Twenty-three stories up and all I could see out the windows was grey smog. They could call it the City of Angels if they wanted to, but if there were angels out there, they had to be flying blind.

Los Angeles is a place that people, those with wings and without, come to hide. Hide from others, hide from themselves. I'd come to hide and I'd succeeded, but staring out at the thick, dirty air, I wanted to go home. Home where the air was blue most of the time and you didn't have to water the ground to get grass to grow. Home was Cahokia, Illinois, but I couldn't go back because if I did they'd kill me, my relatives and their allies. Everyone wants to grow up to be a fairie princess, trust me it's over-rated.

There was a knock on the office door. It opened before I could say anything. My boss, Jeremy Grey, stood framed in the door. He was a short grey man, 4' 11", an inch shorter than me. He was grey from his dark Armani suit to his button-up shirt and silk tie. Only his shoes were black and shiny. Even his skin was a pale uniform grey. Not from illness or age. No, he was a Trow in the prime of life, just a little over four-hundred. There were some lines around his eyes, along the thin mouth, that made him appear mature, but he'd never be old. Without the aid of mortal blood and a pretty serious spell, Jeremy might live forever. Theoretically. Scientists say that in about 5 billion years the sun will expand and engulf the earth. They fey won't survive that. They will die. Does 5 billion years count as forever? I don't think so. Though it's close enough to make the rest of us envious.

I leaned my back against the windows and the thick, hanging smog. The day was as grey as my boss, but his color was a cool, crisp grey, like clouds before a spring rain. What lay outside the window felt heavy and thick like something you would try to swallow, but you'd never get it down. It was a day to choke on, or maybe it was just my mood.

"You look gloomy, Merry," Jeremy said. "What's wrong?" He closed the door behind him, making sure it shut. Privacy, he was giving us privacy. Maybe it was for my benefit, but somehow I didn't think so. There was a tightness around his eyes, a set to his thin, well-tailored shoulders, that said I wasn't the only one in a bad mood today. Maybe it was the weather, or the lack of it. A good rain shower, or even a good wind, would have cleared out the smog and let the city breath again.

"Homesick," I said. "What's wrong, Jeremy?"

He gave a small smile. "Can't fool you, can I, Merry?"

"No," I said.

"Nice outfit," he said.

I knew I looked hot when Jeremy complimented my clothes. He always looked impeccable even in jeans and t-shirt which he only wore if he absolutely had to be undercover. I'd seen Jeremy do a three minute mile in Gucchi loafers once chasing a suspect. Of course, it helped that his dexterity, and speed, was more than human. When I thought I might have to actually chase someone, a rare occasion, I got out the jogging shoes and left the high heels at home.

Jeremy put into his eyes that look a man gives you when he's appreciating the view. It wasn't personal, but among the fey, it's an insult to ignore someone who's obviously trying to be attractive; a slap in the face telling them that they'd failed. Apparently, I hadn't failed. I'd woken up to the smog, and dressed brighter than normal to try and cheer myself up. Royal blue suit jacket, double-breasted, silver buttons, a matching blue pleated skirt, that was so short it was only a fringe across my thighs underneath the jacket. The outfit was short enough that if I crossed my legs wrong I'd flash the tops of my black thigh highs. Two inch patten leather high heels helped show off the legs. When you're as short as I am, you got to do something to make your legs look long. Most days the heels were three inches.

My hair was a deep rich red in the reflections of the mirrors. A color more red than auburn, a color that had black highlights instead of the usual brown that most red heads had. It was as if someone had taken dark red rubies and spun them out into hair. It was a very popular color this year. Blood auburn it was called in the high court of the sidhe. Fairie red, Sidhe Scarlet, if you went to a good salon. It was actually my natural color. Until it became popular this year, and they finally got the shade right, I'd had to hide my true color. I'd gone for black, because it looked more natural than human red with my skin tone. A lot of people getting the dye job made the mistake of thinking that Sidhe Scarlet compliments a natural red heads coloring. It doesn't. It's the only true red color I know of that matches a pale, pure white skin tone. It's the red hair for someone who looks great in black, true reds, royal blues.

The only things I was still having to hide was the vibrant green of my eyes, dark brown contacts; and the luminosity of my skin. That I had to tone down using glamor, magic. Just a steady concentration like music in the back of my head, to never let down my guard and start to glow. Humans don't actually glow, no matter how luminous they maybe. No glowing, which was why the contacts covered my eyes. I also wove a spell around myself like a long familiar coat, an illusion that I was just a human with lesser fey blood in my background who had some psychic and mystical abilities which made me a really excellent detective, but nothing too special.

