"No biggie," Zoe assured him. "The stone throwing was impressive, but Michael did all the work."
The men had stopped on the landing beside Zoe. Magnus's hackles bristled. Something was wrong here, something that made his fairy warning lights go off.
"Oh," said Zoe, craning around at them. "This is, um, Bryan McCallum and Alexander Goodbody. They were staying in 410 when the incident began. Alex and I knew each other in high school."
They more than knew each other. Their energy was tangled up like old lovers. Magnus put his arm around Zoe's shoulder.
"Nice to meet you," he said coolly. "I'm Zoe's friend, Magnus."
The one who hadn't been her lover offered his hand. "Nice to meet you, Magnus. Your girlfriend has quite a gift."
"Oh, we're not—" Zoe started, then shut her mouth.
Like hell we're not, Magnus thought, shaking Bryan's hand.
The other one, Alex, didn't offer his. He was gazing at Magnus as coolly as Magnus was at him. He was very handsome, very smooth and golden and buff. He crossed his arms with perfect superciliousness across his chest. "You and Zoe know each other long?"
"Two years," Zoe answered before Magnus could. "Magnus is my manager."
"Among other things," Magnus added, his fingers sliding slowly to Zoe's wrist. Her pushed-up sleeves left her forearm bare, and he fed his personal magic into her skin, letting it curl low in her body, where the nerves bundled thickest inside her sex. He made the magic lick her where he wished he'd had a chance earlier, right over the swollen tip of her clitoris.
The energy had exactly the effect he'd intended. Zoe gave a little gasp as her ni**les tightened violently. She immediately yanked her sweater closed over her flimsy tank top. She tried to pull away from him, but Magnus wasn't having that.
Alex's sea-blue eyes narrowed down to slits. "Her manager and more. How very ethical of you."
Magnus's vision flashed red with rage, a reaction that came to him straight through his mother's blood. His father would have been ashamed, but in that second, he didn't remotely regret the maternal half of his heritage.
"Hey." Zoe pushed at his chest as he stepped forward. Her voice was husky from his secret touch, and a primitive satisfaction, every bit as potent as the rage, swelled in his chest. She was his, and this Alex couldn't get in the way. Magnus had at least four inches on her old boyfriend and who knew how many pounds of muscle. He'd smash him into a pulp before he used that smirking tone again.
Magnus leaned closer, maybe looking like he was going to try something, because the force of Zoe's shove increased.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" she hissed. "You never treat people this way."
Magnus felt his upper lip curl back from his teeth. His awareness of Zoe's nearness was all that kept his snarl silent.
"Magnus," Zoe said, changing tack to stroke his upper arm. Her words weren't nearly as conciliatory as the caress. "Just say hello to the man and shake hands. Alex, you stop glowering and pull out the manners your mom taught you."
Oh, Magnus did not like hearing that she knew this man's mother. In the human realm or in Fairy, meeting parents was serious. With an effort, he forced his jaw to unclench.
"Sorry. Force of habit. I tend to be protective of my friends."
Alex's hooded eyes seemed to hide a smile. He put out his hand. "I understand. Friends like Zoe are worth protecting."
Magnus took the hand, fully intending to exert some fairy strength on its human joints. The moment their palms slid together, he knew that wasn't going to work.
Hellfire, he thought, his own hand getting squished in his slack-mouthed horror at the surprise.
Alex was a fairy, too. Not only that, Alex was Magnus's cousin on his mother's side. The signature Murphy energy was impossible to mistake, though Alex's genetics—and thus his features—had been altered to match whatever human had traded realms with him. Now that Magnus thought about it, he'd met Alex's human opposite at one of his friend Tryon's flying hunts. Magnus's Aunt Elena had been terribly proud of her adopted son, said he had a head for spells most humans in Fairy lacked.
All of which boiled down to Zoe's old boyfriend being a changeling.
No wonder Magnus's territorial instincts had gone into overdrive. The Monroes and Murphys were royal lines, closely matched in power. Magnus wasn't facing off against a human, he was in a pissing contest with a full-blood fey, a preternaturally seductive, sexually insatiable full-blood fey. Worse, being a changeling gave Alex permanent green card status. He actually couldn't return to Fairy unless his counterpart agreed to return. Which meant Alex could screw Zoe senseless without losing his right to stay.
The only bright spot was that Magnus's competition didn't have a clue what he was. The Murphy magic was in him, but his human parents wouldn't have taught him what do with it. Fair or not, that was the way the exchange worked.
"We should go," Zoe said, pointedly separating Alex's hand from Magnus's. "You two need someplace else to stay."
"Someplace to eat," Bryan corrected, his hand pressed to his stomach. "After that rain of rocks, a few lights turning on and off aren't going to scare me away."
"We also need to talk," Alex said, sounding like he meant just him and Zoe. Zoe must have looked reluctant, because he held up one hand. "Nothing personal. You might have information about the case that brought us here."
"That's right," she said. "Your mom mentioned you'd become a private detective."
"She stayed in touch with you?"
Zoe smiled with the gentle understanding that had made Magnus fall for her. Seeing that warmth directed at another man caused his hands to curl into fists. "Christmas cards, complete with pictures of your older brothers and their kids."
"I'm sorry I didn't—"
"No," Zoe said. "I never expected you to write." She shrugged as if that could end the trip down memory lane. "I'd be happy to answer whatever you want over food, though I'm afraid it's going to have to be take-out pizza. My larder is bare, and that's the only thing that's open this time of night."
"Pizza is not a problem," Alex laughed. "Left to himself, I'm not sure Bryan here would eat anything else."
He slapped his companion's shoulder, causing a curl of energy to flare between them. To Magnus the link looked new, but definitely sexual, and it was equally strong in both directions. Bryan's gaze dropped to the floor. From the tension that had just ramped up in Zoe's body, she'd picked up on the connection, too.