“What?”
“Mackenzie, if you are not going to look like a lady then at least pretend to act like one.”
“Huh?”
“Oh for goodness’ sake, take my arm.”
Oh. I caught on and hooked my arm round his, beaming at him.
He sighed. “Not like we’re maypole dancers, Mack.” He unhooked my arm and then placed my hand on his forearm, just so. “Like that. Like you’re a lady.”
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously?”
Solus glared at me.
“I thought you’d have liked maypole dancers, being a faerie and all, you know.”
“Just because I am in your company right now does not mean that I am not usually refined and cultured. We Fae are creatures of renaissance. We are not thugs.”
“I am learning an entirely different side to you, Solus.”
“And you would do well to remember it, my little dragonlette.”
“My name is Mack.”
“Whatever.”
We rounded the corner and ended up at the base of a gleaming building, all chrome and shiny glass. The morning sun was hitting the edges of it, making it painful to even look at directly. My grip on Solus’ arm must have tightened somewhat because he shot me another look of irritation. I loosened my hand and smiled at him, batting my eyelashes. He sighed yet again and looked away. Maybe this would be fun after all.
A doorman wearing a bespoke red uniform and a very silly hat bowed as we walked through the door. I had gone no more than three steps inside however when an alarm started to sound. Oh dear god, was this the fashion police coming already? My cheeks started to warm as a security guard came over.
“I’m sorry madam, but it appear that you are carrying some weapons upon your person. You need to check those in at the desk before you proceed.”
I stared at him blankly. I didn’t have any weapons on me, other than the silver needles in my hair, and they could hardly be counted as real weapons. Not in the human world at least.
“Uh…”
“I believe your hair ornaments, madam?”
Really? I reached up and pulled the needles out and gazed at the guard askance. He smiled without showing his teeth.
“Thank you madam. You may pick them back up again when you leave.”
He turned on his well polished heel, holding the needles out in front of them as if he was worried he might catch some terribly contagious disease from them. I looked at Solus with a question in my eyes.
“You’d obviously already heard of this place, dragonlette.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, its patrons are hardly going to be comfortable coming here if anyone can just walk in with silver or iron or the weapon du jour and take them out with a quick swish. Alcazon prides itself on being a sanctuary free from inter-species violence. This is why we shall visit the weapon shop after breakfast, not before.”
“And here was me thinking it was because you had some regard for my stomach.”
Before Solus could retort, we were greeted by the maître d who clearly recognised my Fae companion and inclined his head before leading us through the restaurant to a quiet corner. He pulled a chair out for me and, after I was seated, proceeded to unfold a crisply starched white napkin onto my lap, all without saying a word. I had to admit that I was impressed at his lack of reaction to my unkempt appearance. Perhaps I would like it here after all, I decided.
We were seated towards the back of the restaurant, next to a vast smear free window that briefly reminded me of my efforts at cleaning the shop front to Clava Books. I contemplated asking the silent maître d for tips on window cleaning, but decided it would probably be unwise. I have to admit that I did take a surreptitious sniff to see what products I could detect, but Solus sent me such a terrible glower that I backed quickly away. Fortunately, an impeccably dressed waitress deposited a menu in front of me before he had the chance to make further comments of my lack of unladylike qualities.
After ordering a sumptuous sounding plate of eggs benedict with apple wood smoked bacon and grilled asparagus, and lots and lots of coffee, I took a moment to drink in my surroundings. I had never been anywhere as ostentatiously posh as this before. The greasy spoon at the corner it definitely wasn’t. I smiled to myself at the thought of my old pack mates seeing me here, and then soberly remembered just why I was here in the first place. To distract myself, I sneaked a few peeks at the other diners, trying to see if I could work out what manner of otherworldly creatures they were. There was a gentleman wearing an old-fashioned suit that looked like it included a jacket with tails, a la Bing Crosby. With old-fashioned dress sense like that, he had to be one of the longer living otherworlders. Vamp, perhaps, although I couldn’t sense much power emanating from him. His companion however took that moment to lick her lips, displaying a set of scary white fangs. She must have sensed my stare because she looked up in my direction. I hastily switched my gaze to another table before I caused myself any more problems.“Dragonlette?” purred Solus.
