“I’m washing up by your sink
. Do you mind?” Wiz said outside of my shower.
I jumped from his voice.
When did he open the door?
“No.
I don’t mind.” I bit my lip and wished my curtains were thinner material. His outline appeared as he turned on my sink’s faucet and cleaned himself.
“Thank you for moving me to somewhere safe,” he said.
“You’re welcome.” I leaned back into the wet wall more aware of my nude body due to him being so close and in the same room. Only a curtain separated us. He could push it aside and see everything.
And he’d probably scream.
“What else did you and the B.D. talk about?” Wiz interrupted my thoughts.
“
He told me everything,” I bluffed.
The faucet snapped off. His form in front of the shower curtain appeared stiff and unmoving like a statue.
“You’re lying. You don’t know everything. But what I do want to find out is if he went inside of your head.”
Ignoring Wiz, I returned to washing up by pouring strawberry fragrance shampoo on my scales. The liquid slid against them with ease. I dumped the rest on my hair. Most of my budget went to toiletries because my bushel
of strands swallowed up half a bottle of shampoo with each wash.
“I’m taking your stubborn silence as a ‘Yes, Wiz. He did slither into my brain.’” Wiz sounded annoyed.
Good. Be annoyed.
“Cameo this is why I don’t want you to know anything
. I’m trying to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?”
“Stay away from anything to do with B.D.”
“No. I’m researching shadow stones and I discovered something about Fortimer’s trunk and—”
“Fuck!” His voice made me jump. His image on the other side of the shower curtain showed that he’d spun around and faced me. “Stay away from all of that. Stop digging around for information before you get hurt.”
“T
hen tell me what I need to know.”
“You don’t need to know anything right now and when you do, I’ll tell you everything.” He sighed and then muttered, “If you still want to talk to me.”
“What?”
“Just stay out of it.”
“Too late. I’m in it.” I positioned myself directly under the stream of cold water. Once I was sure my body and hair was clean, I switched off the shower. “I’m coming out. Hand me a towel please.”
“
Not happening.”
“Meaning?”
“Tell me what else you discovered and I’ll give you a towel.”
“Or I can just come out naked and scare you.”
“I doubt your naked body will scare me.” His voice held something else. A tone I wasn’t familiar with.
I slid
soaked strands away from my face. My wet skin shivered from being moist in the bathroom’s cool air. “This isn’t funny, Wiz.”
“No, it isn’t. This is a dangerous game.”
I scrunched my face in confusion. “What is, the information I’m holding or my stepping out naked?”
“Both.”
He laughed.
“I’m not telling you anything
, until you tell me what is happening. The secrets ended two days ago.
Silent seconds passed.
“Fine, Wiz. If you won’t give me a towel then I’ll come out naked.”
I pictured Wiz in my head and ordered my body to shift
into his image. My legs grew to his height. Muscles burst all over my body. My breasts sucked into my chest as the fragrance of mint filled the air. Green sparks skittered along my skin. Wiz’s penis unfolded between my thighs and I forced myself to stare up at the ceiling instead of checking out his body. Every time I changed into Wiz I felt dirty about having his penis between my legs as if I was invading his privacy. It rubbed against my thigh and caused me to tremble from the contact.
Concentrate, Cameo.
I continued to sank into Wiz’s form and lose my own image. There was an intake of breath on the other side of the curtain. I had no doubts that Wiz knew I was shifting.
“You still want the towel?” Wiz asked.
Once Wiz’s image covered me, I moved the curtain and stuck my tongue out at him.
Wiz smirked, l
eaned on the edge of my sink, and threw the towel at my mimic’s muscular chest. “Good play.”
“I try.” I caught the towel and dried myself off.
He glanced below my waist and grinned. “Don’t you think you’re over exaggerating with the size of my equipment?”
I opened my mouth, but no words escaped.
“I’m not that big.” He motioned at my mimic’s penis.
“Your DNA says otherwise.” I wrapped the towel around my body, snatched another one from him to cover my hair, and then shifted back to my normal form.
“It’s not like I formed your image from my own imagination or anything.”
He laughed while I headed out of the bathroom.
“Hold up. We’re not done talking.” He prowled my way until no space ran between us. Tiny beads of water coated his upper body. His hair was slicked back. He smelled like my strawberry soap.
My stomach growled.
How embarrassing.
I held my waist. “I’m hungry.”
“Let’s exchange information while we eat,” Wiz offered.
“Exchange information? Like you’re going to tell me what’s going on?”
I beamed so hard my cheeks stung. “You’re really going to tell me everything?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No. But let’s do a blood promise,” I said. “I don’t know if I can trust anything you’re going to say.”
