Just a Little Pixie Dust

Sarabelle (Chapter 16)

Jacob wouldn’t let me do my job, hell he wouldn’t let me move ten feet without throwing a glare at me and ushering me back into sitting on the ledge of the ambulance. I knew the burns on my back wouldn’t heal for another six to eight hours fully but I’d been in worse, I could still move… This was why I hated when Jacob was around when I was working.

Leaning my head against the cold metal of the ambulance I closed my eyes trying to get my thoughts in order. Who the hell would be trying to kill Jacob? Then one name flashed across my mind.

“Angelica.” Blinking a few times I sat up straight. “Jacob!”

He turned and walked over to me quickly, his brows knitting together in concern. “Yes?”

“Angelica, she’s resentful of you and all of us.” I started wincing when I moved to face him. “What if she did this?”

A light seemed to come on when I said that and he nodded slowly. There was a slam of a door and we both looked to see Eryx coming over towards us with concern etched over his face. He glanced from me to Jacob and back again before crossing his arms over his chest.

“The hell happened here?”

I gave him a quick rundown before reaching back to gingerly touch one of the burns. My body was resenting me today and I couldn’t even once say I blamed it at all for it.

“Listen, tell Izzy what happened when she’s here, I want this place swept fully.” Jacob started and I arched a brow at him. “I want Angelica back in that cell now; make her a high priority case and any and all leads on her need called in.”

“Alright,” Eryx nodded his head “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to get her home for now see if we can’t do something about making her more comfortable with those burns.”

“Jacob…”

“Tink, no, for once you’re going to listen to me alright?”

I just up and looked away from them for a long moment, Eryx and Jacob continued talking for a long moment and the thought I often had crossed my mind.  I couldn’t help but wonder how many people knew about Eryx and Izzy. I saw the way they looked at each other when they didn’t think anyone was looking but… truth be told? Izzy was the closest thing I had to a friend half the time; I didn’t want to ever betray her even if she didn’t trust me sometimes.

Plus, I kind of envied the way they looked at one another sometimes. I was never lucky enough for that, sure I loved Jasper, but he never looked at me as if I were the most precious thing in the world and… Jacob? I stared at him for a long moment, before closing my eyes. Maybe I was just blind and did have that just… I never wanted to accept it.

Shaking my head I pulled myself up from the ambulance ledge and looked over towards them both clearing my throat. When I got the attention of them both I tried to straighten myself as best as I could before breathing out slowly so I could try to ignore the pain some. Crossing my left arm across my chest under my cleavage I narrowed my eyes.

“How do you plan on us getting to my place?”

Eryx threw his keys to Jacob and smiled a little. “I’ll take Gretel’s car. Get home.”

Jacob inclined his head and said thank you quickly before heading over towards me and starting towards the car. When I hissed under my breath and didn’t move fast enough Jacob lifted me up into his arms and I squeaked for a moment. Turning my head to look at him pointedly, he only smirked and walked over to the car to open the door with one hand and putting me in, carefully.

Shutting the door once I was in, he walked to the other side and got himself in, turning the car on and starting to slowly get himself out of the drive. I glared at him as it was all I could do; I wasn’t helpless. He didn’t have to do that and make me look weak. I’d held my own for years now so why did he think I needed help suddenly now?

“Don’t look at me like that, Tink.” He sighed focusing on the road.

“Why did you do that?” I snorted looking away. “I didn’t need help.” 

He groaned and stopped at a light, slamming his hand against the steering wheel and making me jump. “For the love of god, Tinker Bell, for once in your life just accept when you need help!”

I stared at him open mouthed before he started the car again and found his way to my house. I didn’t waste any time getting out of the car as soon as we were there. Slamming the door shut I ignored the pain flaring through my body and went to my door then unlocking it and going in.

“Tink!” I heard Jacob yelling from behind me, as I started for the stairs before I had to actually give into the pain. He was lucky I had to stop. “Tink, please, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry my ass!” I spat at him, glaring daggers at him. “You’re never sorry, you only wish you were and try to be.”

“God damn it, Tink!” His eyes darkened and I flinched at him, he was pissed… more pissed than I’d ever seen him before. “Why can you not just let me help you? Why can everyone else help but me?”

