Midnight Starling: An Urban Fantasy Romance Series Read online

  My brain raced as I tried to pinpoint where I should start my search for more answers. My steps grew hesitant as I contemplated going into the Ouphes’ territory. It was the best place to start, and I could at least check them off and put Matt’s mind at ease. I rolled my shoulders to work some tension out, then whistled the tune that would take me there.

  I arrived at the corner of a normal-looking street feeling utterly exhausted. It took me a few moments to steady my shaking limbs, and I was relieved when the sensation of numbness faded from my cheeks. I reached into my pocket, pulled out the vial Matt had given me, and pulled the cork from the top. As the unnaturally cool liquid ran down my throat, a rush of vitality filled me. It wasn’t like an upper that boosted you, despite your body screaming that it had had enough. It was as if I had just woken up, fully rested from a good night’s sleep and a belly full of food.

  Now that I was back to myself, I took a closer look around. A few passerby’s rushed past me, heads hung low as if they were too busy to pay attention to me. The only clue that I was in the right place was the smell on the breeze—like a village from days of old where merchants would set about in the open to display their wares. Meats and breads were being cooked somewhere nearby, and their mouthwatering scents made my stomach growl. I followed my nose around the corner of the nearest brick office building into an alley that ran between it and the structure beside it.

  The glamor spell that was cast over the walkway hit me in the gut the second I stepped too close. I pushed it aside with a low single note whistle. The shield kept humans from ever noticing this area of town, but it was also an effective deterrent from Mimics and Godkin because it packed a wallop for those who ignored it. Of course, if a non-magical person accidentally found themselves here anyway, it would make them nauseous as well, but they would probably chalk it up to an incoming stomach bug. Either way, it worked, causing no actual damage to the trespasser. The ward was a reminder that it was rude to barge into their territory without an invitation, and normally I would respect that, but I needed answers if I was going to help them. I hoped they would understand.

  When I got to the end of the alley, I whistled again. This time in a shrill high E. My discomfort fell away as the shield did. It left me standing in a bustling marketplace. Instead of the few stalls I expected, there were dozens carefully placed in a circle. I grinned at the cleverness of their illusion. The sources of the smells that led me here were now in plain view. Grilling racks and stone ovens occupied sites between other stalls with wares. Illuminating everything were lightbulbs strung along the booths, not powered by anything other than magic.

  I wouldn’t blend in, so I didn’t even try. My tall frame and features could never be confused for the short stature of the people living here. Although they possessed their own kind of beauty, it was not akin to the way most Godkin looked. Instead, I gently tapped on the arm of the closest person. “I need to speak to your elders,” I said.

  The man’s mouth drew into a hard line. His eyes squinted in the false light of the bulbs. He jerked his arm from my reach and backed up two paces. “Scum! Leave us alone!” he yelled.

  His reaction startled me. As I stood there with my mouth agape, I noticed the once clueless shoppers around us stop. Within a few heartbeats, the entire group of angry Ouphes were glaring at me. This was going worse than I expected.

  I raised my arms in surrender. “I only wish to speak with your elders. It’s a matter of importance or I wouldn’t have intruded,” I swore to the crowd.

  A single jeer from someone in the back of the crowd shouting for anyone to get me rang out, and I was instantly surrounded and grabbed. I fought to avoid their hands and stepped back. My body ran into more people behind me. With no other options available, I abandoned my quest and whistled. Thankfully, my spell rang true, and teleported me out of the alleyway.

  Shaken, I hunched over in the bushes across from my home, breath coming in heavy pants. I patted myself down to make sure I was still in one piece when the sound of someone’s throat clearing made me jerk around.

  “Now, how am I supposed to get home, you worthless Godkin?!” an Ouphe man spat. He must have been the one who grabbed me.

  “My apologies. I will send you back,” I said tightly. I couldn’t understand why they had been so hostile toward me. Annoyed, sure, but this isn’t how my other interactions with the Ouphes had ever gone.

