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anatomy chart, too.” She turned the privacy-shielded image around for a better look at what only she could see.
    Cal stuck out his hand to grab her f-light, but while not sentient, the f-light knew its owner and wasn’t particularly grabbable, a necessary feature for law enforcement, yet fou nd on the standard model, also.
    Tony slapped his hand away, “Naughty, naughty.”
    “The message?”
    She blushed. “Okay, yeah, so not sharing that with you, so let that dream die.” She sighed, pocketed her f-light, and started walking again, confident that her partner’s curiosity would drag him along after her. “He is a potential suspect, I know. But I may play along with this,” she waved a hand around, “this, whatever this is with him. That’s all I was doing.”
    Cal rolled his eyes, “Right. You going all goo-goo-eyed was all about playing along with the handsome homicide suspect.” She glared at him and he amended his comment. “Potential suspect. Who doesn’t need to use glamour, dahling. And is older than dirt.”
    Tony narrowed her eyes and looked up him, “You got a better idea? He gave us a lot,” she heard Cal mutter in a low hum that almost resonated in her own chest, “He gave you a lot, actually,” but she forged on more loudly, “a lot of information, but he was holding some back, and I need to find out what that is. I can handle myself.”
    Cal got quiet and then said to her, no teasing in his voice, “You know that he really is a very old Being, right?”
    “Right?” she echoed in a questioning where-is-this-going voice.
    “And he is dark fae, demonic, not a nice guy, y’know? Despite his rant about helping the Supernatural races fit in through love,” Cal drew out the last one-syllable word into two sarcastic syllables. “Look, kid. Don’t assume nothing about him, not good, not bad, not nothin’. Okay?”
    Tony looked at Cal with a grin, “Look at you. You’re going all over-protective big ogre on me?”
    Cal shook his head. “Berthell will eat my ears if anything happens to you. You know she wants to name our next spawn after you, right?”
    “Not Antonia?” Tony asked, horrified.
    “No, no, Newman. She really likes the name.”
    Tony stood for a second, thinking over her dad’s reaction to finding out that ogre spawn sported the family name. Then she grinned, “I adore Berthell. I really do. And I would hate for her to have to make good on her promise to eat your ears.” Cal gave her a look, waiting for the punchline. “They are your best feature. Be more of a punishment for her than you.” And from long practice, Tony ducked, just in time. Unfortunately, a pedestrian who had been about to dodge around them caught the blow. Once again, walking traffic turned like a school of fish, avoiding the ogre ahead.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    The walk back to the crime scene took Cal and Tony past their favorite cupcake shop, but Tony dragged Cal on by without ducking in for a red velvet to-go.
    “Berthell told me the doc gave you a hard time about your weight, so you need to watch it for a day or two.” When Cal started to whine, she gave him a narrow-eyed look. “If I got that from my doctor, it would take a good two months, not a few days, of backing off the tasty treats, so cry me a river, big man. I am not feeling sorry for you.”
    Cal sighed and turned back to stare at a mother and daughter coming out of the cupcake shop with a large box. They caught his look and paused for a second, Natural instincts overcoming the past few decades of reasonably safe actual experience with Supers. They might know intellectually that they were safe, but deep down, their ids were screaming, “Run for your lives!” He waved at them and smiled and turned back around to see his partner shaking her head.
    “What?”
    “I know you have a really large sweet tooth---”
    Cal interrupted her, leaning down with his mouth wide open and pointing to a large molar, “Ay think itz that one,” he told her