Lie Down with Dogs (6 page)

The voice was right, but what the hell. “Diode?”

The cat arched his back with a purr. “Who else would it be?”

After recovering from the shock, I had to admit it was a neat trick. “How did you pull this off?”

“You didn’t think all that late-night prowling was for nothing, did you?”

“You’re a tomcat.” A jumbo-sized one. “I figured you were out...catting around.”

“Not hardly.” His whiskers flexed. “A witch lives three blocks over to the east. She spelled the leather for me after the guards informed me of your travel plans. I, of course, will be accompanying you.”

Mai whimpered, no doubt imagining those needle-like claws piercing her leather seats, but I was all smiles. “Are you sure it was wise to trust her?”

His gaze dropped to my glove. Point taken. I had used a witch to charm the leather of my glove, but it was necessary. My magic killed people, and I wasn’t as proficient at wielding it as I would like to be. Yet. My glove was an extra layer of protection for me—and everyone I came into contact with.

“Okay, well.” I glanced around the room. “I guess the gang’s all here.”

Everyone except Shaw.

“Cool.” Mai gathered her things and bolted out the door. “Last one to the car is a rotten egg.”

Diode looked alarmed. “What?”

“Relax.” I chuckled. “It’s just something people say.”

He licked a front paw and smoothed the fur on his face. “People are, quite frankly, ridiculous.”

“No argument here.” I stepped outside, waiting on Diode to saunter out into the hall, trusting the guards had made their exit while Puss in Boots was expressing his catty superiority. Once he strutted past me, I locked up the apartment, grabbed my bags and followed Mai down to the parking lot. When I got there, I pretended not to notice the blue-black truck idling discreetly behind a row of SUVs. Or the fact its driver stared a hole through my thin tank top while I crossed the blacktop and headed for Mai’s tiny sports car.

If she noticed the truck—or its ogling driver—she didn’t mention it. I felt certain she hadn’t, given the fact she wasn’t throwing things or stomping her feet. Feeling certain my secret would last through breakfast, I helped Mai finish loading the car and then climbed in and held on tight.

M
ai wasn’t a bad driver, exactly. Her foot just had a high lead content. I also suspected she was colorblind, which explained why she had blown through four red lights and counting.

While she continued shattering traffic laws at record speeds, I braced my right hand on the dash and pinned Diode to my chest with my left arm. His fur stood on end, and his piercing claws sank into my neck and chest.

Breakfast had been a bad idea. Coffee sloshed in my stomach and the muffin... Oh, the muffin.

“You’re not going to hurl, are you?” Mai decelerated by several precious miles per hour.

“My stomach hasn’t decided yet,” I admitted.

Diode’s words were muffled against my shirt.

Mai reached over and patted his back. “I think he said he can’t breathe.”

I eased my grip, and sure enough, Diode shot from my arms, panting as he hit the backseat.

“Sorry,” I called to his retreating tail.

He curled up on the floorboard on the blanket I brought for him and began moaning.

“Poor fur britches,” Mai said, not sounding sorry at all.

Then the hacking started.

Panic spiked her voice. “What is your cat doing back there?”

“It sounds like he’s getting carsick.” I exhaled slowly, trying to calm my own stomach. “This
is
his first time riding in a car.”

Flipping on her blinker, Mai jerked the wheel and cut off an SUV behind us to reach the side of the road. Emergency lights flashing, she pointed to the cat and then to the door. “Get him out
now
.”

I hopped to it, gingerly lifting Diode and depositing him on the gravelly shoulder in time for him to toss his Meow Mix. He let me help him back onto the floorboard, where balled up in shadow to rest.

The car rocked when I climbed in and shut the door. I grimaced at Mai as I fastened my seat belt. “You’re lucky I’m not a sympathetic vomiter.”

Punching the gas, she spun us back onto the interstate. “Should I roll down a window so you can stick your head out and—?
Ouch.
”

“Not funny.” I frogged her thigh, punching her leg a second time to get my point across.

“Damn it, that’s going to bruise,” she whined.

“You’ll live. I know you packed makeup,” I teased. “You’ve got concealer.”

“Which will clash with the tan I’ll be working on,” she grumbled.

