Charming (Exiled Book 3) Read online

  “Okay. Not all of us, but seriously, where are you going to put us overnight? Town House can take a few, but that leaves a lot of kids.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out and the kids will have a wonderful time.” He put an arm around her shoulders, gave her a squeeze, and a kiss on the temple. “You, too.”

  She laughed and pushed him away. “Get away from me before I tell your brother you’re trying to steal kisses.”

  “Go ahead and tell him,” he smiled. “The big lunker needs to up his game if he wants to keep you.”

  Dandy giggled in a way that made her suddenly seem both girlish and more approachable.

  Ana had paused with a half-eaten cinnamon roll in the air. “Is everybody invited?”

  “Of course!” Dandy answered. “You should go as Charming’s date.”

  Ana looked at Charming to see his reaction, but if there was any it was undetectable. His expression couldn’t be read and, like all people who’d spent time on the rough side of life, she was an expert at reading expressions and body language. Her survival had often depended on it.

  Dandy was clearly oblivious to having engineered an awkwardness that hadn’t existed before. She bustled over to put her cup in the sink and air kissed Charming. “Thanks for the sweet things. Nice to meet you, Ana. Maybe I’ll see you at the pub tonight. And my offer to talk to Scar still stands.”

  Ana smiled. “No need. It’ll work itself out.”

  Dandy laughed. “A philosopher! Charming, we need one of those in the family.”

  She closed the door behind her, leaving the two of them alone.

  “Ready for work?” Charming had one eyebrow raised in a humorless way.

  “Let’s do it.”

  Leaving Ana in the pub kitchen, Charming suddenly felt like she looked very small and vulnerable. He pulled Scar aside on his way out, “I don’t know what all she’s been through, but there’s a reason Rosie brought her here to be taken care of and protected. Do not scare her.”

  “Scare her! What are you talking about?”

  Charming stared at Scar for a few beats. Apparently Scar was oblivious of the effect he had on humans. Either that or he was deliberately playing dumb.

  “Just dial it back when you’re interacting with her. Okay?”

  “You worry too much, Leader. You go take care of running the world and let me take care of running my bar.”

  Charming looked around him and locked eyes with Ana. “See you tonight.” She nodded, but looked anxious which made him wonder if insisting that she take a job had been an ill-conceived idea. “You gonna be okay here?” She looked around and nodded again. He said, “Okay. Later,” but still hesitated, feeling reluctant to leave with her looking so lost.

  Ana, seeing that Charming was dawdling, put on some false bravado and waved toward the door. He gave her a little macho chin jerk and disappeared.

  “So,” Scar said,” let’s find out what you don’t know.”

  Ana barked out a laugh and said, “That’s going to be the fastest interview in the history of questioning.” And just like that she was over being afraid. It seemed that sassiness was a cure for anxiety. It dissipated like the steam rising from the pots behind her.

  Scar stared at her for a few beats before saying, “Okay, smart ass. Let’s try this another way. Since you’ve got such big ideas about cookies…”

  “Charming told you about the cookies?” She couldn’t hide her delight any more than she could help the smile that popped out.

  “Yeah, he did. I’m going to try a test to see if your ‘market survey’ has any merit, but I’m not going to pay somebody else to make something that we could make ourselves. That’s what we have a kitchen for. So I need you to make cookies that are better than the ones the humans sell at that, ah…”

  “Bakery?”

  “Yeah. Bakery.”

  “But I don’t know how to bake. That’s why I’m here. To learn.”

  “Right. And you’re going to start with cookies.”

  Ana looked around. “Is there somebody here who knows how to make cookies and can teach me?”

  Scar looked at the four people working in the kitchen. All of them began shaking their heads.

  “Well, there’s your answer,” he said. “It’s up to you. If you make cookies that people like and want to buy, you’ll be the new cookies cook.”

  “If I don’t?”

  “Look, you need a job and I need that job done. End of story.”

