Were-Geeks Save Lake Wacka Wacka

by Kathy Lyons

  “Deal!” Feta clapped his hands. “I will bring the demon here. Then you will take me to Fairy Fairyland.”

  “No!” Erin said loudly.

  It didn’t matter, because Feta looked at everyone gathered there. “Think very hard!” he ordered. “Think of bringing the demon here for you to see.”

  They had no choice now. They had to roll with it for as long as they had the pixie’s agreement. So Laddin thought as hard as he could. He thought about how Wisconsin was dying mile by growing mile, and he thought about ending that disaster once and for all. As did everyone else. A single glance around the field showed him every serious face, jaw tight with determination. But nothing happened until Bruce held out his hand. Laddin took it without conscious thought, but the moment their palms connected, he felt the power surge through him.

  Bring the demon here, he thought.

  And it came.

  Chapter 24

  GODZILLA NEEDS TO GET HAPPY

  BRUCE HAD dressed as the Creature from the Black Lagoon once for a haunted house. That was what he expected to appear. Something a little more than man-sized and black with ickiness.

  He’d gotten the icky part right.

  First off, the thing was huge—larger than Godzilla—and it sprawled at the edge of the lake like Jabba the Hutt. There were eyes and definitely a maw, but beyond that all he saw was a boiling mass of anxiety. It made his hands sweat and his heart pound triple time. And the sound it made was like a hissing snake. Low, angry, and steadily building until he thought he would go crazy waiting for it to strike.

  Someone screamed, and it was probably him. Then he heard the steady rapport of a gun. He whipped around to look.

  It was Wiz with the pistol aimed straight up at… it. He emptied his entire clip at the thing.

  Normally Bruce would have said it was too far away for a handgun. A bazooka might be too small to score a hit, but looking back at the—the living nightmare—he could see the impact right where it was supposed to go. Puffs of explosions dead center between the eyes. Over and over.

  He waited for the thing to die. He prayed for it to shrink, melt, or whatever it would do. He’d be thrilled if it went poof in a burst of ashes, but nothing happened.

  “Damn it!” Wiz cursed. “It’s changed.”

  “What? Why?” Bruce demanded. Hadn’t they said they knew how to kill it? That all Bruce had to do was find it and they’d take care of it?

  Josh groaned from beside Wiz. “It’s evolved beyond the story version. It can’t be killed the same way.”

  Curses rolled through his mind, but he didn’t have time to let his fury fly because a great deal was happening, and it was all bad. First rule of a firefighter—see what’s happening and breathe. That was all he had to do.

  He squinted at the monster as he forced himself to make steady inhales and exhales. He managed to sort out roiling tentacles and bubbling masses that swelled, burst, then collapsed back on themselves. Except it wasn’t collapsing to the same size it was before. Now that he looked with narrowed eyes—and his mind wasn’t busy screaming in terror—he could see little specks of yellow fairy lights all over the thing. They were the pixies, catching something, then pressing it into the demon… which made it grow bigger. In tiny increments, but there were a thousand of those little fairies, each adding a tiny bit over and over.

  “You’re making it bigger!” Erin screamed, and she was right.

  Just like with the moon, the fairies were catching everyone’s thoughts, their fears, their terror, and making it into more demon.

  “Stop that!” Bruce snapped. “Stop them from adding to the thing!”

  She glared at him. “It is what we do. We take what you think!”

  “And make that,” he realized. Oh God.

  “Think happy thoughts!” Laddin bellowed. “Don’t worry!”

  Nice idea, but that wasn’t going to work. Not with that demon towering over them.

  Then it got worse. Someone cried out, not in fear but in warning. Bruce looked over, and pretty soon he found what they were screaming about.

  Kangaroos—a whole herd of them hopping full tilt straight at them. And if he didn’t miss his guess, they were being ridden by gnomes or leprechauns. Who the hell knew? He heard Josh curse and Nero moan, “Not again.”

  But then, from the opposite side of the herd, something else appeared—something dark and ghostly. It looked like a Dementor from the Harry Potter series, but someone bellowed, “Lich.” And this time Erin stomped her foot hard enough to grab Bruce’s attention.

  “And now you bring its friends!” she screamed.

  She was really pissed off, and Bruce couldn’t blame her. Everything they’d done had made things worse. He looked around in panic, hoping to find some help. There were people far more experienced here than he was. Surely they knew what to do.

  They did. They squared off with the kangaroos and the lich. They protected themselves and each other. But while they kept everyone alive, they did nothing to stop the demon-turned-swamp-megalith that was going to swallow them whole.

  Then Laddin grabbed Bruce’s hand and whipped him around so that they could face each other.

  “Happy thoughts!” Laddin screamed. He jerked Bruce close enough so that he didn’t have to bellow. “I love you.”

  Right. Happy thoughts. But a few choruses of the Barney theme song weren’t going to save them. The demon was too big, and its friends were going to kill them all long before they figured out how to shrink it.

