Page 7

Chapter Seven

“Not so fast,” Callum said, standing up abruptly. “Collar first.”

“Oh, right.” I’d forgotten.

He pulled a delicate-looking leather collar out of his pocket. It was a rich charcoal gray like Lianith’s fur, with a pattern of embossed leaves and fish, and an elaborately engraved silver buckle.

“Gráinne’s work?”

Callum nodded. “Yes. The Lady and I did the charms, though.”

I held out my hand.

His eyebrows lifted. “You want to put it on her?”

“Well, I’m going to be the one who has to take it off or put it on once we’re at the house. Better to find out now if she’s going to let me.”

“You should keep it on, if you can. It’s designed to be difficult to remove.”

“Is that safe?” Cats weren’t allowed outside these days, but Lianith would need access to the garden and I knew collars were dangerous. I had visions of her stuck in a tree, the leather hooked on a branch.

“It will come undone if she needs it to.” He passed me the collar.

“Good.” I hesitated. Should I ask her permission before putting the collar on? If so, how? “Okay, this takes care of what she looks like,” I said, letting my sight slide into the magic as I examined the collar, trying to see if I could understand the illusion. Parts were familiar but there was a complexity to the way the magic twined around and through both the leather and the silver, that I didn’t know how to unravel. I couldn’t quite figure out how it had been built. “Which brings us to another issue.”

“Which is?” Callum asked.

“How is she going to talk to me? Can she do what you do?” I gestured vaguely near my temple to indicate the mind-to-mind speech he and I used.

“Mostly,” Callum said. “Not as strongly and she does not have a great facility with English. She will most likely respond in Fae. Cerridwen put something in her charms on the collar to facilitate the process, but if Lianith speaks to you in English, it will be basic. Even her Fae may be…unusual. They don’t think about things the same way we do.”

I wasn’t sure there was a ‘we’ in there. Fae thought differently from humans about a lot of things. So if Callum thought that nixlings thought strangely, well, that was going to make things complicated. “That’s not super helpful. I’m still learning Fae.”

He smirked, amusement flaring in his green-gold eyes. “Cerridwen thought this would be excellent practice. You should be able to communicate well enough. She’ll get the point across, I promise. And if she needs to tell you something complicated and you don’t understand, you can always call me or Gráinne.”

I looked dubiously at Lianith. “So how does this work? Talking to her, I mean.” Callum and I just talked to each other. I didn’t have to put any special effort into it. Which had been a shock the first time he’d done it. But so far the nixling hadn’t said anything to me.

“If you think something at her, she should hear it, or if you ask her a question out loud, she’ll answer you in your mind.”

“ It may be fainter than me ,” he added mentally.

“Lianith, say something to Maggie.”

I stayed quiet, trying to listen. At first, I got nothing but then, faintly, I heard “ Hael, ” in my head.

That was one Fae word I knew. It was their equivalent of hello.

“ Hael ,” I thought back. “Hello,” I added out loud so Callum would know I’d heard something. The nixling blinked at me and I got a sense she was pleased. Her voice was not like Callum’s. He came through clear as day. This was more subtle. Like a voice carried on a breeze or twisted through the rustle of leaves. I was going to have to pay attention.

Though Lianith could probably shout if she wanted to.

“Any Fae words you think I should know to make this easier?” I asked Callum. “Like what she wants to eat?” Most of the Fae I knew revolved around being polite to Fae or magic and fighting demons. We’d skipped over things like cooking terms.

He ran quickly through the various words for beef, lamb, chicken, and salmon. Then added inside and outside.

“Okay,” I said, “I can remember those. Send me a voice note with any others I might need.” My datapad, still in my leather backpack, chimed suddenly. Reminding me I was supposed to be home, getting ready for tonight. “I need to hit the road. Is there a carrier?”

Lianith’s ears flattened slightly, her eyes sparking brighter gold.

“She knows how to behave in a car.” Callum said, “She will sit on your lap.”

I was fairly sure that was illegal. Pets were supposed to be restrained in vehicles. But I wasn’t going to try and shove a Fae creature her size into a cardboard box or crate against her will. Even if the thought of her digging those claws into my leg if she spooked wasn’t appealing.

