Charming Blue

by Kristine Grayson

  The black-and-white stills were the most damning. They looked just like the sketches. The color photographs made the Fairy Tale Stalker a bit more human to Blue. The man’s skin tone was a bit uneven—probably because like most people from the Kingdoms, he wasn’t used to LA’s level of sunshine—and he didn’t quite seem comfortable in his open-collared shirt. His smile was a bit hesitant, his eyes a little worried, and those details alone probably made it hard for him to get work, what with all the other beautiful people descending on this city each and every day.

  Jodi wiped her hand on the leg of her jeans, and then picked up one of the head shots. She flipped it over.

  “Gregory Shea,” she said, “and he has a Hollywood address, with a landline. How very not-LA.”

  “I already called the landline,” Ramon said. “It’s been disconnected.”

  “Of course it has,” Blue said, peering over Jodi’s shoulder at the little white label of information behind the photograph. The man’s name, his address, his phone number, and the name of his representation. “Gregory Shea can’t be his real name.”

  “I’m sure it’s not,” Jodi said.

  “It’s not,” Ramon said, “But I’ve never heard of him. I’ve got his real name in the file somewhere. He’s like seventieth to the throne in one of the minor Kingdoms.”

  Blue couldn’t take it anymore. He had no idea how someone mortal knew all of this. If, indeed, Ramon was mortal.

  “I get no sense of magic from you,” Blue said to Ramon.

  “And that, my friend, is a tragedy,” Ramon said, “because you and I could make beautiful magic together.”

  “The quote is music,” Jodi said, still studying the photograph. “You would make beautiful music together. And really, Ramon, he’s not your type.”

  “You know, usually you don’t harp on that,” Ramon said. “You let me figure it out for myself.”

  Jodi looked up, a bit of surprise on her face. “I do? Really? Well, I’m distracted.”

  Her cheeks had grown a bit pink. Or maybe Blue was imagining that. Maybe he wanted to imagine that.

  Her gaze met his. The gaze looked steady, which Blue was most decidedly not feeling at the moment, not with her looking at him like that.

  “Ramon can see magic,” Jodi said, her tone matter-of-fact, “because I needed him to see magic. He already had a small ability to see auras—there’s someone magical in his past, and since what little magic he inherited had been overwhelmed many, many, many generations of mortals ago, I had to dig, find it, and enhanced that little bit.”

  “You make it sound like I’m so inept,” Ramon said, a smile on his face. Then his smile faded, just a bit. “She also added some kind of spell so I can see Cantankerous Belle and all of her obnoxious little friends whom I refuse to call fairies.”

  “Not to mention that he can now see people like Gunther for what they actually are rather than how they present themselves to mortals,” Jodi said, still turning the photograph over and over in her hand. She then leaned forward and compared it to the police sketches. Something was bothering her, but Blue couldn’t tell what.

  Nor did Blue know how Gunther appeared to mortals. He supposed that the selkie, the mermaid, Gunther, and all the others had to appear slightly differently to mortals, or mortals would know that magic walked among them. But he had never given it any thought before.

  “That little magical boost does make me better at my job, which I appreciate,” Ramon said. “It also gave me a few nightmares in the beginning when I realized that all of those things I’d seen out of the corner of my eye as a child were actually real and not the product of an overzealous imagination.”

  And there, most likely, was Blue’s answer. But he didn’t ask. He felt they were on enough of a sidetrack already. Still, he had one more question.

  “I thought it was against the rules to let mortals see us for who we are,” Blue said to Jodi.

  She shrugged. “Rules within rules. It’s hard for a chatelaine to work with other chatelaines, and I needed some kind of help. I thought of hiring someone with magic similar to mine, but it really worried me. I don’t get along with other chatelaines. Apparently it’s part of our magic. We’re quite jealous of our turf.”

  Blue raised his eyebrows slightly. He couldn’t quite imagine Jodi jealous.

  “Really, though,” she said, “what I needed was organization and street smarts, and mortals have that without the annoying competing magic thing. Ramon has it in spades.”

  “Thank you, milady,” Ramon said, bowing just a little.

