Page 23 of Sugar, Spice, and Magical Moonlight (Midlife Menace #2)
Bea let out a terrified squeak. “Yes, Enchantress.” She flew out of the room in a blur of black and white while leaving me with so many questions.
Like, who were those other viewers she was worried about disappointing?
And why did I have the awful suspicion Bea and the Enchantress were hiding something from me, like maybe the Enchantress was working with my aunt or, even worse, for the demons?
RIC AND I LEFT THE Enchantress’s room with hasty goodbyes and descended the stairs.
“That was weird,” I whispered.
“Very,” he grumbled while squeezing my hand.
There was more I wanted to say, but not here, when I didn’t know who could be listening.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, we found Bea frantically fluttering around the atrium front hall like a trapped bird, mumbling incoherently to herself while clutching an empty paper cup.
“Bea?” Ric called up to her. “Are you all right?”
She flew down to us, reminding me of a vampiric spirit with her dark hair, nearly translucent skin, and deep shadows beneath her large eyes.
“Yes,” she said while squeezing the cup in her small hands. “Just tired.”
Odd, considering she’d taken a long nap. “Don’t you get enough sleep?”
She resumed her frantic fluttering. “Usually, usually, but your floor is hard.”
Why was she still repeating herself?
“The floor?” Ric asked. “Why would you sleep on the floor when I provided you with a furnished bedroom suite?”
“Oh.” Wings buzzing in a blur behind her, she flashed a fanged smile. Fangs? “The suite is lovely, but I need to be close to the Enchantress in case she needs a fresh glass of water in the middle of the night.”
Why did a pixie have fangs? Maybe she was part vampire.
Crossing his arms, Ric fixed the pixie with a laser stare. “She can’t get it herself?”
“She’s afraid of the spirits, and I don’t mind waiting on her.” She pressed the cup to her heart, batting her lashes, her head tilting at an uncomfortable angle. “If you would excuse me, I must get my Enchantress another latte.”
“Throw out that cup,” Ric said on a loud whisper while looking over his shoulder. “My barista doesn’t believe in recycling.”
“Oh, no! Oh, no!” she repeated, her head twitching like she was a glitchy automaton. “He was so uncooperative the first time.”
Ric held out his hand. “Do you want me to get it for you?”
“Yes, please, please.” She buzzed up to him, pressing the cup into his hands. “Two shots of espresso and extra froth.”
I watched her as Ric walked toward the kitchen. I was starting to think Bea repeated herself because she had a nervous tic brought on by the stress of working for such a demanding boss.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Bea?” I asked.
“Yes. I’m fine.” She tilted her head, looking at me like a curious feline. “I had plenty of time to recharge by the pool.”
Then, why had she said she was tired? “Do you want anything to eat or drink?”
She vehemently shook her head. “I don’t need anything. I’m happy just making my Enchantress happy.”
What a strange relationship. Was Bea spellcast by the Enchantress? She seemed so eager to serve her mistress without thought to her own comfort.
I was startled by a squeal behind me and spun around to see a group of gnomes with fat white tails dragging a pink box across the floor.
“Hey!” I snatched my lipstick wand out of my pocket. “Those are my tampons!”
I chased after them, but they were too fast, ditching the box and disappearing into a mouse-sized hole in the wall, their tampon tails bouncing behind them.
I snatched the box off the floor, swearing when I got something sticky on my fingers.
I dropped the box with a hiss when I saw the brick of moldy cheese inside.
I wiped my hand down my pants. “Curse those gnomes!” Those tampons were supposed to last me three months.
“Luckily, you don’t need them now.”
I squinted up at Bea. Was she speaking of the tampons? “How do you know?”
She flashed her pearly white fangs. “I don’t smell your blood.”
Uhh. What a weird thing to say. “Are you part vampire?”
“I don’t think so.” She let out a wicked, childlike giggle that made me want to go to the kitchen and hide all the knives.
“Then, how can you smell whether I’m bleeding?”
She pointed to her large forehead while blinking down at me with those luminous eyes. “I have many capabilities.”
I heaved a sigh of relief when I heard the kitchen door slam and Ric returned with a steaming paper cup.
“Here you go,” he said to Bea with a smile.
