The light faded, and a floating silver necklace with a black heart shaped pendant dangled before her eyes. Galeta snatched it, the pendant was twice the size of her head-- but the fairy hefted it as it weighed no more than a feather. She buzzed around Betty.
Betty twisted as the fairy slammed the pendant against Gerard’s naked chest. He hadn’t moved. But his jaw flexed, and the muscle in his cheek ticked as his dark blue eyes burned holy fury.
“Bound,” Galeta continued.
As she spoke, the black pendant swirled with bands of thick crimson and swirls of liquid gold. A blue light pulsed from around Gerard’s chest where the pendant rested. His teeth clenched, the spasms of his muscles traveled through Betty’s palm. Beads of sweat popped out on his brows. But he didn’t mutter a sound of protest.
Betty hugged his arm to her chest wanting to ease his obvious pain.
“So mote it be.” When Galeta recited those words, Betty’s skin tingled and all the fine hairs on her body stood up.
Gerard dropped her hand. Betty wanted to ask him what had just happened. She’d seen it, but she’d understood nothing. But he was like a live wire. Anger spit off him like exploding bits of hot shrapnel, and Betty winced, not wanting to draw his ire in her direction. His eyes were flat, hard, and almost black, burning into Galeta with murderous intentions.
For her part, the fairy seemed completely oblivious. Or uncaring, which was more likely the case. She turned and held the necklace out to Betty. “It’s yours. Enjoy it.” As she made to pass it to Betty’s outstretched hand, she snapped her wand out and pointed directly at Gerard’s manhood. “Mortuus!” she boomed, and a bright burst of blue engulfed the lower half of his body like flames.
“Gerard,” Betty cried when he fell to his knees with a loud grunt.
“Galeta, by the goddess,” Danika screamed, “what have you done?”
Gerard’s back bowed so hard Betty thought his spine might crack. His bellow of pain shook the frame of her house.
Then the light died and Galeta smirked. “Vengeance is sweet.” She turned glowing eyes on Betty and tossed the pendant at her. Betty jumped out of the way, fearing the thing might burn her. Instead she wrapped her arms around Gerard’s back, he heaved, and like someone experiencing electroshock therapy, his every muscle twitched. Betty grabbed his face. A grayish pallor tinted the lines around his mouth.
“Look at me,” she cooed, trying to get him to focus on something other than the pain, “ssh, that’s good. That’s good.” She petted him in a soothing up and down motion on his back. Finally lucidity stared back at her instead of pain.
He gripped her wrist.
“Pathetic,” Galeta whispered one final word of hate before vanishing in a puff of blue smoke.
“I’m fine,” he said, jaw tight and working back and forth. “Fine.” He stood, leaning heavily on Betty’s shoulder, and Danika hovered in front of them.
“What just happened?” Betty snapped her frustration. Danika winced.
“The petite chienne neutered me,” he spat and then coughed.
“What the hell? Neutered?” Betty looked at Danika, heart trapped like moth’s wings in her throat.
Danika squeezed her eyes shut. “I feared she’d do something like this. I feared and yet she still took me by surprise.” She shook her head and looked hard at Betty.
“What does that mean exactly?”
“Means I’m done having sex,” Gerard growled. He stepped away from Betty and without looking back at either of them marched back down the hallway.
Betty gazed at the empty door for a second before turning back to Danika.
Danika gripped her finger. “Betty Hart, there is a way. There is a way to undo this curse, but you are the key. Hear me, girl, and hear me well. Galeta has sought to put Gerard down for ages. There’s a vendetta between them, old but deep. I don’t know what it is, but I feared when I discovered who’d head his hearing, she’d find a way to exact revenge.”
Comprehension at this point was nil. Betty had zero idea what the fairy rambled on about, in fact she could barely understand what’d just happened. She shook the little fairy off. As far as she was concerned, this one could be just as bad as the nasty piece of work that’d just left. There wasn’t a single reason to believe a word of what Danika said.
The necklace hung in the air as if suspended on wires, Betty eyed it like one would a snake ready to strike.
“Oh, dear me,” Danika sighed, grabbing her chest, “what a fine mess. Oh, my dear, truly I’m so sorry.”
Had any of that been real? And yet she only had to look at the glowing red pendant to see proof positive that she’d not totally lost her mind. Not to mention the bruise she was sure she’d have on her shoulder tomorrow morning, the muscle still throbbed where his fingers had dug in. And then of course there was the matter of fairy dressed in tree bark and covered in dew, yeah, all pretty convincing examples she’d not gone nutters.
“Who are you, what is that, and who is he?” Betty turned, glaring at the tiny fairy whose smile wobbled.