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“Look at him!” Mrs. Chaddock gestured at Eli. “He’s gorgeous, but he’s barely noticed me. Hemustbe something inhuman.”
Eli stepped closer to me.
“Eli is my associate,” I said. “Why would his . . . ancestrymatter?”
The widow sighed. “Alvin and I met at the Society Against Fae and Reanimated Individuals.” She crossed her ankles primly. “There was no way my Alvin would have allowed himself to be poisoned withvenom. He was a lifetime SAFARI member.”
“The Society . . .” I shook my head. “Are you seriously lumping thefaein with walking fucking corpses?”
“They are not human.”
“But witches are fine?”
“I wouldn’t have relations with one,” the widow said.
My temper was frayed after the last week. My hand went to the hilt of the short sword at my hip .
“Cream puff,” Eli murmured quietly, turning to face me and putting his back to the widow as his worry overrode professionalism.
“What?”
“No.” He put his hand over mine on the sword hilt. “She has paid you. Our business here is done.”
“Fine.” I took my hand off the sword hilt, trying not to be grateful for the gloves he wore. Then I looked at Mrs. Chaddock and said, “He’s a better person than you. Or me.”
Eli smothered his smile and turned to face the widow. “Thank you for selecting Crowe Enterprises. We’ll see ourselves out.”
I attempted to motion Eli forward so he was in front of me, away from the widow.
“Hush, cupcake. I am not unused to fear.” Eli’s hand hovered close to my low back, not touching, but there should he need to stop me from turning back. “You will not get referrals from your clients if—"
“Fuck referrals.” I met his gaze. Then I glanced at the widow. “I ought to summon your husband back from the grave and bring him to your door.”
She blanched. “Can you do that?”
I pointed at myself. “Witch.” Then I pointed at her. “Bitch.”
Eli chuckled.
I wouldn’t do it. The dead didn’t deserve that kind of abuse. The widow Chaddock didn’t know that, though.
We all have our fears—I was afraid of myself, and of dead things hurting my loved ones, but the fae were sequestered in their homeland. They didn’t snack on humans, enslave, or otherwise injure people. They bought art, and they returned back to their own world where they were at peace.
Unlike humans who regularly hurt other humans, anddraugrwho ate them.
Chapter Ten
“Miss Crowe?”A man who looked at most a few years older than the widow stepped in front of me in the foyer. “Might I have a word with you?”
Eli glanced at his watch and muttered, “Does anyone in this city ever sleep?”
I grinned. It was coming up on 5am. Eli’s bedtime. The joy of my genetics was that I knew what his watch said without asking. Just call me a sword-swinging sundial.
I released a pulse of energy. If the new man noticed me reading him, I wasn’t concerned. He was a Chaddock or employee of them. So far, the two Chaddocks I’d met were adraugrand a bigot. I wanted to know what this man was.
The glimmer of my energy pulse was a bit more obvious than I meant for it to be, but I’d had a rough night. It made me sloppy. The young Chaddock would have a touch of a migraine soon. He paused and smiled tightly as my energy slid into his skin.
Human.
