Excerpt: At Her Call

Irish and German by heritage, American by birth, graced with a healthy imagination and a gift for words and storytelling she was making a good living writing romances that cut close to the edge of acceptability for the trade. She'd have to look to other less socially acceptable publishers for the way she actually wrote the sex scenes, but those publishers didn't want the story length or the character development she preferred to create. Compromise was the name of the game.
Her sparkling green eyes lit up as she crossed into the forest and called out with a laugh, "hey any elves out there want to come walking with me? I'm cute!" She laughed again, at the joke and herself for wishing that elves were real.

***
Cai Lowry heard a woman's laugh and a call to 'any elves' to come walking with her. He tilted his head slightly to see if he could spot the woman around the bole of the tree he was currently tending to. The words 'I'm cute' were followed by more laughter. Shaking his head at the silly woman he wondered if she really knew what she had just done. Likely not, after all, humans didn't see what they really didn't believe in anyway. Putting the tools back in his kit he straightened up the area he'd been working. The trail marker was back in the correct position, instead of pointing to the dead fall set by wandering bad asses.
He was grateful that Otter had spotted the trap and filled it in. The disturbing thing that remained is that the taste of dark magic still lingered. Otter would see to that as well. The shaman might be as old as these hills but time did not seem to ever diminish him. Odd for a human, but who was he to complain.
Cai took the short trail run back to the road side and stowed his kit in the green park ranger truck he drove. It was a living, after all, what else was a Welsh Half-Elf supposed to do for a living in America, in a day and age where people no longer set out feasts for the fae. Yes, he admitted, he still had access to the world of the fae, could still use magic but it was just as simple to get a job and go to the store as to hunt. His human half diminished the issue with iron to a minor irritation and only if ingested in great quantity. The fae aging thing did make it a bit odd now and again. Every so often he'd change jobs and locations. Sometimes, if he really liked a job and place he'd use a bit of magic to change appearance.
Currently his shoulder length chestnut hair was pulled back in a silver clip to keep it out of the way. His eyes were such a deep black that the slightly odd shape of the cat like iris usually went unnoticed. Even his pointed ears drew little attention. Intermingling with humans had produced random ear points for millennia now. Add that to the people who sought out body modification and his ears went right along with the few tattoos he sported.
Listening carefully he could hear the woman running, skipping along the trail, laughing like a child at play. To him is was a joyful sound, but also worrying. That much play meant she was likely paying no attention to her surroundings. He sighed, pulled out the lunch bag he'd planned to nibble from the rest of the day and headed toward the laughter. He mumbled grumpily that it looked like he would find out first hand if she really was cute.

***
Cai was not the only member of the fae to have heard the 'cutie' calling out to the elves. Ryn's ears perked up and swiveled slightly toward the sound. While he wasn't rightly an elf, per se, he didn't really think that there would be much discussion of the fine points if he had his way. He was still furious that the old shaman and the wannabe human interfered with his trap. He'd seen Cai leaving and hoped that meant the girl would be his for the taking. One more stupid human, blundering along in the woods runs afoul of a wild animal. He would have laughed but in his current form, that of a large cat similar to the local bobcat, the sound would have been more like a house cat with a hairball. Just not dignified.
Ryn really couldn't remember why he'd started, so very long ago, to snap at the steps of that fool Cai but it was habit now. Anything to make Cai have to deal with the fae in front of the humans seemed to be reason enough for most any prank, or even the random murder. One day he was hoping he'd catch that nosy Otter poking around here and off his guard. That was another long standing game he was very invested in.