"Dude." I grinned. "For being older than dirt, you sure don't know very much."
She nodded her head in agreement. "I gotta get out more," she muttered and pushed me toward the car. "Do Fairies bite?"
"No, not that I know of, but I hear they punch like a freight train."
"Cool."
I shook my head and laughed. Weird was weird, but my life was turning insane.
***
Carl and The Kev tangoed across the back yard dressed in brightly colored sequined dresses while Gemma painted Janet and Myrtle's fingernails. The baby Demons were thankfully back and they jumped around the fray, pummeling each other happily as they grunted out a bizarre rhythm for the tango. Just another normal day at my house.
"Which ones are the Fairies?" Lucy asked as she tried to take it all in.
"The one who looks like the Terminator in a gown and the gorgeous one doing the manicures. The rest are Demons, but you already knew about Myrtle."
"Is she really your cousin?"
"Nope, but I love her like family and I'll kill anyone who screws with her," I told Lucy as I pulled her into the circus.
"Krumecaca," The Kev yelled with delight as he dipped Carl. Carl squealed as he righted himself and slid slowly into the splits. "And look! You brought your sister!"
Everyone shrieked, froze and frantically examined their bodies.
"It's okay, guys," I reassured them. "I already knew. No one is turning to dust. . .yet." I eyed The Kev distrustfully. "You sure are a deadly fountain of info."
His grin was contagious and I looked down to hide my smile. Fairies were something else altogether.#p#分页标题#e#
"Can I tell you a little secret?" he asked.
"Will I live through it, big guy?" I shot back.
He threw back his head and laughed heartily. "If you added a few curses I would have mistaken you for Astrid."
"Astrid?" Lucy asked.
"My foul mouthed, kickass, take no prisoners, pregnant Vampyre cousin," I explained as I preened under The Kev's compliment.
"What the secret?" I asked.
He pulled me to the far corner of the massive yard and narrowed his eyes. He made me uncomfortable, but I knew he was a premeditated man. He wasn't about to tell me something I didn't need to know.
"The turning to dust thing. It's bullshit."
"What?" I shouted as the crowd in the distance winced. "You have got to be fucking kidding me. Why in the Hell. . .?"
"Shhhh." The Kev put his finger to his lips and winked. "If there was no need for the story it would not exist—would it?"
"Why are you telling me?" I snapped. My life would have been a whole Hell of a lot easier if everyone, good and bad, had been able to clue me in.
"How can we balance anything if there are no repercussions? Why should it be necessary to hold the future and destiny sacred? Why, little True Immortal? Why would that be important?"
I was still stuck on the fact that the dust story was false and that everyone believed it. Who even started it? The Fairies? The Kev stood quietly and waited for my answer. I knew it was a test—a huge one. However I also knew I would pass.
"Because I create my own destiny. Any one of us, no matter how powerful, could be controlled by someone or something else unless we let destiny play out in its own time. But how do you know I won't screw with people—change destiny now that I know the secret?"
The Kev squatted down until we were nose to nose. "Because you are Balance, Dixie. That is your job. All True Immortals have one: God is Good, Satan is Evil, Mother Nature is Emotion, your Grandfather is Wisdom, The Angel of Light is Life, The Angel of Death is Death, Astrid is Compassion and you are Balance."
"Holy Hell, The Kev, that was one overload of info, but you forgot someone. What is my mother?"
"What do you think your mother is?" he asked as he pulled me farther away and led me to a stone bench in a grove of flowering trees.
"A nightmare? A craptastic parent? How am I supposed to know what the Hell her job is? All I've ever heard is that she hasn't been doing it well."
"Sometimes people become incapable of what they are asked to do. What do you think of her?" he asked.
"Are you everywhere?" I asked. "How do you know I know who she is?"
He expelled a sigh. "My life is nothing like yours or any other Immortal you know," he said wearily. "Secrets cannot be hidden from me—dreams, wishes, desires. This is not a bonus. It is a burden. Until I found Gemma, my life was one of vast painful emptiness and very soon I will have to fight for her very existence."
"How is that fair?" I demanded. I barely knew the crazy man sitting in front of me, but he touched me deeply and I knew he was good.