Page 66 of Perfectly Perfect Pixie

Pacing, I tugged the ends of my hair.Think, Lucroy.I hadn’t reached six hundred by suffering indecision paralysis. I needed someone who could go out in the light. I needed someone who could face the sun’s wrath and not burn.

“I’m getting help,” I yelled into the phone. The sprites always seemed able to understand Peaches. I could only hope they understood me.

I hit the end button and immediately pulled up Phil’s number. It rang twice before Phil’s curious voice answered a shaky, “Hello? Mr. Moony?”

I didn’t have time to explain to Phil why a vampire was calling him in the middle of the day. “Something’s wrong with Peaches,” I bluntly stated. I had no proof beyond the sprites blowing up my phone.

“Wh-what?” Phil sounded breathless, like someone had punched him in the gut. “Is he with you? Did you . . . I mean, I know you’ve been feeding from him. Did you take too much? Do we need to get Peaches to the hospital?”

I snarled. “No. Peaches is not with me, and he was fine when he left. I need you to listen. I just got a call from Peaches’s sprites. I can’t understand them, but it was clear they’re panicking. Peaches wouldn’t get on the phone. I don’t know where he is, and I can’t leave. The sun is too high in the sky. I can’t help him.” It hurt something deep inside to say that, to admit I was worse than useless.

Phil paused, silence hanging in the air for half a second. It was all the time he needed to wrap his head around the situation.

“Tell me everything you know as quickly as possible.”

I rattled off the previous evening in shorthand. Quick and efficient. It was a skill vampires excelled at.

“I’m calling Sedrick,” Phil stated before he ended the call.

There was nothing more I could do, and I started pacing again. Reaching for my phone again, I called Peaches back. It was a long shot, but I needed to do something. My heart soared when it didn’t go to voicemail and someone answered. It plummeted back to earth when the familiar sound of anxious sprites met my ears.

“I called Phil,” I said, still unsure if they could understand me. “Phil and Sedrick are on their way.” I had to think, if the sprites were involved and able to get to Peaches’s phone, that meant he was close enough for the sprites to get to him. “If you can, be on the lookout and guide them to Peaches.”

A round of clicks, this time a little lower in pitch, filtered through the line. Maybe, if I was extremely lucky, they understood.

* * *

Time ticked by, and I remained awake. I’d wondered if the sun would pull me back to sleep. It didn’t. I wasn’t even a little tired. It might have been a blessing if I had been. As it was, I continued pacing, unable to hold still. My phone was a constant companion, crushed within the palm of my hand. I repeatedly looked at it, as if I would miss the sound of a call.

I wanted to hit something, bust through my concrete walls. I wanted to break everything in my home, tear it to pieces so it could feel my pain. But inanimate objects wouldn’t realize their death had meaning. It was beyond ridiculous, pondering such things, but oddly enough, it helped keep me sane.

I thought of the items in my closet. Outfit after outrageous outfit filtered through my brain. I tried to figure out a way to cover myself. I could probably pull it off, but one slip, one ray of sun, would be the end of me. Peaches was going to be okay. He had to be. This could all be a big misunderstanding, and if I killed myself in some tragic effort tosavePeaches from an innocent fate, he would never forgive me.

Five minutes turned into ten which morphed into twenty. When I thought I could stand it no longer, my phone rang. Sedrick’s name lit up the screen.

By way of greeting, I ordered, “Speak.”

“We’ve got him.” Sedrick sounded grim, far too gloomy.

“What happened? Is Peaches well? Is he . . .” I couldn’t finish that thought, let alone the sentence.

Sedrick’s voice sounded like gravel. “Phil and I are trying to figure things out. Peaches is unconscious, so he’s not much help.”

Unconscious meant alive.

“We found him in a ditch about half a mile from the boundary of his orchard. He was covered by a blanket. We would have driven right past him, but the sprites were all lit up, and Phil saw them hovering there.”

My teeth elongated, talons forming, cracking my phone screen. “The ditch?” The words were garbled as they ground their way through my fangs.

Sedrick didn’t comment on my dwindling control. “Smells like someone drugged him. There was some type of purple powder on his face and around his neck. Stinks like magic. It messed with my nose, and I can’t get a good bead on any other scents. I’ll go back out and sniff around more once we know Peaches is going to be okay.” Sedrick took a deep breath. “Not gonna lie, Lucroy. It’s not good. Like I said, I still don’t know everything, but Phil thinks Peaches’s biggest issue is that he was outside his bonded area for too long. You know what that did to Phil when he was away from the house and the kids. Phil says it’s way worse for Peaches because his bond has been there longer. If Phil had been bonded to us for longer, he wouldn’t have lasted as long away either. It’s a pixie thing.”

I was beyond the capability of speech. My vampiric nature had completely taken over. My limbs were elongated, my body hunched and ready to shred and tear. My vision was little more than a crimson haze. My teeth snapped, prepared to rend flesh from bone, yet no external enemy was available, only my own ineptitude.

“Lucroy,” Sedrick’s tone was calm and low. “I’ve got a feeling I know what’s going on in that bunker of yours. I need you to try to calm down, and for the love of the moon goddess, don’t do anything rash. When he’s better, Peaches will rip me a new one if I let anything happen to you. He’s in rough shape, but Peaches is already looking better since crossing back into his territory. We’ve got him laid out on the ground, touching what Phil said is his favorite apple tree. The sprites are all over the place and keep dumping little scoops of dirt all over this body. Phil said that’ll help too.

“He’s going to be okay. Phil and I got here in time. Maybe it wasn’t you that physically picked him up and hauled his ass back home, but you’re the one that figured out something was wrong. I have no idea how you could tell a damn thing listening to all those crazy clicks and buzzing noises. My ears feel like they’re gonna start bleeding already.” Sedrick sounded annoyed despite his gratitude. “I’m gonna give you a couple of minutes to collect yourself.”

Good as his word, Sedrick stayed on the phone. Phil cooed at Peaches in the background, giving encouraging words. Phil’s soft tones eased something deep inside. Perhaps it was simply the reminder of pixies’ gentle natures that did it.

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