Page 14 of Pixie Problems
About a block away from the docks I could smell the water. The scent of brine, fish, and smoke exhaust turned my stomach, and then in the next instant, a strong breeze, smelling of papayas of all things, tickled my nose and my stomach settled back where it should be.
“Thanks.”
Nick shrugged, like it was no big deal, then his head came up sharply, and I heard it too, overlapping voices shouting.
“Ahhhmannnnn!” I said and broke into a run. Nick did the same beside me and we arrived at the docks—a beautiful bay with maybe twenty ship berths in a protected inlet, and miles and miles of glistening, frothy water—in record time. It looked like the water was churned up from the small ships that were transporting cargo from a huge cargo ship offshore. There was another huge cargo ship closer, but it looked like it sat lighter in the water, meaning that it was weighed down less. This was possibly the reason it could enter so far into the bay. It was still a distance out, but Nick and I got there just in time to find a crowd of people on the docks exclaiming and shouting, and see Lucky take a flying run off the ship and into the water with what looked like a white dog in her arms.
As soon as she hit the water, the man on the deck of the ship pulled out a pistol and started shooting at her. I started stripping down to my bra and underwear, not at all looking forward to what I was about to do. Nick changed into a huge bird of prey. “Go after the man with the gun, Nick. I’ll go after Lucky.” He nodded his bird head and took off into the sky with a loudscreech.I yelled at the bystanders as I started booking it down the dock, “Call Sheriff Finn and tell him to get his butt down here with a ton of backup!”
I felt a release as my wings exited the void and ignored the gasps behind me as I leaped into the air on huge, iridescent, azure, purple and pink wings that looked like butterfly wings, but were much larger and stronger. And yes, they sparkled. It was frankly disgusting.
I skimmed the water, not wanting or needing to get any sort of lift yet. I just needed to reach Lucky and get her out of the way of danger. She was swimming with one arm and using the other arm to hold onto the animal clutched to her. Nick had arrived at the boat and gotten the gun away from the shooter and had turned it on the crowd now gathering on the boat. One lone genie facing off with twenty bad guys with guns.
It was the stupidest thing I’d ever seen in my life. “You idiot!” I yelled. “They have more guns than you do!”
But, surprisingly, nobody moved.
And then I realized, oh, genie magic. Ooops. Well I’d apologize to him later. Maybe.
Finn’s SUV came screaming up to the dock along with about seven other police cars, all with blazing sirens. They got out and made quick work of commandeering a small boat so they could help protect Nick and make some sense of what was happened on the boat.
When I reached her, Lucky was sobbing, and my heart just about melted toward her. Yes, she was unlucky, and extremely foolish, but it looked like she’d been really brave too. I picked her up by her pants and shirt, and just hoped like crazy she was wearing sturdier clothing than she had been a few days ago. Because if these split, she was going to go back under the water.
And I’d been wrong about the dog.
It was a mini unicorn, and I’d never seen anything cuter in my entire life. Sometimes I cursed my pixie blood. It found all magical animals adorable; even though I’d tried to tell it time and time again that animals were slobbery, messy nuisances, it didn’t work. My brain wentawwwwwand my heart went pitter patter.
Oh for pixies sake!
I landed us gently on the wooden dock near my clothes. Someone handed us towels, and I got to work getting dried off, popping my wings back into the void, and getting dressed. Then I focused on Lucky who was using her towel to dry off the mini unicorn. I saw that he was indeed a mini, and not a baby. He was fully formed with a barrel chest, strong and sturdy legs, a flowing pearlescent mane and tail, and large eyes that were white around the edges, with the inside holding a pearl black pupil and what looked like a splatter of blue paint surrounding the pupil. The blue around the pupil formed jagged zig zags. It was such an unusual color and feature that it gave the mini unicorn the air of a wise old sage.
Another kind soul wrapped Lucky up in another towel, and she nodded at them gratefully. I’d been surprised that none of the other paranormals had helped. Surely some of them could fly or were able to help Nick. And then I saw what I’d missed. Three men stood in a rough line closer to the water. They were focusing on the ship and had their hands raised. They weren’t saying anything, but I could see faint shimmers of blue, green, and violet magic leak off of them. They must be helping Nick hold the suspects on the ship in place until Finn and his police officers got there.
I turned back to Lucky and found a brownie kneeling next to her, speaking kindly to her, and running his long, thin fingers over the mini unicorn. I knelt next to them and he glanced up at me. He was completely hairless, with nut brown skin, pronounced cheekbones, a hawkish nose, and an air of kindness that you felt all the way to your toes. His eyes were ocean blue and solid, without scelera or pupil, and they currently looked like a whirpool as he utilized his diagnostic magic to detect the health of the mini unicorn. He smiled absently at me and refocused on the unicorn as he felt all along its legs, neck, spine, and belly. He nodded.
“She’s fine, Miss Lucky,” he said in a soft voice. “She’s sluggish because they tranqed her.”
“They tranqed a magical animal?” I asked, horrified.
Lucky burrowed into the pearlescent coat of the unicorn and shuddered. I put a hand on her shoulders to let her know I was there with her, and we’d figure it out together. Well, us and maybe the whole police force of Moonhaven Cove, but she got the message, nodded, and unburrowed, straightening up. “Thank you, Mr. Ben. The Sheriff's Office can reimburse you for coming out and checking her out.”
He smiled kindly at her and stood. “I am also here to look over the other animals.”
Lucky nodded in understanding, but I blinked in stupification for a second or two until it dawned on me that thewhole ship had magical animals on board!I growled and swung around, glaring at the huge cargo ship filled with many dozens of colorful metal containers on its deck. I turned back to the vet as I rid myself of my shirt again and released my wings. “Do you need a ride, Mr. Ben?”
Ben grabbed his black satchel and nodded firmly. I swooped in and gave Lucky a hug. Sheeeped.“You did good, kid,” I said fiercely. She blushed and looked away, but I shivvied her arms up and down and made sure she understood her bravery had been worth it. I didn’t know how she’d known the ship was full of magical animals—I’d get the full story from her later—but I was grateful she’d had the courage to rescue one. “I mean it. Good. Job.”
She nodded hesitantly, her blush expanding to her neckline and ears, and I patted her shoulder and buzzed off with the vet.
Ben was super light, like he had hollow bones. Which I appreciated because it wasn’t until I was up in the air that I realized I wouldn’t be skimming the water this time. I actually had to lift Ben up to the deck of the cargo ship. I struggled with his light weight, even still, but we made it. We landed on the cargo ship amidst total pandemonium. Police were swarming the deck, handcuffing the smugglers to a thin bar that ran around part of the deck.
For myself and Ben, we checked in with Finn, and then made our way over to Nick, who was using a genie key—kind of like a one-size-fits-all universal key—to open the containers. Lucky must have gotten one open, so Ben and I searched for that one first.
We found it along the edge of the deck. Which made sense because she’d been able to get into the container, and almost off the ship before she’d been detected. I opened the huge bay doors. They rolled up into the top with a loud clatter, and I gasped when I looked inside. Dozens of magical animals were laying out on the cold steel floor as though dead.
“They’re asleep,” Ben assured me as he moved inside to crouch over a wolf. It had thick, dark-gray fur, and was starting to wake up, even though it was still groggy from the tranq. When it saw Ben, its tail thumped dully a few times on the floor, and it whined pitiably. I knelt next to Ben and stroked its fur. “It’s okay, big guy. Ben will take care of you.”
Ben filled a small bowl with water and nudged it under the wolf’s nose. The wolf lapped it up quickly, but it did so by barely picking its head off the floor. “It seems pretty weak.”
