AN ONLOOKER IN the crowd caught my attention as I passed. He failed to notice me, as his focus was on the spectacle the harpies were creating with Nathan. A wolf. Was he here for the festival? I doubted it, given the way he now scanned the crowd as if looking for someone. I ducked behind a tall man and his gaggle of kids.
Nope, I was willing to bet the wolf was here for me. Brax had probably set him to tailing me in the event Caroline made contact, or I slipped my leash and went after her. For someone who had only met me a handful of times, he had a pretty accurate assessment of me.
I used an app on my phone to flag down one of those personal lift services that people looking to make extra money joined. They could use their personal cars to give people a ride to their next destination. Basically, a taxi but less formal. It was less expensive than a traditional taxi but still more money than I should be spending. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Without a ride, it would take me half the night to walk to my destination from here.
My luck seemed to have turned, because there was one circling the block. I clicked on the app and watched as it headed toward me. I kept walking in its direction, not wanting to stop and give either Nathan or the wolf an opportunity to catch me.
A minivan pulled up in the distance, and I checked the app. Looked like that was my ride. I exchanged pleasantries with the human and took a seat in the back, my stomach a bundle of nerves until we pulled away.
"Did you enjoy the festival?" the driver, a middle-aged man wearing glasses, asked while looking in the rear-view mirror.
I gave him a tight smile. "It was a little crowded for my tastes."
He nodded. "I hear that. As I get older, I find myself enjoying busy places less and less. Was the food good at least?"
"Very tasty." It had smelled tasty at least, and the number of people massed in front of those trucks would seem to suggest the same.
"You there alone?" he asked.
Evidently, this ride was going to be full of conversation.
"No, I was with friends but decided to come home early." I looked out the window, trying to show my desire for quiet.
He took the hint and went back to driving, the city passing by in a blur of lights.
My phone rang, the face lighting up with Liam's name. I sighed and clicked the button to silence it. That hadn't taken them long. It rang again almost immediately. I switched the ringer off, knowing from experience he was liable to blow up my phone until I gave in and answered.
The driver's eyes met mine in the mirror. "Your boyfriend seems determined to get in touch with you."
"What makes you think it's my boyfriend?"
His smile flashed. "Only a boyfriend would be that persistent."
I made a noncommittal sound, grateful when he fell silent, keeping his own counsel for the rest of the drive.
We pulled up in front of my apartment, and I hopped out of the back. "Thanks for the ride."
I didn't wait for an answer, ducking my head and making my way to my apartment. The stairs rattled under me as I took them two at a time. I figured I didn't have a lot of time before Liam or one of his guys got the idea to swing by here and check.
Normally, I would have avoided it for that reason, but there were a few supplies I needed before I started my hunt.
The door stuck as I unlocked it and tried to swing it open. I growled, setting my shoulder against it and shoving it open, stumbling inside and slamming it shut after me.
"Inara, Lowen. Out here, now." I headed for the bedroom, grabbing a backpack, a change of clothes, and my back-up weapon. It didn't have the silver ammo, but it was better than just relying on my fists.
"I see you managed to give your keepers the slip," Inara said, fluttering to take a seat on top of the lamp on my nightstand.
"Did you really think I couldn't?"
She shrugged her delicate shoulders. "I had my doubts about your abilities. You have not proven yourself especially adept up to now."
I shot her a glare, grabbing a disposable cell phone from the back of my dresser. I took the one I'd been carrying and removed the battery before slipping it into the bag. It might be a sign of paranoia to think Liam had the capability to track me through it, but the resources he had at his disposal had surprised me before. I didn't want to chance him interrupting at an unfortunate time. Best to be cautious rather than regretful.
"Ah, you're back," Lowen said as he flew into the room.
"Did neither of you think I'd be able to give them the slip?" I asked, straightening and glaring at the two pint-sized pests. Two blank stares met mine, neither expressing a confidence in my abilities. "Unbelievable." Again, I questioned what had inspired me to allow them to stay here.
"What did you want?" Inara asked, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "I have better things to do than watch you pull things out of your dresser."
"I need to know anything you know about Caroline and where she might have gone." I put the last item in the bag. That should be enough to tide me over for the next few days. I didn't really intend to evade Liam and Brax long-term—to do that, I'd have to leave the city—but I wanted to be prepared in case I was gone longer than I planned.
"What makes you think we know anything?" she asked.
I leveled a knowing gaze on her. I wasn't going to be sidetracked with her questions. "She left a note. I know you were awake when she left, and you're a nosy little pest who likes to keep an eye on things."
Inara gazed at me with narrowed eyes, the jeweled colors in her wings flickering slightly.
