Charming (Exiled Book 3) (11 page)

Charming ran his hand through his hair. “How bad is it?”

“Bad enough that they didn’t want me to know. Which means it’s really bad.”

“Dandy. What do you suggest? We can’t tell our kids that they can fight with humans. You and I both know what would happen. That’s why there’s a zero tolerance rule in place.”

“You’re so worried about what the humans are going to think of us, you’re forgetting to worry about what our young are going to think of humans. If we’re going to keep our kids under control, they need to do the same. It’s not my job to have all the answers, Charming. It’s yours! And you need to fix this. Now!”

She grabbed the door to Scar’s office and stalked out slamming it back against the wall on her way.

Charming let out a deep breath damning the fact that she was right. Absolutely right. Human young needed to be taught
mutual
respect. He knew just the way to do it and he was glad for Dandelion’s challenge. It should have been done a long time before.

The three kids had watched Dandy stomp toward Charming. When he followed her and disappeared somewhere in the back, Dread said, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Where are you going?” Raze asked.

“I’m going to try the pale ale. You think you can manage without me for two minutes?”

“Thought you said
a
minute.”

“Talk to Ember. Study your navel. I don’t care. I’ll be back when I’m back.”

Dread eased up to the bar next to Ana. When she turned her head to see who was there, he gave her his warmest smile. “Hello.”

Ana could see that Dread was young, maybe in his late teens, but he was also gorgeous, especially wearing that sardonic smile. He also had a relaxed, confident way that said that women never turned him down.

“Hi,” she said.

Scar appeared in front of them. “What’ll it be?”

“Pale ale. Please. I’m at the table in the corner with Dandelion.”

“I know who you are,” Scar said and stepped away.

Dread chuckled. “Friendly guy. I’m Dread.”

“Ana. So you’re one of Dandelion’s ‘kids’?”

He nodded slowly. “I was one of Dandelion’s kids. Now I live here in the city. At Town House. You here alone?” he asked, knowing full well she was with Charming.

She chuckled and shook her head. “Far from it.”

“Does that mean you’re in a relationship?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Look. You’re really, really cute, but I’m not in the market or on the market.”

“What an interesting way to put things. I’m going to say that all adds up to being in a relationship. And that’s a shame.”

She didn’t want to ask the question because she thought it might encourage him, but it was on the tip of her tongue and just tumbled out somehow. “Is it?”

He smiled like he’d won a little victory and didn’t stop even though he saw Dandelion reenter the bar out of the corner of his eye. He figured Charming wouldn’t be far behind. So when Scar set the ale down in front of Dread, he took hold of the tankard handle, leaned into Ana just slightly and said, “Till next time.”

He was gone before Charming came back to the bar. “So where were we?” he said.

The food arrived before Ana could answer that question.

Charming looked down at his plate, impulsively picked up an onion ring and took a bite. “Damn. That’s good.”

Ana grinned from ear to ear. “I made that.”

He looked at her like he couldn’t believe it. “You did?!?” He returned her grin, making her feel like she’d won a medal. “Then you can say that your day was a hundred times more productive than mine because, damn, these are good.”

“Well,” she wiggled her head around, “to be honest, I didn’t fry them or pull them out of the fryer, but I did dip them in the stuff.”

“What stuff?” he said.

“Well, first you have to dip them in a mixture of milk and eggs. Then you cover them in flour with just the right amount of salt in it. Then you do it again. There’s an art to it.”

“No doubt. These are the best onion rings I’ve ever tasted.” He smiled as he took a bite of another one. “What else did you learn?”

“Chopping. Filling pots with water. You know. That stuff. The real work starts tomorrow.”

In her excitement she might have said more than she intended.

“Oh yeah? What’s the
real
work?”

She bit her bottom lip trying to decide how to answer. He was going to find out eventually anyway. Probably. So she reasoned she might as well tell the truth.

“Cookies. Scar gave me the job on the condition that I learn to make the best cookies around. Because
somebody
told him that I suggested he offer cookies.” She pinned Charming with a pointed look because the best defense is always a great offense.

“Damn,” he said.

“Yeah. So I went over to the bakery on Persimmon and told them that, in the interest of human hybrid relations, the Council, and you in particular, would consider it a grand gesture if they would teach me how to make cookies.”

Charming’s mouth was open. “You didn’t.”

She nodded. “Yep. And he said yes. Be there at four o’clock tomorrow morning.”

“Four o’clock,” he repeated drily.

She ducked her head and offered a small smile. “For once I’ll be leaving the apartment
before
you do.”

Charming wasn’t crazy about the name dropping, but she seemed so excited, and happy, he couldn’t bring himself to scold. Happiness coupled with a sense of accomplishment was a good look on Ana. A really good look. He compared Ana in her present state to the girl Rosie had dropped off and concluded that there had been a change, decidedly for the better.

“It’s not likely that I’m going to let you walk to the bakery alone in the dark at four o’clock in the morning. Not with…” He paused, catching himself before he ruined the good mood with talk about the murders. “I need to go in early anyway.”