  “How long do I have to learn to make cookies?”

  “Well, I want to be fair.” He brought his chin toward his body and looked out of the top of his eyes, presumably to indicate that he was being serious. “And no one has ever accused me of not being fair.”

  A loud snort had Ana and Scar looking around at the kitchen help to determine who’d challenged Scar’s self-evaluation, but all four were busy working a symphony of pots, pans, sizzles, and innocence.

  Scar chose to ignore the outburst and went on. “So I’m thinking two days on the clock.”

  “Five,” Ana countered without a beat’s worth of hesitation.

  “Five days. Two on the clock.”

  “Five days. Four on the clock.”

  “Five days. Three on the clock.”

  “You’ve got yourself a cookies cook.”

  “Sincerely hope so, little girl.”

  “But you cannot call me ‘little girl’. That’s a deal breaker.”

  Scar laughed. “A deal breaker? You think you get to dictate terms?”

  “About what I’m called? Yes.”

  Scar pursed his lips and regarded her with amusement in his eyes. “Giving you the benefit of the doubt for now. In five days I’m expecting nothing less than orgasmic cookies, the kind people would fight over. You give me that and you’re Ana. You don’t and you’re Little Girl.”

  “Just to be clear, I’m giving cookies, not orgasms.”

  Scar laughed and walked off shaking his head.

  Ana turned to the four people in the kitchen, who looked up and smiled.

  “You’re brave for a human,” said the female who was stirring a pot closest to Ana. “I’m Moonlight. I’m in charge of soup, sauce, and gravy and almost everything we serve here comes with one of those things.” Pointing to her hybrid co-workers, she introduced them one by one. Each looked over and smiled, making her feel more relaxed and welcome by the minute. “That’s Able. He’s master of entrees. Brook does all the chopping, peeling, sorting, stuff like that. And Bowman does everything else.”

  Bowman was considerably younger than the other three and looked like he couldn’t be any older than Ana. He grinned and did a little salute.

  “Unfortunately none of us have taught anybody to cook before, but we’re all willing.”

  “Thank you. Where should I start?”

  Moonlight looked around to see if anybody had anything to offer. Nothing.

  “Well… Have you really not ever done any cooking? At all?”

  “Not other than heating stuff up in a microwave.”

  They all looked at each other.

  “What’s a microwave?” Bowman asked.

  “Well, it’s a…” Ana laughed. “You know, now that you ask me, I realize I don’t really know. It’s a metal box that plugs into an electrical outlet and heats things really, really fast.”

  He cocked his head to the side. “How fast?”

  “Um, macaroni and cheese in three minutes.” They all laughed and shook their heads. “No really.”

  “Okay. Have your fun,” said Ana. “But it’s true.”

  Moonlight motioned for her to come closer. “Here’s what I’d do if I were you…”

  Half an hour later Ana found herself going through the door of the bakery four blocks away from the pub.

  “Help you?” said a pleasant looking man in all white clothes and a tall white hat.

  “Yes.” Ana stepped up to the counter and said, “I see that you make beautiful cookies.�
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  The baker seemed pleased. “The best in all Farsuitwail.”

  “Well, I’m here representing the Human Hybrid Interrelations Council. Charming sent me.”

  The man stood up a little straighter. “Charming?”

  “Yes. We want to serve cookies to hybrids at the pub, but don’t know how to make them. Charming was wondering if, in the interest of good human-hybrid relations, you would consider teaching me.”

  The man looked impressed, but not especially pleased. “Charming sent you?”

  “Yes,” she lied and didn’t blink when he searched her face.

  “Well, I suppose we could teach you a couple of things…”

  “That’s marvelous! Thank you! When can we start?”

  “Four o’clock tomorrow morning. I’d say bright and early, but it’s not bright. It’s just early.” He laughed. “Little bakery humor there.”

  Ana almost choked. “Four in the morning? You mean when it’s still dark?”

  “That’s what I mean. That’s why it’s ‘not bright’, just early.”

