Chapter 7
“ T ris! No!” My shouts went unnoticed as Wylen gracefully jumped to the side, and Tris fell toward the floor.
But being the athlete that he was, he managed to wrap his arm around Wylen’s left knee, pulling them both to the ground with a crash.
There wasn’t a lot of room in the office, so the sound of my metal desk scraping across the floor did little to clear the way for the testosterone brawl.
“You two are a bunch of fucking idiots,” I said through gritted teeth, trying not to give anyone a reason to come in and check on us. “Get up! Both of you!”
Tris threw a punch that Wylen avoided by rolling to the side and gracefully jumping to his feet. Pulling down the stolen sweatshirt and smoothing out his wispy hair, he let out a deep breath. “In Ashtabulah, trolls are not welcome in our cities.”
“Wylen,” I groaned at the same time Tris said, “Fuck you.”
The fae turned to me, a bit too much arrogance dancing across his face. “You see, Sosasia Raine Westwood, they are vulgar and vile and?—”
“Keep on talking, buddy,” Tris said as he stood. I noticed him favoring his bad knee, and for some reason, that made me even angrier at both of them .
“Tris, please.” He looked at me, and I pleaded with my eyes. “This isn’t helpful.”
“Neither is he,” Tris grumbled. But then he shook his head and rolled his shoulders—a sign that he was backing down.
“I’m not disagreeing with you.” And when Wylen sucked in a breath to make a comment, I held up my hand. “Don’t.” Surprisingly, Wylen stayed quiet, and the room seemed to shrink as both men focused their attention and energy on me. “Tris, do you have some work to do on the video?”
“What?”
“Your job?” I walked toward him and put my hands on his arms, forcing him to look at me and not keep stealing glances at Wylen. “Walther Klews. We need to get that ready to air tonight.”
Talking shop seemed to work. “Yeah. I…uh…I still need to check on the final editing.”
“Okay, can you please go finish that up? I need to do some more research about Razi. Meet back here in two hours?”
“An early dinner?”
I knew Tris was calming down when I saw the flicker of hope in his eyes. “Sure,” I said with a smile and a small sense of peace. “That sounds nice.”
I didn’t miss the egotistical glare Tris threw over my shoulder at Wylen.
Like he’d just won me as a prize in their stupid man battle, he bent over and kissed my forehead quickly before strutting out of the office.
I heard him talking to a few people, saying something about falling backward out of a chair and that everything was good.
Tris had a way with people. Which sounded quite different than what Wylen was saying about the trolls.
The fae sucked in a deep breath. “Smells much better.”
I rolled my eyes and pushed down my anger. Wylen didn’t know our world and our ways. And I would hope that if I were ever in a similar situation, someone would take that into consideration and help me out.
“Why do you mate with that animal?” Wylen asked. “Even here, they tarnish the good people and fight like feral beasts.”
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t the best person to train Wylen in manners.
“You’re an ass,” I grumbled. “Tris is a good person…a great person. A person . Not a troll.” Wylen opened his mouth, and I shook my head. “I need you to find something to do for a few hours.”
With a pained look as though no one had ever dismissed him before, Wylen flinched at my words. “But I can help you, Sosasia Raine Westwood.”
“Sosie.”
“Yes, I know.”
“No, please just call me Sosie. That three-name thing is weird.”
Dropping his head to digest my words, Wylen eventually nodded. “Where am I to go?”
“There’s a park about a mile away. With some duck ponds.”
“Ducks?” Wylen’s eyes lit up. “I have heard of these things.”
I pointed toward the door. “Well, by all means, go see them. Just be back here in two hours, okay?”
“What’s in two hours?”
“Hopefully dinner and Razi. But I need to do some more research and you are distracting me.”
“Research,” Wylen said the word like it was the first time it came out of his mouth. “On your computer?”
“Yes,” I drawled.
He walked over toward my desk and ran his hand across my laptop in a weirdly intimate gesture. “You humans have the most interesting creations.”
“Okay.”
His head snapped up. “I mean no disrespect.”
I sighed. Was it five yet? “I know, Wylen. I’m just tired and hungover and a little bit overwhelmed with all that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours.”
Surprising me, Wylen put both of his large hands on my shoulders.
I looked up into his face and wondered why he was touching me.
But before I could ask, a warm sensation flowed down my arms, through my torso, and trickled down my legs.
Like a drug coursing through my veins, the warmth slowed my heartbeat and seemed to take away my headache.
“What…what are you doing?” I asked, voice shaking because it felt so good.
“You are kin, Sosasia Raine Westwood.” He smiled. “I mean, Sosie. And I can share my energy with my kin. It is the way of my people.”
I couldn’t move. I was so instantly relaxed, the world seemed to stop for a few moments. “Is this a fae thing?” With eyes closed, I breathed slowly.
“In a way,” he said cryptically, a moment before removing his hands.
The warmth left me, but the feeling of relaxation and peace and harmony remained ingrained in my bones. Hell, this was better than drugs. Better than sex…almost.
“I will return in two hours’ time,” Wylen said gently.
“Wait! Don’t use—” Wylen disappeared with a snap of the air, and I was left staring at nothing.
“The door,” I finished in the empty room.
