Page 77 of Magic and Mayhem

I snorted. “Yes, I think that’s obvious.”

But it did raise a few questions.

“Why are you guys left alone so much?” The whole thing was odd. “The FBI won’t even come to town to find that fucking gold.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “That was well before my time, but from what I’ve been told, there was some moonshining going on up here during Prohibition and there was…well, let’s call it a standoff that ended unexpectedly.”

Good grief.

“Why didn’t they bring in the army?” That was how nearly every movie or book thought it would go.

He was nearly giggling. “It was a dragon married to a mage and the mage was quick to make it look like the dragon was nearly invincible. Magical shenanigans and all. The uninformed humans from the government were given the impression that nothing would stop dragons, so they quietly declared the whole area off-limits to their people.”

Magical shenanigans indeed.

“And after that?” There had to be more.

“During the World Wars, they figured out we weren’t as magically immune as they thought, but we’re still hard to deal with and it seems that no one wants to see what would happen if they go allwe’re the governmentagain.” Shrugging, the sheriff brushed off the chaos that might ensue. “They leave us alone and we do our best to keep crazy confined to the local area. Most of the time we do a pretty good job.”

Most of the time?

“We’re homebodies for the most part, so aside from a few oddities here and there, we don’t drive anyone too crazy.” He grinned as I rolled my eyes. “But the powers that be are happiest when we have some outside members in our community to balance things out, I guess? And no one wants to do the paperwork that gets involved when they deal with us.”

Now that I could believe.

“I’m pretty sure they just want someone who can translate when things go pear-shaped around here.” Yep, they wanted to make sure they had someone who understood the outside world and could handle the locals.

“You seem to be making them happy, so I’m not worried.” He ignored my scoff. “We just won’t tell them that Kenzie’s keeping you, so that makes you a local now.”

I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be comforting or scary, so I ignored it. “Probably for the best that they think I’m still a bit of an outsider.”

“Agreed.” Giving me a slow nod, the sheriff straightened in his seat. “But if you have questions or if something doesn’t feel right, let me know.”

“I plan on it.” Because I still didn’t have nearly enough information to handle anything on my own. “And if you could ask around about the reading material, that’d be great.”

“I’ll do my best.” His brows pulled together as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk. “It’s been so long since someone new came in and actually stayed that I don’t think anyone thought about how to give you a thorough background on our people.”

Duh.

“It’s going to be necessary just so I understand what trouble people can get up to. Like Ms. Dobbs.” She’d made life interesting lately. “And you’re aware that she was in the library recently? I’m not sure who’s running the more interesting side of local politics, but the librarian knows you guys aren’t human.”

Groaning, the sheriff shook his head. “That woman. Mages will be the death of me.”

They certainly seemed stubborn, but I wasn’t sure if that would be rude or playing into some kind of stereotype, so I kept my mouth shut as he scrubbed his hands over his face. “Alright, you go and I’ll make sure the council knows about our probably confused librarian.”

“That’d be for the best.” As I rose and headed toward the door, I turned back to the sheriff. “But if it’s any consolation, he doesn’t seem overly upset by it, and I think he’s just looking for information, not to quit and lose his mind.”

He was too curious and probably too kinky to want to leave a town with this many Doms.

We were just going to need to find the right one for him and everything would be fine.

****

“I made you cupcakes, Daddy.” Kenzie’s exuberant greeting as soon as I came in the back door to the kitchen wasn’t suspicious in the slightest. “They’re chocolate with chocolate frosting and they look so pretty. I even put sparkles on them. The sparkles make your poop sparkle too but it’s edible. I promise.”

Ignoring the sparkly shit part of the conversation, I gave him a quick kiss and took the casserole over to the fridge. “They sound delicious. Thank you for making dessert for us.”

The way he ignored the odd food coming into the house said his mind was already whirling. I knew something else was coming, so I gave him a hug and waited to see what chaos would descend next.

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