"But when Layol was complaining of pain today and how she bleeds heavily, I just—"
"You're not spotting, are you?" Diuqil's eyes darted toward Dekram's daily vitamin bottle sitting on the counter.
"No," Dekram said. "And when I hear the others complaining, I feel different."
Looking more relaxed, her mother said, "Cycles come when a woman is ready to bear young. Maybe you're not ready to menstruate yet."
That was easy, and it makes sense. Maybe I should also bring up the conversation in the library. Dekram blinked away her mother's smile and tucked her lips between her teeth. Better yet, I'll run it by Layol tonight. She released her lips with a puff of air. "Thanks, Mom. I guess I went all girly-adolescent on you." She flew over to the mummified portabella-mushroom table with matching chairs on the other side of the kitchen and took a seat, placing a maple leaf in her lap.
As her mother carried the salad over to the table, Dekram's mind screamed, Wake up, idiot! You won't be running anything by Layol tonight if you don't Pinocchio your way through getting permission. She swallowed hard. "Is it alright if I go to a study group tonight? Some kids are meeting to brainstorm the missions." Dekram's hand shot to her nose, and she sighed in relief.
Diuqil was staring at the salad bowl with a furrowed brow. "Hmm? What? Um, yes dear, you go right ahead and study. But it's a school night, so I want you home early enough to get your bath and do your homework."
Dekram studied her mother's lack of attention. "Mrs. Laretil helped Layol and me with our homework at the library, and I'll take a bath before I leave, okay?"
Diuqil tilted her head as she chewed a mouthful of home-grown larvae. "Still… What, dear? Oh. Yes, but not too late, alright?"
"I'll be home before eleven." Dekram forked a dandelion stem and some alfalfa leaves into her mouth.
"That's good, dear." Her mother got up, went to the counter and palmed one of Dekram's vitamins from the bottle. Diuqil set it in front of her. "Take your vitamin before you leave, honey."
Dekram wrinkled her forehead. "I took one this morning."
Her mother blinked rapidly, stared a question at the little red pill, and then said, "One more a day won't hurt, especially with the missions coming up."
"Okay." Dekram dry-swallowed the pill, and they quietly finished dinner.
Up in the bedroom, Dekram strategically applied the last of her makeup, going for subtle earth tones. She fingered her damp hair one more time before tying it back with a piece of hemp then bolted toward her bed and, with quick erratic movements, dressed.
After fumbling with the belt, she finally pulled the crescent-moon buckle directly under her matching bellybutton ring and then yanked the button-down shirt over her hips to hide everything. She slid into her hip-high boots and straightened the seams of the skin-tight fabric of her skinny jeans before zipping the boots over them.
With shaky hands, Dekram wedged a tube of red lip gloss between the boot and her jeans, pocketing her cell phone. She flew out the bedroom door and down the stairs, thinking, stealth-wise, being a fairy had its advantages. Then her iPhone rang.
Darting toward the hole masquerading as the front door, Dekram fumbled the Smart Phone out, flipped it open, and hissed, "Just leaving—can I call you right back?"
Layol's anxious prattle filled the hall. "I forgot to ask, earlier—we can swing by and get Nes, right? I've been dressed for an hour. Hurry up. I'm so nervous! What are you wear—"
"Is that Layol on the phone?" Diuqil asked from the living room and the cell abruptly went silent.
Lips curled under, teeth siphoning air, eyes hooded, Dekram briskly shook the phone and then peeked around the door at her mother with a well-placed smile. "Yep, she wanted to make sure I was on my way." I am so gonna strangle her later.
"I heard." Diuqil looked up from her aquarium and smiled. "Such enthusiasm in her voice, too," her mother said before she turned back to her larvae. "I'm very glad to see that you're appropriately dressed for the study group."
"Thank you," Dekram said, flying toward the exit, "and if you're asleep when I get home, I won't wake-"
"Hold it!"
Halfway through the hole, Dekram froze and peeked over her shoulder. They locked eyes and Diuqil glared a warning. "I will be attending a town meeting with the Elders tonight, but I'll be back early. I will not be falling asleep before you come home, young lady."
"I won't be late," Dekram said, wings warming up for flight. Sting me! Mom sure isn't day dreaming now.
"Where did you say the study group is meet…"
Her mother's voice faded as Dekram flew from the tree, toward the pond.
