Page 10

CHAPTER 10

W hen Jonah returned home, an unfamiliar car was in the driveway. It was an old Ford Taurus covered in rust and missing most of the back bumper. He frowned, wondering why Caleb would be driving a piece of shit car like this one when Jonah had bought him a brand new BMW for his last birthday.

Fuck, he hoped Caleb hadn’t sold it because he needed the money. Caleb’s musician gigs were often few and far between, and Jonah had set up a bank account for him with enough money to support him in between gigs. But his brother was stubborn and refused to take Jonah’s money, partially because he wanted to support himself and partially because he disapproved of how Jonah made his money. He worked as a server in between gigs, and it would be like Caleb to sell his car rather than touch the money in the bank account.

Excitement mixed with trepidation washed over Jonah as he entered the house. The whir of a blender echoed in the foyer, and he hurried toward the kitchen. He stepped into the kitchen as the blender stopped, the greeting dying on his lips. A variety of fresh veggies, protein powder, and fruit were on the counter, and he watched the man pull the glass jug off the blender and drink the bright green liquid directly from it.

He drank nearly half the jug before wiping his mouth and belching loudly.

“Dude, that’s so good. It’s like your best effort yet,” the man said.

“Alex?” Jonah said.

The man shrieked and nearly dropped the glass jug, fumbling with it as green liquid sloshed out to splatter on the floor. He shoved it onto the counter and turned to face Jonah, his brown eyes wide with shock. “Jonah? Holy fuck. Is that you?”

“Yeah,” Jonah said. “How did you get into my house? And why are you here?”

Alex was one of Caleb’s musician friends, and while Jonah didn’t dislike him, he didn’t know him that well beyond the fact that he smoked too much weed and was a mediocre drummer at best.

Alex smoothed his long hair away from his face. “Oh, well, like, Caleb gave me a key last year when I needed a place to crash for a couple of weeks, and I just,” he made a vague waving motion, “totally forgot to give it back. And, you know, the weekly groceries are still being delivered, and I figured it would be a real shame for the food to go to waste.”

He smiled cheerfully at Jonah. “I get hungry a lot. On account of all the weed.”

“Right,” Jonah said.

“Where you been, man? It’s been, like, forever since I saw you.”

“On a job,” Jonah said.

“Dude, that’s one long-ass cruise. Was it one of those around-the-world cruises or something?”

“Yeah,” Jonah said.

Caleb had started telling his friends that Jonah worked as a chef for a cruise ship line to explain any of Jonah’s longer absences, and it was a good enough excuse as any.

“Cool. I’m thinking of doing one of those Alaskan cruises. I wanna see me a polar bear,” Alex said.

“Where’s Caleb?”

Alex’s eyes went wide again. “Oh shit, man, you don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?” Jonah’s stomach clenched tight.

“He’s gone. Has been for, like, eight months.”

“Gone where?” Jonah could hear the anxiety in his voice.

“The fae took him,” Alex said.

“Fuck!” The word exploded from his mouth. He staggered to the island, sitting on one of the stools as Alex joined him.

“How did it happen?” Jonah asked.

“He was playing a gig, and there were a couple of fae at the bar,” Alex said. “You know how they are about music and shit.”

“Yeah,” Jonah said.

While the fae in the city mostly behaved, they couldn’t resist the temptation to steal a human here or there. Usually, the human they stole was musically gifted because the fae loved music and dancing. Most of the time, they only kept the human for a few weeks before returning them.

“He’s been gone eight months?” Jonah said.

“Yeah.”

“And you didn’t think to call the fucking cops?”

Alex flushed. “Hey, we did, man. Me and Rupert and Callie went to the cops after a month. They said they would look into it, but you know they don’t mess with the fae if they can help it.”

“Jesus Christ.” Jonah ran his hand through his hair. “They’re fucking useless.”

“Eh, everyone kind of is when it comes to the fae,” Alex said. “Especially with that mind control shit they do.”

“Emotion manipulation,” Jonah said.

Alex paused with the blender jug at his mouth. “What?”

“They can’t do mind control,” Jonah said. “But they can manipulate and amplify your emotions.”

“Yeah, okay, but there’s also the charming shit they do and the glamouring,” Alex said.

“They have shifters in law enforcement,” Jonah said. “Everyone knows the fae’s magic doesn’t work when a shifter is in animal form.”

Alex shrugged. “They just kept telling us they’d do a wellness check on him, but since it’d been so long, Caleb was probably with the fae of his own free will at that point.”

“Bullshit,” Jonah said.

“Yeah.” Alex lapsed into silence.

A new thought turned Jonah’s blood to ice. “Is he with the northern fae or the southern fae?”

They had two large fae communities in the city, and most humans and other paranormal referred to them as the northern and the southern, purely based on their geographical location in the city. But it wasn’t just geography that differentiated them. The southern fae were what people typically thought of when they pictured the fae. Both sexes were tall and slender with an ethereal type of beauty, and they seemed to float rather than walk.

The northern fae were completely different, although no less good looking. As large as most shifters, the men were rugged and muscular and most of them owned or worked for a popular boxing gym franchise with multiple locations across the state. The women were sturdy and athletic, with toned bodies and muscles that often rivaled the most dedicated of gym rats.

Regardless of whether they lived in the north or the south, both fae communities loved to fuck with the humans if given the chance, but the northern ones were unequivocally more dangerous.

“The northern,” Alex said before taking another slug of his protein drink.

“Fuck,” Jonah said.

“Right?” Alex said. “Now you know why we didn’t go looking for him ourselves. The northern fae are fucking beasts, man. I swear I saw one lift a three hundred pound dude over his head in a bar one night and chuck him across the room. Didn’t even break a sweat.”

He cocked his head. “You think they’re doing, like, steroids and shit at those gyms, or do they got like fae magic strength or something?”

Jonah ignored his question. “Are the northern fae still in that compound just outside of Parsons Woods?”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “It’s even bigger now. They did some construction last year and added like a dozen more houses to it. That asshole politician, the one who’s in prison right now, put up a big stink about it. Kept saying the fae were gonna take over the city. Honestly, I was kind of surprised he even said anything. He was always acting like shifters are our biggest threat.”

Jonah stood up. “Time for you to leave, Alex.”

“Oh yeah, sure.” Alex slid off the stool. “I’ll just clean up my mess and -”

“Go home,” Jonah said, standing up.

“Right, okay.” Alex started toward the door, and Jonah tapped him on the shoulder.

“Your key. Give it to me.”

“Sure, man.” He dug into his pocket and gave Jonah the silver key. “Hey, if you, like, see Caleb, tell him I said what’s up.”

Jonah nodded and waited until he heard the front door slam before slumping on the stool again. A combination of annoyance and anxiety made his body thrum. Caleb being taken by the fae wasn’t ideal, but he could handle it. He would go there tonight and get him back. Simple. Easy. No problem.

He cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, tossing away the rest of Alex’s drink and returning the veggies and fruit to the fridge. He closed the fridge door and grabbed his keys before hesitating.

He really should talk to Elora first. Let her know he’d found Caleb. She would be off work by now, and he could stop at her apartment on his way to the fae’s compound.

You could just text her.

He could, but he’d spent this afternoon arranging for one of his cars to be registered and insured in her name, so it made sense to stop at the storage place, grab Elora’s car, and drop it off at her apartment. He really hated the idea of her driving around in that piece of junk she currently owned. It was constantly on the verge of breaking down.

It would take him no more than an hour to stop in at Elora’s. Caleb had been with the fae for eight months. Another hour wouldn’t make a difference.