Tamsin
I opened my eyes to see Kenzi sitting on the coffee table in front of me, sucking on a purple Popsicle. Giving her a roll of my eyes, I turned over on Bo's couch and closed them again. Maybe if I ignored the girl she'd go away.
"Rise and shine Tam Tam," Kenzi cooed, using her boot to push on my back. I groaned at her. Living with the succubus and her pet was going to get tiresome.
"You're lucky Bo and me are letting you stay here, and this is my T.V. watching couch," the human continued, still pushing on my back with her annoying-yet-I-had-to-admit-stylish boot.
"Don't you have human things to do? Aren't you usually at the Dal by now?" I asked, just about ready to go full Valkyrie on her ass. I figured I probably shouldn't since Bo would literally kill me. I also needed a place to stay since my truck joined the great junkyard in the sky after both the battery and engine failed on me. Killing the human after one night on the succubus' couch was not likely a good way to keep my stay.
"It's not even noon."
"Exactly," I muttered.
"Don't you have a job to go to? Play cop with Dyson? Try to put other innocent fae in jail?"
With that, I opened my eyes and turned to glare at her, sitting up and slapping away her boot. "Now that you mention it, yeah," I said, standing and making my way to the bathroom. As much as I was starting to like the little goth girl, she sure knew how to push some buttons.
I grabbed an unopened toothbrush – funny, there seemed to be a lot of them, for surprise houseguests, maybe? – and tore it open, looking around. I heard Bo's voice from the other room and walked out, red toothbrush in hand.
"Hate to interrupt your love-fest," I stated, looking at the two friends who were chatting in what might be called a kitchen. "Where's the toothpaste?"
Bo and Kenzi looked at each other before responding simultaneously, "Footlocker."
I gave them one of my signature smiles and turned on my heel, going about my business in preparing myself for the outside world.
I made it to the Cop Shop via Bo's yellow car. Honestly, I think she might have pitied me. We were managing to be sort of nice to each other. Sure, I'd spilled a few drunken feelings to her here and there, but I still didn't want to get too close to her; or anyone, for that matter. Sadly, it was happening anyway. The things I felt for Bo were …
No. I shook the thoughts from my head and grabbed my gun and badge from the passenger seat, hooking them onto my belt before making my way inside.
"Tamsin," Dyson greeted. "We got a case," he said, standing as I walked through the door. He grabbed things and brushed by me. "Fae case," he murmured softly as he passed.
I turned to follow, keeping silent until we were out of the building.
"Gonna tell me what's up?" I asked.
Dyson looked at Bo's yellow car then looked around as if searching for the succubus. "Did you steal Bo's car?" he asked, obviously giving up on his search for Bo.
I ignored the butterflies that flared in my stomach at the mention of the succubus and rolled my eyes. "Borrowing. I'm borrowing it. My truck has gone belly up."
Dyson simply raised a brow at me, but I held up the keys to the car in reply and got into the driver's seat.
"So, where are we going, wolf?" I asked as he closed his door.
"Caught wind of a fae feed being left around town," he stated before giving me directions to our scene.
"Because there're never enough of those around," I said sarcastically, keeping my eyes on the road.
I could feel my thoughts start to drift to brown-and-blue eyes and dark hair, a smile that killed, and a touch that left me speechless …
"Tamsin, you're going to miss the turn," Dyson said, shaking me from my downward spiral into succubus daydreams.
I made the turn easily, giving Dyson a 'you worry too much' look. The small parking lot belonged to a restaurant-but-mostly-bar that was closed during the day. It was a simple human dwelling, but I could sense the death that clung to the walls and general area, causing me to grimace.
"You smell anything?" I asked my partner, looking around for any signs of an actual body.
Dyson tilted his head upward, taking in a breath before walking off towards the back of the building. I followed, getting a sinking feeling in my stomach.
"He hasn't been dead long. Not long at all," Dyson said, crouching next to a man's crumpled body. I crouched down next to him.
"Is this guy fae?" I inquired, tilting my head at the figure on the ground.
My partner shook his head and ran a hand over his beard. "The killer is definitely fae, and judging by the protruding veins and burst blood vessels in his skin and eyes I'd put my money on a Taxim fae," he murmured quietly, lost in thought.
Taxim. Revenge-feeding fae that literally caused the anger of their victims to increase dramatically and boil their blood.
"Haven't seen a kill by one of these in a very long time," I stated and took a moment to glance around. It felt like more than this one death occurred here, but I didn't see anything else, a body or otherwise.
"Neither have I," the wolf agreed. "I'll call it in and have Lauren do the autopsy. She'll come up with something to cover the fact that it's a fae feed."
"Right." I slapped my hands on my knees and pushed myself into a standing position. The area surrounding us was all but deserted, the only sign of life being the cars that drove by on the road at speeds that should have the drivers pulled over, but I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.
"Coroners are on their way. Lauren, too," Dyson informed me, and we sat in Bo's little yellow car to wait.