I nodded at Callum, then focused on Lianith. “Time to go. Let’s put this collar on and then I can carry you or you can follow me? To the car.”

Callum must have translated for me, because the nixling stretched out her nose toward me and sniffed my hand and pressed her head into my palm, like a cat or dog asking for scritches.

I scratched her ear tentatively, and, when she didn’t object, slipped the collar on, fastening the buckle. The shift in her appearance was instantaneous. Suddenly there was a large long-haired gray cat, with similar silvery tips to her ears and her single—albeit very fluffy—tail sitting on the table. I blinked twice, startled by how well it worked. Though I shouldn’t have been if Cerridwen’s magic was involved. Cerridwen could change the appearance of the realm around her with a thought. Charming a relatively small animal was hardly a challenge. I reached to pick Lianith up and almost staggered when she weighed more than my brain expected. Illusions can’t change the mass of an object. So I had to remember I was lifting a nixling, not a cat. I hoisted her more securely in my arms and carried her out to the car.

Lianith sat on my lap, ears pricked and occasionally flicking back and forth, gaze fastened on the scenery passing by as we headed back to the city. She didn’t offer any comments. Probably just as well. My Fae wasn’t up to translating nixling feelings about the San Francisco skyline.

Maia stayed silent until we were back across the bridge, when her curiosity got the better of her. “So is this a case of nixling versus nixling?” I’d explained what Lianith really was when I’d carried the seemingly-a-cat out to the car and Maia had hit me with a ‘why the hell do you have a cat?’ face.

I shrugged. “That’s what Callum said. Lianith here should be able to scare off any others that try to make it past our wards.”

“Right. Well, it’s a reasonable plan,” Maia agreed. “But I don’t think Mitch is going to like it.”

I was sure he wouldn’t. But I’d rather have Mitch cranky at me than Cerridwen, and she must have given her blessing to Callum’s plan. He wouldn’t take a nixling from the realm without her permission.

At least I hoped not.

The real wild card was Damon. He mostly rolled with the magical punches these days and I figured he’d be happy to trade one Fae creature who was on our side for a random assortment of others that weren’t. If he wasn’t, I had ways to make it up to him that I couldn’t use on Mitch.

Still, I was somewhat nervous when I arrived home. Madge informed me Damon was in his office. I walked down the hallway, Lianith padding behind me, head swiveling from side to side taking in her surroundings. Damon’s office door was closed.

I bent down to Lianith and slipped her collar off. I wanted Damon to see her in her true form for this introduction. She made a soft inquiring chirrup noise at me as I tucked the collar into one of the pockets of my workout jacket.

“I hope you understand this, but I need you to wait here, okay?” I said softly, wracking my brains for the Fae word for wait. When it finally popped into my head, I repeated it silently to Lianith.

She sat back on her haunches, tails curled around her feet. Message received.

I hoped. I knocked on Damon’s door, slipping inside when he told me to come in in a distracted tone.

He had all the screens in the room up and they were displaying a bunch of different data analysis sets that made me glad, once again, that I wasn’t him. Code was fun. Running a global empire was not my jam.

“Hey,” Damon said, pushing his chair back from the desk, looking vaguely guilty. “You’re home. Have I lost track of time again?” He tugged at his white T-shirt. “Do I need to get ready?”

“Not yet.” I swept a hand down my active wear. “But ask Madge to ping you an hour out if you’re in data absorption mode.”

He grinned, which I was happy to see. His smiles had been few and far between the last few days. “Don’t worry. She won’t let me be late. Cat will have set reminders. Cinderella must get to the ball on time tonight.”

“Personally, I’d be happy to miss it all together,” I said. “If you’re too busy….”

“Nice try. But no. Though I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

Now, that I could get on board with. “I’ll start thinking of how.”

“Oh, I have plenty of ideas.” His grin returned.

I matched it. “Then we’ll need plenty of time to get through both lists. Maybe you could get Madge to clear your schedule tomorrow,” I said, wishing we could get started on those lists right now. I could tempt him into coming and scrubbing my back in the shower. But no, he had to work and I sadly had no time for shower sex. Tomorrow was Saturday. Damon usually worked at least a few hours every day but we usually had us time on the weekends. “ Do you have anything on your schedule tomorrow?”

