way he"d used a spell, especially a complex one.
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15
“From her description, it was a man, a human man.
And he didn"t smash the place until
after
he saw her,” Penn
added as they reached the elevator.
Ray ran a hand down his tie as he thought about the
vicious nature of the attack on a creature as lighthearted as
a fairy.
Penn frowned, more for the case than at him. “And
„You"re not supposed to be here!"?”
He knew what she was thinking. A comment like that
could mean any sort of prejudice at work here. Or just
simple surprise. Either way it was troubling.
At the thought, his stomach rumbled. He wasn"t in the
mood to raid the vending machine anymore, but something
sweet still lingered in his nose, on his tongue. Nasreen
probably.
Penn yawned again, yanking him back to the moment.
“We need to find out who has keys to that front door
and the last time the lock was changed. Ex-employees might
not know that Nasreen sometimes works there at night,
now.”
Ray hid a sigh at the thought of someone looking for a
quick hundred suddenly confronted with a witness and
overreacting. Just like that, burglary becomes attempted
murder. Of course, that only explained hitting Nasreen once.
Coming back to hit her again instead of fleeing…. Twice like
that would have been murder for a human. Could have been
murder for Nasreen too, if the elves who worked overnight in
the shoe shop across the street hadn"t noticed all the broken
glass and called 911.
“I don"t like it.”
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16
“When do you ever? Especially when a fairy is involved,
and we both know why that is, Ray.” Penn was more direct
when tired and generally in a bad mood without a full night"s
sleep. When the doors opened, they stepped inside the
elevator, crowding a young doctor into a corner. He checked
Penn out anyway, obviously, peering around Ray.
“You should hear her singing voice,” Ray informed the
man helpfully, taking her direct comments and aiming them
right back at her. Penn socked him in the arm. The doctor
stared harder at Penn, into those eyes, and then tried to
unobtrusively push himself further back into the corner.
Usually she just flashed her gun to get rid of guys who didn"t
interest her.
Ray sighed again. He and Penn weren"t threats, but of
course, people always believed the worst parts of the stories
about Beings and never looked at the truth right in front of
them. It had been decades since the Beings had come out
into the open. People should have been over this by now. His
shoulders fell.
“You should get some sleep, Ray,” Penn offered when
they were on the ground floor. “You don"t seem rested.” She
paused. “You never do, anymore.”
Ray nearly growled at her. She knew why that was, but
a tired Penn was a pushy Penn to the people she cared
about.
“I"ll see you tomorrow. We"ll re-canvass and see if that
jeweler on the other side of the street had security cameras.”
“Yes, Ray.” Penn made a face at him and then pulled
him back with a sleepy grin. “But about Zucchero, don"t you
think Cal would—”
“No. I don"t. Good
night
, Penelope.”
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17
Though of course he did. Cal would love that shop, and
they both knew it. Any fairy would, even a half-fairy would
have been walking on clouds in a store like that. The thought
had occurred to Ray the moment he"d gotten a good look
around the place. Cal had probably already been there, but
when Ray had lifted his head to inhale, the candy scents had
only been from the store"s supply and those had been tainted
with blood and a hint of red wine.
It had been two weeks since the last time he"d smelled—
seen—Cal, two weeks since the last full moon, and it was
taking its toll on him despite his best efforts.
As though that thought was on his face, Penn patted his
arm and then steered him toward the parking lot, to the car,
so they could both go home and try to snatch a few hours
rest.
IT TURNED out the jeweler was a dragon. Ray had never met
a dragon before, but he"d always been curious, as dragons
were the only other creatures to ever be repeatedly compared
to Weres. They were shifters in an entirely different way from
Penn.
When dealing with humans, and also the police, it
turned out, Huojin wore human skin, albeit scaly and tinged
with vibrant reds and golds that made him look like
burnished metal in the right light. He also smoked
constantly, and Ray had barely made it out without rubbing
his nose raw. But at least Huojin had voluntarily given them
his security footage from the night before, offering Ray an
opal to stay with him “a little longer.”
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18
Evidently, dragons found werewolves just as fascinating.
Ray had politely insisted he was on duty. Penn had snorted,
and not quietly. Ray had then nicely refrained from
commenting that, though many human laws had been
changed over the years to make allowances for Beings,
prostitution in all forms was still illegal in this state.
“If only you weren"t already taken.” Penn laughed again
as they came up from the viewing room, after spending
hours at the station watching the footage. Every time she
thought about the dragon, she started cracking up. Ray just
snarled at her, because he wasn"t taken, exactly, and she
damn well knew it. His snarl died as he reached his desk
and saw the glazed donut with sprinkles on a spread out
napkin waiting for him next to a paper cup full of coffee from
the cart outside the station.
He always got coffee from the cart because the mug he"d
brought to use at work had gone missing months ago, and
he"d never replaced it. He hadn"t a chance for any coffee this
morning, however, and looked around the bullpen, couldn"t
help it, but there wasn"t a trace of sparkle. Penn met his
stare.
