“And if they don’t take you seriously, to hell with ’em.” Ulric pumped a fist. “I like it. Well, if I make the cut, you can age me up if you want, I don’t care. The pink hair is my way of owning who I am, to answer your earlier question.” He gave me a small bow. “I didn’t forget.”

“Oh, good. We were waiting with bated breath,” Mr. Tom said.

“I was a boy who grew up when pink was solidly for and worn by girls. Given my other form is pink…I was teased. A lot. Add to that my smaller stature, my chattiness, and my usual good mood, and I stood out about as much as you do in this town.” He laughed when I frowned at him. “When I got older, being teased turned into being bullied. Then being beaten. I was jumped by four big dudes who left me for dead. That was a good time. I had to drag myself back home. I didn’t have many friends, and those I did have wouldn’t dream of sticking up for me and paying the price. Some of those years were pretty rough, but they taught me to accept myself. The only reason those people targeted me was because I didn’t fit into their worldview, which made them insecure. People still react like that sometimes, but I just smile and nod. If it makes them angrier, then I ignore their anger, and if they decide to push the matter? Well, I’ll make them sorry.” He shrugged. “So I dye my hair to let people know that I’m comfortable in my own skin.

He pulled a face. “An unforeseen development is that it’s become trendy for guys to wear pink. I got complimented for my hair the other day. People probably think I’m wearing my hair like this to be cool rather than celebrating being different.”

“Oh, you’re different, all right,” Mr. Tom grumbled.

“He’s a treat, I know,” I whispered to Ulric, then jerked my head back at Mr. Tom.

“No,” Cedric said. For a man of few words, he occasionally knew how to pick them.

The lights of Austin’s bar glowed a welcome, and I felt the coiled tension around my chest ease slightly.

“Why do you want to be part of the twelve?” I asked Ulric as we neared, slowing as we passed the same light post where I’d seen that creeper in the hat a while back. He’d looked at me, but had it been for longer than a normal glance?

How long had people been watching me?

“What do you mean?” Ulric asked, the door to the bar closed for some reason. Part of me missed seeing my favorite friend outside smoking. At least that would have been expected. Of course, Sasquatch was probably in there on my normal seat, braving Niamh’s irritation just so he could annoy me.

“You left your life behind so you could try to be one of the twelve people who protects me. One of my team. Why?”

He stared at me in confusion. “Because you’re the Ivy House heir…” He shook his head as I reached for the door. “I don’t think I understand the question.”

“Female gargoyles really are incredibly scarce, miss,” Mr. Tom said, reaching around me and slapping my hand away. “Remember what I told you? They are called to you. They would do anything to serve you, and mate you.”

“Especially the mating. I would absolutely be in for that. Or even just—”

I held up my hand to Ulric. “I got it, thanks. Never mind.”

“I would mate you, too, if we’re putting our hats into the circle,” Cedric said. “Or just pleasure you if—”

“Nope. No more. It’s fine. Let it go.” I stepped to the side so Mr. Tom could open the door.

“She’s something of a prude,” Mr. Tom said as he pulled the door wide and stepped aside with a flourish.

“Nah, she’s just a Jane. They have different rules,” Ulric said, and I wanted to throttle them both.

Instead, I stared dumbly at Niamh’s seat for a moment, finding it empty. The person behind the bar was neither Paul nor Austin, but some woman I’d never seen before. Only three people filled the stools, and Sasquatch wasn’t one of them. Neither was Niamh.

“Quiet, huh?” Ulric asked, staying by my side even though I’d slowed.

A groan sounded from the left, through the entryway to the pool area. From my vantage point, I could see part of a man who lay on the floor, his body as stiff as a board. His bulging eyes and straining neck made it look as if he were bound and trying to break free, but I didn’t see any rope. Behind him, a glimpse of a woman’s legs—her bare ankles pressed together and one shoe off.

My mind caught up to the situation at the exact moment Ulric grabbed me around the waist and threw me toward the door.

The door slammed shut before I got there. I rammed into it and bounced off, onto the floor. Ulric tore off his clothes. Mr. Tom didn’t wait and ran forward, straight for the closest woman jumping up from her stool.

Cedric tried to step in front of me as a shield, but was torn to the side by invisible hands and flung.

A woman at the other end of the bar had bounced up, too, her arms out, her fingers aiming at me, and her face pinched with determination. A jet of color was the last thing I saw.