Halfway across the front yard, laughter exploded from the cell phone. "That was close. Properly dressed? What the heck are you wearing?"
"Shut up! You just about sniped me! Talk about timing! I'll be right there." Dekram slapped her iPhone case closed and shoved the cell back in her jeans.
After some spastic zigzagging around trees laden with Spanish moss and over stiff palm frond needles all the way to Layol's house, Dekram finally pulled Renrad's reins and the dragonfly settled in a patch of sandspurs in the front yard.
Not for the first time, Dekram wondered about Layol's home life. She lived alone with her mother, an Air fairy, inside a network of tunnels carved in coquina rock. Her father, she'd heard, had left Wandermere when Layol was born and never returned. Layol never brought it up and Dekram wondered how much her friend really knew.
Layol appeared from a small hole at the base of the rock, wearing an extremely short lavender dress that dipped low in the front, barely held up by her thin shoulders. She waved a greeting, flashing bright pink short-shorts, accentuating long blue legs and a pair of Jimmy Choo platforms. Wild curls trailed like tendrils of smoke as Layol flew toward her.
How can she afford those shoes? She looks gorgeous, and as usual, I pale by comparison. Dekram hopped off Renrad and quickly undid three buttons on the top of her blouse and four on the bottom. She tied the shirt under her breasts and began to roll up the sleeves, revealing tons of beaded leather bracelets.
"Well, aren't you clever? That outfit is perfect! Love the belt!" Layol hopped on the dragonfly's back.
Renrad's wings vibrated while Dekram ran bright red gloss over her lips, pulled her hair free of the hemp knot, bent at the waist, tossed her head forward and shook busy fingers near her scalp. She stood and dramatically flipped her head back, fingers still fluffing orange ringlets around her face and shoulders.
"You sure I look good?" she asked Layol.
"Like your mother would lock you in your room for the rest of your life if she saw you right now."
Dekram felt a grin spread all the way to her ears. "That'll work." The grin faded and she tucked her chin and toed sandspurs. "We need to have a girl-chat before we pick up Nes."
"Sounds serious. What'd ya do, ask Mom about Menstruation?"
Dekram's cheeks turned red and her lashes batted quickly for a second. "No, um…well, I mean, yes, I did ask her about...that, but it's not what I want to talk to you about."
"Give it up, gal-pal! What'd she say?" Layol wanted to know.
Dekram huffed. "She said everyone's cycle is different and that we bleed when we're ready to reproduce—maybe I'm not ready yet. But now that I think of it, she did look concerned."
"Look, she knows now, and if she's worried, I'm sure she'll ask someone."
Dekram let out a loud moan. "The whole freakin' town is meeting tonight and the Elders will be there. You don't think she'd bring this out in an open discussion, do you? Oh, Goddess of Strife! Cut my wings and toss me in the air, I stand out enough already without her calling more attention to me."
"You need a Goddess that dispenses anti-anxiety meds," Layol squawked. "Worst that could happen?—she'll ask one of the Earth fairies from the clinic."
Dekram's wings settled. "You think?"
Layol whipped her hand back, dismissing the question. "So what's the girl-chat all about? You finally going to tell m
e what really happened in the restroom with Soahc—the part they didn't get on video?"
"Can we put the stupid restroom and the stupid video to rest?"
Layol sighed.
"Thank you!"
While Dekram went over what she'd heard in the principal's office and at the library without drawing attention to the comments about Detaf, and then the phone call between her mother and father, her friend tilted her head and listened with interest.
"I think it has something to do with your being half Air and half Water," Layol said when she'd finished. "I mean maybe you are an experiment. It could be about trying to breed a fairy with special powers. The whole 'marked' thing certainly leads in that direction, right? This experimental breeding crap has gone on like forever. Air fairies swapped sicklings for human kids and charmed them to look like fairies. They were called changelings—I read that on the Net—and when the changelings grew up they bred with full-breeds and whalah, ya got your halflings."
"Pix me! The impin' Internet? Again? Can you bring it back to the real world?" Dekram closed her eyes and whimpered, "I don't want to be some test tube experiment. What if my mother and father only mated because of some stupid experiment?"
"Turd-laced saffron-brownies!" Layol shouted, "Don't even go there!"
But when Dekram opened her eyes and hopped on Renrad's back, she saw concern on her friend's face. As she settled in front of Layol and picked up the lead, Dekram said, "Let's keep this to ourselves for tonight, okay?"