“Don"t say it,” he warned her, coming around to stare at
his gift. He knew who had brought it. They both did, though
he nearly closed his eyes when he inhaled the sweet
lingering scent around his desk, like snickerdoodles and hot
chocolate on a cold day and
want/want/want
. His blood
started to pound, flushing his skin with heat.
He felt like a high schooler with a crush. Any minute
now he was going to need a notebook to hold in front of his
crotch. He sighed.
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19
“You idiot,” Penn said, but lightly, then headed over to
the printer, where the stills of their possible killer should be
coming up. “No wonder those two only wanted to talk to you
last night. There must be a mark all over you that says
you"re in the same boat, so to speak. Maybe a big sign over
your head that only fairies and the lovelorn can see that
says: This wolf is
taken
.” She sang the last word, her voice
ringing, before he threw a wadded up ball of paper at her.
She stuck out her tongue and then pulled their shots
from the printer to look over with him.
“I"m not taken.” He pulled at his tie. Penn didn"t even
look up.
“With a capital „T".”
Ray snatched the pictures out of her hands.
There were a few restaurants and two bars at the other
end of the pretty, pricey boulevard where Zucchero was
located, but most people had headed to the parking garage
at the end of their night. One man, obviously intoxicated,
had gone the other way, stumbling determinedly past
Huojin"s jewelry store just before two a.m. Right toward
Zucchero.
It was worth a shot. There had been no usable prints at
the scene, but the techs had agreed that the intruder had
used a key to get in. A dishtowel had been found next to the
register, possibly used to wipe down the surfaces, but with
all that broken glass, there had been blood everywhere,
tentatively typed as both Nasreen"s and then someone
human"s. That could be good, if the DNA test they"d ordered
ever got through the backlog and their perp happened to be
in the system.
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20
Penn muttered something dark about that remote
possibility. Ray agreed. They"d show the surveillance still to
Miss Conti and maybe get a name to the face. He grabbed
his gun from his desk so they could head out. Then he
paused, his stomach rumbling, as it nearly always did. He
snatched up the donut and ate it in one gulp, then took his
coffee too. Plain black, and very hot.
Very hot meant recent, and he inhaled again.
“It might have been a casual robbery, but that ended
once the guy saw Nasreen,” he commented once they were in
the car and on their way to that part of town. Sipping the
coffee put a smile on his face that didn"t belong there. He put
it in the cup holder.
“Some psychological insight would be useful here, even
if there wasn"t any magic involved. Perhaps we should ask
the captain if a consultant is available.” Penn was not being
nice, even if Ray secretly shared her belief that consultants
could be helpful.
“He"s already on a case,” he answered without thinking,
picking up his coffee again to feel the heat against his
fingertips. Then he froze, glancing sideways. “Are you sure
you aren"t part pixie?”
“Very sure. Mama got around, but not
that
much,” Penn
tossed back, though wincing immediately afterward. They
had a longstanding joke that every time she mentioned her
mother, her mother somehow sensed it through a magic
unknown to Beings and humans alike—a magic known only
to mothers who enjoyed making their children feel guilty.
Within hours of speaking her mother"s name, Penn"s mother
would call her. It happened every time, like clockwork.
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21
Ray gave Penn a bloodthirsty grin, pleased that all the
crap he"d taken from Penn during the past twenty-four
hours, and a great deal of their partnership, wouldn"t go
unpunished. He was less smug a second later when she
recovered and pushed the idea of consultants again.
“Think about it, Ray. What if there"s some fairy secret to
helping Nasreen remember? Or just in getting her to trust
us?”
“Just being trustworthy should do that. Turn here.”
“I remember the way, Ray. I
was
here with you last
night.”
Ray made a noise, because she
had
been about to turn
in the wrong direction, but didn"t comment. Anyway, it was
clear from how Penn was talking that she had meant one
particular
consultant as much as Ray had, the consultant
who was currently assisting Aguirre on his imp murder case,
but whom Ray knew for a fact had already been in the
station today. When he drank his coffee, he could detect
traces of unimaginable happiness, and wide, wide smiles.
Fairies, he made himself think, were too excitable. It
was just coffee.
“You should see your face right now.” Penn parked the
car and got out before he could comment, leaving him to
follow her as they approached Zucchero. The display window
was boarded up, but the front door was open, and they could
hear broken glass being moved around.
There was a hint of something in the air inside too,
though it had to be Ray"s imagination toying with him. It
wasn"t just the candy smells that belonged there. But after a
moment, he decided it was probably that Nasreen and her
fairy-longing were confusing his senses.
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22
He didn"t get a chance to ask if they"d had a visitor in
any case. Both women were talking and joking as they swept
up shards of glass and candy that had to be thrown out and
dumping them into large garbage bags. There was new candy
too, delicately laid out on regular plates on one counter:
maple fudge squares and pale pink cubes covered in
powdered sugar. Ray"s stomach growled.