Day and Knight Read online

  Matilda's glare softened to understanding. And what was more unbearable, pity. She sat down opposite Glori, dumped her untouched sundae into Glori's mixing bowl and sprayed extra whipped cream on top for good measure.

  "Sometimes, yes, a torrid affair does serve to flip the OFF switch on the Need. So to speak. But do you really want to risk it, in this day and age? Human males can be just as oblivious and brutal nowadays as they were when I was a child. You go into it expecting a week or two of mind-blowing sex. He goes into it expecting the same. No strings attached. What if he's a caveman and decides he's not letting you flutter away at the end of the affair? What if he's into something really kinky?

  "I'm sorry, dear, but you are a virgin, emotionally and physically. You'd be surprised what sort of things men think are attractive. Caught in the throes of Need, you'll do anything he asks. Things you'll be ashamed of once you come to your senses. But all that aside, despite your best intentions... Somebody's heart will engage when you most need it to stay disengaged. One of you will come out at the other end with a broken heart."

  "Or a really bad case of the clap," Glori muttered. She tried to summon up a smile. "The thing is...Lance--"

  "You're already attracted to a Human?"

  Glori dropped her head down on the table and burst into tears. Or, she tried to. It was hard to wail with her face in her mixing bowl, full of ice cream, brownies and chocolate syrup. And Matilda fought valiantly not to giggle, but failed miserably, so Glori joined her just a few moments later. After all, she had whipped cream in her ears.

  She conjured a mirror from her dressing table, and a few spurts of teary giggles escaped her as she wiped her face clean. The whole idiocy of her situation and her appearance killed the need for a good, long downpour of tears. But she couldn't really, fully laugh. Not now.

  She honestly liked Lance. And she didn't like the horrid suspicion that she only liked him because he was the first male to approach her with the right resonance in nearly two hundred years.

  Why a Human?

  * * * *

  "Why a Faerie?" Lance growled. He stepped outside to stare up at the full moon. He couldn't help wondering what Glori was doing right now in its light. Did she have wings? Did she dance? Did she fly? Was she like that crazy chick he'd dated in college, who claimed she was a werewolf and could only hold off the curse if she did IT at the full moon?

  Wrong mental track to follow. Lance's head ached from too much thinking. His stomach ached from too much booze and not enough dinner. He didn't need other parts of his anatomy chiming in with problems and feeling depressed and neglected.

  "I need a long, cold shower," Lance mumbled, and staggered inside to find the bathroom.

  Chapter Four

  "The way I see it, you only have two options." Matilda frowned and swayed a little.

  Matilda was the only non-Fae that Glori knew who could get smashed on diet cherry cola. It was a combination of all the magic she had absorbed in the last four centuries, the caffeine, and aspartame. And the carbonation.

  Glori privately believed it was the carbonation more than anything else. After she washed off her ice cream brownie facial, she had pulled out the floor pillows and her emergency twelve-pack and settled down for an evening of drowning her sorrows. It had actually worked, until Matilda started talking about the problem again.

  Why was it, Glori wondered, every time she thought of Lance, her happy little buzz went flat?

  "Two options," Matilda repeated. "Have a really torrid affair, and hope your magic is strong enough to keep this Human from remembering anything when you get it all out of your system. Which could be a problem if it lasts more than a year or two. A problem for him, not for you," she added with a lopsided leer. "Or resign yourself to moving to an Enclave. Take a Fae male as your long-term partner with the understanding that once the hormones settle down, you don't need to see each other. Except for visitation with the kiddies. If there are any. Depends on how long the Need lasts." She hiccupped softly.

  "But what about Lance?" Glori whispered. "I really, really like him. I don't think I could ever look at him again, if I'm tied to someone else. I'd feel really...weird."

