Lie Down with Dogs Read online

  I sensed he wanted to say more and gave him time to force out the words.

  “All this time I figured she was gone,” he said softly. “That was the only thing that made sense. She wouldn’t have left my brother. She loved him, and Ian worshipped her.” He paused. “Being with an incubus is hard long term, but she made it look easy. He was her Ian, and that was that. Even if things got rough between them, she never would have left her kids. Not in a million years.”

  A familiar pang rocked me. A wife and kids. Some scrap of hope that should have been stamped out last year lit up at the possibility. Longing in Shaw’s voice tightened my chest. Had his attempt to date me been proof he wanted what his brother once had? Maybe. It hardly mattered now.

  I cleared my throat. “Anything I can do?”

  He mulled it over a moment. “Not from an hour away.”

  I smiled at his dejected tone. “Is that an invitation?”

  “It is if it gets you here.”

  I sounded skeptical when I asked, “You’re that desperate for help?”

  “I’m that desperate to see you.”

  I held the phone out at arm’s length, stared at the screen, then placed it back against my ear. “Are you flirting with me?”

  He laughed, and heat twined through me. “After all this time, do you really have to ask?”

  I bit my lip to keep from blurting yes. Even if Rook wasn’t a factor, our relationship was one hot mess. Shaw might like the idea of fidelity, but he had already struck out once with me. Did he covet the idea of a Happily Ever After: Incubus Edition enough to retry committing to me now that he had no choice but to be faithful? Did I want that kind of relationship? One born from necessity instead of love?

  No. I didn’t. I couldn’t do that to either of us. I deserved to find a guy who was genuinely crazy about me, and Shaw deserved the chance to find a woman who could drive him crazy. In a good way.

  I kept my tone light. “I can’t exactly sneak over there and back without Mai noticing.”

  Another sigh from him punctuated the frustration we shared. “I know.”

  We lapsed into a tense quiet filled with things both of us knew better than to say.

  He broke the silence first. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell me why you called?”

  Admit to him how conflicted I felt about my husband? That I had been having tender feelings for Rook before he smashed them? Another, safer option surfaced. “We had some excitement tonight. A fae—I’m not sure what kind—manhandled Mai at the pool. I broke up the altercation, but I got a bad vibe off him.”

  “Where were your guards?” He bit off the words.

  “They were with me,” I said primly, “but they trusted me to handle it.”

  “In other words, they were afraid revealing themselves would mark you as a person of interest.”

  I growled in response.

  “You couldn’t scent him?” Shaw pressed. “What about the guards? What did they sense?”

  I explained my glamour-compulsion combo theory. “All we know for sure is he’s Unseelie.”

  Some of the tension bled from his voice. “That gives you a wild card to play if you meet him again. It ought to keep you safe enough.”

  Unless he was a member of the Anti-Princess League who would be happy to dispatch me, but I didn’t say that. The guy knew my name. I was betting he knew my title too. So was our new friend a half-blood hater? A Raven loyalist? By engaging with me, was he thumbing his nose at the conclave? Or Faerie? Or both?

  I didn’t know, but Shaw was right about one thing. If there was a next time, playing the princess card would accomplish one of two goals. Put the guy in his place or green light the guards to use deadly force in his removal. Either outcome was a win as far as I was concerned.

  I tried not to think about the various factions eager to see my crown put back in play. They could keep the thing. They could keep Faerie, too, but first I needed a workaround that didn’t involve loyal subjects lopping off my head to retrieve the aforementioned crown.

  I was happy to hand it over, no guillotine required.

  Shaw asked no less than what I expected. “What do you want me to do?”

  “I was hoping you could mention the guy’s choice of feeding grounds to the marshals at the Florida outpost.”

  “I see.”

  “They know you’re in the area.” Marshals with threat-level-four designations, like us, had to announce themselves when traveling across state lines. I hadn’t for obvious reasons, but Shaw would have. “It makes sense someone would mention it to you.”

  He drew out his response. “Someone who isn’t you.”

  Damn he caught on fast.

