Some Kind of Magic (10 page)

wondered how much Cal could see. All he had to go on about

fairy vision were tidbits about
shining
and
seeing the truth
.

“What?” Cal went with innocence. “We can"t pretend

that it"s a full moon and one of those nights where you"re

alone in your car, and you just
happen
to drive by wherever I

am?”

Ray gave a startled flinch and turned his head so Cal

couldn"t read his guilt. He never meant to do that, find Cal

like that, it was just, sometimes, with the windows down and

the moon so bright, he found himself trailing Cal through the

city and not realizing it until he saw the puff of glitter and

the small, iridescent wings.

He swallowed and thought that he should have gotten

something to drink. There honestly wasn"t an answer he

could give Cal that wouldn"t reveal too much. But not once

had he ever thought that Cal had known he was there. He

wanted to ask how or why Cal hadn"t confronted him about

it until now, but his throat went tight at the possible

answers.

“Okay,” Cal changed the subject in a light voice, like he

was granting Ray mercy, with a strange tact even a half-fairy

shouldn"t have possessed. “I"m here because it occurred to

me just now… what Ross and the boys said in there….”

“Never mind that, Daffodil.” Ray couldn"t manage much

more than the feather-soft insult. He quickly glanced back

over, watched Cal watch him in the dark, watched the

longing come and stay in Cal"s face.

“No, Ray, it made me think. What if we"re going about

this the wrong way? I mean. I know I"m only here to consult

about magic but—”

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66

“Knock it off,” Ray interrupted. “If you"d ever bothered,

you"d be detective by now.” Cal"s grin was beautiful, a flash

of light in the shadowy interior of the car.

“A situation that would have been unacceptable to most

other fairies and entirely too acceptable to my pain-in-the-

ass father, but thank you, Branigan. I"m touched. I love you

too.”

“Back to the case.” Ray was really hoping fairies

couldn"t see in the dark as well as he could, so his flush

would stay hidden. He tried to sound annoyed, but he could

almost hear Penn saying,
With a capital „T"
again. “And I

mean this case, the one you are
supposed
to be sticking your

nose into.” He also pretended that he hadn"t been wishing to

have Cal around to help with Nasreen and Audrey"s case.

Cal paused quite obviously for one moment, and then,

without actually admitting it, let the subject change to

Nasreen and Audrey anyway.

“You know, Audrey"s shop serves everything in these

cute heart-shaped boxes, ribbon and everything. Pricey, but

totally worth it. Aesthetics, Ray. They count. Hmm.” So he

had
been there. He was probably a regular and not just

keeping track of Ray"s cases. Or both, Ray instantly thought.

“Cal.”

“Ray.”

Ray inhaled to try again. “I don"t need you to….” He

couldn"t say it. Anyway, Cal would do whatever he wanted

just the same. “I saw that place and knew you"d been there,”

he said instead. Cal reeked of delight at that, even made a

sound, almost like a purr, and Ray felt a touch of guilt to

think that so little from him could make Cal so happy. He

pressed on. “If they"re friends of yours, you should know that

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67

we caught the guy. She doesn"t have to worry. The trial won"t

be pleasant, but I think Nasreen can handle it.”

“Ray,” Cal made a sound. A rude one. “Nasreen will do

whatever she has to for Audrey. Surely you sniffed that out?”

Ray turned to look out the driver"s side window. He

didn"t answer right away. He strangely didn"t want to, but

Cal was waiting. He turned back. “I didn"t think they were

sleeping together.”

“They"re not. Audrey is… I don"t think… I don"t know. I

don"t understand humans sometimes. And they aren"t the

only ones….”

“Really? All that insight and you"ve drawn a blank?” Ray

hadn"t. He looked at Cal in the dark and thought about

Audrey.
Like looking into a mirror
. “Maybe she"s….” He

couldn"t say worried, because that wasn"t it at all. “Afraid.”

There was a gasp. “Why? Why, when they both want it

so much?” Cal"s voice broke and the sadness, even for

others, made Ray shift to be nearer to him. But he bit down

so he wouldn"t respond. “What"s there to be afraid of? There"s

no reason at all to suddenly…. Or
is
it sudden?”

Ray glanced over. Cal"s longing was so intense

sometimes. Like waves of memory that hit you for no obvious

reason.

Cal straightened, and for a second Ray almost thought

the air tightened, like a spell was being worked.

“Remember when we met, Ray….” Cal had never been so

hesitant. Almost never. Ray felt himself grow warm, and as

though he could feel that, Cal shook his head. “Not exactly

then, but a little later, when you were so beautifully naked

and just red all over with embarrassment and—”

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68

“Cal,” Ray warned. But of course he
vividly
remembered

that night, and Cal"s words.
Ray Ray. Look at you. Look at

you. You can… just drag me… anywhere. Anywhere you want

to take me, and I"m there. There you are, and here I am. Just

take me.

That probably wasn"t what Cal was talking about. But

Ray didn"t feel like reliving the past right now.

“The case.” He grabbed at it.

“This case or the one we had then?” Cal floundered for a

moment then yanked himself back upright. He was

breathing hard. “Right.” He whipped out a pink box. Cookie

sticks covered in strawberry cream. Sweet, sweet strawberry,

mixed with the clean warm scent of him and that

want/need/want
that never went away around Ray. It made

Ray want to crush strawberries against Cal"s mouth. He

inhaled and pulled at his tie. Cal didn"t seem to notice. “That

list of his enemies.”

