The moment was somewhat ruined when a bloke went past me and farted, loudly. He looked over at Beltran and myself standing there and gave us a half-grin.

“Sorry about that,” he drawled. “It’s those damn beans we’re always eating.”

He stuck out a grubby hand. “Good to meet you. I’m Bo.”

I could feel Beltran’s superior Fae instincts recoiling from the idea of having to sully his pure Fae skin by touching this back-to-mother-nature-imbued human, so I reached out myself and shook his hand.

“Mack,” I said, by way of introduction.

“You here for the protest?”

I nodded.

“Brill,” he said. “A lot of people don’t like bats, but it’s important that every one of God’s creatures is allowed to live in peace. They do a lot of good in maintaining the balance, you know.”

I tried not to let my surprise show that the bat idea had caught on. “Yes, bats are hugely important to the eco-system,” I replied solemnly. “As are all these great trees.”

He smiled and patted me on the arm. “A fellow freedom fighter! We won’t let those council wankers bulldoze their way through here. They simply have no sense or understanding that we need to preserve these places for everyone’s futures, not just our own.” He snorted. “Holiday homes! Ridiculous!”

Naturally, I didn’t point out that it had nothing to do with the local council, and instead everything to do with some nefariously evil man hiding in the shadows. I just tried to look as serious and environmentally fighting friendly as I possibly could.

Beltran cleared his throat pointedly, in case I’d forgotten that we weren’t here simply to shoot the breeze. I tried to avoid scowling at him. I couldn’t just open every conversation with ‘did you or anyone you know crucify a tree nymph near here in order to boost your evil Machiavellian power plans?’ now, could I?

“I’m pretty new here,” I said to the guy. I gave a little laugh. “Well, very new.”

“I know!” he grinned back. “I’d have noticed you around here before otherwise.”

I ignored the opportunity for a little flirtation. I didn’t have time to mess around to get the information that I needed. Let’s face it, all I really wanted to do was to get back to Corrigan as quickly as possible. I went for the more direct route instead. “Are there any other newcomers around? Maybe we could band together.”

It stood to reason that my dryad-killer-slash-weapons-dealer hadn’t spent any time up till now hanging around with the protestors. With his ward in place, he’d have had no reason to worry about them. That meant that if he was here now, hiding in amongst the other humans, then he had to be new. And I reckoned that, like me, any newbies would stick out like sore thumbs.

“Nah. Just Tran here, and yourself. Other than that, everyone else has been with us for months.”

I immediately stiffened at the mention of some guy named Tran, then relaxed when I realised that Bo was gesturing towards Beltran with his thumb. Oh, of course.

“It’s Beltran,” glowered the Fae.

I tried not to smirk in amused understanding at his annoyance.

A girl came up and joined us, offering me a quick smile, before focusing her attention on Bo.

“We have a problem,” she said, her features set.

He raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“We need some tree trunks for the tripods, Bo.”

“And?”

“There aren’t any.”

I was utterly confused. We were in the middle of a forest. Trees were not in short supply.

Bo, however, sighed heavily. “”We’ve been through this.”

“Yeah, but…”

“We kill a few to save a lot. You know that.”

I was even more baffled now. And I definitely didn’t like this talk of killing. “Uh, what’s going on?” I inquired, doing my very best to keep my tone light.

Bo turned back towards me. “We need to stop the bulldozers from getting here. It’s the best way to prevent any demolition from taking place. So we build tripods across the roads preventing any gas-guzzling vehicles from getting here. We send two or three people to sit on top of the tripods meaning that the bulldozers can’t pass through without knocking down them down and potentially killing them. Murder for holiday homes is not a headline that these corporate soul-sellers enjoy.”

I must have still looked puzzled, because he explained further. “We need materials to build the tripods from.”

Realisation hit me. “You need to cut down trees.”

Bo’s face looked pained. “Yes. But only the young slender ones. And it’s for the greater good.”

“I told you we should have taken scaffolding from that builder’s yard,” the girl snapped.

“Well, we didn’t,” he shot back at her. “Just pick the smaller trees on the edges of the woods. We don’t have a choice.”

“I am not a tree-killer!”

“If you don’t do this,” he said, evenly, “then all these trees will be slaughtered!”

