PART ELEVEN
Light blazed inside the closet, and Delphie blinked. When she could finally see again, she gasped. A naked man was standing beside her. Not just any man. The most amazing male specimen she had ever seen. His face was a cross between an angel and a hard bitten navy SEAL. His skin was bronze all over. His shoulders and chest were broad, his hips narrow, and farther down . . . well she blushed and turned away.
"Wha . . ." she gasped as she tried to cope with the reality of this man. And her own reality.
Her pixy dust had turned her into and ugly old crone covered with warts, and she couldn't stand the idea of being seen that way. Especially by HIM.
"I can help you," he murmured as he lightly touched her face, then ran his hand down her body. Every place he touched tingled. And suddenly she was . . .
Well, she didn't know exactly what she was. (Rebecca York)
Horny! That's what she was. The amazing male specimen (AMS) didn't seem bothered by her appearance. Maybe he had a wart fetish. AMS leaned closer. His lips murmured against hers. Soft endearments sent pleasant shivers low in her belly. She opened her mouth to his questing tongue, and pressed herself against his hard naked body. Is that a gun in your pocket?
Oh wait, he didn't have pockets, but she did. Something was wriggling in one of them growing larger by the second. Nooooo! The spell she'd cast on her ex was wearing off. He was no longer a miniature peromyscus. But what on earth was he? (Janni Nell)
PART THIRTEEN
Delphie decided not to wait to find out. She turned and bolted from the closet, knocking the invisible faux-vamp on his ass in the process. Or so she assumed. The door connected with something as it swung open—something big and heavy that went down with a loud thud and a softly uttered, “ooof.”
It could just as easily been Frat-boy or one of his brothers. Or even all of the above. She was just one pixie, but right now she had the strength of ten. Whoever—or whatever—she’d knocked over, Delphie didn’t hang around to find out.
The Halloween party was in full swing by now and almost everyone was in costume. It should be easy to blend in. If only she could find a dark, quiet corner where she could go undetected while she worked out a way to reverse the curse. Maybe she should try to find the entrance to the basement? (PG Forte)
PART FOURTEEN
She scanned the party, using her fairy intuition to find hidden doorways. There. She zeroed in on a seam in the wall just below a staircase. Blowing fairy dust to imprint the vote on as many drunken revelers as she could, she gyrated her way across the dance floor to the tune of Ghostbusters. "Eighties much?" she murmured disdainfully (though it was one of her favorite songs.)
Behind her a chorus of surprise bubbled and melted. As she reached the hidden door, she glanced back. She'd been chased by her AMS, a floating silk sheet, and Romulus, naked with a light dusting of fur still covering his back. This was getting out of control...
Grunting in frustration, she forced the door open. A gust of stale air chilled her. Rickety wooden steps led not down but up, around a corner and into darkness. This was looking like a bad idea. She turned back. The male parade was almost upon her. She set her jaw and grabbed the banister. To the attic it was. (Jax Garren)
PART FIFTEEN
The rickety wooden steps groaned beneath her dainty feet, inspiring less than a little confidence. Delphie managed to make it onto the attic flooring without too much noise before the shuffle of heavy footsteps below followed by a male voice calling, “Where did you go, you little minx?” reached her ears. Which one was that? Romulus, the Invisible Vamp or AMS? She peeked over the edge.
Romulus. And his expression — still a little furry here and there. te he he— was a wee bit angry. Oh dear.
She squeezed into the shadows, wondering how much dust she had left and what to do with it to get out of this tight spot. Hot breath warmed the back of her neck.
“Great idea, sweetheart. Now we just need to lose those jokers so we can get down to business.”
Oh, for the love of sweet mother troll! What was up with this Invisible Vamp Guy? (Angela Campbell)
PART SIXTEEN
Delphie widened her eyes and tried out her favourite weapon in her pixie arsenal: extreme cuteness. Romulus recoiled, and she remembered her currently warty exterior. Drat.
Okay, she'd go with what she had. "Romulus, dear," she cackled. "Unless you'd like to spend more time couting the lint in my pocket, I suggest you scat." She waved her hand.