“Oh, thank you!” She fluttered down to him, taking the steaming cup in both hands. “The Enchantress will be very pleased.”
“You’re welcome, Bea,” Ric said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “If you need anything else, please let us know.”
Yeah , I thought, like a child-sized coffin or a noose and a butcher block of sharp knives.
I held my breath as Bea flew back up the stairs, only releasing it when I heard the echo of a door slamming in the distance.
Ric frowned at the overturned tampon box. “What happened here?”
I squeezed my lipstick wand, frustration gnawing a gnome-sized hole through my skull. “The gnomes stole my tampons.”
“Cursed vermin!” He shook his head, snickering. “Does Ethyl have any you can borrow?”
“No. She uses the cup, and I hate those.” When he gave me a questioning look, I added, “The one time I tried one, it ended in disaster.” I refused to go into the gory details about my cup and period panties mishaps.
We’d only been dating a month. Discussing full moon woes should be off the table until at least the sixth month, and honestly, any kind of bathroom talk should be off the table for a long while.
My boyfriend didn’t need to know every personal detail about me.
The fact that we were discussing it made me uncomfortable, and I was reminded, once again, that maybe we were moving too fast.
He knelt beside the hole where the gnomes had disappeared, trying to peer inside. “I’ll see if I can get them back.”
“Don’t bother. They probably smell like moldy cheese by now.” And even if they didn’t smell, no way was I wearing used tampon tails.
He stood, eyeing me like I was a juicy steak. “When’s your next period?”
I wrapped my arms around myself. “In a week,” I said, averting my gaze while thinking of the way Ric had passionately made love to me in the shower during my last period.
Fortunately, he hadn’t tried to tongue thrash me.
He was a shifter, not a vampire. Feeling too bloated and less than sexy, I’d rejected him those first few days, but by day three, we were both too horny to care.
“We’ll figure something out by then,” he said.
I rocked on my heels while dreading the thought of stuffing paper towels in my underwear. “Hope so.”
He flashed a mischievous grin. “I won’t leave you hanging by a string.”
I shot him a glare, then playfully swatted his arm. “Oh, you think you’re funny, sphinx?”
He pulled me flush against him, his masculine spices shrouding me in a heady hug that had my lady parts on high alert. “Speaking of your period, you’re running out of time for tongue thrashings.”
“A tongue thrashing?” I bit my lip while flattening my hands against his hard chest. “Have I been a bad girl?”
His deep growl while he nuzzled my neck did wicked things to my lady parts. “Very bad.”
“Hmm.” I ground against that growing protrusion poking my hip. “Maybe you should punish me. “
“Luci!” Ethyl fluttered into the hall, wildly waving her phone. “Meet us at the pool. We’re going to rewatch the Enchantress’s new video and read the comments!” She quickly flew out the patio doors.
Ric hung his head with a groan. “Come on,” he whispered, adjusting the bulge in his pants. “That tongue thrashing will have to wait.”
I clutched my lipstick wand and checked behind us while Ric ushered me toward the double doors that led to the patio, just in case Bea returned with those pointy fangs of hers and a child-sized machete.
The wind blew back my hair, and I inhaled the heady smells of the ocean, pleased when I saw Des sitting beside the pool with Ethyl, Frederica, and Shu.
“Those sprites you dated,” I asked in a heated whisper, “could they smell when a woman was on her period?”
“What?” Ric laughed, giving me a look like I’d sprouted my own tampon tail. “No. Why?”
I checked over my shoulder once more. “Bea said she can.”
He stood at the threshold of the door, the late morning sunlight kissing his tanned skin while he motioned me forward. “Maybe she’s part vampire.”
“She said she didn’t think so.”
“She didn’t think so?” He chuckled. “She’s an odd one.”
“Yeah, odd is an understatement.”
I decided to wait until I was sure we were alone to tell him of my suspicions, though I wasn’t even sure what I suspected—that Bea was part vampire and the Enchantress might be working for my aunt or the demons?
If she was working for them, then why hadn’t they tried to ambush us when we met at the yacht?
She could’ve disclosed our rendezvous location to the Insurgi or the Vindicti.
Why go through a series of interviews first?
It didn’t make any sense. The only logical conclusion was that Bea was weird, and the Enchantress was a bitch.