Paranormal After Dark: 20 Paranormal Tales of Demons, Shifters, Werewolves, Vampires, Fae, Witches, Magics, Ghosts and More

by Rebecca Hamilton

  "Guess you heard," Dekram said, hip throbbing while she fought the urge to favor it. I will die of pain before I give him a hint of what happened to me in that bathroom.

  "Yep, I suppose you'll be working off deficiency marks in the library again." Nesohc took a sip of hibiscus nectar.

  "Yeah," Dekram sighed, wondering how she was ever going to sit on the hard cafeteria chair, "right after school."

  "Want some help?" He pushed long russet bangs away from milk-chocolate eyes, carrying the colors of an Earth fairy well.

  Dekram, eyes drowning in Nesohc's, swallowed hard before remembering what they were talking about. "Um, thanks, but I got it. Mrs. Laretil thinks she's my fairy godmother, um, minus the pumpkin carriage." I can't think when he smiles like that, and today, that's a good thing. "She even rounds up the time to the nearest-"

  Layol slapped her folder down next to Nesohc, and glared toward the food line. "Hey, Dek, why don't I get our lunches," she said. "You guys go outside under the oak tree…" Her voice faded as Nesohc's gaze led Dekram's eyes toward the lunch line where Soahc and her friends stood watching.

  "Tink's excrement! I can get my own lunch!" Dekram snapped. Well, that was a bit exaggerated—crap—but Soahc is so not going to think I told Lay.

  Layol blatantly glared at Dekram's hip. "Something else you're not telling me? 'Cause that was a bit overkillish."

  "No!" Dekram said, and slapped her hand on her hip, then jerked it in the air as though she'd touched fire. Crap-crap-crap! I so need to get a handle on this. "I am not afraid of Soahc." Sh-yeah, right? Like I'm so not shaking in my undies at this moment.

  "Yeah, right," Nesohc said as he got up from the table and tugged his jeans straight. "Go ahead. Get all ghetto. She'd love that."

  "Sit your wings and things right back down." Dekram pointed to his chair. "I am not getting all ghetto on anyone. Thing about hate, it needs fuel. No fuel, it crawls back on itself and recoils."So not good at swinging punches, I'll just cliché her to death. Lay's glaring a hole right through me. Goddesses forgive me, but I'm beginning to feel the true meaning of hate…and anger.

  Nesohc sat down, stretched his long legs under the table and crossed his black All Star tennis shoes. "Uh-huh, go ahead. I'll be watching and takin' notes," he said, shaking his head. His brows rolled under the brown and rust birthmark that looked like a snakeskin mask covering the area around his eyes and upper cheeks.

  "Great," Layol spat, "the witch and her minions are hovering at the end of the line—probably on purpose—and sure as Tink has knockers, you don't need another D-mark."

  "Not going to happen," Dekram said with a confident smile. This is a nightmare waiting to happen, but Soahc will keep victimizing me if I crawl into a corner and let her win.

  Nesohc picked up his acorn and strawberry burrito-wrapped clover leaf, dripping with cream and smiled at Layol around a bite. "Shrill if you need me." He swallowed hard and reached for his hibiscus nectar.

  Layol jiggled her brows at him and followed Dekram.

  As the girls took their place at the end of the food line, Soahc grabbed a tray, wrinkled her nose, and dramatically looked around, sniffing. She flipped blond hair off her shoulder and leaned toward her hooked-n-booked pal, Etah. "Someone needs to put the trash out."

  Etah grimaced, eyes sparkling as she finger-combed her rainbow hair. "Yeah, half-breed smells like compost pile filled with some seriously spoiled meat." With a grin she tapped a clunky boot on the lunchroom floor, eyes on Dekram's hip.

  "She regurgitating the restroom thing?" Layol asked near Dekram's cheek.

  Dekram turned a set of wide eyes and tight lips at Layol. Please, please, please, don't start.

  "I've suddenly lost my appetite," Bacs said, tossing his tray back on the pile, looking for an approving smile from Soahc. "She might've been scrubbing like a banshee, but she sure didn't get the smell of rancid fish meat out of her t-shirt."

  Soahc's head whipped toward the line attendant, an Earth fairy with spider webbing covering her short gray hair, then gritted her teeth and traveled a warning glance down the food bar. Cell phones clicked off up and down the lunch-line.

