by Nina Smith
Hippy sat down and took Fluffy Ducky back out of his pouch. She laid her hand flat so he could sit there and blink at her. “Everybody’s in a funny mood this morning,” she said.
Fluffy Ducky blinked four of his eight eyes.
She lowered her voice. “The muse king kissed me, Fluffy Ducky.”
He waved a hairy foreleg in the air.
“Do you think he likes me?”
This time he waved two forelegs at her.
Hippy nodded. “I think so too. I know it’s going to get you and me in big trouble, but it’s kind of exciting.”
Fluffy Ducky’s hairs stood on end and he shuddered.
“You’re hungry, right?”
He blinked twice.
Hippy went in search of dead flies and other bugs. She hit pay dirt on a window sill so high she had to climb a few feet up the wall to get to it, and left Fluffy Ducky up there to gorge himself.
After she came back down, Poppy reappeared. Her hair was neatly coifed, her glasses were straight and she wore a tailored grey skirt suit. There was no sign of a gun at all. She smiled at Hippy. “Come on, I’ll get you a glass of milk. I’m sure that’ll be quite safe.”
Hippy followed her cautiously into the kitchen, a tiny room with a fridge, a rusty cook top and a narrow bench. She sat on the bench and swung her legs. “Are you feeling better?”
“Much, now I’m awake.” Poppy poured milk from a glass bottle into a chipped cup and handed it to Hippy. “There. Fairies like milk, don’t they?”
Hippy shrugged and sipped at the drink. “I like coffee better.”
“I know dear, but I’m not prepared to have a hyperactive child climbing my walls.”
Hippy narrowed her eyes. “I’m not a child. I’m twenty years old, like I told you.”
Poppy leaned against the fridge and folded her arms. “You are a child, compared to him.”
Hippy scowled into her milk. “Everyone’s a child compared to him.”
“Fair point, I suppose.” Poppy heaved a deep sigh. “Look, I know good and well it’s none of my business, I’ve barely known you for a day, but you seem like a nice kid and he seems like–well–” she paused, at a loss for words. “I’m just saying be careful, alright? Men are all nice when they want something, but later on they can get mean.”
“My sister Ishtar had a boyfriend who was mean to her once.”
“Really? What did she do?”
“She tied a rock to his head and dropped him from the fortifications.” Hippy giggled. “It was funny.”
“Yeah well, if Pierus is ever mean to you, you just follow her example, alright?”
“I don’t understand why you’re so upset.” Hippy set her empty cup down. “It was just a kiss.”
“Just a kiss?” Poppy looked faintly relieved and disapproving at the same time. “When I saw you on the couch together I thought–you know–”
Hippy knew. Poppy thought the same thing Ishtar and Nikifor both thought. Maybe they were all right. She didn’t really want to consider that. Kissing was one thing, anything else with Pierus – ew. But she didn’t want Poppy to get her gun out again, so she didn’t say anything. She slid off the bench at the sound of Pierus’s footsteps outside the kitchen. “The vamps are coming to find us tonight. I can’t wait.” She skipped from the room.
Right after they’d all eaten, Poppy started packing up her belongings. Hippy watched the frenetic activity for a few minutes. She scooped Fluffy Ducky off the floor after Poppy very nearly trod on him and never even noticed.
“What are you doing?” Pierus asked.
“Leaving this hotel. Obviously. It was probably unwise to stay here a second after Tony brought Hippy back last night, but getting a room that late is murder. We need new digs.” Poppy shoved some clothes and the gun into a big bag and zipped it up. “You ready?”
“Rustam Badora said he had Tony following us all day yesterday,” Hippy said. “What if he just follows us again?”
“Ah. Good thinking.” Poppy’s forehead wrinkled. “You two can act as a diversion. I’ll come meet you later.”
“Indeed.” Pierus stretched his legs out and studied her face. “And what happens if you don’t come to meet us? You’re not thinking of losing us and going after the Apple of Chaos on your own?”
