Fairy Bad Day (7 page)

“With hairspray?” he asked in a perplexed voice. “What did they put in your manual?”

Emma took a patient breath. “There is no manual for slaying fairies. Sir Francis’s book only gave about three sentences, one of which basically said, ‘Approach with caution.’ Which is one of the many, many reasons why I want to become a dragon slayer. All of this stuff is what I’ve picked up as I’ve gone along. Hairspray totally screws up the oil in their wings and means they can’t fly for at least a week. Oh, and apparently it makes them look ugly to the opposite sex as well.”

Curtis handed her the can.

“It doesn’t matter what you do to me.” Rupert folded his tiny arms in a stubborn gesture. “I’m not going to tell you anything about the darkhel. Not a single—”

“Rupert. Zip it.” Gilbert lifted his hand and made a slashing action across his throat, and the injured fairy let out an annoyed groan.

“What’s a darkhel?” Curtis demanded.

“Darkhel?” Rupert fluttered his little fairy eyes in a blank expression. “I didn’t say ‘darkhel.’ What I said was ‘dark hell.’ Dark. Dark. Dark hell. Which is exactly where you’ll both be heading very soon.
You know, you should really get your ears checked out.
”

“You said ‘darkhel,’” Emma corrected him.

“No, I didn’t.” Rupert shook his head.

“Yes, you did.”

“No, no, no. I most definitely did not.”

Emma, who found it hard enough to put up with Loni and Tyler’s constant bickering, certainly wasn’t going to bother with this for too long, and she finally arched an eyebrow and pointed to the tiny creature’s shirt. “So the fact your T-shirt says ‘Darkhels Rule the World’ is a complete coincidence?”

“Man, Rupert, you had to wear that shirt?” Gilbert growled.

“Darkhel?” Curtis frowned as he turned to Emma. “I’ve never heard of it. I wonder if it’s a new breed of dragon? Or maybe European?”

“Dragons?” Gilbert spat a crushed Skittle out of his mouth in disgust. “You insult us. The darkhels aren’t dragons, they’re fairies.”

“That thing was a fairy?”
Emma dropped the hairspray in shock. “But that’s impossible. I mean, it was so big. And evillooking. And the size of its talons was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. There’s no way it was a fairy.”

The fairies all puckered in annoyance. “Size isn’t everything, you know,” Trevor growled. “And you should see Gilbert when he’s in the middle of a job. You don’t get more evil than that.”

“Thanks, brother.” Gilbert puffed his chest in pride. “I do like to bring a certain level of dastardliness to my work.”

“I still don’t understand.” Emma scratched her head. “I mean, it looked just like a dragon.”

Rupert growled in disgust, which was somewhat ruined by the fact that he was still squirming on the floor with a nail file poked through his wing and his T-shirt covered in Skittle stains. “Darkhels have more grace and evil in their little talon than a dragon has in its entire body. In fact, how dare you even mention them in the same sentence? It’s sacrilege. Still, I guess it doesn’t matter that you know, since there is nothing you can do to stop our glorious dark brother from regaining the Pure One. It has been foreseen.”

“The Pure One?” Emma rolled her eyes. “Oh please, you’ve got to be—”

“Can I help you folks at all?” Someone coughed and Emma and Curtis both swung around to where a salesclerk was now standing with a helpful smile on her face.

“Er, no thanks, we’re good.” Emma jumped to her feet and tried to hide as many of the crushed Skittles as possible. Next to her, Curtis manfully scooped up the hairspray and thrust it behind his back.

“Are you sure?” The woman beamed at them. “We’ve got some great celebrity biographies here, and there’s a special on right now that gives you twenty percent off your second purchase. I know. I know. It’s a steal.”

“Seriously, we’re fine,” Curtis said in a low voice as he did that thing with his eyes.

“It’s just it seems such a shame to miss out on this wonderful offer. You could stock up for the holidays,” the woman persisted, obviously indifferent to Curtis’s low voice and his dark, velvety eyes. Which was a pity because, while Emma didn’t approve of his using his charm when it came to stealing dragon-slayer designations, there was no denying it would’ve come in handy right about now.

“We’re really just browsing,” Emma repeated in a firm voice, and the woman started to deflate a bit.

“Well, if you’re sure,” she said, looking away, “then I guess I’ll just let you get back to your . . . hey, did one of you drop a nail file?”

