2 Deja Blue (13 page)

Brennan answered, “I’m not technically going to steal it.
And…
Ah.
Sort of.”

I rolled my eyes. Could F
airies ever give a
straight
answer? “What do you mean, ‘sort of?” I demanded.

“Well.
It sort of will.
But there will be something else you have to do.”

Gahhh
! Fairies and their cryptic replies!

“And what is that
something else
that I’ll have to do? I’m not
gonna
have to kill anybody or do some hocus pocus flower magic again, am I?” I screeched. The thought of having to decipher some cryptic old
Fairy
spell and concoct a magic potion out of some rare flower like we had to do to send
Sirrush
back to Fey was not something I wanted to attempt again anytime soon. Just the thought of it was giving me a migraine.

“No, no!
Of course not!”
Brennan
promised
. “It’s better if you don’t know all the details as of yet. After all, I haven’t even secured the items. Do you have a safe place in your house we can
use
?”

I nodded, knowing just the place.
“Yeah.
I’ve got a closet in my room that’s right next to the attic. It’s too small for me to put anything in
it
and there’s no light in there either. The door is locked, but I’m sure my mom or dad has the key.”

“Perfect,” Brennan looked satisfied. “I’ll get the key from your parents
,
and when I secure the item
s
, I’ll lock
them
in the closet for safe-keeping. You are not to go into that closet under any circumstances, do yo
u understand? The less you
know
,
the better. I will send you the key with instructions when we have everything else ready.”

“How are you going to get the key from my parents?” I asked.

Anya shook her head, giving me the “I’m sorry” look, and Brennan started to speak when I cut him off, “
Lemme
guess. It’s better if I don’t know, right?”

Chapter 14

Nothing too scary happened over the next
three
weeks. My
Fairy
friends kept a close eye on me
. A
nd
,
with their prote
ction spells and calming spells,
I
only had a small twinge
of nervous knots in my stomach. I no longer felt like
I was going to vomit all the time, like I had
when I got back from
Traverse City.
Although,
I did seem to b
e a little jump
y.
I was always
looking around
to make
sure nobody was watching me or following me.
But,
of course, there usually was.
Anya and Brennan really meant what they said when they told me they would protect me.
I had
Fairy
body
guards all over t
he place. Not that most people c
ould see them
.
Some of them stayed small, hidden in the gardens, grass
,
and nearby trees. When F
airies are small like that, they are invisible to
most
humans. Only humans with the
gift of
Fairy
S
ight (as I had) could see them.
T
here weren’t too many
humans
who
could see F
airies.
In fact, no one that I’ve ever met
could see F
airies
.
Whe
n
F
airies
ar
e
in their human form
, they have
a way of blending in…chameleon-
like abilities that make them unnoticeable to most people.
Sure, people s
ee
them, and they may even talk to them, bu
t F
airies could appear very non
descript and would often play with people’s memory, making them unsure of their exact appearance, or where they even saw them.  Many people may even see the same
Fairy
dis
guised as a human over and
over and
not
remember seeing them to begin
with. They just seem to get
a
feeling of déjà vu… They know they’ve
seen that (
Fairy
) person before
, and their voice
or conversation or appearance seems familiar, but they just can’t place them or remember the past encounter completely. In fact, I wouldn’t comp
letely disregard the idea that F
airies posing as humans are really the Men in Black…those rumored government secret agents that nobody really seems to know about.

I think the only time I felt entirely alone was when I locked myself in the bathroom. Thank God for small favors.
Even when I slept, I had small F
airies perched on my window sill, keeping silent guard. Their glittery wings would flutter and glisten in the moonlight, reflecting around my room. Sometimes I had a hard time sleeping because I was mesmerized
,
watching the miniature light show on my ceiling. Between my lack of sleep, my only-slig
htly nervous stomach (I needed
to t
hank
Anya
again for those calming spells
)
,
and my cautious awareness, I was still a tad jumpy and on edge.

I hadn’t seen too much of Brennan, but Anya was around quite a bit. All she would say of his absence was, “He’s getting those items we talked about and keeping
Grobel
in line.” He’d soda-pop fizz in once or twice, but mainly to hang out with my dumb brother, Leo. As long as it kept Leo out of my hair, I didn’t really care what they were doing. Thankfully, I was too busy to be bothered much by Leo lately.
Between my
boring
job at the Craft
and Hobby shop in town, swimming in the lake behind
the woods at
my house (which was even more fun
to do now, since I was so super-
fast)
and hanging out with Nick every spare moment I
had, time was flying by…even with my
secret
Fairy
security detail
watching my every move
.
Nick was working a
lot at his family’s pizza place
,
and I was fast becoming a permanent fixture there. Nick loved
having
me
come
to the restaurant and hang out with him on his break. I’d often get there a bit early and sit in the corner booth
,
right near the kitchen
,
and chit-chat with him while he worked. His break times weren’t always regular
. T
here were some really slow days, and some
super
busy days.
It was one of those really busy days when I walked into Martino
’s Pizz
a
at
lunchtime on Friday.