“Yes?” His answer was short, but Ray was starting to

think Cal ate around him deliberately to push him over the

edge. A stick went in and out of his mouth before he

crunched it. Ray could close his eyes, but he couldn"t stop

breathing
.

He grabbed at the seat then loosened his collar.

“I read those files.”

“
All
of them?” That was a distracting thought. But then,

Ray instantly reasoned, with the amount of sugar in him Cal

had to be borderline manic. Add to that his natural

brilliance, and it was no wonder his father had worried that

he would need to be grounded.

“Yes, and your name came up a few times. Arresting

officer, etc….” Cal cleared his throat and put his treat away.

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69

The sign of tact from him made Ray suddenly very nervous.

“Also… also two of them are already dead. Accidents, the

reports said. Whoever investigated only noted them as

accidents.”

Ray had read that too, glancing over it because the

investigators hadn"t flagged them. He hadn"t read cause of

death. He sat up.

“Broken necks?” He asked, but Cal was already

nodding. Ray"s breath whooshed out of him, but he looked

straight ahead and refocused on the station, some officers

smoking outside, others milling around between shifts. “My

name is probably there because I make a lot of arrests.”

“Branigan on the hunt.” He jerked his head to the side

and saw Cal"s small, wistful smile. “You"re probably right.”

“But….” He couldn"t
not
mention that. “I"ll tell Penn

tomorrow.”

“Um….” Cal fidgeted, leaning back carefully to

accommodate his wings. “That"s it? Because, what if I"m

right? What if… well….” He hummed anxiously, shifted his

feet and then held up his hands and spoke in a rush. “You

should know that just now I called and asked Bens to put a

protection spell on you. Don"t be mad!”

His wings made a stuttering sound as they tried to flap

against the seat.

Ray opened his mouth, closed it, then tried to open it

again.

A goddamn… a protection…. If there was anything
more

annoying than a protection spell….

“I don"t need protecting.” He was a werewolf and a

detective. The last thing he needed was Cal worrying about

him not being able to defend himself.

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70

As proof of that, he was growling, but he barely noticed

with the way his soul automatically sang out at the evidence

of Cal"s concern for him. It made him warm inside. Outside.

Everywhere. Wafts of worry were hitting him, touching and

only too real. Worry and want and strawberry cream, and

damn it, a protection spell? He tried to only think of that,

and not what would happen if he pulled Cal close.

“Really?” Cal was defiant even through his nerves.

“When you go home,
alone
, to that big, lonely, empty
cave
of

a house, you can protect yourself?” He sat up, moving

enough that the stuttering of his wings sounded like a

bicycle wheel with a baseball card in the spokes. He sucked

in a breath then lowered his voice seductively. His hand

attempted to cross the space between them. Ray wanted to

let it. “Unless you want me around with you tonight, Ray

Ray. To keep you safe… after all, there"s nothing scary about

little old me, right?”

Ray"s heart hit his ribs so solidly that Cal should have

heard it.

“It"s been a while since last time in your house… years

in fact. Remember.” Cal moved his hips, his entire body, with

a restlessness Ray understood. It was the second time in a

few minutes Cal had mentioned that night, and Ray tried to

follow his point and not to wonder if Cal was haunted by the

same memories, or to think once again about that painful

realization in his living room and feeling so raw from it that

he hadn"t noticed until it was too late that Cal had followed

him into his bathroom. That Cal had been on the other side

of his shower door, waiting for Ray to emerge from his

shower.

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71

“Cal—Parker.” He couldn"t quite recover from the shock of

Cal being there with him, and how much his mind and body

and heart seemed to welcome him, and from the idea that this

half-fairy knew anything at all about his kind.

The air was too tight, like there was a spell at work, or

some kind of magic. He looked at Cal and opened his mouth.

“Parker. I told you to leave.”

“No, you didn"t, actually.” Cal hummed again. “Not

explicitly.” Ray grunted and put his hands up high to the

smooth tile by the specially installed showerhead. He was

too… naked… for this.

“Then I"ll be explicit—”

“Please. Be as explicit as you want, Branigan,” Cal

whispered back, and Ray turned, trying to make out his form

through the frosted and steamy glass. But whatever had

compelled Parker to follow him into the bathroom had stopped

him before he"d come into the shower too.

If he had…. Ray swallowed. He couldn"t speak as he

saw himself lifting Cal up and fucking him in the corner of the

shower, Cal"s hand grabbed for the showerhead, his body

wet, bare, the floor swirling with sparkles as his cries echoed

off the tile.

Ray jerked himself back from the memory, furious with

himself. With Cal. His Cal. He smelled like hope.

“Get out of my car, Callalily,” Ray ordered, surprisingly

calm considering the way his heart and body were

screaming. But he wasn"t going to take Cal"s concern and

hurt him with it. He just… couldn"t be around him now.

“But, Ray—”

“Now.”

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72

He did. Ray"s tone apparently saying clearly that he"d

had enough. Cal wasn"t pouting this time but genuinely

frowning. With worry, Ray knew that, but he didn"t breathe

easier until Cal had closed the door behind him.