Free Three Parts Fey by Viola Grace Page A

now free to attend at his
pleasure.”
    Benny groaned.
“We are so not dressed for that.”
    Argyle opened
the door and slid out, extending his hand to hers. “I am sure you
will think of something.”
    After they were
logged out and changed, she did indeed think of something and her
companions’ clothing was changed from denim into leather with a few
choice bits of spell work.
    Andrew sighed.
“I suppose that my family is last.”
    Benny chuckled
as Pooky took them through the calm and old neighbourhood where the
vampire king mayor resided.
    “You had a
chance to pounce. You didn’t pounce, so now we are going to see the
vampires first.” She wrinkled her nose at him as her clothing
shifted around and under her in the car.
    Pooky entered
the long, sweeping drive, and Argyle spoke into the security
camera, gaining them access to the surprisingly understated
home.
    “We are lucky
in Mathias. He is a calm and understanding ruler.” Argyle seemed to
be making a point to both Tremble and Andrew.
    When the car
settled in front of the home, two shadows emerged from beside the
doors to the house and stepped down to open their vehicle.
    As Benny slid
out of the car, her dress flowed into configuration around her—a
leather overdress and trousers in contrasting black. Argyle took
her hand, and they led the other two into the mayor’s home.
    Miss Leonora
Wicks was waiting in the frame of the doorway as it opened at their
approach. “Miss Ganger. I am delighted to see you again.”
    “Thank you,
Leo. It is good to see you as well.”
    The woman still
had the grey cast to her skin that had been there on their first
meeting at the crime scene a few weeks earlier.
    Once again, she
smiled and her face went from blank and sober, to beautiful and
welcoming. “He is waiting in the gardens. Your timing was
perfect.”
    Argyle cleared
his throat. “Allow me to introduce our bound companions.”
    Leo gave him
another sweeping smile. “I don’t care. This way.”
    She moved
silently; her chiffon gown gave her the appearance of a floating
spectre as they moved through the modest mansion and into the
floral-scented darkness of the back garden.
    The vampire
king was tending his flowers and checking out his peach tree. “Leo,
come here and taste this.”
    Miss Wicks
rolled her eyes. “If I had a nickel for every time I heard
that.”
    With a grin,
the woman stepped toward the mayor, and he held out the fruit to
her in a reverse of a biblical moment.
    Benny watched
as Leo reached for it with her hand, but Mathias held it so that
she had to take it from his grip with her teeth.
    Her face wasn’t
visible from that angle, but Benny knew that sound. Leo chewed
furiously. “Not ripe!”
    Mathias grinned
and nodded. “I thought that was the case, but you know, I can’t
really tell.”
    Leo wrinkled
her nose at him. “Your guests are here.”
    Mathias nodded
and the peach arced through the air. Benny caught it and ripened it
in her hand. She took a bite. “Thank you, Mayor Mathias.”
    He grinned. “It
is good to see you again, Benny.”
    She released
Argyle’s hand and walked up to her family friend. “It is nice to
see you so happy, Uncle Matt.”
    “It is good to
feel it, Benny. Now, what can I do for you and the good
Argyle?”
    Benny looked
toward her vampire, and she smiled. “I wish to have him for my own,
Uncle. We are bound, and now, I wish it to be formal in the eyes of
the vampire nation.”
    “It will not be
easy. He will outlive you if he does not suffer an injury.”
    She wrinkled
her nose. “He is not quite one of yours anymore.”
    Mathias moved
past her, and he grabbed Argyle by the chin and turned his head
from side to side. “What did you do to him?”
    Benny twisted
her lips before biting into the peach again. “Nothing that he
didn’t consent to. They are mine; I am theirs; we are bound.”
    Mathias moved
faster than she could track, examining Tremble and Smith as well.
“All of them have a touch of