Dangerous Creatures by Kami García, Margaret Stohl Page B

didn’t spook easily, but New York public transportation had proved to be up to the challenge.
    Rid shook off the memory and glared back at the waiting customer.
    “I’m sorry. Did you mean I had to touch it?” Ridley looked like she was going to be sick. “The skin parts?”
    “Her head?” Delia started to laugh. The laughter didn’t make her seem nice, though. She was completely tattooed and wearing a tank top, so the overall effect was more intimidating than even a manager probably needed to be.
    “With my bare hands ?” Ridley took a step back.
    “Have you ever worked in a salon before, Riley?” Now Delia started to look irritated.
    “Ridley,” Ridley corrected her.
    “Well?” Delia didn’t really seem to care what Ridley’s name was.
    Mortals have no manners , Ridley thought. They’re all so rough around the edges.
    “Yes,” Ridley lied. “All the time. I just never worked on heads.”
    “No heads?”
    “That’s right. I worked on—” Ridley tried to think of a less hairy place on the Mortal body. Hair was just so disgusting. She didn’t know why she’d thought she could do this job. Her hair styled itself with the flick of her wrist, like it always had. Another Siren perk. “Feet. I worked on feet. And knees. And elbows. The occasional calf, but only the really smooth ones.”
    “Is this one of those shows where the movie star comes out and says it’s a joke?” Delia looked around the shop tiredly.
    “Does that happen?” Ridley felt interested for the first time that afternoon.
    “You tell me,” Delia said.
    She stood there until Ridley walked back to the sink and put not one but two hands into the disgustingly hairy, greasy scalp of a complete stranger and scrubbed. It was horrific, but at least Delia left her alone after that.
    When the woman in the chair leaned her head back, Ridley could see up her nose. She yanked harder on the woman’s hair. Let’s just get this over with already.
    “Ow! Not so hard!”
    “Beauty is pain,” Ridley said.
    “You’re a pain,” the woman said, sitting up.
    “Well, you’re no beauty.”
    “I need to see the manager,” the woman said.
    “Crybaby.” Ridley threw her a towel. “Dry yourself off.”
    The stupid cow of a woman stared at her.
    “What?” Ridley snapped. “Do you need an invitation? You’re dripping water all over the floor.”
    The woman shook her head, muttering, and began to towel off her wet hair.
    “Back to the chair,” Ridley said. She tried to remember the lines she was supposed to recite as she took her client back to the Drying Chair, but she gave up. “Time for a hairy experience, lady.”
    The woman made it to the chair and kept on going right out the door. It was a real bummer, because Ridley had to pay the store back for the blowout, which was almost forty bucks. She was going to lose money on this job if she didn’t figure something out, fast.
    “Beauty is pain,” Delia said as Ridley cleaned up her station.
    “Am I fired?” Ridley asked. She hoped the answer was yes.
    “I haven’t decided.” Now Delia was back to looking amused.
    It’s hard to keep up with her , Ridley thought.
    “I really hated that lady. She’s been stiffing me on my tip for years,” Delia said. “And she does have one nasty scalp.” She started laughing to herself. “Hairy experience,” she said. Now she was spluttering so hard she was howling, even spitting a little around the edge of her mouth. At least Ridley couldn’t see up her nose.
    Mortals really were nauseating.
    Ridley didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry, but it didn’t matter. By the time she got home on the very Mortal L train, she’d done both.

  CHAPTER 13 
    Bleeding Me
    I never thought you had it in you, Rid.” Link sounded impressed. Shocked, even. There was that. But Ridley wasn’t sure it was worth it.
    Because regular people suck.
    At breakfast, her feet hurt, her arms ached, and two of her nails were broken. I can’t believe I have