Pixie Dust (Pixie Dust Chronicles 1)

“Well, I’ve been feeling…..different lately. I think my immortality is getting closer and I was hoping you could answer some questions I had about that.”

“Okay…and then what? Are you going to kick me out of your house again?” Ouch! Yep, he was definitely still mad at me. Okay, take a deep breath girl, you can do this.

“No! Well, I wasn’t planning on it anyway. Listen, I can come by your place if it makes it easier on you. I’ll even bring some pizza and beer. Does that sound doable?”

“Yeah, that sounds okay I suppose.” He replied. “I’ll be off work around six. You can come by after. Does that work for you?”

“Yeah, that sounds great.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then. I’ll text you my address in a sec. Call me if you have any trouble with directions along the way.”

“I will.” I said. “Thanks for this Vance. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem Karli.” Click.

Okay, so that got off to a rough start but I think it ended well. I was hoping he had time to simmer down by now but apparently I’m not that lucky. Hey, at least he agreed to meet with me. And as a bonus, I get to see where he lives. I don’t know why but I find myself awfully curious about his home. I’ve always thought that someone’s house can give you great insight into their lives. He’s so guarded all the time that I have trouble reading him. Hopefully the enigma named Vance will be a little easier to understand after tonight. My phone beeped indicating the arrival of his text. I went over to my laptop and googled directions to his house.

Chapter 17

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Vance lived outside of Vegas, in nearby Henderson. Around six, I threw a six pack of Corona into my car and hopped on the Beltway, driving East. There was this great little pizza place only a few miles away from his house so I went into Mario’s to grab a large pepperoni then proceeded on my way. I pulled into the maze of Spanish styled homes that lined his neighborhood and found his house. He had a modern single level home with stucco siding and a tile roof. His yard was well maintained with the standard rock landscaping that you’d find anywhere in the desert. I don’t know what I expected but it certainly wasn’t this. Vance lived in textbook suburbia; a place where you raised a family and coached little league. I pictured him as more of a small bachelor pad condo type of guy. This was definitely going to skew my perspective. Hmm.

I parked in his driveway and took a moment to breathe before getting out of my car. I walked up to the front door, setting the beer down so I could ring the doorbell. He opened it a moment later and nearly took my breath away. He was wearing a pair of well worn jeans that hugged him in all the right places. His deeply tanned chest was bare, except for a small towel that hung around his neck catching stray droplets from his wet hair. I forgot why I was here for a sec and just stared at him like an idiot.

“Hi. I see you found the place okay.” He nodded towards the pizza. “Can I grab that from you?”

“Um, yeah that’d be great. Thanks.” I handed him the box, then watched him as he bent over to grab the beer. Oh my, I just got a perfect view of his amazing ass. I reached out to grab it but came to my senses before he noticed me.

“You okay?” He asked. “You seem distracted.” Yeah, distracted by your delicious body.

“Yep, I’m fine.” I lied.

“Come on in. Let me set this in the kitchen.”

He led me through the foyer into an oversized great room. Standing in the archway, I glanced around. The living room had vaulted ceilings with brushed gold tiled floors and a large area rug. The walls were painted a spiced gingerbread color and had several well placed abstract paintings. There was a corner fireplace with a TV mounted above it. Against the wall was a large sofa table covered with framed photos of various sizes. Some of them looked antique. A beige leather sectional with a coffee table sat in the center of the room. Wow, definitely not what I was expecting.

The kitchen was just as impressive. The golden granite countertops matched the Travertine below. There were dark cherry cabinets with stainless steel appliances throughout. You had your choice of two dining areas: a large rounded breakfast bar with four iron stools or a dark cherry dinette set towards the back. I could easily picture a family of four sitting at that table getting ready to meet the day.

“Wow. Nice place you have here.”

“Thanks.” He put the beer in the fridge. “You want one?” He asked, holding up a bottle.

“Yeah sure, thanks.” I replied.

He handed me a beer and gestured for me to have a seat on the couch. He took the towel to his head. “I just got out of the shower.” He said apologetically. “I’ll be right back; I need to throw on a shirt.” I couldn’t resist the urge to check out his ass again as he walked down the long hallway.

When he returned, he was wearing a white t-shirt that displayed his pecs beautifully. I checked my lower lip for drool. He went into the kitchen to grab some pizza and napkins before joining me on the couch. Handing me a plate he asked, “So what did you want to talk about? You said you’ve been feeling different. How so?”

Okay, I needed to choose my words carefully here. The last thing I needed to do was to tell him that I was lifting warm and fuzzy feelings from Leo’s brain last night. Let me think…. “Well, I feel like I might be tapping into my psychic abilities,” I finally said. “Like maybe I was sensing other peoples’ feelings? You know, around the bar.” Phew! I got through that with no mention of hot vampires.

“What did it feel like exactly?” He asked. Oh, I don’t know. Absolutely wonderful! Nope, can’t say that.

“Um…it’s kinda hard to explain.” I replied. “I guess it felt more like an instinct, rather than just reading someone’s body language. Like I knew, without a doubt that I was feeling other peoples’ emotions. What do you think? Is that possible?”

“I think you’re right. It does sound like you’re tapping your powers. Usually you would have to focus on reading someone though. Being an Empath would be quite debilitating if you couldn’t turn it off. Did it happen just once? What were you doing when you noticed it?” Oh shit, how am I going to get myself out of this one?

“Uh, I don’t really remember exactly what I was doing at the time. I was at work so I’m sure it was something related.” Hey, my apartment is close enough to being at work, isn’t it? “I think it just happened once though. It was really just a quick flash of something.”