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8
After straightening our rumpled selves, Asa and I joined Colby. Using two of her four fuzzy little hands, she shaded the side of her face. Her antennae leaned that way too, creating an impressive wall between her and us.
“What are you doing?” I leaned in front of her screen until she had to look at me. “Hi.”
“I wanted to make sure you and Asa were finished swapping spit.” She blinked rapidly. “My eyes, Rue. They were melting.”
Swapping spit? Really? I had to watch it with the spit muffin comments before this spun out of hand.
“They’ll grow back.” I patted her on the head. “Besides, you have two. Let’s not be greedy.”
“That’s your argument?” She dropped her hands. “They’ll grow back? That I have two?”
“I stick with the classics, as you obviously do too.” I shrank onto my haunches. “I’m melting.” I clawed at my face. “Melting.”
“I’ll give you two a moment,” Asa said as I puddled on the hardwood. “I ought to check in with Clay.”
From the floor, I scowled up at him. “You told him you were leaving this time, right?”
“I’ll be in my room,” he said, teeth digging into his swollen bottom lip, “making my apologies, if you need me.”
Goddess bless, what a mess.
Asa couldn’t even blame the daemon for the slip. He had driven here and arrived fully dressed and ready to ravish me. For better or worse, it was Asa’s doing, and I savored a moment of smugness over it.
After I packed away my hormones, I got to my feet and leaned over Colby. “What did you find?”
“The list of creatures flagged on this case are all endangered fae, all aquatic, and they all match descriptions for a para-only sanctuary in northern Florida.” She scrolled down. “The Devlin Wildlife Center.”
Florida, with its ample coastlines, saltwater access, and marshes, was a dumping ground for many of the paranormal creatures that outgrew their enclosures, required relocation after eating a pet or person, or simply fit in nowhere else.
Not all fae creatures had come to this world from Faerie of their own choice, and most of them were stuck here. They had to make the best of it, and we had to ensure they didn’t eat every poodle, tabby, or Timmy that made their mouths water.
“Good work.” I made a mental note of the sanctuary’s name. “Why did you zero in on them?”
“Not the tag.” She clicked through a few tabs. “The numbers aren’t doing anything for me.”
We might need more than one to make sense of any patterns, but we didn’t have that yet.
“Okay.” I leaned over her shoulder. “So, what tickled your antennae?”
“The reviews on the Devlin website.” She pulled up the most recent ones. “Notice a theme?”
Parts of the internet were magicked so that only paranormals had access. Others used specific codes for their otherworldly clientele. This sanctuary was a hotspot, from the looks of it. Popular with school tours and researchers hoping to observe these animals in the next best thing to their natural habitat.
The argument could be made that you could pop over to Faerie and capture, say, another kelpie pair to repopulate this world, but that would be a pure fae animal. Not the same thing at all. The kelpies, and most of their kin, had interbred with humans, animals, or other fae until it could be argued they were a wholly other species.
“The last few weeks, sightings are down.” I skimmed the two- and three-star reviews. “Way down.”
Endangered species would be the biggest draw, and those had earned the most complaints in recent weeks as no-shows. It didn’t mean someone had pillaged their rare-species collection, but visitors were vocal about the absence of wildlife. It gave us a possible timeline, and a possible starting point.
“This means it’s not Aedan’s fault, right?” She kept scrolling. “If it’s been going on that long?”
“It’s not his fault either way.” I wanted her to know I was on his side. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”
The click of a door in the hall warned Asa was on his way back to us.
“I have to pick up Clay.” Asa slid his gaze past me to the screen. “What have you found?”