  Not to mention how totally weird it would feel to live underground again. That was part of why she avoided the Enclaves. With their warped time fields, there was no such thing as day and night. Time in the Enclaves never passed at an equal ratio with Human time. On the average, one year inside the protective magic field could sometimes be equal to twenty of "real time," and sometimes only two years of "real time." That was assuming that what happened in the Human realms was "real," of course. The differential was enormously helpful in getting through recessions and wars, but it played holy havoc with keeping up with a favorite author or TV shows. Even if she could endure living underground, with a man who didn't make her toes tingle, Glori didn't think she could live without her TV shows. Even if she managed to get everything on DVD, it just wouldn't be the same.

  "Oh. That is a problem." Matilda shook her head. A sprinkle of silver sparkles swirled around her and she discretely burped, going instantly sober. "Well, maybe I should check out this Lance of yours and help you figure out how to handle him. Metaphorically speaking, of course. I have a strict hands-off policy when it comes to other women's lust interests. Besides," she added with a satisfied smirk, "Anselmo is still a jealous brute when it comes to handsome Humans. You need a man who trusts you, but still gets jealous. That's the secret to keeping the spark in your marriage."

  "I don't want to get married!" Glori wailed.

  But inside, a quiet little voice added: Unless it's Lance.

  Now, that was frightening. Was she caught in the magic warp field of Need, or was it another kind of magic altogether?

  * * * *

  The next day dawned much too soon and far too brightly for Glori--and she only had a small cola hangover to contend with. The problem was that she hadn't slept well, her mind filled with images of ambushing Lance. And if she wasn't tricking him into signing his life away to be with her, totally hoodwinked by the unwitting magic brought on by Need, then he was trapping her, taking advantage of her brain working at one-quarter power.

  So, even though she went to work early specifically to meet Lance and get a little exterminating in and activate her straining, temporary measures of making the bugs sleep before the children arrived, she was not at all happy to see him.

  At least, her brain and bloodshot eyes weren't.

  Her imagination and that funny twisting feeling in her tummy were ecstatic.

  "Hi, Glori." He perched on the bumper of his truck, gulping the biggest cup of take-out coffee she had ever seen, and didn't seem too eager to meet her gaze.

  Yesterday, they had all but fallen into each other's eyes a few times. Was the honeymoon over before it had begun?

  Lance had also gotten past his need to call her "Miss Glori." That was a bad sign, too.

  "Well, shall we see what damage our little friends did overnight?" she said, trying to smile. "You're going to be rich by the time you see the last of this place." She turned to lead the way through the gate.

  "Maybe not." Lance moved amazingly fast, stretching out his big, warm hand and catching hold of her arm, stopping her as if he'd glued her feet to the ground.

  Maybe her feet were melting, because something had certainly turned hot and sticky deep inside her belly. Glori wobbled a little, her knees suddenly weak. Why did Human men have to smell so good, first thing in the morning? She adored the scent of pressed cotton and leather boots, Irish Spring, and something piney--probably Avon. She looked into his big, dark blue eyes and harps started playing.

  Now what had she been complaining about last night? She must have been an idiot. In fact, maybe she'd just put a 'closed' sign on the window and take Lance home. Wouldn't Matilda get a kick--

  Matilda. Her Regional Coordinator.

  Matilda had warned her this would happen, the longer she resisted and tried to ignore the wonky t
hings happening in her brain and body, thanks to "that time" in her life.

  "Glori?" Lance dropped his cup, covered her hand with his other hand and squeezed. The concern in his eyes nearly undid her brain again. "You okay?"

  "Fine. Just-- I had a rough night last night." She reluctantly pulled her hand free and stepped back to get a breath of air, minus the wonderful aroma of Lance. The sooner she snarfed the six dark chocolate bars in her purse to straighten out her brain and magic, the better off she would be.

  "Tell me about it," he mumbled. He bent to toss his empty paper cup into the truck, then stepped up onto the sidewalk with her. "I have a business proposition to make."

  For a moment, all Glori heard was "proposition" and she nearly bit her tongue to keep from shrieking something along the lines of "Yeeee-haw!"

  "Proposition?" She choked despite her best efforts at dignity and control. Oh, please, don't let me blush in front of him. I could never explain changing colors!

  "A trade, I guess you'd call it. You've got something I want--and I've definitely got something you want."

