Free She's No Faerie Princess by Christine Warren

a snail's pace, deciding nothing more consequential than whether or not someone from each side needed to taste the refreshments before every coffee break to be sure nothing had been tampered with. But now we're finally beginning to make headway. Last week, the human delegates from Europe proposed the first passage of a potential Bill of Others Rights. If even two-thirds of the other humans agree to it, we might finally have a starting point to work from. Before now, we couldn't even get most of them to agree who qualified as an Other, let alone that they should have legal protection."
    "And into it all walks a Fae who we can't send home because the gate she needs to go through has been cursed shut."
    "You're sure that's what it was?" Graham asked.

    Fiona shrugged. "I don't see what else it could havebeen, but it would have to be a pretty damned powerfulcurse. Letting things through is a gate's entire reason forbeing. It takes some serious mojo to interfere withsomething enough to keep it from fulfilling its most basicpurpose. That's what we call bad magic."
    Walker and Graham both cursed. Lupine irritation instereo.
    "So, to summarize," the alpha said grimly, "we have extremely delicate negotiations that mean life or death for the Others, a demon on the loose, with no idea who summoned it, a malfunctioning gate to Faerie, and someone with way too much power who seems to be taking a little side trip to Black Magicville. Fabulous. And to top it off, we also have an unauthorized Fae visitor and a queen who has made it perfectly clear that she blames us for all such occurrences, no matter how hard we try to keep the idiots out. No offense."
    Fiona rolled her eyes. "If I took offense every time awerewolf insulted me, I'd have suffered an aneurysmwithin five minutes of meeting Mr. Congeniality overhere." She jerked a thumb at Walker. "No offense."
    Jake snickered, and Walker frowned at her. He thoughthe'd been behaving pretty well toward the princess overthe last few hours, but apparently she wasn't about toforget the first few hours of their acquaintance.
    "But if I could offer a suggestion," she said, addressing Graham directly. "I might be able to lessen the horrible inconvenience of having me here."
    The alpha crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. "By

    all means."
    "Well, since it looks like I'm not going to be going
    anywhere for the moment, I don't see any reason why
    you shouldn't put me to use." She slanted Walker a
    glance that had his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "At the
    moment, it appears you have a little demon problem on
    your hands, and since it's been so long since you've seen
    one, most of you humans are pretty in the dark about
    them. I don't claim to be an expert about them, or
    anything, but they're a big part of our legends, in a way I
    doubt they are in this world. I could share what I know
    about them, help you track this thing down. Maybe even
    help you send it on its way."
    "Aren't you the one who just pointed out that the Fae haven't dealt with demons in three thousand years?" Walker asked. "How does that make you an expert? There are plenty of sorcerers right here in Manhattan with a closer acquaintance to demons than that."
    "Three thousand years doesn't seem nearly as long when you're practically immortal. And besides, do you really want to rely on the help of someone who willingly and knowingly consorts with demons?"
    "The alpha will never allow it." Walker ignored the uneasy feeling the idea of her being immortal gave him, as well as the image of her smooth, young legs wrapped around his wrinkly, arthritic hips. "It's too dangerous. Or have you forgotten how you ended up the last time you tangled
    with this thing?"
    "Um, hi. Have we met? Because I thought I just heard
    you try to tell me what I can and can't do."

    Graham spoke over Jake's ill-disguised snicker. "Not tointerrupt the hostilities or anything, but the girl has apoint, Walker."
    "She what?" he