Some Kind of Magic (3 page)

way he"d used a spell, especially a complex one.

Some Kind of Magic |
R. Cooper

15

“From her description, it was a man, a human man.

And he didn"t smash the place until
after
he saw her,” Penn

added as they reached the elevator.

Ray ran a hand down his tie as he thought about the

vicious nature of the attack on a creature as lighthearted as

a fairy.

Penn frowned, more for the case than at him. “And

„You"re not supposed to be here!"?”

He knew what she was thinking. A comment like that

could mean any sort of prejudice at work here. Or just

simple surprise. Either way it was troubling.

At the thought, his stomach rumbled. He wasn"t in the

mood to raid the vending machine anymore, but something

sweet still lingered in his nose, on his tongue. Nasreen

probably.

Penn yawned again, yanking him back to the moment.

“We need to find out who has keys to that front door

and the last time the lock was changed. Ex-employees might

not know that Nasreen sometimes works there at night,

now.”

Ray hid a sigh at the thought of someone looking for a

quick hundred suddenly confronted with a witness and

overreacting. Just like that, burglary becomes attempted

murder. Of course, that only explained hitting Nasreen once.

Coming back to hit her again instead of fleeing…. Twice like

that would have been murder for a human. Could have been

murder for Nasreen too, if the elves who worked overnight in

the shoe shop across the street hadn"t noticed all the broken

glass and called 911.

“I don"t like it.”

Some Kind of Magic |
R. Cooper

16

“When do you ever? Especially when a fairy is involved,

and we both know why that is, Ray.” Penn was more direct

when tired and generally in a bad mood without a full night"s

sleep. When the doors opened, they stepped inside the

elevator, crowding a young doctor into a corner. He checked

Penn out anyway, obviously, peering around Ray.

“You should hear her singing voice,” Ray informed the

man helpfully, taking her direct comments and aiming them

right back at her. Penn socked him in the arm. The doctor

stared harder at Penn, into those eyes, and then tried to

unobtrusively push himself further back into the corner.

Usually she just flashed her gun to get rid of guys who didn"t

interest her.

Ray sighed again. He and Penn weren"t threats, but of

course, people always believed the worst parts of the stories

about Beings and never looked at the truth right in front of

them. It had been decades since the Beings had come out

into the open. People should have been over this by now. His

shoulders fell.

“You should get some sleep, Ray,” Penn offered when

they were on the ground floor. “You don"t seem rested.” She

paused. “You never do, anymore.”

Ray nearly growled at her. She knew why that was, but

a tired Penn was a pushy Penn to the people she cared

about.

“I"ll see you tomorrow. We"ll re-canvass and see if that

jeweler on the other side of the street had security cameras.”

“Yes, Ray.” Penn made a face at him and then pulled

him back with a sleepy grin. “But about Zucchero, don"t you

think Cal would—”

“No. I don"t. Good
night
, Penelope.”

Some Kind of Magic |
R. Cooper

17

Though of course he did. Cal would love that shop, and

they both knew it. Any fairy would, even a half-fairy would

have been walking on clouds in a store like that. The thought

had occurred to Ray the moment he"d gotten a good look

around the place. Cal had probably already been there, but

when Ray had lifted his head to inhale, the candy scents had

only been from the store"s supply and those had been tainted

with blood and a hint of red wine.

It had been two weeks since the last time he"d smelled—

seen—Cal, two weeks since the last full moon, and it was

taking its toll on him despite his best efforts.

As though that thought was on his face, Penn patted his

arm and then steered him toward the parking lot, to the car,

so they could both go home and try to snatch a few hours

rest.

IT TURNED out the jeweler was a dragon. Ray had never met

a dragon before, but he"d always been curious, as dragons

were the only other creatures to ever be repeatedly compared

to Weres. They were shifters in an entirely different way from

Penn.

When dealing with humans, and also the police, it

turned out, Huojin wore human skin, albeit scaly and tinged

with vibrant reds and golds that made him look like

burnished metal in the right light. He also smoked

constantly, and Ray had barely made it out without rubbing

his nose raw. But at least Huojin had voluntarily given them

his security footage from the night before, offering Ray an

opal to stay with him “a little longer.”

Some Kind of Magic |
R. Cooper

18

Evidently, dragons found werewolves just as fascinating.

Ray had politely insisted he was on duty. Penn had snorted,

and not quietly. Ray had then nicely refrained from

commenting that, though many human laws had been

changed over the years to make allowances for Beings,

prostitution in all forms was still illegal in this state.

“If only you weren"t already taken.” Penn laughed again

as they came up from the viewing room, after spending

hours at the station watching the footage. Every time she

thought about the dragon, she started cracking up. Ray just

snarled at her, because he wasn"t taken, exactly, and she

damn well knew it. His snarl died as he reached his desk

and saw the glazed donut with sprinkles on a spread out

napkin waiting for him next to a paper cup full of coffee from

the cart outside the station.

He always got coffee from the cart because the mug he"d

brought to use at work had gone missing months ago, and

he"d never replaced it. He hadn"t a chance for any coffee this

morning, however, and looked around the bullpen, couldn"t

help it, but there wasn"t a trace of sparkle. Penn met his

stare.

