Page 21 of Fangs and Fudge

I shook my head at her and got out of the car.

“Behave. Miles has company inside.”

Vena gave me a look but didn’t say anything else as we walked up the sidewalk. Near Miles’ door, I braced myself, ready for when the freaky fairy jumped out of the bushes at me. However, it didn’t.

Had it moved on?

Vena knocked before letting herself in.

Miles glanced up from the kitchen table where the blue fairy sat in a pile of silverware, looking like it was in heaven.

“Um, are you okay?” Vena asked him. “Why is there a fairy on your spoons?”

“I’m making friends,” he said. “They’re a source of information I’d never get from books. It’s a whole new way to research that I’d overlooked.”

“You’re not supposed to research, remember?” Vena gently scolded.

He waved away Vena’s concern. “The only thing I’m researching is how to communicate with my fine fairy friend here.”

The fairy beamed at him, and I fought not to make a face.

“Everly mentioned that the fairy was the reason you found me,” he said.

Vena, Miles, and the fairy looked at me expectantly.

“It was. Which is why I gave it a dime as a token of my appreciation. Thank you,” I said with a nod toward the little blue beast.

It didn’t beam at me like it did Miles, though.

“But how did you communicate with it?” he asked.

“A lot of pantomiming and frustration on its part when I didn’t understand right away.”

Vena made a sympathetic sound. “She sucks at Pictionary, too.”

The fairy pantomimed belly laughing. I wasn’t amused and looked around Miles’ apartment, not noting any hulking werewolf bodyguard. However, the bathroom and bedroom doors were closed.

“Why are you trying to communicate?” I asked, looking at Miles again.

“Like I said, it’s another potential way to research. In the future, of course.”

The toilet flushed in the bathroom.

“Company?” she asked Miles.

“Yeah, of the furry variety, which I don’t mind at all. Not a fan of the fanged variety.” He gave me a look that I couldn’t quite decipher. Surely, he wasn’t against my connection with Cross, too. Without Cross, Miles would still be tied to a chair in Sierra’s house.

The door opened, robbing me of any ability to use my questionable pantomiming skills to ask what his deal was.

“Hey, Buzz,” I said. “Are you on day duty?”

“For now. We’re rotating so we don’t get too lax in security,” he said, sitting on Miles’ sofa. “What brings the two of you here?”

“Checking to see how crazy Miles is after his time as a feeder,” Vena said bluntly. “And as unlikely as this sounds, trying to talk to a fairy to gain information isn’t crazy. He would have done this before the kidnapping if he’d known.”

I nodded. “The fairy was helpful.”

“How did you know it could be?” Buzz asked.

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