  Oh, boy, have you got what I want. No--not want. Need! The dratted Need. It's not really me. It's hormones. Get control of yourself, girl. She took long, slow, deep breaths to calm herself. Her body needed Lance, but she didn't really want him. It wouldn't work. He was a down-to-earth guy who killed bugs for a living, and she had just hit adolescence.

  It wouldn't work.

  So why did it hurt so bad to remind herself of that?

  "Are you listening?" Lance stepped closer, which didn't help her ability to concentrate.

  "Sorry. I had a really bad night last night and it's affecting...everything." She finished on a sigh. "What do you think I can help you with?"

  Please, please, need a date for your high school reunion--on a cruise--for a week!

  "I need to find a Faerie Princess."

  "Don't we all. I don't know what it is about--excuse me?" She took a staggering step backwards, which put her at the perfect angle to get the rising sun in her bloodshot eyes. Glori stepped closer to him to block the light. "Did you say--"

  "Faerie Princess. Yeah. And don't send me to San Francisco. I've already thought about..." He sighed. "I know you're a Faerie."

  "We call ourselves Fae." All those hot, gooey feelings cooled and congealed. Like stepping into a deep-freeze.

  "Whatever." He shrugged.

  "It's not whatever. How'd you like it if we referred to you as smelly mortals all the time rather than Humans? At least it gives you the benefit of the doubt!"

  How could she ever have thought it would work with him? He was prejudiced against her kind and misinformed, thanks to a childhood full of propaganda handed out by the Magic Folks Defamation League. Glori loathed those malcontents among the magic-blooded who wanted to be ignored, underestimated and basically considered "mythical" so they could roam the world and do their dirtiest tricks without getting suspected or blamed. They figured--rightly--that if Humans laughed at the very thought of their existence, nobody would believe in them.

  People like the MFDL gave Fae and other magic-blooded folk a bad name. They needed to be locked up, but where did the High Council on Magic draw the line between innocent pranks, mischief, paybacks and nasty revenge? Sometimes Glori admired vigilante types. Where were Charles Bronson and Bruce Willis when she really needed them? And Arnold Whatever-his-name-is? She could use some massive termination to make her life a little easier.

  That didn't solve her problem with Lance, though.

  Lance gaped at her for two seconds, stunned as much as she was by the bitter spew. His eyes crinkled up and he snorted, then he grinned and belted out a few good chuckles that made him shake and gave her a good view, at close range, of his washboard abs under that clingy T-shirt half-hidden by his unbuttoned flannel shirt. She most certainly did love the smell of warm male in flannel.

  Glori was lost again in Hormone La-La-Land. She didn't mind at all, as long as Lance found her.

  But would he come looking, now that he knew she was Fae?

  "Why do you need a princess?" she asked on a sigh. It was getting to be a very long day, and it was barely seven in the morning.

  "My ancestors were put under a curse, and I need the kiss of a Faerie Princess to break it."

  "And what does that have to do with me?" She held her breath, unsure if she would laugh or cry, swoon or die of frustration if Lance told her he thought she was a princess. He was in for a rude surprise, and she didn't like disappointing him.

  Or was it just her hormones that didn't want to disappoint him?

  "Find me a Faerie Princess to break my curse, and you get extermination for life for this place." He gestured at the daycare building behind her and winced, as if he could see the floor, walls, ceiling and the very air thick and black, writhing with the pests that had probably multiplied overnight.

  "If I could get hold of a Fae princess, I'd have her take care of this problem. My magic is going all wonky, or this never would have happened in the first place." She squeezed her eyes tight shut, fighting a headache and an unreasonable need to burst into tears. She definitely didn't want Lance to see her dripping violet and rose tears when she got really emotionally wrung out. Just because he knew she was Fae didn't mean he could take all the surprises dumped on him all at once.

  Chapter Five

  "So you can't help me?" Lance asked in a quiet voice that turned off the need for tears and turned on a crushing need to put her arms around him and comfort him.

