Chapter 2

“WHAT THE FUCK!” I screamed as I grabbed the wheel.

Killian reached over and covered me with his body as the windows exploded.

The car rolled, air bags deployed, and we tumbled ass-over-teakettle, spare change and Kleenex boxes ricocheting around us.

Note to self, clean out car prior to next magical attack.

And then, just like that, it was done. I looked over at Killian as we hung upside down from our seatbelts.

“This is what I am here to see you about,” he said.

“I’m out.”

I unbuckled my seatbelt and fell to the roof that was now the floor of my car. I climbed through where my driver’s side window should have been and stumbled to my feet.

“I’m out. The answer is no. Leave. Now.”

Sirens wailed in the distance. Killian unbuckled himself and did the fall-and-crawl, “You are the only one I can turn to.”

“Listen, my car has been destroyed by an invisible something and the cops are right around the corner. There is no way I can talk my way out of that vampire stuck in my trunk.”

Human police get a little cranky when they toss your car and find a corpse.

Killian looked over at my smashed vehicle, silver blood oozing out the back, sirens coming closer. I saw him breathe in and make a decision before turning to me, “How badly do you want me to fix it?”

Oh no. No. No. No.

“You fucking elf. Don’t you dare even pretend like you are about to bargain for a favor.”

“I already saved your life,” he said.

“You already did shit. You almost got me killed! I’m not binding myself to you!”

He opened his arms, palms up, “Just say the words and I can make this all go away.”

Shit shit shit shit shit. Those elves don’t spend all those extra years in the Other Side learning how to play nice, I’ll tell you that much. I gripped my hair in my hands, only too aware of the warm sticky blood gushing from my scalp.

People couldn’t know about me. They couldn’t know about what I did. If the folks on Earth got so much as a clue, I could have my license to travel between worlds pulled and be stuck spending the rest of my life in an asylum or pulling drinks at Starbucks. SHIT.

I could see the lights of the cop car now. Killian tilted his head, “Trust me.”

“Trust you. TRUST YOU OFF A CLIFF. Fine, motherfucker, you’ve got it! I bind myself to you. In return for this favor, I owe you one favor. Fix this!”

Killian snapped his fingers and immediately a maelstrom of air was whipping around me. I saw the car right itself, the dents fill out, the windows re-grow. The pain of the cuts on my arms and my head healed without even the slightest hint of a scar. As the wind died, it was like nothing had ever happened.

The cop car slowed and the window rolled down. The hunkiest officer a single girl ever laid eyes on leaned out. I can’t believe I gave up a portion of my soul to an elf when I could have been frisked and handcuffed by this guy. This was not my day.

“We heard that a woman was being attacked…”

Killian came over and draped his arms across my shoulders, “My lady and I have not borne witness to any disagreements.”

The officer gave Killian a long look before talking to his partner, “Keep driving. Maybe they’re up ahead.”

Killian gave him a neighborly wave as they drove away.

I looked up at him, “If I could get away with killing you, you would be dead right now.”

Killian smiled, “You should get in line.”