The Princess and the Bootlegger

“Forgive me, madame, I realized I haven’t even asked for your name. A pretty face like yours can make a man forget himself.” Anton smiled for probably the dozenth time in five minutes as they sat down in a small cafe overlooking the beach.

“No way this guy ever forgets himself,” Kade muttered darkly under his breath. Celine nudged him gently with her elbow.

“My name is..Marjorie,” Celine replied, feeling reluctant to use their real names around here. She didn’t know if Anton was likely to tell anyone about the strangers asking weird questions. “And this is Max.”

She endured several more minutes of Anton’s not so subtly flirtatious small talk before a waitress bustled over with their tea, and Celine blew on hers while Kade slouched in the seat next to her. Between his sudden silent grumpiness and Anton’s excessive smiliness, it was apparent that Celine was going to have to be the one to keep the conversation on track.

“So, you mentioned that you saw the man Foggle was making the silver jewelry for?” she prompted. “Did you see his face at all?”

“Not in great detail,” Anton replied. “He was wearing a hat, like he wanted to keep his face hidden. He did have very fine clothes, a dark coat and gloves. I remember it seemed strange, with the heat.”

Celine tapped her nails lightly against her teacup, mulling that over. She began to wonder if their killer was a vampire. Some of the older, more powerful ones could venture out during the day on occasion, but only if they were covered and kept their skin out of any direct sunlight. But it seemed odd that a vampire would commission anything in silver, since it would also burn vampires if it touched their skin.

“Did you happen to overhear anything the man said, or anything Foggle said to him?” she pressed.

“He said something about needing the silver soon, and Foggle gave him some rhyming nonsense about not rushing perfection. Your mystery man didn’t seem very impressed. Foggle gave him this long piece of silver, it looked like a necklace chain but seemed too long for that. He left a while later in a dark car.” Anton leaned back slightly, studying Celine as she sipped at her tea. “This man you’re looking for…is he a friend of yours?”

“Something like that,” Celine said dryly. “We need some information from him, is all.”

When she said, “we,” Anton flicked a brief glance at Kade, seeming to have forgotten he was even there. He didn’t seem fazed by the dark look on Kade’s face, turning his attention back to Celine.

“Well, I do hope I could be of some help to you, lovely Marjorie. I must admit, I’m quite disappointed that we’re preparing to leave town. It’s a shame our paths didn’t cross sooner. I imagine getting to know you is the sort of experience most men can only dream of.”

Celine felt Kade shift next to her, irritation fairly radiating off of him. She could almost hear a sarcastic retort forming in his mouth.

“Yes, well,” she said quickly. “Thank you for talking with us, and thank you for the tea. Good luck with the, um, lifting things.”

She stood and smoothed her dress. Both men followed her to the door, Anton reaching around her to get the door for her, still all pearly white smiles. He lifted her hand to plant a kiss on it and Celine was mildly amused by his shameless antics. She supposed this little routine had worked for him plenty of times. She extracted her hand, thanking him again and then catching up to Kade, who had stalked a little ways toward the beach. His hands were stuffed in his pockets and he still looked stiff and cranky.

“You asked some very insightful questions in there,” she said lightly.

“Oh, please. I could’ve bashed a pair of cymbals together right in front of that guy’s face and he wouldn’t even have noticed.”

Celine cocked her head. “Kade, are you okay?”

“Fine,” he muttered.

“Maybe we should go for a little walk?” Celine suggested. She grabbed his arm and steered him down to the beach.

“I feel like we’re not really any closer to unraveling this guy’s identity,” she sighed.

“We could go back, see if anyone else has seen anything. I’m sure Anton would be delighted to see you again.”

Celine’s eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise at the faint sarcasm in Kade’s tone.

“I think we may start to arouse some suspicion if we keep snooping around there. Someone is bound to notice us if we keep showing up, skulking around.” She bit her lip, thinking. “I sent Jinxie to keep an eye on the pack’s stomping grounds, so he can let me know when they come back. But we should be back in the fairy district before sundown anyway, in case they get back to prowling sooner than I expected.”

From their vantage point on the beach, they could see that the carnival was almost completely broken down and ready to roll out. She supposed their mysterious silver assassin had probably gotten everything he needed from Fobble, then. Except perhaps for her, if he was in fact the same one who had ordered her kidnapping. She supposed they also had to be wary now of strangers popping out of shadows to try and abduct them.