A blast of classic rock music earned me a sharp look from Mai. Even Diode paused in his moaning.

“That would be me.” I pulled my cell from my bra. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s not Shaw.”

“I was actually thinking now that you’re a marshal, you should invest in a holster or belt clip for your phone.” She reached over and tugged on my bra and tank top straps until my breasts jiggled. “A padded cup is nice, but phones are expensive. Yours needs more protection than that scrap of foam.”

I looked down at my boobs. “Are you insulting my bra?”

“No.” She hummed. “Well, maybe. Would it kill you to upgrade from plain white cotton?”

“I have black too.” I even owned a nude-colored strapless number, so there.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to the road. “Are you answering that or what?”

“Yeah, yeah.” The display flashed the same number as it had this morning. “Hello?”

“I have decided that I will come to you, in Florida.”

I spluttered. “How did you—?”

“How is not important. This is an urgent matter, and it demands an expedient resolution.”

“Look, I don’t know what your deal is, buddy, or what it is you think you owe me, but I can promise you the only way we’re meeting up is on conclave grounds with magistrates watching.”

Mai cut her eyes toward the phone. “Everything okay, Tee?”

“I have to go,” I told the caller. “Don’t dial this number again.”

“You have chosen to make this difficult,” he said. “Be that as it may, I will be seeing you soon.”

He hung up on me. Again.

I stared at the phone. “Maybe I picked a bad time to go on vacation.”

“Who was that?”

“I don’t know.” I recapped our first phone conversation while she nodded along.

“That’s weird, even for you.”

“Hey
.
”

“Sorry, Tee, but you attract headcases.”

I arched a brow. “Is that your professional opinion?”

Mai was an intern with a counselor for displaced fae youth, kids without familial support who were struggling to adjust to their manifesting powers. Most of which activated around the time the kids hit puberty, a bad time to mix volatile hormones with burgeoning magical abilities.

All too often young fae harmed themselves or others without the proper guidance. I was glad Mai would be there to help them sort through those feelings before they resulted in injuries. Between counseling and a private fae school system, fewer kids fell through the cracks like I had, and I was glad they wouldn’t carry the same scars I did.

She told me once that my messed-up childhood had inspired her career choice.

I guess being called an inspiration was better than being labeled a cautionary tale.

Mai surprised me by answering, “Actually, yes, it is.”

“I’ll be sure to mention that to Shaw the next time I see him.”

“Go right ahead.” Her tone chilled. “He’s a prime example.”

“You used to think he was hot,” I pointed out. “In fact, you encouraged me to pursue him.”

“I wanted you to get him out of your system.” Her palms smacked the steering wheel. “I didn’t expect you to be stuck with that—that
parasite
for the rest of your natural life. Believe me, if I had a time machine, I would crank the dial for two years ago. I would stand next to Mable, shake a finger at you and lecture you on the dangers of dating incubi, no matter how sexy they are at first glance.”

Mable had never been a fan of my romantic fascination with Shaw, but she respected him.

“He’s a good marshal.” I amended, “He’s a good guy.”

“As a marshal, I can’t dispute his record or his work ethic.” She exhaled. “As a guy? He sucks.”

I would have laughed if she hadn’t been serious. “Nobody’s perfect.”

The car swerved. “Since when are you defending him?”

“
I
broke
him
, Mai.” I tightened my seat belt. “Not the other way around.”

Her answer was a grumbled, “Yeah, yeah.”

“Enough talk about Shaw.” The last thing I needed was to slip up and for her to figure out he was tagging along on our vacation. “Enough about the creeper on the phone too. I have Diode. I have the guards. Whatever that guy wants from me, he’ll have to go through conclave channels to get it.”

A small frown puckered her forehead, but she finally nodded. “New topic.”

Eager to turn the tables, I grinned at her. “I met a nice goblin at work last week.”

Personally, I blamed the eighties flick
Labyrinth
for her goblin fixation. She burned through available goblin men like wild faefire, but unless I met their king and he was a dead ringer for Jareth, I wasn’t interested.

She groaned, unable to resist. “Met as in arrested?”

“Well...”

No one was perfect.

