Some Kind of Magic (11 page)

Then he exhaled so hard his hands shook.

HE WENT home, but he was barely inside for half an hour

before he knew the sight of his living room, his bedroom, and

especially his bathroom weren"t going to let him sleep, no

matter how tired he was.

He hesitated over a few numbers, friends, hook ups

from a long time ago, Lex, and then swore and decided work

would have to do. He called Nasreen again and wasn"t

surprised when she didn"t answer. It could mean anything:

that she was busy, that she didn"t like being involved with

the police, that she didn"t like Ray. She wasn"t in any trouble

that he knew of.

Nonetheless, he was awake, and his protective instincts,

along with a few others he intended on continuing to deny,

were on overdrive, so he slipped his coat back on with

sudden urgency and grabbed his keys. He"d known deep

down without Cal saying so that she would testify or do

whatever she had to for Audrey—Miss Conti. But he still had

to see that she was all right.

Any half-fairy could mock him for being soft and too

worried later. He was in the fairy part of town in minutes,

driving past strings of decorative mini-lights, and yard upon

yard of twirling ribbons that had been strung around all the

streetlights, and a succession of trees almost always in

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73

bloom no matter what time of year it was, and grassy lots

filled with flowers and ponds and toadstools.

Los Cerros was supposedly proud of its vibrant fairy

community, had even renamed the central street in this

neighborhood Seelie Court in their honor. Yet it had taken

someone as well-known and connected as Cal"s father to get

the city and the PD to even
consider
a fairy consultant at the

department in lieu of an actual fairy officer. It was no wonder

the police weren"t exactly trusted by other Beings, why even

Cal would assume that Ray would reject his presence out of

hand when they"d first met.

Ray could have, though not for the reasons Cal had

thought then. All the warnings, explanations, caveats, that

Cal"s father had given him had not been enough to prepare

Ray for the sparkly, half-dressed tease flirting with him one

minute and revealing too much knowledge about him and

the case the next.

Three days. It had taken Ray three days to see the

obvious when he should have known it from the second he"d

first stumbled over his own words to stare at Cal like he was

the most beautiful thing he"d ever seen, like pure joy, even

with his arms crossed and a sulky expression on his face

right until he"d turned to meet Ray.

Of course, he
was
the most beautiful thing Ray had ever

seen, but at the time Ray had just thought it was the fairy

allure. The glamour. The same thing that had made Cal

smell so good to him, had made his every word somehow

innately fascinating. Now of course, he knew that his body

had been trying to tell him what his brain had still been

figuring out: that Cal was everything he"d ever wanted.

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74

It was no wonder that he"d let himself be taken off guard

by Cal"s appearance in his home. Standing there in pants

he"d had to throw on, with his house filled with the scents of

the sex he"d just had with another man, the truth had finally

hit him and hit him hard.

Ray swallowed.

If he wanted, Cal could be close to him that very

moment, giving him that look he had first given him in the

station, like Ray was chocolate wrapped in gold foil. Cal most

likely lived around here. Ray wasn"t sure, but it was easy to

picture. He"d never been to Cal"s house as he"d never let

himself look at Cal"s address information, not trusting the

wolf not to find it on those bright nights and claim it, to run

in and claim Cal too. But he thought of it now, Cal could be

close. If he wanted it would only take minutes to find him.

He could apologize for everything: lying, kicking him out of

his car, his home, or just pull him up and give Cal the kiss

he"d been asking for, for the past two years.

Instead, he parked the car, yanking up the parking

break with too much force.

There was a cacophony of scent hitting him from all

directions the moment he was out of the car. Baked goods

and days at the beach and the perfect bowl of ramen

noodles. Violets and cannabis and pure, clean soap.

Peppermint. Baby powder. Yet he wouldn"t even have to try

hard to find Cal among all of that perfection.

Fighting away the thought because that wasn"t why he

was there, he arrived at Nasreen"s doorstep, knocking and

hoping the information on her state ID was correct. He had

no idea why he jumped when she swung open the door. But

he started, almost guiltily.

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75

Her fairy allure was stronger up close. She"d put on a

short, toga-like robe to answer the door, but it fell off one

shoulder. Her legs were visible above the knee. She smelled

less of candy now, outside the shop, and more like starry

nights, the moon on the water, but her sparkle was like

polished sand. He detected salt too, faint and bitter, but this

time he knew the source. Her eyes were barely dimmed by

the tinge of red around them.

It stole his breath. He had never seen a fairy"s tears. He

hadn"t believed they were real. He instantly wanted to know

who had made her cry and punch him in the face and then

wasn"t certain if it was just the sight of her tears or his usual

tendencies to hunt down criminals.

Branigan on the hunt.
Cal, naturally, hadn"t been too far

off with that statement.

“Detective!” Nasreen hopped back only to pounce

forward when he stepped inside. “Wait, what, is it Audrey?

Has he come back? Has he hurt her? That ass—”

“It"s fine. She"s
fine
. That"s what we"ve been trying to tell

you all day.” Ray stared until she was still, or at least

everything about her but her wings and glitter were still,

then glanced around her house. It was tiny. He instantly had

the urge to hunch his shoulders.