  “Besides, if I hired someone magical, I couldn’t do most of my job, given the prevalence of BlackBerries, iPads, computers, and technical equipment around Hollywood these days. We certainly wouldn’t have all of this research right now.” Jodi was still staring at the pictures.

  “What’s bothering you about these?” Blue asked her.

  She picked up one of the head shots, studied it for a moment, and shook her head. “I don’t remember him at all.”

  “Is that unusual?” Blue asked.

  “I like to pride myself on a great memory,” Jodi said as Ramon said, “No, it’s not unusual.”

  Jodi gave him a playful glare, then slapped the head shot against the palm of her other hand. “All right. It’s not unusual. Ramon does a lot to make sure I get a client’s name right.”

  “And even then she misses,” Ramon said in a stage whisper.

  Blue was beginning to like the fondness the two of them seemed to have for each other.

  “But this Gregory Shea has charm magic,” Jodi said, “and the thing about Charmings, even minor ones, is that they’re memorable. It’s part of the charm. People don’t forget you, do they, Blue?”

  “I wish they would,” he said, thinking of all the things he had done since coming to LA. Hell, all the things he’d done—or supposedly done—in the Kingdoms as well.

  Jodi frowned. “It seems to me, though, that you weren’t as memorable when you were drinking.”

  Blue gave a rueful smile. “I certainly hope not.”

  “Blue,” Ramon said, “Blue, Blue, Blue… Blue! Oh my God! You’re the Aqua Velva guy!”

  Blue closed his eyes, then made himself smile. It was actually work to open his eyes and smile at that. “Yep. That was me.”

  “Smurf hair, blue velvet clothes even in the LA heat—you’d get stinko in more ways than one,” Ramon said, eyes twinkling. “I had forgotten about you, and I certainly didn’t find you charming. But you were—oh my God! Bluebeard, right?”

  “Still am,” Blue said.

  Jodi moved closer to him, as if in comfort.

  “Oh, yeah, not charming at all.” Ramon said. “Not at all.”

  Then he turned toward Jodi, giving her a strange look.

  “Bluebeard?” he said. “Really?”

  “The fairy tale has it wrong,” Jodi said.

  “Well, that’s a relief,” Ramon said. “So long as you’re certain.”

  “I am,” Jodi said.

  Blue wished he was.

  “Not memorable, though,” Jodi said. “Except as a problem, that’s what you’re saying, right, Ramon?”

  “Well, except in an oh-my-God-who-invited-that-guy kinda way,” Ramon said. “As a charming, memorable, kiss-me-you-fool kinda way, noooo.”

  Blue gave him a sideways look. The kiss-me-you-fool comment made him uncomfortable. In the long-distant past when people were interested in him, they weren’t so blatant about it. But he knew that modern culture had gotten crude.

  Not that the culture he had grown up in hadn’t been crude—it had in a variety of ways—but no one said such outrageous things to him, maybe because he was the king’s son.

  In fact, no one had been this outrageous with him ever.

  “You know, really,” Jodi said, “it shouldn’t have been that easy for you to mask your charm. Your charm magic is extremely powerful. More so than most of the Charmings I’ve met.”

  Blue wanted
to ask her if that was just because she was attracted to him, but he didn’t dare, not for her, but because he didn’t want to embarrass himself. He didn’t want to seem vulnerable.

  Or, at least, more vulnerable than he already was.

  “And I didn’t remember this Gregory.” Jodi picked up the rest of the pictures, studying them. “I don’t even sense charm coming from the photos and you’d think I would.”

  Ramon was watching her now, a small frown creasing his forehead.

  “What if we have this wrong?” she said. “What if this isn’t a curse?”

  “Then you need to get the hell out of here,” Blue said. He was shaking. He hadn’t wanted it to be wrong. He wanted it to be a curse, and not something he did. He needed it to be a curse. He couldn’t lose the hope that he was redeemable, not now, not after a chance had been dangled in front of him.

  Jodi put a hand on his arm. “No, no, that’s not what I mean.”

