by Sarah Noffke
Creative Matchmaker
The Inscrutable Paris Beaufont™ Book 6
Sarah Noffke
Michael Anderle
This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2021 LMBPN Publishing
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
Version 1.00, August 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-1-64971-951-5
Print ISBN: 978-1-64971-952-2
The Creative Matchmaker Team
Thanks to the JIT Readers
Allen Collins
Veronica Stephan-Miller
Diane L. Smith
Dorothy Lloyd
Dave Hicks
Jackey Hankard-Brodie
Zacc Pelter
Jeff Goode
Debi Sateren
Deb Mader
If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!
Editor
The Skyhunter Editing Team
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Sarah’s Author Notes
Michael’s Author Notes
Acknowledgments
Books By Sarah Noffke
Check out Sarah Noffke’s YA Sci-fi Fantasy Series
Connect with The Authors
Books By Michael Anderle
To Tiffer who is my new favorite character, and reader!
— Sarah
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
to Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
to Live the Life We Are
Called.
— Michael
Chapter One
Nothing was worse than being reduced to Agent Ruby’s current depths.
He was still going to use that title. Agent Ruby would call himself that even though he had to flee the Fairy Godmother Agency after Paris Beaufont and her worthless mortal uncle, who had been posing as a fairy, blew his cover. He’d returned the “favor” and blown Detective Nicholson’s cover too, and that gave Agent Ruby a small amount of callous joy.
Agent Ruby hadn’t stayed around FGA once he knew they could link him to Agent Topaz’s death—but he did leave behind evidence that proved John Nicholson was a Mortal Seven and not the fairy he’d been masquerading as for fifteen years. It only took Agent Ruby a little digging, once he knew where to look to find out that John Nicholson was John Caraway, the owner of a rundown electronic repair shop in West Hollywood.
The pretend detective would have had to leave his job on Roya Lane too, the same as Agent Ruby. Unlike him though, John Caraway wasn’t a fugitive, being hunted by the other agents at FGA and the authorities at the Fairy Law Enforcement Agency.
As soon as he realized that he’d lost the heart-shaped red ruby at the end of his silver ballpoint pen in the FLEA jail, Agent Ruby knew that all was lost. Losing that part of his magical instrument was more than enough to connect him to the location, Agent Topaz’s murder, and much, much more. It was ironic to Agent Ruby that he’d gone to such lengths to cover his tracks on Agent Opal’s death and FriendNet, only to leave behind the one thing that would undoubtedly tie him to everything.
Equally frustrating was that the plan to make cell phones addictive, thereby ruining relationships, had failed thanks to an intervention by some irritating dragonriders. The scientists who Agent Ruby had employed said that they’d jammed the signal and that undoing it would take time. Admitting defeat, Agent Ruby told the scientists not to bother.
He’d set his sights on something bigger. Something that wouldn’t only destroy love. That had been the plan before, to take Saint Valentine down and seize his position. It hadn’t worked. It had ruined Agent Ruby, taking away the one thing he wanted more than anything—to be Saint Valentine, ruling over all the fairy godmothers and agents.
Now the man once known as John Paul Williams had nothing to lose. Agent Ruby was going to destroy everything he couldn’t have. Before, he simply wanted to bring the love meter to zero so the board would throw the current Saint Valentine out of office. Now Agent Ruby was going to take down the entire magical organization. If he couldn’t have the position he’d longed for and the power he deserved, no one would have it.
There would be no love.
Agent Ruby wasn’t only planning to take down Saint Valentine and Matters of the Heart. He had set his sights on ending the Fairy Godmother Agency and every agent within it. Even that wasn’t enough. No, Agent Ruby wouldn’t stop until the fairy godmothers were no more, and that started with Happily Ever After College. Most importantly, Agent Ruby was taking down Paris Beaufont.
