Charming Blue (27 page)

She looked up at Tank, who was wearing a purple gossamer dress that matched her wings—and was the color of the air she had been creating in the car earlier in the afternoon.

“It’s back,” Jodi said.

“I gathered from your call to Selda,” Tank said.

Jodi blinked. “You heard it?”

“I was at the Archetype Place when the call came in,” Tank said with a bit of annoyance. Maybe she had a right to be annoyed. Jodi hadn’t noticed until now how hard Tank was breathing or how rapidly her little wings were moving. “I got here as fast as I could.”

“That
was
fast,” Jodi said. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” Tank said. “We have to figure out what’s going on.”

If Tank could get here that quickly, could Blue? Jodi didn’t understand everyone else’s magic. And if there was a way besides teleportation to get here that quickly, then she wanted to know what it was.

She dialed the cell she had left on Blue’s kitchen table.

Tank flew over the house toward the back.

Jodi followed, the bottom of her feet sensitive to the rocks and the uneven concrete of her driveway. She hadn’t noticed any of that when she had run out from the bedroom, but she noticed all of it now, including the way that her heart wouldn’t stop pounding.

The phone kept ringing. Either he hadn’t noticed or he didn’t have the phone with him or he was here.

She hoped he wasn’t here.

Then the ringing stopped. Someone answered.

“Um… hello?”

It was Blue. She knew it was Blue. Her heart lifted, and she let out a small sigh.

“This is Jodi. Where are you?”

“The apartment,” he said as if she were a bit deranged. “Why?”

“Because you’re here too,” she said.

“Here…?”

“My house,” she said. “Wait there.”

“But—”

She hung up and walked around the house. Tank was flying over the pool, hands on her little hips, wings working extra hard. She looked unnerved.

Jodi had never seen Tank look unnerved before.

“What is it?” Jodi asked as she hurried along the path. “Is he gone?”

“Stay there,” Tank said, holding up her little hand.

Jodi didn’t stay, though. She came the rest of the way around until she saw what Tank was looking at.

Something—someone—that Bluebeard vision-thing—had shattered the sliding doors. Glass littered the back patio.

Jodi hadn’t even heard that. She should have heard that, right? She looked up at Tank.

“He—it—what did that?” Jodi asked.

Tank shook her head. “If it’s just an image, it shouldn’t have been able to do that. It shouldn’t have been solid enough to do that.”

Jodi clutched her phone so hard that her hand hurt. She looked at the shards of glass, glittering in the late afternoon sun.

“I don’t like this,” Tank said.

“I don’t either,” Jodi said. Of course she didn’t. This was her house. How come someone had destroyed her house?

Then her breath caught. It could have been her. He could have destroyed her.

The phone rang, startling her. She nearly tossed it away from herself and stopped herself just in time.

She didn’t recognize the number displayed on the screen, but she answered anyway.

“Yes?” she said in her most dismissive tone. If this was business, whoever it was would have to wait.

“Jodi?” It was Blue. He had called her back. “What’s going on? What happened? Are you okay?”

She let out a small sigh. “We’re fine. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

Then she hung up. She cradled the phone against her chest and looked at Tank who was still floating over the pool.

“Aren’t you going to do that fairy dust thing?” Jodi asked. “Shouldn’t we see what he—it—that thing did?”

“We can see what he did,” Tank said. “And I don’t think I should use dust at all. I’m not sure what we have here, but whatever it is, it’s powerful.”

Jodi let out a small breath. She needed to get a grip on herself. “This happened awfully fast, didn’t it? I mean, the Fairy Tale Stalker women talk about weeks between visits.”

“Yeah. Wow. I hadn’t thought of that.” Tank rubbed a hand over her mouth. Her wings kept fluttering hard. “What happened exactly?”

“I took a nap,” Jodi said.

Tank looked at her, frowning. At least, Jodi thought she was frowning. It was hard to tell from this distance.

“You fell asleep,” Tank said. “Alone?”

Jodi nodded.

“Crap,” Tank said. “Crap, crap, crap. You said you weren’t going to be alone.”

“I didn’t think a nap would hurt,” Jodi said. “It’s daytime.”

But as she said that, she realized she’d been rationalizing. She didn’t like to have people around her all the time. She needed to be alone, so she stole some time—and it had caused this.

“We need to find out what Blue was doing,” Tank said.

“Well, if we can get back into my house, we can do that,” Jodi said.

“I don’t know if it’s safe,” Tank said, and that was when Jodi realized Tank was terrified. “We need to get someone here before we do anything. We need to investigate the magic, and I’m not going to do it.”

Jodi sighed. Of course, Tank was right. The magic needed investigation, and more than what Tank had done the night before. Jodi redialed Selda. This was beyond all of them now.

They needed to figure out what was going wrong, and they had to do it fast.

Chapter 34

Blue stood in the kitchen of the new place, staring at the cell phone in his hands. It was square and complex and confusing. He had never really mastered these things—he’d had no reason to. He had never owned one and had used them only rarely.

When this one had started to ring, at first he had thought it had come from outside. But it was also vibrating, and it vibrated its way off the table. When it tumbled on the floor, he realized what was going on.

He spoke to Jodi, who sounded terrified. He hadn’t ever expected her to sound terrified, and that unnerved him. She hung up after she told him to stay put, and he had studied the damn thing for nearly a minute before he figured out how to call her back.

And then she had hung up again.

Something had gone wrong. Something had gone horribly wrong.

Where
are
you?

The
apartment. Why?

Because
you’re here too.

