Chapter One

“Oh, great, not another one,” I heard Saxon groan.

“How bad is it this time?” I grimaced.

He picked up the bag sitting outside our front door and brought it in. “Smells worse than usual,” he said. Wonderful. After examining it for a moment, he said, “We’ve been upgraded to both hands.”

“Two hands?” I said dubiously. “Did they not think we were happy enough with just one?”

“Guess not,” he was still studying the bloody plastic bag. Then he looked surprised. “Wait. It’s different this time. These hands are from different people.”

I made an exasperated sound, leaning my head back on the couch. “There’s absolutely no way for you to find out who it is?”

“Not that I know of. I’m not a witch or anything, Nicci, it’s not as though I could cast a spell.” He dumped the bag into the garbage disposal. One of the grossest noises of all time was its mechanized blades crunching through human hands, so we had easily discovered. Of course the delightful process of smashing them into it didn’t help in the slightest. “At least it’s not plasma. I don’t believe someone thinks I’d eat that stuff.” He grimaced as though this thought bothered him more than the severed hands. I wasn’t sure which I thought was worse; finding six packs of various kinds of blood on our doorstep, intended for consumption, or someone else’s hands left as gifts. Actually, it was pretty clear.

“Well, it’s been going on for more than a month now, we ought to do something.” I’d said this before. It bothered me a lot to not even know who was trying to do us this favor of if not killing, seriously wounding all these people.

“I know, I know.” He flipped on the disposal. It churned my stomach.

He sat on the counter next to the sink, waiting for it to finish. While the harsh sound was still going on, Aisling came in the front door. Instantly he knew. “You found another one? We just got rid of that last one yesterday.”

“It was two this time,” Saxon replied.

“Even better.” He rolled his eyes and came further in, dropping his coat next to the couch.

I looked at him with an idea. “You didn’t see anyone carrying a plastic bag, did you? You were just out in the halls, after all.”

He thought. I could almost imagine he was running every single person he’d seen through his head. Leave it to a faerie. “I... don’t... think so. I saw someone with a paper bag full of groceries.”

Saxon turned off the disposal, it must have been done. “Was it a human?”

Aisling thought longer. It was a little odd that he couldn’t just remember. “The more I try to think about it the harder it gets. They must have been spelled.”

“Or wiccan,” Saxon answered.

“Well, yeah. But as far as I know there aren’t any wiccans living here. If there were my power would be a lot more screwed up.” He shrugged. “I don’t know.” I listened to this carefully, I didn’t know anything could mess with Aisling’s power that way. Maybe because he wasn’t one of the all-powerful fey, just average?

“Which way did they go? I’ll find ‘em.” Saxon said, with that sinister look in his eye that said violence.

“What, you’ll just walk through all the apartments until you find someone you think might be the guy I saw?” Aisling said.

“It’s not as though I can’t become invisible. And I’d be looking for someone who’s been spelled, remember?” His tone was not complimentary.

Don’t start anything, I warned him silently.

You never let me have any fun, he answered sarcastically.

You’re hopeless.

Meanwhile Aisling had continued. “All right, all right. I think he was going into a room two floors above this one. That’s the level I was on.”

Aisling had been not-so-seriously looking for his own apartment. With Saxon breathing down his neck to get out I’d think he’d be in a hurry, but then I’m not a faerie, and I’m also not Aisling. Both very unique conditions. Everyone knew he was just kind of pretending to care about moving, anyway.

Saxon started grilling him on everything he could remember. I got up and went into the bedroom, looking for the other inhabitant of what was intended to be a two-person apartment. I found him under the bed. “Maynard, what are you doing under there?”

He didn’t answer, but then, he couldn’t. I offered him my hand and he crawled into it. I put him on the dresser and he dusted himself off. “Well?” I waited for him to write his reply. Maynard is not exactly a pet. He’s a little blue person that Aisling made for me once upon a time, out of part of his own aura. Once I named him, zap, he was sentient and mine. I wondered sometimes if Aisling could reabsorb him into himself.

I was waiting for you to find me, he wrote.

“What? Why?”

Bored.

I smiled. “Oh, sorry. Were you listening? Saxon’s gonna go look for whoever could be leaving us these severed hands.”

Yeah, I know. Aisling’s glad about it.

“That’s good, I guess,” I said. “You might as well come into the other room. It’s dark in here.”

It’s dark everywhere thanks to Saxon.

“Just cause the windows are covered up doesn’t mean we don’t turn on lights. It’s nighttime anyway, stupid.” I poked him in the chest, smiling.

All right, all right. He jumped off the dresser and went into the living room. I heard Aisling greet him. “Hey, little guy.”

I followed him out after fixing my hair, just the usual procrastination. “I’m going to go figure this out once and for all,” Saxon said to me. “We can’t keep finding hands in bags outside our door forever.”

I half-smiled. “Good luck with that. Try not to get hurt.”

“I won’t.” He smiled back, moving closer to kiss me.

