Page 53 of Forget Me Not

Penn flapped a hand again. “Okay, the whole city is a minefield.” She pointed to Ray’s chair. “Sit. Rest. I have to go explain where I’ve been before they hear about it and demand the whole story.”

Ray did not sit. “I can go with you.”

Penn huffed, amused but still tired. “You aren’t even supposed to be here right now, but thank you. Do your part by staying at your desk, appearing calm, and making sure everyone can see that you’re a big, tough were who isn’t even bleeding.”

There had been a damp patch at the back of Ray’s shirt collar from the ice pack for his headache, but it was true, he wasn’t bleeding. He kept staring at Penn, in pain and unimpressed.

Penn sighed noisily and rifled through the top drawer of her desk. “I’ll only be gone a few minutes. You can either socialize with the people that want to talk to you, or you sit here and listen to my talk with Ross.”

She tossed a set of earbuds onto his desk, then came over to put her phone on top of a notepad. She entered her password, messed around for a few moments, then left her phone here and stepped away. “It’s going to be weird for you,” she warned.

Ray didn’t bother to give her a dirty look, or even to give her any look. He listened to her walk away, fielding a few questions from people asking about Ray as she went. Whoever asked didn’t approach to consult with Ray himself. Ray told himself he didn’t care why that was and pulled out his chair to sit down.

He made the volume too low for human ears and put in one earbud before hitting play on Penn’s recording.

She had it queued up to near the beginning, possibly just skipping all the introductions and whatever perfunctory explanations might have been made.

”Icouldoffer you what you want, but we both know what you want, so there’s no point in being coy. You want to see Ray, and you want him to want you and approve of you and all that crap.”

Ray stopped the recording. He dredged up Ross’ face without any detail, and recalled no more intimate interactions than a nod or seeing the man in the halls.

He put one hand under the desk, clenched it tight, then started the recording going again.

“No fairy can take care of him properly. Parker’s got him living in a dream, like in a story. But that always fades.”Ross, it must have been Ross, paused to mumble something that even Ray could not make out. When he spoke again, his tone was smug.“I’ve been reading in here. A mating is supposed to make you stronger. That’s why I know his is a lie. It’s got him weaker. Even then he was. It made him dependent on someone who doesn’t even like what he’s capable of. Fairies go with happiness for a while, find some dope to keep while it suits them, and then when they get bored, the dream ends. When that happens, he’s going to realize what I am to him.”

Ray stopped it again. He was breathing hard.

He didn’t understand any of that, or if a fairy glamour could exist and hold off the mating instinct, but Cal said that they accused him of using a glamour on Ray. And Ray had smelled him and known what Cal was and nothing had interfered with it. This Ross, Officer Ross,formerOfficer Ross, was delusional.

Obsessed. Cal would use that word too, even though Ray was just a detective a little bigger and taller than most of the others. Nobody should be obsessed with Ray, or thinking of him in any way other than professional. Ray had worked hard for that. Someone claiming to be his should know that.

He reached up to rub his nose, feeling the bump where it had been broken and healed wrong all those years ago. He closed his eyes and hit the play button.

Penn was blessedly unconcerned with what Ross had just told her.“Anyway, Steve—that’s the demon you trapped and used. Not sure you ever asked him his preferred name, though you heard it in the trial—sends his regards. He wants to know if your arms hurt in the cold weather. He hopes they do.”

The bolt of shock that went through Ray was almost a relief.

He opened his eyes and pulled the earbud from his ear.

Penn was still missing, so he couldn’t question her the way he wanted. He scanned the room, nodding when he met a stare, then not sure if he should be grateful that no one approached him.

He got another jolt when someone shouted to him.

“Hey! Werewolf cop!”

The voice was unfamiliar. Ray took his time following the sound, waiting until, “Hey, you, were detective!” was added to the first call, before he actually turned his head.

Seated at a desk, handcuffed to it in fact, was someone Ray didn’t know—or didn’t think he knew. He, and Ray was presuming the he until informed otherwise, was more elf than fairy, but the fairy was there in the tiny wings. Elf genetics meant small height and pointed ears, but the hair and wings, and probably the eyes as well, were only one color instead of several.

The handcuffed stranger was round, with skin that glowed in that way that some beings’ skin did, like honey held up to light, and he was wearing fairly short shorts considering the weather. He might have been pulled from his home.

Their eyes met for a second, the elf blinking as if surprised that Ray had listened to him, and then he was already turning to try to face the officer working on his cuffs and dragging him to his feet.

“Werewolf cop!” the stranger called out again, loud enough to get more eyes on him, then on Ray. “Call my lawyer for me! If you don’t, it’ll be hours before they let me do it. And anyway, I don’t remember the number!”

More people ought to invoke their right to remain silent and stick to it.

Ray stared after the strange being until the being was out of Ray’s sight, if not his hearing. When Ray brought his attention back to the rest of the room, people were still watching him.

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