22

“So, hidin’ out here, lickin’ yer wounds, are ye?” Niamh picked up the sack she’d carried around the neck of her puca form, taking out some black sweats she’d had to buy herself because Earl couldn’t be persuaded to veer from white. Her phone chimed, Jessie wondering if she was at the bar. She wanted to share a funny story.

That would be Niamh’s next stop, right after she tried to talk some sense into this big dope.

Austin sat in a lone chair on the beach, looking out over the lake, his small, lonely cabin behind him. A fresh kill, a skinned deer, hung from a nearby tree. Even if it was bear season, no bear in its right mind would come calling at this camp. They’d know a bigger, badder predator awaited them.

He didn’t look so big and bad now, though, hunched in that chair, staring out at nothing.

She slipped into the sweats and took a seat behind him, marveling at the ease with which she could lower and get back up again. That blast of youth from Ivy House had been a blessing. One day she’d try to do a cartwheel again.

She let the silence sit between them for a while. A guy like Austin Steele didn’t let you bully him. He responded best to logic and reason, especially when he was drowning in feelings that had nothing to do with either.

“You all healed up?” she finally asked.

“Yeah. Jess took care of most of it. I don’t even know what that mage hit me with, but it was a good shot. I didn’t expect it until it was too late.”

“Yeah. That lad, whoever he was, had our setup mapped out. Couldn’t get a face off him—or I should say, the dolls cut the face off him, so we’re still not sure who he was.”

“The dolls…” He turned to look at her, disbelief and a little horror crossing his face. He shook his head and faced the lake again. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

“Probably not. I took a picture, just in case we ever find out who his…the contract holder is.”

Another beat of silence passed.

She had to throw it out there. “Have ye ever been saved by a Jane before?”

“You know the answer to that. I have been saved by a woman, though. A little woman, protecting her daddy. My fierce little niece. Jess reminds me of her.” He paused, then added, “I see now why no one batted an eye when that gargoyle knocked Jess around. She’s fearless. She’s unstoppable. A mage took two of her friends down, right in front of her, and then tried to kidnap her, but she still had the presence of mind to get information from him. That’s…”

“She was chosen well, we know this.”

“Yes, she was.”

“You’re not licking yer wounds after havin’ been saved by a woman, fine. So why are you mopin’ about? I sure hope it isn’t to do with that fella the house took down. You don’t run a military state here, Austin Steele. This is a tourist town, for heaven’s sake. You can’t ID everyone that comes through, and that lad knew about you. He purposely avoided you.”

He sighed and slouched a little more. “I’m straddling a line, and it’s making me do a piss-poor job of helping Jess. If I were in charge of her defense of Ivy House, that mage wouldn’t have slipped through the cracks. That attack at the cliff would’ve ended before it had begun. Her people would be in line, and this whole town would be behind her. Everyone would be looking out, questioning, reporting back. I’m not in charge, though, which means I’m in the way. If I hadn’t been there, that gargoyle would’ve been near her, and maybe he would’ve seen something I didn’t. He’s in this completely. He deserves to be by her side.”

“Ah.” Niamh nodded and leaned forward to brace her elbows on her knees. “So there’s the reason for your pity party. Now I see.”

He shook his head. “This is me finally realizing it’s time to move on. That gargoyle was given the power to draw out her abilities, and that’s the thing that will protect her the best. It’s time for me to find a new territory and officially establish myself as alpha.”

“I’ve thought about this a lot, now. Ever since you started shoutin’ around the place yesterday. When you rebelled against Ivy House, Jessie took it to mean you didn’t want any part of the magic, including helping her work that magic. She doesn’t like asking for help, that one. Probably hasn’t had anyone to ask for help in the last handful of years, so she got out of the habit. She’s been a mother so long, looking after her family, that she stopped looking after herself. So when Earl fawns all over her, she relaxes, ye can see it. She appreciates it, which is great, because he’s a useless ol’ sod if he doesn’t have someone to fawn over.

“Now, she’s a fighter, and she’s determined, and she’s fierce, but she is in over her head, so she is. Ye know that. She’s a Jane that is suddenly magical. She needs help in ways she doesn’t even know to ask about. She didn’t want to bother you, so what did she do? She called for help. Ivy House gave the magic to the best man willing, choosing that wanker because it couldn’t choose you. Ye didn’t give it a choice, Austin Steele.”