Welcome to Almusilaa

Chapter Two

Of course. I should have expected her to have a couple of ex-boyfriends tucked away somewhere. Charlie was smart, compassionate and beautiful so it should come as no surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Tom asked.

"It's a long story." Charlie replied.

Tom was the picture of an attractive man. If you looked up 'attractive man' in the dictionary his picture was listed as an example. He was tall with dark brown hair cropped short. He was wearing a well fitted charcoal suit. He had an angular jaw and cheek bones and his eyes shone brightly like beacons in his face.

"Would you be inclined to tell me over dinner?" He asked Charlie without missing a beat.

Charlie hesitated before agreeing. Tom pulled out a chair and sat down between Charlie and I as the woman from before came back with the water.

I nodded in thanks before she left us.

"So how is your dream job?" Charlie asked with the slightest edge to her voice.

"It's great, I've been very busy lately with this case. Some witch kidnapped some people and turned them into animals, it's nuts. We're going to give everyone a grilling tomorrow." Tom said obliviously=

"Cool. By the way, where are we supposed to go for this 'grilling'?" I asked Tom with a glare directed his way. He looked at me in surprise before turning his gaze to both Grace and Nicole who hadn't said anything.

"You're the familiars?" He asked us. Perhaps I was biased but my opinion of him was dropping by the second. He didn't seem to be the brightest crayon in the box.

"No shit Sherlock." Nicole said as she took a break from wolfing down her mince. The look on his face was satisfying.

"Oh, well I guess we're going to be seeing a lot more of each other for a while." Tom said, taking the opportunity to flash a smirk at Charlie. The woman who got us our water came over to give Tom his food and coffee.

Charlie looked uncomfortable. We ate in silence for a while. Tom finished his wrap in five minutes thankfully and told us he had to leave. As soon as he left Charlie sighed in relief.

"What was that all about?" Grace asked, with a chip in her beak.

"It's a long story." Charlie said with another sigh. "Come on, let's go." She said while grabbing her stuff. We had all finished our food anyways.

We walked back outside and onto the busy street.

"Where to next?" Grace asked as she swayed on Charlie's shoulder from her movements. Nicole and I had to stop when Charlie stopped in front of us to think.

"I don't know, but I don't want to go back to that hotel room." Charlie said. We all agreed with her. It was nice and all but very bland.

"I'm happy to just walk around, it's not often you find yourself in a city filled with things you were told don't exist." Nicole spoke up. She was right, all of my life I had been told witches and vampires didn't exist but I had already encountered both in the span of a few weeks.

"That's cool, we can just walk around for a while." Charlie suggested as we continued walking at an easy pace.

We passed a few restaurants and bars, a few businesses and a supermarket. A block later we came upon a large park bustling with activity. A lot of creatures of all sizes rushed around. The flurry of movement was mesmerizing. Then I looked closer.

"What are they?" I asked quietly.

"They're Fae, some of them look almost human but a lot of them are easy to pick from a crowd." Charlie explained as a man walked past. His top half was that of a regular man, if not a little hairy. But at the waist his body morphed into that of a goat with light caramel hair. He also had matching ears that poked from his curly hair.