Thirty

 

The part-breds ran like their lives depended on it. The pink-haired woman threw the leader over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes as they did. It was quite something to see. Once they were out of sight, Alasdair placed his hand on my cheek, and I reflexively smiled at the contact. The bond had heightened the calm soothing that skin-to-skin contact with him brought.

“Are you ok? Did they injure you?” he asked, a small frown on his face.

I laughed and ran my hands down his sides before I rested them on his hips.

“They were untrained. Honestly, I’m offended you thought they could cause any real harm,” I said.

He laughed and kissed my temple. “You’ll have no problems running back home, then.”

I sighed. He was right about needing to keep my fitness up.

“I’ll race you there,” I said.

He laughed. “I’ll race you to the end of the beach.”

I took off without waiting for any further conditions or arguments. Much to my chagrin, the sheer pleasure of running kicked in, and I enjoyed the feeling of the salt air on my face as I pushed my muscles as hard as I could. Alasdair’s legs were slightly longer than mine, and that gave him the edge. He gave me a huge grin when he finished a few feet ahead of me.

“We need to find out where the part-breds hang out; they’re at the centre of all of this,” he said.

He was barely out of breath, damn him.

“Any ideas? I never really dealt with… you know,” I said, making a hand motion.

I couldn’t say supernals when there were a couple of dog walkers approaching.

“We’ll pressure Rhys and co. and go from there. Tabs might know something. She seems to know anything social,” he said as he walked at my side.

“Come on, we’ll jog home. I’ll even let you shower first,” he said.

“Always a gentleman,” I said sarcastically.

He gave me a sharp smile and whispered, “I could always join you,” before he started jogging off ahead of me.

I wondered if he could feel the way I watched his ass as he ran ahead of me, or the things he was doing to my libido that day. A blush crept across my cheeks before I tamped it all down.

 

 

Tabs was sitting in the middle of our floor surrounded by paperwork.

“Saoirse sent through some more paperwork; two more witchlings and another shifter have vanished. This is everything we have on them. I’ve added it to what we had on the others,” she said.

Grayson joined her on the floor and frowned at his own stack of paper.

“Did you move my notes around?” he asked.

“You had your shifters jumbled in with your witchlings, it’s more efficient this way,” Tabs said.

Grayson’s frown deepened.

“I had them bunched by Zapped usage, and geographical connections.”

Tabs grinned at him. “Still less efficient than my method.”

“There has got to be a better way,” I groaned as I looked down at the mass of paper.

“You’ve asked the hedgewitches, right?” Tabs asked.

Alasdair, Grayson, and I shared a look.

Tabs threw her hands up. “Come on, Gray, the first thing Mom and Dad told us was to always ask the hedgewitches. They know everything!”

“You’ve been doing this for six centuries, how did you not think of that?” I asked Alasdair with a grin.

He narrowed his eyes at me.

“I don’t know any hedgewitches in Ireland,” he said grumpily.

“I swear you guys need a social coordinator or something,” Tabs said.

“I’m social,” I said.

“From what Alasdair and Gray told me your social life consisted of propping up the bar in supernal dives and talking work with whichever barman took pity on you,” Tabs said.

I felt betrayed.

Alasdair put his arm around my shoulders.

“You have a family now,” he said softly.

“I’ll call Carys, she’s a hedgewitch I met through work. Oh, don’t forget it’s the family meet-up tonight, no excuses,” Tabs said as she glanced up from her phone.

“What work do you do?” I asked.

“I’m a liaison. I try to keep the council informed about any issues brewing between the various supernals. I’m training to be able to smooth the smaller problems out so we can take the pressure off Guardians and enforcers.”

“Dad jokes that Mom kept her diplomacy hidden away so she could give it all to Tabs,” Gray said.

I hadn’t dealt with a hedgewitch before. I knew that coven witches looked down on them and viewed them as inferior, and I’d been told that meant they were often fantastic sources of information. That meant I’d have to try and befriend a few of them to make future jobs easier. It was all part of being a Guardian, becoming part of the community so we could make the world a better place. I just hoped the community would stop rejecting me since I had the goddess’s official backing now.

Alasdair’s fingers circled over a sigil just below my collarbone, and I preened a little. I couldn’t help but keep glancing down at my hands and smiling at the delicate white sigils there. There was no hiding that I had been chosen, that the goddess had seen fit to choose me as one of her protectors.

“Cerys will see you in an hour. She runs a new-age shop fifteen minutes from here. Play nice, she’s a good person,” Tabs said.

“You can help us sort through this paperwork until then,” Grayson said with a grin.

“I er… I’m sure I have a thing…” I said.

Grayson thrust a heap of paperwork into my lap.

“It won’t kill you,” he said with a smirk.

I halved it and gave the other half to Alasdair. We were in this together, after all. Paperwork and all.