  “Exactly,” I agreed.

  He continued, “Because they don’t know where you are.”

  Maybe too fast.

  I debated fudging the truth, but lies had a way of biting me on the ass. “Not exactly.”

  He groaned my name.

  I shot into defensive mode. “I’m being careful.”

  “You say that, and yet here you are, calling me in the middle of the night.”

  “Hey,” I snapped, “you didn’t have to answer.”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “What if you had been in danger?” he demanded.

  “I would have figured something out.”

  He grunted, unconvinced. “What if something had happened to you?”

  I struck a low blow. “Then you wouldn’t be able to feed?”

  His anger was a palpable force. “You know a food source isn’t all you are to me.”

  I wasn’t sure who I was reminding when I said, “It’s all I can be.”

  “And yet...” he pointed out again, “...you made this phone call.”

  Damn incubus. His brain must run on moonbeams, because mine was out of gas. I had to end this before I said something I really regretted. “If you’re going to be an ass, forget about it.”

  I hung up on Shaw and tossed my phone across the bed. Then it hit me. Crap. No wonder he was pissed. I was supposed to call him earlier to finish our conversation about his adventures in menswear and forgot. I bet he sat there, staring at his display, debating whether to pick up before a sense of duty won out and he finally answered.

  Guess this was a night for making bad decisions all around.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Rise and shine.”

  “No.” I groaned and pulled the covers over my head.

  “I made coffee.” Mai hummed. “It smells so good and fresh and delicious and—”

  I lowered the cover in increments. “You’re the spawn of Satan.”

  “Aww.” She mimed wiping tears. “I’ll tell Daddy you said so. He’ll be so flattered.”

  A snort escaped me as I pushed upright and squinted at the sun. “What time is it?”

  “Noon.” She passed me the warm mug. “You were out cold. How late did you stay up?”

  I covered a yawn. “I don’t know.”

  After visiting with Rook and calling Shaw, there hadn’t been much time left for rest.

  “I would have let you sleep, but Diode got a burr in his fur about making sure you were alive.”

  I fashioned an excuse from Shaw’s assumption. “Switching from third shift to first is always tough.”

  “Tell me about it.” She covered her mouth. “I’ve been on first for what—a week? I hate it.”

  “Foxes are nocturnal.” I laughed. “You should tell your boss working first shift goes against your nature.”

  “That’s not a bad idea.” She plucked at her bottom lip. “I wonder if I could get away with it.”

  “Check with Dr. Row in the med ward. If she writes you an excuse, it might work.”

  She gave me an appreciative nod. “You’re kind of an evil genius when you first wake up.”

  I blew on the coffee in the hopes of not blistering my tongue. “Thanks, I think.”

  She flopped onto the mattr
ess. “Now that you’re awake, what do you want to do today?”

  I held the mug away from me so the scalding liquid wouldn’t splash down my chest. “Swim? Sunbathe? Play beach volleyball?”

  Her voice took on a mischievous quality. “There are gray men in the shallows.”

  “Selkies?” My voice cracked. “I’ve never seen one.”

  “Apparently, it’s mating season.”

  Suspicion pushed me out of bed, the better to tower over her. “How do you know all this?”

  She rolled onto her stomach and scissored her legs. “I might have gone snorkeling earlier.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “As a heart attack.” She propped her chin in her hands. “They’ll rent anything to anyone these days.”

  I glowered down at her. “Rental availability is not the point, and you know it.”

  She stuck out her tongue at me. “It’s not like I was floating around testing all the males.”

  I relaxed a fraction.

  She winked. “Just the cute ones.”

  To keep my opinions to myself, I chugged coffee until I gulped air. Damn it. We were on vacation. This was not the time for me to lecture. I should go with the flow, meet some nice selkies and check out life under the sea via rent-a-flippers and a snorkel.

  I studied her flushed cheeks. “Did you have any luck?”

  “There was this one guy.” She groaned and rolled onto her back. “He’s gorgeous, Tee.”