Shaking my head and trying to regain the normal feeling back in my body, I picked up the trash can and the files that had been knocked over in the brawl.
As I knelt on the floor, I also noticed the dust bunnies and cobwebs making their home under the old metal shelves left over from two generations ago.
I shivered with the feeling of creepy crawlies finding my body and jumped to my feet.
With another long sigh and sip of my lukewarm coffee, I sat behind my desk and got to work.
There were a lot of warehouses in New Rothwick used for a lot of different things.
But knowing how Razi may not be so human after all, I ended up searching for more information about troll and fae folklore.
Sure, Wylen probably could have filled me in on everything I ever wondered, but I needed a break from his arrogance and the reminder that I was also not completely human.
Those thoughts wouldn’t help me focus on my job.
I knew if Rothwick On Air’s security department ever looked at my search history, I’d have some explaining to do.
But at this moment, those potential conversations didn’t deserve a second thought, either.
Trolls and faeries had a history—at least within the stories people told.
While some thought they may be of the same genetic line, others argued that the fae actually created the trolls.
Kind of like pets or slaves or maybe even indentured servants.
Faerie magic built the trolls out of pieces of nature, the rocks and trees and dirt, and molded them into a species they had total control over.
But at some point in their history, the trolls rebelled and began living on their own, scrounging for food and shelter in the forest while hiding from the fae that hunted them like animals.
I could see it. I mean Wylen definitely had a superior attitude when it came to Tris—like he was so much better because of the blood that flowed through his veins.
It kind of reminded me of the dark times in our own human history, when people were treated as less because of the way they looked or for the deity they worshipped.
It saddened me to see these similarities.
Like, when would living beings ever learn?
Studying more about the folklore had my head spinning so much I needed to switch my focus back to Razi and his properties.
One of the most important things I’d learned during my several years as an investigative journalist was that I needed to follow the money.
Wherever the money was coming from or going to always helped fill in the missing pieces of the story.
And this story started with the warehouse owned by a man with just one name.
Using some of my skills on the dark net, I was able to find a chat room that occasionally mentioned the street name of the warehouse or cited someone named Izar. I laughed at that one…I mean, Razi’s name spelled backward? Did these people really think they were being secretive?
I used their naivety to track down a thread that discussed a fight club.
Or at least I thought that’s what the innuendos and references were getting at.
Sitting back in my seat, I stretched my arms above my head and glanced at the clock.
It was almost five, and I’d been sitting here for nearly two hours without realizing it.
Sometimes I really loved my job, and sometimes I even thought I might be good at it.
A fight club? A mystical retreat? The two didn’t really go together that well.
This Razi character was getting more and more interesting by the moment.
My heart sped up when I thought about the mystery behind the man and briefly wondered if I was an adrenaline junkie.
Not like Tris, with his athleticism and constant need to push his body to the max, but someone who enjoyed the rush of adventure and discovering the secrets.
Razi was definitely a person, or troll, that piqued my interest, and I couldn’t wait to find him tonight.
As if listening for his cue, Tris knocked twice on my door and walked inside.
He looked better…more relaxed and…wait. “Did you change?” I took in his dark jeans and button-up short-sleeve shirt, along with the shaved face and dab of cologne.
He’d dressed up, and I think it was for me.
My smile grew wider…until I realized I was still wearing my boring jeans and a coffee shop T-shirt.
“Yeah. I needed to run home.” He smirked and gave me a wink as he sat down in the only other chair. “What did you find out?”
“Well, I?—”
“Son of a bitch!” Tris snapped.
I clutched my chest to keep my heart inside. Wylen stood right behind Tris, and I swear I saw the corner of his lip turn up when he saw Tris’s reaction to his sudden appearance. Again.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Tris yelled as he jumped to his feet. “You can’t keep doing that.”
“He’s right,” I agreed, standing to try and calm my nerves. “We already talked about this.”
“No one is around,” Wylen declared.
“I don’t care.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Tris added, and I gave him a look .
When I saw Wylen gearing up to make some insulting comment, I immediately stepped between the two men and started packing my bag. “I have information. But I’m hungry. How about seafood?”
“Seafood?” Tris asked.
“Sure. Razi’s most promising warehouse is in the Black Graves District. Why don’t we stop by Bellview Market on our way and eat there? The fighting doesn’t start until eight.”
“Fighting?” Wylen was way too interested. He even bounced around on the balls of his feet like he was trying to hold himself back.
Giving him a look and trying to figure out why he was suddenly so interested, I shook my head. “I’ll explain over food. And a beer.”
“Oysters?” Tris’s pleasure made me smile.
“Oysters sound amazing.”
Tris grinned and took my bag off my shoulder. “I know the perfect place.”
“Oysters?” Wylen asked, making the word sound dirty somehow. “What is an oyster?”
“You mean you faeries don’t have shellfish where you come from?” Tris seemed a bit too excited about knowing more than Wylen. “And you call the trolls uncultured.”
“You are scum that feed on the scraps of the fae.”
“Oh my god,” I groaned. Pushing Wylen toward the door, I gestured for him to start walking. “Go. We are not going to argue right now. I need food.”
“In my home, women don’t speak like you.”
“Really?” I asked with an eye roll.
Tris laughed and slapped Wylen on the back. “You have no idea, man. No idea.”