Disclaimer: I do not own Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros Series or anything relating to them.

NOTE: This fic is a response to the November 2010 prompt RT-The Tumulas Community Boards: (http : / robthurmanbooks . proboards . com / index . cgi) I decided to construct a bigger plot, and the story grew.

Prompt: Use all the words: parallel, affairs, candle, suspicion, responsive, and wicked.

Word Count: 2,442

CAL POV:

The man in front of me had eyes unlike anyone I had ever seen. They were a mix of purple and green like mixed Crayola paint. His eyes confirmed my suspicion concerning his non human nature. He smelt oddly of forest leaves and dew touched grass. He also had a powerful presence that I could not pin down. Unlike the other locals in the bar, the tall foreboding man in front of me had been nothing but kind. So when I saw his glass was empty, I took it upon myself to repay him.

"You look like you could use another drink," I said to him, "Here, let me get you one. On the house."

The man across from me held up his hand, shaking his head and smiling, "No, that is quite alright. If I have anymore I won't be fit to do my job. And with my luck, the new patron is bound to be a grade-A piece-of-work. "

I laughed; well, it came out more of a snort. "I've had my share of those." My mind flashed with memories of less-than-grateful clients and some that bordered on downright deceitful. Just thinking about them filled me with annoyance. Even if I never had to see them again, those jobs still found a way to bug the hell out of me. "Sometimes it seems there is no justice in the world."

The man raised his glass in salute and laughed. "I've yet to hear truer words." He put his glass down on the little napkin beside his elbow – at least someone bothered to use it. He extended his hand and reached for mine. I surprised myself when I took it and shook – who says I can't be courteous. If Niko saw this level of manners from me, he might have an aneurism. The man had a strong grip. "My name is Donovan," a smile quirked his features, "No last name, Donovan."

"Cal," I heard myself replying, "Caliban Leandros."

At hearing my last name his eyes widened a bit. I tried to keep my frown off my face. I suspected he had treated me well because he hadn't been able to determine my Auphe heritage, like so many at the bar could. My brother and I had been getting more attention by the supernatural community lately, and I figured the word 'Auphe' and 'Cal Leandros' had become synonymous. I waited for his response. A little twisted part of me took pleasure in seeing people squirm. I wondered what it would be this time. Rejection was popular lately, maybe a hint of disgust and a side order of scared-shitless to go with that

He surprised me though. "Leandros? Like the Leandros brothers. The ones who run that investigations agency" For someone so well informed, he seemed a bit clueless.

"Yeah," I said, "That's me."

He grunted. "Nice work with the Yeti last week." He frowned slightly, "Hey," he leaned in closer and whispered, "What was up with it? I mean, Yetis are suppose to be violent, but not that violent."

"You know, I wasn't really paying much attention to that, "I grinned a toothy-grin, "I was a bit preoccupied with it trying to tear my face off."

At this his grin mirrored mine. "You're funny kid. I like that."

I rolled my eyes in response.

Just then, some bluish-candle-wax-skinned douche-bag with a bad attitude decided to slam his mug down on the counter; something that is only really done in bad TV sitcoms. "Another," he smirked, "Auphe-bitch." Scratch that, this bad TV sitcom just upgraded to full blown bad soap-opera.

It took me a good five seconds to get my temper under wraps. Perhaps Niko's meditation was working or perhaps I'd just experienced the same scenario at work so many times that control was natural now. So I did the only thing I could do without being fired. I smiled. It creeps people out to a ridiculous degree.

He saw my smile, and his lake-water-blue eyes hardened. A spark of something wicked went through them. Quicker than I could see, he slugged me across the face, and sent my body flying backwards. My head smacked the granite countertop and my vision danced with a thousand twinkling stars. An odd burning odor that was strangely damp filled my over sensitive nose. Apparently my brain and mouth had stopped communicating with each other, because I gave one of my witty replies, "What's the matter blue? You fight like a girl!"