  "I wish I could. Really. Why should you suffer a curse for something some idiot in history committed?"

  "Exactly!" He gave her a lopsided grin. "Can you point me in the right direction, at least? And why can't you find one?"

  "First off, you'd need a time machine..." Glori sighed and gestured for him to follow her back behind the daycare, through the gate into the play yard. They sat down on one of the miniature picnic tables. The plastic creaked under their combined weight, but Glori knew it wouldn't break. At least that much of her magic was still viable, despite the havoc Need was currently wreaking on her entire life. Just because her hormones were out of whack, why did her magic have to suffer?

  "It's a matter of modernization and egalitarianism." She giggled when he gave her a huh? look. "We don't have royalty anymore."

  "Why not? I mean, it's in all the storybooks--"

  "Don't get me started on the stupid propaganda you Humans have passed down through the centuries. Some of it is our fault, I'll admit, to get you sidetracked so you couldn't find us so easily, but..." Glori sighed. She didn't need this. Lance didn't need this. "We don't really have royalty anymore. Ceremonial, but not functional. There's the title, but you're elected, and there are only certain times when you're eligible to run for office, and ... Well, you don't need to know all the details. Suffice to say that the lack of Fae royalty impacts the actual quality and strength of the magic. We take turns handling all the administrative functions required by our hidden communities. And the office is never handed down, parent to child, so there's no hereditary power, so there's no royalty, so there's no princess to kiss your booboo and make the curse go away. Sorry."

  "But technically, the leader is the queen or king, right?"

  "Technically." For a moment, hope welled up. Then she remembered the current Administrator King, and felt worse, for Lance and for herself.

  Theodosius was a slimy character who should have turned himself into a slug centuries ago. He was the last person she'd ask for a favor, mostly because he'd been after her since they graduated from the nursery. He was the reason she left her home Enclave in the first place, risking the utter strangeness of the Human-dominated world for the sake of freedom from a male who was determined to dominate her before they graduated from training-wheel-level magic.

  If Theodosius knew she had finally gone into Need, he would be here and using every trick in and out of the book to trap her, using her Need to bind her to him for eternity. Glori had no
hope of being able to resist him. Look how she was reacting to Lance, and he was only being nice to her. Once she and Theodosius had sex, she'd be trapped, tied to him forever.

  How he got through all the screening processes and interviews and mental/emotional balance tests to attain his current position of power was a tribute to red tape, even among the Fae.

  Technically, he was royalty, and his kiss could cure. But there was a reason why Fae magic resided most strongly in the distaff side of the magic wand.

  The thought of Theodosius trying to plant one on Lance made her just slightly sicker than she was feeling already. Theo would enjoy it, the malodorous creep.

  "Our leader is a man right now."

  "When does someone new take over? Someone female."

  "In about four years." She bit her lip to keep from explaining that they were Enclave years, not Human, real-time years. Lance wouldn't like that.

  "Any chance it'll be your turn?"

  Oh, that soft little hopeful smile could turn a woman to melted marshmallow in half a heartbeat!

  "It won't be my turn for about sixty more years. Sorry," she whispered.

  Why was she whispering?

  Probably because she was about two inches away from him and Lance looked like a huge magnet had gotten hold of him and was yanking him closer to her every second. And he didn't look like he was in any pain at all.

  "That's the last thing I want to think about right now. Leadership duty is a pain in--" She blushed, but managed to stop herself in time before she turned colors. "It's a pain in places I won't mention in my daycare, thank you very much."

  Lance laughed, but it wasn't a nice laugh. He sounded angry. Disappointed.

  "Sorry, but your bureaucracy really doesn't mean toad squat to me. My problem is a little bigger. And like you admitted, I sure don't deserve it."

  "No, you don't." She slid off the picnic table and scurried away a few steps. If she wasn't careful, she'd offer to kiss him and try to make today better, even if she couldn't fix his life. And that would lead to... Well, to problems that could ruin her next few decades as well as drive away all her customers at the daycare if anyone caught her and Lance in a clinch. Or worse.