A Hint of Cayenne (The Trouble With Elves Book 4) Read online

  Cayenne tiptoed her way to a bush-like hiding hole and sat back, ready for the day to pass. She didn’t anticipate the fairy showing up within seconds. If it had the Malevolent like the sign said, it would be paranoid and dangerous. Besides, in her rush to get out of the market, she forgot to find something to trap the mischievous little monster in. Idiot hormones. Males, always getting in the way. At least he’d been an elfalicious one.

  She definitely didn’t plan on holding the fairy, not even just to blink. Those things bit when the disease had them, and then she’d have to see the doc for a rabies shots, and a bee stinger didn’t feel good. In the human realm, they had needles, smooth and easy going in and coming out. Elven doctors used bee stingers to administer shots—Cayenne shivered—which generally caught as they pulled out and stung like hell.

  She nestled into the brush, picking up twigs and long weeds to start making a shifting cage for her fare. She hadn’t seen a fairy up close before, but she didn’t expect it to be much bigger than her palm. A few twigs and weeds thrown together should work enough to keep it contained until she reached the drop-off zone. She hoped the honey would slow it down some, or this could get ugly real elfing quick. She tied a weed around the ends of the first two twigs making an L shape. Then continued until she had an open box. It didn’t have a lid yet, but she would be able to drop it over a fairy no problem. She hoped.

  Chapter Two

  Hawthorn watched customers bustle by the honey stall. With his friend, Berto’s, inflated prices, people weren’t going to be buying very much. He’d have to speak to his friend when Berto returned this evening from his honey trip in the forest. Nearly time to close up and Hawthorn had sold exactly two jars the entire elfing day. And one of those was to himself.

  Sweat dripped down his back from the heat, and he wanted to go home, shower, and head back out this evening to take care of his own needs. He hadn’t anticipated Berto calling him in for this today. He would rather be out hunting.

  Hawthorn sighed let his mind wander to Reed’s bar last night and the naughty elfess he’d bedded. When he’d shown up, he noticed her first. The way her auburn hair layered down her back. The slender shoulders and slim waist. He groaned. He’d had her, and he wanted more, far more than he could take from someone he’d just met. Cursing himself for not asking where she hailed from, at least found out more than her first name. Then, when he’d completed his hunt, he could seek her out, maybe court her. She seemed confident in herself and adamant about doing things on her own which seriously turned him on more. A female who could handle her alcohol and still fuck was his kind of elf.

  “Closing time!” a shop owner called out. This strip was great in one fact that everyone opened at the same time, and everyone closed at the same time. Made things easier. Since most the elves in the city knew, they weeded out fairly quickly by the time closing shop came around.

  Thorn boarded up the front of the stall and tucked the honey back into the charmed cloth, which made them invisible to anyone but the person running the stall. No one would steal the merchandise. Not that he expected anyone would, at least not elves.

  He rubbed his hands together and picked up his bottle of honey, anxious to get started on his hunt. The sun dropped below the horizon in a brilliant set of orange and pinks. He loved a sunrise far more than a sunset, but they were both beautiful. He willed himself to blink just beyond the city, on the border of the forest. If he could take down his prey fast, maybe he’d meet Cayenne at the bar. A grin spread across his face. He’d find out everything he could if he saw her again. Thorn was about to open the jar when he heard the distinct sounds of the creature he was after. A mix between a snort and a slobbery giggle, the kind that sounds juicy. It had to be close.

  Tiptoeing on silent feet, he rounded a cove of bushes and saw the fairy, its large brown body caked in bulging sores and its wings cracked and close to falling off. A fairy who had the Malevolent disease. Damn good reward, enough to pay his gambling debt at the drow Dugout, and he’d capture it without barely doing any work at all. He thought himself fortunate it happened to be here and be distracted already.

  Thorn looked closer. It was eating...honey. He darted back away from the creature. Only one other person had bought honey today. Things clicked into place, and he wasn’t sure he liked where the pieces fit. Cayenne. She said she was in town for work. Was she hunting the same fairy?