He wouldn’t rest until he ruined that halfling with demon blood. Killing her wasn’t enough. He’d had everything he ever wanted stolen from him thanks to her meddling. Only once she’d lost all that she loved would he be happy. Better still, it was the girl with demon blood wh
o’d given Agent Ruby the idea for her and the fairy godmothers’ destruction.
Still wearing the black suit that was the uniform of the fairy godmother agents, Ruby nearly tripped as he stepped across a cesspool filled with disgusting liquid. He covered his nose and mouth with the handkerchief with the old initials: JPW. The putrid smell of rot and sewer would only get worse, Agent Ruby knew.
The whole of Minneapolis smelled disgusting for many reasons. Most thought it was the dirty lakes or the pollution, but they were wrong. It was because the demon population was out of control in the northern city. In the last fifteen years, demons had mostly gone unchecked. They thrived in the cold weather and preferred feasting off quaint country bumpkins who lived on the outskirts of the metropolitan area.
Agent Ruby knew all this because of his time working at FGA. Keeping demons away from fairy godmothers was crucial to their success. As an expert agent, Ruby had protected his fairy godmothers. Now he’d do the exact opposite and feed them to the soul-sucking demons. That’s what they deserved…Paris Beaufont wouldn’t get off so easily, though. He had something much more sinister planned for her.
With a flick of his silver ballpoint pen, the graffiti-covered door flew off the hinges. The condemned house smelled of rot, more so than the streets around it. The three demons Agent Ruby had tracked there all jumped to their feet, baring teeth that contrasted greatly against their red skin.
Demons went unnoticed by mortals because they didn’t see what they didn’t want to be real. That made it easier for the soul-suckers to sweep in and do what they did best—steal joy and love from people. Magicians saw demons, but they also could end them, so the latter stayed away from the former unless wanting to turn them into one of their own. Plus, magicians were less affected by the assault on emotions that demons did to their prey. Fairies couldn’t become demons because they were too pure in that regard—made to be creative.
However, demons loved nothing more than feasting on fairies because they usually had so many positive emotions. That’s why protecting the fairy godmothers had been such a job. At Happily Ever After College, a demon couldn't enter the grounds since it existed in a bubble. Similarly, FGA and Matters of the Heart were in a protected skyscraper in New York City. Only agents and fairy godmothers and those with special invitations could get onto the premises.
Agent Ruby might be an outlaw, with many from Matters of the Heart searching for him. However, he still had access to FGA and Happily Ever After College. It was risky entering those locations, but Agent Ruby had nothing left to lose. This was his plan to take everything down with him, so he didn’t care if they caught him in the end. It would be too late by then anyway. He also had a way to stay hidden on the grounds of Happily Ever After College, taking a front-row seat as he destroyed all the fairy godmothers and Paris Beaufont.
A growl ripped from the closest demon’s mouth, drool running down his pointy chin with a horn on its end. The monster was bald and also had horns on the side of its round head. His companions flanking him were equally hideous with their black fingernails, horns, and red eyes. Demons could have passed for goths with implants and strange piercing addictions at a rave and probably did when a mortal noticed them.
The other two hissed as the one in front started for Agent Ruby. He held up a single hand in a commanding fashion and dared to smile at the monster.
“I have a proposition for you,” he began in a low voice, full of confidence. “Don’t leech me. Don’t harm me. I will deliver you a feast unlike any other you’ve ever had.”
Chapter Two
“I can’t believe he lost his job.” Paris looked in her vanity’s mirror and tossed her hair to the side.
Faraday nodded over her shoulder, sitting on the dresser behind her. “I know. But he sounded hopeful, right?”
“Yeah.” Paris turned away from her appearance and looked around her room in the mansion of Happily Ever After College, but not to search for anything. It was so different from the place she’d shared with her Uncle John for all her life and yet the same. Small. Modest. Lacking personal effects.
“He’s been wanting to return to the mortal world, don’t you think?” Faraday scratched his ear with his back leg.
