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  Chapter Fifteen

  (Not Three Years Ago Anymore)

  "In other news, famous actor Christopher Livingston has annouhat he will be colleg money for charity. When asked which charity he will be colleg for, he threw a chair at the reporter."

  "I'll throw a chair at you!"

  Beating his chest like a tiny flying goril, Ethan zipped up to the tv and gred defiantly at the newswoman.

  "Today in Mt. Valiant, Colorado, a new world record was set by Sarah Lee Enkins for the most gumballs swallowed in one mihe previous record, thirty seven gumballs, was nearly doubled by Miss Enkins with seventy gumballs! Our hopes and prayers go with Miss Enkins, who is now in the hospital haviomach pumped."

  "I'll pump your stomach!” Ethan yelled. He raised a timeter-wide fist and puhe s. A ring of discoloration rippled across the reporter's forehead and disappeared. "Oh! Ooohhhhh! How's that? You want some more? DO YOU WANT SOME MORE OF THAT, NEWS LADY?"

  Sitting on the couch, chuckled at Ethan's little fairy antics. I sat beside him, trying not to let my face show how many somersaults my stomach was doing.

  "Go for the eyes," ughed. Ethan immediately began throwing little jabs at the newswoman's eyes.

  "Don't ence him," I said. "If the tv gets messed up, you know Mom and Dad are gonna bme me."

  "Little dude's funny."

  Still, leaned ba the coud left Ethan to his own fickle little fairy whims. When the reporter never rose to his taunts, Ethaually got bored and flew up to the ceiling, where he hitched a ride on the fan.

  I had been a little iffy about showihan to . Grandpa Teddy knowing was bad enough. was no snitch, though, and it had only taken fifteen mio figure out that keepihan locked in my room all night would be like keeping a rhino inside a cage made of paperclips. A rhino on a major caffeine rush. So when Mom and Dad had annouhey were going out for the evening, I'd given into pixie peer pressure a him out to watch tv.

  Not that I’d had a choice. I couldn't have e down here a Ethan alone in my room. In his current state, there was no telling what he would do. But I o keep an eye on tonight, and how was I supposed to do that from upstairs?

  That didn't make what I was doing any easier, though. Spying on my older brother? I felt like camel puke just thinking about it. But I had to do this. Grandpa Teddy thought was murdering people. As much as I hated to admit it, I couldn't fault his reasoning. A ghul was clearly behind the killings—and lo and behold, here was a ghul! It was only on seo suspect .

  That's why this was so important. Whether I liked it or not, I had to spy on if I wao prove he wasn't behind this. Every night since he'd e home, he had go. Every time he left, he hadn’t gotten batil m. If he was out giving people heart attacks—which he wasn't!—that's when it would happen. Ghuls 't use their powers during the day, so from dusk till dawn is when they e out to hunt. All I had to do rove wasn't spending those hours doing you-know-what, and he'd be in the clear. Then I could track down the real ghul and put ao all this.

  "So, you think yonna stick with this one?" asked as Ethan came down from the fan, spinning drunkenly through the air.

  At first I'd been worried would be offended by Ethan's…what's the word…recreational use of the drug he depended on to live. To my surprise, though, he'd accepted Ethan's story immediately.

  Ethan crash nded on the couch between us and stood up, swaying and almost losing his bance. "I dun. I like being able to fly, but I could do without being so small."

  "Told you," I huffed.

  Ethan jabbed a fi me. "You didn't tell hin', you—whoop!"

  He vanished for a sed, falling iween the cushions. irked as we listeo him curse, his voice muffled, until a tiny blue hand finally broke the surfad he hauled himself back up.

  "I'LL LIGHT THIS THING ON FIRE!" he screamed. He raised his hands, balls of electricity crag in his palms, and I reached out and flicked the back of his head before he could exact retribution on our furniture. That light tap sent him sprawled out on his face.

  "VENGEANCE! I WILL HAVE VENGEANCE!"

  "How about instead of vengeance, you have a snack?" I asked, reag into my pocket and produg a single chocote chip.

  Ethan's eyes went wide, and he held out his hand—but then took a step back. "How long has that been in your pocket?"

  I shrugged. "You want it or not?"

  Ethaated, his teeth ched from the effort, but he finally caved and grabbed the little sweet from my fingers. The stupid thing was as big as his head, yet when he sank his teeth into it, it was obvious he wasn't going to stop until the whole thing was gone.

  I sighed. For a sed there, I'd seen the real Ethan. The Ethan who was smart enough not to eat dy out of somebody's pocket. Especially my pocket.

