Ghost Light

Her words were so slurred it sounded like she said, “guesh I won’t be going out danshing” so I was pretty sure she wasn’t making it out on the dance floor tonight.  Jinx was clumsy when she was stone cold sober.  Drunk she’d be a menace.

“What’s Hans’ number?” I asked.  “I’ll call and tell him you can’t make it.”

She blinked at me and stuck her tongue into her cheek.

“It’s in my phone,” she said.

Jinx dropped the shopping bags to the sidewalk and fumbled for her phone.  I didn’t want to touch it, but I wanted to get this over with.  I reached for the phone with thumb and index finger and scrolled through her contacts list.  I found Hans’ number and hit call.

“You’re early, woman,” Hans said.

Woman?  Mab’s bones, I wanted to shove the phone down the Hunter’s oversized, Nordic throat.

“Um, this is Ivy Granger, Jinx’s friend,” I said.  “Jinx has to cancel her date tonight.”

“Why would she cancel and why are you the one to call?” he asked.  “I know she doesn’t have to work late.  Jinx had this afternoon off.  I checked.”

They’d only gone out on a couple of dates and already this guy was keeping tabs on my best friend?  I held the phone so tight I’m surprised it didn’t explode into dust.

“Look, Hans, she had a few too many drinks with a clurichaun,” I said.  “Give the girl a break.”

“She was drinking with a clurichaun?” he asked.  Hans started breathing heavy and his tone was menacing.  “With a FAERIE?  That worthless bi…”

“Get over yourself,” I said.

Hans made a strangled sound and spit.  The guy had the temperament of a berserker and was known for his rages in the heat of battle.  But he wasn’t in battle now and he was talking about my friend.

Apparently, Hans thought the only good faerie was a dead faerie.  Some Hunters are like that, a fact I’d be smart to remember.  I’d become used to Kaye and Jenna’s acceptance of my half-breed status, but thinking that all Hunters would be as accepting of my kind was foolish.

If I’d known the guy had such a hard-on for faeries, I never would have mentioned the clurichaun.  Though I can’t say I’m completely sorry.  The Hunter was bad news.  If he got this enraged at the thought of Jinx sharing a drink with a clurichaun, what would he do when he found out her best friend, roommate, and business partner was a wisp princess?

“Tell that faerie lover she can lose my number,” he said.

Hans hung up and I handed Jinx back her phone.

“He cool?” she asked.

Jinx was smiling and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that her boyfriend was a racist dick.  She’d be better off hearing about the phone call when she was sober.  It could wait.

“Sure, he’s cool,” I said, as Jinx picked up the shopping bags she’d dropped and we started our descent down the hill.

Hans was cool alright.  His heart was cool as the blade of cold iron I wanted to skewer him with.

Chapter 5

Getting home had been a trial, but we were still in one piece.  I couldn’t say the same for Jinx’s footwear.  She’d puked into one of her shopping bags before making it home, fouling a brand new pair of shoes. And the platform sandals she’d been wearing?  Those she threw into the harbor saying they were hard to walk in.  Yeah, it couldn’t have had anything to do with the keg of beer she drank.

When my roommate woke up, she wasn’t going to be happy with herself.  A grin slid across my face.  Maybe destroying two of her treasured pairs of shoes would teach her a lesson.

Jinx slept, snores echoing from her room.  I was tempted to bang around the kitchen, but settled for leaving the bag of shoes, the ones with sick all over them, in her bedroom.  Oh sweet revenge.

I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, dropped a note on the kitchen counter, and slid out of the loft apartment we shared.  As much as I’d love to see Jinx’s face when she woke up, I had questions that needed answering.

I considered going to see Jenna, but shook my head.  No, hunters keep odd hours.  My teacher, and sometimes backup, would probably be out prowling the streets for rogue supernaturals.  Woe the creature she caught feasting on a human.  Jenna might only be one-hundred pounds soaking wet, but the petite redhead was whip fast, armed, and deadly.

Instead, I turned right onto Water Street avoiding the drunks lingering in doorways or staggering to the next seedy bar or raucous pub.  It would be just my luck to avoid being hit by Jinx’s sick, only to have a stranger puke on me.  Ah, the joys of living in the Old Port.  I hunched forward, hands in jacket pockets, and walked faster.

I took Wharf Street and started to relax slightly.  The bar crowd tended to stick to the sidewalks here, avoiding the cobbled street.  “Ankle twisters” Jinx called cobbles and for good reason.  I’d stuck to the comparatively smooth, brick sidewalks myself while guiding Jinx home, but now I strode down the center of the road, only stepping to the side when a car entered the narrow, one-way street.