It was stretching into late afternoon when they made their way back to the fairy district. Jinxie was there waiting outside the window when they arrived.

“The wolves are back in town,” he informed them. “They’re not too pleased that they haven’t been able to find you two, either.” He fluttered over to the vanity and nestled into the tiny bed Celine had made him out of an old jewelry box.

“Great.” Celine grimaced. “Good thing they’re getting extra pissed off. They’ll either kill us faster, or slower.”

Kade had been oddly quiet since they left the carnival, but his lips twitched. Celine tried to make a list in her head of anyone who might want to kill Brutus, and of anyone who might want to kidnap her; besides the wolves. And they certainly wouldn’t hire a goblin to do it, they would prefer enacting the chase on their own. And they would’ve wanted Kade, too. Her head was starting to hurt. She went through her usual nightly ritual absentmindedly, and realized that she hadn’t grabbed her usual long black nightdress; she’d grabbed a shorter, lacier one in soft pink that she hadn’t even known she’d packed. She had barely looked at what she was packing when they’d made their mad dash. She blushed but put the dress on anyway.

Then she touched the silver locket around her neck and had an idea. She emerged from the bathroom and rummaged in her suitcase until she found another silver necklace, with a long chain. She slipped off the little pearl pendant that hung from it, and turned around to hand it to Kade. She found him staring at her but he quickly looked away when she turned around. She pretended not to notice, though she did realize that for once he hadn’t called her sugar or broken out some ridiculous, flirty line.

“Here,” she said. “You can wear this chain around your neck. It’s not much, but it might be nice to have around in the event that any wolves do come around.”

“Oh. Ah, thanks.”

Celine sat on the edge of the bed. “I’ve been thinking, about the man buying the silver weapons. I was thinking… he could be a vampire. Some stronger vampires can go out in the sun, but they can’t let the light touch them. And generally even the vampires that can go out in daylight, rarely do. Even if they’re covered up and don’t burn, it’s difficult for them and saps their strength. And I still can’t puzzle out what a vampire is going to do with silver chains. They’d have to be really careful any time they handled them. And I’m pretty certain that MacIntosh never had a dispute with any vampires. He was generally too busy having turf wars with other wolves, but Mr. Greentree mentioned the man who bought the silver had gloves, and Anton said the same thing.”

Kade had been listening to her theory thoughtfully, but then he made a face.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. That guy was just useless.”

“Who, Anton?”

“Yes,” Kade grumbled. “He didn’t know that much about the guy. He clearly just acted like he knew more because he wanted to keep flirting with you and showing off his blindingly white teeth. No way that’s not from an enchantment of some kind.”

“Are you upset that he didn’t flirt with you instead?” Celine teased, a little bewildered by his tirade. He was currently yanking at the buttons of his shirt, but there was one that stuck and wouldn’t come undone.

“He was just a waste of time,” Kade griped. “Well, not for you, I guess. I mean, you probably liked him, right?”

Celine startled. “Is that what this is about? Kade…are you jealous because you think I was interested in Anton?”

“What? No, no I’m not jealous. Why would I be jealous, you can like whoever you wanna like. He’s just tall and leading man material and you’re…I mean, you’d go together. Why wouldn’t you be interested?” He was still fighting with the button on his shirt and Celine hopped off the bed, trying not to smile like an idiot. She batted his hands away, fixing the button, which had gotten fabric bunched up around it.

“You were going to snap the button off,” she said.

“I can sleep on the loveseat again if you want,” he mumbled. Celine gripped the collar of his shirt.

“Kade,” she said softly. “Shut the fuck up.” She pulled him down by his collar and kissed him. When she drew back he looked like he’d been clobbered over the head with a two-by-four. Celine shook her head and ruffled his hair.

“Anton doesn’t have a clever answer for everything, Anton doesn’t fix his elderly neighbor’s sink when it leaks, and Anton doesn’t have a rakish earring. And he probably runs from funnel cake because it would be bad for his figure.” She tapped him lightly on the nose as he stood there continuing to look dazed. She took a step back.

“Now, do you want to sleep on the loveseat, or are you coming to bed?”