**Chapter nine**
Fairies
*Hailey*
My brother was a fairy. How was that possible?
Everything I knew about fairies was now thrown into question. Was anything Victoria told me true? Or was she just pulling my leg? How was Jace a fairy?
"What's wrong?"
Jace's voice brought me back to reality. "Huh?" I asked dumbly, as he poured food out for Monster.
"You look like you've just been hit with a brick," he explained. "You okay?"
I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think so." I would only make Jace think I'm a bigger freak than I already am if I didn't act normal.
He raised an eyebrow at me. "You sure?"
I nodded again, more firmly this time. "Yep, I'm just tired. I didn't get much sleep last night," I said easily. It wasn't a complete lie, either.
He smirked at me. "Funny, I didn't either. Though I doubt the reason you didn't get a lot of sleep was because of your hot Asian co-worker Kim-" he started to say, but I cut him off.
"Stop," I said, raising a hand. "I don't want to hear anymore."
Jace's smirk grew wider. "Aw, but Kim could be your future sister-in-law, Hails," he joked.
"Is that her bra?" I asked, gesturing to the purple bra on his couch.
Jace frowned. "No."
"Then there's no way she's going to be my sister. You're too much of a manwhore to settle down." I smirked back at him.
He placed a hand over his heart and feigned hurt. "Ugh, the pain," he said. "For all you know, I could settle down with a nice girl and have a small army of children in the next five years."
"You probably already have a small army of children, Jace," I retorted. "They're just illegitimate."
He smirked at me. "Whatever, Auntie Hailey."
I rolled my eyes, all thoughts of Jace being a fairy almost lost in our banter. "Let's just get going, okay?"
"Fine," he said easily, grabbing his bottle. "Let's walk. That way we can both drink."
After Jace said goodbye to Monster- who growled in response- we walked out of his apartment building and down the streets of Casper Heights. It didn't have the same quaintness as Mystic Falls, more of a small, washed up town that was struggling just to remain on the map.
My plot to find out if Jace actually was a fairy was simple: find out more about him, and then judge for myself if he was one. If I thought he was, I'd confront him about it. That was what we Ellis' were best at- confronting others but rather awkward things. That, and drinking.
"So, the park," I stated as we walked through the rather pathetic park. There wasn't one green plant in sight. "Is this where you went after you snuck out at night, and got drunk and or high?"
Jace smirked down at me. "I'm not a druggie, Hails. Just an alcoholic. But yeah, basically. That," he pointed to a bush. "Is where I lost my virginity to Claire Hawthorne when I was fourteen."
I wrinkled my nose. "Can we just not talk about your sex life?" I asked.
"Why not? I enjoy it." He grinned.
"More like you enjoy grossing me out," I muttered.
"Yeah, especially that," Jace agreed.
I rolled my eyes at my brother. He may be twenty one, but he was more immature than an eight year old. Granted, I was about as mature as a ten year old, and girls matured faster than boys. "Can we start with the tour of your juvenile history?" I asked, taking the bottle from him.
"Sure thing," Jace said, before gesturing towards a park bench. "That's where I slept whenever I was too drunk to go home or to call my best friend, Chuck. He was my version of an Elena, I guess. Only he was more of my partner in crime than my one phone call."
I sighed. "I wish Elena would be my partner in crime. She'd be so much more fun."
"Yeah, but you'd be in a lot more trouble than you have been," he pointed out.
I smirked up at Jace. "Trouble is fun."
"No need to tell me that, Hails. I've been getting into trouble before you could talk," he countered, taking his bottle back.
I just rolled my eyes. "You got totally screwed over on this bourbon, by the way," I said. It was very weak. I didn't even have a buzz.
He frowned and took an experimental sip. "That's because it's water."
"So, you did get screwed over on this bourbon," I repeated with a raised eye.
He shook his head. "No, Slim wouldn't-" he suddenly cursed. "Freaking Cara. She switched the bottles on me. God, vengeful psychology majors are the worst."
"Who's Slim?" I asked, curious.
Jace suddenly broke out into a smile. "Jonathan Parker the third. Slim, for short. He's almost always stoned, but he's a genius. Certified, I think. I don't know, he won't tell me. He comes from a really rich, snooty family, but they kicked him out on his ass when he was fifteen. So now he runs the bar I work at and deals pot. He's been getting me drunk since I knew what drunk was."
