White Roses

Chapter Nine: Faerie Wine

“I know I'm going to sound stupid when I ask this, but what does it mean when the book says, 'stealing his essence'?” I asked as I took another sip of coffee.

Drake gagged a little and coughed like something was caught in his throat before looking at Ruth, who turned as red as her hair, and looked at me.

She looked at Drake and stated, "You're her protector." 

"You're a woman though." Drake said, staring at Ruth like a defeated champion who never lost a game in his life, which was entertaining, but I still felt confused as to what they were talking about. 

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ruth asked with a frown.

"You have...a deeper connection?" Drake tried to reason, but it sounded more like a question to me. "Women are connected with the lovely, magical gift of childbirth." 

"Magical gift, my foot! You're her protector and guardian, now act like it by telling her what essence means." Ruth demanded with a glare as Drake glared at her, but he faltered by twitching, looking at me and sighing.

Drake cleared his throat as I saw a faint blush paint his cheeks. "Essence is another word for a man's...seed." 

"Seed?" Drake nodded as I rolled my eyes. "Geeze, why did you two make such a big deal about it?"

Drake and Ruth both sighed in a overdramatic manner as Drake hit his head on the book while Ruth hit her head on the table.   

"My point being," She sighed and looked at me. “That means she’s probably here to kill someone.” 

I already figured that with the fact that she tried to set me on fire, or as she liked to call it, "bring me to her lord", but steal the essence of males? Sounds sort of creepy and scary, but considering I dealt with crazy faeries who wanted to chop off my head and eat my liver; it's not the worst case scenario in the world. If she is here to kill someone then I should be able to stop her, but that seemed too easy. 

“I doubt it,” Drake said, “she’s been very good for the past few years and has become a favorite of the queen. She’s been able to control her urges for the queen.”  

Wait, then who's the lord that she was talking about earlier? She wanted me as a birthday gift or something along those lines if I remember correctly, which I'm sure I did seeing as how someone trying to set me on fire is hard to forget. 

“That’s like saying vampires can stop drinking blood.” I said, “All they need to do is switch to animal blood!” 

Drake cocked an eye brow at me before shaking his head like I was the weirdest girl in the world. 

Ruth ignored this and sat stiffly with her right index finger in the air. “The point being is that she’s bad and probably after some boy’s essence. We need to stop her.” Why was she looking at me if ‘we’ needed to stop her so badly? “So, any plans?” 

“Gee, with that rotting book I thought you’d figure out everyth-” Ruth suddenly opened the book. 

She pointed to a picture of what looked like a Japanese print of the Huli Jing. She wore a pretty green kimono that barely clung to her shoulders as she danced barefoot which supposedly was bad for some reason. She looked out into the viewer and smiled while she danced. She held a white skull in her hands as the bracelets that hung around her tiny wrists were going to start jingling at any moment.

“Literally translates as “fox spirit”, but in modern times it now a term for a whore, slut, etc. Or worse, dangerous seductress." Ruth explained. "Chinese foxes are earnest scholars, dedicated rakes, devoted lovers, seductresses par excellence, tricksters, poltergeists, drinking companions, karmic avengers, and always, always great moralizers.”