Glamour Bites

“Come on, A! You can tell us. You know what all we are, now that Joe has told us about his pixie heritage. What’s the big deal about telling us all about yourself?” Karma Douglas looked at me from across the table, smug look on her pale green face.

She, more than anyone else, knew that I hated what I was so I hid it from everyone. She had been my partner for three years now and still didn’t know what type of creature I was. I think she was as afraid to find out as I was to tell her.

So here we were, sitting with the rest of Glamour Hunts Inc, discussing species when the dreaded question came up. Karma’s face and pale green eyes showed teasing and playfulness, which caused everyone around us to take that as a sign to egg me on as well. And when faeries and pixies and other Dimensionals, as the humans call us, egg you on, they don’t expect you to just sit there and stare at them with blank, lifeless eyes, which I always did and it always made them get worse.

Again, as was the usual routine when we all got together and this conversation came up, I was silent for twenty minutes while they continued to berate me and coax me into telling them. It’s always about this time that I open my mouth to tell them to fuck off when Carmichael Douglas interrupted, right on time.

Carmichael, or Mike as he liked to be called, was short, barely four foot eleven, but good looking with the same pale green skin as Karma. His dark green eyes held sympathy as he sat beside me at the table and spoke loud enough for everyone in the office to hear him. “Leave Lexi alone. Just because everyone else is free spoken about what they are doesn’t mean we all have to be.”

He patted my hand gently and then turned to glare at Karma. It was a glare of long time love and care. He was nearly a hundred years old and she was seventy-five years old, meaning he had dealt with her for longer than I had even been thought of. I envied them that. I would have given anything to have had siblings that lived longer than a few weeks.

I shook the thoughts from my head, trying not to dwell on the past and turned toward Mike. I had a bad habit of staring at him, partly because his pale green skin, long pale green hair, and forest green eyes were fascinating to watch. The other part was the fact that it still annoyed him after all these years.

I had been 18 when I first met Mike and Karma. The only part of the world I had known about was the vampires that my mother had been a part of and the witches that my father and aunt had been raised with. I knew nothing about fairies and pixies, so they were fascinating to me. It didn’t take me long to find out that they were pretty much just people with slightly different skin colors.

Mike had been saying something, but I was too distracted by the memories in my head and trying to annoy him so I missed it. He, of course, noticed and turned to me, smiling enough to flash perfect white teeth. “Alexia, child, did you hear anything I just said?”
I sighed and shook my head. “You know I didn’t, Mike, so just go over it again.”

His smile widened for a second and then was gone. He slid a folder across the table to me and sighed. “We have a report of a possibly dangerous Lycans downtown. They don’t want anyone to get trigger happy just yet. DIT has asked specifically for you, Alexia. They need someone to do recon to make sure that they are really Lycans.” He looked at the folder and shook his head, never approving of anything that the Dimensional Investigation Team, better known as DIT, asked us to do. Especially when they asked for me. “I don’t like it.”

I frowned and took the folder from him, flipping through the police report pages. It was a Lycan band called Teeth and Claws? They had got to be kidding! There were four of them, but no one had been able to get close enough to them to get any more information other than their names, ages, instruments, and that two of them were brothers. Ian Donne, 26, bass guitar; Harper Linton, 25, lead vocals; Matthew Taylor, 25, guitar; and Gabriel Taylor, 23, drummer. Matthew and Gabriel were the brothers, but there was no information about their history or the history of the other members.

I looked at Mike and shrugged, tossing the folder in front of him. “I don’t like it either, Mike, but if DIT is paying us, you know that you’re not going to say no because a: you like the amount of money they give you, and b: you love the fact that they come to us to ask for help.” I counted the things off on my hands and then stood up, shaking my head. “Don’t worry about it, Mikey. I can handle it.”

I picked up the folder and bent down, kissing him on the forehead with a playful smile. “I think you’re just worry that someone else might steal me away from you. You should know by now, Mike, that I’ll never leave you or Karma or the firm. It’s my life and you know it.”

Mike simply smiled at me, that look that said he knew I was a tease. He grabbed my hand and laid a kiss on it. “Just take protection, Lexi. Be careful. Do you want me to send Karma to tail you? I can.”

“Yeah, Alexia. I’ll tail you. You don’t have to do this on your own and you know it.” Karma’s sing song voice came from down the table, all playfulness and teasing gone.
She looked so motherly and worried that I almost told her that she could, but shook my head, smiling softly at her. “I’ll be fine, Karm. Besides, you have that murder investigation you’re supposed to be working on with DIT. Aren’t you supposed to be playing bait tonight?”

Karma sighed and nodded. “I do, but I will cancel if you need me to come with you. Just say the word and you know I’ll help.”

I sighed, calming the urge to tell them to back the fuck off, but this was only natural after the incident last year. Ever since I had been kidnapped by a pack of Lycans and tortured, Mike and Karma had treated me like I was five and not the twenty-one year old I was.

I walked over to Karma and gave her a hug. “Don’t worry, Karm. I’ll be perfectly alright. All I have to do is go and watch a concert or two and ‘sniff’ them out. Nothing more.” I straightened myself, not one for touching anyone for too long because of my condition, and headed toward the door. “Now, I have to go do some research. Does anyone know where I can get the songs for this band?”

I turned to see if anyone had an answer and, finding none, and shrugged, heading out the door to do a search engine search for the band and pray I got some hits.