on it. I wanted a chance to chat with Jade one-on-one.
Jade might have owned the place, but she took a hands-on approach. Every night except Saturday, the busiest, she also served as the only bartender. Right now, she was ringing up the bill for a couple who must have stopped in for early drinks before heading on to other nightly exploits. Her dark green hair, almost the same hue as my dress, hung in neat coils halfway down her slim back.
Most people probably thought she’d picked the color to go with her name, but I suspected it was the other way around. If anyone ever asked, she gave credit to a special dye her stylist mixed for her, but I happened to know her hair grew in like that. It was the one shadowkind feature she couldn’t hide away in her mortal form. In this company, no one batted an eye at it. The color complemented her smooth skin, the same rich brown shade as the tequila she was now pouring.
I sat down on the stool at the far end of the gleaming counter, which appeared to have been carved out of a single immense slab of quartz. That seat was a little removed from the others, and it had a splash of supernatural influence on it that would discourage any mortal not wearing a badge like mine from taking it. The understanding was that if you wanted to talk to Jade about shadowkind matters, you sat yourself down there and waited until she was ready.
It only took a few minutes before she moseyed over, giving me a crooked smile. “Sorsha. It’s been a while. You’re looking well. What’s new in your part of the world?”
“Not a whole lot, but I was hoping to run something by you.” I motioned to the rack of drinks on the wall behind her. “Jack and Coke, please.” Only a cheapskate asked for info without offering their patronage first.
Jade mixed the drink with graceful efficiency and slid it across the counter to me. I took a sip and enjoyed the sweet-and-sour burn all the way down to my stomach. She never skimped on the quality of her ingredients, which was also part of what made this place popular.
She leaned her elbow onto the counter. “What’s on your mind?”
Talking with her about Fund business or anything similar required a careful hand. Jade might have been shadowkind, and I was sure she cared at least a little about her people’s well-being, but like most of the higher shadowkind I’d met who’d transitioned to living in the mortal realm, her own survival and that of her immediate friends was way higher on her list of priorities than any thought of the greater good. If she could lend me a hand without any consequences, she’d happily do so, but if the subject sounded at all risky, she was likely to clam up.
“I got a tip there might be something worth checking out at a place called ‘Merry Den’,” I said, pitching my voice low enough that the growing bar-room din would cover it. “That might be just a nickname, not something official. Any idea what that is or where I could find it?”
Jade’s thin eyebrows drew together. She tapped the glass stir-stick she was holding against her lips. “That doesn’t ring any bells,” she said in a tone that sounded genuinely apologetic. “If it comes up, I can give the Fund a ring?”
“This is more of a private matter,” I said. “Call me directly.”
“Not a problem.”
I sucked my lower lip under my teeth, trying to figure out how to phrase the next question in nonthreatening terms. “Has there been anything new in talk among the kind in general—about unusual behavior from hunters or anything like that?”
Her pale blue eyes went even more distant, and then she blinked, a flash of inspiration crossing her face. “You know, I have heard—and if anyone asks, it wasn’t me who mentioned it—that there’ve been advertisements going out on the down low that offer collectors big bucks if they happen to have a particularly potent shadowkind in their stash. It sounded like some mega-collector trying to create the ultimate zoo.” She gave a little shudder.
Huh. It was communications about a possible transaction to purchase shadowkind that had brought my attention to the guy who’d had my trio caged up. The way the pieces I’d seen had been worded, I’d assumed that collector was the buyer, but maybe he’d been considering selling one or