eyed Owen. “Maybe you should stay outside with Dorian, Scarecrow, before you get into any trouble.”
I turned to Owen and had to suppress a giggle. His mouth hung open as he stared at the space where the faerie had stood only a moment ago.
“I think you’re drooling,” I said.
“Huh?” He finally looked at us, as if just now remembering we existed. He shook his head. “I, uh, think I’ll stay out here. With Dorian. At least you have Alexis.”
Tristan explained before I could ask. “Fae can be irresistible to the opposite sex, but especially to singles. My love for you dilutes her power drastically. Owen doesn’t have a chance, and his involvement with a faerie is the last thing we need right now.”
He took my hand and led me up the steps to the cottage, leaving Dorian and Owen at the car. Even if Owen hadn’t reacted to the faerie like a teenager in a strip club, I’d be leaving him outside with Dorian. I already felt vulnerable, regardless of the fae’s preference for good over evil. No way would I leave my son unattended. I glanced over my shoulder at him, still sleeping in the car, before entering the cottage.
“So I know who you are, Alexis, but you don’t know may,” the faerie called from what I assumed was the kitchen. She appeared in a doorway, carrying a tray with three glasses of brown liquid poured over ice. “I’m Lisa.”
I stared at her. Lisa? Such a Norman name.
“Well, that’s not mah real name, of course. That one’s too long and hard to say here. It’s easier to go by Lisa in this world.” Maybe she didn’t intend it, but I thought I saw her nose crinkle when she referred to our world. She placed the wooden tray of drinks on a coffee table and motioned for us to sit on the sofa. She plopped into a chair. “Where’s Owen? He’s not stayin’ outside, is he?”
She looked disappointed when Tristan nodded, but then she laughed, a bright, joyful sound. “Ah, well. We have business to take care of anyway. First, I heard you were askin’ about somethin’.”
“Yes, our daugh—”
“No, no, not that,” Lisa said, waving her hand. “Not yet. I mean this.”
Another woman glided into the room. She struck quite a resemblance to Lisa, but with purple hair instead of blue. A tight white blouse, shorts barely longer than a bikini bottom and knee-high boots clad her killer body. She held a small animal in her hand.
“It wasn’t easy, these are so rare, but Jessica was able to find this one,” Lisa said. I blinked at her, thoroughly confused. “This is my sista, Jessica. And she found y’all this.”
The purple-haired Jessica strode over to me and deposited the little animal on my lap. Whoa! Was this some kind of fae creature? Though it had a canine body shape and a wolf’s face, light-gray lines marked its white fur, similar to a tiger’s stripes. And closed tightly against its sides were feathery, shiny-white wings. Wings! It was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen with the silkiest, softest fur I’d ever felt. I peered sideways at Tristan.
“I promised Dorian,” he said.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Um . . . this isn’t a dog.”
“No. It’s a Lykora.”
My mouth dropped open. “You mean . . .?”
“What I nicknamed you, exactly.”
Ma lykita, he had told me once, meant “my little Lykora,” a supposedly mythical creature that appeared to be tiny and non-threatening, but when it felt its loved ones were in danger, it would grow to the size it needed to be to protect them. I stared at the little animal in my lap, and it stared back with big, puppy-like eyes. Its tail wagged, and its wings fluttered slightly. The smell of baby powder engulfed me. It even smelled good. And then a blue tongue darted out of its mouth and licked my hand. Crap. Crap, crap, crap. I was already in love. But there was no way we could keep it. Dorian couldn’t see it.
“Tristan, this is not a dog. Dorian can’t have this.”
“Sure he can.” He scooped the little creature out of my lap, and with one hand, held it up to his face. “Hide,” he told it.
The Lykora didn’t run away and disappear. In fact, it didn’t seem to obey at all. But then I noticed . . . its wings and stripes had vanished, and its face had softened. It now looked like a little white puppy. I smiled as