Page 15 of Wake the Dream

He sighed, realizing they’d walked down half a block already. “Don’t you think it would be a little easier to let me drive us there?”

She turned and spared a glance at his vehicle parked in her driveway. “No flashing lights,” she observed.

“I think I stand out enough without blue and red flashing lights.”

“In this town, that’s saying something. Fine.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat and brought to mind images of a cotton ball, her jacket lined with puff. “I know I need to cooperate. But this doesn’t mean I like you.”

“Good. And please,” he said when they turned back, “don’t hold this morning against me.”

“This morning?”

“When I...you know.” He mimed hanging up a phone. “This morning. When you called me at the crack of dawn and I wasn’t awake?”

She scoffed as though she couldn’t be bothered with his attempt at an apology. Good, because maybe it meant she found him just as odious as he did her. “I just decided your bedside manner is severely lacking. It’s fine, it’s forgotten.”

“But not forgiven, apparently.”

“No, I tend to hold a grudge. At least you know that about me up front.”

He made a mental note, then started when she opened the door to slide into the passenger seat.

Illaria, noticing his pause, stared him down with her hands gripping the door handle. “You have a problem?”

Kieran shook his head. “Sorry, you’re fine. Get in. And give me the address.”

“Oh, yes sir.”

Illaria shot him a sarcastic salute before planting her rear on the cracked leather seat. She rattled off some address on the outskirts of town next to the lake. Kieran grimaced. He hated going out there. Not because he was afraid. He refused to be afraid of the lake monsters because that was silly. They were citizens of Hedgehill Marsh like everyone else.

God, he really hoped his missing woman’s boyfriend wasn’t a lake monster.

Illaria refused to look at him as they pulled out of her driveway. Not one for making idle conversation, he toyed with the idea of turning on the radio, then decided he needed a bit more information to feel prepared. Walking into an unknown situation? That’s how good police officers got shot.

He wanted to maintain his perfect record of no accidents on the job. Unless one counted spilling coffee on his lap an accident.

“Tell me about this boyfriend,” he began, flipping on his blinker.

Illaria shrugged. “What is there to know? They’ve been together for six months. He’s a trash bag.”

“Literally?”

Their jog down the street together appeared to have done the trick as far as Illaria’s prickly feelings were concerned. All of her frustration and barely disguised rage at him had dissipated, to be replaced by thinly masked trepidation at their upcoming interrogation.

“No, not literally. I guess you could say he’s an average guy.”

“Shifter, then.” They outnumbered humans two to one here.

“I’d be much happier if she chose to date a werewolf. Or a were-rat, for that matter,” Illaria said, nearly choking on her words. “No, he’s a fast food cook.”

“I’m not following you,” Kieran said.

Her little fist pounded against the dashboard. “Are you deliberately dense or are you determined to make my life difficult? He cooks at the damn Frosty King. They don’t even trust him on the grill. He’s in charge of the deep fryer.”

It took Kieran a minute to wrap his brain around a Fae dating a fry cook. The picture didn’t add up in his mind. His stomach remembered the burger and made a plea for a second one with a growl. “Okay. How did Yelena get mixed up with a person like this?”

The shrug was back. “Beats me. I guess she wanted to rebel. We’re stuck here, you know.”

“No one is stuck.” This time his tone held conviction.

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