“jack laughed at my attempts to avoid being felt up by a mythical beast. "Apparently you're a virgin.""Shut up!Like that's any of your business!"He shrugged,the motion less effective upside down."Unicorns love maidens. Haven't you done any research at all?""What,you have?"He flipped off the branch,startling the unicorn so badly it bolted from the meadow. Thank heavens.”

“Jack was mid-jump when I burst into my room. I snatched his ankle,flipping him horizontal.He crashed down hard to my bed and rolled off onto the floor.And laughed."Let's do that again! But this time I'll jump even higher.""No! No,you won't! What are you going here?"He sat up on the floor and shrugged. "I was bored.""I don't care! I'm not your babysitter!"His blue eyes twinkled.Honestly, whose eyes actually twinkle? Then his face crumpled,his lower lip jutting out.He blinked his ridiculously long eyelashes at me. "I thought we were friends.""Oh,knock it off.”

“He held out his elbow in a disingenuously gentlymanly gesture."How about we go and have some real fun?""What,shattering my one remaining fantasy wasn't enough?" Faeries didn't have wings and bordered on evil; pixies were dirty,feral, and tended to bite' and mermaids had neither glorious hair nor seashell bras. Now this about unicorns. Sometimes reality sucked."You can always chase the unicorn, if you want.Take it for a ride."I shuddered at the thought and sat down, leaning my back against the tree and unzipping my coat. "No,thanks.”

“Hello,' he said, his voice and smile pleasant.'You can't touch me!' I sat up and pulled the covers over myself.'Yes about that. You need to negate the command.''Excuse me?'He looked at me patiently, like he was explaining something to a stubborn child. 'You need to break that command.''And why on earth would I ever want to do that?' I glared at him. Lunatic.'Because I wasn't finished.''Oh, no, I really think that you were.' I held up my wrist. It still bore the scarlet mark of his hand and, to my eyes at least, was bright against the light of the lamp. Then, since I was holding up my hand anyway, I flipped him off.'You're going to need more.''Well, that's easy.' I held up my other hand and flipped him off with that one, too.”

“The dang thing kept trying to nuzzle me while I did my best to dodge it.So much for dramatic images of knights on unicorn stallions,too.This creature couldn't carry a child,much less a man in armor.Its head barely came up to my chest,which added a whole new level of discomfort to its continued nuzzling attempts.”

“I smelled it before i saw it, and the same unicorn I'd met on a field trip with Jack pranced up, pleased as anyting to see me again. It wasn't mutual."It's so cute, isn't it?" Arianna said dreamily."Are we seeing the same creature? It's like a demented goat with a bone growth”

“And then I picked up the nearest object-a shoe-and threw it at Jack's head."What are you doing in here, you little weasle?"He picked up my shoe from where it had clattered to the floor after hitting the door behind him. "How do you walk in these heels?" He sat and removed his own shoe,trying to jam his foot into my purple sling-back.I stalked over and yanked it awway. "What are you, five? Answer my question."He looked up at me, impossibly big blue eyes wide with innocence. "I thought we were friends, after you made me strip and all.""I'm calling Raquel.""Fine,fine. I was just doing some reconnaissance?""Reconnaissance?""Oh,sorry,that's a big word,isn't it? It means I was scoping the scene, getting the-""I know what it means! What,is IPCA investigating me now? Screw them, they can forget about any help from-""Do you ever let anyone else finish a sentence?" He smiled at my glare, flashing his dimples. "That's more like it. You're much prettier when you aren't talking. True of most people, I've found. Anyhow, I needed to see the address Raquel gave me so that I could find it again.”