  He held up a fist and shook it at me. “No! You’ll not touch me with your dirty magic. I’ll walk. And the elders will hear about this nonsense, too. You can’t just come into the market and take people. There will be a price to pay. Bet your buttons on that.”

  “Take people? What are you talking…?”

  He interrupted me with another shake of his fist. “Yes, take people! Do you see where I’m standing? I’m clear across town! We’re not putting up with your kind invading our homes any longer, we’ve had enough!” he yelled.

  I had to be missing something, but I had no idea what it was, and this was quickly becoming a disaster. “Please…” I began, but he turned and stomped off. Great.

  Spirit deflated, I sighed and headed home. I was almost there when, at the last second; I changed direction. Bypassing my door, I climbed the stairs two at a time. It was stupid to try to figure this out on my own.

  Reaching Isaac’s door, I flung it open. It wasn’t even locked! I had told him numerous times that it was dangerous to leave it like that, but he never listened. He was asleep on the couch again, so I shook his shoulder. I don’t think he ever used his bed.

  “Isaac,” I said after he didn’t respond to my prodding.

  His eyes fluttered open, and then he sat straight up. “Geesh Poppy, you’re going to give me a heart attack.”

  “That’s what you get for leaving your door unlocked again,” I said with a smirk.

  “Did you come all the way up here to mother me?”

  “What? Oh. No. Of course not. I need your help.”

  He nodded and got up off the couch. “Give me a second. Throw some coffee on, will you?” he asked as he disappeared into his bathroom.

  I opened my mouth to protest.

  “I know it’s late, and I don’t need a lecture about the effects of coffee right now,” he said, voice raised, which made me snap my mouth shut just like he intended.

  Isaac and I knew each other so well that we often knew what the other was thinking before they had time to speak. When we first met, we went out on a single date before both deciding that we were destined to be best friends and not lovers. Well, Isaac had decided that. It chapped me about it for a week before I caved and admitted he was right. Through the years, I appreciated his foresight more and more. I wasn’t sure what I would do without him in my life. In all honesty, he was the family that I never had growing up.

  He made it to the kitchen as I was wiping up the coffee grounds I accidentally spilled on the counter after rushing to make his caffeine kick.

  “What’s the emergency?” he asked as he sat down at his small table.

  I turned to look at his lanky form resting in the seat. His arms always seemed to dangle no matter how he rested them. “Have you ever known the Ouphes to be aggressive?” I asked.

  His brow scrunched together. “The Ouphes? Aggressive? Not that I’ve ever seen,” he replied.

  “That’s what I thought. I haven’t either, but they nearly throttled me when I tried to go speak with their elders tonight,” I said.

  The coffee pot was rumbling.

  “Wait. Why were you down at the market?”

  I pulled a green stained cabinet door open and grabbed two coffee mugs. As I was setting them on the counter, I noticed one read Witches be Sippin’, and snorted.

  “They didn’t have one that said Mimics or Godkins be sippin’ so I had to take what I could get,” he joked.

  “It’s cute, I like it,” I replied as I poured coffee into both and joined him across the table.

  He glanced at the cup still in my hand,
then up at me. “I thought you were against caffeine abuse at this hour.”

  “Usually I am, but this is going to take a while and I’m already pooped,” I explained. Sitting down in the chair across from him, I slid his mug over.

  He picked it up, took a loud sip, and voiced exaggeratingly, “Uh oh.”

  “Yeah. Uh oh is right,” I agreed. Starting at the beginning, I told him about my first trip to Matt for help.

  Chapter 9

  Bea

  Tears filled my eyes as I read Vincent’s obituary. I’d been watching for it since Thain told me he was dead. I didn’t know the man. Never even met him, but I couldn’t help but feel somewhat responsible since I wasn’t able to find him in time. If I’d done a better job, maybe I could have saved him.

