Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Sure, she’d been the loveliest thing to cross his path in over a hundred years, but it had been more than that.
For the time being, the least he could do was ensure the safety of her family and get to the bottom of things.
Damien turned his body toward the fairy as the sudsy cloth tentacles of the carwash slapped against the SUV’s doors and windows. He needed to wash off any blood before returning to the airport.
“Why did you attack Sky?” he asked.
“I don’t know what you mean.” The fairy blinked her big blue eyes at him.
“In the fitting room a few weeks ago? And do not play innocent with me. I saw the tape.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” The fairy turned away and looked out the window.
He cocked a brow. “Did something frighten you? You mentioned before in the bathroom that you did not want to be taken back.”
She clamped her little red lips shut and crossed her sparkly pale arms, refusing to look at him.
“If you tell me what is going on, perhaps I can help.” A lie. He did not care what happened to her. He cared for no one. It was for their own good, of course.
She sighed with an odd little peep at the end and looked at him. “I was in her purse when I thought I heard him.”
Damien frowned. “Him who?”
“One of the Brown brothers.”
The Brown brothers were the men who owned the exotic salsa company in San Diego. “One of the brothers was there at the mall that day?”
“Yes. No. Maybe? Oh! You have nice lips. Very pouty. Can I play in your mouth?”
“No.”
“How about a taint massage?” She wiggled her little finger at him in a scratching motion.
Gods help me. Sex fairies were known to be easily distracted and wildly horny, but this one seemed a bit much. He needed to get the info and send her on her way. “You are not getting anywhere near my taint. Now tell me why you attacked—”
“I meant my taint.”
Damien growled, quickly losing his patience. “Absolutely not. Now focus. Why did you attack Sky?”
“Oh!” She clapped excitedly. “I know! I panicked and jumped out of Sky’s purse to find somewhere better to hide.”
“Why were you in her purse?” he asked.
“Sky broke into the Browns’ basement about a month ago. I saw my chance to escape and took it.”
“You were their prisoner?” This was getting interesting.
“Yes. I was going to tell Sky, but I was afraid to show myself. What if the Browns got her? She might turn me in. So I stayed hidden in her purse, garage, and laundry room. She hardly goes in there.”
Things were finally starting to make sense. Sky thought she was reporting on a human trafficking story, but it was a supernatural creature trafficking story, too. That was the connection between the articles and the sex fairy attack.
I’m always right about these things. Random was never quite random.
“What is your name?” Damien asked.
“Petra. But my friends call me Pet.”
Pet the sex fairy. How original. “Pet, do you know where you were at the time of the blast about nine months ago?”
“What’s a month? Is it sexy?”
Pet did not know what a month was? This could be a problem. He needed to determine if her surroundings might have saved her. “Never mind about the month. Do you remember a flash of light in the sky and fairies or other creatures around you disappearing suddenly?”
“I had lots of friends down in the secret bunker, but no one disappeared.”
“What bunker?” he asked.
“It’s hidden under the Browns’ basement floor. That’s where they kept us.”
Perhaps the home had an old bomb shelter. It was not so uncommon for houses built during the Cold War.
Pet continued, “I learned to pick the lock on my cage and sneak out of the bunker, but I could never open the basement door above. Too heavy.”
Steel door and a bunker deep underground. Good insulation. Those could be the reasons as to why Pet hadn’t been affected by the blast, but he needed to see this bunker for himself. Also, the other fairies might be able to tell him where they were during the blast. In the bunker? Somewhere else? Either way, the answers could be useful. Or not. This entire thing felt like a wild-goose chase if you asked him.
“Do you think your friends are still down there?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged.
The police had most definitely raided the place by now, but if Sky had not found the secret bunker during her “maybe break in,” then perhaps they hadn’t either.
“You’re going to take me there,” he said.
“No! No! I won’t go back.”
He held up his palm, trying to calm her. “Nothing is going to happen to you, Pet. I simply need you to show me where you were kept.” Time was of the essence, and he did not want to spend all day poking around a basement, looking for the entrance to this secret bunker.