  He heard a rustle in the bushes beside him, and his heart kicked up a notch. He stayed very still. He caught movement out of the corner of his eyes and found Cayenne sneaking her way up to the fairy. In the fading sun, her hair seemed to glow with the red highlights naturally woven into the strands. Her skin so fair. He remembered the touch of her flesh upon his and groaned inward. Her face had an edge to it, and her eyes had zeroed in on her prize. No doubt she was a brave elfess. One about to steal his reward.

  There were very little choices here. That damn fairy would put food on the table for near a moon cycle and pay off his gambling debt. Besides, she was an elfess; what the hell was she doing out bounty hunting? That’s not where a pretty female belonged. He cocked his eyebrow and decided he wouldn’t let her take this prize from him. He’d been hunting it for nearly a week. He’d made all the arrangements, guiding it toward Nirra to begin with, so he could get his hands on it easier. These woods were the perfect place for hunting because he knew them like he knew the inside of his home. He’d grown up around these parts. He’d put in the time, and the bounty belonged to him.

  Hawthorn watched her creep up behind it, so slow he barely heard her movements. He was quite certain the fairy would be too engaged in his food to notice the elfess. She had the homemade trap with her, only it looked far too little to hold the elfing thing. What was she going to do, peel off its wings and put them in it? Because it was about all that would fit in the tiny trap.

  He might as well let her try and then be ready when it didn’t work. If it did work, he could blink faster than she could, and do it with two people, so he had no doubts he would get the creature from her before she knew what happened. For now, he’d amuse himself with her. He pulled the netting out of his pants pocket and began unwinding the enchanted rope. It had been made with unicorn magic. It could capture almost any bounty he sought, mainly because unicorns were such pure creatures, and things up for bounty were generally evil, so the pure enchantment would hold them. When he had the net completely untangled, he started circling it, so he could swing the ropes and capture the fairy like a butterfly. Easy as winning a race with a snail. He crept up closer to be within range when she screwed up.

  His foot came down near the brush, and a snap echoed through the trees.

  Chapter Three

  Cayenne’s legs screamed at her. She’d sat in the same bushes all day long waiting for the fairy to show up. Boy, did it smell, too. The sores on the obese creature oozed, and the stench of rotten meat invaded her nose. She swallowed, holding back the bile threatening to come up. She hadn’t grabbed anything to eat precisely for this reason. She couldn’t risk losing her lunch and spooking the damn thing away. If she lost it here, she had no other way to track it. This was the only lead available, and she was unfamiliar with this territory.

  She took in deep, steady breaths, willing her heart to stay calm and her feet to keep moving as she emerged from the bushes. One foot at a time, until she was right behind the slobbering creature. The sounds it made alone were enough to turn her stomach even with only water in it. Her hands shook when she realized the damn box she’d made was far too small for the oversized fairy. Elfing fantastic! What would she do now? She looked down at the box and then back up at the fairy’s back. Its crumbling wings twitched, and she watched part of the iridescent skin fall to the ground.

  She didn’t have anything else with her to capture the disgusting thing with. She glanced around, but there was little else she could use. A loud snap came from behind her, and her heart stopped.

  The fairy turned, and she found herself fac
e to face with a red-eyed beast. Two quick choices—run and try again or grab on and will herself to blink with the fairy. Damn she needed that money. Her heart fluttered. Cayenne threw down the little trap she made and jumped on top of the disgusting creature. Its boils popped and oozed all over her clothes and skin. The stench was so great, she gagged, and her eyes rolled back in her head as the fairy tried to buck her off. She almost let go but forced herself to grip the nasty thing tighter.

  She held her breath and concentrated on blinking herself and the bounty back to the hunter’s offices on the other side of the realm. She’d been there a million times, and she did her best to keep the picture of it inside her head as the fairy stench burned at her eyes like cutting onions. The creature bucked under her trying to break free. Cayenne squeezed her eyes and felt the familiar pinch to her skin as she blinked to the office. She stumbled when she landed and fell to the ground.