  “Alright. I’ll be here. Four tomorrow morning.”

  Her first impulse was to run out of there before he had a chance to change his mind, but then realized she hadn’t asked for his name. She turned back, “I’m Ana, by the way. What’s your name?”

  “Charlie.” He narrowed his eyes. “Say, you’re human. How does that fit into this interrelations thing?”

  “What could be more integrated than teaching another human to teach hybrids? Thanks a lot. Bye. See you tomorrow.”

  And she was gone before he could ask any more questions.

  Ana ran straight back to the pub and stopped at the bar where Scar was counting bottles.

  “My five days doesn’t start until tomorrow morning at 4,” she said on her way back to the kitchen. She didn’t wait for a response because she had a feeling it would bring on a whole new negotiation.

  She pushed through the kitchen’s swinging door. “Moonlight! That was brilliant.”

  “It worked?” Moonlight looked shocked, like success was the last thing she’d expected.

  “Like a charm.”

  Bowman perked up with his cocky little grin. “Yeah? Well, I wouldn’t want to be you when Charming finds out you used his name.”

  “Hey. He’s the one who insisted I get a job.”

  “I think she needs lessons in logic as well as cooking,” Abel said to Brook.

  “So what are you going to do with the rest of today?” Moonlight asked.

  “Maybe hang around here? Can I just sort of watch what you’re doing? Maybe ask questions?”

  “Of course. Like I said, we’re not teachers, but we’ll try.”

  Ana couldn’t have been more surprised to find that she liked learning about cooking almost as much as she liked eating the food. She liked the easy camaraderie and banter in the kitchen, the aromas, the sounds of sizzling and even metal clanging against metal. By the end of the day, she knew how to chop onions without crying, how to make onion soup, how to sauté lamb and onions in butter, and how to batter onion rings in preparation for frying.

  Scar pushed through the kitchen door at six o’clock and saw that she was battering onion rings. “Those don’t look like cookies to me.”

  “Mission Cookies begins tomorrow morning.”

  Scar grunted. “Well, you’re done here. There’s a VIP sitting at my bar wanting to know about your first day.”

  She blinked a couple of times before she realized who he was talking about. When it registered that he meant Charming, she grinned.

  “And there it is right there,” Scar said under his breath.

  Ana took off her apron, washed her hands, said goodbye to the kitchen staff and the wait staff who had come on an hour before and hurried off toward the bar.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  At supper time Dandelion had finished her errands and eagerly waited at a table for four in the back corner of A Far Scar. There wasn’t any place in the pub that could realistically be called ‘quiet’, but it would do.

  Raze held the door open for Dread and Ember, who spied Dandelion as soon as they walked in. She couldn’t contain her excitement when she saw her three cubs coming through the door. As she would have predicted, Ember was wearing a big beautiful smile while Dread and Raze looked more reserved.

  Dandy was looking at them like they were the most important thing in the universe and each of them knew that maybe to her they were. She treated them better than most are treated by their biological mothers and certainly none of them had any complaints in that department.

  Having not seen them for a couple of weeks, she was struck by the fact that she hadn’t remembered how grown up they’d become. The boys were handsome as could be, not in the same way that Exiled males were attractive. They really didn’t know what DNA Farsuitwailians had mixed with human DNA a hundred years before when they created the hybrids known as the Rautt. All records had been destroyed during the uprising that had destroyed technology and plunged their society into a sort of preindustrial culture of day to day survival. But most of the scientists strongly suspected their extranormal traits were lupine in origin.

  Looking at the three young hybrids with a warm maternal pride that shone from her eyes like lights from within, an onlooker wouldn’t guess Dandelion was their mother. Typically the Exiled had blondish hair and yellow-green eyes while Rautt had dark hair and eyes that were variations of blue or gray.

  Dread had fallen a little in love with Dandy right after the Rautt, all of them who were over the age of twelve, had been destroyed. When everything changed, Dread had only been twelve, but he knew from the beginning that she was special.

