45 That Earth Fairy With The Pet Vampire

They walked into the kitchen and saw the other two fairies in their element, cooking some steaks perfectly without the use of a stove or oven.

Ruby's stomach rumbled from the delicious scent wafting off of the meat. She hadn't eaten anything since before conducting her business for the day and she was starving! Eating a meal cooked perfectly by a fire fairy was something she had wanted to try for ages anyway so right now the smell was tantamount to torture.

"Oh hey, it's that earth fairy with the pet vampire! What was your name again?" Hestia asked.

"Hestia, we don't refer to other fae as pets," her mother chided. She shot Ruby an apologetic smile. "Sorry about her. We're still working on manners."

Ruby was offended on Ash's behalf but couldn't really hold it against her. Hestia was just a kid. She put on a strained smile. "It's fine. My name is Ruby."

"Where's the vampire? I wanted to see him again," the girl pouted.

"…he's asleep."

Skye seemed to sense that the young fairy was treading in dangerous waters by talking too much about Ash so she changed the subject. "Your cooking is getting better and better Hestia! Are you planning on being a chef once you're full-grown?"

The distraction worked and she nodded excitedly, hovering higher than usual. "Uh huh! Mom says the witches can hook me up with a fake human culinary school diploma and everything. But I have to wait another sixty years, which is totally lame."

Ruby remembered that innocent level of excitement about working in the nursery. She wasn't allowed to be an official employee until she looked the age of a human teenager but still spent most of her time hanging out there.

She missed plants. Everything was so brown here. Even the canyon she and Ash went to the night before had hardly any trees. She was considering going out and buying a small potted plant for the hotel room to cheer herself up.

She had been feeling weird ever since she found out a bit more about Ash's goal and a plant might make her feel better. Her motivation for helping him had changed and she was still thrown off by that.

Ruby would give him all the money in the world as long as he didn't recklessly go against over sixty vampires by himself. She had this vague, sickening hunch that he had gone into this plan expecting not to survive based on how ill-prepared he seemed when they talked. She couldn't allow that to happen.

Whatever had happened, she wanted her friend to be able to put it behind him and live peacefully and happily. He had a good sense of humor when he wasn't being all broody so it should be possible once he got past whatever was haunting him.

She snapped back to attention when she realized Ember was talking to her. Her mind wandered far too quickly.

"How do you like your steak?"

"Coming right up!" Ember began cooking the steak but craned her neck to address Skye simultaneously. "You and Sampson want well-done as usual, I presume?"

She nodded and the fire fairy shook her head despairingly, muttering "wind fairies!" under her breath. Ruby had to hold back her laughter. Her aunt and uncle argued over the doneness of steak back home too; this argument was a familiar one.

"What brought you to Las Vegas?" she asked Skye curiously. "Do you have family somewhere else?"

Skye shook her head and her hair billowed around her. "No, my family got wiped out during the humans' westward expansion in the 1800s. I'm originally from what is now known as Kansas but had nothing to stay for once they were gone so I traveled in search of a witch coven to get advice on where to find other wind fairies.

"I ended up running into Cole somewhere in Texas and he and his family took me in. They're a wild bunch but have good hearts. We stayed there until the 1980s when cirque shows began gaining traction in this area and we've been here ever since."

A sad story but a common one. Most fae she knew didn't have all of their original family still intact because of the ruthlessness of humans over the centuries.

The majority of fae disliked or even hated humans but adopted the mentality 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' in order to survive in their society. They took on jobs that were compatible with their powers and used glamours to blend in enough to support their way of life.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Ruby said solemnly. "I'm glad you were able to find a new family though."

Skye smiled. "Yeah, me too. They may be crazy but they're mine. What about you? How did you end up traveling with a vampire of all fae?"

She figured it was better to be partially honest than make something up completely. "My parents died when I was a child and I moved in with my aunt and uncle but once I was full-grown I wanted to venture out and do my own thing, you know?

"During my travels I ended up tearing a wing and Ash helped me bind it up. He left home recently too so we've been sort of helping each other out ever since. He's a bit out of touch about human affairs but he's a good guy."

Skye sat in midair and crossed her legs with a rather dubious expression on her face. "You let a vampire fix your wing?"

"…I didn't have much of a choice. He was the only one around."

The wind fairy shook her head in disbelief. "Wow. You must really trust him. I would never let somebody touch my wings unless it was a matter of life or death. You say he's a good guy…are you dating him or something?"