“As a matter of fact I would like nothing more than to lose you, in particular, in a very deep hole,” Poppy said. “Unfortunately I have no leads without the two of you and you two haven’t got a hope in hell of making it without me, so let’s not quibble. Oh, and for the record, I’m after the box, not the Apple of goddamn Chaos. So I suggest you go and be conspicuous and meet me in three hours at–ah–”
“The Acropolis,” Pierus said. “I should like to show it to Hippy.”
“Fine.” Poppy hoisted her bags.
“I should come armed if I were you, that close to sunset.”
“Right. Wooden stakes at dusk. You two go ahead so I can get out unnoticed.”
Pierus put a hand on Hippy’s back. They left the room and headed for the elevators. “What did she mean wooden stakes?” Hippy whispered.
“Humans have some foolish ideas about a stake to the heart killing vampires.”
Hippy tilted her head and considered this while she watched the elevator light travel up to them before the doors rattled open. She hung on to Pierus during the quick, rapid descent in the metal box. “I suppose it would work, if you could get that close. Fairy dust is better. Or a spear. That works well.”
“Since neither of us has a spear, I trust you have your fairy dust handy.” Pierus slipped his hand into hers when they left the hotel and walked out into the afternoon sunshine. A few lines smoothed from his face and his shoulders relaxed when they put distance between themselves and the hotel.
Hippy had to walk very fast to keep up with his long strides, but she didn’t mind. It was a warm day and she was exploring Dream, hand in hand with the muse king. Things were really going very well. If only the fairies could see her now, they wouldn’t make fun anymore.
Pierus hesitated on the edge of a busy footpath, in full view of all the traffic and pedestrians, looking around. Hippy had no idea if he’d seen anything, but a moment later he plunged them into the city. They hurried across busy roads, dodged traffic and wove their way through road after road bordered by towering buildings.
“Do you know where we’re going?” she asked after the tenth dizzying corner. “All these streets look the same!”
“It’s very different to what I remember,” he said. “But I’d know my way to the Acropolis blindfolded. It was the one place in Athens I was able to visit.”
“Did you go there with Pandora?”
“Never.”
They crossed another road, walked past some older houses and into a stand of trees. Hippy skipped along at Pierus’s side. She liked it under the dense green canopy. It reminded her of the forest near home.
Pierus gave her an indulgent smile. “Now look.”
At the edge of the trees the ground sloped away beneath them to a descending pathway of forest. Beyond that rose a hillside covered in white stone ruins. The afternoon sun cast a distant building lined with pillars in bars of light and shadow.
Hippy’s breath caught in her chest. She stared. “It’s beautiful.”
“Come on. I’ll show you everything.” He tugged on her hand.
Hippy followed him, amazed he could look so much younger in this place. She glanced over her shoulder, half-expecting to see Pandora following behind, but all she could see was a Freakin Fairy-shaped shadow flicker into the trees. She gave a cheery wave, then turned all of her attention to the muse king.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Late afternoon sunlight slanted across the stone floors of the Parthenon, the huge temple at the peak of the Acropolis. The sun shining between the pillars patterned the stone in light and shadow so intense you could have tripped over it. A few tourists still straggled around, looking at the carvings, talking about Zeus, laughing with
each other.
Hippy stood in a warm, golden slant of sunlight. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back. The sun made lights behind her eyelids and warmed her skin. The air carried a faint aroma of flowers and smoke. Dream was so strange and exotic and busy. She hadn’t realised until this moment just how much she liked it. There was always something going on, but no boundaries. Here she could do anything she wanted to, if only she could stay.
Soft footfalls approached. A hand slid around her waist and something soft and smooth brushed her face. Hippy opened her eyes and smiled at the purple daisy in Pierus’s fingers.
He tucked the stem behind her ear and smoothed her hair back. “It’s almost sunset.”
“I know.” Hippy curled her fingers into his long coat.
“We don’t seem to have done much in the way of preparing to meet the vampires.” Pierus’s mouth crooked up.
“What’s to prepare for?” Hippy turned in his arm and leaned against him so she could watch the sun turning the ruins pretty shades of orange. His arms wrapped around her. “Poppy should be here soon.”
