Prologue. Get In, Loser, We’re Going Shopping #2
“All right.” Cha kissed Dy’s forehead, hoping to inflame the fae’s lust further.
They weren’t above milking the common fantasy among apparently all lovers of female bodies for seeing more than one at a time, even if they were touching each other—or maybe especially if they were.
“How much?” she asked the fae, who would be drooling if that was physically possible for it.
The fae named an outrageous price. Cha had to look down at Dy until she could master her expression of outrage and burning desire to bust out laughing.
“Pleeeeeezzz,” Dy whined, enjoying herself now.
“Perhaps the luvly laydee would like to take her for a test drive,” the fae suggested gleefully, clearly anticipating a bloodbath of a bargain.
There were few things a fae liked better than screwing a human in any kind of deal, except maybe screwing them physically.
Probably both at once was the grand prize.
Dy clapped her hands in delight, jumping up and down as she did so that her bountiful breasts bounced, barely contained within the low neckline of her clingy gown. The fae was riveted. “Will you go with me?” she asked, looking up at the creature through her lashes.
“It would be my pleasure.”
The fae released the mare from her paddock, walking her over to the slow black ley line that coursed like chilled black molasses racetrack-style around the compound.
With an unnecessary flourish, the salesperson converted the horse into her carriage form—a shiny sedan.
Again, glamoured to the hilt. No one would notice on the slow black, but get that sedan out on the public leys in the human realm and old Dottie there would be slower even than Punkin—if the old horse didn’t give up the ghost right then.
With a squeal of delight that pierced Cha’s ears, Dy leapt into the driver’s seat, running eager fingers over the dash and (apparently) gilded features as if she was caressing a lover.
The fae salesperson got in beside her, clearly mesmerized by the visual innuendo.
When Dy wanted to pull a scam, she was the best. That was only one reason they made such excellent partners in crime.
Once the pair rolled serenely out of sight behind the stable, Cha meandered over to the jaguar kennels, careful to look bored and maybe a little irritated by her girlfriend going off with the lustful fae.
You never knew who might be watching. An adult jaguar lounged on a branch in the shade.
Cha liked the look of her. Supple, strong, full of fierce vitality.
And worth about twice the coin Cha had managed to save, even if she managed to wrangle a deal out of the unwary fae.
No, Cha could only afford an untrained jaguar carriage, which meant one of the kittens rolling in the sun.
They were all terribly cute, even to Cha’s cynical and hardened heart.
Baring their tiny kitten teeth like baby needles, they snarled at each other like squeaky toys and tumbled clumsily onto their own snouts as often as they managed to execute a successful pounce.
One of them had that bit of something extra Cha wanted.
She needed more than a vehicle to ride the ley lines.
She wanted more than a carriage-animal that would be fast and cooperative.
Yes, it was infuriating that Punkin threw out stubborn at the worst possible moments, but Cha didn’t want obedience.
She wanted a partner, a carriage animal that would become part of her little found family.
An animal companion who would also be a friend.
Not that she’d admit that out loud, because she’d sound like a simpering idiot, but…
That one kitten knocked several of its siblings off of a pedestal and posed, giving her a sly look from eyes so amber gold they nearly glowed.
The kitten’s tail curved as it preened, clearly pleased with its victory.
The love of the win was something Cha recognized.
Few things gave her more joy than outwitting and outracing a competitor. This kitten understood that.
It leapt from its perch and trotted up to the barrier surrounding the enclosure, stretching up with a languid yawn and placing its paws on the invisible shield, sharp white claws flexing from the fluffy black pads. Too adorable for words.
Cha crouched and laid her palm over one of the paws, unable to touch, but feeling the powerful magic embodied in the jaguar kitten.
No one knew—at least, no human knew—how the fae bred and enchanted the animals that could transform into vehicles that traveled the ley lines, protecting their passengers from the wild and corrosive magic of the leys.
But Cha was a natural ley rider and she knew magic that matched hers when she felt it.
The sync fell into place between them. Like to like.
The kitten waved its tail and bared its little fangs, almost a laugh.
“Hello little Katakume,” she murmured, using the Basque word for kitten. Cha’s own full name came from the Basque language of her ancestors, from the world back before the walls between the fae realms and the human ones collapsed. “Would you like to be an outlaw?”
The kitten’s eyes glowed with clear excitement.
“Bandit!” Dy wailed, startling both of them. Dy sounded like a steam train on a bad ley line.
