CHAPTER#63

"Please don't fuck people looking like me." She frowned. "There's no way she's going to pass for luggage. Isn't there a weight limit?"

"A hundred pounds is the limit."

"There's no way Dana weighs less than a hundred."

"She does without her legs."

It took Beth several seconds to process what Lily had just said. "Care to repeat that? I think I misheard you."

"Her legs come off. Well, they can, and we can put them back on later. I have them in my carry-on."

"That's..." several words filtered through Beth's mind. Disgusting, macabre, horrifying. "Don't they smell?"

"Now now, that's extremely rude. As long as she gets a good jolt of magic juice after we stitch them back on, she'll be fine."

"How do you know that?"

There was a long pause before Lily responded. "Like I said, things got complicated, but our girl is handling whatever death throws at her like a champ."

"What about the x-ray scanners?"

Lily chuckled. "Tick-Tock is the bag. They can only see what he wants them to. That's if he doesn't just get up and walk around the scanner. Wouldn't put it past him."

"He?"

"That's how Dana refers to him. Said since he was a grandfather clock, it only made sense."

Beth sighed. "Please don't get me banned by TSA. Or fuck people in my body. Promise me those things and I'll give you what you need."

"Yes, boss," Lily replied.

Beth pulled out a credit card and read off the numbers. She wasn't worried about the cost---Mike would reimburse her."Did you get that?"

"Yep. Plane leaves soon, so gotta go. Tell Romeo hi for me." There was a click and then silence. Beth lowered the phone, staring at it. What on earth was Lily up to?

Her phone dinged, and a text message came through. It was a photo of Beth with her tongue out standing in front of a mirror, a slender leg draped across her shoulder like a scarf. Behind her, Dana was busy trying to fit herself in a large suitcase, her head and one arm still hanging out.

"Holy shit." Shaking her head, Beth put her phone away. It really was better if she didn't think about what those two were up to, but she was happy that they were okay. Picking up her stuff, she looked at her computer screen.

"Weird." Several documents were open on her screen, many of them pertaining to Emily's holdings. Why had she been looking those up? She closed the windows and shut her computer down. She had come to the office to avoid the hustle and bustle of the house. Sofia had gotten into an argument with the fairies after they got into the flour, and Tink was upstairs doing God knew what with a power saw and with the rats helping her. Her room was close enough to Mike's that she could hear him moaning in the bathtub.

The thought of him made the blood rush to her face. It was a frustrating feeling in a lot of ways, because she knew that the attraction was largely due to his bond with Naia. While he had been cute in a broken puppy kind of way when they first met, she wouldn't have bothered pursuing their relationship any farther. Now, however, he radiated sex appeal like a tiny star, yet acted awkwardly whenever she was around. She had noticed that he treated her differently than the others, and wondered if she was lacking the monstrous charms of the other residents.

Did she desire the man, or the magic?

It was a question she couldn't answer, but it made her stomach feel funny in a way that usually required a trip to see Asterion in the Labyrinth. The minotaur was more than happy to play with her, but he was more than a little short on ideas during sex.

Oh well. At least he took direction well. She picked up her coffee and remembered that it was cold once it touched her lips. Frowning, she set it back down. Her thoughts went back to Mike and the scene of him standing in the church, his dick exposed for her to see.

"Damn it." She stuck her head out of the office and waited. It didn't take long before one of the fairies shot past, likely looking for or running from trouble. Beth had realized that they were largely bored and needed to be given something to do.

"Hey Olivia." The green light returned and hovered in front of Beth. If she squinted, she could just make out the feminine form in the middle. "Can you go and ask Asterion if he can meet me at the greenhouse? Let me know when he is on his way."

"Okay," Olivia said with a giggle, and flew up the stairs toward Beth's room, eager to help out.

-

Mike sat on the porch swing, letting the wind slowly rock him. Any moment he expected Cecilia to return, to speak to him in that fantastic foreign lilt of hers. Though the others reassured him that she was fine, something was bothering him and he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Something bugging you?"

He looked up and saw Abella's face leaning over the roof, her thick hair slowly succumbing to gravity. A sigh escaped him and he leaned back in the swing.

"Yeah. I thought that dealing with the former rat king would give me a break, but between whatever Emily was doing and Cecilia being gone, I just can't seem to relax. I feel like something is about to happen, and I'm worried it's going to happen when I go in that wardrobe. I'm also worried about that emerald. If it was so powerful, why did she just give it to the rats?" He looked at her. "Oh, right. Ratu learned that the emerald can apparently grant wishes or something like that."

"So I heard." She tapped her ear knowingly. "Even up here, I could hear you all talking."