Fried Chicken & Fangs

by Bella Falls

  “H-e-e-y, Charli’s here.” The drunken shifter spotted me. “What’s a hot place doin’ in a girl like you? Wait a minute,” he frowned. “That’s not right.” A belch thundered out of him, and he hiccupped at the end. Pointing a finger at me, he blinked hard to focus. “You’re not a girl. You’re a woman. A feisty one. I like feisty. Rawr.” He made a cat-like sound at me and attempted a wink.

  “I thought wolves growled, not purred,” I responded, not amused.

  His lower lip jutted out. “But I growled at you last night, and you left me.”

  “You told me to leave. Demanded for me to go home. Repeatedly,” I yelled.

  Dash staggered toward me. “That’s right. Had to hurt you to make you go because you keep tryin’ to fix me. I can’t be fixed. Too damaged.” He scrubbed his hand down his face. “Need to drink more. Want to forget that I hurt my family. That I screwed up the pack. That I can’t have you.”

  He wobbled and swayed where he stood. I feared he might break me if I tried to carry him out. “Lucky, I don’t think I can handle him on my own.”

  “Then call yer brother or one of the other wardens. He can’t stay here,” insisted the leprechaun.

  If Matt had one of Lee’s spell phones, this would be much easier to keep quiet. Then again, maybe the spectacled genius could use his intellect to solve the problem of a drunken wolf shifter.

  I took out my phone, hit a button, and spoke into it. “Lee, it’s Charli. Dash is drunk at Lucky’s. Come get him.” I sent the text and headed for the door.

  “Leavin’ me again?” Dash asked. “That’s right. You have to. ‘Cause I’m no good. No good.” He repeated the phrase over and over in a slur.

  Unable to take it anymore, I walked up to him and slapped his face as hard as I could. My hand ached from the impact, and I cradled it.

  No growl. No flashing amber eyes. Not one hair morphing into fur. He touched his face and rubbed it. “Ow.”

  “Did it hurt?” I shouted. “Good. Then maybe you’ll understand a fraction of how you’ve made me feel. I have more important things to deal with than your pity party of one. Get your life straightened out, Dash.”

  I rushed to the door and shoved it open. My hand pounded, but I pushed down the pain. Trying not to draw attention to myself by losing my cool in the middle of town, I drew in deep breaths to refocus.

  Whoever was taking things had access to all the places. He or she could slip in and out without being noticed, or perhaps they were invited in to begin with. I knew of one person who had that ability and whom I had witnessed doing something odd at my grandmother’s house.

  Unwilling to waste more time, I stole Lily’s bike from in front of Mimsy’s Whimsies and headed to my Nana’s place to confirm my suspicions.

  Chapter Twenty

  Vaulting off my friend’s borrowed bike, I dropped it into the azalea bushes. I bounded up the porch steps and burst into my grandmother’s house.

  “Nana.” My voice bounced off the walls and echoed. “Nana, are you home?” I raced through each of the rooms downstairs, unable to find her.

  The scent of something burning led me to the kitchen. A cast iron skillet sat on top of the burner, the charred remains of some chicken no longer frying but scalding and smoking in the hot oil. I turned off the stove, the pit of my stomach dropping. A tall glass of sweet tea sat at the end of the kitchen table, condensation dripping down its sides. Panic surged through my chest, and my rapid heartbeat drummed in my ears.

  A small sniffling sound alerted me. Quieting down, I listened for it again. High-pitched whimpering echoed from the second floor, and I sprinted upstairs. My grandmother lay on the floor in the hallway, and her body sprawled out in an unnatural position. A tiny figure hovered over her.

  “I didn’t do it, Charli. I swear.” Juniper blubbered. “She was like this when I came in.”

  Taking out my spell phone, I held the Menu button down hard until my thumb hurt. “Get away from my grandmother,” I spit out.

  Blue-green dust sprinkled off her shivering wings, covering my Nana’s face. “Please, let me explain.”

