Page 35 of Harnessed in Gold

Back at the table, we pack our stuff and make our excuses. Barbara tells us to come back anytime, and Linda assures us they don’t mind us Brownhill kids. “At least not ones as nice as you.”

We wish them good luck on the rest of the night’s games and escape out the double doors. Leo and Aaron are already outside, waiting by Leo’s car, but Avery and Topaz have yet to emerge. The lot appears otherwise empty, but distant pulses of restlessness and agitation have me on high alert.

I’m about to warn Rime when Avery and Topaz burst from the hall and out into the night. As soon as the doors slam shut and the darkness settles once again over the lot, three tall figures leap out of the shadows to block their path.

“Shit,” I gasp.

Rime chokes, “She’ll kill them.”

He and Leo order Aaron and me to stay put, but neither of us do.We sneak closer to the scene and shelter behind a car hood, Avery scurrying to join us.

Rime and Leo urge the boys to back off while Topaz stands between them, seething.

“You don’t want this fight,” Leo says. “Trust me.”

“Whaddya gonna do?” the main perpetrator asks him. “Fight for her honor? She’s a bitch, man.” He curls his lip at Topaz. “Nothing but a cheap piece of ass.”

Grinning, she sweeps Leo aside and steps right up to the frat boy, shoulders back and eyes on fire.

Bracing myself, I turn away, but shouts have me swinging around again. The jerk lies splayed on the ground while Topaz squares off with one of his friends, fighting like a trained assassin. In one high, swift kick, her foot slams into the side of his head, sending him flying across the pavement.

The third guy hesitates, torn, it seems, between helping his friends and being the one to take this ‘bitch’ down. But when she hisses at him and, oh god, shows him her fangs, he yelps like a puppy and starts frantically tugging the other guys to their feet.

“She’s fucking nuts,” he whimpers. “Fucking psycho.” His voice rises to a shout, “Just stay away from us! Stay back!”

Hands on her hips, Topaz laughs. “Beat it, dickheads!”

The guys scramble to their car, shooting terrified looks over their shoulders the whole way. A moment later, they’re peeling out of the lot in a cloud of exhaust and gravel.

“Holy shit,” Aaron mutters.

“Uh, yeah,” I say. “I think I know why Topaz isn’t here to do research.”

Because she’s here to be the muscle.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Fortunately,by the time we all reconvene at Leo’s, it seems we’ve mostly calmed down. Oddly, I find myself sympathizing with Topaz. Human men have no respect for boundaries. Actually, based on the two I know, fae men don’t either. But then again, maybe I just bring out the worst in them.

So I get why Topaz lost her shit. In fact, I envy her. There have been times when I would’ve loved to take a cocky guy down, I just never had the guts. Or the Black Widow fighting skills.

I can tell by her defensiveness that, on the ride back, Leo and Aaron dressed her down for showing her fangs. She’s still arguing as she tosses her jacket over a dining-room chair. “They’ll just think they were seeing things.”

Probably true. Take it from me, the queen of denial, you can dismiss a lot of red flags if you don’t want to see them.

“I’m not going out among humans anymore,” she grumbles, flopping onto the couch. No one argues, because right now, I don’t think any of us can blame her.

When Leo announces he has beer in the fridge, we all exhale in relief. I’m grateful there was a no-alcohol policy at the fire hall,considering how much worse the frat boys’ behavior would’ve been if they’d been drunk, but wow, I need a drink. I pull up a dining-room chair and sit beside Aaron, both of us simultaneously taking the bottles Leo offers us.

For a few minutes we decompress, punctuating the silence with our sighs. But halfway through our beers, we start sharing what we learned from the locals.

“Haints,” I say. “That’s what Barbara and Linda call ghosts.”

“Oh, yeah, haints!” Avery recalls, throwing up her hands. “Haven’t y’all ever heard of Haint Blue?”

The rest of us exchange blank looks.

“It’s more common further south,” she says, “but it’s like this light green-blue that people paint their porch ceilings with. It’s supposed to fool ghosts and spirits. They think it’s the sky and pass right by the house.”