Chapter 1

Trick's hands moved over the bar, wiping it slowly in small circles. His eyes were fixed on Bo, sitting on a bar stool with her chin resting on her hands.

"So what can I get you? Our famous own brew, a shoulder or my ears?"

Bo looked up, and smiled.

"Let's start with that wonderful concoction of yours. As for the ears and shoulder, I'd rather you keep them in place. You'll look awful without them"

"Where's Kenzi?"

"Living it up in human world. Met some old friends from out of town, thought it'd be good for her to touch base with reality for a change"

Trick opened his hands, palms up, and looked around his bar.

"This is not real, then…"

Bo took a sip and smiled apologetically

"Come on, Trick. You know what I mean"

Trick put aside the cloth and leant over the counter.

"I know when to mind my business, but I'm…" He shook his head, with a grin that betrayed a façade. "I'm concerned about you. I know I don't know you but can't help noticing that lately what I see is not the Bo I do know"

"Wow. Anyway, nobody seems to be who or what I thought they were these days"

Trick moved back and started shuffling glasses around.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, I don't know. How about Fae that seem alright until they show fangs or horns or scales and lash out? Or humans that seem nice and warm and… and they are just puppets without a will of their own?"

"Can't dispute the Fae thing but… human puppets? Not talking about Lauren, are we?

Bo grimaced. "Never mind"

"Lauren is a good girl, Bo. And she's not a puppet of The Ash. That's not how it works. But it's complicated"

Bo downed her drink. "I thought my life before was complicated. I didn't know this life. All I hear lately is: 'you don't understand', 'it's too complicated'. I wish Fae would lighten up already"

Trick shook his head and leant over once more.

"Bo, you do need to learn lot still, but complicated becomes easier by talking things out"

"There's nothing to talk about, Trick. She did something that... she shouldn't have never done. But it doesn't matter, what's done it's done. It's not that important"

"Ah", smiled Trick, "but you've never done anything you shouldn't have, right?"

Bo closed her eyes and smiled, tilting her head. "Touché. Put me another drink, I'm going to drown that question"

Trick smiled and topped Bo's glass. "There are no answers or magic potions at the bottom of the glass, you know". He looked up. "But, oh, we do have some magic policeman in the bar"

Bo sighed. It would be so easier if she could just drop into Dyson's arms – or pants, rather. But that wasn't easy either. On the contrary. She would have never imagined that being with Dyson would make her think of Lauren.

Dyson sat next to Bo. "Where's Kenzi"

"Risking it by being without her Fae superhero for a night"

"Aren't we in a great mood today… Trick, put me a beer, please?

Dyson sat next to Bo and watched Trick open the beer and discretely leave towards the end of the bar.

"So what's up", said Dyson.

"Nothing much. Taking a break. Not up to getting maimed today"

"Haven't seen much of you lately. Keeping out of trouble, or getting healed by test tube?"

"Very funny"

"You haven't answered"

"Why should I?"

Dyson nodded. "You're right. None of my business."

Bo sighed. "No, it's none of your business, and no, no healing has been required by yours truly. And no test tubes in the horizon either"

"Glad to hear you keeping out of trouble. Anyway, I came to ask you for your help in a case. We're stuck."

"Maybe. Will I get hurt?"

"Prefer if you didn't. Anyway, I only wanted you to talk to a couple of people, not get into a fight"

"Let's go sit down"

The bar was almost empty, so they found they could talk in more than a whisper.

Dyson handed Bo a folder. Inside, she saw the usual police paperwork, and a few photographs of a plump woman in her early forties, quite common looking.

Dyson filled her in. "Molly Stelson. Human. Worked at a library. A couple of days ago we found her body in the library, sitting on her chair, no apparent cause of death, no struggle, no one saw anything. She was working late, alone. Her husband doesn't know anything either, but there is something in his eyes… He's very upset, he just cries all the time. So I need you to speak to him. Can you help?"

Bo nodded and looked at her watch. "Busy tonight?"

Dyson lifted an eyebrow.

"Well, I lost my side-kick for the night. It's still early, we can go now if you want"

Joe Stelson lived in a small, average looking but well kept little house. He answered the door looking as distraught as Dyson had said.

Dyson introduced Bo as a friend psychologist specialized in grief counseling.

"This is not exactly… official, but I know you've are going through a rough time and I thought…"

The man nodded and invited them in.

They walked into a room that looked and smelled like a library. All the walls were covered in books, which overflowed into the floor and almost every available space, even though the house seemed very clean and tidy otherwise.

Mr. Stelson moved some books around and freed space on the couch. He sat down on a small folding chair next to them and offered them some coffee.

Bo declined gently. "How are you holding up, Mr. Stelson"

"Not so good, to be honest. I miss Molly so much. She's… " He looked around the room. "She's everywhere I look. I don't… understand". He excused himself and wiped his eyes, and remained silent for a while. She could see his body shake with each badly suppressed sob.

