The woman turned around, showing off eyes that were the same color as her hair. She smiled cheerfully. "Power was.h.i.+ng! It's a nifty skill I developed using my power to shoot water out of my hands. If I control the pressure properly I can get rid of virtually any grime.

"I got the idea from some humans, actually. I saw a commercial a while back about power washers and figured it couldn't be too hard. It took a bit of practice but I got it in the end." She tilted her head and eyed him curiously. "Do you live here? I thought this castle belonged to the elf who hired us."

Ash realized he wasn't wearing his glamour. He would be able to pa.s.s for an elf if not for the fact that his eyes were red and his fangs were sticking out. Both races were tall, lean, and had slightly pointed ears.

"No…this place is mine. The elf, uh, works for me."

It was technically true. According to their deal Ruby would continue making money for him to fix this place up until her wing healed. That sort of made her an employee.

The water fairy raised an eyebrow. "An elf working for a vampire? I've never heard of such a thing."

Ash shrugged. "It's the truth. Where is she anyway? Did you happen to see where she went?"

"Last I saw the elf was outside. Your castle is filthy by the way. How did you even let it get this bad?" the fairy asked accusingly. "Not that I mind since we're getting paid well. But I can't even imagine living like this."

He scowled. It wasn't like he wanted to be living like this either. His last castle had been clean and comfortable before it burned down. The general structure should still be intact, if charred, but it wasn't safe there anymore.

"I've only been here a few days. Cleaning this entire place by myself isn't exactly my forte."

"Oh," the fairy said disinterestedly before getting back to her power was.h.i.+ng.

Ash was seriously questioning her customer service skills before remembering that technically the customer was Ruby, not him. He didn't know what the cleaning rates were these days but this place was large enough to fit a mid-sized coven so it would likely take the fairies days to get it all done.

That couldn't be cheap. What exactly had she done to get the money for this and the exterminators?

He didn't like being awake during daylight hours but there was no going back to sleep now. With a sigh, Ash set off in search of the cause of all this noise. They needed to exchange words.

He found the "elf" puttering around in the overgrown garden behind the castle. It seemed almost like she was appraising it to see its potential. Fairies really were obsessed with anything to do with their element, weren't they?

"I said you could bring people to fix this place up but didn't expect it to disturb my sleep this much," Ash said tetchily, pulling his hood even farther down over his face.

Afternoon sunlight was the worst because it always got in his eyes. And he was already not in the best mood after two days of disturbed rest and that judgy water fairy giving him a hard time about his c.r.a.ppy castle. There was no need to tell him what he already knew!

Ruby gave him an apologetic grimace. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it would be so loud. I can buy you some ear plugs if you like. The extermination is done but they want to come back in a week to be sure they didn't miss any. The cleaning…might take a while.

"Then you'll have to replace the furniture. I'm not sure who to call for that…you might need to get humans involved. I don't know any fae furniture makers off the top of my head. It's not like I can look it up online either."

Ash sighed. He didn't either but if anybody would know it would be Blair Netzley at the apothecary. She knew pretty much everybody in the fae community.

"I can figure that out later," he said begrudgingly. "Right now I'm more concerned where you got the money to do all of this."

Ruby's expression immediately became guarded. "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies. I didn't do anything illegal, if that's what you're implying. You won't get in trouble for this."

If she didn't do anything illegal how did she pull this off? He was curious but decided it wasn't wise to push her. Being nosy wasn't in his nature anyway; he could let this slide.

He raised his hands above his head to attest to his innocence but his sleeves slipped down a little exposing part of his forearms. He hissed as he began feeling sun sickness coming on. Why weren't his gloves enough? Did he need to start wearing elbow-length ones outside? He would look ridiculous.

Ruby frowned, noticing he was swaying. "You okay?"

"Sun sickness," Ash explained wearily. "I should really get back inside but don't know if anywhere is safe with all the cleaning fairies around. Which reminds me…why are you hiding your ident.i.ty from your own kind?"

She looked at him like he was stupid. "These people all know my aunt and uncle. Duh. They'll report me in two seconds flat. What do you think of my glamour? Nice, eh? I look like a real elf don't I?"

Ruby did look like a real elf but that was beside the point. She was a sneaky one. Ash got the feeling she would do anything to survive but what had caused that sort of desperation in a fairy? Weren't they supposed to be simple and carefree creatures? That was what he had heard.

Either she was a strange fairy or the rumors he heard were wrong. But the water fairy he met earlier certainly fit that stereotype.