The anger on his face turned to confusion, then fear. She hadn't picked him for his brains. "Uh, right." He fled.
One down. Two to go. (Nicole Luiken)
PART SEVENTEEN
“One down. One to go and then we can be alone,” a deep masculine voice whispered in her ear.
How crazy was it that invisible faux vamp guy had almost mirrored her thoughts? Speaking of mirrors, she hoped there weren’t any in the attic. She really didn’t want too many memories of her present appearance. The store must have mixed their fairy dust in the same bin they put their love potions.
Normally she wasn’t against male attention but this was ridiculous. Besides, she had a job to do. The election was important, damn it! She stomped her foot.
“Ouch!”
“Shh!” she whispered. She wouldn't feel at all guilty. Even if her boots had a wicked heel. AMS slowly entered the attic.
Her mind spun. How to get out of her current state of being? Not to mention her present position, wedged between a hot faux invisible vampire and a rough wooden chest, was slightly uncomfortable. She could use a few drops of her own blood to undo the transformation, but then that would also negate the effects of her fairy dust on all those voters.
She glanced toward hot faux invisible vamp. A thin layer of dust clearly highlighted his very nice form. Damn this guy was good looking. But AMS was sure to see him.
And yes. Oh, that was perfect. She felt a very large sneeze building. (Shawna Thomas)
PART EIGHTEEN
Hastily the invisible vamp stuck his invisible tongue in her shell-like ear. She could feel his fangs piercing new holes in her ear lobe.
Forgetting to sneeze, thoroughly grossed out, she pushed him away. "What in the name of All Hallows are you doing?" she whispered.
"Well, it worked, didn't it? No sneeze," he said triumphantly.
"SHHH!" Delphie glanced toward the doorway. Oh yes, AMS had definitely heard them. Time to bail! Flinging open the lid of the wooden chest, she climbed in, slamming it behind her as she tumbled through the flimsy cardboard at the bottom of the enclosure and out into the stars.
"Bad to worse - a portal!" Now was this going to take her to Stonehenge or somewhere closer to home? At least she was rid of AMS and Romulus AND the faux vampire.
For now. When did the polls close again?
Manifesting her wings, she started flying toward the nearest familiar constellation, hoping the Big Dipper would provide a portal to the next cluster of voters on her assigned list. "What else could possibly go wrong tonight?" (Veronica Scott)
The portal dimension shimmered around her as she navigated, dodging stars and comets. She remembered just enough magical astronomy from spell school to pinpoint the Big Dipper--her route back to the physical plane. If the Dipper wasn't open, she'd wait for the scheduled fluctuation. She couldn't risk teleporting thousands of miles off-course through a random portal, and hey, more time spent here would mean more time for her ugly curse to wear off. Magic in the portal dimension was often erratic, so this might be exactly the cure she needed.
Unless... Oh, crapping trollsticks! Had the vamp's bite drawn the three drops of blood needed to break the curse? While she'd be pixie-cute again, she'd have to re-enchant every darn one of the voters on her route! Damn that vamp. He must be young, if he thought it was okay to chomp on other supernaturals without their express permission.
Delphie came to a midhair halt next to a cluster of stars she didn't recognize. She checked her lobe, her fingers encountering moisture. Blood?
She squinted at it, but it was too dark to see if it was blood or vamp spit. Gross. She flapped a little closer to the bright star cluster nearest to her. And a little closer. And a little closer.
That's when an invisible body rammed into her from behind, sending them both hurtling through the unidentified portal. (Jody Wallace)
***
Hoo-boy, what's going to happen to Delphie now? Was the invisible tackler the vampire? Or some other supernatural being? Has all her hard work enchanting voters been ruined by the vampire's teeth? Where will this portal take our intrepid, warty (or is she?) heroine?
Check back in either two weeks or four (we're working out the schedule!) to enjoy the continuing adventures of Delphinia Bathsheba Slippery-Elm, pixie trouble-magnet extraordinaire.
Jody Wallace
Author, Cat Person, Amigurumist
http://www.jodywallace.com * http://www.meankitty.com
I love it! Astro-fairy! :) I can't wait to see what happens next!
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