Dyson and I found ourselves at the Dal later that night, playing a game of pool to relax while drinking a beer. Well, I drank a beer. Dyson mumbled something about body-swapping before ordering something of which I didn't catch the name.
Lauren was at the bar, talking with Trick about the body we'd given her. I looked her up and down while I waited for Dyson to take his shot in our game. She was focused on what she was saying, and Trick had his usual look of concern on his face.
The feeling of being watched didn't shake as I continued to drink and play, but I tried to push it to the back of my mind. It wasn't hard to do, actually, since Bo walked into the bar with Kenzi.
Why the hell did she have to be so enticing? And nice? Why did she have to fucking care so much?
She looked in my direction and I gave her a nod before turning away to resume my game. Oh don't get me wrong, I kept an eye on that cute little ass, but I did it discreetly.
Kenzi joined us at the pool table while Bo listened to Lauren. I caught the succubus' longing looks at the doc, but I don't think Lauren noticed. Since their 'break,' I admit I kept tabs on them. For entertainment, of course.
"Hey Tam Tam, D-man," the tiny girl chimed.
I ignored her, but Dyson returned her greeting with a "Hey, Kenz," just before getting socked in the jaw by a large brute of a man. I didn't see it happen, but I saw Dyson go flying to the floor with a grunt, skidding a bit before stopping.
"What the fae?!" I heard Kenzi yell before something hard hit me across the side of my head from behind, sending my cue stick from my hand and the rest of me across the pool table.
I shook my head to clear it before I realized that it was a different fae that hit me. The first had Dyson by his shirt with one hand, his other a fist that pounded into my partner's face.
Taking the chancing to cast a look around the room, I noticed everybody looked agitated and others were advancing towards us, looking angry.
I moved to help Dyson, but thick fingers tangled themselves in my bun, ripping my hair free and yanking me back. Yelping, I reached back and dug my nails into the arm that held me, causing whoever it was to release their hold. I twisted their wrist while spinning my body to face my attacker, a short and stocky man with bulging muscles and a severe case of balding. I slammed my palm into his nose, which immediately started spewing blood, and threw a well-placed kick into his chest which landed him across the room.
The ringing in my ears seemed deafening, but a pool cue swung at my stomach like a bat. I grabbed it and pushed hard on it so the other end rammed into the face of the tall, thin woman who aimed it at me.
What the hell was happening? Had everybody just decided to go nuts? It took me a moment to realize that a lot of those attacking were going after either Dyson or myself. I wondered for a moment if it was an attack on the "sunshine gang" as the Morrigan called it, and immediately my eyes scanned the crowd of crazy for Bo.
The succubus was in seemingly good health, using her touch to calm down most of those close to her, though she looked extremely bewildered.
"Enough!" a voice thundered, and I instinctively cringed at the power behind it. Who the hell could do that?
Almost everybody ceased what they were doing at once and all heads turned towards the source of the order. Trick.
I blinked in surprise. Who knew Trick could sound like such a badass.
"Get out of my bar. All of you, or so help me I will throw you out myself," Bo's grandfather ground out through gritted teeth.
Every fae grumbled and groaned as they filed out of the bar. The only people left after were Kenzi, Dyson, Lauren, Bo, and me, not including Trick, and I couldn't help but notice that each one of them was bleeding at least from one injury. I checked myself and noticed several cuts and bruises along my own body and a gash on my head from being with the chair.
"Well," I said, breaking the silence. "That was fun." I meant it, too, but it got me a good glare from just about everybody in the room.
"What the fae was that about?" Kenzi panted. She held a hand over her ribs, and I quickly scanned her for any other sign of injury but found none. Bo would have been crushed if anything happened to her.
Dyson shook his head. His beard was stained red from what I figured to be a broken nose. "The first guy hit me and then it seemed like a domino effect," he said, beginning to rotate one of his shoulders with a grimace. His hands were blood-stained and they left smudges of red on anything he touched.
"Well they were all pissed about something," Bo stated, her hands on her hips as she looked around the room. Surprisingly, the were no unconscious fae on the ground.
"Could the Taxim have been here and stirred things up?" Lauren said suddenly, looking directly at me. I raised a brow at her.
"It's against fae law to feed on other fae," I told her, but thinking about it, it made some sense. The feeling of being watched, ever since they discovered the body by the human bar, the anger in all of the customers faces as they fought. Maybe the Taxim had followed Dyson and me back here.
"Even so, it's been done before," Trick said, looking grim.
I surveyed the room one last time as the others started to clean up. Most everything was knocked out of place, and a few things were broken. I wandered over to Bo.
"Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" I asked, trying to make it sound nonchalant.
She looked surprised despite my efforts at casualness. "Uh … yeah," she said. "You? Your head …"
She reached out towards me. Normally I might have drawn back, but she was so close, and I loved the feel of her skin against mine. Her fingers brushed the gash in my head and I couldn't help but flinch. Damn, it stung like hell.
"It'll be fine," I told her. I'm glad you're okay, I didn't say. I was worried, I held back.
The room was coming together again as we worked, but many things were stained a color I was all too used to: blood red.