  A hundred things I could do to her flooded my head, all of them with the intent to hurt. But none of them would get the information I needed from her. Okay, maybe some of them would work as a decent torture method.

  Unable to tamp down the boiling rage inside, my fingertips sparked. “Oh, you will most definitely talk. But first, I need to know. Is she…is she…” I couldn’t finish the question.

  Juniper nodded. “She’s still alive. Just knocked out. See? She’s breathing.”

  My grandmother’s chest rose and fell in rhythmic breaths, and hot tears pooled in my eyes from relief. A sob rose in my throat, but I held it back with a hard swallow.

  “Let’s say I believe you. That you didn’t harm my grandmother. Then what are you doing here?” I asked, my nostrils flaring at my effort to keep from hexing her tiny hiney.

  The fairy held up Nana’s lucky necklace. “I came to return this.”

  Rushing forward, I snatched it from her hand. “Why? Because you felt bad after you stole it? That’s what you were doing that day when I caught you with it, weren’t you?”

  Her face dropped. “I would never steal. What you saw wasn’t what you think. I wasn’t taking the necklace. I had just found it, hidden away.”

  “Why don’t I believe you?” I bellowed, magic flickering off my fingers. The phone I still held in one hand crackled, and a tiny puff of smoke curled out of the device. I dropped it on the floor.

  Juniper held up her minuscule hands. “I know this doesn’t look good. But you keep seeing only part of the truth.”

  “And I think that you’ve been taking things from your clients’ homes when you’re cleaning,” I accused. “You are the only one who has open access to all those places. And you’re the only one with a direct connection to the election.”

  “What?” she squealed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Why are you saying such things? I thought you were my friend.”

  My gut twisted in confusion. “I am.” But what I’d witnessed with my own eyes couldn’t be denied.

  “Then you have to trust my word, I would never hurt you or your family. And I am not the guilty one. Charli, someone is trying to frame me. You have to believe me,” she implored.

  The simplest answer was usually right. And finding Juniper here like this made her the obvious culprit for everything. But hadn’t I hounded Mason about going how things were a little too convenient?

  Before I said anything else, I bent down to check on Nana. In relief, I watched her sigh and roll on her side with a smile, deep in sleep, as if dreaming of something good.

  Satisfied that she wasn’t in immediate danger, I gave Juniper a chance. “Why do you think you’re being framed?”

  The fairy drifted closer to me. “Because I’ve been noticing things going missing in all of the houses we service, too. I didn’t want to accuse my employees without evidence, so I started going behind them when I could, doing my own investigating. Enough was disappearing that I was ready to go to the wardens. That’s when I discovered this.”

  With a gesture of her hand, she produced a wand. A portal appeared with a wave, and on the other side of the opened fairy path, a pile of suspicious items lay in the middle of a closet full of cleaning supplies.

  “Is that your place?” I asked.

  She nodded with a sniff. “I found it there this morning. Someone is trying to make it look like I’m the thief to cover their tracks. But I’m not.” She burst into tears, her small body vibrating in the air.

  If Mrs. K’s brooch was planted, and someone placed those things at Juniper’s place of business, then who was doing it and why? Or maybe Juniper was guilty, and she was committing a double bluff by trying to make it look like someone wanted her to get into trouble. Confused, I rubbed my temple.

  She held her head in her hands. “What am I going to do, Charli? Wait.” Her head popped up, her eyes
filling with desperate hope. “Horatio told me that he’d suggested you go into business with your magic. Could I hire you to find out who is behind this?”

  “That’s not how things work for me,” I explained. “And I think it’s time that you alert the wardens. If you turn yourself in voluntarily, then you might have a better chance at explaining yourself. If you don’t, then you’ll put yourself at higher risk.

  Hope turned to fear in her alarmed gaze. “I can’t. Not until I can prove for sure that it’s not me. Otherwise, they’ll lock me up.” She jerked in circles in the air, searching for a way out.

