The Unfortunate Story of Roddy Mayhem, Julie Steimle [i can read book club TXT] 📗

man without another thought to him.

Dan grinned at us, approaching. “So, how’s it going?”

Piranha delivered him a dirty look. “Are you kidding? It’s been hell. Thanks.”

Dan appeared genuinely dismayed about that. “I’m sorry. I thought things would get better rather than worse. Howie swears by this place, you know.”

But Piranha still glared at him. However, she looked after Officer Mason and Silva. “Who is that?”

“My sister,” Dan replied, smiling. He gazed after them also, looking pleased.

“Your sister is a witch?” I gaped at him.

He shrugged. “I’d like to think former witch. She’s mostly into hairstyling these days.”

We stared at him, realizing he was being totally serious.

“Piranha,” the West End Prep man broke in again. “We need your answer.”

Rolling her eyes, Piranha said, “I gave you my answer.”

“Fine,” he said stiffly. “We agree. You won’t see either Miss Fail or Miss Nixie at West End.” His imps were smirking.

Piranha wagged a finger at him. “Wrong. You have to promise they will never come to West End Prep. I know that trick.”

Dan smirked, watching the man with interest as well as Piranha.

The West End man tried to nudge him out of the way, getting closer to Piranha. But Dan just stepped closer to us, gazing at him as we did. It unnerved the West End man a little. “Excuse you, but this is private.”

Grinning wider while his imps tempted him to set fire to this man’s shoes, Dan said rather calmly, “Not really. I helped bring them here. This is personal to me also.”

The man paled, pulling back from Dan. “What? Who are you?”

Sticking out a hand, Dan said, “Daniel Smith. But my friends call me Swift.”

The West End recruiter paled more, eying Dan’s hand. I looked also. There was a warm scar on his palm, which, I realized could probably burn the man as it seemed to flicker with white light. He did not shake Dan’s hand, eying the action on Dan’s palm also. The funny thing was, Dan’s imps did not even tempt Dan to mess with him. Dan honestly didn’t realize he was about to singe someone with his handshake—which was what Jessica apparently had done to Piranha.

“Oh!” Dan pulled back his hand, glancing to me. “Sorry. I forgot.”

Piranha murmured, realizing that was what she had held, “You forgot your hand was nearly on fire?”

I looked at the man’s hand again, and sure enough, there were little flames coming from his scar now—white-hot looking.

Chuckling with a blush, Dan said, “I’ve gotten so used to the burn, I forget it is even there sometimes.”

Piranha and I exchanged looks. The Holy Seven held some kind of fiery light in their hands. How? Apparently it wasn’t just in the red crystal.

Groaning, the West End man finally said, “Fine. Those two girls will not come to West End then. But I will have to talk to my superiors about it, as they will be disappointed.”

Yet Piranha shook her head at him. “Let me make this perfectly clear. If you really want me, then you can’t have them. You tell them that.”

The West End man looked pale. He glanced to Dan, then peered down the hall where Officer Mason had gone. We could tell he thought it was probably more unlikely now than ever that he might not get either Moyra or Leah with how things were going. He was adding it up with intense dismay. The question was, did they want Piranha that badly to agree?

“I’ll get back to you then later today,” he said. With a stiff nod to Dan, he turned and left.

Dan watched him with a sharp eye. Somehow I knew he was quickly adding up what that West End man was up to. He then looked to Piranha. “Do you really want to go to that school to be trained as a CIA agent?”

Piranha looked at him, surprised he had known all of that. She then slowly nodded. “Yes.”

I groaned inwardly. She really was leaving us. I had kept hoping she would change her mind.

“Rumor has it, they can’t control Tom Brown,” she explained, and smirked about it. “And they are preparing for the inevitable day when Tom goes blind and he is no longer of use to them.”

Dan cringed on that thought. I hated the idea also. Tom going blind.

“Tom has been preparing for it,” Dan murmured. He gazed on her. “But do you want to be controlled by the CIA? They aren’t famous for their scruples, you know. And it might make us enemies if you end up getting involved in the kind of stuff they had tried to pull in China.”

Piranha went a little pale. Her eyes got wider. “What?”

Dan nodded to her, seeing she was listening. “Not too long ago, the Seven stumbled across a conspiracy involving the CIA meddling in the affairs of Chinese demons and local Chinese triads—in a bad way. And we exposed it. Right now the Company is undergoing a severe investigation because of our discovery—and our intervention.”

Piranha looked to the ground, thinking. The Holy Seven would intervene in any supernatural kind of chaos, and clearly they didn’t care who became their enemies. But then, I could tell they had the kind of power that perhaps it was the CIA who had to worry.

“Just be careful,” Dan said in a low voice. “Tom joined the CIA to help protect ghoulies. And the CIA are using him for… I don’t know what kind of espionage. Honestly, I kind of wish he’d put more time into being a mechanic. That sounds like a much better career.”

I stared. “Mechanic?”

Dan nodded with a chuckle. “Yeah. It’s his side job. He’s pretty good.”

“But he’s got a one-eight IQ,” I protested.

To that, Dan laughed, nodding. “Yeah. I know.”

He then went on to the office, perhaps to join his witch sister.

The show kind of hit a lull then. Piranha and I lingered in the hallway waiting to see if more people were coming, as apparently the trial had stirred up a figurative hornets’ nest. 

Then I saw her. “Wispy….”

