David paced the living room of his beachfront home nervously. The drakthos had left work early, so as to meet the child and make her feel at home. I hope I don't frighten the poor thing, the faery thought as he paced. He was quite the bundle of nerves by the time he heard the distinctive engine of Lauren's old baby blue VW Bug. That woman had a six-figure salary, yet she'd been driving that car for as long as he'd known her. And then, between the crash of the surf and cry of the seabirds, he heard voices, Lauren's cheerily cultured tones, along with a great deal of excited, high-pitched, rapid-fire, non-stop chattering. David went to the door and let them in.
Lauren Hawthorne was wearing jeans for the first time that David could remember in years. A turquoise blouse and a brightly colored scarf draped around her neck completed her traveling costume. She kissed his cheek, and David blushed a bit.
"Thank you so much for doing this!" and then, "Gecko, this is David Sartain. He's going to look after you this week - and Davy, this is Gecko."
Gecko proved to be as small, active, and bright-eyed as her guardian. She seemed rather Hispanic or perhaps Native American in appearance, with shiny dark, almost black, eyes and hair. She politely shook hands, set her Hello Kitty overnight bag on the floor, and looked around without saying a word, as Lauren issued David her emergency numbers, the details of the flight, and the hotel she was staying in.
"I'll be back on Monday." Lauren said, and bent over to give Gecko a big hug and a noisy kiss. "Have lots and lots of fun - and be good!" And then the baby blue beetle was purring and spluttering out of the gravel driveway, and zipping out of sight.
David looked at Gecko. Gecko looked at David. So now what? David wondered. Oh well, here goes nothing. He bent over slightly, put his hands on his knees, and gave the girl the most charming smile he could muster.
"So... um... what do you wanna do first? We could take a swi - ack!!"
Gecko had grabbed his mouth, and hauled his jaws wide open. "Wow! So you really are a vampire - look at those teeth!"
Without letting go, she stood on her tiptoes, and peering over his shoulder, looked closely at his wings. "I never saw one with wings before though, except on this one show, but it was a cartoon."
"Agk! Hey!!" David straightened up very quickly, rubbing his jaw, and gave her an annoyed look. "If you want us to be friends," he said warningly, "never do that again."
"Aw, this is great; I've never met a real vampire before! My friends are not gonna believe this. Can I take you to school for my report? I was gonna do one on unicorns, and bring my unicorn doll - " she held up a well-worn plush toy, "But you're sooo much cooler! Have you ever bitten anyone before? Did they die? When I go to bed tonight, will you come bite me, and turn me into a vampire too? Then I can be a vampire princess, and fly around, and stay up all night long, and bite people!" She bared her teeth at David, who simply stared at her little gap-toothed snarl, bewildered by the barrage of questions.
"Can you turn into a bat? Is that why you have the wings - you tried turning into a bat, and got stuck or something? Are you gonna make me drink blood for dinner? I don't think I'm allowed, anyway that's kinda disgusting, so can we have pizza instead?" She stopped and looked at him expectantly. "Well? Are you gonna answer me, or what?"
David rubbed his chin with his fingertips. So much for her being afraid of me. He grinned and answered all of her questions all at once.
"Um.... Let's see... Maybe, yes, only once, no - but we can pretend, no, no - I was born with the wings, no, and I think pizza sounds like a very good idea." He winked at Gecko. "How's that?"
"Well..." Gecko twisted up her face, thinking hard for a moment. "I think that you're really weird for a vampire, David," she said earnestly.
"My friends call me Davy - and I thought I was the first vampire you ever met."
"I see them on TV, duh!" Gecko put her hands on her hips. "How come you can walk around in the daytime?" She looked him up and down. " You know 'Davy' is not a good name for a vampire. That's too boring," she said, with an air of perfect authority.
"Oh, really? Well for your information, I'm not a true vampire. I'm a faery. A drakthos. We just happen to live on blood. And Davy is short for Adavidarian. Is that interesting enough for you? And what kind of a name is Gecko for a little girl, huh?"
Gecko gave him a haughty look. "It's short for Geckoshiani Miranda Hawthorne," she said.
David sighed. Trust Miss Hawthorne to give a child some ridiculous Faerie name longer than the child was tall. The woman was obsessed with all things fae. "Uh... that's a very pretty name," he said.
"That's right - much prettier than Davy." She nodded sagely.
David chuckled. "Well, I'm not a pretty little girl, so I don't need a pretty name."
Gecko thought about it. "Well, if you had ponytails and a dress, I bet you'd look like a girl."
"Um... well, I think I'll pass on that, if that's okay with you."
Gecko shrugged. They looked at each other for a minute.
"Did you bring a bathing suit? We can hit the beach, if you want."
"Yeah? Alright!" Gecko grabbed her Hello Kitty bag.
