Blood of an Ancient Read Online Free Page B

bent over the creature. “His mouth is so small. Maybe he feeds on bugs or something.”
    I wrinkled my nose. The same thought had just occurred to me. What the hell would a sprite vampire eat? Sprites were creatures of nature. Kind, sometimes mischievous, but inherently good. Sprites despised anything evil.
    He had to be one mixed-up little fucker.
    “Are you going to stare all day or are you going to ask me the questions? My time is very valuable you know.” He snapped his cape. “I assume you are here because you have need of my great wisdom. It was only your recognition of my wonderful garden that got you inside. When you acknowledged my skill”—again, he waved his hand toward the flowers—“I decided you worthy of a few questions.”
    Blythe wandered over to join us. She had this baffled, stupid expression on her face, obviously still stoned out of her head. She grinned at me. “I can’t find my purse. I have cookies in my purse. Cookies and Tic Tacs.”
    “Okay,” I said and reached out to pat her arm. I watched her look change as she caught sight of the sprite. Those already huge eyes went global, her mouth dropped open and what little color she’d had bleached away.
    Hoping she’d stay stunned silent, I turned to the sprite. “Our time is valuable as well,” I said. “So, I’ll make this quick. We need your blood.”
    Turquoise eyebrows that resembled pencil smudges lifted. “That’s a switch.” He flew over to a chair and sat. It was red of course. He seemed to favor the color. I didn’t wonder why. He spread his cape over the arms of his chair.
    I glanced at Blythe. She was still standing dumbstruck. Her lips started moving and I felt a clutching in my chest. What was the idiot doing? Was she muttering a spell right now? Her magic had been warped since the Dweller battle and it hadn’t been so great before. I glanced around just in time to see a tiny table catch fire.
    “Oh my goodness!” Blythe said in a breathy voice. “I’m so sorry.” She rushed forward to put it out, slapping at the table with her hands. I rolled my eyes and plucked a rug off the table, er, floor, and draped it over the fire. It went right out.
    The little sprite, all affectations gone, fluttered into the air to assess the damage. He floated around the table, clucking, wringing his hands. “That rug cost me fifteen thousand dollars.”
    “No it didn’t,” I said. With some people, or beings, lies are obvious. To me anyway.
    He turned, his little face furious. “It was made especially for me over three hundred years ago by the fairy queen herself.”
    “Then why did you have to pay for it?”
    He opened his mouth and shut it. His eyes narrowed to mere slits. “Just tell me why you want my blood, then get that witch out of here.”
    Elsa had stuck her gun back into her pants. It would have been interesting to watch her try and hit the little vamp. She crossed her arms. “Awfully small to be giving orders, aren’t you?”
    He sneered. “I was on this planet before your ancestors evolved.”
    Phro snorted and I sent her a warning glare. Yeah, he couldn’t see her, but if she got riled enough, she’d pull energy from his healthy garden and start shifting his small furniture around.
    The vampire tilted his head, his attention suddenly more intense than before. “You are a seer.” He stood and walked to the edge of the table. “I knew, of course, there are spirit guides in the room with you. I know there’s one I can almost see, which makes her not of spirit but something else.” He squinted in Phro’s direction before his eyes went wide. “Is that a goddess?”
    “You can see her?” I asked taking a step forward.
    “You can see me?” Phro asked, also moving forward.
    He stared for several seconds. We all held our breaths—even Blythe who I worried might take it to extremes. “I can manipulate dimensional sight some. Takes a second for my eyes to adjust. I can see you. And hear you now. And I think