“Nothing major.” He stretched his arms out, cracking his knuckles. “But I should finish this.” His gaze flicked back to the nearest screen. “Did you need me for something?”

I knew the signs of a geek wanting to get back to the job at hand. “One quick thing and I’ll get out of your hair.”

His expression turned instantly wary. I hated that when it came to news from me, these days his mind seemed to go straight to worst-case scenario.

“You’re not hurt? You were training, weren’t you?”

I shook my head and then did a quick twirl. “All in one piece. Nothing bruised but my ego. As usual. But Callum came up with an idea for a solution to our nixling problem.” Hopefully I sounded like I was happy about it.

Damon raised an eyebrow. “Am I going to like this solution?”

“I don’t know? How do you feel about, er, a guest?”

“A guest? Who?”

“Easier if I just introduce you.” I went and opened the door. Lianith was still sitting outside.

“Come on in,” I said.

Lianith strolled into the room, twin tails curving question marks over her back.

Damon shoved back from the desk, coming to his feet. “That’s a nixling .” He raised his eyebrows, huffing out a surprised breath.

“Yes.” I filled him in on Callum’s basic theory that Lianith would be able to scare off other nixlings.

“So she’s like, what, a nixling warrior or something?”

“I’m not sure. We didn’t really get into the details. Callum seemed confident, though.”

Lianith took a few steps forward and sprang onto Damon’s desk from about ten feet away, landing lightly enough not to disturb anything. To his credit, Damon didn’t so much as flinch.

“Impressive,” he said drily, looking down at her as she settled herself on a pile of paper. “Right. So she’s up to the job. But what are we doing about the whole…not really looking like a cat or a dog situation?” He gestured at the tails now curving over her front paws. “She’s going to upset the neighbors.”

I pulled the collar out of my jacket pocket and held it up. “This.” I came over to the desk and fastened the collar into place.

Lianith morphed back into a cat.

This time Damon did flinch slightly before he caught himself. He narrowed his eyes at me. “You could have warned me. But I see that works. She looks like a what…Maine Coon, is that what those big cats are called?”

“I think so. Callum picked the biggest cat he could find to model the illusion on.” These days, of course, people had all sorts of designer pets. Gene coding and DNA manipulation were tightly controlled, but cosmetic changes to fur color and pattern and size were allowed, if expensive. “It’s only an illusion, so you don’t want something too small. It would be strange if she appeared normal cat sized but could reach things a normal cat couldn’t for example.”

“Okay,” he said. “And you said ‘guest’. So not a permanent addition to the household?”

Seriously, he was taking this way better than I thought he would.

“No,” I said slowly. “She’s volunteering to help us out for a while.” Lianith was cute but I didn’t think she would want to live outside the realm permanently, even if Cerridwen would allow it.

“What’s her name?” Damon asked.

“Oh,” I said. “Sorry, it’s Lianith. Lianith, this is Damon. He’s my…er, mate?”

That got me a response. Not really a word, more a sensation of amusement.

I must have looked startled because Damon said, “What?”

“She just laughed. I think.”

His eyes widened. “You talk to her like you do Callum, when he’s wolfed out?”

“Yeah. Though she only speaks Fae. She understands some English but it’s not quite the same.” She seemed smart, so hopefully, as Callum had said, we’d learn from each other.

Damon was holding his hand out to Lianith who sniffed it politely. “We need to get her settled somewhere for the night. I’ll take care of it. You need to shower before your squad gets here.”

“You were working,” I objected.

“It can wait. And it won’t take long to see which guest room she likes,” Damon stroked Lianith’s ear and smiled when she butted her head into his hand like she had with me. Letting them bond might make this all go more smoothly. “Callum said she eats raw meat.”

“I’m sure we’ll find something.” He stopped patting Lianith, came around the desk and kissed me fast. I leaned into it, heat rushing though me as it always did, but all too soon he ended it.

“Go on, go get pretty.”

“I’m already pretty,” I said, pretending to be offended.

“I know,” he said, “but go get even more pretty so everyone will be jealous of me tonight at the gala.”

I laughed. “No. Everyone will be jealous of me .”