  Fae beauty was definitely a selling point. It was their teeth and claws you had to watch out for.

  Her glow made me a touch jealous. I hadn’t felt all lit up inside in a long time. “Did you test him?”

  Mai’s buoyant mood sank. “No.”

  If it were anatomically possible, I would kick my own ass for dragging her down. I should have kept my mouth shut. Mai was passing out tests like handshakes lately, and it worried me. What used to be the ultimate test was becoming more of a pop quiz. She had been burned. A lot. As her friend, I shouldn’t make light of what stood between her and her future mate, even if I thought it was archaic.

  It was just that selkies were, in my opinion, a bad place to start. They had a bad reputation for knocking up women and then stealing their offspring to raise among their own kind. So, yeah. Not the best fae to look to for a relationship.

  Says the girl who dated an incubus...

  “You do realize you can enjoy a man’s company without expecting a lifelong commitment?”

  “I know.” She rested her forearm over her eyes. “I don’t see the point. Why invest myself in a guy who isn’t the one? I mean, that’s what the test is for, right? So what if it has to be widely administered to be effective?” She thumped her head on her arms. “I saw what it did to you. When you and Shaw split up, it was bad. You were wrecked. Even your mom called me to ask what was really going on with you. She wanted details.”

  My mother had wanted details? “You never told me she called you.”

  “She made me promise I wouldn’t tell you about it.” Mai sighed. “I should have kept my mouth shut, but I want to put this into perspective for you. Love is catastrophic, cataclysmic—and other c words I can’t think of right now. It destroys people. So why suffer when I have a predestined mate?”

  So this was it. The truth at last. She was afraid of falling in love without using the test as a safety net. A predestined mate was safe. The whole preordained thing meant he was made for her and her alone. Love guaranteed. Best sex ever, all covered in the fine print.

  I envied her that.

  For years I had built Shaw up as this ideal man in my head. In hindsight, I could admit that was part of the problem. Place someone high enough on a pedestal and you’re asking for them to fall. Shaw’s incubus nature had given him a push.

  “Losing Shaw didn’t wreck me,” I lied through my teeth. “I kept both hands on the wheel.”

  “Tee, your hands might have been on the wheel, but you stomped on the gas and played chicken with oncoming traffic.” She rolled toward me. “You were written up five times for excessive force during the first month alone. Oddly enough, those were all instances involving incubi. Huh. Almost like you targeted them.”

  Heat swept up the base of my neck. “I could have handled things better post-Shaw. Happy?”

  Neutrality apparently only extended so far, even if impartiality was in your blood.

  Mai studied me. “I don’t think you believe that.”

  “Stop shrinking me. I’m not your patient. Legally, you’re not even allowed to have patients. This is not about me and Shaw.” Thank God. “This is about you.”

  “You used the s-word.” She clutched her chest. “That hurts.”

  Classic Mai. Land her jabs, let me vent, let her vent at me, and then diffuse the situation.

  “So,” I said, wrapping my hand around her ankle. “Are we flirting with gray men or what?”

  “Thierry,” she warned.

  She kicked out. I caught that leg and tucked it under my arm, returning my attention to her other foot.

  “I’ll give you rabies if you do it.”

  I snorted. “You don’t have rabies.”

  She bared her teeth and squirmed. “I didn’t say I would do it personally.”

  “It’s a simple question.” I tickled the bottom of her foot. “Yes or no.”

  Mai thrashed. Promises of reciprocation were gasped. My anatomy was threatened which, being a girl, wasn’t as effective as it could have been if we had dragged the guards into the fray. I kept on until she couldn’t breathe and her legs went noodley, until our worries faded and we were just two young women with nothing better to do than to see who could make the other pee their pants laughing first.

  Dressed to thrill, Mai sashayed into the living room wearing a silver bikini. This one I had seen crumpled on her bed earlier and almost tossed it, thinking it was tinfoil left over from our delivery. Three small triangles covered her important bits, each held in place by string and a prayer. A mesh cover-up hit her mid-thigh. Its metallic-gray color reminded me of chain mail. Her sleek hair was French braided across the top of her head like a woven hairband and finished off in a sloppy bun behind her right ear.

