“Fear. Greed.” Grove shrugged. “The larger Courts have settled down thanks to some political moves but that surety hasn’t passed down to the lower Courts yet, and probably won’t until the big fae Courts are stabilized across North America.”
The little brownie he was following gave another gargantuan sneeze that threw him to his knees. The sneeze attack must have stolen the fight from him because he made a tortured mewling sound, then voluntarily crawled on his hands and knees to his comrades.
Grove must have sensed me watching the brownie with growing concern. “It’ll slow down in a minute,” he assured me. “It’ll take some time to completely wear off, though.”
The brownie squeaked out a miserable wail.
I checked that the fae noble was secure, then scanned the area—in case we’d missed any stragglers.
“All of those fae politics sound complicated.” Brody loosened the collar of his uniform. While I was dressed in layers to deal with the below freezing temperatures, as a werewolf he was reveling in the chilly air. “I’m glad werewolf political structures are much easier to understand.”
“You say that, but just wait.” April set her hands on her hips and worked on stretching out her back. “With the way magic is, things are changing. They have to change, or we won’t survive.”
I was staring down the length of the park, watching for any movement, when I heard the subtle hum of a car engine. “Backup’s here,” I announced.
Brody straightened, tapping into his senses—which were stronger than mine. “Nice! That’s Sarge’s car.”
Grove grabbed the strap of his satchel, yanking it so it rested against his thigh where he could rummage around in it, which made the sneezing brownie cower in terror. “How can you be so happy-go-lucky when you werelateto sense something that should have been easy for you?”
“Because the first person who heard it was Blood,” Brody said, as if that explained it.
It didn’t.
It was just another example of the team’s respect for me, which was frankly much higher than I deserved.
I think they mean it as a compliment, but it’s starting to get uncomfortable. I’m not infallible, and if they fight believing that I am, eventually it will end badly.
Maybe that was a point I could argue in my paper for Sarge. Maybe he wouldn’t be so upset about me taking risky moves if he understood Ihadto for the good of the group?
Sarge’s car—a much larger SUV—rolled down the street. It was dark enough that it still needed to have its lights on, which cast beams across the park as Sarge pulled into one of the parking spots on the street.
The engine cut, and Sarge and Clarence got out. Sarge raised his hand to acknowledge us as he crossed the park’s lawn—which was covered with dusty frost—and Clarence skulked along in his shadow. The poor guy was probably starting to get nervous with dawn being so close.
“Medium-Sized Robert is coming with the truck to transport the troll.” Sarge’s silvery eyes seemed to shine in the low light of dawn. “They’re not all cuffed?”
“We didn’t carry enough pairs,” April said.
“Our car has some—including an extra-large pair for the troll and hobbles for the centaur,” I volunteered. “But it didn’t seem wise to separate until backup.”
Sarge nodded his approval. “Good. But with Clarence here, crowd control will be easier.” Sarge set a hand on Clarence’s shoulder. The squat vampire had been uncomfortably tugging on his cravat—today’s was a dark blue that matched our uniform, with black accents—and squeaked at the contact.
Interesting…Clarence must be good at using vampire pheromones.
I didn’t work with Clarence much—my existence terrified him at the best of times—so I hadn’t gotten to see him use his skills very much.
Sarge ignored Clarence’s squeak. “One of you should return to your car to get enough cuffs for them.”
Brody turned around. “Not me,” he said.
April frowned. “Why not?”
He folded his arms across his chest. “We had to park a ways back to avoid detection, and I don’t feel like a morning sprint after this fight.”
“You’re a werewolf,” Grove said. “You’re built for stamina.”
“Don’t wanna,” Brody said.
The more time we spend discussing this, the more time the fae have to recover while we still haven’t gotten the cuffs.