“Indeed.” Pierus sounded like he didn’t think she’d turn up at all. “I wouldn’t count on her too much, my dear.”
The sunset deepened to red on the horizon and spread across the curling blanket of clouds.
“I like the sunset,” Hippy said. “It’s so shiny.”
“Fairies and shiny things. It’s going to be the death of you all one day.”
Hippy giggled. “That’s just silly. Shiny things could never hurt anyone.”
“I stood once outside Thebes with Pandora and watched the sunset,” Pierus said. “I remember the colours vividly. She thought there was blood in the sky.”
Hippy turned around in the circle of his arms. “Were you mad when Pandora left you?”
He cupped her face in his hands. “Furious.” He bent down and kissed her lips.
This was a different kind of kiss from last night. Hippy’s eyes widened. Her blood raced. She should really break away, but for the first time ever somebody was treating her like an adult and it was exciting. What other Bloody Fairy had ever caught the eye of the muse king? She let her eyes close, giving herself up to the experience. She didn’t realise how much time passed until a now familiar voice spoke right next to them.
“Don’t stop on our account, will you?”
They broke apart. The sunset had given way to full night. A few weak electric lights outside were all that remained to see by.
Rustam Badora paced a slow circle around them. His eyes picked up every spark of light and mirrored it back at them in bright red. Ten more vamps waited like sentries at the base each pillar. They were all new vamps, Hippy noted. They retained, for now, their pink human colouring. In another few days they would pale and eventually turn as blue-white as Badora himself. Tony, standing in their midst, was the only one with a tinge of paleness, the colour beginning to leach from his waxy skin.
“It’s not like you to keep a fairy around for that sort of thing, Muse King.” Badora’s footsteps echoed on the stone. He slowed and reached a finger towards Hippy’s face. She batted his hand away.
The vamp’s laughter rolled around the stone pillars.
“Are you here to play games, Badora?” Pierus pulled Hippy closer.
She scowled. There went the whole being treated like an adult thing.
“Really.” Badora, who had watched the exchange with interest, drew the word out. “Games are one of my favourite things. But the muse king is all business.” He resumed pacing. “I presume the Bloody Fairy has conveyed to you my terms?”
“She did.” Pierus’s voice remained even. “Quite out of the question. I cannot allow you to farm fairies for food.”
Badora disappeared. He reappeared inches from Pierus. Their faces were so close they almost touched. “Then you will open a door for my army into Dream.”
“Your kind always were unrealistic.”
Badora bared his fangs. “I prefer to think of it as taking our destiny into our own hands. You called us out, Muse King. You cannot stop us. If you will not accede I will simply take my human army back into Shadow and overrun the pitiful territory you defend there.”
Pierus gave a low laugh that sent more chills down Hippy’s spine than anything Badora could have produced. “And how do you propose to return without my help?”
Without taking his eyes off Pierus, Badora reached out for Hippy. His fingers closed around her neck. “How do you think?”
“That’s my fairy you’ve got your hands on.”
Hippy decided she’d had enough when the vamp’s fingers cut off her air flow. She loosened Fluffy Ducky’s pouch with one hand, lifted the spider out and flung him at Badora’s face. He ducked. Fluffy Ducky flew through the air and grabbed onto Tony’s face. Tony screamed, swatted at him, stumbled back and tumbled down the stairs.
Badora sighed. “He’s not going to make any kind of vampire.” His fingers squeezed. “You know I’m actually missing Shadow? Humans are very rich. I need some good, plain, fairy in my diet.”
Pierus leaped for him. Badora jerked his head. The remaining nine vamps swarmed, closed in, swept him under.
The vamp king drove Hippy up against a pillar and pinned her there by the neck. “It’s just you and me now, sweetie.”
Hippy cast about for a weapon. Spots danced in front of her eyes from the lack of oxygen and she couldn’t seem to find her fairy dust. One flailing hand brushed something sharp in her knotted up hair and she remembered Poppy’s kitchen knife. She tore it from her hair and stabbed wildly at the nearest target. The knife sliced into something soft and jelly-like.
