A Fae in Fort Worth by Amy Armstrong Page B

question after the Fae elder had nodded imperceptibly. “When Avery was banished from the Seelie Court, he brought something with him, a book. A very important book.”
    “A book,” I repeated, keeping my expression to one of mild curiosity. “I don’t see the connection.”
    “The book is a grimoire,” Brokk explained. “It contains some very dark magic. Vampires, as I’m sure you are aware, are evil, soulless creatures. They are attracted to the dark magic which the book contains. I believe they all sense that magic and are congregating in the city, drawn to its power. For as long as Avery and the book remain here, I am sure we will see an increase in, shall we say, undesirables? It is one of the reasons that we want Avery removed.”
    I couldn’t believe our luck. Essentially, the Fae had an almost identical agenda to ours. They wanted the grimoire out of their city. That was certainly something we could help them with, but I doubted the task would be as easy as it appeared. Not only did we have to talk Avery into giving us the book, but we had to convince him to leave the sanctuary. Just how we were going to do that when the Fae themselves couldn’t get Avery to leave was yet to be determined.

Chapter Five
    After our meeting ended, Durin opened another portal so that Mitch and I could get out of the sanctuary quickly. We got on the Harley, which Mitch had parked near the entrance after retrieving our belongings the night before, and rode to a small motel nearby. We hardly spoke to each other as we checked in and made our way to our rooms. It was uncomfortable and disconcerting. Mitch was like a different person to the one I’d come to know. He let himself into his room and closed the door without looking at me or uttering a single word.
    Overnight, Mitch had gone from flirting excessively to barely being able to meet my gaze. He was a mystery. We’d talked a fair bit during our pit stops on the ride up to Fort Worth, but I didn’t know much more about him than I had before we’d met. I hadn’t asked him why he didn’t hunt anymore and he hadn’t volunteered the information. As I took a long, hot shower, I pondered the likely scenarios, but didn’t come up with anything useful. The only thing I was certain about was that the sanctuary ‘desert’ had spooked Mitch. The rainforest illusion had been difficult for me, but I figured I’d handled it better than Mitch because I’d let go of the anger which had consumed me after my parents’ deaths a long time ago. It was obvious that something bad had happened to Mitch in his past, something which still haunted him. I was certain that the only way to find out what made him tick was to find out what that something was.
    After I’d put on clean clothes—another denim mini-skirt, a baby-pink T-shirt and my cowboy boots—I towel-dried my hair, grabbed my cell phone, which I’d left on charge, and stuffed it into the pocket of my skirt. I’d called Roland when I arrived in the motel room to give him a status update, but it had gone straight to voicemail so I’d left him a message. He’d yet to call me back. I picked up the key to the room then went in search of Mitch.
    I knew logically that whatever Mitch was holding onto was none of my business, but we had to work together. That meant my life could very well be in his hands, just as it had been the night before. I trusted Mitch, but I needed to know that he was able to make rational decisions at all times. If whatever was bothering him prevented him from doing his job properly then that could affect me too.
    I paused outside Mitch’s door and pulled a deep breath into my lungs before knocking. When the door opened, I sucked in another breath—this one not so much to calm my nerves, but to control my errant libido.
    Mitch stood in the doorway wearing nothing but a crooked smile and a white towel wrapped low on his hips. The tattoo I’d seen on his arm was now on full display and it was by no means the