Party Ghoul

by Sarina Dorie

“They’ll be fine for a few minutes.” His brown eyes twinkled. “I gather you’re moving? You don’t need to take me up on that offer to spend time at the lakeside cabin?”

  She ignored that comment, not wanting to encourage him. “Lady of the Lake School for Girls hired me as the new flyer-education instructor. I start today.” She would get to show Principal Gordmayer what a reformed, moral person she was these days, the perfect candidate to teach a permanent position at the school starting in September. “I will be staying at the school this summer.”

  He nodded with earnest enthusiasm, masking any disappointment of not spending the summer with her in a love shack if he felt it. “You got your flying license back. Good for you!”

  She held a twiggy limb out of the way as they stepped into the forest.

  “Saturday when you saw me at the club, you should have told me you were moving.” He stared into her eyes, his own full of warmth and tenderness. “I would have come to help you.”

  Guilt roiled in her core when men looked at her that way.

  She shrugged. “It’s not anything I couldn’t handle.”

  Saturday night they had danced to swing and jazz music until late. Castor wasn’t her exclusive dance partner, but he was one of the best male dancers, and she was one of the best female dancers. It made sense they would gravitate toward each other every time they were in the same club. She’d had several drinks when she asked him if he wanted to go back to her dorm room with her.

  “Isn’t that going to get you kicked out?” he had asked.

  She waved him off, shouting over the music to be heard. “They’re kicking me out anyway.”

  Instead of snatching up the opportunity she presented to him, he’d been old-fashioned and gentlemanly. “When are you going to let me take you out to dinner and get to know you better?”

  “I’m too drunk to talk about dating.” In truth, she hadn’t felt that drunk. She’d been able to fly home on a broom perfectly fine.

  Using a portal to get home, that had been out of the question. Opening portals was dangerous during the best of times.

  “Maybe you’re too drunk to invite me back to your dorm. You might regret it later.”

  Mostly she did regret it, but only because she didn’t appreciate being rejected.

  Now as they walked alone in the quiet solitude of the forest, the only music was birds chirping and wind rustling pine needles. She feared where this conversation might go.

  “I was thinking about our last . . . conversation,” he said.

  She nodded. She had dwelled on it the night she’d gone back to her shared dorm room alone, unsatisfied, and wishing she hadn’t ruined her chances with him.

  “I bet things will be a lot more relaxed in the summer. Both of us are done with our practicums. We’ll have so much more time. . . .” He glanced at her shyly.

  Vega had a bad feeling where this was going. He was going to ask her out on a date again.

  “Lots more time for drinking and dancing,” she said. “You know me, I’m a party girl.”

  “Actually. . . .”

  Don’t say it, she thought. Say anything other than—

  “We could go on a double date with Amy and Paris,” he said.

  “Not Amy.” Vega made a face. “She was my roommate all year, and I had to put up with her every day.” Her former roommate and his cousin were disgustingly affectionate with each other on their dates. It might make Vega vomit.

  “Then just us.”

  Vega increased her pace, trying to spur him into walking faster. The sooner she got to the portal, the sooner she could beat herself up for all her mistakes in how she handled this conversation.

  “I think there are certain things you want in a woman that I can’t give you,” she said.

  He picked up the pace, but only slightly. “You’re beautiful, intelligent, and we have a lot in common. We have the same hobbies and similar occupations. What more is there?”

  “Emotional availability.”

  He laughed, probably thinking she was joking.

  She hated breaking his heart. That was why she had introduced Amy to him, in the hope they would click, and Vega wouldn’t be tempted to grow closer to him. That plan had backfired when Amy had fallen for his cousin instead.

  Vega could see she was going to have to be brutally honest. She didn’t know whom this was going to hurt more, him or her.

  She whacked a branch in her way with his broom handle. “I’m in love with someone else.”

  “The boyfriend who died?” His eyes were full of kindness.

  She hated it when people looked at her that way. “Who told you? Amy?” That traitor!

  “She told Paris. He told me.” He set down her trunk in the middle of the path and took her hand, obviously not getting the hint she wanted distance between them. “That was six years ago that your boyfriend died. Isn’t it time you got over him?”

  “Of course it is.” She couldn’t meet his gaze, so instead she stared at the shadows stretching across the path. “That’s why I wanted to hook up with you. I figured that was my first step toward recovery.”

  “Hooking up with me would be recovery?”

  She despised emotional vulnerability—in herself and others. Yet there was nothing so off-putting as honesty. She wasn’t below using that tactic. “That’s right. I thought it might be nice to sleep with a normal, not creepy guy from the club. It would be a welcome change. A break from my usual habits. Maybe a step in the right direction.” There were lots of creepy guys. She’d even slept with some of them. Most of them were agreeably unavailable emotionally.

  And then there was Castor. Perfectly nice, normal Castor. He was so human in aspect, it was unlikely he was harboring any dark family secrets like she was. It was doubtful he was descended from demons like ghouls.

  She couldn’t trust anyone enough to reveal what she was to them. Nor could she fall in love with someone, knowing they might betray her if she told them. Rejection was far from the worst scenario. Reporting her to the Witchkin Council was one of the more brutal fates.

