The Selection Shenanigans

2. Good News, Bad News, or Fairy News?

2

Good News, Bad News, or Fairy News?

Waving a sword at my roommate might be a little weird. Alex wasn’t wrong about that.

Maybe I should tone it down a teensy bit. I placed Tangwystl on the kitchen table.

She blew a raspberry, her typical expression of disappointment, but it was half-hearted. She had a secret-not-so-secret crush on Wembley and wouldn’t really want to injure him.

Then I recalled her enthusiasm for my blood and decided she wouldn’t want to hurt him much.

My sword was a bloodthirsty little wench.

“Mallory?” Alex was on edge. Not glowing-eyes tense, but not himself. “I’ll fill you in on the way to headquarters. Cornelius wants to meet with us right away.”

He’d fill me in on the way… For purposes of expediency? Or privacy?

I shared a quick glance with Wembley. Wembley knew most of my secrets, but that didn’t mean Alex would feel comfortable sharing super personal information in front of him.

Unlike me with the whole “hey, yeah, we haven’t had s*x” thing. Oops.

Checking his equipment? Really? What had Wembley been thinking?

Oh, right. He’d been thinking: how can I embarrass my roommate as much as possible? That’s what a bored former Berserker Viking did when his honey was traveling and his latest real estate flip had been sold for a fat profit. In between flips was not a great place for Wembley, especially when he wasn’t getting any (gag).

But then he redeemed himself by fetching me a shake from the fridge for the road. He’d started prepping them in to-go cups for me, because apparently I wasn’t particularly good at feeding myself. I was super grown-up like that.

I nodded my thanks and followed Alex to the front door.

We passed Boone on the way. He must have heard Alex’s voice from the back of the house and come out for pets from his favorite person.

Yep, that’s right. My hound loved my boyfriend more than me. I liked to think I was a close runner-up. Well, after Wembley. And maybe the lady across the street who cooked him a steak every few weeks.

Alex bent to give Boone a full body rub, petting from ears to tailbone.

Boone groaned with pleasure then gave me a pointed, accusatory look.

“It’s not my fault he’s not staying. We have a case.”

Boone’s ears perked up at that.

“Sorry, buddy. Not this time.” Alex gave him a last scratch, and then we were both out the door.

Once we’d settled into Alex’s car of the week, a practical gray Honda crossover with low miles and a sparkling interior, he dropped the bomb.

“I’d ask if you want the good news or the bad news first, but—”

“Bad news.” I found it best to end conversations on an upswing if at all possible, especially work conversations, since some pretty terrible things happened at Alex’s and my work.

“Chicago’s finally closed out their operation in Nebraska.”

“Whoa.” For example, that whole Nebraska situation had been pretty terrible.

There had been a cabal of evil not-quite-geniuses working out of a few cities in Nebraska. They’d experimented on their own people and tried to influence Austin politics through nefarious means. Nebraska’s efforts had been thwarted by some pretty awesome folks in my local community, with a little help from yours truly and a huge bunch of help from Alex.

“Yeah, the undercover operatives Chicago placed in the state finally decided they’d sniffed out the entirety of the power structure.”

Chicago had been given the heads-up that their cornhusker neighbors were up to no good around Halloween. With Valentine’s Day coming up in a few days, that meant it had only taken them three and half months to fully infiltrate a statewide evildoing organization. Not bad, Chicago. Not bad.

But then Alex’s earlier statement registered.

“Wait a sec. Chicago closed out their operation…? What does that mean? And why is this falling in the bad news category?”

The side-eye I was getting couldn’t bode well.

“Please tell me they didn’t just wipe out the entire enhanced population of Nebraska.”

Yes, Nebraska was a not-well-populated state, but the entire enhanced population?

Alex hesitated.

Which prompted me to poke further. “What about the humans in the area?”

The Society for the Study of Occult and Paranormal Phenomena, referred to as the Society, was the governing body for Austin’s enhanced community. The Society historically placed significantly less value on human life than enhanced, and that wasn’t an attitude restricted to Austin.

“I don’t know about the human casualties. But Chicago didn’t kill every enhanced person in the state, just those connected with the cabal.”

“Oh, Alex.” The Nebraska cabal had forced locals to participate in their schemes. They’d extorted magical manpower using loved ones as leverage, and they’d used persuasion to manipulate compliance. Innocent people had been tied up with the cabal, and those people were now dead.

“I know.” Alex looked grim.

I placed a hand on his leg. I knew Alex, and I knew exactly how critical he could be of himself. “This isn’t your fault.”

The governing body in Chicago had offered temporary positions to Alex, Anton, and Francis, our top three emergency responders. They’d needed the extra manpower to tackle the Nebraska situation, and since Cornelius, the head of Emergency Response, had connections with leadership in Chicago, they’d trusted our guys.

Anton and Francis had gone. Alex had stayed. Of course he had. I was here, and Alex wouldn’t leave me here unprotected.

“I know it’s not my fault; that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with the outcome.”