Jeremy didn't know what I was, no one at the agency knew. I was one of the weakest members of the royal court, but being sidhe means something even on the weak end of the scale. It meant that I had successfully hidden my true self, my true abilities, from a handful of the best magicians and psychics in the city. Maybe in the country. No small feat, but the kind of glamor I was best at won't keep a knife from finding your back, or a spell from crushing your heart. For that you needed skills that I didn't have, and that was one of the reasons I was in hiding. I couldn't fight the sidhe, not and live, the best I could do was hide. I trusted Jeremy and the others, they were my friends, what I didn't trust was what the sidhe might do to them if I was discovered and my relatives found out my friends had known my secret. If they were truly ignorant, then the sidhe would leave them alone, and only hurt me. Ignorance was bliss on this one. Though I that some of very good friends would see it as a type of betrayal. But if the choice was them alive with all their body parts intact, but angry at me; or dead by torture, but not angry at me; I'd take angry. I could live with their angry. I wasn't sure I could live with their deaths.

I know, I know, why not go to Bureau of Human and Fey Affairs, get asylum? My relatives would probably kill me when they found me, but if I went public and aired our dirty laundry for the world media, they would most definitely kill me. And they'd kill me slower. So, no police, no ambassadors, just the ultimate game of hide-n-seek.

I smiled at Jeremy, and gave him what I knew he wanted, the look that said that I appreciated the slender potential of his body under his perfect suit. To humans it would have looked like flirting, but for the fey, any fey, it wasn't even close to flirting. "Thanks, Jeremy, but you didn't come in here to compliment my clothes."

He walked further into the room, running manicured fingers along my desk edge. "I've got two women in my office. They want to be clients," he said.

"Want to be?" I said.

He turned, leaning against the desk, arms crossed over his chest. Mirroring my stance at the windows, either unconsciously, or purposefully, though I didn't know why. "We don't usually do divorce work," Jeremy said.

I gave him wide eyes, pushing away from the windows. "Day one lecture, Jeremy, The Grey Detective Agency never, ever, does divorce work."

"I know, I know," he said. He pushed away from the desk and came to stand beside me, staring out into the fog. He didn't look any happier than I felt.

I leaned back against the glass so I could see his face better. "Why are you breaking your cardinal rule, Jeremy?"

He shook his head without looking at me. "Come meet them, Merry. I trust your judgment. If you say we stay out of it, we'll stay out of it. But I think you'll feel the same way I do."

I touched his shoulder. "And how are you feeling, boss, other than worried?" I ran my hand down his arm, and it made him look at me.

His eyes had gone dark charcoal grey with anger. "Come meet them, Merry, if you're as angry afterwards as I am, then we'll nail this bastard."

I gripped his arm. "Jeremy, relax, it's just a divorce case."

"What if I told you it was attempted murder?" His voice was calm, matter of fact, it didn't match the intensity in his eyes, the vibrating tension in his arm.

I moved back from him. "Attempted murder? What are you talking about?"

"The nastiest death spell that's ever walked into my office."

"Someone is, and the wife says it's the husband. The mistress agrees with the wife."

Or maybe something else was going on. Something that needed guns and muscle, and men with dead, emotionless eyes. Not a cheery thought.

I blinked at him. "Are you saying that the wife and the mistress are in your office?"

He nodded, and even through all the outrage, he smiled.

I smiled back. "Well, that's got to be a first."

He took my hand. "It might be a first even if we did do divorce work," he said. His thumb rubbed back and fourth over my knuckles. He was nervous, or he wouldn't be touching me this much. A way to reassure himself, like a touchstone. He raised my hand to his lips and planted a quick kiss on my knuckles. I think he'd noticed what he was doing, that his nerves were showing. He flashed me a white smile, the best caps money could buy, and turned towards the door.

"Answer one question first, Jeremy."

He adjusted his suit, small minute movements to tug it back into place as if it needed it. "Ask away."

"Why are you scared of this?"

The smile faded until his face was solemn. "I've got a bad feeling about this one, Merry. Prophecy isn't one of my gifts, but this one has a bad smell to it."

"Then pass it by, we aren't the cops. We do this for a very nice paycheck, not because we've sworn to serve and protect, Jeremy."

"If after you meet them, you can honestly walk away from it, then we will."

"Why is my vote suddenly a presidential veto? The name on the door is Grey, not Gentry.";
End Of Chapter One