“No, you don’t. I don’t need you to babysit me, Charming.”

“I know, but give me a break on this. If anything did happen to you after Rosie told me to protect you, well, I shudder to think what she might do. Turn me into a salamander or something.”

Ana cocked her head. She’d been there long enough to pick up the habit from the hybrids she associated with. “She could do that?”

He nodded. “Wouldn’t put it past her.” He mirrored Ana’s pose and cocked his head. “Hey. Who told you about the Human Hybrid Council?”

“Um,” she looked around. “I can’t reveal my sources.”

Charming pressed his lips together. “Somebody gave you the idea though. Didn’t they?”

She picked up another onion ring and offered it to him. “Have another? What happened with your sister-in-law? She looked mad.”

He lifted his chin and scratched his neck. “Human kids are giving her kids a hard time.”

Ana’s initial surprise turned into laughter. “No. Really.”

“It probably does sound absurd. We have a hard and fast rule about not touching humans. Seems the human boys are taking advantage of that. I guess the hybrid kids have shown so much self-control that the human kids don’t really get just how much fire they’re playing with. But they’re gonna find out.”

“What does that mean?”

“Dandy told me to fix this. So I’ve got an idea about how to shock the humans into exercising the same level of self-restraint.”

“How?”

“I’m going to go around to all the schools, pull a couple of hybrid kids out of the assembly at random, and have them show what hybrids can do. We’ll use store mannequins for the demonstration. I think when the human kids see just how fast and efficiently hybrids could destroy a mannequin, the baiting may stop.”

She looked thoughtful as she finished chewing her bite of flank steak. She swallowed and said, “Wow. You are kind of smart, aren’t you? I guess I understand why you’re Leader.”

Charming felt a flutter of pride. He liked being admired by Ana. Maybe too much. His eyes drifted down to her mouth when she took a bite of carrot stick and his mind instantly jumped to things he could imagine doing with that mouth. The fact that he hadn’t been laid in a while was putting extra pressure on the point so he resolved right then to do something about that before he began making overtures to his ward.

He knew she was blissfully ignorant of the fact that hybrids typically have big sexual appetites, which is why he forgave her when she moved in sensual ways. The way she dropped her voice lower when she wanted to be cute and funny didn’t help either. It made him all too curious about what kind of sounds she’d make when coupling.

Jerking his gaze back to his plate, he said, “I’m Leader because nobody else wanted the job.”

She chuckled. “I know that’s not true.”

A couple of guys in police uniforms came up behind Charming before she had a chance to finish that thought.

When he turned around, she heard the one closest to Charming say, “There’s been another one, sir.”

Charming turned back toward the bar just long enough for Ana to see him close his eyes and expel a big breath. He gave her an apologetic glance just before he slid off the stool and told them, “Let’s go.”

Her eyes followed him all the way to the door. She could feel his frustration and was witnessing the toll the tension was taking on him every day by watching his weariness grow. Lines of tension and tiredness were showing around his eyes and looking out of place in somebody so young.

She wished there was something she could do to give him a respite. He couldn’t even get through a meal without the weight of the world landing in the middle of an unfinished supper.

Like everyone else in the pub, everybody at Dandy’s table watched Charming leave with the police. They might as well have made an announcement. Another body. Another murder of a human either committed by a hybrid or made to look like it was committed by a hybrid. Worried looks and murmurs rippled through the bar like a wave.

Dandy lowered her voice and leaned into the table. “I want the three of you to be extra, extra vigilant while this is going on. If the killer isn’t found soon, humans are going to stop asking for answers and start looking for blood. Our blood.”

“The hybrid hate groups are already protesting outside Town House. They know that everybody who lives there is hybrid,” Ember said.

Dandy’s eyes widened in alarm. “And you’re just now telling me this?” She looked from one to the next with accusation on her face. “Finish up here. We’re going to go get your things and you’re coming home with me.”

Raze put his big hand over her forearm laughing. “Overreacting much?”

“No! I’m not overreacting! If they’re already getting away with targeting you, it’s gone from iffy to dangerous. And I’m not taking chances with my babies.”

Dread cleared his throat. “Well, first of all, take another look. We’re not babies. Second, assholes are a fact of life. As long as there are people who are different, they’re going to be playing their little games. ‘Those hybrids are taking our jobs.’ ‘Those hybrids are taking our women.’ Yada yada. Usual stuff. Nothing new. Never mind that they’re the ones who made us.”

Dandy studied Dread. “You have a good reason to be angry,” she said carefully. “But we can’t respond with anger. That leads to conflict.

“We’ve lived in peace for a long time. Well, six years seems like a long time for us since it’s the first peace we’ve ever known. I can’t tell you how much we need to hold on to it. We have to control our emotions.”

“Why do
we
have to control our emotions when they don’t control theirs?” Dread challenged, eyes sparking.

“Because we have more to lose, Dread. We may be superior to the humans in a lot of ways, but there are a lot more of them and they possess weapons that are supreme equalizers. That’s how they were able to keep us in captivity for generations.”