I couldn't tell what his reaction was, but I heard my boss Ishiah move in the general vicinity. They were talking, or yelling, I couldn't tell which. All the sound was muted and strangely slurred. I felt a strong hand loop under my shoulder and pull me up to my feet. I tried to stand on my own two feet, but my body had other ideas. I opted to accept the help, and the tall blurry figure led me to the back break room. I felt myself being helped into a chair, and I mumbled a quick 'thank you' under my breath.

I heard the tap water running and a few seconds later felt a cup pressed to my lips. Greedily I drank it down. After a few minutes the world seemed to fade back to normal. In front of me, Donovan sat watching me. When he saw I was relatively responsive, he said, "I called your brother using your cell phone, Ishiah is going to let this slide and he is going to talk to you soon."

As if on cue, Ishiah strode into the tiny break room. His wings did that appearing-disappearing thing that only happened when my boss was pissed.

"Uh…" I said, ever the witty one.

I turned to Donovan, "Are you sure you heard that right? Are you sure he didn't say 'I'm NOT going to let this slide?"

My boss snorted in an uncharacteristically undignified manner. "Are you mad boy?"

I glared at him. But apparently, Ishiah was immune to my bad attitude after long term exposure over the past year.

He continued, ignoring me, "You went and provoked a Djinn! Do you know how stupid that is?"

I cocked an eyebrow in question. I'd never heard of a Djinn. Niko would know though. Niko always seemed to know. "Uh," I said brilliantly.

Ishiah's palmed his face exasperated. "Those things are seriously nasty. They are shape shifting creatures made of fiery wind and scorching steam. To top it off, they throw around some serious power." Ishiah looked tired. "Look, don't meddle in their affairs. You're just lucky I managed to talk Edan out of any potential grudge, and gave him a few free shots on the house."

The though of that SOB getting anything free sent me into a rage, "Ish! You just let that asshole drink free! What the hell man?"

My boss grabbed the scruff of the back of my shirt and gave me a hard shake. The bump on my head erupted in pain. "Don't," he spoke intently and emphasized every word, "Cause problems again." He let go of my shirt and I fell back into the chair I'd been sitting on. "Don't ward off more customers with your bad attitude." He turned promptly and strode out of the room.

"He's right you know," Donovan said.

I growled softly. I was not in the mood to hear it.

"I had to deal with a Djinn once. They're," he flicked his hand as if grasping for the word, "Difficult to deal with."

I groaned in defeat. Don't fuck with the Djinn. I got it. Message received. Whatever, I probably won't see the damn thing again anyways.

Before I even had to be moody, my older brother, Niko opened the door. He didn't need to slam the door open, yell, or make a scene. He just stared at me in a scary sort of way. His eyes moved up to the giant goose-egg bump on my head, then shifted to Donovan. Niko moved fast, faster than any human had business moving.

So, when Donovan managed to grab and stop the hands reaching for his neck, I was taken aback. "Caliban," Donovan grunted out, "Care to help out any?"

"Oh," I said, "Uh. Niko, he's cool."

Niko still didn't take his eyes off of Donovan.

I tried again, "Niko, he didn't do anything. He was actually trying to help me after I got smacked."

Finally, Niko loosened his grip on Donovan and stepped slowly away. The tall man held his hands up in a gesture of peace.

"Sorry about that," Niko said, "Its just my readings always mentioned fairies as dangerous."

Donovan eyed Niko before adjusting his shirt and smoothing out the wrinkles.

I looked back at them. "Fairies? What?"

"Never mind Cal," Niko said, "We're leaving."

On the way out, I turned back to look at Donovan. "So, you never told me what your job was. I think it is only fair, after all, you know mine."

A smile crossed the tall man's face, "I'm just a babysitter. A supernatural babysitter."

I fought back a laugh. I failed.

"Don't laugh," he said jovially, "It is a lot harder than it sounds."

Without another word, I joined my older brother outside. He tapped his foot impatiently.

"Careful Cal," he reprimanded. I didn't know if he was talking about Donovan, or my obvious lack of politeness.

I followed Niko out the door, and around the block. Finally we reached one of the few free parking lots in New York City. Somehow, by some universal force of karma, Niko had managed to get a spot. Granted, he had to parallel park, but it was still amazing in my mind. I clambered in the passenger side and settled in my seat.