His stomach was churning. Just like in the past. His mind hadn’t been playing tricks on him. He hadn’t misremembered anything. This curse had activated much quicker for him than it was for this Fairy Tale Stalker. Blue didn’t know if that was because the cursecaster was more experienced now or less powerful or more cautious, and he didn’t want to give it much thought.

He just had to make sure Jodi was all right. Because if this went the way it had in the past, she had less than a week.

He couldn’t just stand here stupidly holding a phone. He needed to get to her. All of the other women had died alone. And Jodi was alone.

He didn’t know how to get there. He didn’t have a car, and a cab would take forever. He wasn’t even sure there were cabs in LA anymore.

Plus he didn’t know where her house was.

He held the phone for a minute, then stared at it, trying to figure out how to work it. He didn’t dial “0” any longer for information. There was a number. It was one that had become slang, a number people used instead of the word “information.” “Give me the… 4-1-1.” That was it. 411.

He had to punch the screen a couple of times to find the keypad, which irritated him. But he found it. And then he called the Archetype Place. He needed Jodi’s address.

They had to give it to him.

Froggy answered. His voice, deep and raspy, was recognizable just from hello.

“It’s Blue,” Blue said, knowing he would have to fight to get through. “Put me through to Selda.”

The direct route first. Because if he didn’t go direct, then he wouldn’t have a chance with anything else.

But Froggy didn’t answer him, and Blue’s breath caught. Had Froggy hung up on him? The little bastard.

Blue was about to hang up when someone answered.

“Blue? It’s Selda. Where are you?”

It irritated him that they wanted to know where he was, even though he should expect it. They had to change their thinking, just like he had. But still, these questions wasted time.

“Jodi brought me to one of her apartments. I don’t know exactly where it is,” he said. “Selda, she’s in trouble.”

“I know,” Selda said. “She already contacted me. Sit tight, and we’ll deal with you in a bit.”

“No!” he said. “Please, don’t hang up. Please. I’m the only one who has seen this before. Please.”

Silence. He let out a breath. Dammit. She had hung up.

Only then she said, “You’re right. Of course. I’ll send a car.”

“That’ll take forever,” Blue said. “Can’t someone teleport me?”

“I don’t know,” Selda said. “Most people want nothing to do with you.”

Of course they didn’t. Of course. He hadn’t thought of that. “What about Tank? She can get some fairies to move me.”

“She’s already with Jodi,” Selda said. “Let me see what I can do—”

“Just tell me her address,” Blue said. “I’ll figure out a way to get there. Just tell me where she lives.”

“You don’t know where she lives?” Selda asked.

“No,” Blue said. “How would I know?”

“What about where she works?”

“I thought she has her own business,” Blue said. “Is the office somewhere other than her house? I thought she was at her house when she called me.”

“She was,” Selda said. “You really don’t know where she lives?”

“How could I?” Blue asked. “Selda, please. She’s in trouble. This is escalating.”

“Yes, it is,” Selda said. Then she sighed audibly. “We’ll send someone for you.”

“But I thought you said that no one will work with me.”

“Oh, they probably won’t,” Selda said. “But I have some pull with folk. I’ll get someone to find you.”

“Just give me the address,” Blue said. “Please.”

There was another moment of silence, then Selda said, “I’m going to regret this.”

And she told him where Jodi lived.

Chapter 35

Blue staggered outside, still clutching the phone. That troll that Jodi had assigned to keep track of him, Gunther, was sitting in the middle of the grass, or maybe he was squatting. Blue didn’t know the variations of troll posture. And it didn’t matter, because Gunther had been there since Jodi asked him to keep an eye on Blue.

Gunther had done his job.

“Does anyone here have a car?” Blue asked.

“Why?” Gunther asked. He spoke slowly, like all trolls, and in this state, that irritated Blue.

“Because Jodi’s in trouble. I need to get to her house.”

“Yeah. Sure,” Gunther said. “Uh-huh. I’m sure that’s okay. Not.”

Blue looked at him, not expecting a troll to use Valley speak.

“Call Selda if you don’t believe me,” Blue said and tossed Gunther the phone.

For a moment, Blue thought that Gunther wouldn’t catch it. But at the last minute, the troll’s gigantic hand came up and wrapped itself around the phone.

The troll’s eyes glittered as he studied Blue. “I know you,” Gunther said.

“Yes, you probably do. Most people know me, and not in a good way.” Blue wanted to add that Jodi knew him. Jodi trusted him. She had given him a home, for heaven’s sake. But he didn’t. He had long ago stopped apologizing for himself, not out of respect for himself, but because in the face of everything, what could he say?

Gunther picked up the phone and punched a number into the keypad, watching Blue the entire time. Blue knew at that moment that Gunther was not calling Selda.

“I’m putting it on speaker,” Gunther said as he tapped the screen a final time.

A faint ring sounded over the yard. Then another. Then Jodi spoke, her voice small.

“Really, Blue,” she said, “I don’t have time.”

“It’s not… ‘Blue,’” Gunther said with a particular emphasis on Blue’s name. The troll’s eyes had narrowed as he looked at Blue.

“Gunther?” Jodi still sounded odd—panicked, tense, Blue couldn’t quite tell which. “Where are you? I’ve been trying to reach you. You’re not answering your phone.”

“It’s inside. I’m outside. Watching John, like you told me to.”

“Yes, of course, and…?” Jodi asked.

Blue started. She had been calling Gunther to find out what Blue had been doing? But she was the one who told him about the curse, she was the one who believed in it. She was the one who had convinced him.