City of Magic: The Complete Series Helen Harper (fox in socks read aloud TXT) 📖

the time I returned inside Timmons, the hotel residents and guests, other than Anna, had vanished. Cath had thrown herself onto a nearby sofa and already had her boots off and her feet up. Julie was helping herself to a drink from the hotel bar and Jodie was sighing over a steaming cup of coffee. I’d only been gone a minute or two. The Travotel had that effect on people.

I couldn’t see Lizzy anywhere. I suspected she’d already vanished into the kitchen in search of food.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said to Anna. ‘I wasn’t trying to cause trouble.’

‘I know,’ she replied. ‘People are just jumpy. We’ve been getting more and more incursions from the other … creatures living nearby. The alarm is enough to scare them off for the time being but sooner or later they’ll grow immune to it. We have to be careful.’

‘They’re looking for food?’ I asked.

‘Yeah.’ She sat down next to Jodie and grabbed her own mug. ‘Things are fine in here – at least for now. The hotel shelves are fairly well stocked. But it appears to be a different matter out there.’

It was becoming an unpleasantly familiar refrain. Long before we ran out of supplies, the other magical creatures living in Manchester would make our problems insurmountable. There would be a solution – there always was; I just couldn’t see it at that particular moment.

Unwilling to get down to all the doom-and-gloom stuff straight away, I settled into a chair and offered Anna a smile. ‘How are things going?’

To my surprise, she blushed. Her eyes flicked momentarily to the door leading to the hotel rooms, although it was such a brief glance that I’d have missed it if I hadn’t been watching her closely. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘Mike and I are getting on well.’

I tried hard not to smile too broadly. ‘Mike?’

Anna coughed. ‘Timmons. I mean, Timmons.’

Enjoying the byplay, Jodie grinned. ‘Well, well, well. I thought you came here because you were feeling like a left wheel after we moved in with the werewolves and vampires. That you felt like you’d been done out of a job. Now I see that you had entirely different motives.’

Anna’s blush only heightened. ‘He’s a nice man,’ she said somewhat stiffly.

‘He is,’ I agreed.

Julie strolled over. Somehow she’d found a little paper umbrella and a flamingo-shaped cocktail stirrer. ‘Do my ears deceive me?’ she enquired. ‘Are you and the faery making the beast with two backs?’

Anna folded her arms over her chest. ‘What if we are?’

Julie’s eyes gleamed. ‘Good for you, darling. We all need a little romance in our lives.’

Jodie snorted. ‘It’s just that yours is with a bottle of Mother’s Ruin.’

‘Well, it doesn’t answer back. Or snore,’ Julie replied. ‘What romance have you had going on lately?’

Jodie’s lip curled and she turned away.

I ignored them and leaned over to Anna. ‘You look happy.’

She allowed herself a small smile. ‘I really am. I know there are plenty of people who are willing to blame him for all of this because he’s a faery, but none of it was his fault. Besides,’ she shrugged, ‘I feel like most of us have grown to really enjoy the magic.’

From the sofa, where she’d clearly been earwigging, Cath grunted. ‘If someone could work out how to magic up some chocolate bars and a decent plate of cheesy chips then life would be perfect.’

‘Do you know,’ Anna said, ‘it might just be.’

Timmons opened the door and came back in. ‘Everything’s fine upstairs,’ he said brusquely. ‘No corpses. All the guests feel a lot better for having DI Jones around. Her presence is reassuring. I hope you’ll allow her to continue working here for the time being.’ He pulled up a chair some distance from Anna and sat stiffly. Every single one of us, even Anna, smirked at him.

‘Well,’ Julie said, taking a sip of her ridiculous drink, ‘just the other day I was speaking to a few of the vamps who asked me about her. Carter, in particular, seemed to miss having her around. He so enjoyed those little têtes-à-têtes with Anna. You know,’ she added, ‘the ones with the candlelight and the roses.’

‘I was hoping,’ Jodie added with a sly grin, ‘that Anna would return and go on a few double dates with me. It’s summer time. Love is in the air. I know a few werewolves who are desperate for a sultry picnic in the park. Champagne. Caviar. Strawberries.’

Timmons was starting to look more and more upset then something seemed to occur to him. He glanced at Anna. ‘You told them about us, didn’t you?’ He tutted. ‘There’s been no champagne to be had anywhere in the city since May.’

Anna smiled softly at him before reaching across and taking his hand. She squeezed it tight. I watched them, a happy feeling settling deep inside me. They were an unlikely couple on the face of things, but opposites often attract. If I could be blissfully content with Monroe, everyone else should be too. Happiness loves company far more than misery, no matter how the saying goes.

Lizzy reappeared holding a tray of biscuits. ‘So,’ she said, ‘does the only faery in the city have any insights into our pigeon problem, our hell-hound problem, our shadow-beast problem or, most importantly, our food problem? Because these were the only biscuits I could find anywhere and I think they’re going stale.’

Way to bring us all back down to earth with a dull thump. Lizzy looked at us and frowned. ‘What?’ she asked. ‘Did I say something wrong?’

‘We were just having a moment,’ I told her.

She put the tray of biscuits down. ‘And I missed it?’ She clicked her fingers in dismay. ‘That’s the last time I go scavenging in someone else’s kitchen.’

‘Thank heavens for that,’ Timmons murmured. Then he leaned in. ‘Tell me more about these problems.’

I sighed. Well, I supposed, life couldn’t always be hearts and flowers. Not in this post-apocalyptic land. Not in any land.

We laid it all out for Timmons and