Wispy stood the hallway with Officer Johnson. She looked like a small breeze could knock her over.

Piranha and I both ran over to her. Piranha embraced her in a tight hug. I… I wanted to. Shivers ran through me as a thousand thoughts flooded through my brain and imp chatter rose from those watching us. Much of the chatter was still cruel.

When Piranha let go, I grabbed Wispy, holding her tight. “Please don’t do that again,” I whispered.

She nodded, sniffling up tears.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Dr. Folger?” I asked under my breath so only she could hear.

She stared at me palely. But I did not let go. As a shudder went through her, her eyes lifted to my horns. Then she felt them. “They’re not longer,” she murmured.

I stared more, nodding. “I promised you.”

Wispy grinned as her tears filled her eyes. “Yes, you did.”

But I tugged on her hair for an answer to my question. “But why didn’t you—?”

“Dr. Folger threatened to hunt and kill you if you became a full demon. If your horns grew,” she said. “He’s a licensed monster hunter, Roddy. Certified.”

I stared. “How did such a guy get into our school? I know Rick would not have allowed—”

“He probably didn’t know,” Piranha ground out. She looked to Wispy. “Or Dr. Folger was lying to you.”

Wispy shook her head stiffly. “No.” She looked to me. “He showed me his credentials. He’s an official member of the Supernatural Regulators Association.”

“No kidding?” Officer Johnson interjected. Apparently she hadn’t told him. His eyes went wide. He looked to Piranha and me and said, “I think she will be fine with you two. I need to talk to Mr. Wilderman.”

We watched him march off.

I felt sick in my gut. I looked to Wispy again. “He can’t hurt you anymore. Officer Calamori and Tom dragged him off. He’s been arrested.”

Wispy breathed hard, half between laughing and crying for joy. She hugged me and Piranha again. I held on tight.

We took Wispy back to her room. I was not quite ready to go back to Valhalla. In fact, I could tell from a look that Piranha wanted to move Valhalla to another empty apartment area within the building. I mentally agreed. I didn’t want to go back there with the memory of how I had found Wispy nearly dead.

We didn’t do much. We just hung out around the school. Piranha was breaking it gently to Wispy that she was about to move to West End Prep—which it turned out, Wispy already knew. It was another reason she had gone off the deep end. But she was now coping with it… especially after Piranha declared that Lorelei wasn’t so bad after all.

Wispy hugged her for saying so. “Thank you.”

We didn’t talk about much. Just lingered with her. She was alive and she was back. We eventually made it back to their dorm room.

Spastic eventually joined us, hiding out from… screams?

“What did you do?” Piranha asked him, rising from the bed we were sitting on.

With a nearly-Tom grin, Spastic shrugged his shoulders and dropped on the opposite bed. “Oh, nothing. Just handling some jerks who still seem to think we are at war.”

Quinn then strolled in, peeking behind himself to make sure no one saw him. When he saw Wispy in the room, his smile brightened with relief and he said, “Back is Wispy beautiful.”

She grinned at him, blushing.

And I got jealous.

Piranha and Spastic glanced at me, surprised, as clearly my imps were shouting at me to deck Quinn for honing in on my girl. I didn’t hit Quinn, though. I shook off the urge, knowing Quinn was a decent guy, and Wispy was a beautiful girl. It was good that someone here at the school did not see her as a devil child.

But Wispy peeked at me, blushing.

I met her gaze and colored a little. I had forgotten that she could hear my imps too.

Wispy slipped her thin, delicate fingers into mine, smiling at me.

“Happened just what?” Quinn asked, while his mind also projected, “What just happened?”

Hopping up, Spastic slapped Quinn on the shoulder then decided to steer him out of the room. “Imp talk. No biggie. How about we scout out what’s for dinner? They’ll join us later.”

Shrugging, Quinn nodded and let himself be steered.

Piranha also rose, winking at me. She sank through the floor.

Alone with Wispy, shivers ran up my arms, sweeping over me. I lowered my gaze in embarrassment. “I’m such an idiot. I didn’t realize that—”

She kissed me.

I gotta admit, though I had never really thought about such things, it was amazing. Unfortunately, it did not last.

“Captain! Mayhem is alone with a girl in the imps’ bedroom!” someone shouted.

Wispy and I shared a look. Grabbing her hand, we sank through the floor. Giggling, Wispy and I startled a pair of fifth grade boys who were messing with some card games, landing between them. We zipped out, through the door and into the hall, dodging everyone. We hurried down the stairs, nearly crashing into Morgan then whipped around a few other teachers to get to the main floor. We caught our breaths in that hallway where we saw Miss Vogue having a sharp discussion with Miss Ex-Witch. They both saw us and paused for a minute, but then they shrugged and went back into their argument. Wispy and I made it all the way down to the basement where we were to go in.

“Hold it!”

We skidded to a halt

It was Tom. He stood in the stairwell grinned at us, striding over. “Roddy, I was thinking… How would you like to train to be a mechanic?”

I stared at him.

Wispy grinned, tugging on my arm excitedly. Clearly she thought it was a good idea.

“I’ve heard from Colonel Jefferson that you are really good with your hands, and Dr. Pierced says the same thing.”

Wispy rolled her eyes. “Dr. Pierce.”

“To-mayto, To-mahto.” Tom looked then to me. “What do you say? I can get you a regular pass to leave the school when you need