Zoe's Blockade (Destiny's Trinities Book 5) by Tracy Cooper-Posey

came a sound that Zoe had heard more than once as a medical assistant. Someone was vomiting.
    “Oh, for the love of Pete!” Cole bellowed, from the same direction.
    Diego laughed. “Wish I’d seen that,” he murmured and dialed. “Yeah…Beth. We’ve got a development. You’d better come.”
    Zoe could hear the woman’s voice on the other end of the phone, even though she was standing by the bottom of the stairs still.
    “Who?” Beth asked.
    “Everyone,” Diego said simply. He looked at the air next to Zoe. “You, too, Declan.”
    Declan appeared, standing next to her. “How did you know I was here?”
    “You’re covered in pixie dust. I can smell it,” Diego said shortly. He spoke into the phone. “Sooner the better, Seaveth.”
    * * * * *
    The room was full of people Zoe didn’t know, which generally made her uneasy until she had mentally catalogued them, figured out names and the degree of danger they might represent. The old mental habits of hunting were coming back in a rush. Despite her caution among a group of strangers, Zoe found she was looking back at the mantelshelf over the fireplace, her gaze pulled there by fascination.
    Among the photos and knickknacks were at least eight pixies that she could see. They were tiny people, both male and female, although even the males seemed delicate, with their gossamer wings and ageless faces.
    They were sitting, standing, leaning and hovering among the photos, listening to the big people and talking among themselves. Their talking was almost silent, highlighted by the high-pitched trilling they made.
    One of them had arrived with the man—the elf—called Lindal. He was astonishingly tall, with limpid blue eyes that reminded Zoe of the woman who had brought Diego his guns. There was a relationship there, she suspected.
    The woman was here, too, sitting next to Diego, her hand in his. Sera. Another elf.
    The other woman in the room was Seaveth. She was statuesque, with masses of red curls that tumbled down her back to brush her ass as she moved. There was absolutely no doubt that she was the leader in the room. Everyone was looking at her or deferred to her. Everyone listened carefully when she spoke, as she was doing now.
    “If they influenced Declan’s brother, it must have been some sort of mental domination,” Seaveth said, “as you say he wasn’t under physical stress, if you discount the effects of the liquor.”
    “That’s a new trick,” said the man standing behind Diego and Sera. He had dirty blonde hair and stood with his arms crossed. Zoe pegged him as some sort of law enforcement, based on the stance alone. “I wonder from how far away they can exert the influence? We’ve never really gotten close to one of them before.”
    “Blake’s right.” The dark-haired man sitting next to Lindal said. “They use the vampeen as a barricade. If there is a wounded one out there, we should go find it.”
    “Just getting close would give us a lot of information about them,” Seaveth said in agreement.
    “If it is wounded, it will need help,” Declan said. He didn’t speak particularly loudly, yet everyone turned to look at him. He was wearing the jeans and tee shirt Zoe had first seen him in. They were what he had reappeared in and she wondered if that was his default clothing. Would he always be wearing them, if he didn’t consciously choose to appear in something else?
    “Medical help,” Declan said, clarifying himself.
    Diego shook his head. “Let the fucker die,” he said harshly. “You don’t know what these things have done. What they’re capable of doing.” He glanced at Blake.
    Blake’s jaw rippled. “They’re heartless,” he said, his voice low. “They’ve already used your brother against you and Cole, and that’s mild.”
    Zoe wondered who it was they had used against him.
    “So we should be heartless just because they are?” Declan asked, heat in his voice.
    Seaveth held up her hand. “First things first.