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I didn’t have a vase, so I popped the flower in a pint glass and clanked it on the kitchen table. Clawdia tilted her head at the glass and then looked at me directly.
I was clearly being told off. “Where do you want it, then?”
She huffed and hopped down before jumping up onto the table. I marveled at the intelligence of the average house cat as she nudged the glass directly to the middle of the table and tapped the flower around so it faced the front door. She looked up at me when she finished, expecting praise.
“Are you satisfied now?” I asked. She meowed, and I rolled my eyes as I headed to the office. Clawdia padded after me.
I sat down and turned on my computer ten minutes before nine. Clawdia jumped up on my lap and rested her chin on the desk, her eyes open just a slit as I opened the cameras and turned on the devices. I waited.
As the clock on the screen turned nine, they appeared outside the cathedral, out of nowhere. Literally out of nowhere. There was a cathedral and people milling around, and then suddenly, there were three paranormal peoples.
And fuck me, they were the most obvious paranormal people in the world. They looked like they’d walked out of a comic con convention.
I physically gasped and leaned away from my screen like the space between my eyes and the image would make it smaller and easier for me to understand.
“The human is late,” remarked a super tall and freakishly beautiful bloke with skin like ice, shoulder-length green hair, and bright green eyes. His face was all sharp angles with thin lips and nose to match; even his ears were elongated and pointed. I automatically assumed him to be a kind of elf.
“He’s testing us. Allow him time to assure himself of our honesty,” a giant, golden, muscular guy spoke next. He looked like a young version of Zeus from the Disney filmHercules. His clothing was a gray-laced tunic that covered his chest and tucked into tight leather trousers.
The third and final man was the most unhuman, with stubby black horns and matching leathery wings and skin. His hair was as red as flames and tied in a topknot. His face was relatively human looking, and his ears were pierced with three small hoops on either side. He looked like a demon. “I don’t imagine he was expecting us to be honest.”
He wasn’t wrong. But how are you supposed to trust someone who openly admits they are a paranormal race? And yet I knew instinctively that they were hiding something from me.
Clawdia meowed at me, bringing me back to the room. I blinked and relaxed into my seat, stroking the cat, my thinking face on. As soon as my back hit the leather cushion of the chair, I realized exactly what I was looking at.
There were three paranormal people, obvious non-humans, chilling in plain view of the public.
I panicked and jumped up from my chair, knocking Clawdia to the floor. “Oh fuck,” I yelled as I ran out of the house.
I didn’t get in the car. I could get there in an eight-minute dash if people were smart and moved out of the bloody way. Thankfully, they heard the siren of “oh fuck, oh fuck” and let me overtake. The chilly spring air didn’t bother me as I quickly built up a sweat and my breathing turned to panting.
They were still there, standing around, waiting for me. I didn’t care that they looked pissed off. I needed to hide them before the police or the army or the secret service or someone was called.
“Ah, human! There you are!” the beautiful elf said as I approached. I cringed so hard I shuddered and then coughed because I was really out of breath.
I grabbed a hold of the demon’s arm as I bent over and took a deep breath. “Zaide, look, the human is touching me,” he whispered playfully.
“I can see that, Sav. It must mean he likes you,” the golden giant said with a grin stretched across his face.
“No. No. Quiet. You have to be fucking quiet.” I coughed, still trying to inhale. “What were you thinking? Appearing in a busy square without a disguise?”
“I think our human believes us fools,” the beautiful elf remarked. He didn’t even lower his fucking voice.
“Stop saying the word human! Fuck! Let’s hope everyone thinks you’re in cosplay. Come on, we need to get out of here before they realize you’re the real deal.” I tugged on the demon’s arm, and he and the others followed me.
It’s a wonder I wasn’t arrested for looking like the shiftiest fuck ever as I tried to hide my new friends and employers from view. The demon kept chuckling as I dragged him behind me, occasionally pushing them all into alleyways or stopping and pulling them to the ground to hide behind bushes. Not that the bushes covered much of them.
When we got to my street, we ran the rest of the way. Well, I ran. Towering over me, the big bastards walked in strides that matched my running gait.
My fingers shook as I unlocked the front door and pushed them inside. Shutting the door behind me, I sagged in relief and took a deep breath, my eyes closed.
When I opened them again, I saw the three faces of my new paranormal friends looking at me with concern. It was strangely endearing. And fucking weird.
Now that I had them back home, and now I knew they were telling the truth, my mind whirled with the danger they had just placed us all in.
CHAPTER3
CLAWDIA
