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“Yeah, Lannan and everything. You need to talk?”
“Oh, Lannan. Right.” I was never sure what to think about Kaylin. He was 101 years old, a martial arts expert and computer geek, and he was also a dreamwalker. A night-veil demon had embedded itself into him, body and soul, while he was in the womb and had altered his very DNA. I thought he might be attracted to me, but I wasn’t sure if that was just him trying to be friendly or what. When Kaylin wanted to help, he could ferret out extremely private information.
I swallowed a bite of toast and licked the melted butter off my fingers, then told him about Geoffrey’s offer, and Lannan’s reaction. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to be a vampire, so I’m not interested in Geoffrey’s proposition. Nor do I want Lannan thinking he has some proprietary claim over me. I am indentured to the Crimson Court, not to him.”
“You are walking a thin line. Lannan is not your master, but he holds the key to punishing you if you disobey Regina or Geoffrey. And he’s very good about creating infractions where there are none. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, but I sure wish you’d insisted on Geoffrey overseeing you.”
“Me, too.” I played with the bread, then shrugged. “Nothing I can do except deal with him the best I can. One day, though, I’ll stake him through the heart and that will be the end of Lannan Altos. But putting Perv Boy aside, I can’t imagine how badly they are going to fuck this up. They already screwed things over once trying to infect the Indigo Court. Look at how their plan backfired. Now . . . another attempt?”
“Stupid, really. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. And this antidote is definitely in the ‘fool me twice’ category. But we can’t do anything to stop them. Talk down a group of vampires and a Fae Queen? I don’t think so. We need them. And though Myst routed Lainule from her forest, the Queen of Rivers and Rushes is not to be trifled with.”
“No, but neither is Myst. Chatter still has nightmares, he told me. The blood from Myst’s routing of Lainule’s people stained the barrow red. And remember, he’s always been Grieve’s best friend, and he had to leave him behind. The Shadow Hunters have unleashed a horror on New Forest, even if the town doesn’t realize how much. Yet.”
“Eat.” Kaylin pointed to my dish. “We need all our strength because while they argue and plan in their mansions, we’re the ones sitting on the edge of hell. Is Peyton coming over today?”
I nodded, finishing off my toast. “We’re setting up the back parlor as my shop and her headquarters. We decided we might as well combine the two, especially since she’s only going to be working a couple evenings a week for a while. She still needs to help Anadey in the diner.”
“I think it’s a great idea to join forces.” He finished his breakfast and took my plate with his to the sink, where he ran a sudsy sponge over them. “So what’s next?”
“Lainule and Geoffrey told me to go about my business as usual and to stay away from Grieve. I guess . . . we figure it out as we go along, since they don’t seem interested in entertaining our suggestions. Mostly, we try to stay alive.”
The doorbell rang and I hopped up to go answer. It was Peyton.
Half werepuma and half magic-born, she took a lot of crap from the lycanthropes around town. Werewolves hated the magic-born and heckled us whenever possible. Peyton’s lineage was cause for ridicule in their circles, and she had endured a lifetime of it.
Peyton was half Native American; her father had run off years ago, leaving Anadey—a shamanic witch who used all four elements—and Peyton alone to fend for themselves. Peyton had grown up strong. Though soft-spoken, she was an expert in martial arts and she wanted to open a magical investigations agency.
“Hey, lady,” I said, inviting her in.
She was carrying a box, and I took it from her and set it on the floor. “I come bearing gifts from Mother. Ready to get the office in order?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I motioned to her and we headed back to our headquarters.
The room we were using for our joint operations was the back parlor. It was papered with pale roses and old coiling ivy vines; the floors were hardwood and the ceilings vaulted. A bay window faced the side of the house away from the Golden Wood, and built-in shelves covered one wall.
With room for two desks, as well as several display cases, both Peyton and I would have plenty of space. We’d managed to wheedle a good price on the display cases from a shop going out of business, and we’d each provided our own desk—Peyton had taken one of her grandmother’s antiques, and I’d confiscated one I found in the attic at the Veil House.
“How’s your mom?” I asked. Anadey had become intricately involved in our fight against the Shadow Hunters.
“Tired. The diner is running her ragged. She doesn’t say anything, but I know she’s afraid that I’ll quit before she can find someone to take my place. She shouldn’t worry, but she does.” Peyton paused for a moment, then quietly asked, “But how are you? You’ve been through a lot in a short time.”
“Yeah.” I blinked. Returning to New Forest had been like being tossed in a pot of boiling water. Learn to handle the heat or die. “I’m taking it day by day. I have no idea where this is all going and I’m in too deep to consider taking off again.”
“Have you been flying lately?”
I smiled shyly. “Yeah . . . every night that I can. Finding out I’m part Uwilahsidhe has been the only saving grace. It’s the only thing helping me keep it together. When I’m out there on the wing, nothing else matters. Lannan, Grieve, Heather, Myst . . . nada. In my owl form, I can find a little taste of freedom. There are times I never want to turn back. It would be so much easier to just fly off to a different forest and live in my owl shape.” I paused, lifting my gaze to meet hers. “But I always come back.”
“I can understand that. When I was a little girl and being teased by the Lupa Clan, all I wanted to do was turn into my puma and race off into the forest. I tried a couple times and my mother would come out, hunting for me. Of course, by then I’d be so scared that I’d run for her and she’d see this cougar cub bouncing over and know it was me. Once a female puma—full grown—found me, and after figuring out what was going on, she carried me home by the scruff of the neck and dropped me on the doorstep.”
Nodding, I laughed. Animals and Weres and shifters understood one another in ways that needed no language. Or rather, we had a language but it just wasn’t the one two-leggeds used. Even though I was new to the life, I caught on quick, especially since I could already listen to the wind.
“Think we’ll be ready to open on Monday?” Peyton arranged a bouquet of roses she’d bought on my desk.
We’d scheduled the opening of both Wind Charms and Mystical Eye Investigations for two days from now and were scrambling to finish last-minute preparations.
“All I have left to do is create a few more premade charms and to arrange all the candles and spell components that Marta left to me.” Marta had been Peyton’s grandmother, but there hadn’t been a lot of love lost between them. Nor between Anadey and Marta—the two had always been at odds.
We got back to work and within half an hour, the room was ready for clients. I squeezed a card table into the corner and snapped a black tablecloth over it—Peyton was good with the cards and she could schedule readings. As we were setting up a display of charms to ward trouble away, I looked up to see Kaylin in the doorway, looking strange.