  Pushing myself away from my desk, I let the newspaper fall from my hand with a plunk onto the stacks of papers covering my work area. My feet were heavier than normal as I plodded over to the window. Glancing out, I spotted Victor seated on the curb, framed by an array of hearty filler bushes behind him. The dark green foliage was the only landscaping around the apartment building. Each was a lazy attempt to keep the place looking nice, no doubt. But they did a wonderful job of making the werewolf’s pale coloring stand out as if he was a figure in an oil painting. He appeared in the same spot without fail, and every day I ignored him. Or so I pretended.

  “Is that idiot still outside?” Poppy asked. It was the first time I’d seen her today. In fact, she hadn’t been home much lately. She blamed it on work, but I knew there was more to it. Taking care of plants didn’t require that much attention or worrying. Still, her refusal to clue me in on what was bothering her left me feeling more alone with my thoughts and guilt.

  And as if watching her creep around and pout wasn’t bad enough, reading the last words written for Vincent made my emotions fray worse. My anger over Thain’s criticism continually pecked at my brain, even though I vehemently tried to dismiss it.

  I needed to put an end to this so I could move on with my life. I took in the sight of him for a few more breaths before I marched out to confront him.

  “Where are you going?” Poppy demanded, suddenly animated.

  “I’ll be back in a minute. I’m sick of this,” I replied.

  When he saw me coming, he stood. Before he could fully dust himself off, I was in space in my head and forgot what I wanted to say.

  He patiently waited for me to speak, the confusion plain on his face. “Bea? Are you alright?” he finally asked.

  A heavy breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding left my lungs, and my shoulders slumped. “Yes. No. Why are you out here?”

  “Thain asked me to keep an eye on you since you were looking into Vincent. The people that… he was involved with are dangerous.”

  “Yeah, I know, I met a few of them, and nearly got attacked for my trouble. I’m not a threat to them, whoever they are,” I argued. And it was true, I had no idea who killed him.

  Victor placed a hand on my shoulder. “Yes, but they may not know that.”

  I lifted my chin and looked him straight in the eyes. “How long do you plan to camp out here?”

  He shrugged and sat back down on the curb. “Not sure. Until Thain calls me off or I decide you’re safe. It’s the least I can do for crashing into your life like I did.” There was a hint of remorse to his voice that I wasn’t expecting. I was momentarily caught on the idea that Victor cared about me and my safety, but it was stupid.

  I was still mulling over the situation when a familiar four-legged feline rounded the building.

  “Do you want some coffee?” I asked in a hurry. Bird feathers were not on my wardrobe list for the day.

  “Yeah, sure,” he said, and stood back up.

  I quickly hustled my butt toward the building with him in tow. As we neared the stairs, I heard him chuckle.

  “So, you turn into a bird every time you sneeze?”

  He had noticed the cat. I huffed and muttered an affirmative but kept moving so he wouldn’t notice how cute I thought he was when he was being sarcastic.

  Once we were safely in my apartment, and away from any lurking fluff balls, I set up the coffeepot. Then I found a seat behind my desk and waved him to the seat on the other side.

  “What is he doing in here?” Poppy barked, rounding the corner into the living room.

  Victor completely ignored her. “It must be frustrating, never learning to control your shifts,” he said.

  I wriggled in my chair. He was right. “I’ve actually never met another animal-shifter person until you,” I revealed to him. Then, turning to Poppy, I raised an eyebrow. “I invited him.”

  He tilted his head. “Are your parents Mimics?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “That is unusual. Can you find out?” he asked.

  “No,” I said hesitantly.

  When I was about six, I asked Poppy why I didn’t call her mom like all the other kids did with their mothers. With tears in her eyes, she explained that I was adopted, and that she knew nothing about the woman who had given birth to me. Since then, we never really spoke about it. And why should I? Poppy and Isaac raised me. Sure, I wondered who my birth mother was from time to time because of my ability to shift into a bird, but not enough to seek her out.

  The gurgling of my coffee pot broke an unspoken tension before it had time to take root. Grateful, I hopped up and went to grab some coffee.

  “How do you take yours?” I asked from the kitchen.