  When she peered up, she found the fairy had not blinked with her. What the hell was going on? It should have worked!

  Cayenne stood and began to brush the dirt from her clothes, but the fairy ooze stuck to her clothes—and her hands—like snail snot. Her stomach couldn’t take anymore, and she fell to her knees as she vomited water then began dry heaves. She hadn’t eaten since…breakfast the day before. There was nothing to come up. Not only had she lost her prey, her stomach, but now she smelled like fairy puss too. Fan-elfing-tastic.

  “Nasty things, aren’t they, love?” a familiar voice said.

  With tears streaming down her face, she looked up to see Hawthorn standing before her—with her bounty in tow!

  “Thank you for picking up my slack.” She stood and wiped the spittle from her mouth. “Hand him over. I’ll owe you a drink at Reed’s tonight.” She reached out for the fairy.

  An amused smile settled on the man’s face. He had a shadow of facial hair, which gave a sexy look to his jawline. “I do believe I caught it, and I’ll be the one turning it in, love. You be a good girl and stay here. I’ll tend to you when I retrieve the reward.”

  Her eyes widened. He was a bounty hunter too, and he just told her to stay put, he’d take care of her... Anger stormed up from the pit of her stomach. She didn’t need someone to tend to her. What she needed was the damn bounty.

  “Listen here, you sorry excuse for a slug. I can handle myself just fine. I am the one who spent all damn day waiting in an elfing bush for this beast to show up. I trapped it. I had it. It should have come with me. I may not know why it didn’t, but I damn sure won’t let you take the money on the back of all my hard work.”

  He laughed this time, a full-bellied sound. She glared and waited for him to finish with her arms crossed.

  “Of course it didn’t work. I threw my enchanted net over the nasty thing right before you blinked. I’m not a fool. I’ve been chasing the fairy for a week now. I’m the one who herded it to Nirra. This is my credit. I’m not taking it away from you. You were the one who tried to steal it from under me.” He let out another chuckle.

  Her chest clenched, and her heart flipped in her chest. He stole the fairy from her. He was the one who had snapped a twig, or whatever the hell it was, which caused all the damn problems in the first place. And he took it from her, not a single word of apology. Now he laughed at her and claimed the prize for himself. Her assumptions ran wild.

  Rage overwhelmed her, and without bothering to warn him, she closed the distance and socked him as hard she could, right in his laughing elfing mouth. He stepped back, momentarily knocked off balance, but didn’t release the bounty. “You frog vomit. You seriously stole it from me? How could you?”

  She split his lip open, and a trickle of blood found its way to the surface of his skin. His tongue darted out, and his eyes hardened.

  “I don’t care who you think you are, elfess. You hit me again in any way, and I won’t be nice.” His voice came out low and even.

  A chill spread down her back and goosebumps followed. She had no intention of letting him bully her out of the money. She squared her shoulders, steeling her resolve. The fairy belonged to her, and she would take it back one way or another. “Give me the creature, and we can avoid this mess all together, love.” She cracked her knuckles and raised her chin without taking her eyes off him.

  His eyebrow cocked. “You think you can take me on, little elfin girl? Don’t think I’ll be easy on you just because you’re a female. I mean it. You come after me again, and I will retaliate. Now, I’m going to go in there and get that bounty. Don’t try to stop me.” His jaw clenched, and he turned to head inside.

  She was thankful they couldn’t blink inside the hunter office, and she took the opportunity to take back what belonged to her. She ran at him with balled fists and was about ready to clock him upside the head, when he turned faster than she thought possible and caught her fist in midstride.

  Chapter Four

  Thorn kept a tight grip on Cayenne’s arm and glared down at her. He couldn’t believe the gall of the elfess. She’d hit him not once, but twice? What had he gotten himself into? Did she really need this bounty that bad? It was like she was fighting for her life or something. Why couldn’t she just let it go? He had the fairy, and he didn’t plan to give it up. There was no hunter law saying he had to get the bounty by fair means. Whoever turns it in is rewarded the money. Simple as that. No fuss.

