Page 78 of Tooth and Nail

Eoghan frowned. “What are you talking about? In between feedings?”

The cat laughed. “You don’t know?” He stared at him open-mouthed. “Oh, my God, you really don’t know.”

“Know what, Bear?” Eoghan demanded, looking perfectly indignant.

“Al and Ted are lions. They feed me every day.”

“What?” Eoghan and Ari both asked at once.

“They’re lion shifters. When you go to work, they always invite me over to eat a meal. They’re really quite good cooks, and I only eat kitty sized portions, hardly more than they miss.” Bear shook his head. “I really thought you knew.” He put his fingers over his lips and giggled—actually—giggled. “Oopsie.”

Ari lifted his hand to feel his forehead. “Nope. I don’t have a fever and I’m not hallucinating all of this. It’s really happening. I’m going totally insane.”

Eoghan laughed and then handed Bear the can. “Feed yourself. We’re gonna be late for work.”

“I’m going completely out of my mind,” Ari grumbled as they headed out of the house.

Due to traffic, it took longer than usual to get to the office and by the time they arrived, it was nearly nine. Ari was beginning to get accustomed to the busy L.A. freeways andwhile Eoghan drove, he got on the phone with his insurance agent and put in a claim for the car, explaining what had happened. After finding out that he had rental car insurance which would only last seven days, he hung up, realizing he’d have to sort out the car situation sooner than he thought.

They dropped off the Charger with Dick Tooley. Then stopped in the armory to let Wordy know what had happened with the sugar netting when they encountered the space fairies. And the fact that they’d have to figure out a better way to deploy the stuff in the future. Something which would keep the marshal using the netting from getting covered with syrup. It exposed them to a very dangerous situation now that they knew the little guys existed and had probably been hiding in plain sight the whole time. The weapon specialist took what they said with seriousness so grave, Ari almost felt bad when they left him and got on the elevator to head upstairs to the chief’s office.

As soon as they stepped off the elevator, they nearly ran headlong into Derwin and another man who stood by his side. When the honeybee shifter saw them both, he smiled sweetly and threw his arms around Eoghan to give him a big squeeze, followed by an equally enthusiastic hug for Ari. When he finally pulled out of Ari’s embrace, he turned to the rather mousy looking man beside him. Ari noticed that he wore heavy duty gauze bandages around each wrist and had a large bandage under his chin.

“It’s my heroes, Sheldon!” Derwin cried. He took his boyfriend’s hand as he turned back to them. “Marshal Eoghan Sapphire and Marshal Aristotle Brown, this is my Sheldon.” He looked at the unassuming man. “Honey, these are the men who saved me. Without them, I would have died.”

The man offered them a shy smile, bowing his head as he looked at them. “Thank you so much. I guess it’s because ofyou that I’m free of that torturous flypaper.” He held up his wrists.

“Your dear Doctor Patterson looked Sheldon over and she said he’ll be fine,” Derwin explained. “All he needs is a few shifts to heal himself, but we’re not allowed to do that here. Therefore, we’re going home.”

“Why have you two been here so long?” Eoghan asked.

“Oh, the I.S.R. set us up with new identities. That took quite some time. They had to purge the old ones and give us new ID paperwork and passports,” Derwin said. He glanced over at Sheldon before looking back. “We’re moving to an undisclosed location.” He leaned close. “But it’s New Zealand,” he whispered. “Lots of lovely flowers to pollinate and none of the queen’s awful minions to hunt for us anymore. Manuka honey,hmm hmmm. So healing.” He gave a delighted little bottom wriggle.

“That’s wonderful,” Eoghan said, patting him on the shoulder. “I hope you two are very happy there.”

“You deserve happiness after all you’ve been through,” Ari added. “But won’t you miss working in IT?”

“He’s promised me he won’t,” Sheldon said, piping up as he turned to stare at Derwin who smiled back at him. He reached out to pat his cheek.

“I promised him I’ll spend the rest of my days making us a home. I think after everything he endured in all of this, he deserves a full-time bee who’s only concerned with his welfare.” Derwin turned to look at them. “And honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust the queen regardless of what promises she makes to the I.S.R. team.”

“Has she made promises?” Eoghan asked.

“Oh, indeed she has. She signed a document and everything,” Sheldon replied.

“Sapphire! Brown!”

They turned to find the chief standing just outside her office glaring at them. She looked down at her watch and then up at them to glower some more.

“Uh-oh. She’s waiting,” Ari said. He turned back to find the honeybees shaking Eoghan’s hand and then offered his own. “The best of luck to both of you.”

“Thank you, Deputy Marshal Brown. You too,” Derwin said. “You’ve got a damned good partner in Eoghan.”

“Don’t I know it,” Ari said, nodding at the two before turning back to Eoghan. They walked away, heading for the chief’s office, prepared to be chewed out for being late.

As soon as they stepped into her office, she told them to shut the door and held out her hand to the two chairs in front of her desk—she expected them to sit…so they did.

“Well, Marshals, why don’t you tell me all about what happened out there with the space fairies,” she began.

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