Page 6 of Forget Me Not

“I’m your mate,” Callalily repeated gently, with another shiver for how Ray automatically tightened his grip, not enough to bruise, but enough that Callalily should have been reminded of how much stronger Ray was, how much bigger. Maybe he was. “You can tell, can’t you? Without others around. Without them watching. It’s just us and Benny, so you know, don’t you? You recognized it right away this time. Oh,Ray. Keep breathing. Just keep breathing. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Ray should have bristled. But he couldn’t even raise his head. He let his nose brush the thin skin of Callalily’s wrist. “Do you feel it? I remember…” Ray paused to frown, to feel out the shape of a memory of a lesson. “Others don’t know at first. Humans take longer to know what we know. But you aren’t human, not completely. I won’t… I won’t force you to…. What are you doing here?”

Callalily hummed, distracted or considering his answer. “Working a case with you and Penn,” he said at last, giving Ray a shock, because no fairy should be anywhere near one of Ray’s cases. “Like we still do sometimes,” Callalily continued, apparently oblivious, though at least his tone grew cautious. “Benny?”

“I’m Benny,” Benny responded as if that had been his cue. “Since you don’t remember me either.” Ray dragged his attention away from Callalily to consider Benny in his pressed slacks and quality sweater. “Though you seem to know your name,” Benny remarked thoughtfully. “And Penn’s. Cal, you okay?Cal.”

“I’m here,” Callalily answered his friend belatedly, then cleared his throat. “I’m here. I’m just… yeah. You know, devastated, confused beyond belief, and aroused despite myself at how gentle he is trying to be. Pretty normal reactions where he is concerned, and yet also… he doesn’t know me.”

“I’m sorry.” Ray swept his thumb across Callalily’s skin, then shuddered at what he’d done and tore his hand away. Callalily might like the touch, but, from his words—devastated—he clearly did not want a… wantRay. “I’m sorry,” he said again at the tiny scowl forming on Callalily’s face. What Ray’s instincts told him to do were not generally what those around him wanted him to be doing. He knew that. But one whiff of one half-fairy and he’d lost all sense. “What’s wrong with me?”

Callalily shoved his hand right back in Ray’s face. “Ray Ray, if you say you’re sorry one more time…. Take it. Just take it! You’re the one who told me to do this if there was ever a problem, and if you knew this was a possibility and didn’t tell me, oh, the fight we are going to have. But later.” Callalily let out a long breath. “Later. Right now, we need to know what’s going on. Tell me. Tell Bens. Give us something to work with here.”

All Ray knew was that he was in the city, that he was in an alley, and that he had a… a Callalily.

“I’m tired.” He tensed at the admission. “Weres don’t get tired.Idon’t get tired. And you—what did you call me?”

“Ray Ray.” Callalily looked at Ray as if he knew Ray wanted to bury his face in Cal’s hair and sleep. Maybe he could see it in Ray’s “colors.” “Benny, he doesn’t even like it when I frown.” That this statement made Ray glance to Benny with a frown of his own did not seem bother Callalily, who stared at the spacearoundRay and then abruptly met Ray’s eyes. “That’s what I call you, sometimes. Your name is Ray, which you seem to know, but just in case: You are Ray Branigan. You’re a detective, the second being detective in Los Cerros’s history, and you are proud of that. Do you remember that much?” He widened his eyes when Ray nodded, although he could not have been surprised. “So the memory loss really was restricted. You know Penn, but you don’t know me, or Benny. And you don’t remember coming here?” He lifted his eyebrows until Ray nodded again. “Okay,” he said, sounding anything but. “Okay, that’s… not too terrible. Right?”

“Do I like it when you call me that?” Ray did not take the offered hand or nuzzle at the undoubtedly tasty wrist. “I’m not sure I do, even if you are…”

“If,” Callalily said, then swallowed. “If. Ah, excuse me.“ He dropped his arm to his side, then hid his hand behind his back. Ray felt a low, panicked whine building in his throat. Callalily raised his head to give Ray a bright, broken smile. “I wouldn’t say you like it. It’s only that you make yourself be so serious in public that I like to distract you. I’m always surprised that you allow it, honestly. You… you allow me so much. You did, anyway. I was even permitted to see you as you never are in public. Because I—stop looking at me as though I’m going to disappear at any moment. I can’t bear that right now, too.”

Ray could not imagine anyone attempting to tease him like that in public who wasn’t family. At least, not for something other than being a were surrounded by humans. “Are we…”

“Yes.” Callalily answered fervently before Ray could finish the question. “Yes.”

“There are other weres,” Ray heard himself say. “Even in the city.”

“No, there are not,” Callalily returned fiercely. “Not for me, and not in your city, anyway. You’re the only one, Ray. The rest just pass through.”

“This isn’t my city.” Ray couldn’tthink. But he couldn’t imagine it was meant to be like this.

“Oh, really?” Callalily scoffed, but then went silent when Benny said his name in warning.

“You’re part fairy.” Ray gritted his teeth against the spike of pain behind his eyes. “If you’re fairy you might not want me, later. You might forget me. Don’t feel bad. I don’t want you to feel bad. You can’t help it if you leave.”

The air seemed to be pushed from Benny’s lungs, judging from the sound he made.

Callalily was only the beat of his heart and then a small whisper. “The things you choose to tell me.” He closed his swirling eyes. “Meforgetyou? Oh the irony, Raymond. Wait. Wasthiswhy you waited so long to tell me what we both already knew? The secret truth of it?”

“Fairies don’t like sadness.” Ray inhaled deeply to give himself a moment to revel in sugar. He did not know Callalily. He would bleed for him. He would die for him. He would sleep at Callalily’s feet if Callalily allowed it. He felt like he was dreaming except for the pounding in his head and the roil in his stomach. “Fairies hate ugly things. Everyone knows that. If you leave me, don’t stay around. You won’t like me. You won’t like what I will become.”

Callalily started to tremble. He opened his eyes and reached out to grab Ray’s hand, which he placed on his chest. “You don’t know me right now, but I knew you’d be special to me the moment I saw you—no, before then, when I first heard about you. Maybe fairies and humans don’t know things the way weres do, but we know enough. You are the shiniest creature I have ever met in my life and you make me happy.”

With no warning, Callalily’s wings picked up speed and the sparkle around him grew heavier, and for a moment, Callalily was off the ground although the air in the alley was thick with promise. Orthreat. The hair on the back of Ray’s neck stood on end. He lost his breath.

Callalily glowed green and gold.

“Who did this to you?“ he demanded, rage and power echoing through the alley.

Then his sneakers touched the ground, and his wings slowed, and Callalily blinked up at Ray with his chest heaving. Ray could only stare back, his eyes still stinging from Callalily’s display, his thoughts jumbled with old fairy tales and the glimpse of one half-fairy’s fury.

Fury smelled a lot like grief.

Ray’s hand fell from Callalily’s chest when Callalily turned away to face the mouth of the alley. Ray raised his head.

Penn rounded the corner. She looked harried but cautious, walking quickly while keeping a hand near her belt and the gun that she might actually use, unlike Ray. She seemed the same, although Ray couldn’t have said why he’d expected her to look different. He’d had coffee with her that morning, a memory he was grateful to have. Her blonde hair was short, a style she’d decided upon at the start of the summer, just long enough now to curl a bit around her ears. She had on a pale blue blouse and a darker jacket, and when she stopped, close to Benny but beyond arm’s length, she was only an inch or so shorter than him.

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