2 Deja Blue Read online

  Chapter 11

  Okay, so the next 24 hours weren’t exactly hell. If I’m being honest, they were really more like heaven. Oh sure, I was still worried about the mess I was in, but Anya and Brennan were true to their word. Before Nick and I took off to meet his parents, Anya dragged me to the ladies room and cast some kind of spell on me to help calm me down, and then she cast all kinds of protection spells around me to keep me out of harms way. I guessed it was to keep me from getting killed, although she didn’t use that phrase. Once her calming spell washed over me, I felt more relaxed – not so edgy and jumpy. Even though my little problems hadn’t gone away, they at least felt like they were pushed to the back of my brain, buried under a giant pile of laundry. Once I felt the knots in my stomach loosen and I could finally breathe again, the rest of my time with Nick and his parents was pretty fun (and uneventful in the me-getting-killed-by-a-Troll department. Thank God!) I felt that weird, tingly sensation once more, but I’m still not even sure what that is. I’m definitely going to have to find out more about that from my Fairy friends when I meet up with them later.

  The ride home from Traverse City was short, and even though it was the most bizarre trip I had ever had, I was kind of sad to get out of the car and leave Nick. He made me smile. And he made me feel all jittery…but in a good way. After our hugs and a quick kiss (his parents were watching!) I headed into the house to call Jeremy. He was going to flip out when he heard what I had to tell him. Plus, he’d kill me himself if I didn’t spill all the details about this crazy trip the second I got home. It was just after noon, so he should be awake. I always slept in much later than Jeremy; but, since we had to check out of the hotel and drive back this morning, I had to roll myself out of my couch-bed thingy pretty early this morning.

  I walked through the front door, and cringed slightly as my eardrums suddenly felt like they were about to explode. My mother was blaring her music, singing (screaming) along to the soundtrack from “Wicked.” (Oh goodie, yet another Wizard of Oz thing for her to be obsessed with.) She had seen the musical “Wicked” at the beginning of the summer, and now she’s added it to her repertoire. She must have had the volume set to “Make My Ears Bleed” level. It was even louder than I usually listen to my music. The walls were literally vibrating. “Maaaa! Hey, Maaa!” I screamed, as I kicked off my Converse, and wandered through the house. I walked into the kitchen to see my mom wearing those bright, yellow rubber gloves and leaning over the suds-filled sink, surrounded by pots and pans.

  It stunk. “Uggghhh!” I gagged. “What the hell is that smell?!” I shouted as I covered my nose with my hand.

  My mother smiled but then got a stern look on her face. “Welcome home and watch your mouth young lady, or you’ll be eating this soap,” my mother gestured to the sink. “I’m polishing all of the copper pots. You have to let the polish sit for a while. So, how was Traverse?” She continued scrubbing vigorously and humming along to the song, “Popular.”

  “It was great!” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. After all, it was fabulous spending all that time with Nick. Other than getting Fairy superpowers, having a Troll trying to kill me, nearly drowning, and meeting a Mermaid, it was a pretty good time. I shook my head and had to chuckle at the absurdity of it all. “Where’s Dad and Leo?” I asked.

  “Where do you think?” My mother looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

  “Fishing.” We both said at the same time and laughed. My dad and brother loved that stupid sport. I don’t even know how it can be considered a sport. You just sit there holding a stick. Oh. Sorry, a pole. That’s not very…sports-like. I hoped they wouldn’t catch much. I hate eating fish. I hate eating fish more than I hate eating coffee-flavored anything. Fish sucks.

  “I’m gonna go call Jeremy,” I shouted to my mother as I walked towards the stairs leading to my bedroom. My mother nodded and began screaming along to the music once again. I lugged my duffle bag upstairs and threw it into the corner of my room. Just as I was turning around to use the phone in the other room (I didn’t have a phone in my room, and my parents have, so far, refused to grant my wish of owning a cell phone), I heard the familiar soda-pop fizz sound of fairies appearing. Anya and Brennan emerged from the swirling mist. You see, fairies can appear and disappear in their human form wherever and whenever they want. I can always hear them coming though. It sounds like that fizzy-foamy sound you hear bursting through a soda-pop bottle after you shake it up and unscrew the cap. It’s accompanied by a kind of translucent swirling mist that swirls up in a whirlwind from the ground. I’ve always been able to sense them coming, even before Sirrush bit me. Part of my “Fairy sight” I guess.