I smiled a bit nostalgically. It sounded like Slim was to Jace what Ava had been to me. A unpleasant pang hit my heart when I thought about her. She had been dead for almost a year, but I still missed her.
"Let's go to the bar," Jace said suddenly. "We need more booze and you can meet my friends."
"Jace has friends?" I teased. "How adorable."
He rolled his green eyes, identical to mine. "Let's just go."
It was a five minute walk to the bar Slim's. It had the closed sign on the door, but Jace walked in anyway, holding the door open for me and gesturing for me to go inside.
"Hey!" a woman's voice snapped, and I heard high heels clicking against the ground as the woman marched towards us. "Can't you read? We're closed! And here I thought that Casper heights was at least literate-"
A pretty young woman with dark curls froze when her eyes landed on Jace. Then she glared at him with the intensity of the burning sun. "Get. Out," she hissed.
Jace sighed. "Cara-" he started to say, but was cut off when she threw a glass bottle at him. He just dodged it. "Woah! There's not need to throw things now!"
"Get out, Jace!" Cara exclaimed, while I watched, amused. So she was the psychology major who pyscho-analyzed my brother when he broke her heart. She was pretty, but her deep brown eyes were full of loathing as she stared at him.
"I work here too, Cara," he argued.
"Well, you're fired!" she shouted, her eyes blazing.
He rolled his eyes at her. "You can't fire me, Cara. I've worked here longer than you have, and Slim likes me better. The only reason he kept your ass around was because you look hotter in a miniskirt than I do."
"You just don't have the legs for skirts, dude."
Slim was the stereotypical hippie, with long hair and an easygoing air. He had kind eyes and a friendliness about him that drew people in. He wasn't completely ugly either, but the fact that he had longer hair than me wasn't a turn on.
"What's going on here?" A short, stocky guy with curly blonde hair followed Slim in. I guessed he was Chuck. His blue eyes instantly went to me and he smirked. 'well, hello there."
Jace frowned at him. "Dude, she's my sister."
Cara dropped the pitcher she had been holding, dumping water all over the ground. "Sister?" she asked, shocked.
Yes! All my fantasies have come true!" Chuck exclaimed, before looking apologetically at Jace. "Sorry dude, I'm still going to go after her, even if she is your sister."
"I will punch your teeth out," Jace told him seriously.
I laughed slightly. "Not that I don't appreciate your appreciation, but I have a boyfriend," I told him.
He sighed. "Of course you do. All the hot ones are either taken or crazy." Chuck looked meaningfully at Cara. "And you fall into the second category."
But Cara wasn't paying attention to him. her gaze was focused on me. "I bet you're just like him too," she muttered. "You're probably a slut."
"Cara!" Jace frowned at her.
"Chill out, Care," Slim said.
I narrowed my eyes at her and left humorlessly. "You're a new kind pathetic, aren't you?"
She glared at me. "You don't know anything about me, bitch."
It must've been my heightened emotions, but I really wanted to drain her dry at that moment. "Honey, don't start shit you can't finish," I told her.
"Hailey," Jace said in a warning tone, but I wasn't paying any attention to him.
Cara managed to punch me in the jaw before I pushed her across the bar like she was a ragdoll. That crazy human bitch was no match for me. Her head smacked against a counter, and she gasped in pain.
"Bitch!" she hissed, getting ready to stand up. Suddenly, a line of fire formed between us, separating us.
"Oh shit!" Chuck ran to get an extinguisher, while I stared, wide eyed at my brother. His lips were pressed in a firm line, his gaze focused on the fire.
This was all the proof I needed.
"Jace, can I talk to you? Outside?" I asked him. I knew of only one way to break him into the supernatural world he was undoubtedly apart of. Bluntly and without warning.
"Yeah, sure."
We walked out of the bar and down an alley. "Sorry about Cara. She's crazy," Jace said, I waved his apology away.
"What I'm about to tell you is going to seem crazy, but you need to listen and not run away, okay?" I said seriously.
Jace frowned at me. "What are you talking about, Hailey?"
I took a deep breath. "You're a fairy, Jace. And I'm a fairy-vampire hybrid."
~EL~
A/N: thank you to: nickiR0x, Samantha meyers, MissCaityGrace, David Fishwick, and SomebodyWhoCares for reviewing!
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~Abby :D
