Perfect Love

by A.M. Burns

23

  Griff looked more frazzled than I’d ever seen him. It was not like our guardian to act this way. He was normally the strong silent type. His side heaved and his eyes darted around as he sat in the center of my desk.

  “What kind of fairies and how many?” I asked as Dusty resumed his human form.

  “Not sure what kind. They are wearing skins and carrying bows and arrows. A few of them have spears. No wings. There seem to be about fifty or so and they have staked out the perimeter of our shields.” He heaved while he spoke, his wings flapping a bit in agitation. A couple of small spectral feathers floated down to the desk.

  “And Lenny and Katie just walked out to their car.” I dashed for the door. I heard Dusty behind me. Griff labored to take back to the air and follow.

  There was no sign of a car in the driveway, or on the curb. But I caught a glimpse of several small figures scurrying around the in the low hedge out where the front yard met the sidewalk. Packrider Fae. I had never seen any in real life, but I had seen pictures. They were nasty little pieces of work.

  Dusty growled. “Are those what I think they are?”

  “Looks that way,” I sighed. I’d really wanted to try and avoid any more major problems with fairies for at least twelve hours or so after helping clean up from the fairy dust explosion at Xan’s. “The shields should hold them for a bit, but to go anywhere, we’re going to need to deal with them.”

  “You know boss, there are a few more than I can handle,” Griff said from where he had landed on the porch railing.

  “I know Griff. Luckily whoever sent them, and I have a good idea who did, really has no idea who they are dealing with.” I turned and headed back inside.

  “Dusty, call Uncle Bob and tell him that we need to keep all the pack out of this part of town for the night. I want to check the bathroom and see if anything’s out of place.” I had the sneaking suspicion that Katie Crackles had called up the fae during her little trip, but then why hadn’t I felt her using magic in my own house?

  The sparkling clean tile of the bathroom floor was now home to a small copper disk that looked very similar to the one that we found out at the park last night. Upon closer inspection, the symbols on it were different, or at least in a different order than the other one. But that made sense. This disk had been used to call Packrider Fae, the other disk had been used to call nagas. I could see a dark speck on the top of the disk. It looked like Katie had used a bit of her blood to activate the spell. That may have been why I hadn’t felt the magic that called the fae. It’d already been cast and just needed to be activated. If that were the case, Katie and Lenny were planning things out in advance. I realized that Tiffany and Tech might be in trouble.

  Dusty was hanging up the phone as I came back into the office. “Uncle Bob says that everyone is accounted for and I’m the only member of the pack in this part of town. He’ll pass the word to everyone else to say back.”

  I dropped the disc into the shielded box with the other one. “Good. Looks like Katie called the fae while she was in the bathroom. We need to check on Tiffany and Tech, make sure they are okay. Lenny and Katie may be craftier than I give most Wiccans credit for. I know Tiffany won’t expect much trouble from them.” I picked up the phone that was still warm from Dusty’s grasp and hit the four button, Tiffany’s speed dial.

  “Boss! Something’s coming through the shields!” Griff shouted as he flapped off the desk heading for the back of the house.

  I dropped the phone as the first ring sounded.

  Dusty grabbed one of the steel swords that sat in the umbrella stand next to the back door as he followed after Griff’s immaterial form. I had one of the other swords in my hand before the door was even halfway shut. There was no way I was going to let the two of them face fifty or more Packriders by themselves.

  The scene in the back yard was utter chaos. Griff swooped among the fae dispatching them with what seemed a fair amount of ease. He managed to stay just out of reach of their spears while dodging arrows and making agile stoops on them. Each stoop ended in the death of one of the fae. They seemed be trying to get their archers to focus their efforts on the small spirit. I was astonished when their arrows actually managed to hit one of his wings, knocking several golden feathers off. Then I realized they were most likely using fairy shot, enchanted arrows that still carried the some of the extra dimensional energy from their home plane. If they scored a solid hit, it could mean death, even for a spirit. In fact, it was one of the few things that could kill Griff.

  “Watch out guys, they are using fairy shot!” I called as I watched Griff make another stoop.

  “No shit Boss,” he called as he grabbed a Packrider in his talons and flew out of reach of the other, only to throw his captive down hard on the driveway next to a growing line of his kinsmen that suffered a similar fate.

  “Yeah these things sting,” Dusty called as he yanked a small arrow out of his arm as he closed in on a couple of the fae that were trying to sneak around the side of the house. All it took was a swift slash with his sword and the cold iron of it split the two of them into halves and four pieces of fae fell onto the driveway.

  Before I could take more than a couple of steps into the yard, a wild war cry sounded in the air above me. I looked up in time to see the largest Packrider I’d seen so far diving off the edge of the roof at me, his white hair streaming out behind him and a wicked curved silver dagger in his hand. By instinct, I got a shield up just in time for him to slam into it. He slid to the ground, with a comical look on his face, inches from being able to gut me with his dagger.