“Oh.” Emma tried to stand in front of it, while wishing that the captured fairy wasn’t quite so invisible. “That’s mine. I’m just letting it . . . er, dry out. It fell in my coffee before and it got all wet, which of course meant that I couldn’t use it and . . . well, I’ve got a nail emergency, and—”

The woman bent down and pulled it out of Rupert’s wing, much to the delight of the fairy, who paused only long enough to poke his tongue out and straighten his T-shirt before immediately flying up to the ceiling to join his friends. “You can’t just go around leaving nail files in the carpet like that. Someone could get hurt. And what are all these Skittles doing here? Do I need to ask you to leave?”

But before Emma could even open her mouth, she looked up to the ceiling and let out a long groan as she realized the fairies were gone.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I
don’t believe it,” Emma said a few minutes later as they leaned over the railing of the top level of the mall and looked down. “We had them right there. All we needed was two more minutes and we could’ve found out exactly what this darkhel thing is.”

“I’m sorry, Jones. Are you okay?” Curtis asked in a surprisingly soft voice, and Emma found the tension that had been building up between her shoulder blades start to ease.

“Yeah.” She let out a sigh and turned to him. “Except for the fact that I can apparently see invisible fairies that are the size of dragons and that no one has ever heard of before. And here I was thinking my life couldn’t get any weirder.”

“Maybe you just haven’t heard of this one before?” Curtis said in a hopeful voice, but Emma shook her head.

“When Kessler stuck me with the fairies, I made sure I read every single book I could find on them—not that there were many—and trust me, there was nothing remotely like a darkhel. Or even a fairy that stands over a foot high, for that matter.” She rubbed her sore eye as her frustration started to mount again. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“I know,” Curtis agreed, before pushing his ugly glasses up onto his wild curls and frowning. “First they talked about darkhels, and then they said all that mumbo jumbo about the Pure One. I mean, what was that about?”

Emma was immediately diverted as she studied his face in surprise. “You’re kidding, right? You haven’t heard of the Pure One?”

“Um, no.” Curtis looked at her blankly. “What is it?”

“According to the legend, Sir Francis was so upset that a demon had killed his only brother that he decided to shut the Gate of Linaria once and for all to stop any more elementals from getting out. Because the gate disappears and reappears all the time, it took him ages to track it down, and then when he did he used some hocus-pocus spell to seal it. Apparently, part of the spell included five drops of blood from a nameless male child. The blood was meant to represent purity and innocence. Personally, I think it’s a little gross. But the point is that ever since he sealed the gate, the elementals have been looking for the descendant of the nameless child so they can use its blood to reverse the spell, reopen the Gate of Linaria, and let all of their buddies who got trapped on the other side come through.”

Curtis widened his eyes. “Okay, so I knew that the Gate of Linaria disappeared and reappeared all the time, but I had no idea the spell could be reversed by using someone’s blood. I thought it was sealed forever.”

“It is,” Emma assured him. “The Pure One is just a kid’s story. And I can’t believe you’ve never heard it before.”

Curtis put his glasses back on, and for a moment his jaw tightened again. Emma looked at him in surprise. Up until today she hadn’t taken him for being moody. Finally, he gave a nonchalant shrug as he studied his fingers. “My folks weren’t big storytellers. So let’s get back to the facts. How do you think the Pure One stuff ties in with this darkhel creature?”

“It doesn’t.” Emma shook her head. “The fairies were just trying to mess with us because they didn’t want us to ask them any more questions about the darkhel. I guess they succeeded.”

“I wouldn’t say that. Look. Over there.” As he spoke, he gave her a soft nudge and directed her gaze to the level below, where, sure enough, one of the fairies was hovering around a woman holding a Starbucks cup. Typical: fairies loved frappuccinos almost as much as they loved Skittles. The rest of them were just off to the side, and Emma felt a sense of relief go racing through her as she hurried toward the escalators, never taking her eyes off the tiny creatures. Despite his crutches, Curtis was right behind her as they made their way to the next level and discreetly squeezed through the crowd to where the fairy was still hovering.

“By the way, thanks for helping me find them again,” she grudgingly said in a low voice as they carefully drew closer. “I really appreciate it.”