Badora’s scream sounded like talons scraping down a metal pipe. The hand around her neck disappeared. Hippy gulped air and jerked her knife back with a pop. The vamp stumbled away, one hand clutched to his right eye. He bellowed several incredibly filthy words in Vampish.
Hippy checked the end of her knife and found a slightly squished eyeball on there with slicks of blood all over it. “Eeeewww!” she shook the knife to try and get rid of the thing before the sight made her throw up.
The eyeball flew off, hit the next pillar and exploded.
Badora crouched on the ground, still clutching his face. “You’ll pay for that Fairy!” he roared. “I’ll give you the slowest death you ever experienced! I’ll make you beg for mercy! I’ll drain every last drop and then bring you back and do it all again!”
Hippy took a deep breath and overcame the nausea. There, she was definitely getting better with blood. “That looks nasty. You should probably keep an eye on it.” She swung her leg around and kicked him in the head as hard as she could.
Badora toppled over.
“You’re not so tough.” Hippy tossed the knife into her other hand and grabbed a handful of fairy dust to finish him off, but another vamp dived at her. She shoved the fairy dust into his face, ground it in and pushed him aside, only to find herself in the thick of the fight around Pierus. She would much have preferred a spear to the little kitchen knife, but there was nothing for it. She slashed at the next vamp to attack. Her knife sliced into soft flesh over the chest. Blood spurted over her face. She spat madly and tried to hold herself together.
Pierus loomed over her. “Hippy, run,” he said. “Now.”
“You can’t fight these by yourself!” Hippy flung fairy dust in a vamp’s eyes.
“As a matter of fact, I can. I said run.” He shoved her so hard she reeled out of the fight and collided with another body.
As she instinctively brought the knife around in a wide arc, Poppy grabbed her arms and yanked her behind a pillar. “What the hell?” she hissed. “I just got here and I saw you stab that guy! What kind of a violent psycho are you?”
“That’s very sweet of you to say, but they’re all vamps.” Hippy leaned around the pole to see what Pierus was doing. With any luck he was offering his throat to a vamp. Bastard. How dare he push her out of a good fight?
Pi
erus had gone very still. He stood in the centre of the circle of vamps, a thin smile curving his mouth. He slowly raised his hands and pressed them to his temples.
“What’s he doing?” Poppy kept a firm grip on Hippy’s tunic while she struggled to dart out there and help him.
“Getting himself killed!”
“No, he’s doing something.”
Pierus said a word. It sounded like a really, really bad word, but it wasn’t anything Hippy had ever heard before. He said it so forcefully it seemed even the ground beneath them vibrated, and then the vamps around him stopped closing in. One clutched his head and made a strangled noise. Another dropped to the ground. One by one, the vamps contorted in pain and fell.
Hippy shrank back towards Poppy. She shuddered when the air iced around them. “Is he doing that?”
“Apparently.” There was a tremor in Poppy’s voice.
Pierus’s words made the ground tremble a second time. “You are cursed creatures,” he said. “Go. Put an end to yourselves.”
The vamps disappeared from around him so fast they seemed little more than blurs of light. Poppy said a lot of bad words under her breath.
Hippy looked around for Badora to see how he’d taken this, but he was gone. Damn. She should’ve killed him while she had the chance.
Pierus sank to his knees on the stones. Exhaustion lined his face. His colour was almost grey. “Hippy,” he said.
Hippy broke away from Poppy’s grip, ran to him and crouched down. “Are you okay? What just happened? What did you do? Where did Rustam Badora go? Why did you push me?”
Pierus held up a hand. “My dear girl, patience. It’s the old magic–it’s been so long, I can only work them like that in Dream, and only because they were not quite full vampire–” he swayed. “I didn’t realise it would take so much. Give me your hand. I’m sorry my love, I must ask a little more of you if we are to survive the night.”
“What are you talking about? They’re all gone!” Hippy gave him her hand, only to find it crushed in a death grip.
He pulled her closer and gripped the back of her head with the other hand. “Do you trust me?”