Free Left for Undead by L. A. Banks

Rupert and Garth, Sir Rodney
strode into the room beaming.
    “Welcome! You two are a sight for sore eyes! What a
great surprise. What brings you? Not that you don’t have a standing
invitation.”
    For a moment Sasha and Hunter glanced at each other,
and then she swallowed a smile.
    “It’s great to see you as always, Sir Rodney.  
uh, you look well.”
    Hunter cleared his throat.
    “I am well,” Sir Rodney said, gesturing broadly with
his hands. “And you?”
    “We are adequate,” Hunter said carefully.
    “Oh, come on, old buddy—you are more than adequate
with a beauty the likes of Sasha as your mate.” Sir Rodney laughed at his own
joke and went over to fully embrace Hunter, who seemed slightly uncomfortable.
“Now, really, what brings you to sidhe?”
    “We have a bit of distressing news,” Sasha hedged,
making Sir Rodney’s smile wane. “We’ve heard that Vampire graves have been
daylight exposed, and just this morning Hunter and I saw something.  
well, not exactly saw something but rather felt something invisible lurking
near. It didn’t feel friendly. All of that spells danger where I’m from.”
    “Really..  ” Sir Rodney backed away from
Hunter and rubbed his jaw with the flat of his palm. “That’s not good at all.”
    “No. It’s not,” Hunter said in a low rumble.
    “We came to warn you,” Sasha chimed in. “If they think
we were all involved, and you know for a fact that we were not, it could kick
off a war.”
    “Then we need to investigate,” Sir Rodney said
quickly. “They already think it was Cerridwen, and she is innocent.”
    Sasha cut a glance toward Hunter. “Well.  
maybe we can do a little digging on everyone’s behalf. Do the Vampires know
you’ve allied with the queen?”
    Sir Rodney frowned. “What makes you believe that I’ve
allied with Cerridwen?” He drew himself up and sent an accusatory gaze around
the room toward his staff.
    Sasha shrugged. “Just making the assumption because
you’ve already concluded that she’s innocent, even though the Vamps beg to
differ. Plus, knowing your chivalry, one can only assume that you won’t allow
her to come under attack if you strongly believe she’s done no harm.”
    “Aye,” Sir Rodney said, visibly relaxing and causing
the rest of his staff to breathe again. “You see why I say that you are more
than adequate, Hunter. With a mate as gorgeous as she is sharp, how can a man
have a care in the world?”
    “My worry,” Hunter said slowly, “is that tonight there
will be blood and we have a very small window of opportunity to find out who
actually attacked them and then the more difficult task will be to get credible
word to them.”
    “What if that invisible thing that lurked around our
cabin was some sort of succubus or incubus trying to gather intel for the Vamps
during the day?” Sasha looked from Sir Rodney to Hunter. “It felt seriously
dark. I don’t know what it was, but I do know that it was watching us and we
hadn’t felt anything like that for the whole time we were up in New Hampshire.”
    “The fact that it saw us up in New Hampshire is
possibly the only thing that might keep the Vampires from believing that the
wolf federations were involved in their grave lettings.   but to be
safe, you might want to tell your local Fae populations to batten down the
hatches.” Hunter stared at Sir Rodney. “That is just wisdom, and I would do so
before nightfall.”
    Sir Rodney glanced at Garth and Rupert. “Send out a
call back to the Sidhe to our local Fae. They are right.”
    Garth and Rupert bowed and withdrew from the room,
their eyes offering a silent thanks to Sasha and Hunter.
    “Even though this isn’t your fight,” Sir Rodney said,
his tone now more subdued, “and you most likely will not be blamed.  
we could use your support in helping us find out what’s going on.”
    “In for a penny, in for a pound,” Sasha said as they
made their way toward the NAS.
    “I don’t like