"The bathroom's right over there, and your room is that door to the right - "
Gecko ran into the bathroom and shut the door before he could finish. David sighed and rubbed his forehead. This was going to be a very interesting week.
* * * * *
David gave a huge yawn. It was late, and he was exhausted. Sitting on the floor of the den, his back against the sofa, his long legs stretched out in front of him, and one foot resting on an empty pizza box, he looked around and took stock of his current situation.
The den looked as if it had been hit by a cyclone. Clothes, paper, markers, and the silly little toys that no young girl could live without, were scattered all over the floor. The faery groaned and rubbed his forehead. If he ever had to sit and watch another Sailor Moon video, he was fairly sure his brain would melt. And the crudely applied hair ties that pulled his hair into twin ponytails were really starting to hurt. He tugged at one of them, grimacing. Surely this amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
The author of the destruction had fallen asleep in her frilly pink nightgown, clutching her unicorn doll, curled up on the sofa behind his head. Finally. After the beach, and dinner, and playing vampire princess for hours (she was still wearing the crown and jewelry they had made out of all the things they'd found around the house and on the beach.), and what seemed to be about fifteen different episodes of Sailor Moon. The action (such as it was) had featured additional narration, delivered in Gecko's enthusiastic breathless soprano, while at the same time she came up with all sorts of exciting and cutting-edge new hairstyles for her "her absolute favorite new-best-grown-up-vampire-faery-friend".
David yawned again. Gecko's absolute favorite new completely-wiped- out best-grown-up-vampire-faery-friend. Who probably did look very much like a girl in these ridiculous little dog-ears. He managed to get the one out, and started working on the other hair tie. Gecko had managed to get quite a bit of his hair tangled in the infernal things. David scowled as he tugged out the second hair tie; a fair amount of fine golden hair came with it. He had to remember to get a haircut one of these days. Not that it mattered. Io didn't seem to care how messy his hair became. Hell, half the time, she was the one mussing it.
The disheveled faery got up, bent down, and carefully lifted the sleeping child. True to the nature of all sleeping children, she was surprisingly heavy. Dead weight. David carried her to the guest room, laid her down, removed the tinfoil crown and assorted 'royal jewels', tucked her in, and slipped out without disturbing her in the least.
He looked around the den, and shook his head. He'd clean up tomorrow. Maybe. The weary drakthos yawned one last time, as he padded into his bedroom.
* * * * *
David sat up in his bed, startled awake. He wasn't entirely sure why, and a quick scan of his bedroom revealed nothing out of place. A nightmare, perhaps? He couldn't remember. Oh, the child. He'd better check on her and make sure she was okay. Maybe she had gotten up, to use the bathroom or something, and that had woken him. The faery slipped out of bed, pulled on a pair of boxers, and headed for the guestroom.
There were odd noises coming from the guestroom. A strange sort of growling, and a faint whine. David froze in his tracks. A chill ran down his spine. Kludde? He shuddered. And couldn't quite make himself open the door. But Gecko's in there, he thought - and then, No. I can't do this again, I just can't. He was sweating. There was another soft sound, like a sigh, and David frowned. That didn't sound like the kludde. Anyway, where were the chains? He still heard those damned chains jangling in his dreams.
"Gecko?" He tapped the door lightly with his fist, and then opened it. There was a fifty-foot dragon curled up in his guest room. David pulled the door shut. Leaned against the wall. Rubbed his face on his arm. Shook his head, and blinked a few times. He opened the door again. Yup. Still there. Apparently, the dragon was having a bad dream - that was the growling and whining he'd heard. It stirred restlessly. Its tail twitched. David closed the door again. Could hallucinations possibly be a side affect of too much anime before bedtime? If that were the case, then why wasn't he seeing a fifty-foot Sailor Scout in his guest room instead? So that meant - . Heart pounding, David opened the door just a crack, and dragon let out something akin to a yelp, and shivered.
Okay. So we have confirmation that there is definitely a dragon in my guestroom. So, now we have a second problem. Where's Gecko? She's either A: Under the dragon. B: Inside the dragon. Or, and this is my personal favorite theory, C: She Is the dragon. Otherwise, it's a bit too much of a coincidence that the night I'm watching a little girl that my kid-hating brother has an inordinate amount of interest in, a dragon slips though the Barrier, comes to my house, and decides to take up residence in my guestroom. Besides, how the hell could it have gotten in without wrecking the place?
David ran his hand though his hair. Well, if Gecko was a dragon, and a clever woman like Miss Hawthorne had never noticed, it stood to reason that Gecko would be a nice normal little girl again in the morning. He sure as hell wasn't going to wake a sleeping dragon - especially one in the middle of a nightmare. The dragon groaned. A small puff of smoke escaped its nostrils. Oh, even better - she's a fire-breather. I hope she doesn't burn my house down by accident.
