Free Bladed Magic by J.C. Daniels Page A

easy.
    Much better .
    Although he continued to watch me, I didn’t look at him as I swung the car around and headed off down the lane.
    It would serve him right if I just headed south to TJ’s. She could call him to come get his car—it might or might not be in the same condition it was in now.
    But while the peacock might deserve it, the girls…
    Yeah.
    Okay.
    I pulled up a mental image of the maps I’d studied.
    Then, with Colleen’s voice urging me on, I turned and headed northwest.
    You’re guided by those instincts .
    I hoped Colleen was right.
     
     
    There was a little market in the store close to the cemetery. I pulled over. I had to pee, I needed a drink and as I stood at the counter, my eyes fell on the display of flowers near the register.
    I hated flowers.
    Well, not if they were in the ground.
    Cutting them like that was a human thing.
    Of course, I was in a human place of business so it wasn’t surprising I’d see them there. I didn’t understand it. People cut flowers, take them out of their natural habitat and already they are dying. I could even faintly smell that coming death—it wasn’t unpleasant, not yet. But it was a flat scent of…lifelessness. Still, I found myself gazing at the flowers.
    “Would you like to get some of the flowers?”
    Shifting my attention the girl behind the counter, I frowned.
    She started to squirm and I could have kicked myself. I could pass for human. Nothing about me screamed magic or monster but humans and NHs acted in ways that were just…different. She’d asked a question. If I kept looking at her like she was a puzzle, I was going to freak her out. People like me—non-humans—did our best to avoid freaking out her kind.
    “Sure.” I pasted a polite, fake smile on my face and touched one of the bouquets in front. Daisies, bright and cheerful. “This one.”
    A few minutes later, I left the store behind, acutely aware that at least one person in there had been unsettled by my presence. This was why humans irritated me. I wasn’t worth even being noticed by them. Well, sure, I could have killed anybody in there, but I wasn’t the monster under the bed. I was more likely to take off running from anything that looked at me funny.
    It was the rest of my kind that they needed to worry about.
    But if they’d decided they were uncomfortable, all they’d have to do was make one call. I’d never pass as human if somebody knew what to look for. And I wouldn’t even have the protection of the Assembly behind me. It was poor protection, but it was better than the instant death handed out to the unaffiliated NHs found out in the human populace.
    Shoving all of those thoughts aside, I watched the road, waiting for the turn-off.
    There it was.
    Cobb Cemetery .
    I wonder why she was buried here. Had to be a family connection. If there was a family connection, family who wouldn’t argue with her being buried here despite her NH blood, then that would explain it.
    My car wasn’t the only one.
    And when I caught sight of the other car, my skin started to buzz.
    Sliding out, I kept my face blank.
    There was a man, wearing a dull brown jacket, standing roughly near the plot where I needed to go.
    And when I started up the walk, I could see the way he tensed.
    No human would have noticed. It was too far away.
    Not yet…not yet …
    Veering to the side, I stopped at a headstone featuring two joined hearts.
    Beloved mother and father. You are so missed .
    That was nice.
    Crouching down, I put the flowers down. Somebody else had been here recently. I’d picked a good spot. The other flowers were wilted. It seemed the courteous thing to do so I picked them up, watching my man from the corner of my eye.
    He hadn’t moved.
    And he watched me.
    Somebody brushed inside my head.
    I felt it.
    Fighting not to recoil, I focused on the people buried beneath my feet.
    I had no happy memories of my parents. But I had a happy memory of my mother and I latched on to it, the way she