He flashed a smile at her and leaped away, disappearing into the dappled light and shadow.
Mal accompaniedthe others back to the towers, following Law up to their apartment. He didn’t seem inclined to talk, and she didn’t want to push. Once inside, he took Elliot to the bathroom and set him in the bathtub, running a warm bubble bath. Elliot loved his bubble baths. A few moments later, Law returned to the kitchen in fresh clothes. He put on a pot of coffee and took out a to-go cup.
“Where are you going?” Mal asked, frowning.
He blew out a tired breath. “You tell me. What did you find?”
He was all business, and Mal’s feet rooted themselves to the floor as ice wrapped around her. He’d been through something. Something difficult. Shouldn’t they talk about it? Didn’t couples do that?
Not that she knew a damned thing about relationships. Inwardly she shrugged and then sat at the counter. He poured them both coffee as she reported on her experiences, remembering she still had the severed hand in one of her pockets. She pulled it out, and Law grabbed a plastic bag for her to put it in. It had begun to smell. She also gave him the round talisman box. He turned it in his fingers but didn’t open it before dropping it in his pocket.
“All right. I’d better go deal with this. Don’t wait up. I probably won’t be back tonight.” He noticed the pearl flower she’d set on the counter. “What’s that?”
“Something Tazho gave me.” She chewed her lower lip. “What happened in the woods? How did you find the kids? Did you find out who took them? And why? And how?”
He shook his head. “I’ll tell you later. Have to run now. The wedding parties start arriving tomorrow, and I’ve got to get this all cleared up before they arrive if I can.”
He grabbed his cup and the sack holding the hand and headed for the door, stopped, came back, and pressed a fast kiss to her lips, then was gone.
Mal stared at the door for a long moment, not quite sure how she should feel. Definitely not hurt, even though that’s where her idiot emotions were leaning. Law had a lot on his plate that needed to be dealt with. It would be pretty stupid and selfish to feel hurt that he was going to go investigate a bunch of murders that had happened in his territory. Not only was it his job, but he’d taken a blood oath to protect and serve Effrayant, which meant he didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter. Trouble was, she still wasn’t all that sure about their relationship and could have used some reassurance.
She rolled her eyes at herself.Don’t be such an insecure baby. That will drive him off for sure.
She finished her coffee, sighed at the empty carafe, then stood up. Ten minutes later, she was scrubbing down a happy goat before wrapping him in towels and grabbing her own shower. She made herself a sandwich and crawled into Law’s side of the bed, falling asleep with Elliot curled up beside her, nose tucked into her neck, snoring.
Chapter Five
It’sa truth universally acknowledged that any sane being who sees a pixie should immediately run in the other direction. Don’t look back, don’t stop, not even if you happen to be having a stroke or spontaneously burst into flames. Pixies are worse than either of those. Get as far away as possible and maybe, just maybe, if you’re very lucky, you’ll get clear of the disaster zone before all hell breaks loose. Because hellwillbreak loose, and when it does, even the mountains will wish they could hide. So run, rabbits, run as fast as you can.
Unfortunately, a place like Effrayant doesn’t discriminate on the basis of potential mayhem, even when it’s quite possible the guests will trigger an extinction level event. If pixies wanted to plunk down the money to stay, plus a hefty damage waiver, they’re welcome to come and have their wedding. And if there happened to be a few hundred of them? Put on the riot gear and roll out the red carpet.
In this case, the carpet was blue with a gold border. Mal cast a dubious eye at it. Was there such a thing as Kevlar carpets? Because at the rate things were going, the number of guests abandoning ship was going to wear a few dozen holes in it before long.
She yawned and sipped her coffee. It was a little before eight in the morning. Normally she wouldn’t be out of bed yet but having LeeAnne call and summon her to a consultation had cleared out all the cobwebs and sent an electric jolt through her bloodstream.
She’d left Elliot snoozing in the bed, and put on a pair of worn jeans, a comfortable T-shirt, and a blue patchwork leather jacket with fringe along the arms before descending for the meeting. She wasn’t fashionable, but she didn’t particularly care, and nothing she wore would look good while in LeeAnne’s vicinity anyway.
She’d taken a table at the bistro on the edge of the hotel’s lobby to wait, watching the flood of guests leaving, most not checking out. She assumed that they planned to return once the pixies had departed.
Rats abandoning a ship.
Not that she could blame them. The pixies hadn’t even arrived yet, and already there was a stack of dismembered giant bodies and a kidnapping. That didn’t bode well for the rest of the wedding activities.
Truth be told, there were worse things than pixies. Like… mentally deficient gnomes who’d forgotten how to use toilets—though to be honest, gnomes weren’t generally known for using toilets. They like to squat and drop and keep going. On top of that, they weren’t actually known for their hygiene. They always had rank hair growing mildew and moss with slimy things colonizing in their greasy tresses. They dressed in clothes made of recently caught fish skins, when they dressed at all. At least the pixies didn’t smell and weren’t as depressing.
If Mal had to choose, she’d take pixies. That probably qualified her as mentally deficient. Maybe she should look into a shrink.
LeeAnne stood speaking to a kelpie and his skinwalker wife or girlfriend. The kelpie looked steamed, but while LeeAnne normally managed a perfectly polite and genial façade for her guests, she hadn’t gotten over her rage from yesterday. The kelpie had stretched out as if he were about to take a piss on the carpet. A chill rolled through the air. Only it wasn’t cold. More like the devil running his fingers up your spine.Herfingers.
Every one of Mal’s hairs prickled, and she shuddered against the visceral fear that swept through her. The kelpie’s hair stood on end, his tail bottle-brushing. She’d never seen anything like that before except on a cat. He shifted into human form and bowed low, head nearly to his knees. It was something straight out of a seventeenth-century French drama. He held the pose until LeeAnne said something, and he and his companion sprinted for the front doors.
The housekeeper’s lips curved in a tight smile, and she headed for Mal’s table, only to be stopped again, this time by a trio of vampires and their blood harem.
LeeAnne ignored the two male vampires and the human blood donors, focusing on the petite female vampire. She had an hourglass figure, with orange tennis shoes, black yoga pants with little white hearts up the backs of the legs and skull and crossbones on each hip; the skulls sported pink bows and the wordsBeautiful Disaster. On top, she wore a plain black hoody. Her blue hair was caught up on top of her head in two long pigtails. She was adorable.
She looked up at LeeAnne, speaking quickly and gesturing broadly. LeeAnne nodded, her gaze flicking to the two males and the harem, who looked high and happy, as was usual for most harems.
Mal took in the two males who radiated protective hostility at LeeAnne. Clearly the three were the beginning of a terror. Murder of crows, gaggle of geese, terror of vampires.
