Extract 19 from This Month's New Release: Pixie Dust Dreaming (C.M.'s Collections #7)

Pixies, trolls and urban policing, things got interesting when the Otherworld renewed its connection to ours. A new suite of crimes sprang into existence overnight…and a new breed of officer had to be found to combat them. This volume brings together all the stories, so far published, of the officers in the Paranormal Operations Squad…and the world in which they strive to maintain the peace.

Here's an extract from the nineteenth entry in this month's release of Pixie Dust Dreaming, the 7th collection in my Collections series, which released on the 4th. Links to the collection can be found at: https://books2read.com/u/mY6xvP.

Cinnamon Pixies and Bridge Trolls

Written on January 22, 2014, this piece first appeared as 365 Days of Flash Fiction, and is another exploration of the pixie-dust world.

Cinnamon and sugar, the best pixie bait ever. The warm, sweet scent of French toast, made me stop. There’s nothing suspicious about French toast, and when it’s two-thirty in the morning, I guess it really could be an insomniac.

I looked around, noting the tall pines, the dull white of the bridge over the culvert, the longish grass, and the wall of bushes by the path. I supposed it could be a homeless insomniac, but with the two houses alongside fenced and still in darkness, I didn’t think so.

I looked again, moving back into deep shadow. Pixie poachers didn’t discriminate when it came to shooting intruders. I noted the dull oblong shapes of boxes nestled in the grass. Lots of square-edged mounds, their flat tops reflecting the occasional moonbeam filtering through the trees, and I thumbed the beeper, summoning reinforcements.

No way was this a one-man job. Whoever had laid this many traps would be waiting somewhere nearby. All I had to do was stay out of sight until the unit came, steel myself not to respond, when the first glimmering pixie came humming out from under the bridge. There was another, and another, and I bit back a cry of warning.

It looked like these guys had hit the jackpot—a whole tribe had been lured out through the portal. Cinnamon and sugar! I watched as, one by one, the pixie lights descended to a gleaming flat top and vanished inside. I don’t know what it is about sweetened cinnamon, but pixies find it too good to resist. The dust runners were going to make a killing. 

As the last box snapped shut, I heard an engine start up.

 

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The rest of this entry can be found in the Pixie Dust Dreaming collection.

 

Cover art is by Jake at JCaleb Design, and links to Pixie Dust Dreaming can be found on Books2Read at: https://books2read.com/u/mY6xvP.