After a few moments I looked at Niko. He was staring at me.

"What?" I asked slightly annoyed.

"Seatbelt on."

It was an order, so I complied. After buckling my seat belt, he finally started the car. I pulled the lever to make my seat go down, only to have Niko force it back upright.

"Don't go to sleep," he said, "The client's house isn't that far away from here. Besides," he looked at the swollen bump on my head, "From a medical standpoint, I don't think you should be sleeping. After all, you could have a concussion."

I groaned miserably, crossed my arms over my chest, and sank grumpily into my chair.

"So, do you want to tell me about what happened in there?" No matter how subtle Niko was being about it, the intent was clear, he wanted to talk about my fight. I didn't feel like it though.

"Why don't you tell me?" My voice carried an emphasized but separate message. Niko had called Donovan a 'fairy'. Normally, when he considered a creature we encountered to be dangerous, he'd inform me about it afterwards, whether I wanted to hear it or not. Now, he was astonishingly avoiding the subject.

My brother visually grimaced. "Alright," he said, "We'll tell each other everything. You tell me what happened first, then I'll tell you what I know." He looked at me seriously, "And remember, I'll know it if you lie."

I let out a breath. "Okay," I slapped my hands down hard on my knees, "Okay. Might as well get this over with. I got in a fight with a Djinn. He was a sort of blue-waxy colored muscular man with bright blue eyes. Anyways, he said some things," I motioned with my hand, "About my daddy-dearest." I slowly breathed out. This wasn't my favorite topic of conversation. "I didn't say anything back, I just smiled, and the guy took it so personally! And-"

"And you got hit," my brother finished.

"And I got hit," I affirmed. "I wasn't thinking clearly, and I might have said a few things. But then Ish got involved, and that guy, Donovan, helped me get to the break room."

"That's what I heard from the fairy on the phone," Niko said. His eyes never left the road as we pulled into the sub division.

"Why are you so against him, he seems like a pretty decent guy. He didn't give me a hard time about my bad genes."

Niko rolled his eyes. He actually rolled his eyes. "Cal," he said, as if speaking to a slow dimwitted child, "He is a supernatural babysitter. It is his job. I'm sure he has clients more aggravating than you."

Oh. That sort of made sense. I imagined a crying, howling, scratching, salivating werewolf cub and shuddered. Ten minutes alone with one, Slay, was more than enough time. I looked back at the road and didn't reply.

"Fairies," Niko began lecturing, "From what I've heard they aren't the pretty pixies legend makes them out to be."

"Like legend ever gets it right." I retorted.

"Well, they're dangerous. I'm not sure on their specific specs, but they are formidable. They are manipulative, and even if they can't tell a lie, they might as well be able to. " He took a breath before continuing, "I'm not sure what is true and what is not, but they've been known to sap energy and strength with a touch; they can deceive your eyes; and they can move at ridiculously fast speeds. But most importantly, they're rotten to the core. Human life means nothing to them except entertainment. They can track your location just by having your name."

I gulped. By some good grace, Niko didn't notice.

"They can be killed with iron or steel though, which is convenient in the city." He pulled in to a town-home garage. "Ok. We're at Delilah's friend's place." He turned to look at me, "Don't say anything stupid. You're in a bad mood, so just let me do all the talking."

I nodded in agreement. No problem. It was generally better when I didn't piss off the people who were paying us the big bucks.

"Promise told me some details over the phone. These are fine high-breed werewolves. The client wants us to find his daughter. She was reported missing two days ago after exhibiting odd behavior."

"Odd behavior?"

"Atypically violent."

"Hmmf," I snorted, "Everyone seems to be acting 'odd' lately. Besides, Two days isn't that long. And she's a werewolf Nik. She is probably just having a nice time chewing down on grandma with some friends."

Niko gave me a look. I promptly shut up.

"Now, try to be civil," he said as he knocked firmly on the door.

Thank you for reading. Please review, and help the next chapter be more to your liking. :D

Also, erm... I'm probably going to need a beta. If you see any mistakes, tell me, and I'll edit them out. I'm a sciencey~mathy person, so, English is not my forte.

-Airyie