Bedeviled by Maureen Child Page A

Buffalo’s drum. Ever since she got her daughter’s text message about what had been happening at home, she’d been unable to think of anything else.
    Now that she was here and could get some answers, she couldn’t even wake up her younger sister. “Don’t make me use Grandma’s never-fail wake-up call. . . .”
    Maggie slitted one eye open. “If you dump a glass of ice water in my face, I’ll have to kill you.”
    “Yeah, but you’d be awake. Now talk to me. I’ve been traveling for hours to get home.”
    Maggie sighed, rubbed her eyes and muttered, “God, Nora, what did Eileen tell you, anyway?”
    “Only what you should have told me. That you’re turning into a Faery .”
    “Oh, crap.”
    “Is it true?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “How can you not know?” She wanted to pull her hair out, but then thought about yanking on Maggie’s instead. Hers was longer, and this was all her fault anyway. “You are or you’re not. This is not something you guess about.”
    “It is if you don’t want to think about it.” Maggie closed her eyes again.
    “I’m not leaving until you’ve told me everything, so you can forget about going back to sleep, girl.”
    “You are such a pain.”
    “So I’ve been told. I’ve learned to live with it, and so should you. Talk already.”
    She did. And once she got going the words seemed to tumble out of her mouth in such a rush that Nora could hardly keep up. Her heart galloped in her chest and her stomach was spinning by the time Maggie finished speaking, and Nora realized that what she was feeling was fury.
    “I can’t believe this. This is so unfair.” She pushed off the bed, walked three steps, then spun around and stabbed one finger at her sister in accusation. “How come you’re the one with Faery power? I’m the one who’s into this stuff. I’m the one who believes in everything that you’ve always laughed at.” She threw her hands wide in complete exasperation. “I’m the one who was always begging Gran to tell me about the Fae! I even have a Faery tattoo on my butt!”
    “Really?” Maggie lifted one eyebrow. “You never told me that.”
    Grumbling under her breath, Nora kicked one of Maggie’s shoes out of her way as she started pacing again. “My tattoo isn’t the point.” She whirled around to look at her sister. “I don’t even believe this is happening.”
    “Me neither.”
    The coming dawn slid into the room through the white lace curtains. The two women stared at each other, and Nora said, “You don’t look any different, if you were wondering.”
    “Actually”—Maggie pulled her hair back on the right and said—“now that you mention it, are my ears starting to look a little pointy?”
    Nora walked closer and leaned in for a better look. “No more than they already were. Don’t you remember me telling you that Gran said the reason our ears were sort of tilted up is because of our Fae blood?”
    “No, I don’t remember that at all.”
    “Honest to God, this is just so unfair. I know all the stories and you get the Faery dust. How is this right?”
    “Beats me.” Maggie looked up at her. “Did Grandma say anything else I should know about? Like, did she ever mention Mab or a guy named Culhane?”
    “Culhane?” Nora frowned. “Is he the one Eileen said is a hunk?”
    “Hunk and a half,” Maggie muttered, but she didn’t sound happy about it. “He makes me so mad, and then the very next minute he’s got me all hot and bothered and hoping he just tosses me onto the floor and—”
    “Why do you have one hand tied to the bedpost?” Nora’s eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped open as she slapped Maggie in the face with a pillow again. “You’re not into weird stuff with this Culhane guy with Eileen in the house? Oh, my God, you Faery slut, you.”
    “No!” Maggie would have given anything for another hour or two of sleep, but that was for damn sure not going to happen. “God, it’s too early for this. This