Needle in a Haystack

Blue Moon

Emily got off the bus and remembered that her mother had not given her a key to the new apartment yet. At 4:30 there was no point in calling her to come home, not to mention the previous day. She would be there soon anyway, so Emily looked around for some place to be for an hour while she waited. The strip mall that ran along the back of the apartment complex was mostly taken up by a bar/liquor store and a tattoo parlor, but there was a single restaurant at the center with a big blue backlit circle with white letters in cursive script that read Azure Luna. That was new. Or at least had not been there two years ago when they lived here previously. Intrigued, she wandered into the restaurant to see if they would let her sit and do homework. With any luck, she could get caught up before her mother got home, and she could have the night to read or craft.

The glass had all been painted black with a moon and howling coyote in the desert motif. Pushing open the heavy wooden door gusted the wisps of blonde hair that had escaped her sagging ponytail out of her face and chilled the sweat rolling down her neck and back. She knew she must be beet red and look rather pathetic. She hoped that would work in her favor, and they would let her sit and have a glass of water, and maybe even some chips and salsa. But as her eyes adjusted to the dim interior, she realized there was no one standing at what she thought was the host's podium. It was more like a preacher's pulpit, raised above the level of the waiting area. There were no windows that she could see and the two small doorways leading off the entry had heavy velvet curtains. The walls were real wood paneling, stained the same color as the podium. She felt like she had just stepped into a speakeasy from the 1920s.

"How many?" a high, sweet voice said beside her elbow, making Emily jump.

"I uh... I don't have any money," Emily blurted. 'Smooth,' Ember quipped.

The tiny androgynous host eyed her, then the menu in their own hands, and raised an eyebrow as though asking why she would announce that she was planning to dine and dash.

"I just moved into the apartments over here with my mom and she forgot to give me a key and she won't be home for another hour, so I was wondering if I could sit at an empty table and do my homework for a little bit. I promise this will be the only time," Emily rambled in a single breath.

At the mention of the missing key, they smiled up at Emily, and started to lead her through the opposite curtain to the one they were standing next to before she finished speaking. Emily gasped and followed, relieved she could get her mouth to stop moving.

Stepping through the curtain brought more of the same atmosphere of privacy and class. There were small cristal light fixtures at regular intervals and the booths were large, high-walled and sunken, so the entire room could still be observed, while offering as much privacy between the booths as possible. There was not a single window visible in the entire room, and there were no people seated at the tables. The juxtaposition of the cheezy Arizona exterior and the high-class velvet and mahogany interior that was completely vacant made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

'We should not be here,' Ember warned.

'Where do you suggest we go? The tattoo parlor? The bar perhaps?' Emily retorted.

'Those are both probably owned by the Fay too. We would be better off introducing ourselves to the neighbors.'

'The Fay!? How can you be so sure? We've never encountered them before. Maybe this place is just really low-key fancy, or run by the mob,' Emily tried to reason. The smell of mexican spices made her stomach cramp, reminding her that Derek had ruined her lunch. She sighed, resigning herself to not eating or drinking anything from here. Fay gifts came with strings. Even 'free' chips and salsa.

The Fay didn't usually tug on those strings for mundanes since they were generally so fragile, but shifters were another story. Their animal counterparts could heal them fast, and their minds were more open to the supernatural. It made them much better debtors for a race that traded in favors. Emily found herself hoping that this place was a mob hangout. At least then she could try the salsa.

The host stood next to Emily, waiting for her to take a seat at the booth right next to the entrance, the menu already on the table.

'We need to leave right now,' Ember urged, but Emily hesitated.

"Your wolf is nervous," a beautiful woman said from the previously empty booth.

Emily began trembling. She hadn't smelled or heard anyone. This was one of the most ancient and powerful creatures to ever grace this plain. She wanted to bolt, but her feet felt glued to the floor. Maybe the trap had already been sprung.

"Please, I would count it as a favor if you would come sit with me," she sang in a voice that dripped with honey.

"A favor to whom?" Emily enunciated. The woman laughed and the sound was so beautiful and sharp, like breaking crystal. It ran over Emily's nerves and made her neck twitch.

"Oh, I like you," she said with a feline grin. "A favor to me then, little ones. What would you like in return? I'll give you anything you would like on the menu."

Emily locked eyes with the Fay woman as she sat down and was mesmerized by the opalescent reflection of a tapetum lucidum through vertical slit pupils surrounded by deep purple irises. Her stomach burbled loud and long as a bowl of chips and three different dips were laid out on the table between them.

"Are the chips and these dips on the menu?" Emily asked, picking up the menu and realizing it was not in English.

"Very perseptive. They are not," she said with another needle sharp grin.

Emily tried to make sense of the menu that seemed to be written in Latin rather than Spanish. Finally, she looked up at the Fay woman and said, "I can't read this, and I don't want to pick something if I don't know what it is."

The woman pursed her lips and the temperature of the space dropped several degrees.