A blood promise was old magic, so old no one could pin point where it
originated. The blood promise required at least two beings with power in their blood to make the oral contract. Both parties had to agree on what they wanted done. In this case, I wanted Wiz to not lie to me. He could limit my desire as much as we agreed to. Once we had the full commitment from both people, then we would cut a part of our selves usually the arm and when our blood appeared we stated something along the lines of,
through the blood I promise to. . .
Blood promises were serious matters with a firm ending date. If anyone did minor violations of the promise, during the term it was in effect, blood leaked out of the violator’s body
or the area on the body where the parties cut themselves would have severe swelling. The promise spell allowed several times for a person to do minor breaches. This included the person just thinking about breaking the blood promise. But once there was a major violation, a full on clear and intentional breach, all of the blood left the violator’s body, killing the person instantly.
Therefore it was a big deal to do a blood promise, and I understood why Wiz just stood in front of me with a grim face and shook his head no.
“I’m not doing a blood promise with you, Cameo.”
“So in other words you plan on lying to me?”
“I’m not doing it for two reasons.” Blowing out air, he rubbed his face and then twisted to the side to display a long scar on his waist. “Your blood promise will cause me to violate a blood promise I already have. I’ll tell you as much as I can without breaching it.”
“You said two reasons.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “What’s the second reason?”
“I made this blood promise with the B.D. several years ago. If I told you how long, you would never believe me.” He traced the scar with his finger. “For the past three years I’ve been regretting it. I’ll never make another blood promise with anyone else again.”
I wondered what happened to him
three years ago to change his mind and regret the blood promise. I’d met him three years ago, but I doubted any of this had anything to do with me. Even worst, I couldn’t believe he’d made a blood promise that lasted for almost eighteen years, as old as I would be in three days. It was now against the law to enter into binding spells that lasted over sixty days. Anything over that time, and the parties tended to want to get out of the original blood contract.
“Fine
,” I said. “No blood promise.”
“I promise however to tell you everything I can
. Since B.D. knows what you look like and I have no idea if that is good or bad right now, I think you should go as the mimic you call Ann instead of in your real image.”
“No way.” I shook my head. “Ann is boring.”
It was my dullest mimic—short hair, pudgy body, double chin, and a height of four feet. I used the mimic when I needed to be ignored and go around unnoticed.
“Rich will be with us. I
’ll need him with me most of today. I’m still feeling weak. I may need to lean on him or have him carry me if I push myself too much.” Wiz’s face didn’t look happy as he said it. “Rich will think it’s weird if I’m talking about B.D. to a stranger. Rich knows I talk to Ann about business.”
I clapped. “I’ll go as Stan.
When I’m playing Stan sometimes, and Rich is around, you talk about business too.”
“Rich hates Stan.” Wiz walked around me.
“No way. Why would he hate Stan? I’ve never done anything to Rich when I wore that mimic.”
“Fin has a crush on Stan.”
I paused. “Whoa. Now that explains why she’s always smacking my butt when I’m Stan, but why does Rich care?”
Wiz raised his arms over his head and stretched. “Rich has a crush on Fin. I thought that was obvious.”
Chapter 9
Wiz, Rich
, and I, as Stan, lounged in Cinnamon’s Meat Shack waiting patiently for our order. A decent crowd of shapeshifters filled the place. Old record albums from fifty years ago decorated the red and black-checkered walls. The bands and singers smiled and posed on the covers as well as wore no brands on their foreheads since the images were taken during the pre-habitat years. I still figured the musicians were supernaturals. Cinnamon constantly complained about humans and hated whenever I brought up any current events outside of the habitats, so I assumed she hated humans or at least disliked them.
An ancient jukebox sat in the far corner near the front entrance blasting
the song “Hypnotize” by a girl group called the Sirens, which I had heard were actually sirens. Due to the music being on, the flat screen television nailed to the wall in front of me was shut off. Usually Cinnamon played videos on it all day, but not when it was so packed like this. Behind the long brown counter, pots clanked, meat sizzled once it hit the grill, and savory smoke rose. An exhausted Cinnamon lathered ostrich steaks with honey barbecue sauce and slices of peppers. She was making the meal we’d ordered and I couldn’t wait for her to finish.
“What else did Cameo tell you?” Wiz asked, while Rich scowled at me and clasped onto a
pocketknife. I’d caught Wiz up on everything that happened while he was passed out. I’d just told him under the guise of Stan, which was why Rich hadn’t been speaking, only playing with his knife in a threatening way in front of me.
My two mimics, Stan and Ann possessed detailed backgrounds so none of my actual friends would
get suspicious of them. According to everyone in Haven, Stan and Ann were childhood friends I grew up with and confided in from time to time. Because Wiz accepted Stan and Ann, everyone else did with no problem, and at times sent messages for me through them, never realizing that it was me the whole time.
