Penny & Her Heru Ch 7

Rent-A-Witch: Whynot Coven

7 - Midnight Oreos

I wanted to call my sister, but there was no way I’d call her on her wedding night. I doubt I’d be able to talk to her for a couple of days. Another thing I didn't know about gargoyles – did they go on honeymoons? She told me Venn was building a nest for them after the ceremony but how long did they stay there? Was it just the one night and then they came home or was it like some of the elves where they stayed alone having sex until the chick got pregnant?

I slid the newly cleaned pajamas on, grabbed my phone, and made my way downstairs to the kitchen. I opened the cabinets looking for something to munch on while I researched gargoyles on my phone.

"Do I really need to look up gargoyles and their honeymoon habits? I could just wait until tomorrow and ask Heru." I didn't have to look out the front windows to know Heru was still out there. I could ask him right then if I just opened the door and invited him in. There was a chance the wards would let him pass if I invited him from inside the house. It was convoluted thinking, but it made sense to my tired brain.

A tapping sound from the window over the sink rang through the room after I sat down in the kitchen with a cup of milk and a package of Oreos. It was clear as a bell; a piece of metal tapping on the glass over the sink. A quick check with the tugging in my chest let me know it wasn't Heru, he was still somewhere near the front of the house. I ran through the list of things that could have gotten through the ward that created an invisible wall above the fence that surrounded the house.

Only someone who knew the passwords could get through, or who was so pure of intention that the wards didn't even recognize them as a possible threat. Something as innocent as a kitten could get through. The problem was kittens generally didn't carry a piece of metal to tap on windows.

I pushed up from the table and turned off the big light to get rid of the glare preventing me from seeing out the window. "Now I'm gonna look out this window and whatever you are, you will not scare me. Do you understand? If you do, I won't be able to control my Thor like power of lightning."

I crept closer to the window with my hand in the air trying to look like I could live up to the threat I made trying to find the tapper in the dark. It took me a moment to realize a pixie stood on the edge of the window box. Three inches tall, leather trousers and vest, a little acorn-looking hat on its head, waving at me with a huge smile.

"For the love of all the cheese in Wisconsin." I flicked the window latch to the open position and slid the window up. "Can I help you?"

"I would like a job in your lovely garden. I have excellent references from several households in the area, except for my last employer." The little thing waltzed right in stepping carefully over the little ridges in the base of the frame to stand on the inside ledge in front of me. “I would have come sooner but the last mistress I worked for kept me locked in the shed at night. It took a while for my family to realize and rescue me."

"She kept you locked in a shed?"

I noticed the little acorn hat was actually knit with very fine string to make it appear like an acorn when the pixie nodded. "Yes. She was most horrible. My mother warned me not to take a job in Because, but I didn't listen. The thought of all that …"

"Wait, I'm not the one who can hire you." I waved my hands trying to stop the story. It sounded awful and I didn't want the little thing to have to tell it twice.

"Let's start over. I'm Penny. I'm only staying here for a couple of nights." I waved because shaking its hand would have been ridiculous. "You want Darla. She's at bingo right now but should be back soon. Are you hungry? I was gonna eat some cookies and sort through everything that happened today. Sounds like you could use a cookie too."

The pixie held up a tiny hand for me to wait and walked back through the window. It rooted around in the window box on the other side before coming back carrying a knapsack and a pixie-sized shovel. A cricket followed them inside.

"Is the cricket with you?" I hesitated in closing the window, not sure if I should push it back out or not.

"This is Horse." The pixie patted the cricket's butt with affection. "I picked him from my sister's farm when he was an egg."

I nodded like that made perfect sense as I slid the window shut. "Ummm, can I help you two over to the table or would you like to hang out on the counter?"

The pixie studied the kitchen before settling its knapsack and shovel against the backsplash and flying over to the table, followed by Horse who jumped along the counter to a point that was closer before jumping across the open space to the table.

I pulled the small bottle of vanilla out of the cabinet and headed back to the table. The bottle cap was small enough it would work for a cup for … the pixie whose name I still didn't know. I'd invited a strange Other into someone else's house with their pet cricket and I didn't even know its name.

I put a drop of milk in the cap and set it on the table in front of my new friend and rummaged in the bottom of the Oreo pack for some crumbs. There was no way they would be able to eat a whole cookie.

"I didn't catch your name."

"I'm Bray." The little pixie sat a cookie crumb in front of Horse, before sitting cross-legged on the table and picking up a piece to nibble on. "What happened to you today?"