“It’s no biggie.” Curtis gave a casual shrug before shooting her a lopsided smile that suddenly made Emma understand why so many of the sophomore girls talked about him. She shook her head as if to dislodge the thought from her mind as the fairies came to a halt and started to throw Skittles at them. However, Emma, who had been caught by this trick one too many times, let the raining candy fall harmlessly to the ground and watched as the fairies darted this way and that before they doubled back and made a beeline for the entrance of a Gap store.

“Gotcha.” She grinned as she reached for Curtis’s arm and nudged him to follow her toward the store. But just before they got there, Emma caught sight of a familiar-looking blonde-haired woman over by a perfume cart just outside the entrance.

What?
No. Emma momentarily forgot about the fairies as her spine stiffened, and she only just resisted the urge to groan. Seriously, of all the perfume carts in the world, why did Olivia have to be at this one?

“Quick, turn around and run,” she said in a low voice as she tugged at Curtis’s sleeve and shot the entrance of the store one last look. Catching up to the fairies was her chance to prove to Principal Kessler that she hadn’t made the darkhel up, but she couldn’t let Olivia see them either. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a fairy bad place.

“Run?” He frowned as he glanced at his crutches.

“Okay, I’ll run and you hobble,” she suggested, but before she could go anywhere, Curtis caught her by the arm and narrowed his eyes as he pushed his glasses back into his mop of curls.

“Why are we running away from them? We’ve got them cornered. They’re in the store. Besides, you just told me that we couldn’t take our eyes off them or—”

“Emma?” Olivia’s voice rang out from across the marblefloored court, and Emma reluctantly looked over to where the blonde woman was now waving at her.

Great.

Emma groaned as she watched Olivia make her way toward them. At the same time the fairy they had just seen flew over to the elevator and shot her a smug wink before melting away into the crowd.

“Do you know her?” Curtis sounded surprised.

“She’s married to my dad, and I don’t want to talk about it.” Emma folded her arms and once again edged away from him. Why was it that everywhere she turned, she seemed to be touching his arm?

“She’s your stepmom?” Curtis sounded like he was about to choke. “It’s just, she looks so—”

If he said “young,” Emma was going to kill him. She might have only a nail file and hairspray in her immediate possession, but she was sure she could figure out a way to make it slow and painful. She hadn’t topped her class in Inventive Death for nothing.

“So pregnant,” he said instead, which didn’t remotely improve her mood. “I didn’t know you were going to be a big sister.”

“Still not wanting to talk about it,” Emma muttered as Olivia made her way toward them, her blonde hair bouncing in a shampoo-commercial sort of way. Emma wasn’t fond of having conversations with her stepmom at the best of times, but during the potentially worst week of her life, the possibility was even less welcome than normal. Especially since, despite Olivia’s bulging stomach, her dad had only told Emma about the pregnancy when he’d come to Burtonwood and given her her mother’s crystal necklace.

Now that Emma looked back on it, she shouldn’t really have been surprised to receive fairies as her designation the following day. It had obviously been a sign of the impending apocalypse, and she just hadn’t realized it at the time. Especially since her dad hardly ever visited Burtonwood anymore. Emma secretly wondered if it was because he was sight-blind and didn’t like to be reminded of his old life with his slayer wife, which was the exact same reason why Emma didn’t like going home much. And she doubted that would be changing anytime soon, especially if there was going to be a gross baby boy crawling all over the place.

“Emma, I thought that was you.” Olivia beamed as she got closer to them, her giant belly poking out underneath a pale pink linen shirt. “What a lovely surprise.”

“Hey, Olivia, nice to see you.”

“You too. How are you feeling? I know your dad’s been worried about you. He’ll be happy to hear you’ve got your eye patch off now.” Olivia continued to smile in an overly sunny way.

“Oh, yeah. I haven’t had a chance to call him back yet. School’s been pretty busy.”
What with being humiliated and left behind for the most exciting mission of the year, not to mention being forced to spend time with a guy she hated more than life itself.

“Of course, I totally understand,” Olivia quickly agreed as she unconsciously rubbed her stomach before she turned to Curtis and gave him an open smile. “So do you go to Burtonwood as well?”

“Yes, I’m Curtis.”

“Nice to meet you, Curtis. I’m Olivia. So what do you specialize in?”

“What?” Curtis coughed.

“Oh, did I say the wrong word?” Olivia blushed as she shot Emma an embarrassed look. “I’ve always been hopeless with lingo. I just wondered if you’re a fairy slayer like Emma.”

