The Burning Claw (The Grey Wolves #10)(44)

“So the pretty brunette with big brown eyes and the sweetest disposition, like, ever, who answers to the name, Sally, isn’t working here?” Peri held up a finger to stop him from answering. “Let me just tell you before you speak. If you lie to me—and I will know, believe me I will know—it goes back to that whole high fae detective thing, then I will hurt you…badly. If you know me at all, then you know that I am not bluffing. I’m sure someone has told you before that it is a very, very stupid idea to lie to a high fae, especially this high fae. Don’t be stupid, Jericho.”
He was quiet for a few minutes before finally letting out a resigned sigh as he unfolded his arms and ran a hand through his hair. “Yes, we have a new employee named Sally, which is a very common name in the human world,” he added hastily. He paused before continuing. "And she does have brown eyes, but she isn’t a brunette, he added quickly. And she knows nothing of the supernatural world so she cannot possibly be the same girl. She is as completely oblivious as the rest of the human race.”
Peri sucked in a slow breath as she considered Jericho’s response. She stared at the wolf for a few silent moments, narrowing her eyes.
“It’s the truth, I promise,” the wolf said, holding up his hands.
But Peri had no doubt about the veracity of the wolf’s words. The fae’s mind was spinning with possibilities. Oblivious. He said that she was oblivious to the supernatural world. Her chest was tight as she considered the possibilities. Only a few supernatural beings were powerful enough to perform the kind of magic that was capable of wiping memories so completely. It sure as hell wasn’t done by someone who wanted to play nice and be friends. Whoever had done this wasn’t just powerful, they were desperate. The person or persons were messing with some big, big mojo—memory modification, bond magic, pack magic. They were opening up all kinds of Pandora’s boxes. This was not good.
Sucking in the breath she’d been holding, Peri composed herself and finally spoke. “Does this clueless, not brunette named Sally work today?” Peri asked, needing desperately to see for herself whether or not Sally remembered her.He shook his head. “She’s off until tomorrow. She’s been working double shifts.”
“Then I will return. Thank you for your time, Jericho.” Peri snapped her fingers and suddenly the room was filled with chatter and movement once again. She placed her hand on the pixie’s arm and flashed them from the room and back outside. She didn’t want her back to the wolf as she left the room, and she didn’t want to look like a character in a bad western by slowly walking backward to maintain a visual on him. So better to just take her native form of travel. The humans hadn’t noticed because Peri hadn’t wanted them to notice.
“What do you think?” the pixie asked once they were outside.
“I think you need to take me to where Sally lives, as quickly as possible,” Peri answered as she mulled over the things that Jericho had told her.
“Follow me,” her little comrade said cheerfully. It was apparent that the pixie was quite proud of herself.
“Stralina,” Peri called. The pixie stopped and turned to look up at her with wide eyes. “You’ve done a good job.” The pixie continued to stare at her in awe. Peri’s brow drew together. “Everything okay?”
“You’ve never called me by my name,” Stralina told her.
Peri batted a hand at her. “Yes I have.” She couldn’t have possibly been that oblivious to the little being, could she?
Stralina shook her head. “I would remember if Perizada of the high fae had called me by name.”
It hit Peri then why this was so important to the pixie. Names were powerful. To know someone’s full name meant that you could have some measure of power over them and Peri realized that Stralina had given Peri her full name when they’d first met. She’d trusted Peri that much already. She bowed her head ever so slightly at the young pixie and placed a hand over her heart. “My deepest apologies, Stralina Rivertree, you have earned my trust and therefore my confidence.”
Stralina looked as if she was going to cry and Peri really, really didn’t like it when people, or pixies for that matter, cried. “Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” she said briskly. “Let’s go check out this chick that supposedly isn’t our Sally,” Peri snorted, thinking of how ridiculous it was that Jericho thought that he could lie to her.
She followed the pixie down the sidewalk wondering if they were going to walk the entire way. “Please tell me she lives close because my legs aren’t use to carrying around my butt across long distances.”
