Gabriel texted Olivia, asking her to meet him...
He looked around. "Where are we?"
The male fae leaned over and typed an address into the text message. "That will get her close enough."
"That's very helpful," Gabriel said. "Considering she's coming to help me stop you."
The female smiled. "No, she's coming to help you, Gabriel. Help you get back on track. And we can't wait to see it."
TWENTY-FIVE
PATRICK
Patrick grumbled as he stalked down the alley. He'd been left out. Again.
Oh, yes, Patrick, please help me contact this ghost. Please watch my back. Now, when the fun starts, run along and play.
Okay, that wasn't exactly how it happened. But that's how it felt.
Gabriel had texted him--him--to ask how to deal with pixies. Not Liv. Patrick. Had he gotten a thank you for his response? For his reassurance that darling Olivia was fine? Not a word. Instead, Gabriel switched to texting Liv. Plotting with Liv. Telling her that he had the pixie and needed her help capturing it.
How was Liv supposed to help? Patrick was the expert.
To be fair, Liv had noted the oversight and realized Gabriel presumably meant for Patrick to sneak up another way and do the actual capturing while she and Gabriel distracted the pixie.
It was the "sneak up another way" part he was grumbling about. They'd split up, and Patrick had followed Gabriel's directions--to the letter--and wound up at a dead end. Worse, he had no idea where Liv had gone. He'd texted Gabriel twice without a
response.
He'd finally broken down and texted Liv, who naturally replied with: Got lost, huh? as if he'd just failed to follow the directions properly. Then she sent GPS coordinates along with: I hear G. Going to him now.
Patrick texted back for her to wait. No reply to that one. She'd spotted Gabriel and nothing else mattered. Worse than starry-eyed teenagers, both of them.
He reached what was, according to his GPS app, the correct location. And there was no sign of Gabriel or Liv. He sent texts to both. Neither answered. So he started wandering about, looking and listening, soon as lost as if he'd been pixie-led himself.
When he turned down the next street, he finally caught the sound of Liv's distant voice.
"Hey, there," she was saying. "Did the pixie escape?"
"Pixie?" Gabriel said.
"Uh, yeah. The one you were guarding?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Olivia."
Patrick swore under his breath. The pixie had cast her befuddlement magic on Gabriel and escaped. He looked for any sign of the fae, hoping her hunger for entertainment would outweigh her common sense, and she'd circle back to watch the fun.
But there was no sign of the pixie.
He continued toward Liv's and Gabriel's voices, and he was just about to round the corner when he caught what sounded like a titter. He stopped mid-step. He could sense her there, just ahead, so he crept along the wall and peered around the corner. Behind a dumpster, the pixie crouched, her attention on Liv and Gabriel.
Completely focused on the drama unfolding down the alley.
Patrick smiled.
He took a careful step, easing past--
Something moved beside the pixie. Patrick flung himself back around the corner. Then he peered out to see a male pixie crouched next to the female.