“It’s good, right?” Sydney commented. “This penthouse came with a case of it and Lorien and I have been addicted ever since. It’s pricey but, since I don’t have a mortgage payment anymore, I can justify splurging on it.”
“I think you go through about a case of that stuff a week,” Sparrow teased.
“I usually have help,” Sydney defended laughingly.
“Yeah, Sunny’s usually here to drink with us,” Lorien said. “Speaking of which, when’s her next visit?”
“In a couple of weeks,” Sydney replied. “She’s presenting an academic paper at a conference in France in a few days, and she may extend her stay to hang out in Paris. I’m so jealous!”
“Have you ever been to Paris?” Sparrow asked, his thumb idly brushing her shoulder.
“No, but my mom says it’s beautiful.”
“Maybe we can meet Sunny there for dinner one evening,” he suggested.
Sydney twisted on the sofa to face him, excitement lighting her eyes. “Seriously?”
Sparrow smiled at her and nodded.
“They can be a little nauseating, can’t they?” Lorien asked from the side of her mouth.
Scarlett transferred her startled gaze to the faerie. She realized she’d been staring at the couple, but it was intriguing to see Pat acting the man-in-love. She was used to his tough detective side, and his teasing brotherly side, but this was a side of him she’d never witnessed.
It was just as strange to see her beach-bunny-chasing brother suddenly all doe eyed over his new wife, Violet. The fact that both women were human only added to the surrealism. Not that she disapproved, exactly. She was surprised by how much she liked them.
An image of Agent Derrington popped into her mind, and she wondered why she couldn’t seem to shake him from her thoughts.
Not that it mattered. She would probably never see him again. Pat had made it clear that he had no intention of making their presence known to the human authorities.
Perhaps she was just feeling a little adrift because Pat and Doyle had found their soul mates. The last time she’d felt such an inexplicable fascination for a male had been when she was a teenager.
Acting on that feeling had been the worst mistake of her life.
This felt much different though. Back then she had been focused solely on how he reacted to her. With Agent Derrington, it was more that something deep within her reacted to him.
A soft wuffing sound escaped her throat as the hefty black cat jumped onto her lap, effectively derailing her unsettling train of thought.
“Oh sorry! That’s Jasper,” Sydney apologized as she extricated herself from Sparrow’s embrace and started to lunge for the feline.
“No. It’s okay. I like animals.” Scarlett maneuvered the cat into a more comfortable position and stroked his silky fur.
“My brother has an Irish wolfhound,” Scarlett murmured as she ran her palm along the cat’s long, white-tipped tail. “He’s as big as a baby peg. He loves to play with the fallen palm fronds in Doyle’s back yard.”
“Well, Jasper certainly seems to like you,” Sydney remarked as she refilled their glasses and dropped back onto the couch next to Sparrow. “Do you have any pets?”
Scarlett shook her head. “We don’t have the same issues with animals needing homes as you do in your realm. Most of the animals of Faerie possess a certain...magical awareness. They are independent creatures in their own right. Some may choose to live with us, but we do not own them or make such choices for them.”
Sydney turned to the hiccupping sprite and asked, “What about your nephew’s pet frog? Is he magical?”
“Buster?” Lorien asked in amusement. “He’s not magical in the sense that he can cast spells, but he’s unlike any frog you’d find in the human realm. He injured one of his back legs years ago and my sister cured him. He never strayed far from our home after that. When my nephew was born, they developed a bond, and Buster chose to live as part of our family.”
Scarlett grinned at the faerie. “So the sprite child riding the frog across the aisle in the middle of Doyle and Violet’s bonding ceremony must have been your nephew.”
Lorien rolled her eyes and covered her mouth to stifle a stream of bubbles. “He can be a handful. Turn your back for a second and he’s halfway to Seelie City—drives my sister batty.”
Scarlett chuckled and took another sip of her drink. She scratched the purring cat under his chin and looked out the wall of glass at the bruised purples and oranges of the darkening sky.
It was strange to realize that, despite being in the home of a human, she was actually beginning to relax and enjoy herself. It made her regret leaving her brother’s wedding events early and missing out on celebrating with him.
Perhaps she could have made more of an effort to get to know Pat and Doyle’s human women, especially when they had been guests in her own realm.
“It’s getting late,” Pat commented. “The human authorities may have left the crime scene for the night. I should blink over and check it out.”
“You said a woman might have been murdered by someone from the faerie realm,” Sydney said with a frown. “What happened?”
Sparrow sighed. “Scarlett brought it to my attention today. There have been a series of rapes and murders across the country and the FBI believes they were all committed by the same man. When I ran the case through a program at Seelie Headquarters, I realized that all of the women had a periphery connection to the faerie realm.”
“That’s horrible!” Sydney exclaimed. “What kind of connection? And how did you find out about it, Scarlett?”
Scarlett glanced at Pat, unsure how much she should tell his human. “I stumbled across it by accident,” she replied evasively.
Pat smirked at her. “Scarlett got into a fistfight with the FBI agent who’s heading up the case. She got suspicious when she smelled a magical sidhe sleeping potion at his crime scene.”
“A fistfight?” Sydney asked in disbelief. “With an FBI agent?”
“Yes. And apparently he was a skilled enough opponent to pique her interest. Right Letty?” Pat teased.
Scarlett glared at him. “That has nothing to do with anything,” she stammered her accent thickening with embarrassment. “And I gave you that information so you could stop a crime, not use it to take the mickey out of me.”
Sydney punched Sparrow in the shoulder. “Yeah. Leave her alone, you big bully.”
Scarlett gave her a startled look, as if she couldn’t understand why Sydney would side with her over Pat.
Sydney snickered at Sparrow’s indignant expression and the other woman’s confusion. “What? Haven’t you guys ever heard of female solidarity?”
Pat shook his head at Scarlett. “I knew I was going to regret bringing you with me,” he accused.
Sydney narrowed laughing eyes at Scarlett. “Don’t get me wrong. I definitely want to hear more about your FBI agent. But first tell me how these women were connected to the faerie realm,” she said with a concerned look at Sparrow.
“We’re not sure yet. And I want you to be very careful until we figure it out,” he replied in a serious tone. “If this psycho is choosing his victims based on that connection, you could be at risk.”
He turned his worried gaze on Lorien. “So both of you, keep an eye out for any sign of danger. And let me know immediately if you sense something.