“That’
s all she told me,” I said. “She also did some research on the shadow stone.”
“I
already told him that,” Rich snapped. “I don’t really even understand why this buster is here, Wiz. Where is Cameo?”
“Cameo is where she is.”
I shrugged my huge muscled shoulders. “And if you told him what I said then we all know the same thing.”
“
Stan, make sure you tell her to stop looking for B.D.’s shadow.” Wiz targeted me with his eyes. “I have it taken care of.”
“I doubt she will believe me if I tell her that.” I frowned. “
If you have it, why didn’t you give it to this B.D.?”
“Because it’
s not due to him yet,” Wiz said. “The only reason why he went after me two days ago is because I’ve been ignoring his messages to meet up.”
Rich stirred in his chair. I took note of that.
Rich knows a lot more then he let on a few days ago.
“
Where do you have it then?” I asked.
“Neither you or her need to worry about that.” The muscle in Wiz’s jaw twitched.
He’s lying. He doesn’t have it.
“Well
I’m sure she still will continue her plan of looking for it.”
“She doesn’t have time to look for the s
hadow.” Wiz smirked. “She has school.”
Oh yeah. He still thinks I’m going to classes.
“It’s spring vacation right now.”
Wiz threaded his fingers together. “And where does she think she will be
searching?”
“S
he discovered that the fourteenth fairy king created these things called shadow stones from putting a person’s power into their shadow, taking the shadow from them, and placing it into a stone.”
Wiz sneered. I almost didn’t continue. Almost.
“Cameo found out that there were some stones brought to the Santeria Habitat, probably in Fortimer’s trunk.” I paused as Wiz’s eyes brightened in anger. He didn’t say anything so I cleared my throat. “She’s thinking that Fortimer’s trunk may have these shadow stones and one of the stones could belong to B.D. All she has to do now is find the trunk. She narrowed the places down to the museum, Fairy Council headquarters, and their bank.” I tapped the table with my thumb.
Rich and Wiz exchanged looks.
“You might as well let her search for the shadow stones.” Rich played with the end of one of his braids. “Where’s the harm in it? At least it’ll keep her busy.”
“What do you mean it will keep her busy?” I asked.
Rich flipped me his middle finger.
Now that’s just uncalled for.
A grin spread across Wiz’s face as he leaned back in his chair. “Fine. She can help us find the stones.”
I didn’t like Wiz’s easy acceptance. Rich said looking for the stones would keep me busy. I didn’t want to be busy. I needed to actually help.
“Do you want me to help Cameo find these stones?” I asked.
“Sure.” Wiz nodded.
“Because it’s important?”
“Of course.”
Rich laughed, signaling that Wiz was full of it.
“I don’t want her keeping busy for nothing.”
“It won’t be for nothing.” Wiz leaned back in his chair.
Dang it, Wiz. Are these shadow stones important or not?
“Anything else?” Wiz asked.
“
Do you want to help Cameo find these stones?”
“Sure.”
“Since we don’t have time, perhaps we should split our resources. You and Rich check out one of those places Cameo thinks the stones are at. Fin and I—”
“No,” Rich barked.
“Fin and you do nothing.”
I stifled a giggle. “I mean Fin and Cameo can go to the museum. It’s the safest place out of the three.”
“And what will you do while we’re all following your orders?” Rich asked. “I mean serious
ly, Wiz. Why is this clown even a part of this?”
Wiz smirked at me. “We need the muscle.”
“He doesn’t have as much muscle as me.” Rich twirled the knife in his fingers.
Rich was wrong of course. I’d used Rich’s body as a reference to make my mimic Stan.
Therefore, Stan possessed the same body frame as him. The rest of the mimic represented my favorite movie star Dell Blues, who had the prettiest blue eyes with a complexion as dark as copper. Stan’s brown hair fell past his shoulders. Most of the time, I kept it in a ponytail behind my head.
A group of girls giggled and looked at us as they walked up to the counter to order. To them, we were a table of three hot guys.
“Now it’s your turn to give info.” I targeted Wiz with my eyes. “I’ll need to give Cameo information. She’s worked out a deal with someone to get more information like building blueprints for places the shadow stones could be at. Once we figure out where they are, we’ll need everything she can provide.”
Like my ability to shift into a security guard and sneak into the place.
Wiz
unthreaded his fingers, grabbed the ketchup bottle, put the bottle on its side, and rolled it back and forth. “What does she want to know?”
“
Did you ever have B.D.’s shadow stone?”
“No.”
“What about his shadow?”
That muscle in his jaw twitched. “Yes.”
“So there is a big difference between shadows and shadow stones?”
“Yes. What B.D. is looking for is different, but if we can find some shadow stones with a powerful shadow inside. I may be able to give it to us and buy us some more time, but I doubt it.
