by Erin R Flynn
“And so would Glen when we told him,” Sean added. “You sure?”
I snorted. “I’d love to have you guys. I didn’t want to poach but you’re underpaid, way too talented, and you already know about me. Ray and Zach will still be there with me on campus and I’d have you guys stationed here working on special projects. Chief knew when I was in trouble on campus so that’s better even, as you could open the portal to campus and let them through.”
“That’s the nuclear option,” Ray worried.
“We’ve gotten close to needing it and I want to be prepared in case we do,” I admitted. I shook my head when he argued. “We’ve gotten too close and we’ve been careful. I plan to be even more careful and I think working with White over summer will help but the hobgoblins took a stand against the warlock council. We’re waiting for a response. They won’t be the only ones. I want a nuclear option.”
“I agree,” Mel said as she joined us. “We’ve been lucky and we’ve fought hard, been smart, but if a council really throws their weight at us, we’re fucked. We should have a bailout and nuclear option ready should the fight come to Artemis. I’d rather out her and keep her alive than risk her being taken.”
“I agree as well,” Ray said gently. “I was simply making it clear that is the nuclear option. I think it’s smart. I’d rather she admit she could do a temp portal after working the summer with White and bail out.”
“I would,” I promised. “I want lots of options. I think it’s smart we’ve been talking about them and layering security, like you guys not both eating when we’re out or someone hidden on my detail from now on. Grandpa Moore got us too easily and we have to start planning someone knows. We should have after Mason. That was our mistake. We can’t fuck up like that again. I might not survive it next time.”
I realized how harsh that was and apologized, forcing a smile and saying the pigs roasting smelled great already but Ray came over and hugged me tightly.
“I’m sorry, kid. We did fail you and I’m sorry. We adore you and it’s not about you being the last or our hopes about Faerie, but you’re our friend and we fucked up. We won’t let anyone get you ever again.”
“I know. It wasn’t just you,” I forgave. “I was stupid too. Of course, Darby figured it out. I should have thought he talked to his family even and if Collins knew others could have. It was stupid. It was stupid to get involved with men that I couldn’t be honest with and had to hide from. That was dangerous. I don’t even blame them from keeping so much from me when I kept everything from them.”
I swallowed loudly when I felt the pitying stares at what I’d admitted, but it was how I truly felt. I muttered something about going to pick some more fruit for the party and headed outside for one of the ATVs. The dogs came with me and I spent the next hour in the sun loading up bushels at my leisure.
When I got back to the house more deliveries had arrived and tons of food from my hobgoblin bakery was everywhere. More from the catering company and everyone was already in the party mood. Izzy and Mel were hanging decorations with music going and Zach was following Katrina’s recipe to make her sangria.
I offloaded everything and snagged some yummies before going to take a shower. By then it was time to get everyone from Natalie’s and I opened the portal, setting it for what I needed and retrieving them all. Mel had already picked up a bunch of stuff from Katrina’s first caterer and the kitchen and dining room was packed with more than we could ever eat considering what we already had.
Nice.
“To one year down,” I toasted when everyone had their drinks and plates of food.
“To another year down for us,” Ayesha teased.
“To freedom, not having to go back to asshole parents, getting drunk, and don’t let me drown in the pool,” Izzy announced before chugging her whole drink.
“I knew you were going to be a pain in the ass drunk I would have to take care of,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes at her.
“Hey, someone has to cover you,” she teased. “Skinny dipping!”
“Yeah, no,” I replied, bursting out laughing when she pouted. Everyone else did too. She was the only one who swung that way in our group and she made sure to never make anyone uncomfortable but just poked some fun every so often that we couldn’t help but laugh at because she was so damn adorable. Only Izzy could pull it off and then pout to almost make us cave.
We spent the afternoon swimming and eating, lounging in the sun and taking notes on the caterer. It was exactly what I wanted—chilled, cozy, and no crazy. It was honestly a bit early to be swimming in northern Kansas but the pool was heated. However, when the sun started to set and the breeze picked up, I wasn’t the only one who got out and changed back into my clothes.
Mel turned on the fire pits and teased me that I sat down for second dinner.
I opened my mouth to tell her to stop eating, but paused when I heard something odd. “What’s that?” I shushed everyone and asked someone to kill the music. My gaze locked with Mel’s as it hit me what it was and our eyes went wide.
Vehicles. Vehicles coming up the drive.
“We have a serious fucking problem,” Sean announced as he came racing from the kitchen. “There are dozens of cars coming down your driveway. I don’t even know how.”
“Fuck.” I dropped my plate and bolted for the front, not even bothering with shoes or waiting to hear the rest. I grabbed my phone off the counter just in case and my keys in case… I wasn’t sure but they seemed smart to have in hand.
I was out the door seconds later and almost tripped over my feet when I saw Zach and Ray arguing with the first people already parked and getting out of vehicles.
“This is private property and you need to leave,” Zach growled.
“She said if we found the place we could come,” a guy from school argued. “We found it and came.”
“You used a rune to break in past the fucking gate that’s still illegal,” Ray snapped.
