark, which I duly ignored. Blaize leaned over to remove the turquoise collar from Wolf’s neck as I strode up to the bouncer at the door. My nostrils flared as I watched him warily. This big man in a leather vest and chaps definitely looked like he belonged on Folsom street, but there was something feral in his eyes as he watched me.

  Another werewolf, I believed.

  I clutched my purse closer to me. Wolf hadn’t said anything—not that he did say anything in English—but I hoped this bouncer couldn’t sense my silver-tipped stakes in my bag. It was enough to cause damage, but the idea was that it was so minimal, it would only be threatening.

  The bouncer appraised me as I stepped up.

  “You don’t belong here,” he said gruffly. Like he thought I didn’t know this was a front for a werewolf pack.

  I cocked my head to the side. “And neither does a friend of mine, but you furries kidnapped him yesterday. And I want him back.”

  His eyes narrowed, and I defiantly held his stare. I sensed Blaize and Wolf come up behind me, and he averted his gaze, looking down at Wolf. Recognition flared in his expression. Whether it was because he knew Wolf personally or it was just because he saw we were with a werewolf, I had no idea.

  The bouncer looked at me again, smiling slightly. “I see you brought company.”

  Wolf snarled something, and the bouncer blinked, obviously understanding what he said. Never have I been so glad that fairies had a grasp of human language. I couldn’t imagine how irritating it must be for Blaize to battle monsters that mostly spoke in howls and snarls.

  “I see,” the bouncer said in response to Wolf. He leaned in the doorway, partially obscured. Blaize looked at me, raising an eyebrow in an unspoken question, but all I could do was shrug.

  Wolf must have said something to get the bouncer talking.

  I could see him gesturing to someone out of sight and speaking in tones too low for my human ears to pick up, but after about thirty seconds, he came back out, scrutinizing us again with fresh eyes.

  “The pack leader will speak to you,” he said, “Cassidy Irons and Blaize Silver.”

  To both Blaize’s and my credit, we kept the surprise from our faces as he stepped aside and let us into the answering darkness inside.

  “You have some explaining to do,” Blaize muttered to Wolf. The beast just had a dopey grin on his face as we walked into the wide, open space.

  The Moon Moon was dark inside, and, like the outside, looked like it needed some desperate updating. There was a bar to one side, where they were serving patrons, while booths lined the other wall, where people—werewolves, mostly, though there were some other supernatural creatures, too—lounged with their drinks, chatting with each other. Heavy metal music blasted through speakers that had blown a long time ago, setting my teeth on edge.

  Even the floor was sticky, and I already regretted wearing my nice shoes here. Who knew was I was walking in?

  Don’t focus on that.

  Members in their wolf forms walked around, giving us the evil eye as we entered. I never felt more human than I did now. We were lambs walking into a wolves’ den.

  Think about Drake, think about Drake.

  “Cassidy Irons and Blaize Silver?”

  I turned my attention to a waifish young girl who couldn’t have been older than eighteen. She wore a tight mini skirt and a pair of costume wolf ears, along with some furry mittens.

  Were they even trying to hide from the human world?

  “That’s us,” Blaize said, when I didn’t answer fast enough. “We’re here to see the pack leader. Ask a few questions.”

  “She’s been expecting you,” the girl said with a giggle. “In fact, I think she was excited!”

  “Excited?” I echoed.

  She nodded vigorously. “Oh yeah. She needs your help.”

  Blaize frowned.

  “Our help?” Incredulity laced my voice. “Look, we’re here because you guys took my boyfriend. A fairy about yay high?” I indicated Drake’s height with my hand, and my heart twisted at his absence.

  “We didn’t take him.”

  It wasn’t the girl who spoke, but an older woman sitting in a round booth. There was a ruggedness to her, like she had to rein in her feral side. Her keen eyes raked over us, and her lips pressed into a grim smile.

  Under different circumstances, I expected she and Blaize would be good friends. They both had that wild look about them.

  “Who did, then?” I crossed my arms.

  She gestured for us to join her. “Sit.”

  “We’re not dogs,” I said icily.

  She smirked. “No, you’re not. Just bitches.”

  Nice to know we made a good impression.

  “My name is Sierra,” the woman said. “I’m the pack leader here.”

  “I’m…”

  “You’re Cassidy Irons,” she said with a nod, cutting me off. “And you’re Blaize Silver. Your reputations have preceded you.”

  “Our good reputations, I hope,” I said.

  The woman just smiled, not answering. Finally, she patted the table. “Now that introductions have been done, will you kindly sit with me so we can discuss the matter at hand? I assume you want your boyfriend back.”

  I glanced at my cousin, who nodded in confirmation, and we slipped into the booth, me on one side watching the entrance and Blaize on the other to watch any attackers coming from that direction.

  Just like old times. I would have felt better if Gracie were still here to keep an eye on the woman—the three of us would have each other’s backs.

  Now it was just Blaize and me. Well, and Wolf. To be fair, he was watching the woman. I just didn’t trust him still.

  I swallowed back the lump in my throat. “If you didn’t take him, who took Drake?”

  Sierra regarded Blaize and me before answering. “A pack further south. Near Half Moon Bay.”

  I knew of the place, a little hippy town about forty minutes south of the city. It was a popular tourist attraction, and it was a beautiful place nestled right off the Pacific Ocean. Of course werewolves would choose to roam there.

  “But it wasn’t their fault,” Sierra insisted.

  “How was it not their fault?” Blaize asked quickly.

  “They’re not themselves. They’re being...controlled...by an outside force.” I could tell from her tone that there was more to it. And that she was almost embarrassed by it.

  Maybe it was mortifying for a creature as proud as a werewolf to be controlled by a fairy. But smoke and mirrors wouldn’t go very far here.

  “Who’s controlling them?” I asked.

  A pained expression crossed Sierra’s face, and I knew I struck a nerve. “He is.”


  “He?”

  “The Winter Fairy King.”

  So I had been right. I exchanged an uneasy glance with Blaize.

  “I thought werewolves and fairies didn’t get along,” Blaize said carefully, clasping her hands on the table. In all honesty, I wouldn’t touch that table with ten-foot pole, but to each her own.

  “We don’t, not normally,” Sierra amended quickly. “But he’s doing something to compel our kind. Something to make us go against our better judgment. Something that makes us act out.”

  “So it’s not werewolves who wanted to get of Drake?” I asked. “You’re sure?”

  She nodded. “We’re very familiar with the fae and while we have our differences, we’d never do anything to jeopardize our truce here.”

  A truce. A similar truce had kept the fairy courts at peace for centuries. Until now.

  I clenched my hands underneath the table, trying to calm my racing heart.

  Sierra could be lying, leading us into a trap. After all, if Blaize and I were killed, that would be one less problem for werewolves—at least until Uncle Ronnie and the next Irons and Silver heirs came looking for payback. But looking at Sierra, I could see that there was an earnestness to her manners—almost a desperation for us to believe her. She knew what would happen if I lost Drake forever. She knew what was at stake.

  “So,” I said, clearing my throat. “They’re in Half Moon Bay?”

  8

  Blaize

  “As much as I hate to say it, we’re going to have to take your van,” Cassidy said as we emerged from The Moon Moon. I still couldn’t believe that werewolves would call it that, but then again, I never believed that I’d be leading a werewolf around in a leash. “Sierra told us that we’re going to have to go to Purisima Creek, and I doubt any drivers will want to take us out that way. Lots of woods and mountains.”

  “Makes sense,” I said. “Werewolves would set up somewhere where they could run in their shifter form.”