Read Club Nexus (Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective) for Free Online

from Saturday morning
cartoons.  And though vamps looked yummy enough to my eyes—the faerie ointment
I wore didn’t cut through undead glamour—Ivy had assured me that I didn’t want
to date one.  No matter how sexy their glamour made them look, embracing bones,
fangs, and corpse dust was just not my thing.
    “What about him?” Ivy asked, studying a guy who was standing
further down the bar.  “He looks harmless, for a faerie, and he’s kinda cute.”
    I took in the boyish face and shock of curly, blond hair and
sighed.  He was cute, but not really my type.  He was above average height and
covered in lean muscle, but his golden curls would have suited one of those
creepy, naked babies they put on Valentine’s Day cards and his skin looked softer
than mine.
    “I prefer mature men,” I said.  “He’s probably jailbait.”
    Ivy laughed.
    “I doubt it,” she said.  “He’s probably hundreds of years
older than you.”
    He turned our way and smiled and I nearly rolled my eyes. 
The guy even had dimples.  Ivy waved and I resisted the urge to punch her. 
Jailbait was now walking our way.
    “Great, look what you’ve done,” I whispered.  “Since he’s on
his way over, can you at least tell if he’s Seelie or Unseelie fae?”
    Not that a faerie’s court affiliation meant they were necessarily
good or evil.  Ivy was half wisp and Ceff was a kelpie, both of the Unseelie
court, and they didn’t act like they had gone over to the dark side.  But I
figured it was best to be forewarned.  I just wished faeries walked around with
different colored lightsabers or something so I could tell which team they were
on.
    “I’m a light fae,” the guy said, stepping up to my side. 
“And you must be the lovely human everyone is whispering about tonight.”
    Crap.  Pesky faerie hearing.  I should have learned by now
that the tricksy immortals could hear from across the room, if they wanted to. 
Leave it to me to open my mouth and insert a pair of platform sandals.
    “Um, good to know you’re one of the good guys,” I said. 
“I’m Jinx.”
    “Puck,” he said, reaching for and kissing the back of my
hand.  His green eyes twinkled and that dimple was back, but Ivy was right. 
There was something about him that seemed older than his apparent eighteen or
so years.
    “As in THE Puck?” Ivy asked.
    I pulled my hand back, thankful for the interruption.  For a
moment, I’d felt like Puck and I were standing alone in an ancient forest.  I
wiped my hand down my thigh, wondering if the lingering scent of pine and sound
of dead, rustling leaves was only my imagination.  Had this innocent looking
guy worked some kind of faerie magic on me?  And if kissing my hand had sent us
into some dreamy forest, what would a real kiss do?  A shiver ran along my
spine; I wasn’t sure if I wanted to find out.
    “The one and only,” he said.  He leaned in so close that I
could count the freckles that dotted his nose and cheeks.  “Have you heard of
me?”
    He waggled his eyebrows and Ivy laughed, but I just sat
there, wishing I’d ordered a second drink.  I knew my brain was scrambled after
the encounter with Forneus, but I had no idea what they were talking about.  I
was pretty sure I’d never heard the name Puck in my life.
    “No, are you famous or something?” I asked.
    “More like notorious,” Ivy said, smiling.  “Puck here made
it into Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream .  If the Bard is to
be believed, he’s something of a trickster.”
    Ivy’s mom had been big into Shakespeare, which explained how
my friend had heard of Puck.  I liked old books, music, and movies, but my idea
of retro was the early 1900’s, not the dinosaur age.
    “Thou speak'st aright; I am that merry wanderer of the
night,” he said with a bow.
    So this guy Puck was some kind of celebrity faerie
trickster?  What, exactly, did that mean?
    “So, um, what kind of tricks are we talking about?” I
asked.