She clamped her little red lips shut and crossed her sparkly pale arms, refusing to look at him.
“If you tell me what is going on, perhaps I can help.” A lie. He did not care what happened to her. He cared for no one. It was for their own good, of course.
She sighed with an odd little peep at the end and looked at him. “I was in her purse when I thought I heard him.”
Damien frowned. “Him who?”
“One of the Brown brothers.”
The Brown brothers were the men who owned the exotic salsa company in San Diego. “One of the brothers was there at the mall that day?”
“Yes. No. Maybe? Oh! You have nice lips. Very pouty. Can I play in your mouth?”
“No.”
“How about a taint massage?” She wiggled her little finger at him in a scratching motion.
Gods help me. Sex fairies were known to be easily distracted and wildly horny, but this one seemed a bit much. He needed to get the info and send her on her way. “You are not getting anywhere near my taint. Now tell me why you attacked—”
“I meant my taint.”
Damien growled, quickly losing his patience. “Absolutely not. Now focus. Why did you attack Sky?”
“Oh!” She clapped excitedly. “I know! I panicked and jumped out of Sky’s purse to find somewhere better to hide.”
“Why were you in her purse?” he asked.
“Sky broke into the Browns’ basement about a month ago. I saw my chance to escape and took it.”
“You were their prisoner?” This was getting interesting.
“Yes. I was going to tell Sky, but I was afraid to show myself. What if the Browns got her? She might turn me in. So I stayed hidden in her purse, garage, and laundry room. She hardly goes in there.”
Things were finally starting to make sense. Sky thought she was reporting on a human trafficking story, but it was a supernatural creature trafficking story, too. That was the connection between the articles and the sex fairy attack.
I’m always right about these things. Random was never quite random.
“What is your name?” Damien asked.
“Petra. But my friends call me Pet.”
Pet the sex fairy. How original. “Pet, do you know where you were at the time of the blast about nine months ago?”
“What’s a month? Is it sexy?”
Pet did not know what a month was? This could be a problem. He needed to determine if her surroundings might have saved her. “Never mind about the month. Do you remember a flash of light in the sky and fairies or other creatures around you disappearing suddenly?”
“I had lots of friends down in the secret bunker, but no one disappeared.”
“What bunker?” he asked.
“It’s hidden under the Browns’ basement floor. That’s where they kept us.”
Perhaps the home had an old bomb shelter. It was not so uncommon for houses built during the Cold War.
Pet continued, “I learned to pick the lock on my cage and sneak out of the bunker, but I could never open the basement door above. Too heavy.”
Steel door and a bunker deep underground. Good insulation. Those could be the reasons as to why Pet hadn’t been affected by the blast, but he needed to see this bunker for himself. Also, the other fairies might be able to tell him where they were during the blast. In the bunker? Somewhere else? Either way, the answers could be useful. Or not. This entire thing felt like a wild-goose chase if you asked him.
“Do you think your friends are still down there?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged.
The police had most definitely raided the place by now, but if Sky had not found the secret bunker during her “maybe break in,” then perhaps they hadn’t either.
“You’re going to take me there,” he said.
“No! No! I won’t go back.”
He held up his palm, trying to calm her. “Nothing is going to happen to you, Pet. I simply need you to show me where you were kept.” Time was of the essence, and he did not want to spend all day poking around a basement, looking for the entrance to this secret bunker.
“I won’t go!”
Sex fairies were known to be adventurous. Reckless even. Damien wondered what Pet had been subjected to that would make her so afraid, but the last thing he wanted was to play fairy therapist. All he needed were the facts so he could finish this job for Cimil and return to his quiet shop.
As for the thugs who’d been threatening Sky and her family, well, he would take care of them. Now that he knew they’d crossed into his domain—the world of the supernatural—they were playing by his rules. Basically that meant he killed anyone who annoyed or crossed him.
Hold on now. That was the old him, the dark him. These days he only killed innocent women with his car. I’ve come so far in life.
The fairy went for the door handle, tugging with all her strength. She didn’t realize the doors were locked.
“Pet, if you leave, I won’t be able to help your friends in that bunker or make the Brown brothers pay for what they did to you.”
Pet laughed. “You think you’re a match for them?”
He was a match for anyone, a perk of being cursed. He didn’t fear death. Hell, he’d welcome it when his time came. As for pain, Damien was no stranger to receiving it, and he was an expert at giving it. He was especially gifted with a knife.
Hold on. What the hell was he thinking again? He’d left his violent ways behind for good reason. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be persuasive. “You leave the Brown brothers to me. They will get what’s coming.”
“Who are you?” Pet asked.
“Just a tailor.”
“Not like any I’ve heard of.”
After the late flight back to LA, Damien went straight home to his second sanctuary: his two-story house nestled in the hills above Sunset, with endless views of the city lights. It used to belong to a shady vampire who “accidentally” filmed himself drinking five women to death and posted it online, thinking it was a private group chat.
Damien had fixed the problem, but it had cost the vampire a pretty penny in bribes on top of Damien’s fixer fee. This had been part of the payment. Five bedrooms, infinity pool, outdoor bar, rooftop lounging area, spacious garage, and a five-hundred-square-foot closet just for his suits. Oh. And a wine cellar, which used to be the vampire’s “S&S” cave. Suck and Sex. Which was where Damien put Pet for the night so she wouldn’t wander off while he slept. There were still a few boxes of the vampire’s sexy toys down there to keep her occupied.
In the morning, they’d drive to San Diego and find the house were Pet had been held. Hopefully, this would soon be over so he could close out this job and go back to his life.
That night, Damien tossed and turned in his thousand-thread-count sheets, unable to dislodge Sky from his thoughts—her creamy olive skin, her expressive brown eyes, and luscious lips. It took billions of years of evolution, millions of humans coupling, and an infinite number of events to create such a magnificent woman. One of a kind. And I fucking snubbed her out in two seconds. Gods, I am a piece of shit.
He sat up, scrubbing his face with his hands. He could still smell her sweet shampoo, as if she were in the room.