  His brow wrinkled in consternation. “So I’m just some guy you want to sleep with because I’m less creepy than other guys?”

  “It isn’t that you’re ‘less’ creepy. You aren’t creepy at all.” She was the creepy one. He just didn’t know it.

  He was silent, perhaps thinking over her words. He dropped her hand, but he picked up the trunk and continued to walk with her toward the portal.

  They passed pines and cedars. She supposed he must have thought he’d committed himself to keeping her company. She considered telling him he didn’t have to walk with her. It was what she usually would have done—anything to push someone away so she didn’t have to think about having a relationship with them.

  As much as it saved her from rejection, betrayal, or the heartache of seeing someone die again, she recognized it wasn’t healthy. Someday she might want a relationship with a nice guy like Castor.

  Only she wished she knew how to tell him that. Perhaps she didn’t have to.

  When they reached the portal, he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let me know when you’re ready for a relationship, Vega.”

  She felt worse that he said it nicely, like he meant it, and he wished the best for her. He handed her the trunk.

  Vega hesitated before the portal. The scene of forest on the other side was just different enough to signal a change in environment, coniferous trees on this side becoming deciduous trees through the doorway. Permanent portals were perfectly safe. She reminded herself they didn’t close on people. Their energy didn’t fluctuate. They were even safer than her purse or closet, which was only meant to store inanimate objects.

  She stepped through the permanent portal to the woodland on the other side, immediately stumbling on uneven terrain that should have been flat. She dropped her trunk of teaching supplies. Her beaded black purse went flying, and she tripped into brambles of
f the path. She caught her hose on the thorns of a blackberry branch.

  Horrified, she turned to see if anyone had noticed. Castor was walking away, his back to her on the other side of the portal. No one else was near, but Vega heard a maniacal giggle.

  Square in the path was a mound of burrowed earth that looked like a gopher hole. A little red hat poked out of it, and a gnome eyed Vega maliciously before ducking back inside. She really wished she hadn’t sent Gnome Relocation Services away.

  It was a rocky start to her day.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Brooms Gone Wild

  Vega wished she had more time to unpack her trunk and everything she’d stored in her purse before getting ready for her first flyer-ed class. This was the soonest her new room had been ready.

  Mondays and Wednesdays were the afternoon class for first-time flyers. It was mostly made up of insolent teenagers from the Unseen Realm, though there were a few adults among their ranks. She imagined this was the equivalent of what teaching driver education would be like for Morties, but this class used levitation spells and brooms and was taken by Witchkin.

  Even though Lady of the Lake School for Girls only accepted female students during the school year, in summer classes such as this, students of all genders came from a variety of schools to take flyer education. Not all Witchkin teenagers descended from Morty and Fae looked human. Neither the girl with ram horns in the front, blocking the four-foot elfish boy with pointed ears, nor the young woman with hair made from writhing snakes could have passed for human without some heavy glamours to disguise their features. And even if they did employ illusions, there was no way to ensure their true natures remained hidden once they entered the Morty Realm, with all the plastic, cold iron, and electronics weakening their magic.

  Vega took attendance and assigned textbooks, recording the number on each book that students selected. It was strange being in Mr. Reade’s room and being the adult in charge. She kept thinking someone would point out she was a student or that she wasn’t a real teacher. No one did.

  Maybe it was because she wasn’t a student teacher. She really was in charge. No one was there to watch her and grade her. It was exhilarating.

  It was terrifying.

  She attempted to conceal her anxiety by glaring at the teenagers to show how stern she was. She suspected it worked.

  A young man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt raised his hand. His mop of blond hair almost hid the textured green speckles on his face that resembled scales.

  “Yes?” Vega asked.

  “Dude, I’m so confused. This book, like, doesn’t have what I thought we’d be learning.”

  His clothing choice and vocabulary reminded Vega of Vincent, a “friend” from high school. Sorrow played a sad note on the strings of her heart as she thought about him. Vega’s last words to him hadn’t been kind.

  “What did you think you’d be learning?” Vega arched an eyebrow at him.

  “Dude, when do we, like, get to learn to throw fireballs at people’s faces?”

  Students around him chuckled.

  “First of all, I’m not a ‘dude.’ I am Ms. Bloodmire.” Vega couldn’t figure out whether he thought he was being funny or he was stupid. “Second, this isn’t air pelota class. You should have taken a summer athletic class if you wanted to learn that.”

  “No way! My dad told me I was going to learn how to fly on a broom and smash balls in people’s faces. Maybe there’s a mistake. Are you sure I’m in this class?”

  “Dude, you said balls!” a young man with tusks and oversized floppy ears laughed.

  The three adults taking the class for first-time flyers sighed and rolled their eyes.

  Unfortunately, Vega confirmed this student was, indeed, on the class list. Her first impression that he was like Vincent had been false. Kenji’s friend, Vincent, had been far more intelligent.

  Vega continued to pass out textbooks, and went over the syllabus and curriculum, which Mr. Reade had given her in advance. Things went tolerably well considering most of the teenagers looked like they didn’t want to be there. Students signed up for a one-hour lesson that they would share with one other student throughout the week, which Vega would supervise.