I looked away and tried to start up the stairs again only to be stopped when he grabbed my arm to stop me for a moment. I swallowed slowly and stared at the ground. “Because, I’ve never needed help and no one has ever wanted to help me before.”

“I’m not ‘no one’ am I?” He snorted. “You’ve been stabbed, punched, god knows what else and now you’re burned… Severely at that!”

“And it’ll heal like always because I’m not human!”

“For f***s sake, Tinker Bell,” He ran a hand through his hair glancing around almost unsure of what he wanted to do. “You’re so infuriating!”

Before, I could talk I watched him slam his fist into my wall hard enough it cracked and I winced staring at the wall for a long moment. “You’re fixing that.”

“I will.” He stared down and shook his head. “Tink just let me help. Please.”

My eyes softened for a moment and I sighed, nodding my head. “Fine. Just this once.”

He watched me for a moment then walked over, draping one of my arms around his neck as he helped me up the stairs. I did hate this; I didn’t want to be a damsel in distress… I didn’t want to be stereotypical. People already thought I was the town w***e or something; I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire and did my best to make them just see me as a b***h.

It took us a good while to actually get up all the stairs and to my bedroom but we managed and Jacob helped me get to the bed. I shooed him out changing my clothing with a wave of my hand before crawling onto my bed and curling up a little bit. Jacob was back inside after a few moments and frowning deeply.

“Do you want something to drink?”

“No, but thank you Jacob.” I yawned and glanced to the side. “Go get a shower, I’m going to try and get a nap.”

He nodded his head once. “Alright. If you need something though, just yell alright?”

I smiled and nodded my head. “Course.” As soon as he was gone, I shifted and unlocked my 

phone screen, instantly finding and calling Eryx’s number. I was worried and didn’t get book girls new cell phone number so I couldn’t call her that way. Listening as it rang I began to become bored as hell till I heard a voice.

“Yeah?”

“Eryx? It’s Tink… Is Izzy there yet? I wanted to get her caught up with a bit of stuff.”

There was an awkward pause before I heard a groan and some shuffling. I didn’t like the sounds of any of that at all.. It sounded like something bad was about to happen. And that was what overall worried me the absolute most about the whole entire thing.

“Izzy… never arrived.”

My eyes widened. That wasn’t like her, no matter what was going on she always showed up when called in no matter what she was risking her life daily to protect the people that meant the most to her.

“Wh-What?”

“She never showed up… I called her, went to her house. and couldn’t find her.”

I kept silent for a moment and told him I’d call him back if I needed anything. As soon as the phone was hung up, I dropped it and sat up right ignoring my pain in my back. “Jacob!”

I screamed at the top of my lungs and watched as he came darting out wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. His hair was all over the place dripping wet and I felt so out of place right then and there. Giving a lookover to Jacob, I watched his expressions, smiling to myself at the mere thought of being able to see them more often.

“We need to find Izzy…”

I stared at him and nodded my head slowly before sighing. “We need to figure out who found her and took her first.”

 While Jacob was downstairs I took the time to change my shirt and pants, making sure they were comfortable enough that I could move around in. As soon as I was done I took off downstairs, I didn’t care how much I hurt, Izzy may’ve had her differences with me at times but she was one of the only friends I had and I didn’t want anything happening to her. Getting down the steps I grabbed the keys to Eryx’s car and went head first into Jacob letting out a sound even I didn’t recognize at first.

“Come on, you can drive I don’t mind, but please.” I stared at him handing the keys over to him. 

“It’s Izzy, I can’t let anything happen to her.”

He stared at me for a moment and opened the door heading out and letting me get in the passenger side seat on my own. Opening the glove box I pulled out the gun I knew Eryx kept there and checked the bullets before focusing on the road as Jacob pulled out quickly.

“For someone who claims they don’t care for anyone,” Jacob started with a smirk on his face. “You seem to really care about her.”

“Shut up and drive.”

He laughed and headed towards the station but about half way there my phone went off. Snatching it up quickly, I answered it and heard Eryx on the other end, relief washed over me though it was short lived. As soon as I hung up I glanced at Jacob.

“The school, with the barn near it? We need to go there now.”