Starlina laughed. “It’s not far. She walks to work every day and walks home every night.”
“Great,” Peri threw her hands up. “Costin is going to love that. Not only is his mate working in a bar as a bartender, fraternizing with her coworker bartender—who happens to be a werewolf, but she is also walking at night, alone. Yep, he’s going to be doing a jig he’ll be so thrilled.” 
“Actually,” Stralina corrected her. “She has an escort. One of the bouncers always walks with her.”
“Male bouncer I’m assuming?”
The pixie nodded as Peri let out a string of curses. “How many bloody males is she hanging out with?” She made quotations around the words hanging out as she said them in a tone that suggested that it was the most repugnant thing a girl could do.
Peri couldn’t fix the issue right that moment so there was no sense in dwelling on the problem of Sally’s current playmates. Starlina was true to her word and stopped in front of an apartment building on the next block. It was a quaint building with flower pots on either side of the stairs blooming…something. Peri didn’t do plants—a flower was a flower to the this high fae.
“Are we visible?” Starlina asked.
“I’m not an amateur stalker. Of course we aren’t visible,” Peri said, giving the pixie a look of indignation.
Starlina held up her hands and took a step back. “No need to get testy. I just wanted to know if I needed to be hiding my true form.”
“I totally got you.”
The pixie’s brow rose as she looked up at Peri.
The high fae shrugged. “I hang out with American teenagers. It’s like learning a foreign language.”
Peri walked up the steps with the pixie in tow, pausing before she reached the top. She felt as though, if she came face to face with Sally—their Sally—then everything would be real. It would no longer seem like the worst dream of her existence; it really would be the worst dream of her existence. But, as usual, life, AKA, the Fates, don’t give a flying fart if you need a moment to put your big girl panties on. It just shoves you right out there with your girl stuff waving at everyone.
Sighing, Peri continued on. As her foot hit the top step, the door directly in front of her opened and Peri was face to face, give or take a few stairs, with Sally—their Sally. And Jericho was right, she didn’t have long brown hair. She had chin length, purple streaked hair. And the kicks just keep on coming, Peri thought. Guess there’s no reason to pull your big girl panties up if the Fates are just going to keep planting their foot on your backside.
“Whoa,” Peri said, stumbling backward and nearly falling down the stairs. She watched as Sally dug through her purse, oblivious to the two supernatural beings staring directly at her.
“She doesn’t look like she did before,” Starlina said.
“So she didn’t have chin length hair with blonde and purple streaks in it?” Peri asked, unable to take her eyes off of their lost healer.
Starlina shook her head slowly. “Definitely didn’t have that.”
Even with such a radical change in her appearance, there was no denying that they’d found Sally Miklos. But this girl clearly didn’t know that she was mated with a new child. “She’s in for a shock,” Peri muttered to herself as they watched Sally head down the stairs.
Just as she was walking past Peri, Sally stopped. She put her hand on her head as though she was in pain. The high fae leaned forward and took a breath, about to whisper to her. But the scent that hit her nostrils gave her pause. It couldn’t be, she thought. Needing confirmation, Peri, in her invisible state, placed her hand on Sally’s shoulder. Some magic coated the young healer like an oily film and it was all too familiar—Alston. She concentrated on the way it felt and searched her memory, attempting to determine the exact type of magic he’d used. But it was unknown to Peri. Whatever it was that Alston of the high fae had cast over Sally, it was beyond Peri’s power to undo, at least not immediately.Peri swallowed down the massive lump that had formed in her throat at the discovery of her comrade’s betrayal. She’d deal with him. Before the magic settled and the air cleared, Peri would strip him of his power. She had a fate worse than death in mind for the fae scum. He would become like the humans. He would know illness; he would know wounds that would not heal. He would experience growing old and then he would do the one thing that fae didn’t do—Alston would die a natural death.
Sally’s movement caught Peri’s eye and the fae snapped out of her revenge plot.