“Oh, right. Sorry. I just didn’t realize you knew what we did.” Curtis pushed a blond curl out of his eyes and looked apologetic. Not that Emma could really blame him, since it wasn’t often that a slayer came across a sight-blind civilian who not only knew what an elemental was, but talked about them (especially in the middle of the mall while holding her pregnant stomach). “Anyway, I’m with dragons,” he said as he rubbed his hand.

“Oh, just like Emma’s mom was; that’s so nice. No wonder you two are friends. By the way, is your hand okay?” Olivia’s perpetual smile disappeared for a moment as she glanced at Curtis’s hand, which was looking red and swollen from where his laser had backfired on him.

“Oh, this?” Curtis gave it a dismissive wave. “It’s fine.”

“Well, you should really get it checked out. You don’t want it to get infected,” Olivia persisted, and Emma looked at Curtis in annoyance. Why hadn’t he said that his hand was injured? It wasn’t like she wouldn’t have bandaged it for him. She wasn’t a monster. “In fact, I used to be a nurse. If you like, I could look at it now—”

“Actually, Olivia, we’d better get going. I’ll make sure Curtis gets his hand checked,” Emma interrupted as she tried to keep the impatience out of her voice.

“Oh, right.” Olivia flushed as she glanced around. “Of course. I hope I didn’t blow your cover. Anyway, I’d better go pick up the dry cleaning. I need it for Serena’s wedding, and I meant to do it yesterday but forgot. I swear these baby hormones are turning me into a crazy person. Oh, but Emma, speaking of the wedding, I know Serena would love to have you there if you wanted to change your mind. I asked your dad to book you a ticket on our flight. Just in case.”

“Well, I sort of have a lot of stuff going on. But I’ll think about it.” Emma plastered a smile onto her face.

“Please do, because my whole family is dying to see you again.” Olivia held up both hands to show her fingers were crossed before giving Emma and Curtis one final sunny smile and heading off. “And happy slaying.”

Emma rolled her eyes as Curtis turned and said, “Your stepmom seems pretty cool. It’s nice that she wants you to feel like you’re part of her family.”

“Yeah. It’s just great,” Emma mumbled as she dropped her kit onto the nearby bench and pulled out some cream. Then she nodded for Curtis to sit down.

“You don’t like her?” Curtis lifted an eyebrow in surprise as she reached out for his hand and inspected the wound while she tried to ignore how smooth the unburned part of his skin was. Did he moisturize?

“She’s okay, I guess,” Emma relented as she started to treat the burn just like she’d learned in all the first-aid courses she’d taken at Burtonwood. “Though she smiles way too much, and every time I go home for the weekend, she’s always trying to help me polish my sword or patch up my clothes.”

“I had no idea things were so tough for you,” Curtis said, with a hint of sarcasm. He winced as Emma put some cream on his hand and it sank into the wound.

“Look, it’s complicated,” Emma was stung into replying as she carefully put some light gauze around the burn and avoided looking at him, since there was something about his deep brown eyes that she found unnerving.

“Why, because she and your dad are having a baby together and you think he’s forgotten about your mom?” he said with more sarcasm.

“So what, now you’re a dragon slayer
and
Dr. Phil?” Emma growled, finally looking up at him. However, instead of seeing an arrogant expression on his tanned, perfect face, her words seemed to sting him more than the cream, and she watched in surprise as two bright red spots of color blazed on his cheeks.

Okay, so she hadn’t expected that.

“Hey, Jones. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. She just seemed nice, that’s all. But you’re right. It’s none of my business,” he said in an apologetic voice. “It’s easy to judge when you’re standing on the outside and can’t see what’s really going on. But the truth is that even the most regularlooking families can be screwed up.”

For a moment Emma blinked at him in surprise. She really hadn’t taken Curtis for the sensitive, considerate type. And since when did he know about complicated families? “Yeah, something like that,” she mumbled as she found herself returning his gaze, focusing on the smooth curve of his mouth as it swung up at the corners. It was a nice mouth. Why had she never noticed before? And suddenly Loni’s words came back to haunt her. Perhaps she had been too hard on Curtis? After all, she didn’t even know him, yet she had decided he was horrible, when really he was just as much a victim of this crappy situation as she was.