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Beneath the worry, I found myself wondering what his chest looked like under that shirt. Did he have a six-pack? Was his skin smooth or did he have chest hair?
Trying to shake off the feelings that were stirring deep inside, I forced myself into the kitchen and fixed lunch for Fancypants and me. But in the back of my mind, I knew that I was playing with fire. And I knew that for the first time in months, I wanted to touch the flame.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
“What the hell do I do?”I had Bree on the phone as I nibbled on the roast beef sandwich I’d made. Bran had gone home without saying goodbye, so I was saved him asking what Faron and I had talked about. I could imagine what he would say if he knew about my date with the wolf shifter. Fancypants had almost eaten his weight in cat food and had gone to sleep it off.
Bree sighed. “Hold on.” She muted the phone. A couple minutes later, she returned. “Okay, I can talk for a few minutes. Where’s he taking you?”
“I forgot to ask. He said he’d meet me here. He said he felt he owed me one, but is that the only reason he’s taking me out?” I couldn’t bring myself to sayDo you think he’s interested?It felt so wrong.
“Faron Collinsworth doesn’t waste time on things and people who don’t interest him. This is a date. I guarantee you, it’s not a thank-you for going out to see the ghosts. Which sounds terrifying, by the way, and thank you for not volunteering me to go with you. Last night was more ghostbusting than I ever signed up for.” She snorted. “No, Faron asked you out for a date. Nothing less.”
I carried my phone and what was left of my sandwich into the bedroom and settled down at my vanity. I wanted to be comfortable for poking around in the woods. I set the phone across a tall pillar candle to hold it up so the speaker would catch my voice, and stared at myself in the mirror.
“Okay, now second question. What should I wear to go hunt down these two ghosts—” I stopped as my phone announced another call. It was the sheriff. “I’ll call you back. Daisy’s calling me right now.”
I switched over to the other call. “Hey, Sheriff Parker. What’s up?”
I divided my hair into three sections and began to braid it so it wouldn’t catch in any bramble bushes if we had to wade into the undergrowth.
“Call me Daisy. I have a feeling we’re going to end up on a first-name basis eventually.” She paused, then added, “There’s been another murder. We received the call five minutes ago. I’m headed out the door as we speak. Arnie will be at your place in forty-five minutes. He’ll bring you to the new scene first. I thought you might have better luck with a fresh victim—” She stopped abruptly, then sighed. “I didn’t mean to be so blunt. But isn’t it true that you stand a better chance of talking to a spirit shortly after they’ve been murdered or died?”
“I don’t know the answer to that,” I said, my heart plummeting. The last thing I wanted was to see a mutilated body. I knew what one looked like, and the memory was all too fresh. But now, I felt a certain sense of responsibility. Three people had been butchered, and I had the opportunity to not only help the cops find the killer, but to potentially prove a man was innocent. I didn’t want Elroy to end up in prison if he had nothing to do with their deaths.
“I’ll be waiting,” I said. As Daisy hung up, I called Bree again, thinking that pretty soon I was going to owe her for playing therapist.
* * *
Ten minutes later,Fancypants was awake and hovering over the table as I drank another latte. “You’ll be careful, won’t you? Can I have one of those?”
I glanced up at him. “Will you please land? You’re making me nervous, fluttering so close to my head. And no more caffeine for you. We’ve been down that route and it wasn’t pretty. You’d be divebombing me before you were done.”
“Well, excuse me for flying,” he said, but he landed on the top of the centerpiece—a candelabrum—balancing on it with perfect precision. “So, there’s a murderer out there and you’re going to try to help catch him. That makes me nervous.”
“Not exactly,” I said. “I’m trying to helpthe copscatch a murderer. And I’ll be careful. I know what it’s like to worry about somebody.”
I hadn’t told Fancypants about Rian, but I suspected the bonding process went deeper than he had let on. I was finding that I seemed to know more about dragonettes than I should. And he knew things about me that he shouldn’t have.
“Hey, can you read minds?” I asked.
He coiled his head, staring at me with those crystal blue eyes. “No. But I do sense things about you that you might try to keep private.” He added, “I know that you lost your mate and that made you incredibly sad.”
I sighed. “I thought you might. I’m sorry. I’ve got a lot of baggage.”
“Don’t apologize,” Fancypants said. “It’s all part of the process.” He hesitated. “I think it’s good you’re going to dinner with the wolf man tonight. It will do you good, more than you can imagine.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, “but I promise to be careful out in the woods today. I don’t intend to take any more chances than necessary.” As I finished my drink, I suddenly thought of something. “Hey, I don’t know if this is a sore spot—if it is, forgive me—but do you remember your mother? Do you know who she is? Do you ever meet your families?” Even as I asked, I realized that I knew that Fancypants had never met his mother and had no idea where she was.
“Vaguely—there’s this sense that she’s still alive. I would know her if we were to meet—even without being introduced. But as to her name, or knowing the specifics of where she is? No. I don’t know. We live our lives in relative obscurity. Dragons—our larger cousins—have the need to be known and revered. Dragonettes don’t. We understand our worth, but we also prefer staying in the shadows. We’re creatures of the forest, where dragons are creatures of the mountains and air.”
I thought about that for a moment. “Are there dragons connected to the water—and to flame?”
Fancypants gave me a bob of the head. “You begin to understand. We’re all connected to the elements. There are water dragonettes. They can’t fly, but they swim deep and swift. They’re reminiscent of eels, with a larger body and fins. And there are fire dragonettes, who mostly live around volcanoes. You can also find them appearing near wildfires. They seldom come over from Sescernaht, because they cannot live without heat. Most of the dragonettes who live in your realm are forest, water, or air based.”
“Does your color depend on the element you’re connected with?” It seemed odd to me that a forest dragonette would be red.
“No,” he said. “Dragonettes come in all colors, and you can’t discern our element by the color of our skin. Our coloring is random. While a dragonette can lay a clutch of eggs and they might all be different colors, the babies will connect to either the element of the mother or father. There are no half-breeds.”