“We caught him, and he"s not getting out anytime soon.

I made sure of it.” His huff of air was
almost
a satisfied

growl. Nasreen stopped.

“Do you do that for everyone? This, for everyone? Show

up at their house and call them and….” She waved a hand.

She could have at least said thank you. Ray focused on the

wisteria vine that was growing
through
a cracked window

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76

inside her house. It wasn"t his job to repair her home. “Is

this because of Cal, because….”

“I just wanted you to know. He"s in jail. Audr—Miss

Conti is safe. You"re safe.” Her eyes were steady on him, and

he remembered anew that one of the fairy curses was

supposed to be showing people the truth. It was just a story

of course, but he had to tear his eyes away from the creeping

vine to stare impassively back at her. “If you"d answered my

calls, I would have said it over the phone. She"s safe.” He

was actually surprised that she hadn"t already known that.

Somehow he"d assumed that she"d be with Audrey or would

have seen her in the past hours.

But then it wasn"t a surprise, not after seeing the

shimmering trails on her cheeks, knowing as he did that

Audrey hadn"t accepted her attentions.

Nasreen instantly relaxed, melting down onto her sofa

and then blinking back up at him.

“I am so very glad to hear that,” she admitted with a

sigh, as though that hadn"t been obvious to everyone.

“Audrey is… I have not found anyone like her. Not in my

lifetime.”

Again, the loveliness of Miss Conti"s hands aside, Ray

didn"t understand it. Maybe it was simply that he preferred

men. Or maybe fairies just liked to chase after what they

couldn"t have, which was a weak argument even in his own

mind, because there was nothing guaranteed to make you

more miserable than wanting what you couldn"t have, and

fairies were never miserable for long if they could help it.

He tossed his head, then gestured for Nasreen to close

her robe, a gesture she ignored or didn"t comprehend. Ray

went back to the case, the work.

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77

He wanted a scotch. Maybe he ought to drop in on

Calvin Parker when this was over. He and Cal had their

disagreements, mostly over Cal"s career from what Ray could

tell, but Ray had always found that a talk with Calvin Parker

got him back on point.

“You"ll have to testify to keep him there. ID him out of a

photo lineup.” Ray should have brought one with him. If he"d

been more professional and not distracted he would have. If

he"d had any real reasons to be here right now except that he

couldn"t sleep and a curiosity he ought to be denying. He

refocused. “I just want to warn you, it won"t be pleasant, the

trial, but….”

“I don"t care.” Nasreen stuck out her chin. “Audrey will

need me with her, and I want that man to go away and leave

her alone.”

Ray was pretty sure that disbelief was all over his face

despite his efforts to hide it. Nasreen"s mouth flattened, only

for a heartbeat or two, then she was smiling. She shrugged,

and her robe slipped. Possibly on purpose. Ray looked away,

looked back when she scolded him. “We aren"t as bad as

people have made us out to be. Why do they always act as if

we were made of….” She gestured for a word.

“Spun sugar?” Ray suggested weakly, and she huffed.

“Yes. Even you, Detective.”

“I don"t—” He"d once tried to convince Cal he liked

fairies but had long since given up. It was less complicated

than the truth. “I know. I know there are… exceptions.”

She made a noise, and Ray shifted as he changed the

subject.

“I looked up your name, what it meant. It"s very pretty.”

There wasn"t a single rose in her house, however. He didn"t

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think about Cal"s house, if he had a yard filled with flowers

in every color. “I know most fairies have floral names, but….”

It was too hard to explain his ongoing game with Cal. But he

thought she knew from how she considered him. She sat up

pulling her feet underneath her.

“One of the few old stories that is
not
true is the one

about knowing our names. You know, having power over us

if you know them.”

He hadn"t known that one, but he snorted.

“Old stories about werewolves are almost never true,” he

remarked, and pulled at his tie. He loosened the knot. The

lies still hurt. He looked over, back at the broken window.

“But most of ours are. It"s the new ones that don"t make

sense.”

Ray stopped thinking about old movies and fixing her

window to stare at her. She wasn"t really suggesting that

fairies kidnapped people by dazzling them with magic until

years had gone by, was she?

She bounced to her feet and skipped back to her

kitchen. “In the time that we didn"t live with humans, they

forgot everything. They live such short lives.” She tutted as

she returned, then extended a thin china plate filled with

pieces of what smelled like nougat. “Candy?”

“No, thank you.” His stomach twisted at the thought of

candy, except possibly the strawberry cream on Cal"s mouth.

It had been so tantalizing close. He changed his mind and

grabbed some nougat before he could stop himself and

chewed to banish the scent memory on his tongue.

“Cal has a favorite, you know,” Nasreen volunteered,

making Ray"s heart kick. She sucked on her nougat as she

returned the plate to her kitchen. “He loves it all, but he

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79

likes it best when I make Rahat El Halkum—Turkish

Delight.” She giggled as she came back in to drape herself

over the couch. She had a new piece of candy in her other

hand, a pale pink cube, and she was licking confectioner"s

sugar from her fingertips. Ray glared at her, fairy or not.