  “Cream and sugar,” he mumbled. Poppy was already pouring herself a mug full. She snickered at his answer. I gave her a side eye, and she stopped. She was being uncharacteristically rude to him, and I didn’t like it.

  I finished making our cups, glared at Poppy once more for good measure, and walked back into my living room-slash-office.

  “Why is that unusual?” I asked as I handed him his cup.

  He took a sip and settled back in the chair. “What? Oh. It’s almost unheard of for a Mimic to abandon their young.”

  “People abandon their kids every day. Why is it so different for people like us?”

  A sadness filled his eyes as he took another long drink. “The survival rate for a Mimic on their own is not great when they possess no knowledge of who or what they are. Usually, at the very least, a relative will step in and offer to raise them.”

  I mentally counted how many times I’d almost been hit by cars or eaten by stray cats growing up, but I didn’t have enough fingers. He was right. This sort of thing could be fatal if you didn’t know how to handle it.

  “Can you shift on command at all?” he asked.

  I let out a long sigh. “No, not really. Sometimes I can change back to a human if I try hard enough, but I’ve never had much control. And I’ve never been able to shift to a starling at will. I usually just go find a stray cat or dog or something.”

  Victor let out a restrained chuckle. I crossed my arms, frowning in response.

  “What? Why is that so funny?”

  “I just imagined you sneaking around for a wild cat while whispering ‘here kitty kitty’,” he answered.

  I had to admit that it was kind of funny. We laughed for a few more moments before the heaviness of everything caught up with me. There was a whole world beyond these walls that I was supposed to be a part of and had no connection to. All the nights I cried in my bed because I was different and didn’t understand why could have been avoided. I didn’t want to be angry at Poppy for waiting to tell me, but the truth was still raw after our conversation. I had been trying my best to let it go and just move on, but it was hard. Her absence as of late almost seemed as if she was trying to avoid me, but that was probably my emotions talking. I knew she wouldn’t do that to me.

  “Can you teach me?” I asked, my tone abruptly sober.

  Poppy cleared her throat. She was now standing in the doorway, frowning at Victor. His eyes went round for a moment when he noticed her, but he pivoted his attention bac
k to me. It looked like I wasn’t the only one affected by her mothering stare.

  “I don’t know, I guess we could try. It might be a better idea to put you in touch with someone who is experienced in teaching such things though.”

  “How many of us are there?” It occurred to me I had no idea.

  “A lot, you’d be surprised. But we certainly don’t advertise our existence.”

  Well, that’s the truth, I thought.

  “If I would have known other people like me while I was growing up, my life would have been a lot less lonely. I always assumed there had to be others out there somewhere, I just thought they were so rare I’d never actually run into any of them.” I turned toward Poppy with a wince, hoping she wouldn’t take it badly. With sad eyes, she mouthed ‘I’m sorry.’

  My nerves suddenly made me hesitant to ask all the questions currently rattling around in my brain where Poppy could overhear us. I didn’t want to slip and say something else that could hurt her.

  Victor leaned in toward me. “Are you okay?”

  “I… it’s just… it’s nothing,” I lied, trying to force a smile.

  “It will be fine, I promise. I will help you,” he assured.

  When I glanced back to find Poppy, she was gone. Her absence magnified my guilt for being so brash. I rolled my shoulders and tucked my emotions away for the time being.

  It was strange that despite not knowing Victor too well; I was beginning to believe his intentions were genuine. I made a note in my brain to confer with Poppy later about him. Maybe it wasn’t some mental disorder making me feel affectionate, but I would rest easier if I had her to back up that thought.

  I realized I was staring off like a despondent cat, so I broke the awkward silence with a question. “So, who or where is this person you think can help me?”

  “You may not like it,” Victor warned.

  My face scrunched. “Why? Do I know them?” I asked.

  “Sort of,” he said.

  Now I was really confused. I didn’t even know about Mimics last week, so how could I already know one smart enough to teach me how to control my changes? My leg was bouncing impatiently. “Oh, for pity’s sakes, just tell me who it is.”