Elron rolled past us and parked next to my car.
Tricks gave me a look. “I should’ve lied.”
Not much I could say since I agreed.
Erwin and Enor rushed over. Had humans done the same thing, the animals would’ve scattered, but even these two had elven abilities with fauna.
Enor knelt beside Tricks.
Erwin stomped over to me. “How dare you bring our daughter into a dangerous situation!”
“I wasn’t in any danger.” Tricks set the kitten down. “Look at me. Does this look dangerous?”
Elron came over, ignored my dripping clothes, and gave me a hug. “How are you?”
“Wet. Tired.” Annoyed. I didn’t say that last one. It would only make things worse. Mouthing off at home was one thing. At work was an entirely different matter. “Could you check in with Rodriguez and deal with the plants? Both a sunflower and rose tried to eat animals.”
His eyes slid over to the pile of cats and dogs.
“Yup,” I said.
He quickly tied back his silver hair. “If I cannot return them to their previous state, I will relocate them to the university.”
“Thanks.” While Elron dealt with the plant problems, I turned back to his parents. Magic could fix this problem. Illegal magic. Immoral magic. I’d never been so tempted to break the law. “I’m sorry. I have to do my job. She was never in any danger.”
“How would you know? Were you with her the entire time?” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“No. That would’ve meant she was in danger.” I tried to be nice.
It didn’t work. Erwin launched into a monologue about all the things I’d done wrong. Three of the hundred wrongs were accurate. He kept going until the animal control truck pulled up.
Reyleigh, a fey I’d worked with before, hopped out of the truck. Her sage green hair was in a ponytail. The sand-colored uniform shirt brought out the ash tones in her green skin. “Hey, Michelle. What’s the problem this time?” She took in the elves and all the animals, which now included seven squirrels, two chipmunks, and a dozen wild birds.
“The domestic ones need to go back to their homes. Including the pig.”
Reyleigh smiled. “That’s a relief. I was afraid it was more invisible flying cats.”
“Not this time, thank the earth.”
Erwin shut up, likely because of the audience.
Which was the perfect time for Elron to walk by with the sunflower. The blossom lunged for Erwin. He flinched away.
Elron chuckled and scolded the plant.
I didn’t know why Elron bothered. Nothing would want a bite of Erwin once they tasted him. Too bitter.
“Michelle! I need you,” Rodriguez called from Paradise Lane.
“Forgive me, I will be back shortly.” I didn’t say it to anyone in particular, and I escaped before Erwin could start up again.
It would’ve been nice if they’d showed up after the wedding. They could hate me all they wanted, but at least 80% of the arguments would go away.
While I’d been busy, reinforcements had arrived. Fire trucks, several police cars, and an ambulance lined the road. Three cops escorted Gus and two other boys to a car. Firefighters headed down Paradise Lane, making sure I hadn’t set anything on fire with my poorly thought-out kudzu burning. Officers were going door to door to check on any residents and get statements. A few crime scene techs were busy documenting evidence, including Rodriguez’s car. A tow-truck waited to haul it away.
Rodriguez stood in the intersection, holding out a phone. “The representative of the Bakke wants to talk to you. According to her, we shouldn’t have touched the box.”
“I’ll take care of it.” I took the phone from him. “This is Michelle.”
A woman huffed. “It took that human long enough. Why did you interfere with the box? It is clearly labeled. We have always been more than happy to pick up lost merchandise.”
“I didn’t catch your name.” There weren’t many perks to my newly complicated life, but getting respect from witches like her was one of them.
“Luna.” She snapped. “That didn’t answer my question.”
This was going to be fun. “Hi, Luna. We weren’t properly introduced. I’m Michelle Oaks.”
Absolute silence.
“Now that we’re acquainted, it would be lovely to have a representative of your clan, perhaps one less dismissive of humans, liaise with the police. Your box was involved in a crime and is now in their possession. It was tampered with before I arrived on scene and could have killed people. I had to destroy all the spells to disable it.”
“I see,” A much-subdued Luna replied. “I will inform the minister. She will be there to aid the officers in any capacity, and we will investigate how this box was misplaced.”
I smiled wickedly. “Perfect.”
“If you send us the box number, we can provide more information. I suspect it is an older model. The newer ones come with dwarf-crafted location beacons.”
“I’ll have Officer Rodriguez send the information.” I hesitated. “Unless there’s a reason you can’t work with him?”
“No, no. I will be happy to help him get to the bottom of this incident.” After three more apologies, Luna made her escape.
I walked the phone back to Rodriguez. Maybe I’d been mean, but she’d deserved it. And really, all she’d ever had to do was talk to Rodriguez with the same respect she’d shown me.
“How’d it go?”
I handed him the phone. “She’ll behave now. And the minister will come down to work with you. I scared them into behaving.”
He raised a brow. “That’s not like you.”
“What can I say? Something has gotten into me lately.”
“Uh huh. I bet I know what that is.” The teasing smile faded. “The three boys responsible for this mess are headed to the department for official questioning. Their parents, none of whom are home, are being contacted. Elron said he would remove the most dangerous plants and the two of you could work out a plan for the rest. You’ll have to get the details from him.”
Speak of the elf, Elron was carrying the rose bush to my car, warning everyone to stay well away. He had better be planning on driving back with me. The plants listened to him.
“Got it. What else do you need?”
Rodriguez shrugged. “I did a sweep. Other than a few dancing pansy plants, he got the dangerous things. Go home, write up the report, maybe torment the Bakke again. You’re done here.”
“You’ll have the report tomorrow.” It would keep me away from Erwin and Enor.
I headed back to the car, not sure how to fix things with the soon to be in-laws. It wasn’t like I blamed them for waiting to keep Tricks away from crime and magical calamities. I’d been called to cases that were no place for a bystander, especially a young one.
The way my job worked, I was on call unless I was sick. If they didn’t want to risk her sitting near a scene, someone else would have to drive a separate car and come with us wherever we went. Not the most practical solution, but we could make it work.
I got back to my car to find Elron leaning against the passenger door, my back seat stuffed with rose, sunflower, and iris plants. Tricks, Erwin, and Enor were nowhere to be seen. Neither was Elron’s car.
“They took her home.” Elron opened the driver’s door for me. “She would not stop talking about scared animals. In the midst of her never-ending story, my parents lost most of their anger.”
“Let me guess, she can’t go anywhere alone with me if I might get called out on a case.” I eyed the plants in the back seat. “Are they going to eat me?”
“Of course not.” Elron sounded offended.
“You get in first.”
Elron grumbled as he crossed to his side of the car. “After all we have been through, you still do not trust me.”
“It’s not you I don’t trust. It’s them.”
As if to prove my point, the rose leaned a bloom over my headrest.
He settled into the car, and the rose retreated.
I slowly got in, ready to lunge for the door if needed.
The plants didn’t move.
“See?” Elron said.
“I wish I could.” I tugged the door shut and cranked the car. The sooner we got home, the better.
Elron said quiet words to the plants as we wound our way through the neighborhood.
I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the road. In the rear-view mirror, I could see them sway with the motion of the car. I had to ignore them when I pulled onto the street.
“My parents and Tricks will be eating dinner with Landa,” Elron said. “Would you care to eat out?”
“Anywhere you want.” Anywhere without Enor and Erwin was perfect. I didn’t even care that much about the food.
After a short debate, we settled on pizza. Elron assured me the plants would behave, and the weather was cool enough that they wouldn’t wilt in the car.
I couldn’t bring myself to be too concerned about flowers that had tried to take a chunk out of me.