“Heis right here!” Cal commented, indignant. “Hundreds of years ago, fairies would have eaten the same food as humans. We just prefer sweet tastes and live in an age of refined sugars. Don’t judge us. You live in an age of supermarket packaged meats.”
“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t prefer a hunt, something raw and bloody.” Ray flashed his teeth in a grin that didn’t intimidate either of them, though it should have. He wondered when he had last gone on a hunt, then reflected that it was better he not ask. If he had been trying to be on his best behavior, to keep his head down and work, he might not have gone in years. Might not even have shifted outside the house.
He frowned as he opened the last burger and pulled out the slices of sweetened bread and butter pickles. Then he paused, and, looking up, offered one to Cal.
Cal glared at it, then him, then took it and ate it, his attitude begrudging and then lofty when Ray started to smile.
“So that’s why Benny didn’t say ‘No Pickles’ for my order,” Ray realized out loud.
Benny smirked.
Cal gave them both a sour look.
***
RAY HAD KEPT most of the rest of his questions and realizations to himself for the remainder of the time they had worked in the restaurant. But now that he was alone, waiting for Benny and Cal to visit with Cassandra inside her shop and hand off his suit for examination and eventual immolation, he let it run through his mind again.
Penn was out chasing wild geese, alone. She could handle herself, but Ray worried. According to all them, that was what Ray did. But there was a genuine reason to be concerned, even if everyone had carefully not said it outright.
Ross, a simple uniformed officer before his arrest and conviction, was unlikely to be popular in prison and equally unlikely to have the money or connections to arrange things like what had happened to Ray. Unless he had help. And the only people Ross would know with the interest and ability to do that were those still on the force or anyone friendly with those still on the force.
Cal had described the fallout from what had happened with Ross as rumors, as gossip and outright lies. Most of it, or so Ray inferred, directed toward Cal, not Ray. Ray didn’t know if that was because, as a were, he was seen as a helpless animal in thrall to fairy allure, or if fairy allure was supposed to be so strong that it would excuse Ray choosing a fairy.
Cal seemed to think it was something else. Jealousy or wishing thinking or projection.
“People are often interested in you, Ray. Obsessed, at times. You’re huge. And hot. You move with grace and you’re very… controlled. Which they see but they don’t understand. They think it implies power or werewolf sex god abilities, and not that you do it because you’re a symbol even when you don’t want to be, so you are locked down in public, always. Except with me.”
A burst of glitter had followed the proud words.
“They want your attention. They want to be part of your pack and roll over for you and all that. Even if they deny it, I can see their desire. Ross was definitely something else though. Not that they see that. All their supposed objectivity and commitment to justice goes out the window whenever they think of you rejecting your fellow officer and sending him to prison, or maybe just for choosing me over him—them. It’s your job to arrest murderers, their job. Or so they insist. You would think that be enough. But my dad tried to tell you that they don’t care about that as much as they should, not once they’ve bought into this image they have painted of themselves. All it takes is one slip up—in this case, arresting a murderer—though technically Penn arrested him, for them to turn.”
Ray had ignored that last part and much of the rest of it. “He murdered others. He attempted to kill you.Going after him was not a ‘slip up.’”
“He still has nightmares,” Benny had confided, as if he had been waiting to pass this information on to Ray.
Cal had gasped in betrayal and then the two of them had started a round of bickering that Ray suspected had been to distract Cal and to lighten the mood.
With the two of them out of sight somewhere in the depths of Cassandra’s magic shop, Ray leaned against Benny’s car and let his head fall forward.
Possibility One: fairy glamours were real and this was one, which meant fairies were unbelievably powerful yet lived in crappy apartments and worked mostly underpaid jobs and enjoyed humans treating them like disposable sexy garbage. Ray snorted and dismissed that. Fairies disliked unpleasantness, or so it was said, but if their magicwasthat strong, there would have been more evidence by now.
Possibility Two: Ray was delusional and imagining all of this. Since he couldn’t confirmordeny that one, he chose to discard it.
Possibility Three: this was all real, and Ray was at his weakest when he could least afford to be.
Possibility Three meant that Ray had sensed rising danger and had taken steps to deal with it, yet this magic had still caught him by surprise. And it meant that his concern for Cal was tied up in whatever he had feared, so now Ray had no knowledge of anything that could help.
Ray had invited human magic into his home for protection but hadn’t taken direct action. He could guess why. He didn’twantto guess why. That also explained his hesitance before, his weakness.
It was a good curse. Ray had probably wished for ignorance and now ignorance was what he had.
He put even more of his weight against Benny’s car.
Inside Bubble, Bubble, Cal and Benny’s voices were distant. They were not in the main display area or by the registers. Cassandra must have taken them to a storage room or deeper into the shop.
Cal knew, or suspected, that Ray was more tired than he was letting on. He’d squinted suspiciously at Ray when Ray had said he’d stay outside to wait for them, and not commented when Benny had teased Ray about his werewolf nose and the itchy magic scent that didn’t exist. He also hadn’t answered when Ray told them to call if they needed him. If they called for Ray, he would hear.
Benny had nodded seriously at least. Cal had stared at Ray for another moment, motionless except for wings and glitter, then turned and gone inside the shop, visibly displeased but not arguing.
