Free The Elfbitten Trilogy by Leila Bryce Sin Page A

belong to someone. Except that I live alone and the only arms in the apartment should be mine.
         I snapped my fingers, feeling the sparks of power ignite in answer. The hangover made me a little woozy, so I didn’t really want to use magic, but I did not remember coming home with anyone last night. Then again, I didn’t remember coming home last night. I remembered leaving the club, I remembered walking in the direction of my building, but then the night slipped into darkness as I tried to remember more. I glanced to the floor and saw my leather skirt and jacket in a pile on the floor; my newly acquired boots were in the threshold of the bedroom. I leaned to look out the door and saw the trail of men’s clothing strewn through the hallway, ending with a cotton shirt at the foot of the bed.
         “And I’m naked, great,” I sighed, glancing down at myself, the swell of my breasts obstructing my view of much else. I couldn’t see the face of the man in my bed, but the sheets were only pulled up halfway and what I could see was naked. There were no distinguishing marks on his body that I could see to identify him, but I couldn’t help but be impressed with the lines of muscles on his back and arms, even in a totally relaxed state. Since he was asleep, I couldn’t feel any answering call of magic coming from him to tell me if he was fae or human. He had slipped into the mound of pillows, burying his head and hiding his ears. I’d have to wake him or get closer to see what I was dealing with. I blew my bangs out of my eyes in a huff before creeping over to the bed, walking round to the far side, closer to the door.
         I held my breath and reached for the top pillow. He had a bright red Mohawk with black tips; the stubble on his jaw was dark, hinting at a black beard. But what my eyes focused on was the completely rounded ears. I had a human in my bead. I dropped the pillow back over his head and stumbled backwards until I hit the door to the bathroom. I reached blindly behind me until I grabbed the doorknob and turned, practically falling into the bathroom. I shut and locked the door as quickly and quietly as possible. I needed a minute to get my head straight.
         I had never brought a human home before. As a rule, fae people are very secretive about where we live, even though we live out in the open among humans now and no longer hide in the hills and forests. We populate whole cities now, but we still had our magics and we could hide in plain sight if we wanted to. If you showed a human where you lived, you could never hide it from them again. Humans tended to become obsessed with fae people, which was why so many of them feared us; many still believed that this obsession was really a manifestation of magical trickery on our part. I had no idea what it was about fae magic and humans that made them so receptive to us, but I understood their fear. I understood it so well I made it a point to never bed one. I sat down on the edge of the bathtub and hid my face in my hands, elbows propped on my knees.
         “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I whispered angrily to myself, shaking my head slowly. I tried to concentrate on the hours missing from my memory, but the harder I tried to focus on them, the farther they slipped away. I pounded my fists on my knees in anger, gritting my teeth against the yell I wanted to give voice to.
         “Okay, calm down, Taryn,” I whispered, uncurling my fists and running my fingers through my hair, pushing it back away from my face. “What’s done is done, we just have to deal with it now.” I stood up and walked over to the sink and flinched at my own reflection in the mirror on the wall. My blond hair was tangled high on my head; my dark makeup from the night before was smeared, making me look like a crazed raccoon. The bite on my shoulder still looked fresh, the pale skin pink around the puncture wounds that looked like they had bled again. There was even