Be Careful What You Wish For Read online

  “Then I’ll leave you.” He looked like he was about to disappear but Cass put out a hand to stop him.

  “Wait.” She took a deep breath. “I…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be weird and ungrateful I just—”

  “It is I who should apologize,” he said gravely. “I should have found a different way to heal you. A less…intimate way. Forgive me for taking what you were not willing to give.”

  “It’s not that. It’s just that I…I…” Cass didn’t know how to finish the sentence.

  Jake shook his head and stepped away from her. “I will be in touch about your new case. Until then, please remember you can always call me if you need me.”

  Before Cass could open her mouth again, he disappeared in a roiling cloud of navy blue smoke and was gone.

  Eighteen

  “Cass, wake up. Wake up!”

  “Huh?” Cass opened one eye groggily to see Rory staring at her with an anxious look on her face. “Wha’s wrong?” she mumbled.

  “Nothing unless you think it’s all right for your boyfriend’s clone to be wandering around the house wearing nothing but a pair of Vulcan ears and some panties on his head.”

  “What?” Cass was suddenly wide awake. She looked around trying to remember how she happened to be sleeping in the middle of the day. Or was it the night? Her internal clock seemed to be all messed up—probably because of the massive sleep debt she’d accrued from staying up until all hours the night before. “What are you talking about? What’s happening?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.” Rory sounded exasperated. “You never came home from school. I kept waiting and waiting—I was really worried. Until I came up here and found you snoring and drooling like a drunken sailor.”

  “I don’t snore,” Cass snapped. “And I certainly don’t drool.”

  Rory raised an eyebrow. “What’s that on your chin, then? And what happened to you today anyway? How did you get into the house without Nana or I seeing you?”

  Cass felt a surge of embarrassment as she wiped at her chin.

  “Uh, I had some trouble at the Tight Ass Academy today and Jake—I mean, Counselor O’Shea—had to come in and fix it. When he was, uh, finished, he brought me back here.”

  Rory frowned. “So now he’s ‘Jake’ Whatever happened to ‘big dumb jerk’ or your other delightful nicknames for him?”

  “Jake is his second name—his nickname, I mean,” she corrected herself hastily. “And…he helped me out of a pretty tight spot today.”

  “What kind of tight spot?” Rory wanted to know. Honestly, her little sister was horribly nosy.

  Cass took a deep breath.

  “I got bitten by a soul-sucker and the wound got infected. Jake…er, Counselor O’Shea, got the poison out and saved me.” At the memory of exactly how he had saved her, she felt her cheeks get so hot she was afraid her hair might catch on fire. She just hoped Rory didn’t notice and tease her about it.

  “A soul-sucker? Oh my God!” Rory shook her head in horrified amazement.

  And he was still able to heal you?”

  “Uh, yeah.” Cass shrugged uneasily. “I’m fine—you can see for yourself.”

  “Fine? You’re lucky to even be here. Where did it bite you?”

  “My hand.” Cass held up her unmarked hand, remembering how Jake had examined it. His touch had been so gentle and yet, so masterful…She cut the thought off abruptly.

  No. No way am I getting hot over that annoying elf.

  “It bit your hand?” Rory was looking closely at the unmarked palm. “And he didn’t have to amputate your arm to heal you?”

  “Amputate my arm? What the hell are you talking about?” Cass demanded.

  “That’s usually what happens when someone gets bitten by a soul-sucker,” Rory explained. “Whatever gets bitten usually has to be lopped off in order to keep the infection from spreading. It’s really serious—worse than being bitten by a brown recluse spider.”

  Cass frowned.

  “Jake did say something about if the infection spread I’d become evil forever.”

  “Not just evil—ugly.” Rory shivered. “It distorts your entire body and turns your eyes blood red. You look like a troll for the rest of your natural life. Ugh!”

  Cass felt a surge of shock and fear and relief all rolled into one at the realization of what a close call she’d had.

  “I had no idea it could be so serious. I mean, Jake was concerned but he kept a cool head and, uh, just dealt with it.”

  Though she had been upset about his methods of “dealing with” her bite earlier, now she began to rethink the situation. Certainly his treatment had been unorthodox—she’d never heard of any doctor recommending an intense orgasm to cure blood poisoning—but it had worked. He had kept her from being maimed or deformed for life.

  And I treated him like crap afterwards, she thought unhappily. She tried reminding herself that it didn’t matter because she didn’t even like the big elf, but that didn’t seem to be true anymore. She might still be aggravated with him but she could no longer quite loathe him as she had earlier. Which made things so much harder.

  Damn it! Why couldn’t I just keep hating him? Now I have to worry that I hurt his feelings. Not to mention wondering even more what he really thought of her. Well that question was easy enough to answer—she was his client. Nothing else. And it will probably be days before I see him again, she comforted herself. As long as I stay out of trouble.

  It was true that he was filing a new case for her but knowing what she did of the legal world—mostly bits and pieces she’d gleaned from conversations with Phil—it would take forever to file the new paperwork and get the ball rolling. So she wouldn’t have to worry about seeing her court-appointed elf again for a long, long time.

  “You’re really lucky you’re okay,” Rory said, breaking her train of thought.

  “Yeah, I guess so.” Cass sighed and then gave her little sister a look. “Hey, how do you know so much about this kind of thing, anyway? I thought Phil was the one who was boning up on the whole fae world.”

  Rory shifted, looking uncomfortable.

  “I’ve been doing a little research, that’s all.”

  “Research into what exactly?” Cass demanded. “Your sudden interest in the Realm wouldn’t have anything to do with that big horse thing—that phooka, would it?”

  “What do you care if it did?” Rory demanded, sounding uncharacteristically defensive.

  Cass put a hand on her hip.

  “I care because Jake said that thing is dangerous. You need to stay away from it.”

  “Why don’t you let me worry about that and you tend to your own magical mess?” Rory snapped. “The way things are going I’m afraid your Brandon clone is going to get molested any minute. Apparently the ladies downstairs don’t often see such a, uh, well endowed Vulcan.”

  Cass was already up and out of bed.

  “Why do you keep talking about Vulcans? And how did he get out of the spare room, anyway? I thought we locked him in.”

  “We did but I felt sorry for him,” Rory said, leading the way out of the room. “I went to open the door just for a minute to give him some food and he pushed past me and ran downstairs. He, uh…had apparently taken off his jeans so he was nude when he ran away.”

  Her cheeks were bright red—despite being in college, she still spent most of her time working with animals and hadn’t had many human boyfriends.

  “Oh stop blushing,” Cass snapped. “You’ve seen the real Brandon naked already. You and Phil busted in on me the one and only time I got him to pose nude.”

  “Yes, but this is different,” Rory protested as they clattered downstairs. “He’s, uh, packing a much bigger gun than the real thing. Maybe it has to do with the way you painted him.”

  Cass sighed. It was true that in addition to beefing up her boyfriend’s muscles, she’d also made the bulge in his jeans a little bigger. Well, okay—a lot bigger. But that shouldn’t be a big deal.