Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston Read Free Book Online Page A

him as if his heart would burst.
    Love thee …
    Long white hands reached out from the darkness, beckoning, and he wanted with all his soul to follow.
    Love …
    Sonny startled awake as the tree branches, dripping venom, reached out for him.
    He sat up in bed in the darkened room and clutched at the ache in the middle of his chest. His head pounded as he got up and threw open the heavy curtains of his bedroom window, wincing at the late-morning light. It was a beautiful day outside. Groaning, he pulled the curtains shut again, plunging the room back into blessed darkness.
    A knock on the door startled him. Sonny sensed it was Maddox; he called, “Come in,” and pulled on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt.
    “Afternoon, Sonn-shine,” Maddox greeted him as he stepped over the threshold, his usual easy grin brightening up the room. “Pretty gloomy in here. You just get up?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I thought I’d hit the Ramble with you tonight,” Maddox said. “Any objections?”
    “No. Company would be nice.” Sonny ran his hands through his dark hair and pulled it back into a tail, securing it with a leather thong.
    “Good. The Gate around midpark was a bloody bore last night.”
    “Anything get through?” Sonny asked, trying to shake his nightmare and figure out how to tell Maddox about his own discovery.
    “Nah, don’t think so. A whole pack of pissed-off nyxxiesgave us a bit of fun for the first hour or so, but after that it was quiet as a grave.”
    Sonny frowned, thinking about his similar encounter with the piskie-fae. And the fact that the diversion had prevented him from being in time to catch whatever had come through at the Lake. He wondered if all the other Janus had been similarly occupied for that first hour. “Where was the Wolf?” he asked.
    “Aw, Fennrys doesn’t like crowds—you know that. He’s claimed the upper fourth of the park like he owns it. Might as well have gone around and peed on all the bushes up there. He’ll fight anything—even other Janus, if they get in his way.” Maddox looked at Sonny quizzically. “Been meaning to ask—how was your night?”
    “It was…interesting.”
    Maddox’s eyes gleamed with curiosity. “Something nasty?”
    Sonny went to a closet and grabbed a pair of boots and a jacket. “Maybe. Look, I’m starving. Let’s get something to eat, and I’ll tell you about it.”
     
    Sitting in the booth at the back of a diner, the two Janus were far enough away from the other patrons that they didn’t necessarily have to keep their voices down, but the subject matter dictated that they do so anyway. As Sonny had predicted, Maddox was deeply amused by the tale of his piskie brawl.
    “Don’t take it so hard, Sonn,” he said in between shovelingup mouthfuls of a western omelet the size of his head. “At least it wasn’t hinkypunks!”
    “The day I get my arse kicked by a hinkypunk is the day I hang up this,” Sonny growled, tapping the iron medallion hanging from a braided leather cord around his neck—his Janus badge of office. “With my neck still in it.”
    “Especially since they only have one leg to kick with!” Maddox laughed, and, pushing back a plate that had been pillaged clean, sighed contentedly. “Now. Leaving aside nyxxies and pixies and all that small change, why don’t you tell me what it is that’s really got your knickers in a twist, hey?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, old Sonn, that something about last night has parked a thundercloud on your doorstep, and it wasn’t a piskie drubbing that did it. You’ve got more of a sense of humor than to let something like that bug you.”
    Sonny picked up a coffee spoon and toyed with it for a moment. Then he sat back and told Maddox what had happened during the time he’d been fending off the piskie attack. Or, at least, what he thought had happened—his theory was based on circumstantial evidence, after all.
    Maddox remained silent throughout, chewing thoughtfully on