Page 17 of Perfectly Charmed Pixie

“There aren’t any ogres, are there?” Parsley’s voice spiked with anxiety and fear. “I’ll come get you right now. I—”

“No ogres,” I attempted to soothe, although the catch in my throat merely saying the beast’s name always gave me away. “Not that I’ve seen. I’m sure they’re around, but nothing I have to deal with in my job. I’ve been chauffeured by a troll though.”

“A troll?” Parsley perked up. “I’ve only seen a handful of those. We don’t have many in the Northwest.”

“This one didn’t look much different from the ones we’ve seen before.” As a home-and-hearth pixie, Parsley hadn’t been bitten by the travel bug. Most pixies stayed close to home. Social pixies were different. We loved to mix and mingle. We loved new experiences and traveling.

“Hmm…anything else?”

I shivered and answered, “Sprites.”

“Sprites? Seriously? In a forest or—”

“They’re all over Peaches’s orchard. He’s the nature pixie that’s bonded to a vampire. That’s why the show’s here.” I’d already filled Parsley in on a lot of our latest episode, but I’d just sent the information in a text and hadn’t given many details.

“They’re on a pixie’s land? Has he called an exterminator?”

Fresh gratitude for my brother sank into my soul. “That’s exactly what I thought, but if you can believe it, Peaches actually invited them onto his property. He’s encouraged them to stay and protects them with his barrier.”

“No,” Parsley whisper-shouted. “Really?”

“Really, really. It’s bizarre and more than a little disturbing. I told him those sprites are not to feed on my dust.” Thinking back, I’d been rough and tactless when I’d made that declaration. I’d given more of myself away than I’d wanted and hadn’t been the congenial social pixie I was supposed to be. I thought, given the sprite situation, I was allowed some histrionics.

Quiet contemplation whispered down the line until Parsley finally asked, “Do you think they’d be able to tell?”

Head bent, I stared at my bare feet. My wings were quiet, silently at ease, the tips barely touching the soft bedding. “I don’t know,” I finally managed. “But I don’t want to take the chance.” There was a chance my charmed pixie dust would taste different. Peaches’s sprites weren’t just irritations. They could cause a lot more damage.

“Probably best,” Parsley agreed.

I could tell he wanted to say more, that he wanted to urge me again to stop the charms and allow mynaturalcolor through. Parsley would be even more adamant if he fully understood the cost of the charms. My brother thought I was only wasting money. He had no idea that I’d traded bits and pieces of my life force to maintain the ruse.

“And the vampire?” Parsley asked, moving on from the rocky territory surrounding my charmed life. “What’s he like?”

So far, my dealings with Lucroy Moony had been brief. “He seems like most other vamps I’ve met. Maybe a bit less pompous.”

“He did bond with a nature pixie,” Parsley said by way of agreement.

“He did.” I thought back to our original meeting and the rumors Divia and I’d caught regarding their bonding. “Have you ever heard of a vampire and pixie together before?”

“Never. I’m not sure why, but vamps never seem to want to drink from us. I can’t say that’s a disappointment. If anything, most pixies are grateful. It’s one less species we have to worry about.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. But I’ve heard things.”

“Like what?”

I’d tickled Parsley’s curiosity.

“Lucroy was okay with our first meeting occurring during the early evening. The sun wasn’t fully down, but it was weaker. I know Lucroy’s old. From what I’ve heard, he’s over six hundred—”

“That’s old,” Parsley chimed in.

“It is, even for a vamp, although he’s not considered ancient. Anyway, I understand that older vamps can tolerate some sun. All vamps fall to ash in the midday sun, even ancient ones. It’s just…I got the feeling that the sun wasn’t all that big of a concern for him.”

“But isn’t that why you’re there? To make a home underground on Peaches’s bonded land where the vampire can safely live.”

“It is.” I twirled the corner of my shirt between my fingers. The spider silk bounced back when I released it, not a wrinkle to be found. “I get your point, and I’m probably making more of things than I should—listening to unfounded rumors.” That practice had gotten me into trouble before, and I’d paid a huge price for my gullibility. I was still paying that price.

“Don’t say that, Nip. Don’t doubt your instincts. I hate it when you do that.”

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