  Blue stood very still. He wasn’t going to move away from her, but he wasn’t going to encourage her either. And he was going to have to think of a way out of here, something that would keep them very separate. Something that would somehow protect her.

  “I’m wondering if this is some kind of real spell, something that was supposed to neutralize charm.”

  It took him a moment to understand her. He had been thinking so hard of protecting her, he hadn’t followed the tangent.

  “Isn’t a curse a real spell?” Ramon asked.

  “It’s different,” Jodi said. “Sideways magic. And Selda is right. It shouldn’t be able to become corporeal. But real spells have real effects, real power, depending on the caster, and they can get tangled up in an aura…”

  She put her hands on Blue’s shoulders and turned him toward her. He looked directly at her, his heart pounding. He found himself wishing that the higher powers he had learned about in rehab existed for him, wishing that he hadn’t met so many of the minor (and major) Greek gods, as well as some of the Egyptian deities, and the nutty Norse gods. If he hadn’t met them, he would have been more inclined to believe in some of the other gods, the ones that seemed to help those he’d been in rehab with.

  Or even if those gods hadn’t helped, he might have tried to believe. Because right now, he wanted to be praying. He wanted to pray that Jodi found something, something that didn’t blame him.

  “Ramon, you look too,” she said, letting her hands drop off Blue’s shoulders and taking a step back.

  Ramon stood beside her. They tilted their heads at him, like women watching a friend at a bridal fitting.

  “I’ve never seen sparking like that,” Ramon said. “Didn’t I say that before?”

  “You know,” Jodi said, her head still tilted, “I hadn’t either. And that’s where I went wrong.”

  Blue regretted each piece of pizza. Because his stomach was twisting, and he felt queasy. “Wrong how?”

  “I shouldn’t have listened to Tank,” Jodi said. “This is not a curse. This is one honking doozy of a spell, and it’s getting all of its power from your magic.”

  “Great,” Blue said wryly, or at least, he hoped it was wryly. Because he didn’t feel wry. He felt scared to death. “I thought you said that spells deteriorate and curses don’t.”

  “Well, technically, that’s true, but this spell has to be extremely powerful to last centuries. You know, like that sleep spell that snared Emma Lost.” Her frown got deeper.

  He didn’t know Emma Lost, but he’d heard the story. The spell she suffered sounded awful. He felt cold. “How do we neutralize the damn thing?”

  Jodi crossed her arms, still clutching those photographs of the hapless Gregory. “I don’t know yet,” she said, “but I have a few ideas.”

  “What kind of ideas?” Blue asked.

  “The kind that need to be explored through trial and error,” Jodi said. “Which is why I need to find Gregory first.”

  Chapter 40

  Jodi hadn’t looked at Blue’s aura since that morning, and it surprised her how much the aura had changed. He stood near the wall in the kitchen, looking like a neatly dressed model posing for an ad parodying a mug shot. His features were strained, his eyes haunted.

  But she wasn’t really looking at his face. His aura entranced her. The first time she had seen it, it had been a healthy blue, filled with charm magic. This morning, the blue still dominated, with the amber light reflecting off the edges, like heat lightning.

  Now the amber light had made some headway into the blue, threading with it, making it look like someone had attached amber edges to blue thread. The amber still sparked, however, and it made fist-sized gray spots in Blue’s aura.

  “What is that?” Ramon asked.

  “Magic being consumed too quickly,” Jodi said.

  “Can he feel that?” Ramon asked.

  “Um, I’m right here,” Blue said. “No need to discuss me in the third person.”

  “Well,” Ramon said with a touch of impatience. “Can you?”

  “I doubt it,” Jodi said, answering for Blue, since he couldn’t see his own aura and didn’t know what they were talking about.

  “If you’re asking if I can feel my aura,” Blue said, “of course I can’t.”

  “I would think,” Jodi said, “that it would feel more like a loss of magical power.”

  “If I had ever felt like I had magical power, then maybe I would feel it,” Blue said. “But I never did, and I don’t.”

  She nodded. She wasn’t surprised at his response. This magic was parasitical. It fed off the victim’s magic, which explained why the women around Blue saw the effects of the spell quicker than the women around a third-rate Charming from a fifth-rate Kingdom.