So that was how they got on the property. Fuck, I’d left open a door in the barrier. Idiot. I’d opened it for Marshall and Sean and never relocked it. Well, actually, that might have been worse if they couldn’t bypass the gate with a rune they knew would work.
“You’re fucking kidding me!” Holly screeched as she slammed the door to a tiny, expensive sports car. “You’re a fairy!”
Everyone dead silent but then one of the guys near her burst out laughing. “Did you start early, Holly?”
“I haven’t been drinking,” she snapped. She glanced at him and then pointed to the house. “That’s the Townsend estate. It’s famous. Like founder of Artemis famous. I’ve heard my mother gab on about the parties that used to be here. We have a picture of it in our library. It’s a historical site. It’s one of the main estates in the fairy estate that only a fairy can access. She’s a fucking fairy.
“That’s the big secret. She’s a godsdamn fairy. That’s why she won’t tell anyone what she is. She’s an unknown because she’s the only fairy left and inherited everything. That’s why the fae dogs and hobgoblins all listen to her. It all makes sense now. Un-fucking-real.” She stared at me with so much jealousy and hate I could almost reach out and touch it. “Of all the people it’s you. You’re a fucking fairy.”
She reached in her pocket to probably pull out her phone and she wasn’t the only one. I did the only think I could think of and went another nuclear option, using a fairy rune I’d learned and froze everyone.
Instantly. They were all immobile like statutes, the hundreds of people there and even everyone still in their cars who had come onto the property. Luckily everyone had already stopped the last back by the gate, but the lot of them driving together off the street at least.
My heart raced as my worst nightmare had been realized and even worse, to stop it from getting out, I’d had to go that route so I’d had to freeze them all… Even the people on my side so I couldn’t ask them what to do.
And I didn’t fucking know what to do.
>
My hand shook and I swallowed loudly as I lifted my phone up, doing the only thing I could think of even if I hated to do it. It was the only way I could see out of this and fast. A guaranteed way.
I blinked back tears as I hit the contact and connected the call, actually praying the asshole picked up. It rang several times and I bit my lower lip to keep in a whimper, not knowing what else I would do or how long the fairy rune would last.
But then he picked up.
“I need your help,” I whispered when he didn’t say anything. “People found out and I don’t know what to do. I can’t think of anything else to do but call you. This is bad. Really bad.” I swallowed loudly as I looked up at darkening sky. “Will you please help me?”
He didn’t answer for several moments. “Open the portal at your house to the teacher’s lounge. I’ll be there in two minutes.”
“Okay.”
“You will owe me quite a lot for this, Ms. Vale.”
“I know.” I hung up. And I know what you’ll ask for. I didn’t even have to guess. I hurried through the house and into the garage, biting back a hysterical laugh when Chief’s thoughts were to burn all the assholes and hide the vehicles.
Tempting. Honestly, it was sort of tempting. No, I didn’t think they all deserved death for learning my secret but maybe for being selfish assholes that would risk me and the people I loved and every fairy I was trying to save just to be the one to tell their councils about me… Yeah, maybe Chief had a point. But no, this was my mistake and they couldn’t pay for it.
Or was it? How did Holly find out my address?
Fuck, I was definitely going to get some answers on that.
I set the portal and opened the garage doors, telling the fae dogs to stand down for now. I hugged myself and rocked on my feet until I met the cold eyes of Dean Collins.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Holly found out my address. She brought a few hundred people here to my party. She recognized the house and outed me. I panicked when they all started pulling out their phones and used a fairy rune to freeze them. It froze everyone so…” I shrugged.
“It froze your help,” he surmised.
“Or who I would ask what to do though I’m not sure what other option we have.” Then again, that could be my panic talking. Maybe? I was still shaking and shaken.
Badly.
I led him out front and showed him the chaos. “I don’t even know what to do but I need to know how she got this address. That’s a problem. You...” I swallowed loudly and met his way too happy gaze. “Can you make this go away?”
“You know what it will cost you.”
“My blood,” I whispered. “You’ve wanted it since you found out I let Darby drink from me. Even knowing it went so badly you’ve wanted it.”
He flinched. “I’m not a boy who would lose his head, Ms. Vale. I’m also not a monster like his family that bleeds fairies like cattle as White accused me of. I had no knowledge of that. That is not how my clan is, but yes, I do know the power in fairy blood and you are powerful.” He shook his head when I opened my mouth. “Will you pay the price?”
I glanced at Mel and Izzy before Zach, Ray, Sean, and Marshall—everyone who would get hurt protecting me and involved in the blow-up if people found out. “You’ll make it all go away? Even find out how they learned of my address and clean it all up?”
“You have my word.”
I closed my eyes and nodded. “Yes.” I held out my arm to him, offering my wrist.
“I want your neck.”
My eyes popped open and I took a step back, my lower lip quivering. “Do you have to be such a bastard? Darby almost drained me and you—his grandfather—you have to know how intimate that is and I’m bent over a barrel here.”
He licked his lips and adjusted his neck. “Yes, you are, but it’s not intimate if you’re not intimate with the vampire, I promise you that. The blood simply tastes better. It’s warmer and cleaner pumping closer from the heart. I will take nothing close to what Darby did and it will be over before you know it. I am not being the bastard you think I am as what you are asking for is a high price to me as well.”
