Start | Chapter Seventeen Part Three | Index | Chapter Eighteen Part Two

The two people who answered Liam’s appeal for help were a father and daughter team who looked human, to David’s eyes, perhaps a little too human. There was something artfully studied about their mundanity. He wouldn’t have looked twice at them in the street. Even right there face to face with them he was finding it hard to retain the details of their appearance beyond an impression of mousy hair, hazel eyes and bland features. He had a definite feeling that he might not even remember them tomorrow, except Liam apparently did.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure you will,” the young woman extended her hand to him. “I’m Brenna, you can call me Bren if you want.” As she spoke it seemed that she grew several inches and her arms and legs became unnaturally thinner and longer, her hair darkened slightly while her eyes deepened to a rich brown and her features sharpened and developed an angular cast which while not conventionally pretty was striking. So this was the real face she’d been hiding beneath the veil of mundanity.

David smiled at her and extended his hand to her then jerked back as her eyes went flat black and her skin developed a greenish tint.

“Almost but not quite.” She gave him a sharp smile revealing pointed teeth. “This probably the closest you’d be remotely comfortable with.” Her eyes returned to their previous brown even as her father gave her a gentle thwap across the back of the head.

“Stop that! And put your skin back to a human shade, as well.” He’d dropped his own concealment as well to reveal he was actually just shy of seven foot tall and surprisingly slender with the same angular features, light brown hair and dark eyes as his daughter. His eyes crinkled in amusement and he grinned, revealing the same sharp teeth. “I’m sorry about my daughter’s wacky sense of humour. This is what we look like – the black eyes and green skin are her idea of a joke. But she’s right, you shouldn’t forget us. We can be remembered if we want to. I’m Tyler Arnold and Bren has already introduced herself.”

“Wouldn’t it be awkward if we couldn’t,” Brenna said.

“I’m David.” He nodded to them. “What are you if it’s not rude to ask? Some sort of fairies?”

For some reason the question provoked peels of laughter from both of them. Tyler was still chuckling as he shook his head.

“No, kid, we’re daemons in as much as generic terms applied by humans mean anything. They mostly lumped us into two groups based on what hurts us. Truthfully there are probably some kinds of fairy we’re more closely related to than we are other daemons. Since you’re about to join our exclusive and not well-defined club we’ll talk about it later. So tell us about this werewolf girl you need to rescue and her cap-” He broke off as the doorbell rang. “Who else did you call?”

“Don’t freak,” Liam said.

“Why would I freak,” Tanya asked as she headed to the door.

“Not you, Tan. I was talking to Tyler.”

“Penny,” Tyler ground out the name. “You invited that bitch Penny didn’t you.”

“I know you don’t like her but be polite. She’ll be useful for this,” Liam said. He rose to his feet as Tanya returned with a tall, black woman in a smart business suit. Unlike Tyler and Brenna her human form felt completely real. She was glaring at Tyler just as much as he at her.

“I don’t see what use she’ll be. It’s not like she can fight in the real world,” Tyler said.

“The vampire will be asleep, Dad,” Brenna pointed out. She gave David a one-sided smile. “Penny is a nightmare, a dream fairy. I presume her job will be to keep the vampire asleep as long as possible.” She glanced at Liam who nodded in response.

“That makes sense,” David said. “But she and your father don’t seem to get on. Will that be a problem?”

Brenna made a snorting noise. “Ethical differences. Dad doesn’t think Penny should use her dream manipulating abilities to spy on her business rivals.”

Penny smiled at David. “And I believe in using every tool at my disposal to get ahead, and it’s not like I actually hurt them – which I could.” She gave Tyler one more scowl and looked back at David. “I’ll be outside with you and Liam. It would be unwise for you to fight at the moment and while the idiot is wrong about me not being able to fight it’s not really possible when I’m out of my body.” She turned to Liam. “So what’s the plan?”

Start | Chapter Seventeen Part Three | Index | Chapter Eighteen Part Two