Page 15 of Goblins Don't Count
He blinked at her and then at me. Finally, he gave me a sickly smile. “Oh. Sure. Do you want to…um…Dance?” He swallowed hard, Adam’s apple bobbing.
I glanced at my mother. I had said that I was thinking about dating. “That sounds, um, great,” I finally said, grimacing at Tim.
He looked shocked and horrified that I’d said yes, but he only nodded rapidly and went away.
“Well, that wasn’t awkward,” Clarinda said, handing me a sausage roll. “He’s clearly head over heels. You should name all of your children different reds to match his love-struck blushes. Carmine, Scarlet, Auburn, Jasper…”
My mother gave her a hard look and went to say hello to someone else she knew. I took a large bite of the sausage roll and chewed quickly, swallowed, and took another bite with a little too much frustrated panic. I’d have to dance with Tim? What I’d told the bouncer about my not dancing was true. Painfully true.
“So…” Clarinda said, nudging me with her arm.
I bumped her back. “So, we’re both here. I told my mother that I was going to start dating.”
“Why?”
“Honestly? I’ve been feeling like if I was dating, I wouldn’t be making such bad choices involving drunk raccoons and goblin priestesses.” I frowned and looked at her, because I didn’t mean to be quite that honest. “Did you truth-spell me?”
She was studying me intently. “What’s that about goblin priestesses? Also a drunk raccoon, but the first sounds more dangerous. Although a drunk raccoon could be incredibly deadly.”
I leaned against the makeshift table and then had to quickly catch the board before I pushed it off the stump. “Sorry. I just ran into a goblin priestess last week, Thursday, and she drained my energy while I walked her to goblin town. The thing that’s weird is afterwards, my hearing and sense of smell became kind of intense. I heard somewhere that the Magga turns humans into goblins to make them her?—”
“Vessels. Yes. I’ve heard of that,” she said, nodding and studying me closely. “But usually she only takes those who are willing. When I say willing, people lobby to become her acolytes. The odds of her picking someone off the street are incredibly small.”
“Why would anyone want to become a goblin?”
“One of her acolytes. Well, there’s the magic, the life span, the strength, and the senses, but most of them do it for the power.”
“Power? I’m not interested. I can just tell her that.”
“If it’s already started, it’s done. I’m not sure how you could undo it. Maybe she’s getting senile, choosing someone completely at random. She’s supposed to be truly ancient.”
The music started and Tim cleared his throat behind me. I could smell the chemicals on his skin, his nervousness and determination. He would dance with me even if it killed him. If I killed him. Why would he be willing to face death?
I turned and smiled at Tim, while panic clawed at my throat. “Should we get started?”
“Yes. That would be good to dance together first instead of last.” His words were stilted, awkward. Just how I felt.
I followed him to the area cleared for the purpose of woodland frolicking. The band was called, ‘Warlock’s Kiss,’ and they had an earthy metal thing going on that was hard to describe and even harder to dance to, but witches were known for their musicality. The main thing was not tripping and impaling Tim on a branch. That was my goal, lofty as it was.
He took my hand, and we walked around for a bit until we got closer to the area with the band, so the music really rang through my sensitive ears. Tim took both of my hands in a move of startling boldness and then we were hopping to the side towards a tree. He pulled me away from it at the last second, sending us into a spin that ended bumping against Joe ‘The Wall’ Porter. He gave us a look of confusion while Tim babbled an apology and led me once again into a wild frolic towards the other end of the clearing.
It was a disaster. Absolutely humiliating as well as reiterating. I would never be a dancer, or date a warlock, or come to another coven gathering.
At any rate, the dance ended, leaving me breathless and humiliated, with a smile pasted on my face.
Tim nodded at me and scratched his head. “She said two. Do you want to dance the next?” His eyes were pleading with me to say no.
“I can’t. I have to find out about my familiar. It got caught in a trap, and so I think it might be getting a serious infection. I bandaged it and poulticed it, but you know raccoons, so good at taking off bandages. Also, I’m probably turning into a goblin. Sorry.” I turned around and marched off before I said anything else that would mark me as a lunatic. I had definitely walked through a truth spell at some point. Another reason to stay away from coven meetings.
“You have a familiar?” Tim asked, apparently following me.
Why was he following me? I grabbed a stoneware mug full of some kind of home brew off the plank and took a large swig of it. Elderberries. Nice. With a hint of pine. That reminded me of wanting to buy shampoo. The wares were set up on blankets on the ground on the edges of the clearing. I should walk around and find something. Yes. I had a purpose.
“A raccoon,” I said when I realized he was still following me. I glanced over my shoulder at him, and he looked at me with this expression of burgeoning hope. Why would he… Oh. Because he worked with people’s dead familiars, so now I was a potential client. That was so much better than being a potential life mate. I relaxed a tiny bit as I lowered the mug.
“That must be challenging. And you said he was injured?”
“Ah, well, yes, he got caught in a trap, but I think he’ll make a full recovery if he doesn’t get an infection from rolling around in something truly disgusting. Anyway, thanks for the dance.”