  "," I said, pulling his attention from the tv again, "think you could do your precious little sister a favor?"

  "That depends on what it is and how many body parts I'll lose." He fshed me a grin.

  "I need you to tell this idiot," I poi Ethan, "that he's being an idiot. Only idiots do what he's doing, so he o stop being an idiot."

  "Actually, I think sprites are just like that."

  I rolled my eyes. "Not that! I mean—"

  "I know what you mean," ughed. "But it's not really my decision, is it?"

  "Graaahhhhh!" I yelled in frustration, slumping backwards on the couch. "Why does everyone I know have to be so open minded and accepting? Would it kill you people to be a little judgmental? Just once?”

  “Fine, I’ll give it a shot,” said with a ugh, then looked down at the little blue terror. “Ethan, why do you want this so bad?”

  Ethan immediately looked away. “I just think it’s cool, okay? Mind your own beeswax!”

  I s him. “Do you really expect us to believe that? There’s something—”

  held up a hand, and I fell silent. “You’re n, dude. It is pretty cool!”

  Ethan’s face immediately lit up, and he rose a few feet into the air so he was at eye level with . “Right? Being able to turn into anything you want is freaking awesome!”

  “Trust me, though, it gets old.”

  Ethan gave him a stunned look, which I’m sure was almost identical to my own.

  shrugged. “It’s true! Take it from somebody who knows: the y wears off fast. Oh sure, it’s cool and different at first, but ohat goes away…” He sighed. “Eventually, no matter how cool the thing you’ve turned into is, you’ll start to miss being what you really are.”

  I opened my mouth to say something, but the words wouldn’t e out. What exactly had he meant by that? Was he trying to say that he missed being a ghul? That despite all the horrible things he’d been through before he met me, and the amazing life I’d given to him, there was still a part of him that wao go back to being a lowly fear-sucker? Having to live in hiding no matter where he went, an outcast from existeself, something to be hunted and killed if he were discovered?

  No, that couldn’t have been it. He was just trying to get through to Ethan. Who would ever want to go back to the life he had before he’d met me?

  “Lies!” Ethan yelled. “Lies and treachery! Off with your head!”

  He spun to face me, raised his hands, and a tiny bolt of electricity arced from his fiips to shock me on the nose.

  “Ow!” I yelled, springing to my feet. “What was that for, you Smurfs reject?”

  He flew away from me. “Treason! You’ve been spiring against me from the start! And now you’ve poisoned your older brainst me too! I will have your head!”

  I drew Sptsy, keeping her in ping pong paddle form, and chased after him. He shot up into the air above me, and I whipped Sptsy over my head like a flyswatter, trying to knock him back down to earth. He skillfully wove around Sptsy’s paddle, though, and blew a raspberry from the other side of the living room.

  “Youuu suuuck, youuu suuuck!” he sang in his irritatingly high pitched voice. “Who sucks? You suck! You suck, suck, SUCK!”

  I fumed, my cheeks burning blue. Still sitting on the couch, was r with ughter by now. I gripped Sptsy and got ready to have ano at Ethan. I would smack him from one side of the house to—

  Beep! Beep! Beep!

  In an instant, all the ughter was gone from ’s face. With an expression as serious as the grave, he raised the sleeve of his bck trench coat to uhe wristwatch that was beeping its shrill arm at us, and switched it off.

  “I’ve got to go,” he said, standing up.

  I lowered Sptsy, my quest for revenge fotten. “What’s up? You got somewhere to be?”

  “I, uh…” He made for the front door, refusing to look me in the eye. “It’s my new job. I deliver pizzas. Night shift.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “You got a job? I thought you were only going to be home from school for a few days!”

  “Yeah, it’s, uh, a temporary thing.” He put on his N.O.S.E., morphing into his human persona before my eyes. “Just to get some spending money before I head back, you know?”

  “But you—”

  “Look, I’ve really got to go!” he said, hesitating just ihe door. “I ’t be te for work. See you in the m, sis!”

  Before I could say another word, he smmed the door behind him and was gone. I stood there for a few seds, too stuo move, to speak, or even think. Then, with a horrible feeling of dread, I headed for the door too.

  “e on,” I said. “We’re going after him.”

  Ethan flew over to nd on my shoulder as I donned my own N.O.S.E. “Why? You think he’ll give us a free pizza?”

  “He’s not delivering pizza,” I said softly.

  Ethan gave me a curious look. “He’s not? How do you know?”

  I threw open the door aured into the chilly, foreboding night.

  “Because he doesn’t have a driver’s lise.”