The first thing we should make clear is that there a lot of shadow stones in the habitat. Most are empty. I helped B.D. steal a few stones, years ago,” Wiz said. “They were in the Vault of Enchantments. B.D. and his crew checked the place out, came up with a plan, and incorporated me in it.”
“But you were only
ten years old then,” I said.
Wiz ignored me. “A lot of the security spells covered the building. No one thought anyone had a chance at robbing the place. What people didn’t know is that the roof held no spells. It was really that simple. The fairies relied on magic so much they forgot about the typical break in.”
“How did you get on the roof?” I asked.
“
The same way we get into Haven. I climbed up the side of a building, landed on one, and hopped from another. I spent every night for two weeks cutting through the roof.”
A
s a little kid?
“What
were all the things you took?” I asked.
“
Just a few stones.” The muscle in Wiz’s jaw twitched.
I thought about the news article.
“You had to take more.”
“That’s it.”
“Did you take Fortimer’s trunk? You have the Vanity dagger and gateway rocks that were in it.”
Wiz
displayed his implanted silver fangs. “Yes. I forgot. We took Fortimer’s trunk too. Cameo did good research.”
“She has to when she deals with a secretive guy that is always lying
,” I said.
Rich leaned Wiz’s way. “You want me to cut him?”
“No.” Wiz rubbed his chin. “Let’s focus on the stones. I stole them for B.D. I was supposed to bring them to him. I didn’t. Instead, I hid them somewhere and negotiated with him to release Rich and his sister. When B.D. let them go, I gave him a tiny piece of the stone. The deal was to deliver pieces every month. So I mailed him pieces for years, until the stone decreased into nothing.”
So many questions filled my head—
what was the big difference from the shadow that B.D. asked for and the shadow stone? Why did the Bearded Dragon even have Rich and his sister? Where did Wiz hide the stones? Why all of a sudden does B.D. need a shadow?
“What does B.D. use the shadow for?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Wiz said with another twitch.
“You’re lying.”
“It doesn’t matter what he uses it for.
”
“Have you used
any of them?” I thought of how he carried around Vanity and cast spells with the gateway rocks.
“No.”
Another twitch. Anger boiled inside of me, but I focused on relaxing and asked my next question. “How do you know B.D.?”
“When I was young someone trapped me
, he freed me.”
“Who trapped you and—”
“It doesn’t matter. I answered enough questions to satisfy Cameo. If she wants, we can check two places today. Cameo and Fin will look for the shadow stones at the museum. Rich and I will check out the Fairy Council headquarters. Make sure she doesn’t go too far, just tell her to ask around like she’s doing a research paper on ancient fairy artifacts. Make sure she understands.”
“Cameo knows what she’s doing
,” I said.
“No, she just thinks she does,” Wiz countered.
One of Cinnamon’s waitresses, Destiny sashayed over with our tray of food balancing in her arms. “Here you three go. Three orders of ostrich and peppers hoagies for three hot guys.”
I grabbed mine before she could set it down. “Thanks
so much.”
“No problem Stan.”
She leaned over and exposed an ample cleavage in Wiz’s direction. “You didn’t show up last night, Wiz? What happened?”
Wiz is
sleeping with Destiny?
I chewed on my sandwich and avoided staring at them.
Of course he would mess with Destiny.
She had a long mane of sandy blonde hair similar to Wiz’s color. Her body could have been pasted on my perfect images board—full, perky breasts, curvy hips, and a tiny waist. Although she had some acne on her forehead, the rest of her white skin was smooth and unblemished.
“Are you going to answer me, Wizzy baby?” Destiny jiggled her breasts.
“I asked you not to call me that. We’ll talk about it later.” Wiz slid his plate closer to him.
“The Ice Princess isn’t here.” She gestured around the table with hot pink nails. “Why can’t we talk about it
now?”
I swallowed the meat and
said out loud, “Ice Princess?”
Wiz looked forward and away from me.
“Cameo is the Ice Princess.” Rich didn’t pick up his sandwich.
“Why?” I turned to Destiny
and tapped out an erratic beat with my foot.
“
Cameo has that glittery white skin and snowy white hair.” Destiny tossed her own tresses over her shoulder. “And Wiz walks around treating her like a little, fragile princess.”
“No. He doesn’t.” I wrinkled my forehead.
“Whatever.” Destiny turned back to Wiz. “Will I see you tonight, Wizzy?”
I cringed at her nickname.
Wizzy? Eww.
Rich snapped his fingers in front of me and caused me to miss Wiz’s response.
“What’s up with you and Fin?”
“Nothing is up with us.” I rolled my eyes. “
Fin is a nice girl, but I’m not interested.”
What did Wiz say? Is he going to meet Destiny tonight or what?