Bo placed her hand softly over the man's hands and let the energy flow towards him.

Slowly the man started to calm down, and as more energy flowed into him, he looked up, surprised, mesmerized.

Bo's voice was slow, deep, soothing. "Tell me, Mr. Stelson, what do you think happened? Was your wife in any kind of trouble?"

He smiled, incredulous. "No, of course not. She was a librarian, for God's sake, who would have trouble with her"

Bo intensified the contact. "Can't you remember out of the ordinary that day, or the days before?"

Mr. Stelson's eyes unfocussed, his lips parted slightly. "Molly did say something about a man in the library, he was interested in some very rare books, books about demons, and copies of books of an ancient language that they had recently got on loan for a PhD student or something. Molly had looked at those books when they arrived and she found them fascinating. We even laughed at it over dinner, they were quite something, very imaginative but scary books. She tried talking to him about them, but he scared her, never said more than a few words, she said there was something about him, but he never did anything to her. It was a feeling she had. Nothing ever happened. She said he went back to the library the next day and spent the whole day reading the books. Then the student came to pick up the books, and the man never went back. Molly mentioned how relieved she was that he had stopped coming over. Two days later… "

Mr. Stelson hid his face on his handkerchief.

Bo caressed his hands, letting some more of her energy into him.

"Did she tell you what he looked like?"

Mr. Stelson shook his head. Bo strengthened the flow. He gasped and looked at her, smiling.

"He was not beautiful like you. Molly said he was short, very thin, balding, old."

Bo smiled. "How are you feeling?"

"It's good to talk, I feel better already"

"I'm glad". Bo let go of his hands and he stared at her like a child who had just being robbed of his lollipop.

Back in the car, Bo smiled. "Well, not bad. No injuries, and something to work with"

Dyson nodded "Thanks. Although I'm not sure how will I find this old man... Doubt they have cameras in the library. But we can go the other way around. We can try and find out if there is a Fae into books."

"Trick's book should do the trick", said Bo, feeling Kenzi-like clever.

"That. Or Lauren. Knowing what we know, she can relook at the autopsy report. Even the body, if it is necessary"

"I'll go to Trick's then" said Bo.

"And I go to Lauren, and come out empty handed. We're not exactly on speaking terms"

Bo repressed the urge of disclosing that she wasn't either. "Not gonna happen"

"Bo, I wouldn't ask you if I didn't think this wasn't important. But I know something's up, something Fae, and I must find out"

"Let's talk to Trick first, and if we don't find anything, I'll think about going to Lauren"

Before Dyson could answer, his phone rang. He listened in silence, took a few notes and closed his phone.

"It was Hale. They found a PhD student dead in his dorm. No apparent cause of death. Hale mentioned books on demons around. I must go".

Bo nodded. "I'll go speak to Trick. Saved by the bell"

Nor Trick neither his book helped Bo. It all came down to Lauren looking at the body –or bodies, and guessing what could have killed them.

She called Dyson. He was now convinced this was a Fae thing. It was too much of a coincidence that two people that had seen those books have died.

Dyson made arrangements to move Molly's body from the morgue to Lauren's lab for the night. Bo had to be there to forewarn her and get her to help.

Before walking in, Bo stopped and took a deep breath. She would be walking into Lauren's lab to ask her a favor when she had been ignoring her for weeks. Not that she would take her to bed to get what she wanted, but it still felt wrong. She wasn't in the mood to ask Lauren anything, let alone a favor.

But there were two dead people involved.

She just hoped they wouldn't touch the subject again. She had already made it clear how she felt, when it happened, then in the lab last time she had to come by, and lately, by avoiding Lauren and not returning her calls.

Bo felt an annoying sting inside when she remembered that those calls have stopped a few days ago, and how obvious it was that part of her still missed her voice, her company, her lips, her skin…

Bo took another deep breath and walked in.

Lauren was standing over a counter, her face hidden behind a hand and her long hair, a pen in her hand idle over some papers. Bo felt a train wreck happening between her chest and her stomach. 'Get over yourself, you stupid succubus'.

Lauren didn't move when Bo greeted her. She saw Lauren's hand move over her face, and after a few moments, Lauren turned her head but without looking at her.

"Hi Bo" Lauren's voice was soft but strained, devoid of the warmth Bo was used to.

"There's two dead humans, no apparent cause of death, and we think that maybe you can find out why they are dead"

"We?" said Lauren, her voice flat.

Bo swallowed.

"The morgue sent you one of the bodies; it should be arriving any second now"

"Fine, I'll look at it tomorrow". Lauren shuffled the papers in front of her.

Bo cleared her throat, which was getting drier and hotter by the second.

"Tomorrow the body must be back at the morgue first thing. The Fae at the morgue works only night shift. I wouldn't ask you if…"

"If you had somewhere else to go... I know, I understand"

Two men in white overalls appeared pushing an ambulance stretcher with Molly's body.

