32 Better Safe Than Sorry

Ash wasn't done testing all the new features of his phone by the time they headed down to the cirque show and Ruby somewhat crossly told him to focus. He could play with it after she was asleep; they weren't allowed to have phones out in the theater.

Chastised, he apologized and put it in his pocket. She had bought him some new clothes when they were back in California because he had obviously been wearing the same thing since before she met him. The breeches and shirt appeared to be hundreds of years out of date.

Right now he was wearing a pair of jeans with a navy blue t-shirt and red Converse All-Stars. She had bought him a hoodie to replace his cloak as well while they were on this trip.

Ash liked it because he said the sleeves securely covered his wrists so he didn't have to worry about them getting burned as much as before. But it was a bit jarring seeing him wear a plain old hoodie with such long hair and fangs.

Clothes could be a difficult thing for fae. The more human-shaped ones were lucky. Werewolves had to cut holes in their pants for their tails to fit. Fairies had to restructure their entire shirts or dresses.

Ruby had learned how to do that decades ago so it wasn't difficult to fix the clothes she bought while on the run. Just time consuming. The trick was cutting open the back down to the point where the wings sprouted, making a hole, and then adding a zipper, snaps, or some sort of cloth tie to keep the top part shut after it had been stepped into and pulled up around their legs.

Some fairies chose to do things that way and others stuck to the old fashioned standby: making their own backless clothes. Their glamours could cover things anyway so they looked more human while out in public.

She was lucky that her aunt wasn't a fan of clothes making. She preferred the human clothes shortcut and had taught her niece. Otherwise Ruby would have been in big trouble when she ran away.

"When is it going to start?" Ash whispered.

"It's already seven so it should be starting any minute," she shot back.

Ruby was right. The show began with some clowns going up and down the aisles and interacting with the audience. That was certainly unexpected.

She watched the show enraptured and a quick peek at her companion showed that Ash was every bit as into it as she was. Good. She hadn't wasted money on his ticket. Humans could be surprisingly entertaining at times. Some of the things they came up with were wild!

As she suspected, there was fire involved in this show. Several people did dances waving fire sticks around and one clown completely covered himself in flame and walked around. He absolutely had to be a fire fairy; no human could survive that.

When the show ended some of the performers came out so people could take pictures with them and Ruby approached the clown on fire first. She wasn't sure what to say on the slim chance they weren't fire fairies and she looked completely nuts.

She was about to look nuts either way so she ended up using the universal fae code phrase the witches instituted decades ago. "You were absolutely amazing…and the duck howls at the sky."

The clown smiled happily at her, unfazed by her little test. "Thanks! Are you an out-of-towner? Who sent you our way?"

"Yeah, I'm from Northern California. I heard about you guys from Philomena Netzley and was hoping I could talk to you and your friends later if that's alright. I might be in the area for a while and want to get in on the community here."

"Ah, Mena! How is she these days? I haven't seen her or her sister in ages. I'd be happy to help. What's your phone number?"

Ruby rattled it off, very grateful that she had thought to purchase one earlier. Of course the fae that were heavily involved in human affairs would have cell phones. The nursery had a landline but that was it. There wasn't a need for anything else.

The clown slapped a hand to his forehead and laughed. "Wow, I'm dumb. I didn't even introduce myself. We need contact names. I'm Cole Abernathy."

"Ruby Gardner, nice to meet you. And this is my…friend…Ash Ma—"

Ash cut her off by clearing his throat, clearly indicating he didn't want to give out his real name. She changed what she was saying mid-word. "—therson. Ash Matherson."

"Nice to meet you both," Cole said cheerfully. "Thanks for coming to the show! I'm off tomorrow so why don't we meet up then? I can introduce you to my family."

"Works for us! Could we meet in the evening or are you busy then?" Ruby asked.

"Evening works. I should go talk to someone else now but I'll text you. Later!"

They left Cole to talk to some other guests and headed outside. She looked at Ash questioningly once they were back in the casino. "Why didn't you want me to tell him your name back there?"

He wouldn't meet her eyes. "Let's just say you aren't the only one with people after you. I doubt news would travel this far but it's better safe than sorry. You might want to reconsider introducing yourself with your full name too."

Ruby frowned. Neither her aunt or uncle had ever left California. Even if they did, they would never be able to track her here. He was being paranoid.

She couldn't live her life under a fake name too. Not when it was the only real thing about her that was left. She may share a last name with those traitors she called relatives but it was her parents' last name too and she'd had it with her for a century and a half.

"I'll be fine," she said confidently.

Ruby wanted to know who was after him but didn't think she had the right to ask. She was keeping plenty of secrets from him after all.