There were two of them. Great. Knowing my luck they’d procreate and then I’d have a whole clan of them making my life hell.
A small body hovered in front of me at eye level. It was a female with wings of iridescent green and yellow that stole my attention. The fore wings had large green circles surrounded by a thin outline of yellow on a black background, making it appear like a dozen eyes were looking out of one wing. A spidery network of veins the color of every type of green imaginable were woven throughout. When the light caught them just right, they sparkled with a metallic sheen. The hind wings were a smaller, no less beautiful, version of the fore wings.
It was a good thing the wings were so beautiful because the rest of it was not. Its eyes were a little too large for its face and had the same intense green of its wings. The mouth was thin and when it spoke I could see razor sharp teeth and a pointed tongue.
The pixie is a carnivore. Its primary diet consisted of bugs or small mammals, though I’d heard stories that they could take down a human if their clan had enough numbers.
The female’s head was shaved on both sides, with the top braided into one long tail. Her clothes were a series of scales in every color imaginable. I thought I recognized a wing pattern that belonged to a couple species of butterfly.
“Help? Not likely,” I scoffed. “You’re the one who keeps moving all my stuff around.”
She shrugged one tiny shoulder. “It’s entertaining watching you stomp around muttering to yourself.”
Maybe for her.
“Not the kind of help I usually ask for.”
“Harmless fun,” she assured.
Unless it was happening to you, then it was just a giant pain in the ass.
“You’ve had your fun. Now it’s time to go. This is your eviction notice.”
“You would never have found the information on the daemon taint if we hadn’t led you to it.”
I paused, my eyes going to the book. It was pretty convenient that the book flipped to the exact page I needed.
Seeing an opening, she said with a sly look, “We can be helpful to you. We know things. Our kind go everywhere and no one ever suspects unless we want them to.”
Sounded tempting.
She played her trump card. “We can tell you about vampires. You want to know. It’s why you took the book, right.”
I did, but you know what they said about things sounding too good to be true.
“I think I’ll pass.”
She sighed, the sound a high pitched squeak.
“Not an option. We’ve been here forty eight hours, which leaves us free to claim squatters’ rights.” She gave me a sharp toothed grin. “Bet you wish you’d taken the deal, huh?”
I gaped at her. She couldn’t do that, could she?
“No, this is my house. You can’t stay.”
She shrugged her tiny shoulders and flew away, her wings a green blur as they flapped. The pixie hiding in the curtains chose that moment to make a break for it, darting in the opposite direction.
No, this wasn’t happening. Not again. I was a vampire, by all that was holy. Top of the food chain. Supposedly. They should fear me. Or if not fear me, at least be wary of pissing me off.
I grabbed the cinnamon jar, scooping as much of the spilled spice back in as I could. They were not staying here. I didn’t care what they said about squatters’ rights. I’d teach them to mess with my home even if I had to stay up all day to do it.
* * *
My take no prisoners, hunt the pixies down, spirit lasted until five minutes after the sun rose. I ended up collapsing on the couch after ransacking half my apartment in search of the pests. My will power disappeared, leaving me with no energy to make it to my comfortable bed.
I woke with a crick in my back and drool on the couch cushion under me. I sat up, wincing as my hair caught painfully on something behind me. I reached back, feeling with hands what my hair was caught on. The bastards had braided my hair and somehow tied it to the lamp.
A small body landed on my nose, the oversized eyes looking like that of a bug as he glared at me.
