Bedeviled by Maureen Child

and only hoped no one noticed. When she turned around there was a smirk on the pixie’s face, but he didn’t say anything.
    “You said you owed Culhane a favor,” she said.
    “Yeah.” He looked disgusted by the admission, which only made Maggie more curious.
    “What’d he do for you?”
    Bezel stroked the straggly hairs on his chin. “He introduced me to my wife.”
    “Isn’t that nice?” Eileen asked nobody.
    “Your wife ?” Maggie goggled at the hideous little man.
    This mean little pixie had a wife? And Maggie couldn’t find a man who wasn’t a bum, a liar or a Happy Meal? That hardly seemed fair.
    “You want to dial the shrieking down a notch?” He reached up and rubbed his ears. “I got sensitive hearing.”
    “Wow.” Eileen was loving this.
    “Great.” Maggie slumped down to the couch and gave in to the urge to put her head between her knees at last. While she concentrated on her breathing, the pixie kept talking.
    “Just so you know,” he said in that scratchy voice, “pixies and Faeries don’t really get along, so I don’t want to be here any more than you want me to be.”
    “I’m not a Faery.” Her voice was muffled.
    “Not yet.”
    That got her head up fast. “What?”
    “You’re changing. Turning. Hell, don’t you listen? Culhane just told you that. And as much as I hate most Faeries, they’re still better than humans, so it’s a good thing, as far as I can see.”
    “Gee, thanks.”
    “You’re turning into a Faery?” Eileen’s eyes went wild and wide as she looked at her. “This is so huge, Aunt Maggie! When you’re a Faery can you make me one?”
    “Oh, for . . .” Bezel shot the girl a glare, then fixed those chilling eyes on Maggie again. “Listen up, lady. I’m here to train you, and I will. But that doesn’t mean I have to like you. So I’ll teach, you listen, everything’ll work out. Until some demon kills you.”
    Maggie just sat there staring at him.
    “So where do I sleep? You got a good-size tree out back?”
    “An oak,” Eileen said.
    “Show me.”
    The girl and the pixie left together, with Sheba right behind them. Maggie slumped onto the couch and didn’t even try to fight it when she started floating.
    Could her life suck any worse?
    She closed her eyes as she hit the ceiling and bobbed there like a pool toy. “This is just fabulous,” she muttered. “I’ve got the hots for a Faery warrior, a pixie with a grudge is here to teach me how to use powers he doesn’t think I should have so I can fight a queen I don’t want to fight. Oh, and a pissed-off demon husband wants me dead.”
    Good times.
     
    “Wake up !”
    “Huh? What?”
    Nora Donovan shook her sister’s shoulder again and gave her a pinch just for good measure.
    “Hey!” Maggie’s eyes flew open and she looked blearily up at her. “Nora? You’re home early?”
    “Of course I’m home early,” she said, dropping onto the side of Maggie’s bed. “Eileen texted me last night about what’s been happening, and I cannot believe that you didn’t tell me!”
    “Um, uh, Nora . . .” Maggie pushed herself up on her elbows and frowned at the pale wash of light outside her window. “It’s not even morning yet. God.” She dropped back onto her pillow with a groan and closed her eyes again.
    “No, you don’t.” Nora reached over, picked up a pillow and smacked her sister in the head with it. She’d hopped a plane as soon as she’d gotten Eileen’s text, and she wasn’t going to wait another minute to hear about what had happened in her absence.
    Nora’s dark red hair was the same shade as her sister’s, but the similarities ended there. She wore her hair short and spiky, and her eyes, Donovan blue, were tipped up at the corners, contributing to her elfin look. At the moment her mouth had the same stubborn tilt that all Donovan women seemed to possess.
    “Damn it, Maggie, wake up and talk to me.” Nora felt as tight as the hide drawn across the top of Weeping