Page 31 of Pixie Problems
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We arrivedat the Leto Villa, me on my bike and Nick flying along beside me like Superman, having made good time. Moonhaven Cove had seemed quiet the last few days, and I couldn’t help but think that most citizens were likely busy taking care of their new pets.
I looked over at Nick. “You need a cape when you fly.”
“No capes!”
I busted up laughing. Nick got movie quote humor! “Did Ben give you a magical animal to take care of?” I asked him, changing the subject.
He nodded and grimaced. “A sphinx cat.”
I was puzzled for a moment, trying to remember what a magical sphinx cat looked like. “Looks a bit like a Canadian Lynx, but with cornflower blue fur and likes to spout out bits of wisdom at random times?”
He sighed. “That’s the one. He woke me up last night to tell me something about not being able to find time that I’ve lost again. I stuck him in the pool room for the rest of the night.”
I laughed. Poor kitty.
Aiwin met us at the door and left us in a parlor off the main entrance hall. Once I sat down on a white, stiff sofa, Nick’s words came back to me. “Wait!” I squawked. “You have a pool room on an investigator’s salary?”
Nick shrugged. “I’m a genie. I can have anything I want.”
Well, not everything. Lucky still wasn’t giving him the time of day. I could see the thought cross his mind as well, and he sighed deeply.
What was it with all my friends being lovelorned fools right now? Had they all been zapped by a cupid or something? Forget the times in the past where cupids used arrows to spread love and romance around. Now they just straight-up zapped people with tiny bolts of pink lightning. It reportedly felt pleasant and didn’t hurt the vic—err, beneficiary. I wouldn’t know; I avoided cupids like the plague.
“I think you’ve been hit by a cupid.”
He scoffed just as Draven Leto came into the room. “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting,” he said, with his faint Italian accent. “I’m glad you stopped by.” He sat opposite us in a chair that didn’t look any more comfortable than the sofa that Nick and I sat on.
He looked . . . a little bit worn. Was Mia okay?
He smiled at me, and even though I was a pixie, and mostly immune to vampire charisma, my head went a little fuzzy from his smile.Woo, strong vampire! I blinked to clear my head. “Mia is fine, Dice, before you worry,” he assured me.
I slumped in relief. I’d come by and visited the puppy a few times since that day she’d come into The Tea Hobbit. We’d gone out to lunch or had just hung out at the villa and had become closer friends. And as evidenced by my life at that moment, I was oddly protective of my friends. Lucky was a good case-in-point.
I wondered if anyone in the world would believe that I was a fierce pixie after I’d lived in this town for a few months. I sighed. I had little hope of that happening. All of that hard work creating a ten-foot bubble of space around me with my prickly personality was going down the tubes.
“Thanks for letting me know,” I said. “Are you guys still on the hunt for the assassin?” I imagined so. It would have been big Moonhaven news if they’d caught them.
Draven’s power suddenly unfurled into the room before he was able to rein it in again. And just the backlash from that single moment was enough to shove me forcefully back into the sofa, squishing me against the hard cushion until my ribs squeaked. Nick, of course, didn’t move, because he was cheating with his genie powers. If I could have moved my neck, I would have scowled at him. But I couldn’t yet, so I just panted in the silence until Draven spoke again.
He sighed. “I apologize again, Dice.” He ran a hand through his curly hair. “My powers have been fluctuating a bit lately.” He looked as chagrined as a vampire was capable of looking, and I wanted to pat his hand. I wondered if this was akin to loss of bladder control for a vampire—extremely embarrassing. My gooey heart was satisfied when I assured him it was fine. That it could happen to anyone.
Nick was tapping his knees with his fingers to a beat only he could hear and bobbing his head. Like the power that had just blasted through the room hadn’t bothered him a bit. It made me wonder, truly, if he’d even felt it.
Genies were way overpowered. I grumbled silently to myself as I waited for Draven to finish speaking with a guard who’d come in. When he was finished, he sat back and gazed at Nick and I. Nick nodded at him respectfully and I launched into my campaign to collar all of Hux’s pack.
Draven looked thoughtful when I finished. “While it’s true that the restraining order was for all of Hux’s pack, as a council, we elected to treat each pack member individually.”
“Isn’t the fact that they followed him enough to tell us where their loyalties lie? If they followed him here, it’s very likely they’ll harass me as well.”
Nick shook his head. “Not necessarily. Packs are different. When an alpha puts an alpha push into a direct order it’s tough for them to ignore.”
“But not impossible,” I argued. Otherwise, free-will anyone?
“Not impossible,” Draven acknowledged. “Right now, we’re trying to get a feel for those in his pack that are here under coercion. And the only way to do that is to give each member their own autonomy to act. If they harass you, or heaven forbid, worse, we’ll deal with that as it comes.”
I wanted to cry. And I was usually an angry crier because Ihatedcrying! “He has at least fifty members in his pack. That means I have to survive fifty attempts on my life.” My voice was dead even though I was practically shivering internally. I had pixie magic at my disposal, but I did not have fiftytimesthe pixie magic I needed at my disposal!
