He pulled away his bandanna to expose slightly pointed ears. “Thank you. My momma thought so too. So, if you’re really unhappy with your ride, I could provide some company for the evening.”
‘He even managed to not sound sleazy,’ she thought. ‘But no one dominates me outside the house, and the only casual sex I have I’m saving for Clara.’ Out loud, “You know, if this trip turns out to be the bust I’m expecting it to be, you might see me again really soon.” Her voice had drifted off in a murmur as she imagined this dashing creature putting her up on blacks and giving her a tune up. “Real soon.”
He grinned, then something passed over his eyes. “Listen, word of advice. There are some around here that get a bit . . . edgy . . . when unaffiliated folks like yourselves come through. Be careful who you talk to, and try not to draw attention to yourself.”
Shamira wanted to ask him more, but she wasn’t willing to break cover quite yet. “Thanks,” she said, running one hand down his arm. Then she left, feeling quite proud of herself.
Once they were back in the car on on the highway, Bunny broke out laughing and even Shamira had to smile.
“Where’d you come up with that?” the blond babe asked when she got control of herself.
“In our world, you need to be able to think fast on your feet and faster on your back. You’ll learn.” Sebastian grinned, then looked at Bunny. “I didn’t think we’d need a story, but you should always have one ready. You’re gonna be an enforcer, right?”
Something came over Bunny, and Shamira could see why she’d excelled academically as well as socially and athletically. She knew when it was time to be serious. For the next twenty minutes, Sebastian gave a good, solid lecture on field behavior, back stories, and dealing with unknown factors such as gorgeous hunk elf mechanics. Say nothing of your mission or your house unless directed by Shane or unless you were sure it was necessary. And Shamira was told quite specifically by Shane before she left that she wasn’t to discuss her aspects with anyone outside the house.
“But I just wanted to have sex with him for a little while,” Bunny whined, slipping back into ditzy mode.
“We’ve got work to do,” Shamira said as they pulled off the county road onto an old fire road. Ten minutes later, they were near the faerie colony of Golden Grass. This colony hadn’t contacted Nature’s Glory at all, so Shamira had a bad feeling about it. She stood back and let Sebastian do his thing, reaching out with his senses and his mystical web to try and —
“Don’t . . . move,” came a tiny but firm voice. The clearing around them started to glow more and more as they became surrounded by the hundreds and hundreds of little glowing people. None of them looked happy.
“We come in peace,” Shamira said. “Okay, that sounded really corny.”
“You have exactly fifteen seconds to explain why we shouldn’t –”
It was Shamira’s turn to talk. “We’re here on behalf of Shane Stapleton, Lord of Atlanta, to investigate the morning star trade and this location was given to us by the King and Queen of Nature’s Glory in hopes that you could aid in our attempt to destroy this evil practice.”
The clearing was silent until one of the faeries said, “Damn. She said all of that in fourteen seconds.”
“His Great and Royal Majesty the Most Illustrious Leader Frolthac of the Colony of Nature’s Glory told me about the fifteen second rule that you all have,” Shamira explained. “I practiced.”
Two figures floated up from the ground, surrounded by guards. Unlike the faeries she was used to, these were wearing armor and brandishing small swords. No, not swords . . . wands.
“I am the Exalted Lord High Majesty, King Timan of the Colony of Golden Grass,” one said. “And this,” is said, the word “this” coming across as highly acidic, “is my wife.”
The faerie in question, without even looking, extended her hand and punched the King in the face. “I’m Falora,” the Queen said.
“Just . . . Falora?” Shamira said. “Sorry, it’s a beautiful name, but –”
“Yeah yeah yeah,” the little woman said, waving her hand dismissively. “Us damn faeries waste so much time giving our titles when we COULD be doing something more interesting.”
The King turned around and nailed the Queen in the shins with his wand. She started bouncing up and down in midair, grabbing her leg while the King spoke again. “Royalty should behave as such. Anyway, what are you doing here? You said something about investigating the morning star trade?”
“Yes sir. We had hoped that you had gotten King Frolthac’s message about our search.”
“We got a message, but . . . Owh! That’s it!” The King was reacting to being nailed in the back by his wife, and the two of them began to scuffle, poking, punching, kicking, and pulling hair like it was going out of style. While they scuffled, a new faerie floated over, flanked by two guards. It was a young woman wearing a tiara, and she was possibly possible the cutest woman that Shamira had seen in a long time. She had a slight bit more flesh to her than other faeries, but she could hardly be considered overweight. She just looked . . . soft. And touchable. And if she were human-sized, those breasts would probably lower most men’s IQ levels by half.
“I apologize for my parents’ behavior,” the girl said sweetly. “They’re . . . well, they’re idiots. I’m Princess Coramen.”
“Greeting, Princess,” Shamira replied, offering her tongue.
The Princess flitted forward to accept the offering, but her guards tried to block her path. That lasted for about one glare before they split, looking quite well chastised.
‘Good for you, girl,’ Shamira thought approvingly as Coramen touched her tongue.
“We did get a message,” the Princess explained, but it was somewhat garbled by the time it got through our wards. If it hadn’t been such a powerful message, it wouldn’t have gotten through at all.” Coramen floated backward. “There has been a shadow cast over this corner of the world, so we are forced into certain precautions. I would like to take your word about what you’re doing, but –”
“All we’re trying to do is find out what colonies have faeries that have gone missing.” She quickly outlined her beliefs and how she hoped they might lead her to find the producers of the heinous drug. “I understand that you should be cautious. Is there any way you could contact Nature’s Glory? My name is Shamira, and the King and Queen could both . . . what are you doing?”
As soon as Shamira had mentioned her name, the faeries’ eyes had opened wide. “The Sex Goddess? In part of the message that got through, Frolthac said that a Goddess named Shamira overcame the conduit and . . . and that’s never been done. How can you prove that you are who you say you are?”
“I don’t know? How can I? Besides a repeat performance, which I’m REALLY not up to.” She felt a little flushed when the Princess looked disappointed. “Listen, I think it’s pretty obvious that the people that we’re after and whatever has got you spooked are connected. That means that if we were the bad guys, there’d be no reason for us to pretend to have stumbled onto you. We’d already know where you are, and we’d probably have already done stuff.”
“True, but caution is still warranted.” She looked at her still spatting parents and rolled her eyes, then floated close to Shamira’s ear. “If we help you, will you get me the hell out of here?” she whispered. “Seriously, if I have to stay here with them for another year . . . hell, another day, I’m going to go out of my mind.”
“So . . . this isn’t an act for them? They don’t secretly love each other?” Shamira whispered back.
“Oh no. Arranged marriage. They can’t stand each other, and I’m constantly in the middle of it. Seriously, I’m a good sorceress! I could help you and your lord. Please?”
“I can speak with my master, but I can’t make any promises. I might be able to arrange a conversation, but I don’t want to insult your parents or your people by saying anything else here.”
“I understand.” The Princess looked around, then back to the three interlopers. “Okay, a month or so ago, we had a rash of disappearances. We felt a presence pushing at our wards, but nothing tried to penetrate. Then, we had some of our people disappear when they were out collecting food or . . . frolicking. Faeries don’t breed quickly, so any loss is very important to us, and we lost a dozen in the course of a few weeks. Finally, we just put up the strongest wards that we could and withdrew to . . . to a hidden place within our territory.”
‘Good girl,’ Shamira thought. ‘Still being cautious.’ “Have you felt the presences since then?”