He left by walking through the front door without opening it first. As usual. I sat down on the couch with a sigh. “Something wrong?” Aisling looked at me.

I shrugged. “Not really. Did you find anything good?” I asked, fully expecting him to say no, and aware he could see this on my face.

“I told Schyler that if he saw Saxon, to say I’d been with him,” he said.

I stared at him. “Where did you actually go, then? I thought you said you saw someone on the next floor. That’s where Saxon’s going.”

He looked a little embarrassed. “I know. I didn’t think he’d just jump right up and go.”

“Where did you actually go? How come he didn’t notice you were lying?”

“I wasn’t lying. I told him exactly what I saw the day before yesterday.”

“That’s really underhanded,” I frowned at him.

“Hey, I can’t help it. I’m a faerie. It comes easier for me to tell part of the truth than anything else.” He shrugged.

I wasn’t used to him blaming his species for whatever he did that was wrong, he normally just smiled and said ‘oh well.’ Not an improvement, not really. “You’re impossible,” I sighed.

He got up and found his coat, looking through the pockets. “I needed an excuse to leave,” he said meanwhile.

“An excuse?” I frowned again, suspiciously.

“Yeah. I didn’t think he’d want me going out and getting this.”

“What’s ‘this’?” I asked, still frowning.

He found what he was looking for and tossed me a little jewelry box. “Here.”

I caught it on impulse. “What is it?”

“If I didn’t want you to open it, I wouldn’t have given it to you in the first place,” he said, sitting down again. I thought he might’ve been a little closer than before.

“All right, all right.” I said, opening it as instructed.

It was a ring, on a chain. The ring looked like several small pieces of silver twisted intricately around each other and wrapping around what I thought looked kind of like an opal, and was about the size of a pearl, and round like one. I blinked, and probably looked as confused as I felt, because he explained. “It’s magical. You can put it on and find me no matter where you are.”

I looked at him. “Are you going somewhere?”

He was very serious. “I don’t have to be planning on it. Any minute now something could happen to any of us. If you’re in trouble, you can use that to find me.”

The extent of his intensity was scaring me a little. “Wow, um... thank you? How does it work?”

“You just have to put it on. Don’t try it when you know where I am. It works off your aura and that would just confuse it.”

I studied it. Like most things involving faeries, the more you looked at it the more beautiful it seemed. That rule also applied to the fey themselves. “Wow... Aisling... it scares me that you’re giving me this,” I said finally.

He actually looked away from me, the all-confident Aisling fidgeting with his pants. “I know. I’m sorry. But if something happens to you because you were alone, during the daytime or something, I don’t want to live with the fact that I didn’t give it to you.”

“Why would Saxon not have wanted you to give me this?”

Still he wasn’t looking at me. “Because, he doesn’t like to think of something happening to you either. He’d probably see it as my warning you that he’d let you get into something by yourself.”

“Oh... yeah you’re right. I wonder should I hide it?”

He smiled then. “No, this is the best part.” He took the box carefully from my hands, picking the ring up by the silver chain. “When you don’t need it, it just... disappears,” he said, sliding his hands around my neck and clasping the delicate chain.

There was a brief almost burning where it touched my skin, and I gasped, then it was gone. Literally. I touched where it should be and felt nothing except my own collarbone. When I looked at him again he was most definitely closer. I blinked but couldn’t feel any glamour.

I stared at him for a minute, wondering what he’d do, wondering what I should do. He smiled. “Hey, it’s all right. I won’t rape you or anything.”

It made me laugh for some reason. “That’s good to—” I started. Suddenly there was a huge burst of power through the building. Originating somewhere close above us. Everything momentarily slid to blackness, when I could see again Aisling looked concerned.

“Saxon?”

I nodded. “Has to be.”

He got up. “Stay here.”

“You know I won’t.” I said, getting up to hurry and grab some shoes.

He sighed, exasperated. “Fine, Jesus... Just try to tell him this before he punches me out for letting you come.”

“I will,” I retorted, following him out.

Rather than go to the elevator or anything, he wandered the hall, looking up. After a confusing minute of this he beckoned me closer and I didn’t take the time to argue. He put one arm around my waist and jumped straight up, passing through the floor. I hadn’t realized he could do that, just like Saxon could. We were standing on the second floor, facing an apartment, and the air briefly smelled like cinnamon.

With no pause Aisling opened the door, slamming it back against the wall. For not the first time I wondered if it had been locked. Aisling had a talent for always finding the unlocked door in the most unlikely of situations. It was one of those little abnormal things that might slip by you, as oppose to all the huge obvious ones.

Inside, Saxon stood squared off with two men I didn’t know. One of them was bleeding from his head. They were both werecreatures. Aisling leaned on the door frame like it was a social call. “Everything okay in here, children?”

The weres were as close to the wall as they could get. Saxon wasn’t. They were afraid of him and didn’t really seem to want to fight. But then, there was a suspicious looking shatter-mark on the wall behind them, about the size of a human torso. Saxon had probably put them over there by force. “They’ve got another severed hand,” Saxon said while I noticed all this.