Martino’s Pizz
a
was the only Italian restaurant in town. Nick’s grandparents owned it before Nick’s parents
,
so it’s been around for a while
.
The
place hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years or so. Dark paneled walls with red-vinyl booths lin
e
the perimeter
,
and red and white checkered tablecloths cover the ten or twelve tables in the center of the dining room
, offering
a vintage, yet homey feeling to the place. There
is
a long counter across the back wall of the resta
urant
where people could
also
sit
. C
arry out orders were placed and picked up
at this counter
. Behind the counter was the long, narrow kitchen
with
the big pizza ovens.
That’s where Nick often was, wearing
a
baseball hat and
an apron that was
dusted
with
flour and marinara sauce.

I walked into
the restaurant
and scanned the back of the room for Nick. Although I could only see him from the chest up, I could tell he was busily making dough. When he heard the door chimes jingle shut, he glanced up. He looked pretty flustered. I smiled and waved
;
he nodded and held up his
index
finger to me to indicate he’d be out to see me in a minute.  I slid into
“my”
corner booth and pulled
the
book
I had brought
out of my purse.
I glanced out
the window and saw four small F
airies on duty, fluttering in the shrubs outside.
It was a g
ood
thing I brought something to do because s
taring out the window at my unlikely bodygu
ards would just make me nervous
. I opened my book on the table and glanced around the room again. I noticed
that
i
t was pretty busy in here today. Everyone seemed to be in the mo
od for pizza or pasta for lunch
.
In the opposite corner of the restaurant, I noticed a slightly older guy – he looked to be about 2
3 or
24 –
sitting alone and eating a giant plate of spaghetti.  I caught the faint glimmer instantly. It was another
Fairy
. He nodded at me with a look of understanding
,
and then
I heard his voice in my head, “
I am Simon, Royal Guard of the Earthen Court.
The area is secure.
”

Huh. That was weird. The F
airies who have watched over me for the past few weeks didn’t seem like they were anyone of importance. And they’ve certainly never introduced themselves as
such. This guy seemed a bit formal. I concentrated hard, and spoke to him, “
The Royal Guard? They’ve never sent someone from the Royal Guard before. What’s going on?
” He was looking at his plate of pasta, scooping up another heap of noodles into his mouth when his eyes got wide, like he just realized he’d made a mistake. He quickly recovered his expression, taking a sip of his water and spoke back to me, “
I am here
at the request
of Prince Brennan. That is all I am allowed to reveal
.”

Crap. Stupid
Fairy
answers. They couldn’t lie, but they were good at not answering questions too.
Something big must be happening if Brennan had this Royal Guard
guy
here. I wonder if he finally got those mysterious items he and Anya had been talking about. I felt a wave of calm wash over me
,
and I
squinted
my eyes at Simon, the
Royal Guard. He smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
“
Calming Spell?”
I asked him with my telepathy. He nodded and continued eating.

I let out a sigh and
looked back down
to
begi
n reading.
Well, at least I didn’t feel concerned about anything. It was kind of odd…not being able to worry too much. I was conscious of the trouble I was in, yet I couldn’t get overly worried about it. I just felt too relaxed. Sure I was still
a little
jumpy, but at least I could go about my life feeling
mostly
normal. Boy, if they could b
ottle that calming spell, they would
make a fortune selling it to stressed-out
people.
I
became
so
engrossed in
my book that
I
didn’t hear Nick’s approach
several minutes later
.

“Hey Ru
b
e
s!” he reached down touched my shoulder.
My heart took off pumping
,
and
I jumped about a mile high, “
Gahhh
!” I yelped,
clutching my chest
,
su
rprised at his sudden nearness. See? Jumpy!

“Whoa! Sorry
,
I didn’t mean to scare
ya
,” Nick smiled and
slid into the booth across from me. I tried
to wave it off, “Oh! Don’t worry about it, I was just so sucked into my book, I didn’t hear you,” I
tried to coyly smile
. “You guys look super-
busy today, are you sure you have time to eat with me?” I asked.