  "Something smells like maggot puke in that serving dish, right there." Mirg bounced a finger at the tray. "Come to think of it, that pervades the air we breathe." She pulled her cowl neck collar over her nose, elbowed the boy in front of her and grabbed a bowl of berries floating in blood-red syrup.

  Layol, face full of puckered lips and eyebrows reaching for each other, ignored Mirg and thumbed a remark in Soahc's direction. "Lemme go all Puck's revenge on 'er."

  Dekram replied with a furrowed brow and tight lips.

  Soahc pushed an ugly face at Layol while addressing Dekram. "What? Mommy didn't bring you a larvae lunch with that dirty t-shirt?"

  Bacs closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and held a palm up in front of Dekram. "Man, if I were you I'd be workin' some charmin'-n-glamourin' unless you take after Mom's side of the family."

  "Ain't no way she got Dad's powers." Etah snorted a mocking smile at Dekram. "Or are you trying to look ugly?"

  Layol gave Bacs angry eyes and then got right up in Etah's face. "You may find yourself ass-deep in the next Stephen King thriller, you keep this crap up."

  Bacs laughed.

  Etah growled.

  Dekram shivered. Crap-crap-crap, I can't let Soahc think Lay knows.

  "Anyone ever notice there's a lot of decomposition in King's books? Take The Stand," Mirg said, moving down the line after pouring cream over her berries. "Cadavers bloated in the streets, hanging out of cars, buses, subways-"

  "I hate who you are," Etah spat, glaring at Dekram. "I hate what you look like."

  "...yep, lots of rotting bodies in that one," Mirg continued. "Smelly bloated cadavers all over the place, rotting in the sun."

  Layol leaned in, a death grip on her empty tray; she looked like a boiling kettle as she glared at Etah. "I'm gonna bury you six feet under Wandermere."

  "You talk crap," Bacs said.

  "Yeah, she should be six-feet-under." Etah nodded toward Layol, eyes set on Dekram. "She's startin' to smell like decomp, half-breed. You commin' off on 'er?"

  I need to stop this before Lay unknowingly sets up her own funeral.

  "Huh, speaking of decomposition, imagine the smell wafting off those putrefied bodies." Mirg shuddered climactically and then added a dollop of what looked like honey glazed spam on top of her berries. 'In the real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.' F. Scott Fitzgerald said that."

  Dekram elbowed Layol a warning. "My problem, just ignore them."

  Hissing through her teeth, Layol ladled thick red juice into an oversized cup, slammed it on her tray and positioned herself between Soahc and Dekram.

  "Layol's grunge." Soahc snickered, added sliced cucumber to her tray, pushed it along as she finished. "Let's bag it and tag it for what it is."

  Layol glared, veins popping out on her neck. Dekram softly nudged her. Layol, both hands white-knuckling her tray, rode it closer to Soahc.

  It's now or never. I need to turn this back on me. Dekram calmly picked up a salad plate of dandelion, purple clover, huckleberry and highbush blueberries. She ladled a small amount of saffron and yogurt dressing over the salad, leaned around Layol and smiled at Soahc. "I wish I was colorblind like my mamma. That way I wouldn't get hungry for marshmallow bunnies every time I see your riotous yellow hair nesting your mottled blue face. You look like an upside down Easter basket, gal pal."

  Soahc's chin dropped.

  Layol yelped a laugh, sent her tray flying, and cherry juice drizzled down Soahc's face, onto her saffron dress, and pooled around the silver belt cinched at her waist.

  Everyone's eyes got big.

  Soahc shot three feet into the air and dumped her half-filled tray. "Impy mantis spit! This is my favorite dress!"

  Bacs hid a grin.

  Etah jerked handfuls of colored leaves out of a
dispenser by the checkout and began wiping at the sticky red juice in Soahc's hair and on her chest.

  Mirg said, "How horridly amazing. You look just like Sissy Spacek in the movie Carrie when the bucket of pig's blood-"

  "Stop!" Soahc screeched at Etah, red spittle flying from her mouth. "You're making it worse!"

  Bacs rubbed his chin with long skinny fingers. "Can cherry juice discolor hair...permanently? 'Cause mixing yellow and red makes orange, right?"

  "Art 101." Layol spit a giggle.

  Dekram turned to the very quiet lunchroom and shouted, "Anyone filming this? I bet it would get more hits than my domestic skills in the bathroom."

  Soahc froze, a red droplet hanging from the tip of her nose. She glared at Dekram.