“Oh, so they’re behind this?” Aisling answered.

The bleeding werecreature— I say creature because all I could tell was that they weren’t wolves —looked at Aisling. “Please, he’s not listening to me. I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t want to hurt any of you.”

“Then what’s with the hands?” Aisling said.

“I don’t know, I swear. I was ordered to bring it to you. I don’t know why. You have to believe me.” He looked desperate.

“He’s telling the truth, Saxon. You know that.” Aisling sounded like he didn’t approve.

I still had yet to get used to his casual air in times of danger. “I hate weres,” Saxon grumbled, standing down, out of attack stance. The subtle difference was most definitely there. It was weird how they could both be simultaneously so alien and natural. “So, what. Your alpha’s ordering people to leave us severed body parts?” His tone made it somehow a threat.

“All I know is that I was supposed to give you that one. I don’t know whose it was. I didn’t even know you’d gotten more than one.”

Saxon leaned on the wall opposite them. “Why don’t you give your alpha a call and ask him for me, then?”

The bleeding one wasn’t bleeding anymore. It’d already healed. He pushed at the other one until he scurried out of the room on all fours. It was very strange how natural he made it look, whereas anyone else would have made it awkward, scrambled away. I had next to no experience with werecreatures. The only nasties I’d encountered were faeries. I had been hoping the list would stay that short.

But then you don’t live with a vampire and a faerie and expect nothing to happen.

I’d like to know why you decided to join us, Saxon said suddenly in my head.

I looked at him, but he was studying the remaining were the same as before. No outward signs of him talking to me. Well, fine. I don’t see why you have to ask.

Yeah, that’s true. You always seem to be showing up in the most dangerous of places anyway. He didn’t sound at all happy with me.

You treat me like there’s giant monsters waiting eagerly outside the apartment, trying to get in and eat me. As though every big nasty in the whole world will get me at the same time if you don’t lock me up in our apartment.

That’s not true.

Look, let’s not have this same argument right now, all right? Don’t yell at me and I won’t yell at you.

Sure.

Then he was silent. Taking me so literally again. Sometimes he could really be infuriating. That wasn’t what I meant either. Tell me why I can’t see the creature in their eyes.

You can’t? He sounded a little surprised.

No, they both look perfectly human. I thought only really ultra powerful ones could hide that?

Well, generally, but mostly with werewolves. I guess, kitty cats are just that different. You can’t see anything?

No, nothing, I said, starting to get unnerved.

That is very weird. If I think of anything I’ll tell you.

I still see werethings on the street and places. Just not these two.

He made a sound inside my head for an answer. I knew I didn’t like them for a reason.

Stop being so childish, I said, frustrated. You’ve got no reason to be.

I’m allowed to think whatever I want about the asses that are werecreatures, he said, though a little petulantly.

Not if it makes you act like this, you shouldn’t.

Before he answered, the other werewhatever hesitantly returned.

Saxon turned only his head to look at him. The motion was very cold and unnerving, even to me, and it was hard for me to look at him and not see the man who really, really liked getting back rubs. I looked at him and could only see that he was really so desperate to keep me happy, even under all the arguments we had.

Anyway, with this one motion the second werewolf dropped down to the ground again, in an obvious show of submission. “Well?” Saxon asked, simply enough.

He rocked uneasily on hands and knees, staring at Saxon with wide eyes and almost hiding behind his blond hair. The other were was looking on, but didn’t look too ready to help. Aisling just seemed amused. This was all very interesting. “Logan says that... that he wants to see them. In person.” He didn’t sound so much like he was telling Saxon as that nameless being with drying blood on his face.

The only people who seemed to care about this statement were the creatures in question. Neither Saxon nor Aisling seemed satisfied with that. “Yeah, what else?”

“He’ll see you tonight. I’m to take you there.”

Why was I not reassured that this man crouching in fear on the dirty carpet, rocking back and forth in a small repetitive motion, was to be our guide. “Why not him?” Aisling asked, nodding toward the silent one.

“Because, someone needs to guard, and I can’t,” he answered, never taking his eyes off Saxon.

What kind of creature are they? I asked him then. It’d been bugging me.

I think, panthers. If not, something close, like a leopard or something. Saxon didn’t sound much more sure than I was. Just like old times.

“When tonight?” Saxon asked meanwhile.

“As soon as you want.”

“Well, I guess I’d better get ready then,” he said with an odd tone, almost making it mocking. The panther, leopard, whatever, cringed. “What?” Saxon frowned.

“Logan said that... he wanted to see all of you.”

“What exactly did he say?” Saxon said carefully.

This was the only sentence where he looked at the floor, as though doubly scared. “That, he wanted to see... the vampire and his servant and his pet faerie.”

Saxon growled unhappily. Why was I just as upset over having to go as I would’ve been if I hadn’t been allowed to go?