Reluctantly the two girls got up. Ripples and Twinkles were sitting on Jess's shoulders, effectively following her.
"Forget the stupid, damn vampire!" they heard Z shout.
"Ooh, I think someone's in trouble." Zac grinned.
And since they couldn't really have a conversation over Z's rather loud scolding, they just sat around quietly, listening to Z's half of the conversation. A few minutes later Z came storming over.
"See this is why I work alone." She fumed. "Everyone else screws everything up."
"Thanks a lot." Trinity commented.
"I'm gonna go find your brother. Why didn't you tell him not to go out?"
"We thought the others would be keeping an eye out!"
Z gave her a look that clearly said 'well, they didn't' and abruptly left.
"Such a pleasant person." Rocky muttered sarcastically.
"You can't blame the girl for wanting to do a good job." Trinity commented.
"If she's even a girl."
"What's so important about this vampire anyway?" Taylor asked.
"What, aside from the fact that it goes around killing people?" Rocky asked.
"Point taken."
"This particular one has been rather... elusive. And some of it's associates are the Goblin's henchmen."
"Henchmen." Zac repeated, laughing.
They stared.
"What? 'Henchmen' is a funny word!"
"Right... ok." Taylor said. "Whatever turns you on."
"Why would you want to turn me on Tay? Are you not telling us something?" Zac asked cheekily.
Taylor whacked him over the head.
"Oh, by the way Zac, you owe Ike big time."
"Oh?"
"Mary Anne came by a couple of days ago. He had to pretend to be you and take her out so she wouldn't know you were gone. Then he came up with some elaborate story to stop her from calling by too often."
Zac stared at him.
"Ike went out with my girlfriend?"
"Poor Zacky. His girlfriend is cheating on 'im with his bro!" Ripples gasped.
"Oh no! Poor, poor Zacky." Twinkles said, then flew down and wrapped her tiny arms as far as they could go around his neck. "Don't worry Zacky, we still love you."
"Nobody is cheating on anyone. Geeze. Hey Zac, you should have heard Carla's reaction." Taylor grinned. "I will remember that for a long time. By the way, I have a girlfriend now too."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Her name's Rosie."
"Aww."