Lauren moved towards the two men, avoiding Bo, and told them to move her to the examination table.

When they left, Bo was unsure what to do. In the past, she would have stayed chatting to Lauren, observing and asking questions, even flirting with her, but now she wished she was a disappearing Fae instead of a succubus. She saw that Lauren had her necklace back on. So she did nothing, and stood by the door looking how Lauren opened the strong bag and started examining the body.

The silence was broken by Lauren's voice. "Are you going to tell me something more about her, or you going to stand there hating me?"

Bo took a few steps forwards and stopped next to the examination table, opposite Lauren. Molly looked nor happy like the corpses she herself had left behind, neither tortured. But she was frowning the same way people do when trying to solve a riddle.

Bo opened the file and checked her photograph. Her face was rounded, distended, clear, happy... It didn't strike Bo as a woman with many worries in the world. But she had died frowning. It didn't seem to be fear at all.
"She's frowning". The sound of her own voice startled her.

Lauren looked up briefly, surprised, then turned her face towards Molly's.

Bo heard Lauren talking, but she stayed behind, still watching in her mind Lauren's reddened, swollen eyes. Lauren must have been crying for quite a while get her eyes like that, Bo realized with a mixture of self-satisfaction and infinite sadness. She didn't want to even wonder why she was crying.

"Bo". Lauren's voice decided for her. She was now firm, cool, distant.

Bo closed her eyes, chasing all thoughts away and took Molly's photograph out of the file. Lauren compared the photograph with the body on her table and nodded agreement.

"I see what you mean"

Bo felt regaining control in the refuge of the clinical facts. Lauren continued examining the body while Bo told her everything she new.

After explaining everything she knew, Bo sat on a nearby chair while Lauren finished examining the body. She refused to think, to feel. The physical closeness was clearly affecting her; although Lauren's usual bright aura was dim, there was something she couldn't name that touched and confused her even behind the wall of anger that Lauren had organized for her.

She'd killed, she'd seen pain, she'd felt pain, but this was by far one of the most uncomfortable situations of her entire life.

Once Lauren was through, she put her hands on the border of the examination table and, for the first time, looked straight into Bo's eyes.

Bo saw that Kenzie's Dr. Freeze had taken over. Whatever had made her cry was now deeply locked inside of her, ignoring the telltale of her eyes.

"I've no idea what got to her. It could be a thousand things. Never saw anything like it. Her organs are fine, there are no visible wounds. I cannot add anything more to the autopsy report. The only thing…"

"Yes?" Bo needed to hear something that made this visit worthwhile.

"There are a few Fae who can tap into people's thoughts. I know of a Fae that worked in intelligence during the war, he got into people's heads and got confessions out of them, but didn't kill them. But he didn't need to touch them, and but no matter what he did, he couldn't kill them. Once he managed to induce a comma-like state, but it lasted a few days."

Lauren left the table and went to the counter on the far end of the room, where she had her laptop.

"In any case, it is not good to make a judgment without having all the information. Sometimes what you see or hear is just enough to make you arrive at the wrong conclusions…"

Whoops, here we go. Bo took a deep breath and frowned. She had managed to avoid it for a whole two hours and just as she was crossing the finishing line, wham!. Worst of all, Bo knew at a gut level that maybe, just maybe, Lauren was right. After all, she had refused to hear anything Lauren had to say.

"Anyway, you mentioned something about books. Do you have them?" Lauren was back in her own world, far, far away from Bo.

"I'll tell Dyson, maybe he can send you the books tonight" She took her phone out but kept it in her hand. She looked up at the doctor's back while her fingers flied over the keyboard. It was not important. It was not important. It was not...

"Lauren..."

"Yes?"

"Thank you"

Lauren nodded, smiling sadly, and Bo saw she saw a flash of the Lauren in her arms, the one that looked at her playfully, mesmerized, full of innocence and desire and care and pride.

Lauren turned around back to her laptop, and Bo called Dyson. The books were nowhere to be found. They knew he was the one that ordered them because the library card was still on the desk. After briefing him, Bo wrote down the name of the books, and passed the paper to Lauren.

Lauren took the list and started checking them on her laptop. Bo stood looking at her, trying to focus on that evening at her home.

"So I guess I'll be going now, if you don't need me".

Lauren pointed with her head at Molly's body. "I've got company, thanks. In any case, I think I must be missing something" She pointed at her computer. "We've got those books here, I read them once – just a bunch of stories, but I'll check them out. I'll send the guys back when I'm done"

The cold air outside sobered Bo. She felt utterly drained, but the thought of feeding just flew by. She just needed her bed, silence, and lots of sleep to shut it all out.

Kenzie would be out all night, so she heated some left-over pizza and tucked into bed.

A moment later, someone was shaking her arm.