Nine

 

The fae was coming to as he was unceremoniously dropped on Saoirse’s floor. He slowly looked around him, but when his eyes fell on the altar his mouth hung open and he went very still. Saoirse patted my shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I can handle one little made.”

“What will happen to him?” I asked.

Saoirse looked the fae up and down as Grayson draped a blanket over him.

“I’ll speak to the council and bring in a trusted witch and fae to see what would be best for him. I suspect he will be put out of his misery.”

Alasdair wrapped his arm around my waist and brushed his lips over my temple.

“That would never have been you,” he whispered.

I smiled and leaned into him, taking comfort from his presence.

Grayson came over with a big grin on his face and three folders packed to the brim with paperwork. I groaned and walked out of the church. Being a Guardian wasn’t as glamorous as I’d been led to believe.

“Saoirse put some pressure on the coven after Alasdair told her about the made. They sent over everything they have on the witchlings that vanished, even added in their diaries,” Grayson said with a large grin.

“I’m getting brownies from the bakery down the road. I am not sitting still and reading all of that,” I gestured at the heap of paperwork in Grayson’s lap, “without brownies.”

“Get some of those ginger and blueberry muffins for me while you’re there,” Alasdair said.

I wrinkled my nose.

“We really need to teach you what is and isn’t food,” I said.

Alasdair laughed, a deep rumbling laugh that made me smile despite myself. His silver eyes danced with merriment, and I found myself watching him with the realisation that he was mine.

“Get three sets of brownies; you’re shit at sharing,” Grayson said with a grin.

“I share…” I said.

“If I’m quick, I can grab one of the smaller brownies before you hide them again!” he said with a laugh.

“Wolves aren’t meant to share,” I grumbled.

Alasdair and Grayson gave each other a look. We all knew full damn well that Alasdair could take whatever he wanted off my plate. He got special privileges. My wolf had accepted him as my soulbond, even if the rest of me hadn’t.

Alasdair pulled the car up in our usual parking spot next to my bike.

“Don’t be too long. The bakery’s only five minutes away. I’d hate for you to get ‘lost’ and miss out on this exciting research,” Alasdair said with a smirk.

“The thought hadn’t crossed my mind,” I said with my own smirk.

The bakery was only a few minutes’ walk away from our apartment building. It had been the first thing I’d found on the first day off I’d had in the city. It was run by a pair of very enthusiastic born brownie. They’d bombarded me with free cupcakes and compliments on my hair and what pretty hands I had. At first, I’d thought they had nefarious plans for my hands, but it never went past them plastering me with baked goods.

The moment I’d had a bite of one of their brownies, I was hooked. Of course, I knew that they’d probably laced them with some fae concoction to make me addicted, but they tasted so good that I didn’t really care. I’d deal with the withdrawal symptoms when they hit.

I stepped into the brightly lit shop where the display case of smaller cakes and pastries filled the back half. Ben looked up from the till and greeted me with a Cheshire Cat style grin, his stormy eyes lightening a shade as I walked towards him. He was my dealer, and he knew it.

“Three boxes of brownies and a box of your ginger and blueberry muffins, please,” I said.

“Did I hear Niko?” Alice called out from the baking area.

“You did,” Ben called back as he pulled out the pale brown boxes stamped with a Tinkerbell-style fairy on top.

They’d explained how they thought it was funny to brand themselves as a fae bakery when the non-magical had no clue how accurate it was.

“Look at you, you’re wasting away!” Alice said as she bustled over to me and pulled me into a tight hug.

I laughed. “I won’t be for long if I keep eating your delicious cakes.”

“Ben, give them some of those cherry tarts, on the house.” She turned to me. “You do like cherry, don’t you?”

I smiled. “Of course.”

I hated cherry, but I wasn’t going to offend her. Alasdair would probably eat them. He had the worst taste in food.

Once I’d paid, I walked out with my arms full of boxes and headed back to the apartment to face the research awaiting me. Surely, it wouldn’t be that bad?

 

 

“I’m just saying that I feel really weird reading this girl’s diary,” I said as I looked around for another brownie.

My gaze settled on the empty box in front of Alasdair just before I saw him put the last bite in his mouth with a very satisfied look on his face.

“We’re going to have to go down the gym tonight to burn off all of these cakes,” Alasdair said as he passed me a handful of papers.

I added them to my small mountain and dug around for my notebook. I’d been making a list of interesting facts about Roisin, but the notebook had vanished.

“So, we know they’ve only been seeing these fae guys for a couple of weeks, and the fae approached them. We also know they tried and failed to get into Twilight three times before these fae guys showed up,” Grayson said.

“They didn’t make any note of plans to run away, but they did say that one of the other girls tried that Tempo drug,” I said as I found my notebook.

“I’ve texted Tabs to see if she can get us into Twilight without having to push the Guardian thing,” Grayson said.

“You guys get on really well. I thought siblings were meant to hate each other,” I said.

Grayson laughed and a pile of papers cascaded onto the floor, much to Alasdair’s dismay.

“I had those organised,” he grumbled.

“Me and Tabs have always been close. We tell each other everything,” Grayson said.

“She’s a lot like her mother,” Alasdair said.

“A stubborn firecracker. She gets on with people, though. Mom acts like people are some alien species she hasn’t figured out yet. Apart from Elise - those two are inseparable.”

“Your mother isn’t so bad,” Alasdair said with a smile.

“Why didn’t they write down the names of these fae guys?” I said, exasperated.

“It looks very suspicious; I have to think they’re involved in the witchlings’ disappearance,” Alasdair said.

Grayson’s phone went off.

“Saoirse just confirmed the witches were involved with the making of that made fae. He’s a completely new strain,” Grayson said.

Why did people have to keep fucking everything up?