night?”
“At midnight. One or two collectors come through from Faery.”
“Collectors? That’s what you call the black sparkly things?”
“Yes. And while you don’t need to know everything, just know that it would be a very bad situation if one got through to this realm. Meaning, they pierced the borders of FaeryTown and completely entered the human realm.”
“Uh-huh.” She rapped her fingers on her leg a few times, then tilted her head at him. Her big blue eyes were so deeply colored they were almost violet. Faeries had violet eyes. But she wasn’t faery. He’d sense her faery nature if she was. And she had bled the other night. Red blood. Faery blood was clear and sparkly.
“So you’re like Batman, then?”
“Batman?” Ry crimped his eyebrows. “I just fell off this conversational thread.”
“Well, I, uh—” she tapped a finger against her lip and squinted one eye shut “—kind of sort of...googled you.”
“To be expected.”
“I know you’re a famous billionaire philanthropist. That’s totally Bruce Wayne. And then you fight the bad guys at night?” She shrugged. “Batman.”
“I, uh, would never call myself that, but whatever works for you.” Probably more like wolfman, but he was trying to avoid that branch of conversation right now.
“So...” Indigo placed her hand over her throat again. “One of those things, a collector, scratched me. I think?”
“Yes. And they are deadly to humans. By the time I got to your side, your breathing was shallow. You were going to die.”
She gaped at him.
“I carried you to a faery healer and she saved your life. She owed me one. Well, not exactly, but I wasn’t going to take a no from her because of our history.”
“Your history?”
“It’s not important. Hestia agreed to heal you. I didn’t watch, but it took about twenty minutes. And whatever she gave you—the herbs or faery magic she worked on you—must be what’s making you so tired and feeling as if you’ve been hit by a truck.”
“That was how I felt yesterday. Only a small car this evening. So a real live faery healed me? Kept me from dying?”
He nodded.
“And then you carried me here to take care of me?”
“I wouldn’t call letting you crawl under a table taking care of you.”
“I was probably delirious.”
“Close.”
“Okay, so faeries exist and they are doing some bad things in Paris, and you go out nightly with your sword to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
“I try my best.”
“What are these collectors doing? Killing people?”
“No, uh...” He winced.
“Ryland.” She touched his leg and it sent such a shock of intense desire through him that he sucked in a breath. But now was no time to kiss her. Even if the compulsion was screaming for just that right now. “You seem like a smart man. Doing good for others by giving away your money. Avoiding the celebrity because that’s not you. I did creep on you online. Don’t hold that against me. Anyway, you don’t seem like a man prone to flights of fancy.”
“I never take to fanciful flight.”
Her smile was so cute, curling the corners of her lips like a heart. “I think I can believe everything you’ve told me. I want to, anyway. It’s the best explanation for my worst night ever. But you have to tell me everything. Please?”
“I don’t know what else there is to say. As for what I’ve told you, I would normally never tell things like this to anyone. Well, I tell Kristine.”
“A girlfriend?”
“No, my secretary. She knows me inside and out. And she knows that this realm is populated by more than merely humans.”
“You keep saying human like it’s something you’re not.” She dipped her head to meet his gaze. “Are you a faery?”
“I thought you wanted to hear about the collectors.”
“I do, but... Okay. Tell me.”
He hadn’t dodged that one and knew the bullet would ricochet around to hit its target soon enough. Stalling for time had never been his thing. He always liked to come right out with it. Unless it related to revealing his true nature.
“Collectors have only recently been infiltrating this realm,” he said. “I know because I got curious after a news reports about stolen infants.”
“I remember that a few weeks ago. Such an awful thing. Something like three newborn babies taken from their cribs.”
“Right. Do you know about how faeries take human infants from their beds and replace them with changelings?”
“I’ve only read about such a thing in faery tales. That’s something that really happens?”
“It does. Or it did. It’s been almost thirty years since any major baby thefts have occurred and changelings were left behind. Related to Faery, that is. But it’s started again. Only this time, the faeries have decided not to leave a changeling in the human baby’s place. They just take the baby and run.”
“What do they want the babies for?” She pressed fingers to her lips. “Oh, my god, do they eat them?”
“No. Faeries have a thing for half-breeds. Unless its half demon. That’s a long story. But suffice, they raise the humans in Faery and when they are grown, breed them with their own. It’s not like a breeding farm. Some are treated as family. But it’s how things have always been done.”
“That’s fucked.”
“Gotta agree with that assessment.”
“It sounds like human trafficking.”
“When you put it that way, it is similar.”
“You’re protecting innocent babies. That’s so honorable.”
“I try. I’ve gone out every night for the past two weeks. Each night I slay one or two collectors. They often come in pairs, sometimes just the one.”
Ry stood and paced to the windows that looked out over the city. Twilight was creeping up and the streetlights below fought with the remaining daylight. The sky was a hazy azure-and-gray violet. Behind him, he heard Indigo shift on the sofa.
“You don’t have to buy everything I’ve told you,” he said over his shoulder. “But it’s the truth. And...”