Jacob didn’t speak but I knew he heard me when he made a sharp U-turn that was enough to nearly make my head be bashed off my window. Glaring at him as he stepped on the gas I sighed and waited for him to end up where we needed to go. Izzy was safe, for the most part… Eryx said they found another body but he left it at that and I could hear Izzy in the back coughing. That alone was a big tip as to it possibly being really, really bad.

***

I sat back in the seat of the car, watching as the scenery around us changed. I didn’t know what to think of anymore, everything just kept getting weirder and weirder no matter what we did it seemed. Swallowing slowly I stared at the buildings on the street as we sat at a red light, scanning the old bakery that was closed at the moment I narrowed my eyes trying to get a good look at what I saw.

There was a man standing near the front of the shop, I couldn’t make out too many details at first but it had me sitting up straight. When he turned around though my eyes widened and I was sent into my own state of shock. Jasper. I couldn’t be anymore certain of that, it was Jasper. He had a large top hat on his head and grinned when he noticed me looking at him, blinking I turned to Jacob.

“Jacob! Look!” I pointed out the window waiting to see his reaction “Do you see him?”

“Who?”

I stared at him confused and turned to look back out the window to be met with no one there at all. Frowning I stared down and shook my head with a laugh. “My imagination, sorry.”

Jacob looked at me worriedly and sighed before pushing his foot down on the gas. Making a turn he pulled up to the barn and I was met with the sight of red and blue flashing lights and lots of police tape. Getting out of the car when it fully stopped moving, I ducked under the tape after flashing my badge and started towards the barn.

The first thing I noted was the foul stench of blood, that wasn’t good. Finding Eryx, I saw Izzy and made a straight line to her in an instant. Walking up to Izzy I hugged her for a brief moment noting her surprise before frowning deeply at her.

“Where were you?”

“Later.” It was all she said before motioning behind me. “It’s Smeed.”

Shock swept over my body at the name and I stared at her. “What?!” Jacob and I yelled in unison.

I didn’t want to listen, I walked to the scene and looked down at the body. That was Smeed alright, but how? He’d been banished into the book years ago for helping Hook with killing people here so how on Earth was he here and dead? Covering my mouth in shock more than anything I turned and went back towards the others.

“How did he get here?”

Izzy gave me a sad look before stating that she realized the book hadn’t been at the office earlier but thought that someone had just put it back wrong until now. That she believes Kitty may have snatched it to get back at everyone for the things that’d been going on. If the book had been reversed and they were let out then…

My eyes widened at the realization. Jasper could be somewhere, maybe I really had just seen him when we were on our way here. I composed myself quickly and sighed rubbing my temples trying to think of what we could do. When I started to speak, Jacob cut me off and narrowed his gaze at me.

“We’ll have the body taken back to the corner. Eryx, Izzy, you two go home get cleaned up and get some rest. We’ll come back in later tonight, alright?” He turned and looked at me. “I’ll call you all back in when it’s time. They can handle it I do believe.”

I stared at Hansel and Gretel and sighed knowing arguing was going to be futile though I couldn’t disagree with him at all. We did need rest after this night, and Wendy was going to want to make sure I was okay. I was more than sure she’d heard by now. “Fine.”

Eryx nodded his head and frowned at Izzy, I wasn’t sure any of us knew where she’d been yet. 

“We can get back to work after this, I’ll drive you home, Izzy.”

I didn’t get to hear her reply before Jacob was ushering me to Eryx’s car once more, leaving me to wonder how the hell Eryx even got here but I was more than sure he used a patrol car. Izzy probably didn’t turn him down, I knew about them it was so hard not to know plus I could feel it. When they were in the room together the atmosphere just changed, but I was okay with it.

Getting into the car I put on my seat belt and sat in silence for a few moments before speaking when Jacob came in. “Why?”

“Why what?” He asked giving me a pointed look as he started the car up.

“Why did you do that?” I asked and shoved a hand through my hair.

“Because, you’re hurt, Izzy may be hurt, I still can’t process what happened to my house and Eryx looks ready to keel over.” He  said quickly. “Point blank, we all need a few hours.”

He was right again. Sighing, I nodded my head and let him drive in silence back to my home and his new temporary home. I did feel horrible for him, I didn’t know what I could do about his home other than offer up my own for the time being, Izzy probably would’ve but it would’ve then cut in with Eryx time I didn’t want to overstep that boundary for her.