  The lunchroom began to burble with giggles and rolled into boisterous laughter.

  "Karma's a pixie. You shouldn't've laughed at Dek when she fell in the restroom," Layol said and tucked a smile between her teeth.

  "Yeah, how's it feel?" Dekram blurted, body shaking, wings dusting yellow sparkles. O'mifairygodmother! Did I just say all that? OMFG!

  "You wingless little…little gremlins! You are sooo both on my FD list." Soahc rocketed toward the bathroom, her minions in frantic pursuit.

  "Exit time," Layol said. She grabbed a rolled-up romaine leaf stuffed with cream cheese and dates with one hand and Dekram's arm with the other.

  "What's an FD list?" Dekram nervously burbled, hugging her tray.

  "Fairy dung," Layol giggled. "Big deal. It was so worth the threat to see Soahc laughed at."

  "You are in so much crap," Nesohc told Dekram, the minute they arrived at the table. "Talk about adding fuel to the proverbial fire. That snake didn't do any crawling. It jumped right to recoil and my bet is it isn't going to waste any time striking at you again."

  Dekram took a deep breath that quelled a nervous giggle.

  "Not just her," Layol said, hyperventilating. "I fumbled my drink."

  "Well, at least, it won't hurt you to get a deficiency mark," Nesohc said from behind the hand covering his grin. "Hope Dek doesn't get another."

  It doesn't matter, we're both dead. Dekram's wings blurred and whirred a high-pitched sound.

  Layol darted, and maniacally shrieked, "Hey, did you hear? Dek and I got on the same team for mock missions!" She landed in a perfect ladylike position on the cafeteria chair across from Nesohc and then stuffed the rolled lettuce into her mouth, eyes darting around the cafeteria.

  "Dang. Screech much?" Nesohc laughed.

  Dekram softly mumbled, "Don't worry, Lay, I won't let them get back at you."

  "I'm not sweating them," Layol said. "My...um, mother'll bust my butt if I get a deficiency mark."

  Nesohc tucked his lips between his teeth trying to hold back a laugh. He sat back and picked up the folder. "So what's the mission, girls?"

  "Woman flipping lit cigarettes out her car window." Layol pointed to an explanation on the first page. "Already started one small brush fire, but she didn't get caught. Piece of cake."

  Nesohc sucked in a breath and tapped a finger at a line on the middle of the page. "Oh, crap. You're going out with the third group."

  "And I should be concerned, why?" Layol tucked the rest of her lettuce roll into her mouth.

  "So are Soahc and every one of her friends," Nesohc said.

  Layol spewed lettuce and cream cheese all over the table.

  Chapter 3

  DEKRAM SAT INDIAN-style on her bed, a pillow stuffed under her bruised hip, mission file spread in front of her. She groaned when her cell phone buzzed on the nightstand and carefully scooted toward it. Layol's avatar smiled at her from the screen.

  "Hey, what's up?" Dekram asked around huffs and puffs as she got situated again.

  "Crap, you sound like you're dying."

  "Might as well be—doing homework."

  "Nes just called all upset." Layol sucked in a noisy breath and then rapid fired: "He's at Tripp'n Poppy's and just witnessed Soahc and her friends dragging Bacs across the parking lot, and they all got on Soahc's Black Witch moth. Nes heard Soahc say, 'Let's dump his sorry ass. I'm not getting popped just because he's stupid enough to mix honey with whatever that Fire fairy sold him.'"

  "And Nesohc cares, why?"

  Layol blustered a sigh. "Uh, maybe because Bacs was puking all over himself, and his wings were lifeless. Nesohc said he couldn't even stand. What if he's really sick?"

  "What if he's just drunk?" Dekram shot back and then bit her lip. "Why were they out partying on a school night, anyway?"

  "You didn't check your Fun Mail?"

  "No, after I got home from the library, Mom spent the whole evening yelling about the stupid blouse. I barely made it through dinner, hid in my room, and I've been working on the mission. Besides I never check my Fun Mail on school nights. Why?"

  "There's a buzz at Tripp'n Poppy's tonight."

  A buzz was a let's-get-together-and-party-down event: loud, crowded, multi-species, replete with illegal drugs and way too much drinking. Times and locations came through a Buzz Word text in a 'for students' eyes only' Fun Mail account.

  "Why is Nes at a buzz?" Dekram wanted to know.

  "I didn't ask."

