Page 9 of Tracking Snow

We don't dress to impress, we dress to dazzle and devastate. I almost giggle, remembering our emcee, Geanie, introducing us with those exact words last night. He's the best hype man ever.

I lasciviously waggle my tongue at the passing man, the silver stud catching the bright sun rays, letting him know I've caught him staring. He turns beet red and sets his gaze forward again.

"I'm just saying I've never seen you like this." Ariel navigates around a broken section of sidewalk without breaking stride, the wheels of her chair finding the smooth line through it with the practiced efficiency of someone who has mapped every fault in these streets. "You usually lose interest before you've even learned someone's last name."

"I don't know his last name."

"You don't know his first name."

"Details." I wave a dismissive hand.

Ariel's mouth twists in a terrible attempt to suppress a knowing smile. "How much of your interest is because of him, and how much of it is because of his super-speed power?"

Warmth rises to my cheeks as I remember the way the mystery mage pinned me to the wall. How even with his pale eyes, the look he gave me was so dark and hot that I squirmed underneath it. I had never experienced that level of raw, animal attraction before, which was saying something.

Since becoming a Lost Girl, I’ve learned it was okay to follow my impulses and urges to wherever and whoever's bed they led. A hell of a change from my insanely stifled upbringing.

I wish I knew what level mage that guy clocked at. Level fives were crazy rare, so if I had to guess, I'd peg him at a three or four, but I wanted to know more.

Hell, I want to know everything about him. Especially what he looked like with his hood pulled down, what else he uses his power for, why he’s stalking the night.

I also want to know what he tastes like. What he would have done if I had run my tongue up the pulsing vein that throbbed in his neck when he had me trapped against that wall. What the weight of his body would feel like on mine, and...

Whoa, girl.

He made it clear I was nothing but a human of no interest to him.

That stung. He couldn't possibly have known how deeply that cut me.

"I...don't know," I answer. He and his magic were compelling in equal measure. I wanted to suck his face off, but not just because he was super fast. But that didn't hurt either.

"You know, you are the coolest chick I know, even without powers," Ariel says quietly, as if reading my mind and my insecurities.

I roll my shoulders back. "Duh," I say, but there is no real confidence behind it.

Since working at Poison Apple with so many badass chicks with mage powers, the smoldering fire in my belly that yearns to be more, to have what they have steadily eats at me.

Level five mages are crazy rare, which is why it makes it even more insane that several of them work as bartenders at Poison Apple. In the middle of a human city no less.

I want that. Power. Magic. That special extra bit that sets me apart from everyone else.

I've always wanted it.

Hell, if I was even a fae like Tink, that would be rad. The numerous piercings and tattoos Ariel and I sport were done by the fairy who owns Inked by Tink.

I glance down at my inner arm and the pixie dust-infused tattoo of an ornate hand mirror, its surface broken into different segments. The only magic thing about me, and it's more a symbol than anything.

My eyes are then drawn to the numerous angry red scratch marks from that asshole cat, Lucifer. I was the one to name him after the devil because that’s what he is. The stray is a deranged mass of black fur that always hangs around our building and constantly ninjas his way into our apartment to get into our food and terrorize Ariel and me.

One of these days I’m going to catch Lucifer, cook him, and serve him up to those vampire rabbits—the flutterbuns—that are spreading across Boston. Though judging by the tiny fangs, they would take him raw...

I shake off the thought and my attention turns back to my tattoo.

I have no idea what it's supposed to mean. Tink said its meaning would reveal itself to me one day. That's how her magic tattoos work.

I hate how painfully human I am.

Even Ariel is more than I could ever be, though no one else knows her secret.