LITMIR.BIZ

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came here for.”

      Ah, hell. The fun couldn’t have lasted forever. Ry sat up and set the empty plate on the table, then prepared to face the tough questions.

      “This is going to sound strange,” she began, “but...why do I feel as if I was drugged the other night?”

      Because she had been. “You did say champagne goes straight to your head.”

      “True, but I’ve been on a champagne bender once before. This was different. The aftereffects have been exhausting. I’ve slept like Sleeping Beauty minus the beauty part. I didn’t even get up until three today. It’s like I’m fighting to come back from an illness, or something. And I still don’t feel right. Tired and achy. Usually after a bender I puke, pass out, then wake with a headache. But a few hours later, I’m good to go. You didn’t... I mean, I don’t think you would. You seem like a nice man. But... I have to ask.”

      He picked up on where she was headed. “I did not roofie you, Indi.”

      “Oh. Right. I mean, it’s never happened to me before, so I wouldn’t know what to expect. I’m sorry, but I had to ask.”

      “Understandable. Let me see if I can help you to sort out things.”

      Ry shoved a hand over his hair, then pulled it back and held his hand at the back of his head. How to explain this to her without going into so much detail she’d develop even more questions... Could he trust her with the details? She already knew some things, so he’d only get caught if he tried to twist them into something they had not been.

      “And while you’re at it, what were those black things?” she asked. “I saw them. They were...creatures. Totally black and creepy and yet weirdly sparkly.”

      Ry blew out his breath and dropped his hair. No way around this one. And lying never felt right to his soul. He’d have to give her the truth. Some of it. She seemed smart and capable of handling such information. And if not, she could run away from him again, and he wouldn’t go after her. She’d just think she’d met a totally whacked guy with a weird way of looking at the world.

      “You were drugged,” he said. “Or rather, you were treated with a complex healing process that involved herbs and some...” He couldn’t say faery magic. No human was that open-minded. “And I’m sure that was what has you feeling so blown now.”

      “Herbs? What the hell?” She pressed her palm over the base of her throat. Today there were no signs she’d even been injured by the collector. “I remember something about getting cut. Maybe from the creature’s claws? Then you picked me up and carried me... And then I draw a blank. Ryland, please. I know this is crazy, but I need to fill in the blanks so I don’t think I’m going nuts.”

      “You’re not nuts. At least, as far as I know. I don’t know you well.” He winked, but she didn’t return the playful vibe.

      Right. She was worried, and he had no right to keep her in the dark.

      “There was a creature,” he confessed. “Two of them. I was there to slay them. Which I did. Because if I had not stopped them they would have entered the mortal realm fully and done some terrible things.”

      Indigo thrust up a palm between them. But she didn’t speak.

      Ry felt compelled to clasp her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze, then he set it on her leg. “This is going to be tough to hear, but you have to keep an open mind. Okay?”

      She nodded. Winced. Closed her eyes tightly. Then opened one eye and nodded again.

      “First,” Ry said, “I need to know if you’ve been in that area of the eighteenth before. At night?”

      “A lot of times. I used to party there with friends a few years ago. Janet and I did the Club Rouge for her going-away party this spring. Why?”

      “No reason. Well, yes, there is a reason. That particular section of Paris is a strange place. Actually, it’s called a thin place. Two worlds overlap.”

      She didn’t react, but her attention grew fierce. He was jumping deep, but something about the woman made him feel as if she wouldn’t be satisfied with anything but that dive, so Ry continued. “Do you know about faeries?”

      “You mean like the little twinkly ones I see in my garden?”

      He bent to level their gazes. “You see faeries?”

      She shrugged. “Not all the time, but I have. And just that you’re asking about it means that I don’t have to say to you ‘don’t think I’m weird.’”

      “I don’t think you’re weird. You’ve seen actual faeries before?”

      “I guess so. Out of the corner of my eye. I believe in faeries. Just like I’m sure all the other mythical creatures exist in the world. Not that I’ve seen anything but a few faeries. I’ve have never run in to a vampire, but until something is disproven, I keep an open mind.”

      Ry’s exhale released a lot of tension. “Good. Because those black sparkly creatures were from Faery.”

      “Really?” Her response was so enthusiastic Ry leaned away from her. Would it have been easier if she’d laughed at his fantastical suggestion and walked out on him? Much less to explain that way. “But those creatures were big. The same size as you. Can faeries be all sizes and shapes?”

      He nodded. “Basically. They are a species, and within the species are hundreds, probably thousands of breeds.”

      “Cool.”

      So far, so good. Time to hold his breath and do the free dive to the deepest depths.

      “That part of Paris you were in last night is called FaeryTown,” Ry said. “It’s where the realm of Faery overlaps the mortal realm. It’s always been there. Humans aren’t aware of it. They walk through never knowing that faeries are all around them, living, existing, doing drugs.”

      “Drugs?”

      “Rather, the faeries sell their dust to—” Er, she probably didn’t need to know about vampires and their addiction to faery dust right now. “Anyway, I saw you sitting on the curb, and you could see me.”

      “I did see you.” Her eyebrows narrowed. She was starting to think too much.

      Ry jumped in for the save. “At that moment, I realized I shouldn’t have been able to see you, so I figured that you had somehow breached the fabric between the two realms and were actually in FaeryTown. And since you say you’ve seen faeries in your garden, then maybe you have the sight.”

      “Is that an ability to see faeries?”

      “Yes. I have it. And that’s what allows me to enter FaeryTown and to interact with its inhabitants.”

      “Which is why you were there with a big sword and hell gleaming in your eyes?”

      “You did see those black things flying above me.”

      “I did. Not nice?”

      “The nastiest of the not nice. I can’t allow them to enter the mortal realm, so I go there every night to slay them.”

      “Every night?”

      “At midnight. One or two collectors come through from Faery.”

      “Collectors? That’s what you call the black sparkly things?”

      “Yes. And while you don’t need to know everything, just know that it would be a very bad situation if one got through to this realm. Meaning, they pierced the borders of FaeryTown and completely entered the human realm.”

      “Uh-huh.” She rapped her fingers on her leg a few times, then tilted her head at him. Her big blue eyes were so deeply colored they were almost violet. Faeries had violet eyes. But she wasn’t faery. He’d sense her faery nature if she was. And she had bled the other night. Red blood. Faery blood was clear and

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