  He recovered quickly once he was on the ground, he shook out his white mane, lifted his dagger and howled. More howls sounded around us as the other Packriders paused in their attacks to lend their voices. Then something large howled nearby. Another howl preceded a loud crashing from the bushes that lined the back yard as a pair of coal-black Rottweiler’s charged though. I guessed there was the breach in the shield.

  Several fae rode each of the dogs, and between them, they held spears that looked much like jousting lances. Each spear took four fae to hold it up and each dog had one fae controlling it. The dogs showed no fear of Dusty as they charged toward him. I only hoped that he would control his instinct to change into his wolf form to fight the dogs.

  “Dusty look out!” I shouted as they bore down on him.

  His supernatural speed allowed him to easily dodge the first lancer, but the other one had anticipated his move and was there to keep him moving. I marveled at how easily he flowed across the yard, evading the dogs and with each of their passes, his sword removed a couple of riders. It seemed that it took at least two fae to hold up the lances, so after two passes the lances tumbled to the ground, but the remaining fae just pulled out their swords and kept coming.

  “Boss, watch your back!” Griff called out as he did a wingover right behind me.

  I let my guard down watching the beauty of Dusty’s movements. The little white-haired menace managed to get around the edge of my shield and tried a back stab. Griff, knocked him to the ground, but the fae rolled and avoided the guardian’s talons. I turned and swung my sword down at him. He grinned at me as his dagger blocked my blow. He somersaulted back a couple of feet and charged me. His deflection of the sword caught me off guard. The cold iron should have smashed any weapon made of fairy. He shouldn’t have been able to hold a weapon forged of iron or steel. He leapt at me as he came into range. I caught him with my telekinesis and brought him toward me.

  “Why are you here?” I demanded. “You are breaking several of the treaties between our world and yours with your aggression.”

  He shook with laughter. “The Packriders never signed any treaties with the humans, or the wers. What do we care about your laws? Our agreement is with the ones who opened the way for us. They promised us great wolves to ride, wolves that will be powerful enough for us to control the woods of our world and expand into the other woods of fairy.”

  “
Who opened the way for you? And what did they ask you to do here?” I heard Griff smash another fae onto the driveway and one of the rots yelped in pain.

  “Only destroy the simple man who lives here and his dog. You are no simple man and we have yet to see a dog, but the fire hair smells of dog. I would bet he is wer. Maybe when this is over I shall ride him back in triumph.” The fae sneered at me.

  I have always thought it would have been much more impressive if Darth Vader had made the guy’s head explode on “Star Wars” rather than just stop his heart. I’d never had the opportunity to try condensing a shield around something’s head before. I realized to get a good splatter from it, it had to be released at the right time. I seem to have held it a bit too long, because the remains of the fae’s head just oozed when I let go of the shield and the body let it fall to the ground.

  One of the Rottweilers had dropped to the ground. It looked like the fae that had been controlling it was trapped underneath it. The other one circled Dusty while several of the fae archers lined up just outside of its circle hoping to get shots at Dusty. A scatter shot leven bolt took them out easily enough. Dusty’s sword swung down, severing the dog’s head. He hadn’t touched the last fae riding the dog, but it grabbed its head and screamed a short scream before falling to the ground dead. It appeared that if you killed an animal that the Packrider was controlling, it killed the driver. I had heard of telepathic feedback killing someone before, but normally you had time to break the link before it happened. This might be useful info if we ever had to deal with the little pests again.

  A deafening roar sounded and I glimpsed a large gold and black form leaping over the bushes. I raised my sword and started to advance until I realized it was Paul in his jaguar form come to lend a hand. At the sight of the werejaguar in their midst, the few remaining Packriders turned and ran. I lay down a line of quick leven bolts that took most of them out, with Griff, Dusty and Paul getting the rest. I cast my mind out in a quick scan to make sure that we hadn’t missed any. I could not sense anymore fae in the area.

  “Everyone okay?” I asked looking people over.

  “Nothing a good molt won’t cure,” Griff replied preening out a few loose feathers.

  “Those damned arrows hurt and heal slow,” Dusty said coming toward me.

  “None of them even touched me.” Paul resumed his human form and leaned up against the railing leading up to the back door.

  “How about you?” Dusty took my hand in his and look me up and down.

  “Doing fine. We’re going to need to do something with the bodies.” I said lifting his hand to my lips. His skin was a little sweaty.

  Then I remembered that I was in the process of calling Tiffany when they broke through the shields. “Crap, Tiffany and Tech.” I raced back into the house.

  The phone was beeping an off-the-hook beep as I picked it up. I turned it off then back on and dialed Tiffany again. No answer.

  I ran to Tiffany’s desk and looked up Tech’s number, it was on her blotter with little flowers around it. I shook my head, Tiffany never drew little flowers. I punched in the number. It went right to voice mail.

  I tried reaching out to Tiffany through the link we shared. I could feel her out there somewhere, but could not get a strong reply.

  Something was wrong.

  Dusty walked in. “Anything?”

  “No, we’re heading over to Lenny and Katie’s.”

  “Need a hand?” Paul asked coming in right behind Dusty.

  “Not going to pass it up.” I replied.