Hidden Passions (Hidden, #7)(31)

His brother was talking to someone--a female someone, he realized. Rick seemed to be trying to convince her she shouldn't be shy to meet Tony.

Hm, Tony thought. Maybe one of the Lupone brothers' romantic stars were aligning.

"I hear you out there," he warned Rick.

Too curious to wait for them to knock, Tony opened the door himself. To his surprise, he recognized the woman Rick was with.

"Whoa," he said. "Snow White."

It wasn't really Snow White, of course. It was Cass Maycee, a half fae, half human girl they'd gone to high school with. Her family had founded Maycee's, Resurrection's version of the similarly named Outsider store. Thanks to a happy combination of genetics, Cass was like the fairytale come to life: snow-white skin, ruby lips, hair as black as a raven's wing. Her rich girl pantsuit didn't fit the image, but other than that she was exactly as he recalled.

Also front and center in his memory was that Rick used to have a huge crush on her.

Tony guessed he wasn't over it. Rick glared at Tony like he'd committed a cardinal sin. "You want to step aside and let us in?"

"Uh, no?" Tony cut a look at Cass. Her cheeks were pink, but she didn't seem upset--not at him, anyway. "We, um, made a bit of mess."

"We?" Rick said, which meant Tony had to explain.

Rick wasn't happy about Tony using his apartment to babysit, or turning it into a disaster zone. Tony was lucky they weren't alone. The cubs were part of their pack now. Even if Abby and Rafi hadn't been likable, which they were, Rick shared Tony's instinctive drive to ensure they were safe.

"It is Snow White," Rafi breathed, looking up from his drawing.

Blushing, Cass explained she wasn't. She was just half faerie.

More down to earth than her brother, Abby had her own question. "Are you Uncle Rick's girlfriend?"

Tony noticed Cass couldn't help glancing at Rick. Despite his naturally tan skin tone, he'd gone redder than she had.

"She's my friend-friend," he answered in an admirably level voice.

He kept his temper even when Rafi suggested he ought to ask Snow White to be his girlfriend. "Clarence's dad says part faeries are hot stuff."

"Okay," Tony said, grabbing both cubs before they could further embarrass the supposed non-couple. "Why don't you two go color in Rick's kitchen?"

The kids grumped about it but went, freeing Tony to follow Rick into his bedroom for an obviously overdue word alone.

Rick walked straight to his dresser, rummaging in it for a clean shirt. As he peeled off the one he wore, Tony realized he'd recently had sex--with Cass, apparently, because her scent was mixed with his.

Slightly shocked and possibly envious, he dropped onto the side of Rick's bed. How had this happened? He'd thought Rick was busy working the faerie case.

Unless Cass had something to do with that.

"Holy smokes," he whispered, figuring Rick wouldn't want the cubs hearing. "Is Cass Maycee The One?"

"The one what?" Rick said, purposefully being dense.

"The person the dying faerie said you had to protect."

"Oh. Yes, it's looking that way."

"Wow," Tony said. "You and Snow White. Your high school fantasy."

"Her name is Cass," Rick said a tad prissily. "She's an actual person, not a storybook character."

Oh his brother still dug her. Tony gave up fighting his grin. This was too good not to tease him over. "You might want to shower, Prince Charming. I can tell you and 'Cass' got sweaty."

Rick cursed at him, which Tony found amusing. "Call Nate," Rick snapped. "I need to know everything he found out about dragon keepers."

Tony knew how to jump to conclusions. Rick must think Cass was a dragon keeper--or why would the dead faerie want him to protect her? Assuming she was one, didn't she need a dragon to take care of?


Wow, he thought, digging out his cell to call Nate. Maybe reports of the beasts' extinction were premature.

~

Once Nate hugged his excited kids and was introduced to Cass, he confirmed Tony's suspicion. The snazzy wolf sat in a fat armchair, leaning forward across his knees. Tony's pulse sped up.

Finally he was being clued in on what had been going on.

"So," Nate said, pausing to smooth his shiny ponytail. "I went to see Professor Pliny, the expert on faerie culture at City U. According to him, true dragons--the ones that are supposed to be extinct--could make and unmake worlds. They feature in fae origin tales, including the one explaining how our Pocket was formed. The story claims our reality was created from the death energy of T'Fain, the last true dragon to walk Faerie. Once she was gone, there weren't any more."

"Except there must be," Rick said. "Or why did the faerie who ran away from Tony attack Cass's father at home last night? The female who died in the subway was a protector. Cass's father is a pureblood whose origins we can't trace. All we really know is that he's been living in the Pocket, under the radar of his fellow fae. I think Sword Guy was trying to get intelligence about dragons from both of them."

Sword Guy had attacked Cass's father? Tony looked at her. Snow White was chewing her thumbnail unhappily.

"Is he okay?" Tony asked.