Layol patted her shoulder. "Sure, but it wouldn't hurt to get Nes's opinion." Before Dekram could comment, Layol blurted, "Minus the big M thing, of course."
Chapter 7
"OKAY, SO WE’RE all going to stay within sight of each other," Nesohc ordered as he slid off Renrad and landed between Dekram and Layol in a field several yards from the Black Shamrock. "Dek can keep an eye on Soahc, and Lay and I will watch her friends. Take lots of cell phone footage. We all on the same page?"
"Yep," Layol said.
They watched a group of fairies fly around to the front of the building, and briefly, the air rang with wild laughter over a background of pulsing music, and then, just as abruptly, fell silent.
Wings revving, Layol headed toward the buzz.
Dekram lifted off. "If we get separated-"
"We aren't going to get separated," Nesohc emphatically interrupted as they flew behind Layol.
"I was going to say—" Dekram's eyes narrowed. "—that if we should get separated we can call each other on our cells."
"Yeah, we can do that if we get separated, but we're not," Nesohc said.
There was another burst of party noise. They rounded the black-washed building in time to watch the front door close and cut the noise.
Dekram hovered in the parking lot amid tethered bugs. I am so going to come out here when the moon totally replaces the sun. Bet that red neon dances off the vibrating insect wings.
As they zigzagged around the bugs, a centipede circled a Rosy Maple Moth at lightning speed and came to an abrupt stop beside them. Bacs swung a jean-clad leg over the bug and landed firmly on black silver-tipped boots. He nodded an impersonal greeting at Nesohc and pulled a black cowboy hat over frayed red hair.
"What the heck you doin' here?" Nesohc was quick to ask.
"I always hit the buzzes." Bacs' head tilted a question, dark lashes batting on a ghost white face. "Question is, what're you doin' here?"
"But shouldn't you be in the hospital?" Dekram furrowed her brows. "Or anywhere but here—you almost died the last time you buzzed."
"Been there, done that, ain't ever doin' it again. Feel me?" Bacs glanced at Layol's Jimmy Choo platforms with a lopsided grin. "Can't wait ta see Miss I'm-All-That wiggle out of the Fun Mail text—true dat. You guys get one?" His glance traveled up Layol's legs and back down again.
Dekram blushed and turned away.
"Those treads be worth a bucket o' honey," Bacs said, any thoughts of flirtation blowing away with the soft breeze. "True dat." His gray eyes took a few seconds to find Nesohc's. "Anyhoo, you here 'cause o' the text?"
Layol rocked her shoes under swaying ankles. "Louie, Leprechaun knockoffs," she stalled when Nesohc ducked his head and shuffled his All Stars, sending up dirt clouds instead of an answer.
"Huh," Bacs huffed, his eyes moving back to the shoes. "Still... gotta cost a bit o' gold. Feel me?"
Layol frowned at Nesohc. "Yeah, we got the text; figured a week's restriction was worth seeing her squirm. Who sent it? Ya know?"
"Don't know—don't care—true nuff. Gonna check me out some squirmin'," Bacs warbled, head tilted, eyes half closed. "Yeah-ya, lil' squirm, lil' shake, lil' get up on it—of the fem kind—ya got me?" he said, tilting his head from side to side while adjusting the pitch of his voice. "Pixin' text. No clue who stung her, but ya have ta love it." He raced his wings, lifting off the ground. "You wanna squirm, come on, pix." He winked at Layol.
"See you inside," Layol yelled as Bacs looped erratic circles over his centipede.
He picked up wing-speed and flew for the door, shouting back over his shoulder, "Feel dat!"
Layol's gaze bobbed from Dekram to Nesohc. "Way to go, you idiots! I am so not looking for him inside! Thank the Elements for my stupid Leprechauns. From now on-" The centipede's head swung in her direction, nipped, and launched Layol with a yelp. "Ow-ow-ow-E that hurt!" Layol's glare moved from the bug to an angry red spot on her thigh. "I hate when they do that!"
"That's exactly why I won't ride a centipede—can't trust 'em," Nesohc said, fingertips holding back a grin. "Plus they scoot like their butt's on fire."
Dekram watched Bacs disappear through the front door of the Black Shamrock. "Did he sound weird to you guys? Or was it just me?"
