knew and I would tell the police he'd come to us. We were allowed to use magic to help our clients. Hell, it was one of the things our agency was known for, and I knew I was justifying what I would do next.
I stood up so I could reach across the desk and touch his hand. "It's okay, I know what it's like to have the powerful demi-fey affect you."
He looked at my hand on his. "May I hold your hand?"
"Why do you want to?"
"Because I'm elfstruck and just holding your hand would be more than I ever thought I'd get."
I studied his eyes. There was pain there and it was real. I thought about it, and knew that the more he touched me, the more likely he was to tell me everything. If he was truly elfstruck for the touch of my body, he'd give up every secret he'd ever known. I said, "Yes."
He took my hand in his, and there was a tremble to his hand as if it was much more important than it should have been. Frost touched his shoulder, but instead of being afraid, Donal stared up at him as if the touch was wonderful. He did have it bad.
"My therapist says that I got messed up because I got to watch elf porn when I was twelve. He says that's why I'm elfstruck, and why all my interests are the sidhe, because I watched them glow on screen when my sexuality was just forming." He turned from Frost to me, and his eyes were tormented. "Once you've seen a pair of you light up a room, how can any human compare?"
I blinked at him. "I'm sorry. I didn't know any sidhe had made porn."
Rhys answered, "There are a few who came out when Maeve Reed did, but they didn't have her acting ability."
I looked back at him. "Are you saying that there are currently sidhe who are acting in porn?"
He nodded. "Hell, there's even Glimmer porn."
"Royal mentioned it last night," I said.
"I'll just bet he did," Rhys said.
I gave him an unfriendly look.
"Sorry," he said.
I held Donal's hand and felt his happiness at such a small touch. To be elfstruck for a human was truly terrible. It meant that nothing and no one satisfied the need. Humans had wasted away for lack of our touch, but it was usually a human whom we'd captured and taken to faerie and then released, or someone who'd escaped but found that you never really escaped faerie. That was in the old days, long before I was born, but the human was ruined for regular life. They longed for things that humans couldn't give them.
Then I thought of something. "Rhys, how did you find out about Glimmer porn?"
"When we watched Constantine's movies there were a few extra films with fey."
"That's why she wanted to be big," Donal said, "so they could have sex for real. She was a camera girl for a while."
"What does a camera girl do?"
"They have an online site where you can watch demi-fey do things to themselves and with each other, and sometimes with humans. You subscribe like to any porn site."
"And that's what his girlfriend did for a living?" I asked.
"They met through the site. She broke the rules by dating a client and they fired her."
"So a camera girl is a demi-fey."
"Not just demi-fey, humans, too. They're just girls you can pay and they'll act out your fetish," Rhys said.
Donal nodded.
"And how do you know all this, Rhys?" I asked.
"I have a house outside faerie, Merry, remember? When you're not allowed to touch anyone else, porn is a wonderful thing."
I glanced at Doyle. "I thought the queen didn't even let the guards pleasure themselves."
"She made that rule for only her most trusted men. With time and distance, I think only the men she thought she might want again someday."
"Should I be insulted?" Rhys asked.
"No, happy. At least you had a release."
Rhys nodded. "Fair enough."
"Did you see them kill anyone?" I asked.
"No, I swear I would have gone to the police."
"So why are you sure that they did it?"
"It was when I found out who some of the demi-fey were who died. She hated the ones who could hide and play human, and she hated the ones who were more powerful than she was, but only sometimes. Sometimes she was their friend, but other times she seemed to hate them. She really earned her name."
"What name?" I asked.
"Bittersweet. Sometimes she'd call herself