If he wasn’t feeling guilty, then he’d grown a lot in the last year. My man liked to take on the woes of the world. He carried guilt more readily than anyone I’d ever met.

I studied his expression, the tension in his shoulders, the tense muscle ticking in his jaw. He looked pissed, but not guilty. Thank goodness for that.

“I thought Cornelius said Chicago’s plan was to dismantle the cabal’s operations?” My voice was quiet and small.

“They did that.”

They did that by eradicating anything—anyone—associated with the cabal. Enhanced justice was a vicious thing. I knew this.

Alex and I did what we could to protect innocents from the harshest effects of our sometimes incredibly unjust “justice” system, and Cornelius was making changes…but change was coming at a rate that seemed much too slow when weighed against lives lost.

I had to remind myself that Cornelius hadn’t been in charge of the Nebraska takedown.

Local change, that’s what I had to focus on. Stay positive, keep looking at ways to impact the local community, and do what I could to help the people I could.

And speaking of local change… “Does that mean we’ll finally be holding the selection?”

It had been delayed pending the completion of Chicago’s operation. Cornelius hadn’t wanted to expose any of the selection candidates to further Nebraska machinations.

Who could blame him? Candidates had been dropping like flies. Only Oscar Hayes remained of the original candidates, though rumor had it that Cornelius had drummed up a few more qualified, interested parties in the intervening months.

Alex pulled into the parking lot of Bits, Baubles, and Toadstools. “About that… There’s been another delay.”

For the first time since he’d shown up at my house, his demeanor shifted. He looked…amused? Maybe it was time for that good news he’d hinted at earlier.

“I’m assuming there are no dead people, since you have that eye-smiling thing going on.”

His lips twitched. “No dead people. How do you feel about fairies?”

I’d opened the door, since we’d arrived, but when he said fairies—really, fairies?—I closed the door again. “Fairies, like Tinker Bell? Fairies, like the Fae?”

“Uh, somewhere in between, I guess. More like Tinker Bell.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe.”

“Are you being intentionally vague?” He was, he definitely was. “Why are you being intentionally vague?”

He cleared his throat. “Fairy godmothers exist—separate and apart from enhanced communities, but they exist.”

I blinked.

Then—I’m not proud of this—I squealed. Like a twelve-year-old girl who’s been told that unicorns are real, and they really do fart magic sparkle dust. Or me if I found out that dragons were real and they cried tears of joy when it rained.

“Oh. My. God. Do they wear cool dresses and have sparkly wands?” Yes, I asked that question, and no, I wasn’t kidding. When my happy sees a moment to shine, it shines.

“Ah, I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? You know all the things.”

“I don’t know all the things.”

“But you’ve lived for, like, forever.” I teased Alex about being the older man in the relationship, because he was ancient in human years and not exactly a spring chicken in enhanced years either. To be fair, though, aging was frequently unpredictable and always confusing in the enhanced community.

He chuckled. “Thanks for that.”

I smiled back at him. “My pleasure.”

I loved it when he laughed. He was doing more of it these days, and I liked to think I was responsible. I even liked to think he was laughing with me, not at me. Who was I kidding? My hunky boyfriend adored me. Of course, he was laughing with me.

“FGs don’t mingle with the enhanced community, so however old I am—and I’m not that old—it’s not odd that I haven’t met one.”

FGs? It hurt my inner little girl’s sense of wonder to call a fairy godmother an FG.

“Our case has something to do with fairy godmothers,” I whispered in an awed voice.

“Yes, which is why I’m telling you in the car. Get the stars out of your eyes. Cornelius is pissed. He thinks we’re under attack, and it might be tied to the selection. So before we walk into his office, you need to get a handle on that.” He motioned generally in my direction.

‘K, maybe I was a little excited. Maybe I was bouncing in my seat. Maybe I was vibrating with joy. And maybe there was a special shiny something in my eyes.

Because fairy godmothers were real.

This was definitely good news. The best of news.

Then an unpleasant thought occurred. “Wait a sec. This isn’t one of those times where the magic seems all sparkly and fun and then turns out to be of the sharky and lethal variety, is it?”

Mandy with her waiflike figure, dimple, mint-green hair, and cheery expression came to mind. Because she seemed to be all fun colors and sparkles…right up until the teeth came out. So many teeth.

“I can’t be sure, having never met one.” He arched an eyebrow. “But I don’t think so. It’s possible that Cornelius is overreacting. They’re supposed to be all about helping humans sort out their lives.”

There was a hint of an eye roll with that last statement, but I ignored it, because… “Just like in the movies!”

Alex rubbed his right ear. He was such a drama queen. I didn’t squeal that loud.

“Do you need to get out of the car and hop around like a little fluffy happy bunny for a while?”

“Hey, watch it, mister. I thought we’d already covered this. I’m no fluffy bunny.”

“Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that.”

It’s possible I got out of the car and did a happy dance.

I did not, however, hop around like a cute little ball of fluff. Seriously, I was so much more dignified than that.