"Don't be mean, Inara," Lowen said reproachfully before she could say anything.
Inara met his eyes with a mutinous gaze. He wore a stubborn look of his own. Whatever she saw there must have convinced her because she sighed. "Fine, I won't play any games. Amusing though they might be."
My shoulders relaxed. Good. I didn't think I had time to go round and round with Inara, not before Liam or Brax showed up to tow me back.
"Did she say anything before she left?" I asked.
Inara shrugged. "She left her note and said something about calling in a favor."
I frowned. Who did she know that might owe her a favor that would get the wolves off her back?
"She also said to tell you things aren't as simple as you thought; that something you were involved in before made staying with the wolves impossible. Something about research you'd asked her to do for you," Lowen said, his big eyes concerned.
Of the two pixies, he was a little less hostile and more willing to live in harmony. Inara's mood changed as quickly as the phases of the moon. Sometimes she was cordial and others she rejoiced in making my life as difficult as possible. Her information might not be entirely trustworthy, if not for Lowen's endorsement.
A favor and research. It wasn't much, but it was more than I had a few minutes ago.
"Okay, thanks for the help. You might want to make yourself scarce over the next few hours. Both the vampires and the wolves will come back here, and I don't want either of you caught in the crossfire."
They shared a look and Lowen took off. Inara rose in the air, her wings a blur behind her. "We'll be fine. We have a place we can disappear to for a little bit."
I nodded, throwing my bag over my shoulder and heading for the front door and the bike that waited next to it. Several black Escalades pulled into the parking lot just as I opened the door.
"Shit." I slammed the door and backed away from it. Their reaction time was a lot faster than I’d given them credit for. Who knew that one little yearling could inspire this sort of response?
Inara hovered at my shoulder. "You won't be able to go out that way."
"I see that." My voice sarcastic.
This was bad. If they caught me, they would put me on lockdown, and the chances of escaping a second time were damn near zero.
There was no back way out of my place either. The window in my bedroom was easily seen from the parking lot, and the window in the bathroom was too small for me to fit through, let alone my bike.
"I can get you out of here," Inara offered.
I looked at her with suspicion and more than a little disbelief.
She gave me a dry smile. "Your witches aren't the only ones capable of magic."
Fair enough. I'd seen crazier things in the course of the last two years.
"It'll cost you," she said with a cheeky grin.
"What sort of cost?" I asked. The last time I negotiated with her, I ended up with two unwanted roommates, and this seemed like a much bigger deal.
"A favor."
"What kind of favor?" I asked. That was a pretty broad term and could mean anything.
A heavy hand pounded on my door. "Aileen! I know you're in there."
"Do you have a choice?" Inara asked.
I stared at the door. Not really. Not if I wanted to find Caroline.
"Break it down," I heard Liam order.
"It cannot hurt any around me, and cannot involve my death or someone else’s, or any body part being severed from my body." It said something about the kind of life I was leading that those were my conditions.
"Done."
"Can I bring the bike?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes and fluttered away, her wings a blur of color.
"Does that mean yes?" I whispered. There was movement beyond the door, the kind that said they were preparing to breach it.
I wheeled the bike after Inara, following her down the hall.
"In here," she said from my bathroom.
It took some doing, but in moments, the two pixies, my bike, and I were all crowded in my postage stamp bathroom with its peeling paint and cracked linoleum.
There was an explosion at the front door, then heavy boots, as the intruders moved into my apartment.
Inara said a long word—one that was lyrical and resounded through the air with a thunderclap. There was a moment where nothing happened, and then it was like the world spun and kept spinning. It halted with a sickening jolt, my stomach lurching painfully.
I blinked up at a white ceiling, my bike half on top of me, and the two pixies hovering above me with slightly disgusted looks on their faces. Better them, than the irate vampire who had been moments from breaching my bathroom.
The heavy thud of footsteps sounded from above us as I found myself in a bathroom much like the one we'd just left.
"Where are we?" I asked.
Both pixies shushed me. Lowen pointed upward and then curled his fingers and pointed to his ears.
"I don't know what you're trying to say," I told him. His movements made no sense and had nothing in common with the nonverbal communication I'd dealt with in the past.
"Be quiet, you idiot, or they'll hear you," Inara hissed, zooming close to bat me on the nose. I jerked back in reflex even though her tap hadn't really hurt. It was surprising, more than anything else.
I looked up, as indistinct voices drifted down from above us. I couldn't make out the words, but I thought one voice sounded very similar to Liam's. Pushing the bike off myself, I stood and stared around in disbelief before tilting my head to look up again.
