A Risky Proposition (31 page)

A muffled ringing sound interrupted him and Sparrow cursed softly.  He bent down to extract his pants from our pile of clothing and pulled a cell phone from his pocket.

“I’m sorry Sydney—it’s my emergency line.  I have to take this.”  He gave me an apologetic look as he flipped open the phone.

“Sparrow,” he answered curtly, his expression growing grim as he listened.  “I’ll be right there.”

He flicked the phone closed with an aggravated snap.  “There’s been another mass death djinn arrest.  I have to go back to the station, Sydney.  I’m truly sorry.”

I grinned, trying to hide my disappointment.  “Well, maybe one of them got sloppy and you’ll be able to find something to crack the case.  Will you come by tomorrow and let me know what happened?”

He pulled me into his arms with a groan.  “Yes, I suppose tomorrow will have to do.  Let’s get dressed and I’ll blink you home.”

He released me and we untangled our clothes from their heap.  He finished dressing before I did—pretty much on par with men and women everywhere.

“I’ll probably be at the station for the rest of the night and then I’ll need to come home and grab some sleep.  Is tomorrow evening around 6 pm okay?”

“That would be great.”  I smiled at him as I attempted to straighten the layers of my silk top.

“I’ll call first.”

“Okay, I’ll give you my number.”

“I already have your number,” Sparrow said with an amused expression.

I curled my lip at him.  “I don’t have yours.”

“Lorien knows how to contact me.  Phones don’t exactly work between the realms.” 

“I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.”  I smirked at him as I pulled on my sandals.  I combed my fingers through my hair and self-consciously patted the pocket bulging with the crystal brooch. 

“Am I a complete mess?” I asked with a crooked grin.

“You’re beautiful,” he said softly, stepping forward to embrace me.  I closed my eyes as his mouth descended toward mine, a familiar plummeting sensation jarring my stomach as he coaxed my lips apart with his tongue.  I clung to him, kissing him back, suddenly feeling like I was flying rather than falling.  Then all too quickly he was lowering me to my feet as we floated to a stop. 

“I regret not having the opportunity to make love to you properly this evening,” he whispered against my mouth.  “But hopefully we can remedy that soon.” 

When I opened my eyes again, we were standing in my living room.  He stepped away, giving me a heated smile that left me tight and breathless, and then he blinked out.  My knees felt weak, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with the inter-realm transport this time.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Sunny had fallen asleep, sprawled on the couch with one of her new books lying open on the coffee table next to her.  Jasper was curled into a fluffy black ball at her feet.  I grinned at the picture they created, wondering if I should disturb them.  It was almost 2 am, and I was already going to be hating life when my alarm went off in the morning.  I dimmed the overhead lights and tiptoed toward the stand lamp that was shining down onto Sunny’s cheek.

As I clicked it off, she opened one eye and groaned, turning her face to blink blearily up at me.  “You’re back,” she croaked, wincing as she sat up.  “Ugh.  Need coffee.”

Jasper glared at the disturbance.

“It’s two o’clock in the morning, Sunny.  If you have coffee now, you’ll never get back to sleep.  How about if I make us some nice herbal tea instead?”

She shot me an offended look and I chuckled.

“So what happened with Lauringer?” she asked on a yawn.  “You were gone for hours.”

“It’s been a very long, very strange night,” I said with a smile.  “I suppose you want me to start from the beginning?”

Sunny blinked at me.  “No.  Why don’t you start somewhere in the middle, then you can skip around, and I’ll try to guess the correct order of events.”

I winged a throw pillow at her. 

“So?” she demanded, catching my missile and placing it behind her head.

I dropped onto the loveseat with a sigh.  “Well first, Emily took me on a twenty minute nature hike in the pitch dark to find Lauringer’s disappearing cabin in the woods…”

I told her all about my meeting with Lauringer and the trip to the containment room in the Seelie Police Department.  When I concluded with Lauringer’s lack of success, Sunny frowned and shook her head.

“After all that, she didn’t find
anything
?”

