“What am I supposed to do with you?” I asked. I started walking toward the boulevard. Shopping or no shopping, there was no point in lingering about.
“What do you mean, Mistress? I am here to help you with anything you might need. Anything.”
“Yeah. Don’t call me Mistress. How about we start with that? My name is Mila. Call me Mila.”
“I couldn’t possibly…”
“You can, and you will.”
“But I can’t!” She was beginning to panic. Her big, almond eyes grew wide with fear, her chin started trembling, and her tiny hands went to sink into her short brown hair and pull at the roots mercilessly.
“Okay, okay! Oh my God, okay. But why?”
She let out a long sigh of relief. “Because they’ll penalize me if they find out.”
“Who will?”
“The Supernatural Council, of course. I mean, not the Council itself, but the department that oversees my kind.”
“Hm.” I didn’t know what to say. There was a department that oversaw pixie slavery. I’d have to meditate on that later and see how I felt about it. “Wait. Do you, like, get paid for this job?”
She looked up at me like I was the silliest person in the world. After a moment’s thought, she giggled. “You’re funny, Mistress.”
Well, that answers my question.
“For what it’s worth, Corri, I promise I will treat you well. In fact, I will never ask anything of you. I’ve managed on my own so far, so here’s my proposition: let’s be friends.” For some reason, I felt like I couldn’t convince Morningstar to return her. And if I did, what would become of her? A pixie who’d been returned by her Mistress. It couldn’t have ended well. The last thing I wanted was to get this cute, tiny creature in trouble.
The effect of my words was the opposite of what I expected. She turned all panicky and agitated again.
“No, no, no! But you have to ask for things. I am here to help you! I have magic, you see?” She snapped her fingers, and a cab stopped right in front of me as I was about to cross the street. Its wheels screeched, and I yelped. “Time for shopping!”
“I want to go back to the Academy,” I protested. The driver opened the door and patiently waited for me to get in. What was I supposed to do now? I got in.
“Where should it be, Miss?” He flashed me a smile, and his two elongated canines made me think: Vampire!
“Uh… err… Grim Reaper Academy?”
Corri jumped off my arm, flapped her wings twice, and landed in the cup holder. “To the mall!” she declared.
“What? No. I want to go back. I have classes.”
“But your father said…”
“I don’t care what he said.”
“But you need new clothes, Mistress.” She crossed her tiny arms over her flat chest and gave me a once-over. “I can help you find your style.”
“I don’t need a style!”
She pointed her finger at me. “I beg to differ.” She turned to the vampire driver, and he nodded. We were off to the mall. Apparently, I had no say in it. If Morningstar had decided I needed new clothes, then I needed new clothes. And Corri was going to follow his orders over mine. After all, I was her Mistress, but he’d acquired her for me. Wasn’t this just fun?
We got off at the mall, and I paid the driver with my brand-new card. It felt strange… Spending someone else’s money. Money I hadn’t earned, money my mother hadn’t given me. My father had. But not the father I’d always known. At least, with Stepan Lazarov I knew where I stood. Valentine Morningstar was an enigma.
We went through the sliding doors, and that was when I realized this was not the mall Klaus and I had gone to when he’d bought me the dress for Yule Ball. In fact, I’d had no idea this mall existed, and after one year at the Academy and a bunch of trips down to Salem, I had come to know the town quite well. As we entered the wide gallery and I got a better look at the stores and people, I realized this was a mall for supernaturals. Sexy succubi sold lingerie, a vampire girl was doing a makeup demonstration at Sephora, a demon and a mage girl were behind the counter at Guess, and harpies flew around selling drinks and pretzels.
What. In the actual. Fuck. Oh my God! This is insane! I couldn’t help the smile that kept growing and growing on my face. It all made sense. Of course it did! The world of the supernaturals was just a smaller entity within the bigger entity that was the world of humans. They had their own places, their own banks, their own malls, their own… everything!
“I’m thinking… eclectic,” Corri yappity-yapped as we moved from one store to another and checked the brands. Her little voice was starting to get on my nerves, to be honest, but it wasn’t like she could do anything about it. It was fitted to her unique stature. “With your body shape, you can pull anything off. We can go for a frilly, feminine skirt, some leather boots, and T-shirt that looks casual but not quite, and maybe a leather jacket? One of the fancy ones, no studs and zippers. What do you think?”