She wouldn't have. The guilty look on Lowen's face and the crafty one on Inara's said she very much would. I dropped my head into my hands and groaned. How was I going to explain this to the current tenant? I wasn't an expert on such things, but I was pretty sure he was going to flip when he came in here to use the bathroom and found a woman with a bike standing here.
A flick to the top part of my ear sent pain shooting down it. I cradled the offended appendage and glared at the over-sized insect hovering next to me as she held one finger to her lip in the universal sign of hush. She, at least, understood nonverbal cues.
I nodded and bent a nasty glare her way before flipping down the lid to the toilet and taking a seat. If we were going to be stuck here for a while, I might as well make myself comfortable, or as comfortable as I was likely to get, sitting in a stranger's bathroom with two pixies.
I turned my eyes to the ceiling, listening as the boards above creaked and groaned as Liam and his men moved around. It took over an hour before they gave up; much longer than I thought necessary, given how tiny my place was. Did they think I was hiding in a dresser drawer or something?
Even after the apartment above fell silent, we remained motionless. Liam was a tricky vampire, and I wouldn't put it past him to have stationed someone in my apartment in case I turned up.
The bathroom door creaked open, startling me into standing. A tall man with shoulder-length copper hair and a face full of hard plains slouched against the door frame, observing us. He held a coffee mug in one hand and raised it to take a long slip, not taking his eyes off me.
I watched him with mouth slightly agape, speechless for once. It crossed my mind to say this wasn't what it looked like, but the shock of his presence had frozen me in place, stealing my words and making even a pretty lie impossible.
His lips quirked at some hidden amusement, and he straightened before turning and disappearing into the apartment. I stared at the door he'd left ajar for a long moment, fighting the urge to hyperventilate. I was pretty sure Liam or one of his guys were still hanging around somewhere, and a cop car showing up to arrest me would probably call their attention in a big way.
"Inara," I said in warning.
She fluttered out of the room without answering. Lowen rose from the sink, hovering before me. "It'll be fine. You'll see."
He followed the other pixie.
How could it be fine when they'd involved a normal in spook business?
Alone in the bathroom, I dropped my head into my hands and groaned, running the events of the night back in my head and trying to figure out a way I might have made this end differently. If only time machines were real, along with magic.
Well, it did nothing to postpone the inevitable. Might as well get this over.
I stood, grabbing the bike and maneuvering it carefully out of the bathroom, careful not to scratch the walls. Bad enough I was trespassing where I didn't belong, no need to damage their home as well.
The apartment had the same set up as mine, so it only took a few steps until I was in the kitchen and living room area. The man who'd found us in the bathroom stood in the middle of the space, coffee mug in his hand. Another man with eyes of the brightest green, the type you find in spring after weeks of rain, sat in an armchair near him. His hair was ash-blond, and his features delicate where the other man's were hard.
Inara and Lowen perched on a set of floating shelves that had been screwed into the wall, various types of potted plants dotting the space.
All eyes were on me. Again, I wished for a time machine or a way to gracefully exit without ever having to speak. Even now, my mind was blank.
"Your guests have mostly left," the blond said, his lips curving in a charming smile. "Although they have left sentries across the street who are on the lookout for your return."
I blinked at the statement and looked between the two again, noticing for the first time that Lowen and Inara had made no attempt to disguise their presence and that the two strangers did not look particularly surprised to see pixies flying about.
Obviously, they weren't human, but I didn't have enough information to guess what they might be. When the two men had moved in at the beginning of the summer, I remember suspecting they might be spooks but had somehow managed to forget in the months since. That wasn't like me, and I had to wonder if maybe I'd had a little help in forgetting.
I turned a troubled gaze on Inara and Lowen where they swung their tiny feet as they watched the room with curious eyes. Could pixies affect memory? It would make sense, given how they liked to play pranks on anything bigger than them. If they had messed with my memory, their time as my roommates was about to come to a very violent end. I had enough troubles without bringing a spotty memory into it.
"That's good to know," I finally said. It was the only thing I could think of, given the circumstances. Whether they were human or not, I was still an unexpected visitor, one who hadn't received permission before I'd appeared in their bathroom. If it'd been my apartment and one of them had appeared unannounced, I would have attacked before they even cleared the bathroom door and asked questions later.
There was another awkward silence.
"This is Cadell," the blond said, gesturing at his copper haired friend. "I am Niall."
"Aileen." I fidgeted with the bike handlebars, my eyes going between the two.
Niall and Cadell shared a look that was hard to interpret. Niall's gaze held meaning as Cadell shook his head slightly before he looked away, his lips tightening.