  Cayenne’s jaw clenched, and she yanked on her arm. He held fast. She needed to learn a bit of respect.

  “Let. Me. Go.” She pulled, and he let go only to watch her fall right on her cute little ass.

  “As you wish, love.”

  Cayenne’s face turned a bright red, and her hands clenched at her sides. She stomped her feet in the dirt. It was adorable. He needed to make her mad more often. A deep barreling laugh came out of him. He laughed so hard, tears came to his eyes, and it made his stomach hurt. He still had the fairy in a net slung over his shoulder, and it jiggled against his back as he chuckled.

  A gravelly voice spoke up from behind Thorn. “Fae o’ mine, lay a line. Hex be held in captives hands. Cursed be.” It had to be the fairy.

  A hard wind gusted, and Thorn flew without warning right into Cayenne. He landed hard, using his hands as a stopper when he toppled them both over with his weight on her. His palms burned as they came in contact with the dirt and rocks, scraping his skin. In the surprise, he let loose the net, and the malevolent fairy giggled, a high-pitched ear splitting sound.

  “Get off!” Cayenne pushed against his chest, and he came up on his knees to allow her to get free from him.

  “Are you all right?” he asked. He rubbed his palms along his pants.

  “Why the hell did you jump on me?” She scrambled backward and finally stood, wiping dirt from her clothes.

  “I didn’t. I was thrown. Must be something with the wind.” His stinging hands had gravel embedded in some areas of the flesh but, in all, he was fine. Irritation flared from the fall; some days he hated being a bounty hunter.

  “And you let it go!” she yelled pointing toward his net behind him.

  He looked over his shoulder. Sure enough, the trickster had vanished. “I didn’t let it go.”

  “Well, it isn’t there now is it?” She stuck her hands on her hips and scanned the area.

  Of course it fled. He’d be gone too if in the fairy’s place. Thorn shook his head and pushed up to a standing position. He’d have to reset traps, probably herd it again. Would take him another elfing week, maybe two.

  Cayenne stomped off toward the hunter’s lodge. He watched her hips sway as she walked away and couldn’t forget what they felt like in his grasp. He swallowed a groan. His cock didn’t seem to care he’d lost the bounty.

  When she reached about eight steps away, she flew backward, coming right at him at almost blinking speed. Thorn didn’t have any time to dodge the blow as she barreled into him knocking them both back to the ground.

  What the elf was going on?

  Her ass wiggled against h
im, and his prick hardened. “Keep moving like that, and I’ll have us both blinked back to my place.” Thorn clenched his fists together to keep from holding her against him.

  Cayenne scrambled off and turned to look at him. Her eyes were wide open. “What just happened? You did something didn’t you? You used some kind of weird magic and pulled me back to you. What, it wasn’t enough that we no longer have the fairy? You want to torture me?”

  Thorn cocked his eyebrow and stood with her. “Torture? Really? I didn’t do a damn thing. If I wanted to pull you back to me, I would have done it with my hands not magic.” He was inches from her face, and the only efling thing running through him was the urge to claim her sassy little mouth with his. He had to get her the hell out of his head. He had to walk away. Just turn and walk away.

  Thorn stepped back, took a deep breath, and headed away from her. He’d taken one step when her mouth opened again.

  “You wouldn’t dare. You magic-wielding coward.” Her voice was low and confident, and that did it for him.

  Thorn’s anger spiked from his gut, and he spun on his heels, stalking her, and closing the short distance between them. She took a step back, and he reached for her, capturing her waist. He dragged her into him.

  Cayenne gasped like she did the night before, and suddenly his pants were too tight. Before he talked himself out of it, he leaned down and claimed her. Kissing her hard and beckoning her mouth to allow him entrance. She melted into him, and her lips parted enough to permit the tip of his tongue to taste her inside. He groaned.