Air: Elementalist Book 1 by Rebecca Wolf (an ebook reader txt) 📕

my future mother-in-law, but they both acted like it was completely normal, and it didn’t want to make things more awkward by protesting. We moved on to eveningwear, and then to casual attire. Finally, the wedding dresses were brought out. “What would you like your dress to say?” asked Yasmine. “Say the first thing that comes to mind.”

“Don’t fuck with me” I said, then covered my mouth with my hands. I hadn’t meant to say it like that. I glanced over at Lucy, but she appeared unphased. “Perfect” said Yasmine and pulled off one of the dresses. It was a jumpsuit. A fitted lace halter top, a belt at the waist, it clung until the bottom of my hips, after which the silk pants flowed when I walked. I tried it on. It had pockets, and yes, I felt like a boss. I looked over at Lucy. There was a self-satisfied smile on her face. “Right, go take it off now, darling.” She turned to Yasmine and gave her a nod. “We will have all this delivered to Aiden’s house, except for the jumpsuit of course, which we will have delivered to Zephyr’s current abode.” Yasmine nodded in understanding and the salesclerk wheeled everything away. I changed back into my paint dress and handed the jumpsuit to the salesclerk. “As always, you have been indispensable, Yasmine,” said Lucy. They gave each other air kisses goodbye. “Zephyr, due come back dear,” said Yasmine, turning to address me, “I look forward to helping with your evolution.”

Lucy and I left the shop. It was five in the evening and I was now late for work. Somehow I had lost track of the time so completely, that I hadn’t even thought to call Penny to notify her.

“Well, that was fun!” said Lucy with a warm smile, as she dropped me off at my house. “I look forward to doing that again with you darling!” Her driver pulled away from the curb and after a while of standing there, I went back into the house to change for work.

Penny gave me a look when I entered the bar, but said nothing. Lewis was the act on stage tonight, so I knew what to expect. Lewis was a magician who, like Penny, was a human shifter with both genders. This worked well for him as he played the parts of both the magician and his assistant. Costume changes were made easier by the scantily clad numbers that the assistant wore. His status was very hush-hush, as most of his tricks relied on the fact that the audience didn’t know that he was also female. Not that there was much of an audience tonight. I sighed, Penny was thinking about selling the place, as the business hadn’t seemed to really recover from the break-in. The intruders had taken all the cash from the register, and broken a lot of the expensive booze that we kept in the basement storage.

The guards Aiden hired stood dutifully in strategic locations around the bar. Suddenly Aiden strode in and sat on my barstool, “shot of mercury?” he asked when I approached.

“Really, Aiden? Is this necessary?”

“I have news regarding our mutual interests, and since you and I have a business arrangement now working as partners, I thought it prudent I sit in your business section.” he raised  one eyebrow in challenge.

“Ok,” I sighed, pouring him a shot of vodka, “let’s hear it.”

“I have strong evidence that an older fire elemental was responsible for Jerry’s death. Your father is the oldest elementalist and is the head of his house. All the other  Elementals in his house are at least a decade and a half younger than him.”

“You think my father knows about me?”

“I think it’s likely that if he didn’t before, he does now. At this point I see no further need to continue with this investigation.”

“Not so fast, Aiden,” I said, “I want to see this proof you have.”

Aiden pulled out his phone. “There was a street camera that caught this footage at around the known time of death.” He pressed play. The footage was dated on the bottom with the exact date that Jerry had been murdered. There, on the screen was the fire elementalist who sired me, Thomas Cole. He walked up the steps and knocked on the door. When no one answered, he pushed the door open and walked inside. Fifteen minutes later he walked out, and there was a disgruntled look of disgust on his aristocratic face. Definitely the face of a man who had just seen and done horrible things. Damn.

“What do you think I should do?” I asked him.

“Nothing,” said Aiden, “I think we should wait and see what his next move is before we act on this. You have the protection of my family in the meantime, and that is not something that he will take lightly.”

I nodded, leaning back against the wall of the bar as I contemplated all of this. When had my life gotten so complicated? I sighed.

“We still need to find out who attacked the bar,” I said.

“Yes, I have some of my security looking into it, I will let you know as soon as they have something concrete to share.”

“Thank you, Aiden,” I said, turning to serve some customers who had been waiting at the bar.

“Zephyr, can we start over?” Aiden asked suddenly, taking my hand and rubbing light distracting circles on my palm.

“I need both hands to mix drinks,” I said, staring pointedly at where his hand held mine.

“We’re going to be stuck with each other for a long time,” he said, tapping my palm with his index finger before letting me go. “I think we should try to at least be friends.”

“I’ll think about it. “I said noncommittally, “but the time to talk about this isn’t when I’m at work.”

Aiden turned and left after having a conversation with my security detail.

Penny and I got home at four in the morning, and we both crashed hard. The next few