He was just about to close the door and beat a hasty retreat, when the dragon opened its eyes, gave a most un-draconic-sounding mew of terror, and scrambled to its feet, tail lashing. There was the sound of things breaking, and scales scraping the walls, as foot-long talons scrabbled against the polished light pine floor, seeking purchase. It was definitely not a good thing to have a frightened fifty-foot dragon trapped in his spare bedroom - he knew this for a fact. David reached out, and flicked on the light.
"It's just me, Gecko, you remember me - Davy, right?" Oh, please, let her remember me! He approached her slowly, hands raised in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. "You're having a bad dream, but it's okay now." He said. He was only a few feet away from her now, a terrifyingly beautiful dragon, and she was looking down on him, blinking. David gently stroked her neck. It was smooth, dry and warm, hard with muscle under his palm. Her scales were so fine, glistening in the light. He wondered what color they were. She smelled dry and clean, like fallen leaves in autumn. He felt her quiver in reaction to his touch.
"Um... Look, Gecko!" David bent down, and picked up her old plush unicorn doll. "Here's your uni doll." Feeling a bit ridiculous, he raised the doll within the dragon's field of vision. The dragon gave a soft thrumming that was almost a purr. That's a happy noise if I've ever heard one, David thought, relieved. Gecko lowered her head and gave David a nudge with her muzzle. The drakthos lost his balance, and fell on his butt. The dragon cocked her head to one side, regarded the faery with one enormous eye, and then lowered her head to nuzzle his chest again. More gently this time. Thank goodness.
David smiled, and hesitantly at first, rubbed her forehead. "Um... good dragon..." The dragon continued her soft thrumming, and laid her head down completely on his lap, let her body relax and drop to the floor, with a loud scraping of scales. I guess I'll be getting all of the scratches sanded out of my floor next week, David thought with a groan. Gods, her head is so heavy. The dragon sighed, blowing the tiniest wisp of smoke, and fell asleep again. Just like that.
David woke up the next morning with a terrible aching in his neck, wings, and lower back. He had fallen asleep leaning up against the wall, with the dragon's head still in his lap... he looked down. No dragon. No little girl, either. He took in the damaged room. The bed had been utterly destroyed last night, and feathers from the pillows were scattered across the badly scarred floor. The blond faery struggled stiffly to his feet.
"G-Gecko?" his voice crackled with sleep.
"I'm watching TV!"
David padded into the den, stretching and cracking his joints. "Are you okay?" he yawned.
"I'm hungry. What's for breakfast?" Gecko asked, without turning around. She was watching Saturday morning cartoons. Pokemon or one of its equally annoying and popular clones about kids carrying around cute little collectible super-powered monsters. Perfectly healthy, perfectly normal. Gecko turned away from the television, to give David a mischievous look.
"You were in my room when I woke up. There was this huge mess. Were you gonna bite me?"
David ran his hand through his hair. "You were having a nightmare - I stayed to keep you company. Don't you remember?"
"No." She looked disappointed. "So you're not gonna turn me into a real vampire princess?"
"Sorry kiddo. It just doesn't work that way. You'll have to talk to one of those angsty undead guys. I'm just not that kind of vamp."
"Awww...."
"Tell you what, though. After breakfast, I'll take you flying."
"Really? Aw, cool! Thanks Davy!" She jumped up and gave him a bear hug. David caught her and hugged her in return. She even smelled like a human child, she didn't give off any glamour whatsoever. This was a true transformation; she didn't need magic to maintain it. That meant there wasn't any way for him to negate it, unless he caught her in the middle of it, when the actual magic came into play.
The faery heaved a sigh of relief. He had been a bit concerned that maybe he had inadvertently shifted her last night, when he'd fallen asleep and no longer had any real control over his ability Or curse, rather. Well, at least he didn't have to bother trying to stifle it now. Home was usually the only place he had where he didn't have to worry about inadvertently disrupting anyone's life. Even though there were relatively few magic-users on the mortal plane, nowadays, thanks mostly to ZauberCorp, there were many new devices that used some form of magical spell to function floating around. He dumped Gecko back on the sofa.
"I'm gonna make some breakfast, 'kay? How do pancakes sound?"
"Yay!!"
David walked into the kitchen, chuckling, and started pulling out ingredients to make pancakes. Even though he didn't really require human food, he enjoyed eating it; there were so many exciting flavors and textures. Besides, cooking was a very relaxing hobby, and according to what few people had ever tried his food, he was good at it. And I have the feeling that I'm going to need every relaxation technique I know of to get through the next few days, he thought as he dumped flour into a large mixing bowl. Yes, this was going to be a very interesting week - But first I think I have a few questions to ask my brother - and damnit, he'd better be able to give me some satisfactory answers.