  Feeling slouchy in my simple black tank, hair in a loose ponytail, I trailed the resident fashion plate to the front door.

  Diode barred our path. “This is a bad idea.”

  “We’ll be careful,” I assured him. “I’ll bring the guards and my bag.”

  All my ward-breaking and minor spell-casting ingredients were in there, along with knives and a few poisons. Some snacks. Lip balm. A bottle of water. Sunscreen. With that bag, I was prepared.

  Marshals weren’t taught much in the way of magic use until they had adequate field experience. I knew bare-bones castings from working with Shaw, who had a knack for spellwork. Compared to his skill, I was still in training wheels. But he had fifty-three years on me and practiced more often than I did.

  Diode’s ears swiveled. “Have you thought this through?”

  “Yes?”

  Sensing a weakness, he pounced. “Ah-ha. There it is. Doubt.”

  Mai shifted from foot to foot. “What is your problem, fur face?”

  He lifted his chin. “Have you seen how much water is out there?”

  She slapped her forehead. “Hello? It’s the ocean.”

  “Ocean. Pah.” He flattened his ears. “It’s unnatural.”

  “We’re in Florida.” She threw up her hands. “It’s a peninsula, as in, land surrounded by water on three sides.”

  “There is something unsettling about this place.” He sniffed. “She should not be left alone in it.”

  I walked over and knelt beside him. “Is this a cat-and-water thing, or can you sense a threat?”

  “The spell on the collar is dampening my abilities,” he said, tail bristling, “but something is prickling my fur.”

  I stroked down his back, and he rose on tiptoe, arching under my hand. “I’ll stay if you
want.”

  He stopped mid-purr and speared a corner of the room with his vibrant gaze. “Well?”

  Righty materialized with Lefty behind him. “Selkies are aligned with the Seelie, but they aren’t a threat. They’re here to mate, and one call from Thierry can get them banned from Florida’s coast. I believe they’re given a three-day window, and if they lose Florida, they’ve lost their chance for the year.”

  I frowned at him. I hadn’t known about a three-day window. No wonder sightings were so rare.

  The tip of Diode’s tail curled thoughtfully. “Would they obey the orders of an Unseelie noble?”

  “No.” Righty shook his head. “But they would have no choice but to honor a conclave edict.”

  “Very well. Go have your fun.” Diode batted my thigh with his paw. “Be careful.”

  “I will be.” I patted his head. “Can I bring you anything back?”

  He sauntered toward a patch of sunlit carpet. “I have all I require here.”

  Before he changed his mind, Mai grabbed my upper arm and hauled me down to the beach.

  “I hate to say this, but your cat is neurotic.”

  “He has water issues. He’s a cat. He’s allowed.”

  Her lips twitched. “Have you ever been around a cat long enough to know this isn’t normal?”

  “No,” I admitted. “I’m not a cat person.”

  “Then take my word for it, as someone who has a sister who breeds Sphinxes, he’s a weirdo.”

  I bumped my shoulder against hers. “Be nice. He saved my ass in Faerie. He’s good people.”

  “I’m not saying he isn’t. I’m just saying he’s eccentric, even for a cat.”

  I shrugged. “As long as he’s not hurting anyone, I don’t care what he does.”

  Her laughter tapered into a low whistle of appreciation. “My God, Thierry. Look. Slabs of abs.”

  My mouth got a tad dry. “Those are the gray men?”

  She bit the nail on her pointer finger. “Mmm-hmm.”

  “Wow.”

  Hang around fae awhile and their beauty starts to blur. Nothing was blurring here. Twelve men, all tall and tan with swimmers’ bodies, lounged on the beach near a multicolored umbrella that popped against the white sands. Neighboring rental lounges with their navy-blue fabric never stood a chance. The umbrella’s bright colors and its slight spin drew the eye straight toward all of those surfer-god bodies. A clever marketing campaign executed to perfection.