I glanced out at the hundreds of people and realized he was right. “Let’s just get it done.” I went over to him and turned around so he didn’t see me cry because I knew there was no way I’d keep the tears at bay. I pulled my hair to the side and tilted my head so he had access to my neck.
“I’ll make it painless, I promise,” he murmured as he leaned over.
I gasped as his fangs pierced my neck but not because of that. No more than ten feet in front of us a temporary portal opened and people came pouring out of it… One of them Craftsman just like he had almost a year ago when we’d met.
His eyes went wide as he took in what was going on. “What the bloody fuck is wrong with you, Collins?”
He didn’t answer right away, finishing his drink of me and licking the bite closed first. “She agreed.”
“She’s fucking crying and shaking, you bastard,” he growled.
I quickly wiped my eyes and moved away from Collins, trying to ignore who else was with Craftsman. “I called him for help.”
“Why? Why call him? Why the fuck didn’t you call me?” Craftsman demanded.
I blinked at him. “Would you have come? Would you even have answered my call?”
He reacted as if I’d slapped him, slowly focusing on me again and the destroyed look in his eyes didn’t even reach me I felt so cold inside. “Of course, I would have.”
“Why are you here?” Collins asked when I couldn’t seem to make my mouth work.
“Melody texted me that there was as serious problem here,” Professor White explained. “I called for help while I waited for her to explain but when she wasn’t replying I decided we couldn’t wait.”
“I-I didn’t know th-that,” I stuttered, looking anywhere but at all the eyes on me. “I had to freeze everyone and Collins was all I could think to call to make it all go away.”
“Make what go away, Ms. Vale?” Edelman asked gently.
“Holly recognized the house. She found out the address, brought everyone, and knew the house, announced I was a fairy. They all reached for their phones and I panicked.”
“So, you let him drink your blood?” Hudson demanded, a growl in his voice. “As payment?
“I’d give a lot more than that to protect all of them,” I snapped, gesturing towards Mel and my friends all frozen as well. “If people found out and like this it would be… I can’t even think how bad that would be. So, don’t fucking judge me for giving blood for it. I couldn’t think of what else to do or who to call. I don’t know how long the rune will last.”
“We’re not mad at you,” Lucca clarified.
“I don’t care what you are,” I seethed. “Why are you even here? Any of you?” I included Darby in that statement, unable to look at him and see if he was excited by the idea of my blood or pissed I’d let another vampire drink from me.
I couldn’t take any more upset at the moment.
All four of them went to answer at the same time and I held up my hands. “You know what? Forget it. I’m done.” I finally looked at each of them in turn. “I’m fucking done. With all of you. I cannot even handle any of this with you all. I never should have started it and clearly I knew that not telling you everything and keeping secrets.
“But so were you, so that was great. None of us were really in it for real so it’s over. I’m done. I’m done with you. I’m not—” I realized I was manically rubbing my neck where Collins had bit me like it hurt or I was wiping away blood that wasn’t there. I turned to him and let him see the hate I felt for him for making me do this. “Keep your word.”
“I will,” he whispered, probably realizing how badly he’d traumatized me asking for his payment.
I went over to Holly and ripped her phone out of her hand before shaking her so she snapped out of it. Then I pushed her against her car. “H
ow did you learn my address?”
She blinked at me, coming out of the rune and still shocked at what she learned.
“A cousin of our guard works at the main office that handles the protection software on all our phones and the tracking of cells if there’s an emergency. I promised him a picture of you naked because he’s in love with you, but after I slipped something in your drink that I planned to post all over social media to humiliate you. His cousin thinks he tracked down a cheating girlfriend of a buddy.”
I pulled back my fist and clocked her, knocking her out and dropping her to the ground like the sack of shit she was. Then I told the others there what she’d done.
I shook my head. “I’m so fucking done. There’s not an honorable one of them at that fucking… Anywhere. I’m done with the four of you. I can’t trust any of you. I’m done with Artemis. I’m so just fucking done.” I set her phone on the hood of her car and scrubbed my hands over my face before turning and walking towards Mel.
If I could shake Holly awake, I could the others. Whoops. I hadn’t thought of that in my panic. I only woke the ones who knew about me and by the time I got to the last of them, Mel was snapped out of it and confused as to what was going on.
I waved between and around to everyone shaking my head. “Yeah, I don’t even fucking know how to explain or deal with any of this. I just know I’m fucking done. I panicked and called Collins. Apparently, you were the smart one and called White who could have helped. He probably knew that.” I threw back my head and let out a bitter laugh when I heard form Collins’s thoughts that yes, yes he did.
And that was why he dropped everything and hurried over knowing I would probably figure that out the moment I stopped panicking. Ass. Hole.
Fucking asshole.
I walked away, the fae dogs, growling in warning at whoever tried to come after me as clearly they understood my mood.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Collins?” someone bellowed, maybe Edelman? “We need her. The school has taken so many hits and she started the seminars and now the scholarship fund that has bounced us back and higher.”
