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“Nope. Just catatonic.” Adam raised his eyebrows. “What now?”
“Hey, this was your plan. If it was up to me, we’d take that bird back to that butcher. Alodius probably thinks owls are good eatin’.”
Adam’s lips quirked. “Or he’d give us the name of some cousin of his that lives in the swamps who could give us a good deal on some taxidermy.”
I pursed my lips as if considering it. “Now that you mention it, I wouldn’t mind seeing this damn thing stuffed and mounted.”
Adam shook his head at me. “Or we could take him back to Zen’s, lock him up, and then figure out how to use him to find Maisie.”
“Oh, all right,” I said. “But you might want cover him up or something.”
With that, Adam tucked the owl’s body under his duster and we made our way back to Zen’s.
10
By the time we finally made it back to the shop, it was pushing one in the morning. Even though I normally hit the sack at dawn, I was ready to crash the minute we walked in the door. Too bad we still had to deal with Satan’s owl.
When we opened the door to the attic apartment, we found Giguhl and Brooks sitting on the couch together. Brooks was back in his male gear— jeans, T-shirt, et cetera. Giguhl sat with his arms crossed over bulging biceps. He still wore the sweatpants he had on earlier that evening when we ….
Oh shit.
We’d totally forgotten Giguhl when we left. I took a step forward, ready to apologize. But Brooks held up a hand and shushed me. He patted Giguhl on the arm. “Sabina. Adam. Giguhl has something he’d like to say to you.”
Giguhl’s determined expression faltered. “I don’t think—”
Brooks nudged him. “Go on. Tell her what you told me.”
I shot a look at Adam. He shrugged and rolled his eyes.
Giguhl took a deep, bracing breath and rose from the couch. “Guys, I—” he shot a look at Brooks, who nodded encouragingly. The demon seemed to inflate a little and continued. “I felt disappointed when you left this evening without telling me. It hurt my feelings that you didn’t consider me in your plans.”
I felt bad about forgetting him and all, but an emotional intervention wasn’t on my list of things I wanted to deal with. I set down my bag of blood with a martyred sigh.
Giguhl tossed his claws in the air. “Don’t sigh at me! I’ve been worried sick, and your continued lack of consideration is unacceptable.”
I dropped down on the couch. “Giguhl, what do you want from us? There are some places you can’t go in either demon or cat form.” It was a lame excuse. I’d smuggled him into lots of places, but I didn’t know what else to say. The truth was I had been so wrapped up in my own drama that I’d totally forgotten about him. But admitting that would hurt his feelings even more.
“We’ve always figured out ways for me to come along before,” he challenged. His eyes shifted back and forth between Adam and me. “I thought we were a team.”
From the corner of my eye I saw Adam cringe. I couldn’t meet the demon’s accusing gaze, either. When we’d decided to find Maisie, we’d all agreed it would be as a team. But the whole concept of thinking about someone else’s feelings went against my natural instincts to just take care of everything myself.
“Look, G, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you where we were headed. But you seemed kind of out of it, so I didn’t even consider you might want to come. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. Right, Adam?”
“Sorry, G. You’re right. We are a team.”
Giguhl tilted his chin down, accepting our apologies. “One more thing. The next time you have a chance to go to a drag show, I don’t care what you have to do, but you better smuggle my ass in.”
I’d totally forgotten about the faery’s show earlier. “Oh, right. Great show, Brooks.”
The fae winked at me. “Thanks, hon. Adam? What did you think?”
Adam looked a little pained as he struggled for a response. Finally, he settled with, “It was ….. something.”
While Brooks smiled at the mage, Giguhl turned to me. “Please tell me you took pictures.”
“Sorry, G. I was so entranced it didn’t occur to me.” Turning to Brooks, I said, “Where did you learn to do the splits like that?”
With his eyes on Adam, he said, “I’m extremely flexible.”
I changed the subject. “I have a question. How do you prefer to be addressed?”
Brooks smiled. “You mean do I consider myself a ‘he’ or a ‘she’?” When I nodded uncomfortably, Brooks continued. “I know it gets confusing. A lot of queens don’t go by ‘she’ at all, some insist on ‘she’ all the time, and others only when they’re in drag. Me? I’ll answer to anything.”
I nodded. “Good to know. I didn’t know if you were sensitive—”
Brooks waved a hand. “Darlin’, I tuck my unmentionables and secure them with duct tape.” Giguhl hissed and Adam covered his crotch with his hand.
I laughed. “Well when you put it that way …..”
Adam dropped his protective hand and shifted uncomfortably. “Since you’re in a sharing mood, I’ve got a question, too. Which species of fae are you exactly?”
Brooks crossed his — I’d decided to stick with the masculine for simplicity— arms, his expression gone from flirtatious to defensive. “Why?”
Adam shrugged. “Just wondering. Most of the fae I know try to live near green spaces or have access to other fae.”
Brooks’s chin went up. “I suppose I would do that, too, if I’d been raised among the fae.”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
Adam nudged me. Under his breath he said, “He’s a changeling.”
I looked up at Adam. “Huh?”
But Brooks stepped in. “He said I’m a changeling. My fae parents left me with humans right after I was born. I was raised as a human kid until it became obvious I wasn’t like the other children. I tried to hide it for a while, but then I couldn’t deny it any longer. Unfortunately, my human parents weren’t too thrilled when I came out of the faery mound, so to speak. They kicked me out when I was fourteen.”
My mouth dropped open. “That’s terrible.”
“It happens to lots of changelings, unfortunately,” Adam said. To Brooks: “How did you end up with Zen?”