  “Hey you guys!” I exclaimed. The joy of seeing my Fairy friends was evident on my face. I was also flooded with the sensation of relief and comfort. Perhaps it was their calming spell that was somehow made stronger when I was near them, or the fact that I was more connected to Fey now. But whatever the reason, I felt safer and happier when they were close by.

  “I told you I’d talk to you as soon as you were home, didn’t I?” Brennan smiled. Then I suddenly held my hands up to halt them, “Wait! Don’t talk about anything yet!”

  Brennan’s brows furrowed together, and Anya looked puzzled.

  “If Jeremy misses out on this conversation, he is going to have the biggest hissy fit known to man,” I explained. “Just hang on a sec and lemme get his butt over here, ‘kay?” They both nodded in understanding. I used Anya’s cell phone to call Jeremy and then traipsed downstairs to the kitchen to scrounge around for some food. Anya and Brennan had said they had already eaten, so I only had to grab something for myself. I carried my bowl of cereal back up to my room where Anya and Brennan were hanging out. Before I could finish my bowl of cocoa cereal, Jeremy was bounding up the stairs two at a time. He was shouting, “Ruby Bluuuue! Where are youuuuu???” Leaping through the door like a superhero, he yelled, “Okay! I’m here! Let the fairy tales commence!” He threw his arm up over his head like he was a knight drawing a sword or something. Brennan chuckled, Anya giggled, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Geesh Jer, you made it here in record time! How fast did you drive?” I laughed.

  “Did 83. My Ma’s old Buick LeSabre’s still got some pep in it!” He plopped down on my bed next to me, while Brennan sprawled out on the bean bag chair in the corner of my room, and Anya perched daintily on the footboard of my bed.

  “And, who says ‘pep’ anyway?” I teased, playfully bumping his shoulder with mine.

  “I do. Pep is a good word. Pep. Peppy. Pepperpot. Pepsi. Peanut Butter….oooooh!” He clapped his hands together, smiling, “Let’s go get Peanut Buster Parfaits at DQ when we’re done here!”

  “I can always eat ice cream,” I said as I shoveled the last spoonful of Cocoa Puffs into my mouth.

  “Yeah, and anything else in front of your face,” Brennan joked. I shot him a dirty look and stuck out my tongue.

  “Oh, you two!” Anya scolded as she shook her head. She was smiling though, so I knew she wasn’t really irritated.

  “Okay, on with the fairy tale!” Jeremy prodded. I rolled my eyes at the use of his term.

  “Whhhhattt?” he said, batting his eyelashes with an innocent look on his face. “It is a tale, and it does involve Fairies…right?”

  “Yeah, and it’s a tale that also involves tails. As in Mermaid tails.” I quipped back.

  Jeremy clicked his tongue as his mouth dropped open in shock. “Tell me everything. Now.” He smacked the palm of his hand down on my thigh. (A bit harder than he intended to, I think.)

  “Owww!” I whined as I rubbed the spot he smacked.

  “Stop being a girl. You’re sooo not a girl. Just tell me already!” Jeremy’s patience was wearing thin.

  I let out a big sigh and scooted back to sit more comfortably on my bed, “Okay. Here goes…”

  I told the tale of my weekend adventure and watched as Jeremy’s expression changed from surprise, to shock, to wor
ry, to shock again. Brennan only interrupted one time, and that was when I got to the part about the tingling sensations I kept getting. I hadn’t really had the chance to tell them about that. Anya gave him a warning look; and, with my Fairy telepathy, I heard her tell him to back the hell down and shut his pie-hole so I could finish. (Well, she actually said it nicer than that. I’m paraphrasing.) When I finished my story, Brennan exploded.

  “What the hell!? Really? You couldn’t have mentioned the tingling-thing just a little sooner? If you would have told us about that, we could have told you that the ‘tingly’ sensation was like a warning bell…it was alerting you to the danger nearby. We could’ve avoided the whole near-death-drowning incident altogether!” Brennan almost shouted.

