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Chase broke into a smile. "My pleasure. Just don't go shifting on me when I'm not prepared for it."
I waved my hand. "Get out of here, both of you. If there's trouble, call me on my cell phone."
Once they left, I hurried upstairs and slipped on a tight, thigh-high black leather skirt, then laced up my new magenta and black bustier, jiggling so my boobs were ready to bust out. I slid my feet into a pair of round-toed pumps with four-inch stiletto heels and twirled in front of the mirror. Woo-hoo, good enough to eat!
We needed all the information we could get. If there was an inside person at the bar, they wouldn't talk to Menolly, but they might talk to me. Especially if I turned on the charm.
I wrapped a velvet stole around my shoulders and cautiously descended the stairs, careful to avoid catching my heels on the numerous cracks that split the wood.
Menolly glanced up at me as I entered the kitchen. Her jaw dropped, and she coughed. "Damn good thing Trillian isn't here to see you. I'd never get you out of the bedroom."
"You may have that trouble soon enough. I just can't get him out of my system. So, you ready?"
"Whenever you are." She held up the keys to her truck.
"I'll take my car. If we're seen entering together, whoever's working on the inside might get suspicious." I made sure I had everything and nodded toward the door. "After you." And we headed out into the stormy night.
The Wayfarer was rocking as usual. It had real Otherworld feel—the lights were fashioned to look like kerosene lamps, and the decor appeared rustic on the surface but was polished when you looked closely. Long benches and tables served the crowds, as well as booths for private parties. In addition to the standard beer and wine, the bartender kept a few goodies such as Cryptozoid Ale and Brownie Beer behind the bar, all pricey and in high demand.
A staircase ran along the back wall, leading up to two floors of rooms that were always full. The portal itself was secreted in the basement, and an OIA agent was on guard night and day to process the passports of those entering from OW. It was where we'd first made our appearance Earthside.
Menolly was in full swing at the bar. The lights were dim, and she was working like crazy. The crowd of subculture FBHs who thronged to the bar loved the fact that she was a vampire, though they kept a respectful distance, except for the few who were hung up on the mystique of vamp lore.
While acceptance of the undead was still sorely lacking, things were slowly changing, although their reputation hadn't been helped by all the horror movies and vamps who loved to play up the whole ooo-spooky image. Dracula, for instance, had been a resident of OW, and during his deportation to the Subterranean Realms, he managed to escape and to flee Earthside before the guards could stop him. He'd single-handedly destroyed potential relations between vamps and humans for hundreds of years.
I wandered up to the counter and pushed through the crowd. Women dressed so skimpy they made me look like a nun clustered in groups at the tables, alert for any sign of Sidhe men who might wander through. They weren't Faerie Watchers though. No, the Faerie Watchers Club preferred to focus on the magic and sparkles and unicorns. These women were looking for a party and maybe a little more. They called themselves Faerie Maids and a few—usually the most interesting—had enough success that they'd become addicted to sex with the Sidhe. Gods only knew what they'd do if they ever slept with a Svartan.
The women weren't the only ones looking for a little action. Several men wandered through the bar, but most of them knew they didn't have a chance in hell. Menolly told me they picked up the women who were left sitting alone at the end of the night. It was sad, really, but overall, very few of the Sidhe paid any attention to the open invitations.
I slid onto a stool, glancing around. Here and there, I spotted another Faerie or two. Even a few Weres were hanging around the outskirts of the room—you could tell them from the gleam in their eyes. They met my gaze, and some nodded, a few gave me a half wave, acknowledging our common roots.
Where should I start? A tingle in the back of my neck alerted me, and I turned around. In the corner booth, I spotted a young man. He looked Japanese, but a glamour around him caught my attention.
"A glass of white wine," I murmured to Menolly when she finally made her way over to me. "And who's that? Over there in the booth?"
She glanced at the man as she set the Riesling down in front of me. In a whisper, she said, "I've never seen him in here before tonight. I can tell you, he didn't come over from OW. He smells like a demon, but I'd bet my fangs that he's not from the Subterranean Realms."
I sipped my wine and slowly pushed myself off the stool, strolling over to the booth. As I approached, the man looked up, and I saw that he wasn't quite as young as I thought. His face was smooth and unlined, but his eyes were far older than twenty-something. I leaned against the wall separating his booth from the next one.>"True. I suppose we were the logical choices for this assignment. Maybe headquarters wasn't punishing us after all. Most of the agents assigned Earthside go through long periods of transition, but we already knew a lot about life here before we ever joined the OIA."
"It's a comforting thought." Delilah peeked down the hall into the living room. "Chase and Maggie are asleep. She's such a cutie. Can we really keep her?" The wistful tone to her voice made me smile. Delilah always brought home stray animals when she was young, and Mother had asked Father to build a shed out in back of our home specifically for Delilah's menagerie.
"Yes, we can keep her. Her mother's probably churning out babies for some demon's sweet tooth, and HQ isn't going to want her. I don't know how Menolly will feel about it, but she'll come around."
"Everything's ready. Let's eat." With that, she went to wake Chase. While he washed his hands, I showed her how to mix up the cream for Maggie, and we fed her, then put her to bed before settling in at the table for our own meal.
"Are gargoyles intelligent?" Chase asked, taking his third piece of pizza.
"Some are," I said cautiously, in case Maggie could understand the rudiments of language. "They can be brilliant, or they can have the brainpower of the average cat. A lot depends on the nutrition their mother gets during pregnancy, the clan their bloodline hearkens from, and whether they were handled roughly at birth. Considering the harpy had her, I'm not at all sure Maggie will grow up to be much more than a pet. She may never be able to go into stasis."
If she couldn't, then she wouldn't be of any use to the OIA. Which, considering the way gargoyles were forced to live when they went Earthside, was probably the best thing that could happen to her. Some gargoyles, especially those with lower intelligence, didn't possess the ability to freeze-frame.
Chase blinked when a loud snore cut through the air from Maggie's box. "She sounds a little like a cat, a little like a pig."
"They snuffle when they're happy." I glanced at the clock. "Time to wake Menolly. We have plans to make."
"Just so long as we find Tom Lane before Bad Ass Luke does," Delilah said.
"And just so long as we find him before Bad Ass Luke finds us," I said. Neither she nor Chase had much of an answer to that.