I almost choked on my cookie at the blunt question. "I'm not sure we have enough time to go into all of it before Darla gets back."

Bray shrugged their shoulders and took another bite.

"Okay, but you asked for it." I wrapped my hands around my cup debating on where to start. "So, my sister discovered she's a mate for one of the gargoyles that live near here. They had their mating ceremony today. The ceremony was beautiful except for the blood part. Did you know there is a blood part in a gargoyle ceremony?"

Bray nodded while sipping from the cap of milk. Turns out everyone knows gargoyle trivia but me.

"Well, I didn't. At any rate, the ceremony was perfect, the clan all gave them the presents and when they were getting ready to go off on their wedding night a gargoyle that wasn't at the wedding came flying at me like a bat out of hell, squared off with the centaur I was talking to until he walked away, then tried to convince me I was his mate. I freaked out because I didn't grow up thinking that was even a possibility! Not to mention that I was upset because he was ruining my sister's wedding by flying in, not introducing himself, and trying to claim me while they were still standing there getting gifts until my sister came over. Luckily she wasn't mad." My hands were flying around as I talked because there was no way I could keep them still. "So, I introduced him to Bea, and I thought he said his name was Hero with an o, but it is Heru with a u. And she can see auras and mating bonds. She told me without saying anything that she could see the bond starting to form between us so I know in some reality we are mates, but I had to decide if I wanted him or not and there was no way I was going to commit my life and heart to a male I had just met and didn't even have his whole name. So he took me to a cafe and we were supposed to just chit chat and get to know each other but there was a handful of alphas and betas waiting for us and they were all sizing me up to see what kind of mate I would make because he is the heir to the gargoyle clan."

Bray's little eyes kept getting bigger and bigger as I went on the cookie crumbs forgotten.

"So, I had to stare them all down because there is no way I would ever submit to some male I don't even know. The king of the Serengeti could be standing in front of me and I wouldn't look away first. Pretty sure I pissed the cyclops off. They were the last ones who wouldn't look away first but the dwarf that runs the place sent them on their way. So, we ended up eating dinner there instead of going to the wedding feast with the rest of my family and the clan. We got to know each other a bit and he pretty much promised that he would be faithful to me for the rest of his life if I chose him or not. Which is a bit overwhelming. I mean hello what if I'm a monster who kicks trash down the street instead of picking it up? But Darla showed up and told me I could stay here for a couple of nights until I figured out what I wanted to do because I still had to finish my apprenticeship at the Salem house before I can decide to go anywhere. I've worked too hard for my license."

I pointed my cup at Bray, "You wouldn't give up years of work when you are just two weeks away from getting a license would you?"

The pixie shook its head, still not blinking.

"See! I knew I wasn't being unreasonable. Anyway, we stopped and got me some clothes and toiletries so I wouldn't be walking around in my bridesmaid dress for the next couple of days with bad breath. Then when we got here, he kissed me, and when I say he kissed me that guy kissed the ever-loving doubt right out of me. I can feel the bond in my chest and tell you that I feel him sitting outside somewhere near the front of the house. I don't know exactly where but I know if I start walking, I can follow the feeling like a compass until I get to him. You know what that means?"

Horse jumped off the table and Bray looked over the edge like they wanted to follow him before shaking its head no.

"It means it is too late. The bond is already forming, and I don't even know his last name. Do gargoyles even have last names?" I mentally added that to my list of things to find out. "At any rate that's the crazy day I had. I'm sure it is not as hard as escaping a woman who was holding you and Horse hostage in the shed. Should we call the cops or something?"

Bray took a deep breath and ran a hand down their tiny face. "Cops won't care about a single pixie being kept in a shed. If it was the whole lot of us sure, but one? No, they would think I was just trying to make trouble. I spent the last couple of days with my family in the Parlor. My sister recommended I come to see if anyone had been hired to work the garden bugs yet.”

Agitation washed through me. It was a shame the cops wouldn't do anything to the woman who held Bray as some kind of garden slave, maybe I could help the pixie with a little revenge. The idea sounded better and better the more I thought about it. A little revenge would be the perfect thing to keep my mind off the whole ‘what to do with Heru’ problem.

"You know we could take care of her ourselves." I grabbed a cookie and dunked it in my milk. "Nothing horrible, but a slug infestation or a couple of broken pipes under her garden. What do you think?'

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