  Dekram, Layol and Nesohc attended a buzz only once and left when a big fight broke out between a group of Air fairies and Fire fairies. The next day Nesohc learned someone had slipped Angel Trumpet into the drink of one of the Air fairies, nearly killing her.

  "You should have," Dekram said. "We promised we'd never go again!"

  "Jiminy Christmas! He didn't give me a chance! He just told me to call you because his caterpillar is doing the cocoon thing and he can't get Bacs home without your dragonfly. Then he hung up."

  "I told him not to get a caterpillar. Guys! He thought he was getting two vehicles in one. How stupid is that? I so do not want to get up in Soahc's face. And you know how unpredictable Renrad is. Why can't you two just take your moth, Woolly?"

  "Woolly Bear is sick again. C'mon. I'll bring you an aloe leaf for your hip."

  Layol's uncle had surprised her by sending a Yellow Woolly Bear moth from Michigan for her first form of transportation. True, it was beautiful—creamy white with a cute cotton tuft behind its head—but the moth was not doing well in Florida's hot, sticky weather.

  "Poor Woolly," Dekram said and sighed. "I am not rubbing a gooey aloe leaf all over my butt."

  Layol giggled. "It'll keep your undies in place."

  "You better pray to the Elements my mother lets me out tonight. Did you tell Nesohc to call us when they dump Bacs?"

  "Yes, and why don't you just lock your bedroom door and fly out the window?"

  "That is so not going to happen, especially after the blouse blunder."

  Layol made a tsking noise. "How 'bout I head to the pond and if you don't show up, borrow Renrad."

  "In A Midsummer Night's Dream, you will. Don't you dare snag my ride. I'll be there." Dekram slapped her cell shut, shoved it in the back pocket of her skinny-jeans, and yelped. Thank the Elements I don't have to walk everywhere. She paid special attention to her tender hip as she transferred the phone to her front pocket before flying out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

  In the living room, Dekram's mother, Diuqil was inspecting her larvae farm.

  Setting her jaw, wings trembling, Dekram hid in the hall. There is no way to be honest about this. If I say I'm trying, I'm double lying. "Mom, can I go over to Layol's for a couple of hours? We want to work on our mock mission together, and, um, maybe we'll return the blouse first."

  Diuqil looked up from the glass aquarium, fingering a cluster of small wiggly mosquito larva in her palm. "I've already returned it, and I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to work on your project over the phone."

  Dekram's lips tightened, arms crossed over her chest. "If you're not letting me go just because of the stupid blouse," she groused. "Water fairies don't even wear clothes most of the time, and it's not like I dress like a Fire fairy,
either."

  Diuqil turned back to the larvae in her hand. "There is no shame in exposing your natural form the way nature intended us to. However, there is shame in decorating your body to provoke lust." She placed her hand into the aquarium until the larva floated off, and then frowned at Dekram. "That blouse was like putting a sign around your neck advertising the desire for sexual attention. You're too young."

  Eyes closed in frustration; Dekram let out a noisy breath and added to her lie. "O-kay, I-get-it. I won't do it again." She plucked a grape leaf draped over a toadstool by the aquarium and passed it to her mother. "Look, we tried to work on the project over the phone, but Layol's cell keeps dropping the call. C'mon! It's such a pain."

  Her mother slowly wiped a wet hand with the grape leaf, forehead wrinkled, mouth scrunched to one side, and finally spoke. "Why are you favoring your hip?"

  "I…a harsh wind whipped me into an oak tree by the pond." One lie leads to another and then another, and I hate lying! If she just trusted me.

  Diuqil asked. "Did you fall off Renrad?'

  "No!"

  Her mother studied her again and then flew into the kitchen. Dekram heard a cupboard open, glass tinkle and finally Diuqil flew back into the room with a small vial of purple liquid. "Take this; it'll help the pain."

  "Can I go over to Layol's?" Dekram asked. Her mother's hand circled a command to drink-up.

  While Dekram swallowed and grimaced, Diuqil said, "Well, you're clearly lying to me about something." Her mother reached for the empty vial. "Take Renrad and be back before your father gets home in two hours. He's leaving in the morning, and you should, at least, say goodbye."

  "I will," Dekram shouted over her shoulder as she flew out through a flickering hole imbedded in the cavity of the oak tree.

  At the pond, Dekram hovered in front of Layol, wings racing. "We have two hours. So I sure hope they dump him somewhere quickly," she said, untying Renrad's lead and hopping onto her dragonfly's back.