Niall gave me a small smile. "You're welcome to stay here until it’s safe to leave."
I stared at him for a moment, considering. The people watching my apartment were unlikely to leave anytime soon. I had a feeling they were there until I was located. It's how I would have done it, had I the resources and desire to find someone so I could lock them up.
"I doubt they're going anywhere. Is there a back way out of this place?" I asked.
Cadell moved, seeming to uncoil from where he stood. "Yes, the downstairs apartments all have a front and back door."
That's what I figured. The apartments on the bottom had a few more amenities than the ones on the top, which was why my little place was significantly cheaper.
I hesitated to follow him to the back door, curious about them and how they seemed to know Inara and Lowen—because they did know the two pixies. I was willing to say quite well, given the familiarity Inara and Lowen treated the space with.
As I turned, I noticed an item on their kitchen counter, a piece of paper bent in complicated folds until it formed a crane.
"Caroline was here," I said. She was the only person I knew who folded paper into weird shapes when she was stressed. She'd picked up the habit after reading an origami book when we were kids.
I turned back to Cadell and Niall, fire in my eyes and ready to do some damage. "Where is she?"
"For someone we did a favor for, you're awfully demanding," Cadell said, his chin tilted down and his body posed to intercept me should I offer violence.
I regarded them with narrow eyes. That was not the answer I was looking for.
"Inara?" My voice cracked through the air like a whip. She or Lowen were the ones responsible for this. There was no doubt in my mind.
"She got here the same way you did," Inara said after a pregnant pause and a look from Niall. He was clearly the one in charge.
"Why?"
Inara shrugged. "The wolves were at the door, and she was frantic to get out without them catching her. I just facilitated the escape."
I closed my eyes and dropped my head. I'd missed her by minutes when Brax pounded on my door. "When did she leave?"
"That night. A few hours after you did," Niall said.
I sighed. So close. If only I'd remained at home, I might know where she was right now, and this whole situation could be resolved.
"Did she tell you where she was going?" I asked, hoping, but knowing it was probably a futile question.
He shook his head. "Nothing beyond what your pixies have already told you."
"They're not mine," I said, shooting the two in question a dark look.
"It is considered an honor to have a pixie queen and her consort deem you an acceptable companion," Cadell said in a stiff voice.
I arched an eyebrow and shot Inara a considering look. "A pixie queen?"
Yeah, I could see that. She had the air of royalty and certainly treated others with the attitude I'd expect of a queen. And now I owed that queen a favor. When would I learn?
"How did Caroline seem when she left?" I asked, turning the conversation back to what was important at the moment. I'd worry about unnamed favors later. Perhaps when that favor was being called in.
"Upset. Anxious," Niall said. "Her control over her second form is still shaky. We gave her a glamor to help, but it will not last long and won’t keep her from the change in the event of strong emotions."
"Glamor? You're fey?" I didn't know much about the fey, but I seemed to remember that you weren't supposed to say thank you unless you wanted to owe a huge debt they could call in, however they wanted. I tried to remember if those words had crossed my lips tonight.
"Sidth," Cadell snapped, his eyes flashing dangerously.
I held up my hand. "Okay, sidth."
I didn't know the difference between fey and sidth or why he seemed to dislike the first term. I'd always thought fey covered all the categories in their brand of spook. Guess not. That was good to know, if only so I didn't step on any land mines with my customers in the future.
"Your information has been helpful," I said stiffly, trying to express my gratitude while not getting too close to the sentiment.
Niall's eyes flashed with amusement as he hid a small smile. Yeah, yeah, I bet it was funny watching the vampire turn into an awkward idiot because she didn't know the rules of etiquette for the sidth.
"Cadell will see you out so you can continue your search for the mac tire dorcha."
I nodded, letting Cadell pass before beginning the awkward maneuver of turning my bike around in the small place. Inara zipped over to land on my handlebars, perching on them as I wheeled the bike after Cadell. It took only moments to reach the back door.
Cadell went out first, stopping and peering around with eyes that saw much more than any human's. I suspected given the way he looked at the shadows that his night vision was as good as mine.
Inara lifted off the bike as I wheeled it outside. "Be careful with your friend, Aileen. She's different than you remember. Treat her with extreme caution."
For once, Inara seemed serious and without the chip on her shoulder that normally characterized our interactions. I gave her warning the respect it deserved and nodded. Lowen had similar reservations before; it was disturbing to hear her echo the sentiment.
Cadell contented himself with watching the shadows as I wheeled past.
“See you soon, vampire." The words were soft and had an edge of finality to them as the night engulfed me. Had I not been a vampire, I doubted I would have heard the send-off.