Moon Called (Mercy Thompson #1)(40)
Author: Patricia Briggs

Unexpectedly, Samuel grinned. "I’d rather you didn’t. He’ll just flirt with me some more."

"Speaking of uncomfortable," I said, "what had you and Warren so uptight?"

"It was mostly Warren," he said. "I’m a stranger, a dominant wolf in his territory-and he was already upset because he thought he was losing the love of his life. If I’d realized how dominant he was, I’d have taken myself elsewhere for the night. We’ll manage, but it won’t be comfortable."

"He’s Adam’s third."

"Would have been nice if someone had seen fit to tell me that," Samuel groused good-naturedly. "With Adam wounded and the second not there, that sticks Warren in the Alpha role-no wonder he was so wound up. I was ready to go out and take a walk myself when you showed up." He gave me a sharp look. "Odd how you showing up let him back down. Just as if Adam’s second were there-or his mate."

"I’m not pack," I said shortly. "I’m not dating Adam. I have no status in the pack. What I did have was a long overdue conversation with Kyle-which is what distracted Warren."

Samuel continued to watch me. His mouth was quirked up, but his eyes were full of things I couldn’t read, as he said, "Adam’s staked his claim on you before his pack. Did you know that?"

I hadn’t. It made me suck in an angry breath before I realized why he might have done that. "He had to keep his pack from killing me somehow. Wolves kill coyotes who are in their territory. A formal claim of me as his mate would keep me safe. I understand that was something Bran asked him to do. It doesn’t make me pack, it doesn’t make me his mate. The first is out because I’m a coyote, the second because somebody has to ask me before he can claim me for a mate."

Samuel laughed, but there was no amusement in it. "You can think as you please. How much time do we have before we find this bar?"

"It’s in the far side of Pasco," I said. "We’ll be there in ten minutes."

"Well," he said, "why don’t you tell me about Zee and this fae we are supposed to meet?"

"I don’t know a lot," I told him. "Not about the fae. Just that she’s got some information we might be interested in. As for Zee, he’s a gremlin. He gave me my first job out of college, and I bought the garage from him when he retired. He still helps out when I need him-or when he gets bored. He likes to take things apart and see what’s wrong with them, but he usually lets me put them back together again."

"There’s a fae reservation near here."

I nodded. "About forty miles away. Just outside of Walla Walla."

"Adam says that having so many lesser fae around has attracted more of the greater fae."

"I don’t know about that," I said. "I can smell their magic, but I can’t tell how strong they are."

"He thinks that’s also why there are more vampires, ghosts, and whatnot around the Tri-Cities than, say Spokane, which is a larger city."

"I try to stay out of the other species’ business," I told him. "I can’t avoid the werewolves, not with Adam living right next door, but I try. The only fae I associate with are Zee and his son Tad."

"The fae are willing to talk to you." Samuel stretched his legs out and clasped his hands behind his neck, sticking his elbows out like wings. "Adam says your old boss is one of the oldest of the fae-and, just so you know, the metalsmiths-gremlins-are not included with the lesser fae. Also, Warren told me that Stefan the vampire visits you quite often. Then there’s this human police officer. Drawing the attention of the police is dangerous."

It did sound as if I had my finger in all sorts of pies.

"Zee was forced public by the Gray Lords," I said. "So someone considers him to be one of the lesser fae. Stefan loves his bus, and I let him help me fix it."

"You what?"

I forgot he’d never met Stefan. "He’s not like most vampires," I tried to explain. Even though Stefan was the only vampire I’d ever met, I knew how they were supposed to act: I went to movies just like everyone else.

"They are all like most vampires," Samuel said darkly. "Some of them are just better at hiding it than others."

It wouldn’t do any good to argue with him-especially since I agreed with him in principle.

"And the police officer wasn’t my fault," I muttered, taking my exit into Pasco. It seemed like a good time to change the subject, so I said, "The Fairy Mound in Walla Walla is the bar where tourists go to see the fae. The fae who don’t want to be gawked at mostly hang out at Uncle Mike’s here in Pasco. Zee says there’s a spell on it that makes humans avoid it. It doesn’t affect me, but I don’t know about werewolves."

"You aren’t going in without me," he said.

"Fine." Never argue with werewolves before you need to, I reminded myself.

Uncle Mike’s was across the Columbia River from my garage, which put it near Pasco’s Industrial Park. The old building had once been a small warehouse, and there were warehouses on either side, both heavily tagged by the local kids. I wasn’t sure if magic kept the kids away, or someone with a lot of paint and a brush, but Uncle Mike’s exterior was always pristine.

I pulled into the parking lot and turned off my lights. It was about seven, still a little early for the regular crowd, and there were only four other cars in the lot, one of which was Zee’s truck.

Inside, the bar was dark enough that a human might stumble over the stairs that led from the entry to the bar proper. Samuel hesitated in the doorway, but I thought that it was a tactical thing and not a reaction to a spell. The bar took up all of the wall to our right. There was a small dance floor cleared in the center of the room, with clusters of small tables scattered around the outside.

"There they are," I told Samuel, and headed for the far corner, where Zee sat looking relaxed next to a moderately attractive woman in conservative business dress.

I’ve never seen Zee without his glamour; he told me he’d worn it so long that he was more comfortable in human guise. His chosen form was moderately tall, balding, with a little potbelly. His face was craggy, but not unattractively so-just enough to give it character.

He saw us coming and smiled. Since he and the woman already had the defensive seats, setting their backs against the wall, Samuel and I sat across from them. If having the rest of the room behind him, mostly empty as it was, bothered Samuel, I couldn’t tell. I hitched my chair around until I could at least get a glimpse of the rest of the room.

"Hey, Zee," I said. "This is Dr. Samuel Cornick. Samuel, meet Zee."