Recover: Book 2 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

32: Tainted Line

August 2017

When we returned from our trip to Italy a week later on a Tuesday evening, still with no sign of a solution in sight, Ben was over the moon about something.

"I've got a lead," he said before Jayce and I could even put our bags on the ground in the foyer.

"You have?" Jayce said, eagerly coming closer.

"Terra fairies, they're called," Ben said. Then he began to describe a mystical fairy, with poisonous blood and shocking abilities that supposedly now lived in Australia. He explained how some 'vampire' had tried to wipe them out—evidently my uncle—and that the only signs of one now are the blood and shocks. Finally, he said their magic would have to be activated to access their full fairy, but the poisonous blood was always there. "We just have to find one," he muttered, face falling a little.

Heaving a sigh, I said, "So the only way to know is if someone zaps us in the street?"

"Basically." Ben became more deflated with each conversation exchange, realising we'd be looking for a needle in a haystack.

"Well..." Jayce started, "I suppose it's a solution. But we should keep looking for others unless we come across one of these fairies."

"Did the book you read this in have any indication about where a colony of them might live other than Australia?" I asked. We all knew vampires could rarely travel there because of the UV rays, and if a vampire touching them was the only way to know if they were one... sending a witch would be useless. So we'd have to hope we stumbled across one here. And with over 700 million people in Europe...

"I... ah... didn't read about it," Ben mumbled, his gaze turning to the ground, his cheeks tinting with pink.

"What?" Jayce pressed. "Then how did you learn about it?"

"Well... the lore books don't exist here. There's only one set in the whole world, and it's somewhere in Australia. I met a person at the library who told me about them because they've read the books." There was a slight spark in his eye as he mentioned them.

Someone he met... My stomach churned at the thought of him talking to Olivia... But it's impossible. If Ollie had such a solution, she surely would have told me. I immediately shook the thought from my mind, realising it was a stupid worry.

"Ooo!" a voice cajoled from the stairway as he descended the stairs. The thing that always threw me about Ivan was that he looked like he was on the brink of death—with his pasty white skin, dark eyes and hair, and hollowed cheeks—yet he spoke with such buoyancy that didn't match his appearance. "Benny... do you have a crush?"

"What?" Ben gasped, head flicking around to look at Ivan as he took the final steps, joining us in the foyer. "Of course not..." Though Ben's cheeks tinged pink again as he glanced at the floor, before his eyes flickered up to mine.

Not a crush on this person... but still one on me, my thoughts sighed.

As Ivan nudged Ben with his elbow, waggling his eyebrows, continuing to tease the blue-eyed beauty, my own brows began to furrow as I studied Ben. Especially after he uttered, "I got what I needed from them, so I won't be seeing them again."

"If you like them—" Ivan started, but Ben finally snapped.

"I don't like them! Stop it already."

We all flinched away from him, eyes wide. Even Erica crept up the stairs from the media room, staring at Ben.

He never shouted...

Horror washed over Ben's face as he realised the level of emotion he had shown us all. Turning on his heel, he ran up the stairs with immense speed, his door to his room gently thudding closed moments later.