“I don’t know who you’re talking about. So no,” I rolled my eyes. “But do you realize how ridiculous you sound right now, Clarence Moonscale? I know the elves used to beat you up for stealing their treasures, but sheesh. You can’t make accusations like that! That’s how people like Ginger Barrel came to be. Do you really want to found another hate group?”
“You’d say anything to get me off your cousin’s back,” Clarence said.
“No, I’d say anything to get you to take about five steps forward and let Pierce close that door before he chomps into you. He’s been extra territorial recently. Hex is still so small and now you’re trying to manhandle his mate. You’re lucky I came out here and not Preston. He’s taken to carrying a jug of sweet tea in one hand and a jug of milk in the other. Getting walloped to death by gallons of drinks isn’t a good way to go out.”
He opened his mouth intent on telling me how much I sounded like one or the other of my parents but thought better of it.
“Either way, I need to question him. There were several large transfers to his account a few months ago from the victim and…”
I stared him down.
“And?” I crossed my arms.
“Now, I don’t know,” Clarence admitted.
“It’s not illegal to perform magic for money, right? And his spells keep people from beating the shit out of dirtbags and scumlords. Would you rather have physical violence?” I asked.
“No, but—”
“No buts. Crilus was here all night. He was home with his baby who is still chest feeding,” I said. “Are you really going totake a chest feeding carrier in for questioning because he had a business deal with this guy? Do you know how much it hurts to lose a hand? Don’t you think maybe this guy is in shock and perhaps you should be working with his doctors to get a real statement from him? Maybe checking the five bajillion cameras you have all around London?”
“People are doing both of those things,” Clarence conceded.
“Now, if you want to talk about ghost cats you can come and talk to me while I cook Preston breakfast. If you behave, I might feed you too. I’ll be happy to consult on this case, but you can’t go throwing serious accusations around without concrete evidence. Clarence, you’re old enough to know this.”
I had no doubt in my mind that Clarence would follow me back to the guest house. I also had no doubt that he was more afraid of my carrier than of me. There was a time when that would’ve bothered me but now, whatever got the job done was good enough. Crilus wasn’t a lily pure caster but there was a huge difference between charging an asshole hush money and whacking off a guy’s hand.
I let out a silent sigh of relief when I heard my cousin’s front door shut and Pierce hadn’t sunk his fangs into anyone. I wasn’t sure how to make a vampire stop biting someone and Pierce’s parents were on another trip. This one to old Italy to see more ruins that might’ve belonged to ancient shifters. I’d help Clarence if I could but if what attacked the cheetah was ghostly, he pissed off someone willing to do a lot darker magic than I was.
“Hey, had he ever crossed Sharon Claudis?” I asked as the raging shebear came to mind. “It sounds like something that unhinged woman would do!”
Chapter Three
Nic
Moonscale London
The sun was barely out, and leaves fell against my window. I was nursing a coffee after being out late the night before. Then I had to take a late night international business call. Whoever said owning a cosmetics company was glamourous was a big, fat liar. Whoever said exes were easy to get rid of were even fatter liars. Jon’s desperate eyes haunted me. I had loved that bastard. I had loved him with every fiber of my being – every last fucking bit of my soul. That joke was on me, and my mother was right. Love didn’t exist for folks like us. It didn’t matter that up until last year I didn’t even work at the company. While I had interned while in college, I didn’t work there on the payroll before that. I worked at a salon up until my mum got sick with wing cancer and had a close call with her door showing up. Then we rushed around getting me in place to take over for her so that the business she sweated over her whole life didn’t fall to shambles the moment she was gone. Only, through the grace of healers, she survived and managed to keep most of her infected left wing. The salon had replaced me almost immediately after my decades of working there. So, I stayed on at Shiny Butt Cosmetics. The cheeky name got the occasional eyeroll, but dragons loved their shinys. Especially if they could wear them.
I gulped down the last of my coffee and stuck the mug back under the little spout. While the next cup brewed, I headed out to get the paper. That was another recent addition to my life. When I worked at the salon I didn’t bother to keep up with current affairs unless the word ‘war’ was involved. Now, Idevoured the newspaper every morning with my second cup of coffee.
I opened the door and stretched as the early morning air filled my lungs. Not so long ago, I’d be crawling into bed about now to sleep for a few hours before crashing into work at noon. I scooped up the newspaper for it to fly out of my hand. Underneath was something furry. I squinted and squatted down thinking that Bitzy, the neighbor’s elderly ragdoll cat, had brought me another mouse. Ever since I moved back home, she’d become obsessed with trying to give me little ‘treats.’ Only this wasn’t a mouse, and it probably wasn’t a hunting token from Bitzy, either unless she learned to hunt very large and very fast prey. No cheetah would sit there and let her chew off a forepaw. I hoped not---
The world went black and then something hard crashed into my face. I woke up with my mother fanning me with the newspaper. Everything hurt and it took me a few seconds to realize why I was laying sprawled out on the grass in front of the stoop gasping for air. My ear still rang, and it felt like I headbutted the sidewalk several times.
“Come on, Nic. Wake up. We have to discuss this before we call the guards.”
Her eyes were narrowed on me as if she just knew that Jon had something to do with this. He was a cheetah but wasn’t the lovesick sort to carve off his own body part to get my attention. It likely wasn’t his paw at all.
“Guards?” I croaked.
“When someone delivers your ex’s hand to your front doorstep you call the guards. Hell, you call Medwin Moonscale. Now, I know you don’t like talking about him but we’re having this conversation.”
Mom wore her long strawberry patterned nightgown that hung low enough for the hem to drag across the bottom of her bare feet with each wave of the newspaper.
“Do you owe anyone money because of him?” she asked. “You tell me now and we’ll take care of it before we call anyone. I don’t want your hand to be the next one on the doorstep.”
“Why do you think it’s Jon’s?” I croaked, ignoring her stupid questions.
