Chapter 1

Blue had never been shot before. Much less after a one night stand.

He clutched his side where the bullet grazed him, groaning in agony. The woman before him tutted but kept the gun level at his bare chest. He eyed his attempted murderer cautiously, gritting his teeth.

"Don't be such a baby, you'll live," she spoke with a thick accent, perhaps South Bannaheimr. She cocked the gun, "now tell me, who are you?"

"My friends call me Blue."

"Ah, but we are not friends, Mr Blue."

"Jacob. Jacob Carlisle," he spat out as if it were poison. That name was foreign on his tongue, a name that no longer belonged to him. His wound prickled, shooting darts of pain into his side. "And you are?"

"Call me J."

"Is that what your friends call you?"

"No."

He stared up at the woman who stood with her feet on either side of his hips, his eyebrows knitted and mouth agape. She was short in stature but towered over where he lay with only a blanket to cover him. Her hair was bright green and mostly shaven besides from where it stood proudly at the centre of her head. He couldn't see her eyes from behind her round glasses, but the dark lenses made them look black. He had never met an elf before, how he wasn't sure since he lived in the city, in the middle of the old elven homeland.

"So, Mr Blue, tell me; what are you doing in my house?"

Blue paused, wondering what story to tell. He could craft a lie, but it would never be a good enough reason to find himself naked in a stranger's bed so early in the morning. The truth didn't seem great either, but he didn't have much else to go on.

"I followed a very pretty man here after having one too many drinks down at the Wounded Dove," he tried to sound charming and suave, but his voice rippled as he stared down the barrel, "one thing led to another - I'm sure you'd understand."

She groaned, pulling the gun away from his face as she pinched her nose with her spare hand, scrunching her eyes closed.

"Oh, I'm going to kill that boy," she growled under her breath before ushering at Blue with the barrel of her gun, "You, up. You have some explaining to do to the crew."

He swallowed thickly. "Are you going to kill me?"