“So the Dark Fae are striking back.” I sat back, thinking for a moment. “Is there a way we can just tell the Dark Fae to back off? I mean, if Cernunnos and Morgana have set us on this case, can we just tell them to knock it off?”
“No. We can only intercede and stop things. They can’t argue our actions, but we can’t stop them from trying. It’s a complicated matter and this has been going on for thousands of years. But things weren’t nearly so dicey until the last couple hundred years, when the cities grew and technology became so rampant. Now there’s so much chance for collateral damage that we have to intervene. However, at least we know who we’re fighting and how to stop him.”
Talia cleared her throat. “You have to kill him, completely. You can’t just send him back to his realm. Once Kuveo has been set on track and the sacrifices have been made, there’s no pulling him back. Not even the Dark Fae could stop him, not even if they begged, although they were the ones who started this matter in the first place. It’s like setting off a bomb that you can’t disarm.”
“Lovely,” Herne said. “All right, the question is, how do we find him?”
“Should we warn Névé about the attack?” I still didn’t fully understand how these matters worked.
“We can’t. That would be intervening directly. We can stop the attack, but we can’t bring it to light. The Fae courts have been warring since time began. But it’s an underground war. It’s understood on both sides that attacks will be made, but if we were to overtly warn Névé that her life is in danger, then she would have no choice but to declare open war on the Dark Court. That would start a catastrophic cycle of destruction.”
“How so?”
“If the Fae were to openly declare war, they’d involve the entire world instead of just a few sacrifices. There would be no hiding from the destruction.”
I groaned. “The politics are more complicated than just about any nation on earth.”
“Actually, I’ve seen worse,” Talia said, slipping a piece of gum in her mouth.
“Then what do we do next?”
“Did you find out anything else?” Herne asked.
Yutani shook his head. “If you could give me a couple hours, I can probably pinpoint the area in which we need to look. I was getting close but not quite there yet.”
Herne slapped the table. “Then we’re all on the clock tonight. We’ll meet back here at 9 p.m. Angel, you don’t have to come in if you don’t want to. You won’t be going out in the field.”
She gave me a long look, then turned back to Herne. “No, I’ll stay here. There’s still enough here to do that I’ll just stay and organize more files.” She motioned to Viktor, Talia, and Yutani. “Anybody want pizza?”
While they decided on what toppings they wanted, Herne and I walked out to the main waiting room.
“I suggest we put off our cheeseburgers till later,” I said. “Pizza sounds fine to me.”
Herne glanced back at the break room door, which was closed. He smiled, then drew me toward him and leaned down to press his lips against mine.
It took everything I had to not pull away, even as the fear of what might happen was ricocheting through my body. But so was his kiss, and I leaned into it, the warmth of his lips warming mine, the warmth of his body flaming my own desires as he pressed himself to me. He was gentle, yet his arms held me firmly. I felt like I was swimming in a woodland pond, under a lazy, sunlit afternoon. The room was sparkling, and so were his eyes, as I gazed into his face.
“I need to tell you what you’re getting into,” I said.
He shook his head. “Shhh. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, and I won’t again if you don’t want me to. But I had to kiss you, Ember. I couldn’t not kiss you. Was it so wrong of me?”
As the break room door opened, I quickly pulled away. But I glanced at him with a shy smile.
“No. No, it wasn’t wrong at all. My heart’s racing.” I paused. “Ever since we met, there’s been something…” I paused as the others emerged from the break room. “We’ll talk later.”
As we chimed in with our suggestions for pizza, my body was still resonating from the strength of his kiss. But all I did was ask for sausage, extra cheese, and mushrooms, when what I wanted to do was to drag him into his office and rip off his clothes.
WHILE WE WERE waiting for Yutani to finish his analysis of the video, Viktor and Herne went over their weapons, making sure everything was ready. They were in the armory, polishing blades and making sure that arrow tips were sharp. Talia was helping Yutani, and I returned to the waiting room with Angel to help her sort out some of the file folders.
“I’m sorry you can’t go on your date,” she said, eyeing me closely.
The kiss had disconcerted me as much as it had aroused me, but right now I wanted to focus on the matter at hand.
“Well, I’m sorry you can’t go car shopping tonight.”
“Touché.” She handed me a stack of file folders. “Here, can you put one of these colored dots on each of these files? If you put it on the top right of the folder. There,” she said, pointing to where she wanted it. “I’m color coding things to make them easier to find. Blue for closed cases, green for open, red for problem cases, and yellow for cold cases.”
“What color are you using for cases like the one we’re on now, for the ones that Cernunnos and Morgana send us on?” I started sticking the brightly colored dots on the file folders.
“Those get orange. My least favorite color.” She grinned at me. “If someone had told me a week ago that I would end up the secretary for a divine PI, I would have laughed in their face. But you know, I may have a knack for this. I worked an office at my last job, but they really didn’t respect me at all and I felt underutilized. Here, I feel like I can actually participate in what’s happening instead of just be directed around. Although,” she looked up at me soberly, “I really wish it hadn’t come down to having DJ sent away. But Herne talked to me today, and he said he’ll set up a video conference with DJ this weekend. So I get to talk to him for an hour then.” The smile on her face told me all that I needed to know.
“He’s a good sort, Herne is. They all are, actually.” I realize that I really did like Viktor and Yutani, and even Talia, even though she still made me uncomfortable.
“Yeah, that I can agree with.” She paused, then handed me another stack of files. “These all get blue dots. You know, I was having a talk with Talia earlier today while you were out with Viktor and Herne. She’s had a rough life. She told me that Herne took her in when nobody else would touch her. Apparently she is not popular among her own sort anymore, especially since she lost her powers. She said it was okay to tell you.”
“I guess we’re all just a bunch of misfits, aren’t we?” I snickered as I stuck more dots on more file folders. “Well, at least we get to hang out more together now. Speaking of which, this weekend let’s go house hunting.”
She nodded. “If you’re sure about it? I could find my own place, but honestly, I’d rather live with you.” She rolled her eyes. “Gas leak, my ass.”
“As you and I always suspected, the cops are on the take. I just didn’t realize it would be from the Fae. If anybody was paying them off I would have expected it to be the vampires.”
“Really? The vampires don’t have to pay off anybody, do they? They’re so damned powerful. In fact, I’m surprised they aren’t vying with the Fae for control.”
I laughed and handed her back the stack of file folders, accepting another in its place.
“Think about it. The vampires are more interested in monetary power and financial empires. I have a feeling that they are buying their way into power in a different way. The Fae are probably too disorganized to see it. I doubt anything good can come from it, either way, but I have a feeling that by the time the Fae realize just how much control the vampires have, it’s going to be too late.”