  Wanting to believe my friend, I held up my hands to stop her. “Juniper, look, the wardens are coming here now. You know that thing I dropped on the floor? It should have alerted them to come here any second. You need to be prepared to go with them.”

  One final turn and she spotted the shimmering door she’d created still open, offering her an easy exit. Looking back at me, she bit her lip in indecision.

  Because of our friendship, I had to try and help. Giving it my best shot, I made my desperate plea. “If you run, the guilt will follow you. Stay and fight for your innocence.”

  My words hit home, and she backed away from the magical door. Juniper dipped in the air, her head hung in defeat. “Okay.”

  “Charli, where are you?” Mason’s voice cried out, his and other footsteps pounding on the wooden floor below.

  “Stay steady,” I cautioned Juniper. “Up here,” I directed.

  My brother made it to us first. “Nana!” Matt rushed by me and knelt by our grandmother.

  Mason stood at my side, his arm extended and power emanating from his hand. “I am arresting you, Juniper, on suspicion of theft and murder."

  Juniper squeaked with dread. She struggled against the authority of the wardens’ power, more and more dust falling from her desperate efforts. With a squeal bigger than she was, she broke free, blue-green dust exploding off of her.

  She circled around and zipped to the portal. Before Mason could do anything, her body disappeared through the opening, and the door began collapsing. Before it vanished, her voice tinkled through the last crack. “I’m sorry. Help me solve this, Charli.”

  With a light shimmer, the portal evaporated.

  Matt picked up Nana from the floor with mindful care and laid her down on her bed. He called Doc Andrews and promised to stay with her.

  “Find the fairy,” he said to me, venom dripping from his tone.

  I nodded. “I will, but I don’t think she did this.”

  “Then figure out who did,” my brother demanded. Brushing a strand of hair out of Nana’s face, his eyes betrayed his unease. “What if…” His voice cracked, and he couldn’t finish his question.

  I touched him on his shoulder, squeezing my reassurance. “But she’s fine. Stay with her, and I will do everything I can to help. I promise.”

  Mason waited for me at the bottom of the stairs. “How did she get away?” Frustration rolled off of him.

  “I don’t know,” I chewed on my lip, throwing out an unlikely theory. “Maybe your magic can’t hold her because she’s much stronger than you think.” Something that Lavender had said came back to me. “Hey, maybe we’ve been underestimating her and others like her. What if fairies have greater powers than we imagine? They can rip holes through space. What else can they do?”

  “I don’t have time to get into a philosophical discussion about what fairies can and can’t do. We have to find one fairy. Do you know where that portal led to?” Mason pressed.

  I held up my finger to give myself a moment to process the newly connecting information. “Lavender said she couldn’t detect Juniper’s aura. That she has trouble reading fairies in general.”

  The detective indulged me with restless impatience. “You think that’s why she broke free from my warden’s power. Fantastic news. And?”

  I smacked his arm out of the excitement of realization overtaking me. “And maybe fairies aren’t the only ones who have abilities we underestimate.”

  Mason rubbed his arm where I’d hit him. “I don’t follow.”

  An idea formed, and I rushed out of the house, picking up Lily’s bike out of the bushes. “I have to go.” If I could prove my guess right, then I could clear my friends’ names and catch a murderer all at the same time.

  Mason called out to me from the porch. “Wait a minute. You can’t leave without telling me where Juniper is. I know she’s your friend, but you can’t deny that she needs to be questioned. Where is she, Charli?”

  I hesitated, pondering whether telling him would be the best choice. Knowing that my fairy friend chose to fly away instead of help herself made up my mind. “Her door to the fairy path opened to her place of business. When you go there and see what there is to find, please remember that I’m pretty sure that she’s right. She’s being set up to take the fall.”

  “Zeke,” the detective yelled, waiting for the young warden to join him. “Gather a few other wardens and go to Fairy Dust & Clean. See if you can find Juniper there. If not, proceed with caution to Horatio’s house. We need to bring the fairy in if she’s guilty. And if she’s not, then she could be in danger. Go, and let Big Willie know what’s going on.”