"He acted like he didn't know Nes at first," Layol said, rubbing her leg. "I was like, what's up with that?"
"Me too," Nesohc said. "Maybe the drugs shorted out a few brain cells."
Layol rubbed the bite on her leg. "Wonder why they let him out so soon?" Nesohc stared at her shoes.
"You think Soahc has anything to do with him being here?" Dekram asked, eyes locked on the closed door. "Wasn't she supposed to bring him that get well card tonight?"
"She was come to think of it," Nesohc said. "You don't think she's stupid enough to bust him out of the hospital?"
"Nah, I'm going with the fried brain thing." Layol postulated while scratching her bite. "Although the boy's always been short in the brain cell department. I remember when he was brought into Wandermere …" Layol jerked her hand away from her leg, eyes wide, and forced a laugh at Nesohc's questioning expression. "I got the impin' shoes from a family friend who owed us a favor. We going in or what?"
"You're friends with a leprechaun?"
"No big deal. Mom and I saved-"
Dekram's hiss nipped the conversation, "Shush!" She back-winged past three bugs and fanned her hands in a 'get down' motion.
Layol and Nesohc dropped beside Bacs' centipede. Dekram slid behind the wing of a green aphid she'd stirred up.
Nesohc mouthed, "What?"
Dekram pointed at the Black Shamrock.
Layol and Nesohc's heads whipped around, eyes edging over the centipede. Three Fire fairies staggered down the length of the building toward the entrance, holding up Soahc's friend, Etah, who was giggling.
Two Fire fairies guided the sloppily-dressed fairy through the front door while the third one nodded in understanding, and with a wave, headed back the way they'd come. Dekram frowned. So not like Etah. She never giggles.
The minute the third fairy rounded the corner of the building, Layol bolted for the front door.
"Hang on!" Dekram said. "Let's check out the guy that went back around the building, first."
Layol air-skidded to a stop, wings back-peddling like mad, then shot up into the air and over the Black Shamrock sign with Dekram and Nesohc following. They landed on the tip of a palm frond swaying over the building.
The third Fire
fairy disappeared into the Black Shamrock's back door. Dekram blinked when the building shivered for a few seconds and the image of a large rotted log took its place. What the...? Dekram rubbed her eyes. The peculiarity sparked from the log back to a building and then to a log again. "Did either of you see that?"
"Shhhhush." Layol slapped a palm over Dekram's mouth.
A totally different Fire fairy helped drag Etah from a hole on the back of the sparkling log. Then the log disintegrated and the black building solidified. Etah lay limp. The Fire fairies hooked hands under Etah's armpits and, wings buzzing hard, dragged her across the sand and down a path, oblivious to Dekram and her friends gawking from above.
Layol hissed, "I'm following them. You guys in?"
"Hold on," Dekram said, remembering Etah's swift kick to her hip. With wings sprinkling yellow and red dust everywhere, she asked, "Tell me why we need to interfere? What if she's just partying?"
"Maybe she is," Nesohc said. "And it's not like I even like the fairy, but hey, what if someone gave her Angel Trumpet like Bacs?" His wings morphed into a mottled rainbow of contradicting emotions: Yellow for fear, red sparking anger, blue glowing affection, green imbuing envy or embarrassment, and purple pulsing chivalrous loyalty.
Layol and Nesohc stared at Dekram.
Etah kicked me. She hurt me. Pix me! I'm gonna regret this. "Fine, I'll go, but I'm not happy about it."
"No crap," Layol snapped and shot up into the trees behind the bar.
The three friends followed Etah and the Fire fairies high enough to remain concealed, yet low enough to hear the conversation below when they ducked behind a scrub oak.
"Gonna get nasty, bro—I feel it—true dat," a heavyset fourth fairy said as he tugged up the back of his green plaid shorts, still leaving four inches of red-checked boxers covering half his butt-cheeks. With his red skin, pointy ears and tattooed tear drops running down his cheeks, he looked like a perpetually unhappy Christmas elf wearing an orange wig.
"What cha feelin' hollows-head? Huh? Egar always been nasty, bro, so why you gettin' all heavy up on it, now?" asked the third fairy, tall, reedy, brushing long matted black hair out of yellow eyes. He'd been walking backward, dragging the blue body with his right hand and didn't miss a beat when he turned, changed hands, and clicked a sharp toothy smile at the chunky guy.
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