  “Don’t think!” Laddin ordered. Then he pressed his mouth hard to Bruce’s. The kiss was rushed, and they clanged teeth. Before Bruce could adjust, Laddin pulled back. “Feel. Just feel!”

  What he felt was crap-his-pants terror, but he didn’t have any better ideas. “Er, yeah. I, uh, I love you too.”

  Laddin rolled his eyes, and Bruce couldn’t really blame him. Talk about lame. Mouthing the words wasn’t going to do it. He had to really put his thought, his power—

  “You have to feel it!” Laddin said.

  Right. He had to put his feelings into it. But he was feeling afraid! He was feeling like the world was ending and it was all his fault.

  Laddin lifted their joined hands. “Light me up!”

  Light him? Oh, right. Laddin was his light bulb. All he needed to do was push power into the guy’s hands and Laddin would do the rest. Bruce exhaled in relief and pushed as much energy as he could through their matched palms.

  He felt the flow of energy, he felt his shoulders relax, and he knew that he hadn’t fucked up entirely, because Laddin would be able to fix things. Except it didn’t work. He saw Laddin close his eyes. He watched as the guy inhaled, as if drawing in everything good about the world, and then exhaled a simple phrase.

  “It’s okay. Everything’s okay.”

  Bruce felt the power of it. He felt his lips curve into a smile, but all around him the noise continued. The demon hissed, the people on the kangaroos whooped as they hopped around, destroying everything in their path, and someone screamed, “Disintegrate!” at the lich.

  “Don’t think about it,” Laddin said, and Bruce didn’t have to say a word. They both knew it was impossible to not think of what was going on around them.

  So Laddin pressed his forehead to Bruce’s. They were eye to eye, nose to nose, and when he spoke, the words felt like they were for Bruce alone. The nightmare to their right or the disasters going on all around them, melted into the background.

  “I love you,” Laddin said.

  Bruce grimaced and tried to pull away. “That’s not going to work. We need to sing something. ‘Happy Birthday’ or ‘Good Vibrations.’” They were the only two songs he could think of right then.

  “It’s not working because you don’t believe it,” Laddin said. “Why don’t you think I love you?”

  Bruce took a moment to focus. Was Laddin really trying to have a serious conversation while evil kangaroos were dashing around? Apparently he was, because his expres
sion was fierce and he wasn’t letting Bruce look away.

  “Because you’re just saying that. It’s not real.”

  Laddin glared at him. Then he abruptly flattened his hand on Bruce’s chest. “Feel this, you idiot. It is real!”

  Now that sounded like true emotion. Irritation and annoyance. Bruce heard it but then felt something else—a current of power feeding back to him through Laddin’s palm. What energy he fed Laddin was coming back to him even stronger.

  “I love you,” Laddin said, conviction in his voice.

  “Right,” Bruce echoed. “You love me. And I love you.” He threw that last part in, hoping it would do what was needed. But all he had to do was listen to know that the demon wasn’t any smaller or quieter.

  “You don’t believe me,” Laddin said, frustration clear in his tone. “Why can’t you feel it?”

  He did feel it—warmth, power, and affection. “We have to try something else.”

  Laddin shook his head. “This is the answer, but you have to believe it.”

  Bruce nodded, and he tried. He really wanted to believe, but he wasn’t the kind of guy someone could love. He was the guy women fucked and the guy who ran into burning buildings for your kid. He was the one people hugged with tearful gratitude, then forgot five minutes later. And at night he was the guy who went home to an empty apartment in a crappy area of town.

  He was the also the one who hurt his own brother when he was angry at his father. That wasn’t someone to love. That was someone you thanked for saving your kid—on the lucky days he managed it—and then walked away from. He just lived. And that was the truth.

  “I love you,” Laddin repeated. “You think I’m bullshitting you, but this is it. It’s real love. And do you know how I know that?”

  Bruch shook his head.

  “Because I want a future with you. I’ve been thinking about what we could do after this is all over.” He took a breath. “I don’t want work in the field.”

  Bruce felt his lips curve. Laddin’s neat-freak side would make working in this kind of chaos impossible.

  “I thought I wanted to go home back to my old life. I do, but I want you more, and you’re here, not in LA. So I thought we could get a place in Michigan where I can work with Captain M and keep things in order for the field teams. They need someone who makes things tidy so they can do their jobs.”

  “You’re perfect for that.”

  “Yeah,” Laddin said, “I am. I like LA, but I’m tired of the fake stuff, you know? I want something real.” He lifted his chin. “I want you.”

  Bruce huffed out a breath. It was too soon to be talking about things like this, and it certainly wasn’t the place. But before he could say something stupid, Laddin tightened his hand into a claw on Bruce’s chest. It dug in hard enough to make Bruce shut up.