“Don"t say it,” he warned her, coming around to stare at

his gift. He knew who had brought it. They both did, though

he nearly closed his eyes when he inhaled the sweet

lingering scent around his desk, like snickerdoodles and hot

chocolate on a cold day and
want/want/want
. His blood

started to pound, flushing his skin with heat.

He felt like a high schooler with a crush. Any minute

now he was going to need a notebook to hold in front of his

crotch. He sighed.

Some Kind of Magic |
R. Cooper

19

“You idiot,” Penn said, but lightly, then headed over to

the printer, where the stills of their possible killer should be

coming up. “No wonder those two only wanted to talk to you

last night. There must be a mark all over you that says

you"re in the same boat, so to speak. Maybe a big sign over

your head that only fairies and the lovelorn can see that

says: This wolf is
taken
.” She sang the last word, her voice

ringing, before he threw a wadded up ball of paper at her.

She stuck out her tongue and then pulled their shots

from the printer to look over with him.

“I"m not taken.” He pulled at his tie. Penn didn"t even

look up.

“With a capital „T".”

Ray snatched the pictures out of her hands.

There were a few restaurants and two bars at the other

end of the pretty, pricey boulevard where Zucchero was

located, but most people had headed to the parking garage

at the end of their night. One man, obviously intoxicated,

had gone the other way, stumbling determinedly past

Huojin"s jewelry store just before two a.m. Right toward

Zucchero.

It was worth a shot. There had been no usable prints at

the scene, but the techs had agreed that the intruder had

used a key to get in. A dishtowel had been found next to the

register, possibly used to wipe down the surfaces, but with

all that broken glass, there had been blood everywhere,

tentatively typed as both Nasreen"s and then someone

human"s. That could be good, if the DNA test they"d ordered

ever got through the backlog and their perp happened to be

in the system.

Some Kind of Magic |
R. Cooper

20

Penn muttered something dark about that remote

possibility. Ray agreed. They"d show the surveillance still to

Miss Conti and maybe get a name to the face. He grabbed

his gun from his desk so they could head out. Then he

paused, his stomach rumbling, as it nearly always did. He

snatched up the donut and ate it in one gulp, then took his

coffee too. Plain black, and very hot.

Very hot meant recent, and he inhaled again.

“It might have been a casual robbery, but that ended

once the guy saw Nasreen,” he commented once they were in

the car and on their way to that part of town. Sipping the

coffee put a smile on his face that didn"t belong there. He put

it in the cup holder.

“Some psychological insight would be useful here, even

if there wasn"t any magic involved. Perhaps we should ask

the captain if a consultant is available.” Penn was not being

nice, even if Ray secretly shared her belief that consultants

could be helpful.

“He"s already on a case,” he answered without thinking,

picking up his coffee again to feel the heat against his

fingertips. Then he froze, glancing sideways. “Are you sure

you aren"t part pixie?”

“Very sure. Mama got around, but not
that
much,” Penn

tossed back, though wincing immediately afterward. They

had a longstanding joke that every time she mentioned her

mother, her mother somehow sensed it through a magic

unknown to Beings and humans alike—a magic known only

to mothers who enjoyed making their children feel guilty.

Within hours of speaking her mother"s name, Penn"s mother

would call her. It happened every time, like clockwork.

Some Kind of Magic |
R. Cooper

21

Ray gave Penn a bloodthirsty grin, pleased that all the

crap he"d taken from Penn during the past twenty-four

hours, and a great deal of their partnership, wouldn"t go

unpunished. He was less smug a second later when she

recovered and pushed the idea of consultants again.

“Think about it, Ray. What if there"s some fairy secret to

helping Nasreen remember? Or just in getting her to trust

us?”

“Just being trustworthy should do that. Turn here.”

“I remember the way, Ray. I
was
here with you last

night.”

Ray made a noise, because she
had
been about to turn

in the wrong direction, but didn"t comment. Anyway, it was

clear from how Penn was talking that she had meant one

particular
consultant as much as Ray had, the consultant

who was currently assisting Aguirre on his imp murder case,

but whom Ray knew for a fact had already been in the

station today. When he drank his coffee, he could detect

traces of unimaginable happiness, and wide, wide smiles.

Fairies, he made himself think, were too excitable. It

was just coffee.

“You should see your face right now.” Penn parked the

car and got out before he could comment, leaving him to

follow her as they approached Zucchero. The display window

was boarded up, but the front door was open, and they could

hear broken glass being moved around.

There was a hint of something in the air inside too,

though it had to be Ray"s imagination toying with him. It

wasn"t just the candy smells that belonged there. But after a

moment, he decided it was probably that Nasreen and her

fairy-longing were confusing his senses.

Some Kind of Magic |
R. Cooper

22

He didn"t get a chance to ask if they"d had a visitor in

any case. Both women were talking and joking as they swept

up shards of glass and candy that had to be thrown out and

dumping them into large garbage bags. There was new candy

too, delicately laid out on regular plates on one counter:

maple fudge squares and pale pink cubes covered in

powdered sugar. Ray"s stomach growled.