Rachel Morgan fanfic Chapter 2
I stomped into the kitchen, fixated on the need to completely destroy Trent Kalamack. Ivy looked up from her computer, frowning as she took in my mood.
“Rough day with Al?”
“Not really.” I stalked over the refrigerator to pour a glass of tomato juice. Ivy raised an eyebrow, asking an unspoken question. I took a sip of juice, trying to calm down.
“It’s something he said,” I shrugged, trying to downplay my anger.
“Okay.”
“I’m fine.”
“Right.”
We were both silent for a minute.
“But it was something bad enough to make you smear mud everywhere?”
“What?” I glanced around, only now realizing that my trek from cemetery to kitchen had trailed in big muddy footprints. “I’m sorry, Ivy. I’ll clean it up.”
“I know.” Ivy brushed her gold-tipped hair back behind her ears and fixed me with a stare. I glanced at her nervously, noting with some relief that her eyes were still brown.
“So you want to tell me what’s going up?”
I sighed, caught. Ivy was close with her emotions. It was difficult for her to ask others to open up. She knew that I trusted her but if I shut her down she would be hurt.
“It’s…Trent.”
“Trent,” Ivy repeated flatly. Her eyes darkened almost imperceptibly.
“Al said he was the one responsible for getting me shunned,” I rattled off quickly. Ivy sat with an unnatural stillness that only vampires could perfect. Her face was a complete blank.
“And you believe him.”
“He’s a demon, but he can’t lie.” I sighed, looking away to the clock on the wall. My watch was fifteen minutes ahead. “Yeah, I believe him.”
Ivy lips curled upwards in a smile, but it wasn’t happy. She saw where my eyes were focused, and quickly stood.
“We need to leave soon to make the Greenway appointment.”
“Okay. Give me five minutes to change clothes,” I said, relieved that she hadn’t pressed me.
I ran up to my room, grabbing my favorite black skirt before I remember what it had looked like on Al and ditching it for a pair of leather pants. When I came back down, Ivy was on the phone. She saw me and quickly hung up. I paused on the bottom rung of the stairs.
“Who was that?”
“The Greenways. I was confirming our appointment.”
She said it with perfect ease, but I knew she was lying. We never called to confirm appointments and after the tenth time the Greenways had called asking to meet us sooner I had threatened to drop their case if they called again. Not for the first time I wished I had vampire hearing.
“Okay.” Ivy was allowed to have secrets. She shifted slightly, a move that I wouldn’t have noticed if I didn’t know her so well. She felt guilty about something. “Guess we should leave then.”
I had left my car at David’s so we were taking Ivy’s motorcycle. We didn’t do it often, but I kept my eyes shut, head down, and prayed that the other cars were smart enough to stay out of the way of a manic vampire motorcyclist. In record time we had pulled up to a stone mansion with a wide lawn and swaths of bright flowers.
I got off the motorcycle, legs shaking slightly, and pulled off my helmet. The house was oddly still. Something seemed off. Ivy took off her helmet, breathed deeply then hissed, “Sticky silk.”
So the Greenways didn’t want any pixies around. Ivy and I took a look at each other, gazes hardening. We might need this case, but if the Greenways had a strong anti-pixy prejudice I couldn’t promise I wouldn’t walk out and I knew Ivy felt the same.
“We should just leave now,” Ivy said.
I wavered uncomfortably. “They just lost their kid. And maybe it’s not about pixies. They could have a fairy problem.”
Ivy smiled slightly. “Maybe.”
“Or maybe I’m just an idiot.”
Her smile widened. “Maybe.”
Before we had the chance to debate it further, a long black limo pulled up to the sidewalk, sliding up to where Ivy and I were standing. I knocked on the black-tinted window.
“Mr. and Mrs. Greenway? I’m Rachel Morgan and this is my partner Ivy. We’re here about your daughter?”
The driver’s side door slammed and I jumped then froze.
“Quen?” It certainly looked like the dark-haired elf.
“Rachel,” he nodded politely.
But if Quen was here that meant…
“Hello, Ms. Morgan,” Trent said as he stepped out of the back.