“I’m afraid not.  But at least now the police don’t have to waste any more time examining those souls, and they can concentrate their efforts elsewhere.  Plus, there was another big death djinn arrest tonight, so hopefully this time something more conclusive will turn up.”

“Really?”  Sunny’s eyes lit with interest.  “They found
more
unaligned souls?  That can’t be good for the death djinns.”

“I’m not really sure what they found, but Sparrow promised to come by later and let me know what happened.”

“You saw Sparrow again?  And he’s coming by later?”

I bit my lip, trying to temper the wickedness from my grin.  “I saw Sparrow—I saw him in his office, and then I saw even more of him at his apartment afterward.”

Sunny’s mouth dropped open.  “You had sex!  I was wondering why you weren’t more upset by the Lauringer thing.  Oh, just wait until Angelica hears that you finally had yourself some of Sparrow’s beautiful erection.  How was it?”  She looked as excited as a kid on Christmas—a kid with an expression naughty enough to earn her a lump of coal.

“Well, technically we didn’t get around to actual sex, since he got called back to the office to deal with the death djinn thing.  Come to think of it,” I frowned, “I didn’t even get to see his bedroom.  I saw lots of the living room and the couch, though.”

Sunny huffed out an amused breath.  “Didn’t even make it to the bed, huh?  In a hurry, were we?”

“Not at all.  On the contrary, Sparrow seems to be extremely proficient at taking his time.”  I smiled at her from beneath heavily lidded eyes.

“Oh, you are a bad, bad girl, Syd,” Sunny said on a choked laugh.  “So, is hot tattoo boy everything you’d hoped?”

“All that and more,” I breathed, a shiver running through me at the remembrance of Sparrow’s touch. 

Suddenly I wasn’t sure how I was going to survive the wait until 6pm.

Chapter 15 – Deceptions

The blaring of my alarm gradually penetrated my sleep-fogged senses and my brain groaned a curse that I was too tired to verbalize.  I managed to cast a heavy arm in the general direction of my nightstand, intending to hit the snooze button just once—just to get those extra nine minutes—but my hand found only empty space before coming into contact with the wooden surface.  I tried again, scooting my complaining body all the way to the edge of the bed and stretching my arm out further, but I still couldn’t reach.

I grumbled and cracked an eye open.  My alarm had been moved to the far side of my nightstand.  Lorien hovered above it, her arms crossed and a perturbed look pinching her small face.  I forced my other eyelid up and stared at her warily. 

“I can’t believe you went to see Lauringer without me!”  Her tilted violet eyes sparked with resentment.

“How did you know…never mind,” I croaked.  I wearily pushed myself into a sitting position and leaned over far enough to turn the blasting alarm off, ignoring Lorien’s glare of outrage when she was forced to dart out of the way.  I was willing to bet that my bad mood rivaled hers.  I was
so
not a morning person.

I groaned and rubbed my hands over my face.  “I had no choice, Lorien.  Emily was in a frantic rush to get me there before Lauringer’s cabin could do its crazy disappearing act to keep people from finding it.  I tried to call you, but apparently there are all these protection spells around it so no one can blink in or out—just like in Seelie City.  Emily said you couldn’t hear me calling from there, and if I tried to get far enough away to reach you, I could have missed the meeting.”

I rose and stumbled toward the white marble vanity sink to splash cold water on my face, making a mess all over the countertop in the process.  When I looked up from toweling myself and the counter off, Lorien was floating behind me in the mirror.  Her anger appeared to have faded into resignation and disappointment, and I winced, unsure which was worse. 

“I was
really
looking forward to meeting her.”

“I know.  I’m sorry,” I sighed, squeezing a blob of toothpaste onto my toothbrush.  “How was Obie’s party?” I asked, hoping to distract her with thoughts of her nephew.  It worked, kind of.

“It was fun,” she said with a gloomy half smile.  “All the neighborhood kids came and they played ‘pin the tail on the hobgoblin’ and ‘musical toadstools’.  I think Obie really liked his rocking horse.”  Her smile brightened.