––––––––

S
ixteen hours, many drive-thrus and several rest station potty breaks later, my hands were cramped into arthritic claws and my elbows ached from how I had wedged my arms against the dash. I had given up on taking protective measures fifty or so miles back and made myself as comfortable as I was likely to get.

Darkness falling helped. The bright lights from passing cars—or should I say cars Mai zipped past?—did not. The landscape blurred less with night cloaking the world beyond the windshield. Even Diode had forgiven my earlier fervor and climbed back into my lap to be admired.

He practiced his meowing each time I got distracted.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, resuming his petting.

“Someone’s getting excited,” Mai singsonged. “Can you believe how huge these buildings are?”

“They’re massive.” Some reminded me of the skyscrapers in Dallas. Galveston Island had been cluttered with them, too, but those memories were faded. I whistled when we drove past a complex so tall I had to crane my neck to see the aircraft warning lights flashing at the top. “Jon’s skulk must be loaded.”

“Mom asked for a credit report and a bank statement before he was allowed to date my sister.”

“Are you serious?” I blurted before my brain caught up to my mouth. “Of course you are.”

“Mom is Mom,” she said with a shrug.

“I hear you.”

We drove until a crosswalk stopped us. Teen girls wielding unfastened glow necklaces as whips giggled and swatted at boys who chased them across the asphalt to a boardwalk starting at the opposite curb. A leaning sign staked into the sand read
Public Beach
.

Between the two buildings on either side of the narrow walkway was my first real glimpse of the ocean in years. My throat squeezed tight at all that open sky dotted with winking stars, the black water rippling and crashing under the moon.

Mai surprised me by proving she did know how to decelerate. “What’s with that face?”

I poked her side. “The face you shouldn’t be able to see because it’s dark and you’re driving?”

“It’s called peripheral vision. Your bottom lip is sticking out so far it could be a speed bump.”

I traced the glass over a cresting wave with my fingertip. “It reminds me of home.”

Mom and I had lived in Galveston, Texas until my fae heritage reared its ugly head.

“Now that you’re a marshal,” she said, “maybe you’ll get to go back some day.”

“Maybe.” I had been back, sort of. When Rook had Mom kidnapped, a fae in his employ, Bháin, had cast an illusion to keep her entertained. She was still lounging in her make-believe Galveston the day I arrived to bring her home. Seeing that familiar place again after so long... It was kind of nice.

“You know I meant to visit, right?”

I snorted. “Scared you might lose me?”

“Yeah,” she said seriously. “I am.”

Galveston might as well have been on the moon, and we both knew it. I was moving to Faerie in a few short months. Earthly accommodations wouldn’t matter then. Once I was crowned, I would be bound to that realm for one hundred years. No more visits to this one. That meant no more Mai, Shaw...or Mom.

“Sorry.” Mai drummed her fingers on the wheel. “I forgot the plan. No more talk of the future. Deal?”

“Deal.” I sighed with relief. I didn’t want her sad—I didn’t want to
be
sad—not when we had a perfect week planned.

Mai leaned forward, lips moving as she read signs. “Help me look for— Oh! I see it. Hold on.”

She jerked the wheel to the left, and my head bounced off the glass. “Gah.
Mai.
”

Diode, whose claws anchored him to my lap, peered up at me. “Are you all right?”

“I’m lucky her hard head didn’t shatter the window.” Mai cut the wheel again, gentler this time, and nosed up to the curb to park in front of the condo.

“Your concern for my well-being is, as always, touching.”

“Let me take a look.” She cupped my cheeks and pulled my head down. “It’s not even irritated.”

“That makes one thing that isn’t,” I grumbled.

“Sheesh. I’m sorry.” She released me. “It’s not like you haven’t been brain-damaged before.”

There were times in my line of work, after subduing particularly brutal fae, that my brain turned as shaky as gelatin and almost as cognizant. My rock-hard noggin had taken a beating, several in fact. That didn’t mean I wanted my best friend to finish me off with a glass sliver to the gray matter.

“Let’s just go.” I grabbed the door handle. “I’m cranky from being trapped in the car for so long.”

...with a driver who thinks stop signs are suggestions and red lights are decorative accents.

Outside, the air was briny and warm. A cool breeze off the water sliced through the humidity. Spotlights illuminated the front of the condo, making me squint after our late-night ride.