  “Chill!” I said, trying to calm him down, slightly annoyed at his angry outburst. “First of all, I didn’t think anything of it when it happened…Plus, it happened at the same time I sprouted my magical swimming powers. And it’s not like I had time to mention it later. I was kinda too busy getting boulders dropped on my ass, remember?” I gave him my best smart-ass look. Why was he so pissed at me anyway? I was the one who almost got killed!

  “Yeah, and sucking face with Pretty Boy,” Brennan retorted.

  Anger boiled in my blood. It’s not like I left out telling them about the tingling sensation on purpose! I was about to say more when Anya broke in, holding up her hands. “Enough! We know it was Grobel, and we know that Ruby is developing her Fairy sensitivities. She’s still learning, and we can’t expect her to always know the right questions to ask, Brennan. There’s no use in hashing it out again. Now that Jeremy’s up to speed, we need to tell you what we’ve learned Ruby, okay?”

  I nodded, calming down a bit. Leave it to Anya to put things in perspective for everyone. She knew just how to cool off a hot situation.

  Apparently, so did Jeremy. Just then he said, “Let’s do this over some ice cream. I’ll drive.” I nodded again, realizing that a giant, chocolatey ice cream concoction was just what I needed.

  Chapter 12

  We sat outside huddled around the picnic table, eating our ice cream while Anya and Brennan filled us in on what they had learned over the last 24 hours.

  “Okay, here’s the scoop,” Brennan said, waving his spoon, winking at Jeremy who laughed at his lame-ass joke. “Good one!” Jeremy pointed his finger at him and raised his eyebrows flirtatiously. I rolled my eyes. He looked like some cheesy game-show host flirting with the hot supermodel contestant. Even though Jeremy had a boyfriend, and knew that Brennan didn’t roll that way, he flirted with him all the time. Brennan was like a god in Jeremy’s eyes, especially since he found out that Brennan was a Fairy Prince. I mean, really? Could it be any more cliché? Gay kid has crush on Fairy Prince Not-So-Charming. Ugh. I irritatingly shoveled another spoonful of my chocolate creamy goodness into my mouth. “Jushh geh on nnithit!” I mumbled with my mouth full of ice cream.

  Jeremy’s eyes popped wide and he laughed again, “What did you just say Miss Marbles?”

  I swallowed the ice cream in my mouth and sighed, “Just. Get. On. With. It.” I enunciated each word.

  “Okay, so here’s the deal,” Brennan started, as he took the last lick of ice cream from his spoon and tossed his empty bowl and spoon into the trash can. “I found Grobel and spoke to him. He wouldn’t reveal to me who hired him to…ah…take care of you. But, as I told you before, some Trolls are known to be very greedy. So, I was able to bribe him with some very precious… ah…items…to hold off on his ‘mission’. He’s agreed to stall and said that he would let his ‘employers’ know that you have been hidden and that protection spells have been cast upon you, making it more difficult for him to carry out his job of trying to…ahh…assassinate you.” I cringed at Brennan’s use of the phrase, but listened intently while he continued. “He will tell them that he is still in pursuit of you, and although it won’t solve our problem, it will at least buy us time to figure out who is holding the grudge against you.”

  “So, how much time are we talking about here? I mean, how long do you think you guys can actually keep me safe?”

  Anya spoke up, “First of all, our protection spells are very powerful, especially against those who belong to the Earthen Court. You must trust us, Ruby, when we tell you that we will keep you safe. Grobel told Brennan that he would stall as long as he could. And, now that he knows that we know about him, he’s afraid to do anything to you. He would suffer great consequences as a traitor to the Earthen Royal Court. He is precariously balancing on both sides of the fence right now.”

  Brennan nodded and snickered, “Yeah. He’ll get his ass kicked by whoever hired him in the Water Court if he doesn’t follow through with the job, and he’ll get his ass kicked by the Earthen Court if he does follow through. But, to answer your question, Grobel could probably stall for at least two or three months. He’s quite the talker. That Troll could sell a boat without paddles to a fisherman in the desert.”

