She's No Faerie Princess (40 page)
Read She's No Faerie Princess Online
Authors: Christine Warren
Read on for a sneak peek at
Christine Warren's next book
THE DEMON YOU KNOW
Coming soon from St. Martin's Paperbacks
Abby scrambled quickly to her feet, not thrilled about thepositioning of two strange women towering over her. "Areyou two… Others?"
"Lupines," Samantha said, softly, as if she were breaking
some bad news. "Werewolves. We're both members of
the Silverback Clan."
Was that whooshing sound Abby suddenly heard the sea,she wondered, or was all of the blood rushing out of herhead?
She was talking to a couple of werewolves.
"It's okay. We realize we take some getting used to for most humans, and you haven't known about us long. But we honestly aren't going to hurt you. We just wanted to make sure you were okay."
Abby shifted her weight and tried to smile back. "No, I'msorry. I can only imagine what my face must have lookedlike. It's just… you're the first were-lupines I've met. Sincethe announcement, anyway. I was a little surprised."
"We get that a lot." Carly shoved her hands in the pockets of her coveralls and raised an eyebrow. "So now that you know what we are, why don't you tell us what you are?"
Abby blinked. "Say huh?"
Samantha glared at her friend, then turned back to Abbywith a reassuring smile. "Carly doesn't mean to be rude. She's just curious. We both thought you were human atfirst."
Okay, when had Abby's life turned into a B-rated horrormovie? "I
am
human."
"Know many other human women with no muscle tone to speak of who can toss a grown man fifty feet by accident?" Carly looked torn between amusement and
skepticism.
"I work out," Abby protested.
"It's okay. We understand about anonymity." Samantha reached out and patted her hand. "We're not going to out you against your will."
This just kept getting weirder. "No, you don't understand.
I have nothing to out. I'm human. I'm even straight! I don'thave anything to hide."
"Of course not," Carly agreed cheerfully. "You're just the human girl next door. Absolutely." The Lupine grinned. "Provided the girl next door has a black belt and superhuman strength, speed, and agility."
"Carly, you're scaring her." Samantha's eyes searched Abby's face, golden brown and filled with concern. "You honestly don't know what's going on, do you?"
Abby's laugh sounded close to hysterical, even to herself. "Haven't a clue. Unless this is all really a nightmare, and I'm just dreaming that I've entered the
Twilight Zone "
Carly shook her head. "Sorry, sweetie. Rod Serling isdead. I'm afraid this is the real thing."
"I can't believe this is happening," Abby muttered, mostly to herself. "When I woke up this morning, I was human. And boring. Somebody pinch me."
Samantha's smile was sympathetic. "How about we gowith something a little less painful?"
"Frontal lobotomy?"
The Lupine laughed. "I was thinking we could go see
some friends of mine. They're a lot better at unraveling mysteries than we are. I'm sure they could help us figure out what's going on."
Abby had a sudden vision of standing in the middle of aroom full of unfamiliar people, each of whom was leaningclose and trying to sniff her. She shifted uncomfortably. "Idon't know…"
"We already promised not to hurt you," Carly said. "I'm not sure you'll get the same offer from them." She jerked her thumb in the direction of the crowd of protesters. While the three women had been talking, the crowd had begun to drift closer to them, and they didn't sound any friendlier than they had an hour ago.
"They've already seen you with us," Samantha pointed
out.
Abby felt that sinking feeling again. "But they don't knowyou're werewolves," she protested, not sure if shebelieved herself.
"They do now."
Impatient and impulsive, Carly took a deep breath andshifted right in front of Abby's eyes. Abby's and the entirecrowd's. One minute, she was a short, moderatelyattractive blonde, and the next, the air around herseemed to pulse and shiver and in her place stood ahuge, rangy wolf with sandy-blonde fur and challengingbrown eyes.
Beside her, Abby heard Samantha swear. "Oh, shit!
RUN!"
The demon called Rule shifted restlessly in his chair inthe library at Vircolac and struggled not to look asimpatient as he felt. Judging by the grin on Rafael De Santos's face, he was failing miserably.
"Believe me," the Felix said, swirling a brandy snifter lazily in one elegant hand, "it's not that I don't sympathize with your predicament. I do. Completely. It's just that after the past six weeks, it is so refreshing to be listening to
someone
else's
problems for a change."
"Your problems were of your own making. Had you truly wished to remain hidden from the humans, I am sure you could have found a way."
Rule knew the accusation was unfair, but he wasn't in themood to play fair. He wasn't in the mood to play at all.
Draining his brandy without so much as a blink, Ruledebated for a moment how best to tell the other man hisnews without causing undue alarm. Too bad there wasn'tsuch a way.
"I… seem to be missing a fiend."
Unlike many Others who tended to be a temperamentallot, shapeshifters especially, Rafe had earned areputation during his life for his eerie calm in even themost stressful situations. For that reason, he did
not
leapto his feet and shout his demand for an explanation. Instead, he carefully crossed one ankle over the oppositeknee and quirked a dark eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"
The steel beneath the polite question made it impossiblefor Rule to mistake that calm for disinterest. The last timefiends had been set loose in Manhattan, people had died,
humans and Others alike. It had not made him a happy
werejaguar.
"Not one you need to be terribly concerned with," Rule clarified before he had a battle on his hands. "It's a minor fiend with few powers and fewer brain cells. More of an imp, really. It only concerns me because I've been using it to gather information on the activities of the fiends I
am
worried about. We're having a hard time locating the ringleaders of the fiendish rebellion, so I can't afford not to be in contact with this one."
Rafe looked only vaguely reassured. "And you think thatthis fiend might have come up Above? I thought we weregoing to make sure that didn't happen again after the lasttime."
The demon gave his host a bland stare. "And how is yourgovernment doing securing their southern borders?"
"Point taken. Still, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help you in locating this fiend. Manhattan is a big place, and if the creature has a brain in its head, I would think it would be keeping a low profile and staying out of places where it might ran into one of my people."
"Like I said, it's not real smart."
The two men then turned in unison at the sound of a loud
bang on the library door. The dark panels swung open, and a head full of blonde curls poked in from the hallway. Rule recognized the Felix's mate from their meeting a year ago.
"I'm sorry to interrupt," the woman said. Rule judged her
expression to contain less regret than mischief. "But
Samantha Cartwright and Carly Waters have brought awoman back with them, and I think she might bepossessed."
CHRISTINE WARREN lives on the East Coast becauselandlocked states make her claustrophobic. Her onlyother fear is that she will one day run out of readingmaterial, an eventuality she seeks to prevent by taking upwriting herself. She draws on her degrees in literatureand history, as well as on her vivid imagination, to tellstories she enjoys about people who entertain her. Indoing this, she figures someone somewhere willeventually laugh at her jokes. Christine loves to hear fromreaders and can be reached at: www.christinewarren.net