I nudged Beltran’s arm. This didn’t seem like an argument that we ought to get ourselves involved in. Besides, we had the information we needed. Our murderer wasn’t here. The Fae nodded at me, and we both quietly slipped away, leaving Bo and the girl continuing to argue and bicker. As much as I understood her position, Bo was making sense. If these tripod things stopped vehicles from getting here, and the only thing that the tripods could be built from were trees, then the ‘greater good’ would indeed have to prevail. I’d just have to hope that the dryads saw it that way too. At least I knew their habitats were much larger and older than any of the trees the protestors would end up using. I shrugged. As he’d said, you kill a few to save a lot.

It was just a shame that thought would come back to haunt me so much later.

Chapter Nineteen

After leaving Beltran at the edge of the encampment, with strict instructions to be alert for any strangers trying to approach and inveigle their way in, I picked my way back towards Corrigan. As far as I was concerned, things were looking good. The protestors were all set up and clearly deeply involved in the business of stopping any development from even starting to get going. The evil bastard that had killed Mereia was, at least according to the Batibat, going to show up soon – and he had no reason to venture near the humans before he checked out his now defunct ward, meaning that I could kill him before he ended up hurting anyone innocent. And the Lord Alpha of the Brethren really liked me.

I gave a little skip. I just couldn’t help myself. It was amazing the way that life could turn around and give you a great big sloppy kiss on the chops right when you were least expecting it. And speaking of kisses…

“Pssst! Mack!”

I twisted my head to the left, registering the figure of Aubrey hovering at the fringes of the trees and holding aloft a large pizza box. I grinned to myself. This was just getting better and better. I jogged over to him and smiled.

“I got you the Meat Feast,” he said anxiously. “I hope it’s alright?”

I gave the ex-vamp a reassuring nod. “It’ll be perfect, Aubrey, thank you.”

The pleasure on his face was evident. Perhaps he wasn’t so bad, after all. I made myself a promise to do everything I could to be nicer to him from now on. He was trying his best to adjust to his new existence. The least I could do was to be more patient with him.

“Can you do me a favour now?” I asked, not wanting to compel him, but rather to treat him like an equal.

His eyes lit up. “Of course. What?”

“Aubrey,” I tutted, “don’t agree to anything unless you know what it’s going to be first.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said dismissively, and with an unnerving trust in me. Still, it was probably better than hysterics and tears. “What do you need?”

“Can you make sure that no-one disturbs either me or Corrigan unless it’s important? You know, unless the prick who killed the dryad shows up or there’s something dangerous around?” I wasn’t about to be interrupted again this time. I had a plan.

“I will do that, Mack, no problem. I’ll make sure that fat woman doesn’t appear either.”

Somehow I had the inkling that, thanks to the fear I’d seen on the Batibat’s face when I’d broken the ward, she was going to make sure she was as far away as she could possibly get. But I nodded my thanks at Aubrey anyway, and took the pizza box from him. The heavy scent of cheese and garlic floated up to me. I hoped Corrigan enjoyed fast food.

With a meaningful look at Aubrey, hoping that he realised that the figurative ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign was also for him, I turned away and headed back out towards where I knew the Lord Alpha was.

The sky was starting to darken, the sun dipping below the tree line and streaks of burnt orange and gold signalling the close of the day. My stomach was squirming with nervousness, but I pushed down the feelings as best I could. As sure as I was that it wouldn’t be long before we’d be interrupted by the arrival of my current nemesis, I needed to do this first. Nothing in my life had ever seemed this important – or this scary – before. Still under the cover of the few remaining trees, I stopped a few feet away from the small clearing where I knew Corrigan to be and swallowed hard, closing my eyes and clenching my teeth together. Then I forced myself to relax and stepped out.

Whatever I’d been expecting, it wasn’t that. Corrigan was sitting down on the ground, his long muscular legs spread out in front of him. Next to him was a chequered cloth, laden with gleaming silverware, two long-stemmed glasses, and a picnic basket. There was even an ice-bucket with a bottle of champagne nestled inside. When he saw me approach, he sprang lithely to his feet.

His green eyes, with hints of warm gold flickering within their depths, watched me carefully. I stared at him, my mouth dropping slightly.

“Hello, kitten.”