  “He’s quite the slime-ball,” Anya added disgustingly.

  “Sounds like this guy’s a shagnasty used-car salesman from hell,” added Jeremy.

  “Yeah. A shagnasty used car salesman who’s trying to kill me.” I noted somberly. I had no choice but to trust Anya and Brennan. What else was I supposed to do? It’s not like I could go to the police and say, “Excuse me, Officer, there’s a creepy-stalker Troll who’s trying to kill me because I slayed a dragon.” Yeah. That would go over really well. Jeremy put his arm around me and rubbed my shoulders, “It’ll be okay, Ruby. You’ve got all of us to protect you. I told you, I’m like the fashion-forward Ron Weasley!” He joked. He just loved Harry Potter…and the fact that he finally got to be involved in this mystical world of Fairies and Trolls was really exciting for him.

  I tried to smile, “Right. Leo must have been on to something calling me Scooby all those years. It’s like I really am stuck in an episode of Scooby Doo. I’ve got Velma, Fred and Shaggy looking after me. All we need now is the Mystery Machine.”

  Jeremy’s mouth dropped open as he shoved my shoulders, pouted, and gave me his best hurt-look face. Brennan scowled at me from across the table, “Nice. Real nice. I save you from drowning and protect you from a Troll, and I get called Fred from Scooby Doo.” Anya sat silently by, smiling at my sarcastic comment. She understood me. She knew I was only half-serious. Besides, Velma is the smart one.

  Just then, Jeremy spoke up, practically screaming at us and freaking out a bit while he waved his hands around and pointed his finger at himself, “Wait! You mean I’m Shaggy? I’m Shaggy?!? I thought I was Fred! Fred’s the good-looking one, right? You did not just call me Shaggy.” We all burst into laughter at that. I shook my head, sighing, “Jeremy, you slay me.”

  “Apparently, not as well as you slay dragons,” he answered.

  “But, back to Fred, uh, I mean Brennan,” (Brennan kicked me under the table.) “Ouch!” I yelped, “Geesh, I was just kidding. Anyhow, what I was gonna say was, you did save me from nearly drowning, but you also said I was now indebted to the Mermaid. I seem to recall you saying that you had an idea about that.” I hedged.

  “Oh yeah!” Brennan nodded enthusiastically. “Actually, once I heard the entire situation from Celestine, and discovered that it was that greedy punk Grobel behind the schemes to get you out of the picture, I figured I’d have an easy way for you to repay the life-debt to her.”

  I waved my hands impatiently, urging him to continue, “Aaaanndd???”

  “Well, it involves bribery, of course.” Brennan answered.

  “That’s it? You’re going to bribe the Mermaid?” Jeremy asked.

  Brennan gave a look of disdain, shaking his head, “Of course not. You can’t bribe Mermaids.” (No, no, of course you can’t…How the hell would we know? Ugh. I kept my mouth shut, but was getting more and more irritated at Brennan’s lack of detail. It’s not like they’d given me a Fairy-World Handbook with all of the rules. Geesh.) Brennan darted his eyes over to me, giv
ing me a warning look. My eyes widened as I said, “Whaaat? I didn’t say anything!” I guiltily replied, using my best I’m-innocent expression.

  “Oh. You said it alright,” Brennan answered smugly.

  My mouth hung open. “No. I didn’t.”

  “Yeah. Ya did,” he replied.

  “No. I’m pretty sure I didn’t say a word.”

  “That’s right, you didn’t say a word.” Brennan retorted.

  That was it. I exploded. “I wasn’t trying to use some weird Fairy telepathy! How the hell do I know what I’m doing?! You guys never tell me anything!” I can’t even have private thoughts anymore without some Fairy eavesdropping. And, I still don’t know how I am supposed to repay the debt to the Mermaid. This was the most frustrating situation I’d ever been in, and I was going to get even nastier if Brennan didn’t start giving me some better answers.

  Anya spoke up, “Ruby, your Fairy telepathy is new. You’ll get the hang of it, I promise. But, right now, when you’re very emotional… happy, sad, angry… whatever, you tend to…ahhh… broadcast your thoughts.”