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“Ah, the Fair Folk. Am I right?” He had to consciously release the tension that had immediately appeared in his jaw. “That tree spirit does not suffer…” He stopped mid-sentence in order to rephrase it. “It doesn’t play around.”
Or was it Bloom?Had she booted him? He had a feeling he knew where this was heading already, and he didn’t like it one bit.
Great, this ought to be fun.
“Dax? You’re in charge, you say, so I demand you do something. I had a couple drinks. That’s my regular bar. I need to go there. It’s my right. I had it all figured out…” Now he was really on a drunken rant, Dax thought. “I did. It is all gonna be okay, but you gotta fix it…”
Dax tired of his nonsensical stream of consciousness and shut him up with a glare.
Up until now Dax couldn’t completely put his finger on what was so alarming. His dragon was totally on edge. Hell,hewas on edge. Doubly so now that he suspected he was going to have to deal withheron this.
Part of it was the uncanny drunk-giddy behavior. The weird magical wind thing was part of it too. But he realized it was mostly that Marius just seemed so different.
Totally different. He rolled it over in his head.
Different?
Where he had always been mild-mannered, and a fun drunk on the rare occasions he had seen him drunk, now he was belligerent and demanding. And did he sense fear as well? He wasn’t sure. But he was himself, that was for sure. And the magic thing. It was all of those things and none of them.
Dax’s dragon was on high alert. And in this arena he trusted his dragon implicitly. When it came to other issues, like mates for instances, Dax had reason for doubt, however. Boy, did he ever.
“Marius, I’m sure you deserved what you got. I don’t know what you did, but you should know you can only push things so far at that bar. That woman and that bar are not of the forgiving sort.”
He knew that all too well.
“I don’t have to listen to you, Dax. I don’t have to listen to anyone. I had a plan. I had it all figured out!”
This was definitely not the Marius he knew. He could take him down to the Tribunal for public intoxication, no question. But that wasn’t why he was going to take him in. The real reason was gut instinct. Dax’s skin was tingling. Something was going on.
“Marius, you are coming with me, if for no other reason than because I can’t have you wandering around in the bush in your underwear!”
“Dammit, Dax. I am not going anywhere with you! I’ll go right to the Fae council, thereallaw!”
Suddenly, Marius moved very quickly.Tooquickly.Especially considering he was drunk. But the combination worked against him. He rose in a flash, tripped over a nearby branch just as quickly, and face-planted hard into the dirt. He was out cold.
What the fuck is going on?
Dax shook his head as he looked down at the heap known as Marius.
“Welp, Marius, gotta say I’m kinda feelin’ like the real law right now,” he quipped with more than a little satisfaction. “I guess I better get you in the back of the truck, big boy,” he added into the night air.
He didn’t generally talk to himself, but it was a habit he had taken to on late night patrols like this. Even with Dax’s enhanced strength, it took a bit of grit to hoist the huge man onto his shoulder. He carried him over and opened the back of his truck, rather unceremoniously dumping the man in. Marius’ cap had fallen off in the process and he threw it in on top of him before slamming the back closed. “You’re lucky I’m a nice guy,” he said to the unconscious man.
“Plus, I know the importance of a good hat.”
* * *
He shookhis head as he chuckled to himself. If he had a penny for every time some fae insulted him and threatened to talk to the ‘real law’. Irony was, hewasthe real law. The fae had helped set it up that way along with the shifters back when the town was going through its heyday and first growing as a sort of newly-minted spiritual hotspot for the fae. They said it was some sort of energy vortex or something.Whatever.
What was clear was that it had become a sort of hub for supernaturals. And wherever you got a bunch of supernaturals together, you needed the law. And he and the Tribunal were it.
He drove into town and hooked left at the main intersection on his way to the Tribunal. As he did, he couldn’t help but see The Tree there. It was hard to miss.
Ugg.He still held out hope that he wouldn’t have to deal withher.Hopefully, this would turn out to be a whole lot of nothing, and he could pass it off to Rollo or maybe Jack to deal with.
He pulled into the lot by the massive building. It was a Roman-style building with sort of art deco influences. He thought it looked pretty cool, really. Not that his opinion mattered.
Heaving Marius onto his shoulder again, and once again remembering to grab his hat, he strolled in and went right to the cells they usually referred to as the drunk tank.