I ignored him, taking a sip of the carefully negotiated room temperature water that sat on the table.
“Mack?”
That I would answer.
“Yes, Solus?”
“If you continue to stare so unabashedly at every patron who comes in here, you do realise that sooner or later you will stare at the wrong person and get yourself into trouble?”
“Well, I wouldn’t be staring at anyone if we’d gone to that café, Solus. You’re the one who wanted to come here. It’s hardly my fault if I am unused to these kind of surroundings.”
“It’s fortunate that I am here to solve these little issues,” he said softly, looking at me with a stern expression on his face.
“What issues?”
He jerked his head over in the direction of the female vampire who I noticed, to my alarm, was heading in our direction. Oh, shit.
“I didn’t…I mean…er…I’ll deal with this, Solus.” After all, as he’d said earlier, I didn’t really need weapons to fight my battles when I had sparky green fire to call upon. I was a dragon!
“Don’t you dare,” he murmured in warning, standing up to greet the walking undead.
The vampire, who’d looked quite pretty from a distance, was terrifying up close. Although I’d certainly heard plenty about vamps from some of the more well travelled pack members in Cornwall, I’d never had the opportunity to meet one myself. I wanted to ask her how she was going to leave the restaurant when it was daylight outside but figured that might be a bit rude. Her skin was not white, exactly, more a sort of ashen grey colour. The whites of her eyes were more yellow than white and there was the faintest whiff of rotting meat that she’d barely disguised with some sickly sweet perfume. I struggled not to recoil away.
Solus inclined his head. “Good day,” he intoned.
She ignored him and fixed her gaze onto me. For my part I remained seated and just looked back at her.
“Is there a problem, little human?” Her voice was icy and filled with the suggestion of threat.
“I don’t believe so,” I replied as pleasantly as possible, although I could feel my bloodfire awakening in the pit of my belly.
“Then why were you staring at me so rudely?”
I opened my mouth to speak but Solus interrupted. “My dear, my partner is but a novice to this side of the world. You will forgive her rude naivety.”
His voice had deepened but I shot daggers at him with my eyes for his words and was about to speak back at him about my so-called ‘rude naivety’ when I noticed the gold flecks of light dancing across his eyes. I flicked a glance at the vamp and realised that she was staring at him, lips slightly parted.
“Of course,” she said in an abruptly breathy voice. “She is forgiven.” She widened her eyes ever so slightly and leaned in towards Solus. “If there is anything I can do to help you both, explaining any nuances of our behavior or showing you around town, then please do let me help you.”
I noticed that she didn’t once look in my direction. The wait staff, who had suddenly been poised for any potential action, had relaxed back into their serving jobs and begun to go back to pretending to ignore us. For my part, I was fascinated by the look of concentration on Solus’ face and the puppy dog look on the vamp’s.
He took her hands and murmured, “You should rejoin your partner, he looks lonely.”
“Yes, I shall.” She held onto his hands for a moment longer than was necessary, and then departed back to her table.
I stared at Solus. “Well I guess these aren’t the droids we’re looking for.”
The pop culture reference went right over his head. “What?”
“You glamoured her. You got her to say and do and act exactly the way you wanted her to.” I thought for a moment. “And you tried to do that to me too! When you came into the bookshop that first time.” My eyes narrowed at him in disgust. “You wanker!”
The heat that had been slowly building with the vamp was quickly exploding into life. Solus held up his hands. “Okay, okay, Mack. Yes, I tried to glamour you. Is it really so bad?”
“It’s brainwashing! I can’t believe you would take advantage of me that way. I cannot believe that you think that would be acceptable!” My voice was rising but I didn’t care.
Solus tried to calm me down, which just annoyed me even more. “It didn’t work though did it? You resisted the glamour so you proved that you’re mentally strong. It was a pretty large clue, dragonlette, that you were definitely more than you appeared to be.”
“But you tried to do it in the first place, Solus.” I stood up, flinging my napkin to the floor. I was aware that I was making a scene but I didn’t really care. How dare he do that to me? “Do you know what? I don’t actually think I need your help after all. How do I know the glamour didn’t work? How do I know that you’re not glamouring me right now?”