  Throughout the class, three students showed up late. Two weren’t on her class list. It was pretty much like every other first day of class she’d experienced in her limited time teaching. She was finished with class and tidying up afterward by 4:15 p.m. and went to the administration wing to turn in the late registration forms of the students who had said they couldn’t find the office.

  Mr. Gordmayer sat at his desk, sporting another pair of goofy sunglasses. “Which do you think will be better at keeping the sun and sand out of my eyes?” He removed the current pair of glasses he wore and put on a pair of aviator goggles.

  It was about time he asked her fashion advice!

  “Are you flying somewhere?” Vega asked.

  “Yes! The missus and I are going on a plane! It’s my first time flying on a real Morty-crafted airplane. I’m so excited to feel the sea breeze in my hair and the—”

  She put up a hand to stop him. “Why would you use Morty transportation?” Magic was so much more effective. Even if they didn’t want to construct a portal to get to their vacation destination because of the dangers involved in this kind of transportation magic, they could fly on a broom through permanent portals.

  Any kind of magical transportation had to be safer than a large chunk of metal hurtling through the sky, at risk of falling any moment if a bird was sucked into its engine. Not to mention all the plastic and electronics in it that were bad for Witchkin magic.

  Mr. Gordmayer laughed enthusiastically. “We’re trying something new. I convinced Allegra that we should go to Hawaii and pretend to be Morties. It will be a great opportunity for us to learn what it’s like for some of our students who have only lived in the Morty Realm before coming to our school.”

  Vega supposed everyone had their hobbies. If this was what he enjoyed, it was far less scandalous than her interests.

  He lowered his voice. “This is the first vacation we’ve gone on in twelve years. It’s so exciting!”

  Vega didn’t want to deprive him of his enthusiasm even if she found the idea of vacationing in the Morty Realm to be unappealing.

  “I have a surprise for Allegra.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “There’s going to be a meteor shower during a lunar eclipse. Do you know how rare that is? Some of the most taxing forms of Celestor magic can be used more easily during meteor showers and eclipses, but both at the same time! This is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for!”

  Vega nodded, understanding flooding through her. She knew of one spell that required an eclipse and a meteor shower. It was a fountain-of-youth spell. Vega could understand why he might want his wife to try an anti-aging spell, especially on their anniversary.

  She pointed to the aviator goggles. “Those will be practical for flying, but if you want to look fashionable on the beach, you should stick to one of the pairs you tried on yesterday.”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “Good point.”

  She handed him the late registration forms.

  He removed an envelope from the paper tray organizer on his desk. “If you get any more registration forms while I’m away, you can put them in an envelope and address it to the Department of Magical Violations. But make sure you use the steam-powered copy machine to duplicate the forms and leave a copy for me in my box. If all goes well with our appointment with Magical Wildlife Movers tomorrow morning, you won’t see us for the next two weeks.”

  Warmth drained from Vega’s face. “This is for the gnomes?”

  “Yes. Gnome Relocation Services fell through. Allegra said we need to wait until we have this gnome problem taken care of before we leave for summer fun.” He sighed despondently. “I hope we don’t miss our plane tomorrow.”

  The gnome problem wasn’t Vega’s fault, but
she hadn’t helped with the situation by accidentally sending the witch from GRS away. If the principal found out Vega was the reason the gnome problem persisted, that was a different matter. She already hadn’t endeared herself to the principal. Now that Vega knew there weren’t any other candidates for the job, she was certain that was the only reason Mrs. Gordmayer had hired her.

  With the teaching vacancies that had opened up for the upcoming school year, Vega was certain there would be many applicants. Vega needed to show the administration she was the best candidate for the job—without murdering her competition. Or sending them away. She had to prove to Mrs. Gordmayer she was an asset to the school, a team player, and that she was a good person—even though none of those were true.

  Vega did her best to smile pleasantly and look like a helpful, caring person, rather than someone conniving. “I can help you with the Magical Wildlife Movers tomorrow so that you don’t miss your plane.”

  “Oh no, I couldn’t ask you to do that.” He tugged at the collar of his polo shirt, clearly looking uncomfortable. “You have flyer-ed to teach tomorrow.”

  “Not until the evening. I have a few lessons in the afternoon, but you said the wildlife movers will be here in the morning, right?” Vega suspected his nervous gesture meant he was actually considering the proposition, even though his words said otherwise. “It wouldn’t be any bother. I would love to be able to help my school in any way I can.”

  “Well. . . .” He fiddled with papers in his trays.

  “Just leave me a list of what you want me to talk to the relocators about, and I’ll take thorough notes for you.”

  “You just need to be here to greet them. After they perform an inspection, they’ll give you an estimate for how much the relocation costs. You can pass on that paper to me. Anything you put in my mail slot in the staff room will magically get forwarded to me while I’m on vacation.” He lowered his voice. “But let’s just keep this between you and me—that I’m asking you to help us out with this favor tomorrow.”

  Vega didn’t blame him for wanting to keep it a secret that he was leaving the principal’s least favorite person in charge of something so important. Only when Vega had successfully accomplished the task would she let it slip that she had been the helpful staff member.