Dallan shrugged. “Not telling the rest of the staff about Daphne already got us into this mess, so I figure transparency is more important at this point.”
Even though I hated to admit it, he was right.
“Congratulations, I guess,” Heath mumbled, still clearly hurt by my earlier harshness.
“Does that even work with humans?” Fiero asked, seeming more curious than anything.
I didn’t have time to give the rest of the staff at Monstrous Ink the ins and outs of gargoyle mating, especially seeing as I was still trying to figure it out myself.
But apparently Daphne had found her spark again because she was glaring at Fiero now. “Of course it works. We have all of the appropriate parts to make it work, so why wouldn’t it?”
“Yeah, what she said,” Effie said, quickly coming to Daphne’s defense, then she leaned in close and whispered: “Remind me to get you that enchanted oil I mentioned before.”
Daphne’s surreptitious nod to the nymph made my entire body throb.
I really needed to get this conversation back on track before everything dissolved into questions about a sex life I hadn’t even had a chance to think about yet.
“Enough.” My voice boomed in the waiting room, effectively silencing all conversations about whether or not Daphne and I could successfully mate. “I’m going to get in contact with the lawyer handling Daphne’s case. He’s local so he should be able to serve Mike with the papers tomorrow. Fiero, did he say where he was going to be staying?”
Fiero’s expression drooped. “He did. He said he’s family friends with Mayor Arsenio and is staying with him.”
Fuck. That was not what I wanted to hear.
The fae held no love for us and that would make it especially hard for us to kick Mike out of Port Haven.
“How the hell does he know Arsenio?” I asked.
“I have an inkling, but you aren’t going to like it,” Dallan said, his tentacles twisting with displeasure. “Arsenio doesn’t usually care for any humans except for a select few.”
I cursed under my breath. “You don’t mean…?”
Dallan nodded. “Aye, I do. Mike’s family line must have been fae blessed by Arsenio at some point.”
There was an audible gasp of air from everyone in the room. Everyone except for Daphne who was frowning with confusion.
“What does being fae blessed mean?” she asked, glancing around at each monster in the room.
“The fae are some of the oldest supes on earth next to the Greek monsters. They used to exchange their young for human babies to be raised in the human realm. They’ve always been pretty secretive about why, but once that occurs that family line is fae blessed. Meaning they have better luck than typical humans and the fae who blesses them will go out of their way to help them, like Mayor Arsenio is doing with your ex,” Effie explained, twisting her green hair nervously in one hand.
“It’s not confirmed, though, Arsenio rarely gets involved with humans so I can’t imagine him fae blessing any family line,” I interjected with a shake of my head. If it was true, though, it made shit a whole hell of a lot harder for us.
“Eff, if anyone can find out if he is fae blessed, it would be you,” Dallan said quietly, his gold eyes locked on the tree nymph.
Effie straightened in her seat, her expression pinching with anger. Dallan had touched on a taboo subject and was about to bear the brunt of her anger. “No, I cannot find out.”
“Why not?” Daphne asked.
“He’s trying to get me to ask my father who just so happens to be a warlock working for Arsenio,” Effie stood up abruptly from her seat. “But I haven’t spoken with him in a long time and don’t plan on starting now.”
With that she stomped toward the stairs. Dallan reached for her, but her vines slithered out from underneath her shirt and pushed the Cthulhu away as she stomped up the steps and disappeared.
“I tried,” he told me, before quietly following her, probably to try and calm her down.
The sound of a door slamming upstairs muffled their words, but with my sensitive hearing I could hear her ripping him a new one for bringing up her father.
Turning back to face the rest of them I sighed. “For now, Daphne goes nowhere by herself.”
“I don’t need to be babysat,” Daphne protested, but I held up a hand.