“That’s good,” I said with a tired grin as I finished up at the sink.  “Listen Lorien, I’m really sorry about you not getting to meet Lauringer.  I’ll tell you all about it, but I need caffeine first.  And I’m going to have to get some work done on my computer before my boss calls.  I’ll make some tea.  Do you want some?  Sunny makes coffee, if you’d rather have that.”  I trudged toward the bedroom door, Lorien trailing behind me as I made my way to the kitchen.

“I guess I could use some tea,” she answered, still sounding disheartened.

Sunny stood watching the progress of the coffee pot, humming to herself and looking a lot livelier than I felt.  “Morning Syd; morning Lorien,” she intoned when she saw us.

“How come you’re so cheerful?” I asked as I pulled my favorite red mug from the dishwasher.

Lorien perched on a clear section of counter next to the sink and conjured her own tiny earthenware mug out of thin air.

Sunny smiled serenely at both of us.  “Incubi rock.”

I snorted as I dropped a tea bag into my mug and filled it with hot water from the dispenser.  “So does a certain half-sidhe detective—but getting barely four hours of sleep still sucks.  And there’s nothing like waking up to a pissed off faerie who’s decided to move your alarm clock out of your reach.  Milk and honey, Lorien?” I asked in a syrupy tone.

“Yes please.”  She ignored my complaint.  “You saw Agent Sparrow last night too?”

“Mmhm,” I answered.  A helpless grin stretched my lips, despite my determination to hang onto my sleep-deprived grumpiness.  I looked down to hide it as I stirred my tea.

“How did that come about?  No wait—tell me about your meeting with Lauringer first.  What was she like?  Was she brilliant and mysterious?  Does she really glow golden?”  Lorien’s wings buzzed with excitement as she dipped her tiny mug into my larger one and then followed me out to my makeshift office.

“Well,” I answered thoughtfully as I waited for my laptop to fire up, “she definitely glowed golden.  Her skin, her teeth—even her eyes looked like they were coated with gold dust.  What’s up with that anyway?  Is she part faerie or…what is she?”

Sunny appeared and plunked herself into one of the dining room chairs, a ridiculously large ceramic latte mug of steaming black coffee in her hand.  Her eyes were trained on Lorien as she awaited a response to my question.

Lorien practically quivered with enthusiasm at the chance to discuss one of her favorite topics.  “It’s a mystery—no one knows for sure.”  A conspiratorial gleam lit her eyes.  “She won her fame for casting the binding spell over Seelie City, and in the beginning, everyone assumed she was a human mage who came to train in the Faerie Realm.  But that was around two hundred years ago, so she either has immortal blood, or she gained immortality somewhere along the way.”

Lorien’s wings slowed to a flutter and she took a sip from her mug.  “Of course, I doubt she’d have a problem casting a permanent illusion spell to make herself look however she wants,” she mused. 

“Anyway, she’s managed to avoid publicity quite well, and there are precious few pictures of her to be found.  I came across one in an old book where she didn’t seem to have that golden glow.  But the strongest faerie magic is cast with golden dust, and I suppose prolonged use could eventually make the caster appear golden.  It sounds like the revolving protection spells around her house alone would require a constant use of power.”

“Huh,” I grunted.  “She had a bunch of canisters on her kitchen table and I saw her stir some golden powder from one of them into her tea.  Then later, she used some silver powder from another one to heal my stubbed toe and clean me up.  I didn’t see what was in the rest of them.”

“Really?” Lorien said with interest.  “Faerie healing dust is silver.  It sounds like at least some of Lauringer’s magic has been influenced by ours.”  She looked pleased by the thought.

“Do you think she’s part faerie, then?” asked Sunny. 

Lorien shrugged.  “Not necessarily.  She could have just studied our magic.  Tell me more about her Sydney.  What was she like?”

I looked up from the banking spreadsheet I was half-concentrating on.  “Well, she looked like an attractive young woman in a business suit.  She was professional, but friendly, and she seemed pretty upset about the whole unaligned soul thing.  I was surprised she was so willing to help, considering how reclusive everyone says she is.  And she didn’t think finding Balthus’ goblin would be of much use, but she agreed that proving the death djinns’ guilt might get my contract cancelled.”