made the room appear warm and airy, and combined with the off-white cabinets made me feel as though I had stepped into the kitchen of a quaint country cottage. A large window beside the table, and another smaller one over the sink, looked out over the dark backyard, a free standing garage at the end of the yard barely visible behind a cluster of winter bare trees that I imagined come spring would be laden with sweet smelling apple blossoms. A flicker of movement caught my eye in the darkness, and with a jolt of surprise I realized it was a nude woman.
“There’s a er... naked woman in your yard.”
Looking up from where she was dumping heaping spoonfuls of cocoa into two mugs, Alyssa gazed out of the window above the sink. “Oh, that’s just my neighbor, Sandra. She’d mentioned she was going to work on re-laying the wards this week.”
“I see,” I drawled, doing my best to avoid looking at the stark-naked woman meandering around the yard with her arms raised to the heavens, pausing occasionally to execute a pirouette before continuing on her path.
Several uncomfortable moments passed during which I turned my attention to picking at a stubborn hangnail on my thumb, anything to keep myself from looking at the nude weirdo in the backyard. Alyssa had accused me of being a prude when she accompanied me on a shopping trip just before Christmas. She had insisted that my hesitancy to model sexy lingerie for her and a gaggle of sales clerks at Victoria’s Secret meant I was uptight. At the time I had outright denied being anything even closely resembling uptight, but as I sat in her cozy kitchen doing my damnedest to think about anything other than the naked dryad prancing around the yard, I was forced to rethink the possibility that I might be a bit prudish after all.
Interrupting my thoughts, Alyssa set a mug of hot cocoa in front of me, complete with a handful of mini marshmallows and sprinkling of chocolate shavings. Sitting across from me, she tucked an errant lock of brilliant red hair behind her ear before curling delicate fingers around her own mug.
“So... the Shepherd of the City, huh?”
My shoulders slumped at her question. I’d known she was going to ask, but I’d hoped she would wait a little longer before grilling me about what I’d gotten myself mixed up in. I wasn’t even sure that I fully understood it myself.
“Yep,” I replied, taking a sip of my hot cocoa as an excuse not to elaborate. It burned my tongue, and all the way down my throat, but it was delicious, and I relished the warmth spreading through my chest.
The exasperated look Alyssa shot at me across the table let me know she could see right through my stalling tactics and that her patience was a lot longer than mine. With a sigh I set my mug down, but didn’t raise my gaze from the melting marshmallows.
“He’s asked me to look into some vamp murders. He thinks it’s a were.”
“I’d heard about the murders, but this is the first I’ve heard about them being connected to weres.”
“Me, too.”
It was no secret that vamps and weres didn’t get along, but there had been a strained peace between them for years. Although I thought Cordova was an egotistical undead prick, even I had to admit that he’d done a good job of getting everyone to play nice since he had taken over as Shepherd. Colorado was at an all-time low for supe-related crimes, and he’d made sizeable contributions to several supernatural charities in the area. He was an all-around pillar of the non-human community. And I didn’t trust his fanged smile any further than I could throw him.
“Why doesn’t Cordova have the police handling this?”
“He does, but you know as well as I do that the mundane police aren’t going to do shit until a human gets caught in the crossfire,” I said, looking up to meet her violet gaze. A small furrow developed between her brows as she gave me a reluctant nod. It was an unpleasant truth, but a truth
“There’s a er... naked woman in your yard.”
Looking up from where she was dumping heaping spoonfuls of cocoa into two mugs, Alyssa gazed out of the window above the sink. “Oh, that’s just my neighbor, Sandra. She’d mentioned she was going to work on re-laying the wards this week.”
“I see,” I drawled, doing my best to avoid looking at the stark-naked woman meandering around the yard with her arms raised to the heavens, pausing occasionally to execute a pirouette before continuing on her path.
Several uncomfortable moments passed during which I turned my attention to picking at a stubborn hangnail on my thumb, anything to keep myself from looking at the nude weirdo in the backyard. Alyssa had accused me of being a prude when she accompanied me on a shopping trip just before Christmas. She had insisted that my hesitancy to model sexy lingerie for her and a gaggle of sales clerks at Victoria’s Secret meant I was uptight. At the time I had outright denied being anything even closely resembling uptight, but as I sat in her cozy kitchen doing my damnedest to think about anything other than the naked dryad prancing around the yard, I was forced to rethink the possibility that I might be a bit prudish after all.
Interrupting my thoughts, Alyssa set a mug of hot cocoa in front of me, complete with a handful of mini marshmallows and sprinkling of chocolate shavings. Sitting across from me, she tucked an errant lock of brilliant red hair behind her ear before curling delicate fingers around her own mug.
“So... the Shepherd of the City, huh?”
My shoulders slumped at her question. I’d known she was going to ask, but I’d hoped she would wait a little longer before grilling me about what I’d gotten myself mixed up in. I wasn’t even sure that I fully understood it myself.
“Yep,” I replied, taking a sip of my hot cocoa as an excuse not to elaborate. It burned my tongue, and all the way down my throat, but it was delicious, and I relished the warmth spreading through my chest.
The exasperated look Alyssa shot at me across the table let me know she could see right through my stalling tactics and that her patience was a lot longer than mine. With a sigh I set my mug down, but didn’t raise my gaze from the melting marshmallows.
“He’s asked me to look into some vamp murders. He thinks it’s a were.”
“I’d heard about the murders, but this is the first I’ve heard about them being connected to weres.”
“Me, too.”
It was no secret that vamps and weres didn’t get along, but there had been a strained peace between them for years. Although I thought Cordova was an egotistical undead prick, even I had to admit that he’d done a good job of getting everyone to play nice since he had taken over as Shepherd. Colorado was at an all-time low for supe-related crimes, and he’d made sizeable contributions to several supernatural charities in the area. He was an all-around pillar of the non-human community. And I didn’t trust his fanged smile any further than I could throw him.
“Why doesn’t Cordova have the police handling this?”
“He does, but you know as well as I do that the mundane police aren’t going to do shit until a human gets caught in the crossfire,” I said, looking up to meet her violet gaze. A small furrow developed between her brows as she gave me a reluctant nod. It was an unpleasant truth, but a truth
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