Part of me wanted to clean out my ears to make sure I wasn't going deaf. I had to be hearing things. Why in the world would Grandma get me a bodyguard? And even if she did, why would Kyton be her first choice? He might've been an Otherworlder, but as far as I knew, his only skills involved doing household chores. After all, Grandma originally hired him as a housekeeper.
And it wasn't like he was super impressive in the area of good judgement. He'd tried to go after a dragon on his own. If it wasn't for me, he would be dead right now. This had to be a joke.
I dodged around Kyton into the hall and headed for Grandma's potion lab. She would probably be there, experimenting like she did most afternoons. Usually, I waited for her to come out before talking to her, but it didn't matter if I got caught in her lab now. My parents were already angry at me for leaving the estate. Going into the lab was nothing compared to going into the forest.
"Where are you going?" Kyton asked as he hurried to walk alongside me.
I squeezed the purple bag he'd given me. The wooden handle of the scroll dug into my palm. "To get rid of your contract. I don't need a glorified babysitter." More than that, I didn't need him to be following me around all day, tempting me with that ridiculously sweet blood of his.
"Have you forgotten what happened this afternoon?" he asked with a chuckle.
"Yeah, I saved your butt from a dragon. That kind of proves my point."
"Touché."
We turned the corner and sped down the hall. As I reached the door to the potion lab, Kyton caught my arm. I gave him a pointed look.
He let go and rocked back on his heels. "Usually I'm more impressive than I was today, I swear. Besides, my job is less about saving you from dragons and more about keeping you out of trouble in the first place." He smiled, but it was an uneasy 'please don't hit me' kind of smile.
I had no intention of hitting him, but I wasn't about to go along with this, either. He obviously had some ulterior motive for wanting to be my bodyguard. It wasn't like we'd hit it off wonderfully when we met. Grandma was generous, which probably meant that she would be paying him an awful lot to babysit me.
"Look, find another job." I moved to open the door..
He grabbed my arm, hard enough to hurt. I yelped, and he let go, backing away with his hands raised.
"Sorry, I- sometimes I forget humans are-" He swallowed and tried again. "Please, I need this job. I need the money." His voice quavered, and his natural glamour flickered just enough for me to catch a glimpse of blue on his cheeks.
I rubbed my arm. It would probably bruise, but I didn't think he'd meant to hurt me. It was still a little scary, though--that he was so strong he could hurt someone without trying. I tried to ignore that. He was obviously desperate, and I wasn't heartless. Heck, I was only trying to undo the contract because it might get him hurt. No, because I might hurt him.
"Can't you just stay as a housekeeper and ask for a raise?"
He shook his head. "Silvestre fired me as a housekeeper. She said she wanted me to do this. To keep both of us out of trouble."
That kind of made sense, in a way; if he was busy following me around, he couldn't do anything as stupid as trying to hunt a dragon on his own. But Grandma didn't know there was something wrong with me. She didn't know I had this freaky craving for blood. If she did, she wouldn't have hired him as my bodyguard.
"Just let me talk to her about getting your old job back." I shrugged one shoulder. "I mean, it's not like you really want to follow me around, right?"
"No?" He cocked his head as if trying to read my mind.
Could he read my mind? Some Otherworlders were telepathic, but I was pretty sure most of them could only communicate telepathically with others of their own kind. What if he was the exception?
I concentrated on a brick wall around my thoughts, hoping it would keep him out. My concentration must've shown on my face, because he frowned.
"Are you okay?"
Enough concentration. "I'm fine. I'm going to talk to my grandma, unless you want to grab me again?"
A faint redness crept into his cheeks. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean-"
"Forget about it." It wasn't really that important, not compared to whatever was wrong with me.
I went into Grandma's potion lab. Jack was on the work table that took up most of the converted bedroom. Bluish-brown sludge covered him from the base of his antlers to the tip of his twitching white tail. Grandma stood over him, holding an empty potion flask in one hand.
I closed the door behind me. "What's that?"