  She’d been assigned to be dorm mother to the oldest of the orphans. He’d been old enough to remember that life wasn’t good before the Exiled came. His own mother never treated him like Dandelion did. He often came across as sullen and seemed to have disquiet constantly simmering just under the surface.

  Raze was different. Either he wasn’t old enough to have vivid memories and had created some from imagination or he’d had an entirely different experience. Whatever the explanation, he was easy going, affable and unflappable. People liked him, hybrids and humans alike.

  Like most females, Ember was pragmatic, but she also carried the emotional vulnerability of most people drawn to social work, which was what she’d chosen as a focus track in school.

  Ember reached Dandelion first, going straight into her arms for a big hug and a bigger kiss on the cheek. The boys patiently waited their turn, pretending that they didn’t want the show of affection, but were willing to tolerate it for Dandy’s sake.

  After she’d made them pretend to suffer through the demonstrative greeting, Dandy said, “Sit. Sit. Let’s eat and hear all about what you’re doing.”

  Ember stepped into Raze so that Dread could pass behind her. They all knew that he felt most comfortable with the corner chair, back to the wall.

  When everybody was seated, Ember talked excitedly about her studies, her internship, and the projects she had coming up.

  River showed up at their table wearing a white apron over traditional Exiled dress and a big smile. They paused the family reunion long enough to say hello and ask how she was doing.

  “Is Scar treating you right?” Dandy asked.

  River rolled her eyes. “As right as he knows how to be.” She lowered her voice and leaned toward Dandy slightly. “And you of all people know what I mean.”

  Dandy laughed. “Indeed. I do.” Her face took on a wistful expression before she said. “Still, sometimes I miss working for him.”

  The three kids, who were acutely observant, noticed and exchanged glances.

  “I see you’re infected with nostalgia,” River said. “We could kill that real quick. All it would take is one noon to nine shift.”

  Dandy laughed. “Yes. You’re probably right.” She looked at the kids. “So what are you having?”

  Ember look
ed up at River with her engaging smile and sparkling eyes. “What’s good?”

  “Everything’s good, sweetheart. Special of the day is flank steak in brown gravy with onion rings.”

  Ember scrunched up her nose. “What else have you got?”

  “Onion soup, egg salad sandwiches, lamb stew…”

  Ember stopped her there. “I’ll have just the egg salad. No bread.”

  “Okay,” River said, then looked at the boys.

  “Flank steak. Extra onion rings,” said Dread.

  “Same,” said Raze.

  “Lamb stew,” Dandy said. “But now I’m craving onion rings so I’ll have some of those, too.”

  “Pregnant again?” River said.

  Dandy grinned, “No. I…” Her smile faded as she seemed to contemplate the question seriously. “Shit.”

  River and the three kids laughed.

  “So we may have another sib on the way?” Ember rested her head in her hand and smiled.

  “I don’t think so, but it’s not impossible. It’s not like…”

  “It’s not like Crave isn’t, um, active.” Dread said with a hint of distaste. “We lived in the same house with you guys for a long time.”

  “Yes, but you’re supposed to pretend that you can’t hear everything.”

  “None of us can act that well,” Raze added with a laugh.

  And the kids had a laugh at Dandy’s expense, but she didn’t mind. She and Crave had both been raised to believe that it was healthy and wholesome for kids to grow up knowing the heads of the household were in love and expressed that in all kinds of ways including physical.

  When Ember tired of talking about social work, Dandy asked Raze how his architecture classes were going.

  “I like it except when they tell me my drawings are ridiculous and that nobody would want to live or work in buildings like the ones in my head.”

  Dandelion was a little shocked that there were adults who would be so critical and dismissive of young talent.

  “Let me remind you that humans made fun of Crave’s electrical car designs and now he can’t make them fast enough to keep up with orders. They’re even trying to figure out a way to build a, I forgot what you call it…”