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Trillian inclined his head. "I'm saying OIA will do what it can to help you, but that may not be for much longer. Don't put your trust in them, and for the sake of the gods, don't count on the Court and Crown to back you up."
Slumping in my chair, I let out a long sigh. My family had never been close enough to the Court to be privy to its inner workings. Mother's presence had been enough to keep my father out of the loop. And as lower-echelon operatives, my sisters and I weren't privy to the relationship between the Court and Crown and the OIA.
I suddenly wished my father was here. He knew something, or he wouldn't have sent Trillian. But I also knew that he would take his own time about telling us what was going down. Father was loyal to his beloved Guard. Whatever was happening must be bad, for him to admit to Trillian that there was need for secrecy.
"What's next?" Morio said as the door opened and Delilah rushed in. She slammed it behind her, then turned to stare at all of us.
"I see we have company," she said, dropping her backpack on a chair.
I stared at her. Something was different, but I couldn't figure out what. Her cheeks were flushed, but since the temperature was dropping, I could chalk that up to being cold. There was something else, though. She was walking differently, and she sounded breathless.
All of a sudden I knew. Chase and Delilah had slept together! Chase, who for months had been spooked by the idea of the werecat, and who had been chasing after my skirts, had fucked my sister. I took her by the elbow.
"Come with me; I want to talk to you."
Trillian groaned. "You're going to leave me alone with wolf boy again?"
"Fox, you imbecile—I'm a yokai-kitsune, not some lycanthrope!" Morio growled and held out his hands. As I watched, his nails lengthened into long claws, and his eyes sparkled.
"Down, boys." I stepped in between them again. "Do I need to hire a babysitter to keep the two of you civil?"
Morio gazed at me for a moment, an insolent look on his face, then he retracted his claws. "No problem, Camille."
Not to be outdone, Trillian jumped on the bandwagon. "We'll be good. Go gossip all you want."
Delilah stared at them both, clearly confused, as I steered her into the kitchen, where we sat down next to Maggie. Delilah petted her for a moment, then sucked in a deep breath. She met my eyes.
"You know, don't you? You can tell?" She ducked her head.
"Of course I can tell. I can smell him on you." And indeed, Chase's cologne lingered on her skin. I braced her by the shoulders. "The only thing that matters to me is that you're happy and safe. He didn't hurt you, did he?"
Her eyes went wide. "Hurt me? No, in fact I accidentally scratched him." She sobered, and I had a sudden flash.
"Oh no, you didn't?" I saw where this was leading and wasn't sure I wanted to go there.
Delilah looked scandalized. "No! At least not during… but afterward, I guess the tension got to me. We were cuddling when I shifted. I scared Chase so bad that he fell out of bed," she said, giggling.
I stifled a laugh. Old Chase got more than he bargained for. Humans always underestimated the power sex held for the Faerie, even a half-breed. More lives in Otherworld had been lost to primal lust than in all the wars combined.
"Are you upset?" Delilah rummaged through the cupboards for a bag of chips and opened them with her teem. "I know he's been after you for a long time. I wasn't sure…"
"You know perfectly well I'm not interested in Chase," I said, grabbing the bag from her and filching a handful.
"I know you are… were… a virgin. Are you okay?" She didn't have to worry about pregnancy or disease—we'd been to the Medicine Mother before we left Otherworld and had our fertility temporarily stopped and been magically enchanted against illness. But her emotional state could be at risk.
She nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. I'll keep watch, though. This was my first time and, even though it was with an FBH, I know the risks." About one in ten thousand Sidhe went stark raving mad from their first sexual encounter, usually ending up wandering the world as a crazed seer.>He smiled, satisfied. "Good. You know how to listen. As I said, I'm a yokai-kitsune. I come from Japan, though I've been to the U.S. several times before. I owe Grandmother Coyote a big favor, and she's calling it in, so here I am. She wants me to help you find the spirit seals. After hearing about what's going on, I am more than happy to be of service. Nobody's going to invade my world and get away with it."
I examined his face. Now that I had a chance to look closer, I could see that his ears were slightly pointed and that his teeth seemed a little sharp for a human. But he wasn't Faerie—not in the sense that my father was.
"You say you're a demon?" I asked.
"In a manner of speaking. Demon, nature spirit, what have you. The terms aren't important. What matters is that I'm not human, even though I take the form for the most part."
"A Were?"
Again, a shake of the head. "No. Demon."
I could see I wasn't going to get much else out of him, so changed the subject. "I thought Grandmother Coyote wouldn't interfere."