She massaged Jack's fur for a minute before looking up. "I just got the recipe out of Witch's Digest. It's supposed to be a wing regrowth potion. It doesn't seem to work on jackalopes. Sorry, old boy." She gingerly picked up Jack and carried him to the sink.
With a flick of his tail, Jack spoke in a British accent. "It's rather a pity the recipe failed. I've been looking forwards to regaining my wings for quite some time."
It always freaked me out when he talked aloud. Most magical animals--including Leo--could only speak telepathically with their bonded witch and other telepathic creatures. Jackalopes were the exception. They could mimic any voice they'd ever heard, which made them great--yet unnerving--conversationalists.
As Grandma scrubbed Jack's fur, I crossed the room to stand at her side. Above the sink and on both side walls, shelves held flask after flask of potions in every color and consistency. Their smell was so overwhelming that it wasn't even attractive. It was like keeping a bunch of scented erasers in the same sealed box. Separately, they smelled great. Together, they were just strange.
"Since when do you have wings?" I asked Jack.
He switched to a Scottish accent. Or maybe it was Irish; I could never tell the difference.
"Aye, I was but a wee lad when I lost me wings. Infernal nom'hus took 'em. I 'aven't fancied flying since then."
Grandma covered his huge ears with her hands and whispered, "He was imprisoned in an magical pet shop as an infant, and they took off his wings so he would be 'less flighty.'" She scowled. "Nomahus--sometimes I just want to-"
Remembering why I'd come here in the first place, I shook the purple bag containing Kyton's contract. "You have to undo this contract. I can't have him following me around all the time."
She grabbed a towel and dried off Jack. "These last few months, I've worked hard to undo the anti-magic brainwashing your parents pushed on you. I'd hoped you had gotten over this kind of thinking."
"What kind of-" Oh, she thought I was trying to undo the contract just because Kyton was an Otherworlder. Admittedly, it kind of was true. If he'd been human, he wouldn't have smelled as good. But that wasn't what she was talking about. "It has nothing to do with that. I'm almost eighteen. I don't need a babysitter."
"Is that so?" She put her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, it is." I mimicked her pose. "So could you just give him his old job back? He said he needs the money, and I don't care what he does to get it, as long as it's not being my shadow."
She shook her head. "Dear, for once, your mother was right about the danger magical creatures can pose. In sixty-five years of living here, I've never seen any monster stronger than a low-level shade, and they never come out during the day. That dragon appeared at the beginning of the summer. It-"
Pausing, she took Jack out of the sink and placed him on the work table again. "It hurt several people, then disappeared. The monster hunters combed through every inch of forest within ten miles of town. They couldn't find it. I thought it was gone for good, that its appearance was an isolated incident."
She placed a hand on my arm. "While I bandaged Kyton's wings, he told me about the dragon you two ran into. He explained why he was in the forest to begin with. I'm afraid if he doesn't have anyone around to keep him accountable, he'll go after the dragon again. It's your job to keep an eye on him."
Great, I was the babysitter, not the babysittee. That didn't make things any better. Maybe if I could figure out why Kyton was going after the dragon, I could convince him to cut it out and go back to being a housekeeper.
"I don't get it. Why does he want to kill a dragon?"
"That's his business, dear. He doesn't want anyone to know, and I intend to respect his wishes. All I can say is that sprites are prideful. They never accept charity, and they don't ask for help unless they have no other choice. Ky asked me for help today. I'm going to give it to him." She crossed her arms. "And I expect you to go along with it, if you want to continue taking lessons from me."
I wanted to protest, but every argument I could think of fell short. Only telling the truth might get me the response I wanted. Part of me wanted to tell her, but most of me cringed at the thought. What kind of witch wanted to drink Otherworlder blood? Was I some kind of magic addict or something?
Whatever my problem, there had to be a cure. I could keep my teeth to myself until I found it, right? Hopefully, I could find the cure before I made a serious mistake and hurt Kyton.
"Okay," I said at last. "I'll go along with it."
"One more thing," Grandma added, "Ky's family is low on space right now. He'll be staying here, in the bedroom next to yours."
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