Cha sprang to her feet, whirling just in time for a sobbing, curvy bundle of her bestie to throw herself into her arms. If she didn’t know better, Cha would’ve thought something truly terrible had happened to Dy.
And Dy said she wasn’t an actress. As it was, she had to master the immediate fury that someone had hurt her partner.
Oh wait, she didn’t have to restrain herself.
She leveled a glare at the fae salesperson, who hurried up, looking unusually flustered for the typically inscrutable race.
“What happened?” Cha demanded. “Did you violate the laws of safe passage?”
The fae wrung their long fingers together, surprisingly distraught. “I thought the advances were welcomed. I didn’t think that—”
“No, you didn’t think,” Cha spat and the creature actually flinched.
This was working better than she’d anticipated.
But then, the Obsidian fae working the retail and customer service jobs tended to be the lowest class citizens, many of them living paycheck to paycheck.
To a human, that sounded bizarre, since the fae seemed so beautiful and magically gifted, but this was why it often worked to bribe the fae.
Some of them lived as close to the edge of desperation as any human.
Cha had lucked into this one. Luck tended to be on her side.
Shitty childhood excepted. “Come on, Goldi baby, let’s go home. ”
“But my my carriage,” Dy sobbed.
Cha sighed, stroking her friend’s enviably silky golden hair.
Like her Basque ancestors, Cha had thick black hair that curled wildly.
She kept it cropped short so as not to have to deal with it.
“There are other carriage lots,” she told Dy, keeping a side eye on the salesperson.
Oh good, the fae looked even more worried.
“We’ll find you a better carriage somewhere else.
And I’ll have a word with the owner here,” she added, giving the fae salesperson the full weight of her glare.
“Wait, wait, no!” the fae salesperson burst out. “I’ll give you a deal on Dottie. Deep discount.”
“You mean the actual price for a beast so old you used cheap glamour to try to trick us?” Cha sneered.
The fae spread its hands and smiled weakly. Right. Standard fae trickery.
“We’re done here,” Cha announced. Behind her, the jaguar kitten sent up a cry of desolation.
The fae salesperson looked from the kitten to Cha. “A deal on the jaguar,” the fae suggested. “Turns into a very sleek sports carriage for your luvly laydee. You have to train him, but I’ll give you the same price I quoted for Dottie.”
Which was about what little Katakume was worth. Cha made a show of reluctance. “We weren’t in the market for anything that pricey.”
“But you can afford it,” Dy inserted, lifting her beautiful tear-stained face to Cha beseechingly.
Oh, she was good. Even though Cha knew it was all an act—on her behalf—her heart twisted with the need to put a smile back on that face.
Possibly Dy was using a bit of sorcery, Cha considered with narrowed eyes.
Dy batted her tear-soaked lashes, eyes a dazzling blue.
“Pleeeese, Bandit,” she wheedled. “You inherited that coin and you promised me a gift. I’ll make it worth your while,” she added in a seductive murmur.
Had Cha been the least into women, that sensual purr would have undone her.
“All right, babydoll,” she agreed, rewarded with her bestie’s brilliant smile.
Making a show of reluctance, Cha dug the coin out of her pockets. A lot of coins, as she didn’t have any in the larger denominations, partly because, well, that kind of coin didn’t come her way and partly to dissuade greed on the part of the fae. As much as one could affect that.
She counted out the coin and sealed the bargain, accepting the wriggling, delighted ball of fur, fangs, and claws that was her new carriage and friend.
“You’ll have a lot of time and effort training that one,” Dy advised as they left the lot, her tone once again wry, all hint of distress vanished. “I thought you wanted one good to go now.”
“Katu will grow up quickly,” Cha replied. “And he’s got that fierce spirit we need.” She didn’t say anything about the way her heart warmed when Katu put his softly furred head under her chin, snuggling there.
Dy gave her a knowing look anyway. “You mean that you’re a softy for big eyes and a sweet face.”
“Just like my men,” Cha agreed, and Dy laughed.
“Katu, huh.” Dy said. “What about when he grows up?”
“Always my kitten,” Cha answered, for once not caring if she sounded like a soft-hearted lunatic. She freed an arm and looped it around Dy’s shoulders. “Just like you’ll always be my babydoll.”
“Yeah, right,” Dy retorted, jerking away and out of reach. But she was smiling.
“Besties forever, then,” Cha amended.
Dy bumped her fist. “Besties forever. Nothing will ever change that.”