  “You said you could find this Gregory Shea,” Jodi said, turning her attention to Ramon. He had his head tilted too, and he looked as if he couldn’t quite believe what he saw.

  “Yeah,” Blue said. “Then you tell us his landline is disconnected.”

  “Ah, fear not, pretty one,” Ramon said, recovering. He was an outrageous flirt when he was attracted to someone, and usually that didn’t bother the subject of his flirtation, but Blue looked a little nonplussed.

  Of course, he had hid his extreme good looks under a rather hideous costume, so he hadn’t been subjected to this kind of treatment from anyone in a long, long time.

  In fact, way back when he last let himself look attractive, it had been illegal and dangerous for another man to express an interest this clearly, and women who talked like Ramon were considered to be little better than trash.

  So probably Blue had never heard this kind of talk directed at him before. Jodi smiled in spite of herself.

  “I am resourceful,” Ramon said. “I looked in our friend’s file, found the name of his agent, and made a phone call.”

  Jodi’s smile grew. This was why she adored Ramon. He made everything interesting, and he was competent.

  “His agent did not know where he was, but the agent had the all-important cell phone number, which I have.”

  “I don’t suppose you called it,” Jodi said.

  “What do I look like, a doofus?” Ramon said. “Of course I didn’t call it. This man is feeling hounded and harassed. He wanted to go into the movie business or at least the TV business, so wherever he’s holed up, he’s watching all of this coverage of him and worried that someone will find him. So I’m sure he’s not answering his phone.”

  “Even if his agent calls?” Jodi asked.

  “It doesn’t matter how strong his dreams are,” Blue said. “He’s seeing them disappear, and quickly. He’s probably terrified of what he’s done. The magic hasn’t harmed anyone yet—hasn’t killed anyone yet.”

  Jodi could see Blue correcting himself. She like that about him. He tried to use precise language, language that did not cut anyone any slack at all.

  “So right now he thinks he’s sleepwalking or sleep-driving or something. He’s scared, but not that scared. Although he has a sense of how
out of control this can be given the mention of me.”

  “Hmm, yes,” Ramon said. “I wonder if he’s doing that or if that’s programmed in.”

  “No way to know,” Jodi said. “The point is that he’s scared and you said you know how to find him.”

  Ramon smiled. “No, I said I know where he is.”

  “Enough with the drama,” Blue said. “Where is he?”

  “He has been ordering takeout and it’s been delivered to one of those rent-by-the-week places near LAX,” Ramon said.

  “How do you know that?” Blue asked. Jodi hadn’t wanted to ask that part, because she had a hunch she knew the answer.

  “Well, let’s just say that cell phone records aren’t as private as they should be,” Ramon said, with a twinkle in his eye. He knew how uncomfortable his flirting was making Blue, and that only encouraged it.

  “Okay,” Blue said, sounding a bit confused. Clearly he didn’t entirely understand what Ramon meant. But Jodi did.

  Still, not understanding didn’t stop Blue from asking the next question. “The takeout is important how?”

  “Oh, you have to use a credit card if you don’t show up in person, so I called about his usual time, ordered him some Chinese—his usual, and put it on the firm’s card—sorry, Jodi.”

  “No, it’s a business expense,” she said, wondering if it was, and wondering if it really mattered.

  “And then I had them double-check the address they had on file with me, and they did. Voila!” He handed a slip of paper to Jodi.

  She looked at it. Her hand was shaking only slightly. Ramon was right. One of those rent-by-the-week places near LAX. Anonymous, but not that cheap. Apparently a third-rate Charming from a fifth-rate Kingdom had money, just like a lot of the other Charmings that came to LA. He probably thought he was slumming it. He wasn’t as far gone as Blue had been, at least not yet.

  “Great,” Jodi said. “I have to pay him a visit.”

  Blue frowned at her. It was a magnificent frown, filled with disapproval and strength and all of that power that he usually didn’t use. “You have to visit him?”

  “Yes,” she said, suddenly realizing why he had frowned.