  Something about the way he barked out orders impressed me and sent warm tingles I had no time to entertain down to my stomach. “If I figure out what I think I will, I’ll let you know immediately on my—” I patted my empty pocket. “Oh, wait, I can’t. I fried my spell phone.”

  “How did you…never mind.” He went to his car and opened the passenger door for me. “Hop in. I’m going with you.”

  “You don’t even know where I’m heading.” Leaving the bike, I obeyed.

  “Wherever it is, I’m sure it’s got trouble written all over it. Buckle up,” he demanded.

  We got to my house in record time. Calling out for my roommate, I dashed around the rooms with impatience, looking for him.

  Beau appeared on the landing upstairs, leaning on the banister. “What?”

  I didn’t have time to comment on his attire, which consisted of a white undershirt and droopy boxer shorts. A little of his rotund belly peeked out under the slightly too-short shirt. “We need your help.”

  The vampire scratched his behind, still waking up from his nap. “With what?”

  “Just stay there,” I directed him. “Mason, do you have anything on you that’s personal? Something you have a particular connection with?”

  Instead of asking me why, he patted his upper body down. “I don’t have anything on me. Wait.” He pulled out his wallet and handed me his license. “Here.”

  I didn’t even take it from him. “That’s not what I mean. Shoot, I need something of value to test out my magic.”

  The detective’s curious countenance demanded an explanation. I told him what Lavender had said about reading vampires and gave a shortened version of Beau’s description about their varying abilities. “I need to run an experiment, and you’re going to help me with the control to set the standard,” I finished.

  Mason caught on, digging in his back pocket. “And then with Beau’s help, you can either prove or rule out your theory.”

  “Exactly.”

  Pulling out his wallet, he unfolded the leather and took out something with extra care. He held the object in the palm of his hand, gazing at it with an expression I couldn’t read. I reached out to open his fingers so I could see what it was. A simple gold ring lay in the middle. My heart dropped with every sparkle of the diamond in the light.

  He watched me with careful eyes. “Charli, there’s a long story to this, and I don’t have time to go into it. However you need to use this, please be careful.”

  I swallowed hard and cleared my throat, attempting to talk without giving away my conflicted emotions. “Uh, actually, you’re the one that’s going to handle it. Go inside and hide it somewhere in the house. Doesn’t matter where.”

  Staying out on the porch, I paced ar
ound. I’d always wanted to see a guy pull out a diamond ring, but it had never occurred to me that when it did happen, it might not be meant for me. I remembered that he’d said before that he had been engaged, but the concept never seemed quite real until now. Why did he carry the ring with him, tucked away in his wallet instead of in his home?

  “Finished.” Mason approached me with caution. “I, uh, assume you need to hold my hand.” He offered me his.

  I wiped my own on my pants, getting rid of the nervous sweat. “Yeah.” It took more than one deep breath to calm me, and my focus wobbled off center, too caught up in the ring.

  “Think of the object you’re seeking. Aim all your attention on finding it.” Opening one eye, I added, “Try not thinking about where you hid it. The point is for me to track it down.”

  With a last lingering gaze, he nodded and shut his eyes. “Got it.”

  Too many questions clogged up my brain, killing my ability to cast a rhyming spell. I’d have to rely on my pure talents. In a flash, the ring appeared to me, buried in a box in the bottom of a drawer of a chest of drawers in Tipper’s old room. The clear picture in my mind wavered and fizzled when Mason’s thumb stroked my skin.

  My eyes flew open and caught him observing me. “You almost made me lose it.”

  “Sorry.” Something about his tone suggested he wasn’t. “So where is it?”

  I called out to Beau and told him where to look. The vampire appeared at the top of the staircase, the ring flashing in his fingers. “Well done. Now what?”

  “I want you to take the ring anywhere in the house. For this run, keep it in your hand.” I waited a few moments to give my roommate a chance to find a good place to hide. This time when I took Mason’s hand, I squeezed it hard. “Same routine, but be good and stay still.”