Page 51 of Reapers Don’t Ride

Chapter

Fourteen

The spa was full of fairies who took one look at Chira and then carried her away to be polished.

“And you should start with a haircut,” the frosty blonde woman in charge said, studying my hair.

I almost touched it, but resisted the urge. “I’m going shopping while she’s here.”

The woman frowned. She was a fairy, because she had wings, but her bones were too dense to be only a fairy and a human mix. “How are the two of you related?”

“We aren’t. We’re having girl time.”

“While you’re shopping without her?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head, studying me with that look you should give vampire murderers. I hadn’t gotten that look for some time. “I’m going to have to call the authorities.”

“I’m sure that will be fun for you.”

“You can’t just have a fairy girl. I don’t care if her parents are pix dust addicts, you can’t just⁠—”

“Hey, sorry I took so long,” Frankie said, seemingly coming out of nowhere. Ah. He’d been following me to make sure that I wasn’t actually taking Chira to a slave market or something. “I’ll stay with Chira while you do the shopping for the presents she’s not supposed to know about.” He winked at me.

“Oh! You’re shopping for her! That’s different. Vampires do usually have such good taste,” the woman gushed, now feeling better because a fairy boy had shown up. Also, she was sparkling at him, which meant he was probably attractive to her. Maybe he wasn’t as young as he seemed. It was hard to tell with fairies.

“Good,” I said to Frankie and then turned and stalked off, ignoring the fairy woman. Where were the people calling authorities when Romi had her collared? Not that it wasn’t logical to keep innocent youngsters away from me, but would a dangerous person actually drop someone off at a spa? No, I should have had Frankie come with us all along for her protection. Not that I didn’t have her scent. And how much protection could Frankie provide?

I shrugged and left to go across the street from the fancy spa to the fancy department store. Sing was a world away from Song, and the flashes of sunlight between buildings burned. Once I got inside the plush, blue carpeted shop, with a tower of leather bags on display, I started to get that feeling, when you know that everyone is staring at you and judging you to be a murderous vampire even though they didn’t personally know that for a fact.

I walked around the home goods section. Home. What would that be like? Home is where you stash your blood bags. And then there was the hunting section. It was full of flimsy tents and bright clothing so that your prey would see you coming.

I wandered like that for a good hour until I was trekking through a woman’s shoe section and a fairy girl stepped in front of me.

“Hi. Can I help you find something?” She had a name tag, but I couldn’t make out the words. I couldn’t read the map to find out where things were either. Glasses would be so useful.

“Cake. I need to make a cake and a birthday card.”

“You need to make a cake and a card? You’re not here to buy them?” Her blue wings shimmered while she cocked her head and studied me, trying to understand so she could help. She was a helper.

I shrugged. “He said he wanted homemade.”

“He?” Her eyes sparkled along with a flash over her blue wings. Fairy emotions were almost embarrassingly easy to read. Unless you were faking it. Fairies were supposed to be cunning fakers.

“Yes. I’m in a weird…” I wasn’t sure what to call it. We weren’t dating, but we were in hiding together, at least officially.

“Relationship? Well, that’s exciting. What does he like?”

I stared at her. “Cake?”

She gave a lilting laugh that made her sparkle all over again. “There are thousands of kinds of cake. Hundreds of thousands. Baking is actually my passion, so I feel entitled to give you advice.” She linked my arm with hers and then started leading me towards the baking section. “You’ll be able to get everything you need in the kitchen shop. It’s all expensive, but the ingredients are high quality. I take it he’s not a vampire, or you wouldn’t be looking for cake.”

“He’s an angel.”

I expected surprise and judgement, hearing that I was seducing an innocent angel, but instead, she nodded thoughtfully until a mischievous smile spread. “What about angel food cake? I know it’s so on the nose, but it’s actually a really great neutral cake.”

“Angel food cake? That exists?”