“Yeah, I think so,” Paris answered. “I mean, he gave up his life to raise me when my parents disappeared in the vortex. Uncle John abandoned his electronic repair shop, his girlfriend, his life. Maybe it’s a blessing that the fairies learned he’s not one of them, and he has to leave his job as a detective for FLEA. Still, that’s also been his life for the last fifteen years, and it must be difficult for him to up and leave it. He can’t even be on Roya Lane anymore since mortals aren’t supposed to be there.”
“I think we have to count our victories here,” Faraday offered. “John did all of this so he could keep you safe and he has. The long goal was to bring your parents back, which you did—”
“We did,” Paris corrected.
The talking squirrel grinned proudly. “We did. Your uncle, as much as he enjoyed his job as a detective, had a very stressful, demanding time with it. Now he has a reason to return to his work repairing electronics, which he loved. It didn’t happen on his terms, but it’s happened at an acceptable time because your parents are ready to take back their positions as Warriors for the House of Fourteen, so it’s fine if all the truths come out. Everything will soon return to the way it used to be.”
Paris sighed, trying to muster a nod. “Yeah, it’s just that it’s returning to how things were before I was born or before I can remember. I don’t know what Uncle John’s normal was. I don’t know what my parents’ lives were like before everything got turned upside-down.
“Even Aunt Sophia and Uncle Clark have different lives from before the Deadly Shadow came along and changed everything. I think things will return to how they used to be, as much as they can, but the only thing different will be me. I’m the one who doesn’t know who the people in my life used to be.”
Faraday offered her a thoughtful look, strange wisdom in his eyes. “I think we never know who people were before we entered their lives. If we’re anyone at all, we change their lives so they are never the same. It’s not a bad thing that you had such an impact on everyone’s life. You’re the first halfling magician and fairy in history. You’re special. If you didn’t change everything by entering this world, I’d be concerned.”
Paris smiled at her friend, grateful for his words. “Speaking of changing lives, you have to feel pretty awesome after saving love from cell phone addiction. That was some impressive nerdy stuff you did to stop that signal from the satellite. Everyone at the college knows about it. A lot of the girls have been asking if I can get your autograph.”
Faraday snickered, waving his paw dismissively. “That’s silly. I’m a nobody.”
“You saved love making the meter recover,” Paris countered. “You’re kind of a big deal. Headmistress Starr says she’s working with Wilfred to get you a lab. I hear it's going to be on the mansion’s third floor.”
The squirrel’s eyes widened. “The third floor. But that’s restricted to faculty and staff.”
Paris laughed. “When has ‘restricted’ ever stopped you? I’m pretty sure if there’s yellow tape around something, you think of it as an invitation to enter.”
He nodded with a giggle. “It’s true. I’ve been too busy with other things to investigate the third floor, though. I think it was only restricted for privacy purposes, not for a cool conspiracy reason.”
Paris rolled her eyes. “Yeah, if there’s not a ghost haunting it or malfunctioning magitech butlers, you’re not interested.”
“It’s true,” Faraday chirped, rocking forward on his hind legs and back again. “Once I have my lab, I can do all sorts of things.”
“Like make me peanut brittle?” Paris joked, glancing at her image in the mirror again. There was little hope for her hair, which wanted to be schizophrenic, going straight in some places and curly in others.
; “I’m allergic to peanuts, so no,” Faraday answered. “I was thinking of science experiments. I was debating replicating the double-slit experiment. Oh! And there’s one on random number generators. I’ll need a few participants for that. Do you think some of the students would be willing to volunteer?”
“I think if you ask them to bake you cookies, you’ll have a few hundred batches at our door,” Paris teased.
Faraday blushed. “Well, I don’t want cookies. I’m not a big sweets fan. I could use some test subjects, though.”
“I wouldn’t sell it like that,” Paris offered. “Tell them that you have a grand opportunity for them that could help them make history for science. It’s all about how you phrase things.”