Glimmer of Death
Blurb:
I'm Jinx, a private investigator, a truth seeker and an empath. Even with all this magic at my fingertips, I still don't know if I can save my best friend.
And she's not the only one who's ill. Creatures in the Other Realm are falling sick - even the supposedly immortal ones. The merpeople asked for help first, but they're just the tip of the iceberg. This illness isn't natural, and whoever is behind it has nothing but sinister intentions.
Emory's adoptive parents have fallen sick too, and I can't watch him lose his family when I've already lost mine. I'll do anything to save the stricken victims - even if it means working with the man who killed my parents...
I need to find the source of the sickness to stop it spreading.
I need to find the perpetrator.
I need to find the antidote.
And I need to work out how I feel about Emory.
I don't know which task will be harder... Except: 'I might not be your mate, ' I suggested.
'You are.' True.
'You believe I am, but I might not be. You just ... fixated on me at an early age because of the whole rescuing thing, ' I said uncomfortably. 'Like a baby duck, you know? You imprinted on me.'
'Like a duck.' He spoke slowly.
I nodded. His eyes glittered dangerously; he didn't like the duck thing. 'Maybe like a peacock?' I said hastily, thinking of their plumage.
'Pea. Cock.' He repeated it slowly, like I was insulting his male appendage.
Oh hell, I was making things worse. 'I'm not calling your-' I stopped abruptly. 'It felt magnificent through your trousers. I wasn't saying... I'm just saying, you know. Like a duck.'
'Like a duck, ' he repeated flatly.
'You met me when you were so young, Emory, so vulnerable, and I rescued you. Hero worship is normal in those circumstances, but I'm no hero. You need to be sure. When it walks like a duck, talks like a duck...'
His eyes were unfriendly. 'This is not what I envisaged would happen the first time I told a woman I loved her, ' he muttered.
I instantly felt guilty. Here he was, pouring out his heart, and here I was casting doubts on his feelings. He was an adult, a two-hundred-year-old one at that; he was old enough to know his own mind. Just because I didn't know mine, it was no reason to cast aspersions on his.
'I'm sorry, ' I said softly. 'I have all these abandonment issues and it makes it hard to let you in. I like you a whole lot. I lust after you more than it's decent to adm