  “Listen to me!” Laddin ordered, and Bruce nodded. “I want to come home to something. To someone. And when I close my eyes and picture who I want to be with, it’s you, Bruce.” He paused a moment to see if his words were sinking in. They were. And more than that, Laddin was feeding the image straight to Bruce’s heart. The current of energy from Laddin’s palm was creating the picture in Bruce’s mind.

  “A two-story house with a backyard,” Bruce said, giving words to the image Laddin was feeding him. “Right on the edge of the state park, so we can run as wolves if we want to.”

  Laddin smiled. “I get that you’re a medic and a firefighter. You’ll probably want to be jumping into fires when you’re seventy.”

  Bruce snorted. “Maybe not seventy, but at least until I’m sixty-five.” He sobered. “I’m good at it, Laddin.”

  “And we could use a good medic and someone who keeps his head around fires.” There was a sudden explosion by the lich, and they both flinched. But Laddin wasn’t letting anything stop him. “I don’t even know what your favorite dish is, but I’d have it there waiting when you came home. I’d watch you eat it and smile like you do when you’re so satisfied, you’re bursting with it.”

  Bruce knew the smile he was referring to. The one that usually came after sex with Laddin. “It’s lasagna. And I bet yours is amazing.”

  “It is. And do you know what else I think when I look at you?”

  Bruce shook his head.

  “Kids. I know you can’t have them, but I still see them. A linebacker of a little boy with that dimple you have in your chin.”

  “That’s a scar from a house fire.”

  Laddin smiled. “It’s yours, and I like it. And when I look at our son, I see that on his chin.”

  “What about your dimples? And a really straight nose?” Laddin’s dimples were on his butt, and they were cute. As for his nose, it was ruler straight, which was a far cry from Bruce’s, which had been broken more times than he could count.

  “It goes with my neatnik side.”

  “I’d teach him how to make a big mess in the backyard as we build a treehouse.” He’d always wanted one of those.

  “And I’ll teach him how to clean up his room before we construct Lego bridges and blow them up with tiny bits of C-4.”

  Bruce blinked. “Seriously? You blew up your Legos?”

  “Oh yeah!” Laddin looked like he was in the midst of a really good memory. But then he focused back on Bruce. “This isn’t infatuation, and I’m too old for endless rounds of fucking.”

  “You’re a year younger than me!”

  “Exactly. Which means it must be getting pretty boring for you too.”

  It had been. Until he’d met Laddin.

  “It’s what I want, Bruce. I want a life where you come home to me and little LB.”

  “Lyndon B. Johnson?”

  “Laddin and Bruce. LB.”

  “Except your name is A-laddin. And no kid of mine—pretend or otherwise—is going to be mistaken for a politician.” His expression softened. “How about Aaron? That was my grandfather’s name, and he was a pretty cool guy.”

  Laddin grinned. “I like that.”

  “Yeah,” Bruce said. “Me too.” And by that he meant he liked the whole vision. The two-story house, the kid blowing up his toys in the backyard, and Laddin with his arms open wide when Bruce came home from work. “I like that a lot.”

  “I love you,” Laddin said, and this time the words settled deep into Bruce’s heart and soul.

  “I love you too,” Bruce said, the words a bare whisper because he was awestruck by the power of them. He was in love. Real love, with someone who loved him back. Someone who knew who he was deep inside and still wanted to build a home with him—who wanted to make a family with him. It made his knees weak with gratitude, with joy, but most of all, with love.

  “I wish it was real,” Bruce said.

  “It is real,” Laddin said. “Because we’ll make it so.”

  “Yes,” Bruce agreed. For Laddin, he’d make it work. “We’ll adopt, right? No firstborn from us.”

  Laddin nodded, both aware of the fairy promise. “I don’t need a baby from my body. I just need a child and someone to raise him with.”

  With that thought in mind, with the image of their family settling into his heart, Bruce pressed his mouth to Laddin’s. It was meant to be a soft kiss—they were still in the middle of a battle, after all. But along with the love came passion. And so when he kissed Laddin, his mouth grew firm and hungry. Laddin was equally bold, equally demanding.

  With every twist and thrust of their tongues, they loved each other. Completely, lustfully, and with their whole hearts. Heat built while the fairy power zipped between their bodies. It was lust, joy, and wonder, plus a myriad of other wonderful emotions mixed in. But most of all, it was love, newly found and shared between the two of them.

  Eventually they had to stop kissing because they needed to breathe. When Bruce pulled back, he realized he couldn’t hear hissing anymore. Then Laddin looked around and whispered, “Where’d it go?”

  Bruce looked up. He saw blue sky, and he heard silence.

  Th
e demon was gone. The kangaroos and their riders were gone. Even the lich was nowhere to be seen. And while everyone else was looking around in dazed confusion, Erin clapped her hands in delight.

  “You made it smaller!” she said in satisfaction.

  Actually, Bruce was pretty sure they were both bigger, right then, which was embarrassing because they were both still naked from their romp as wolves.

  “What the hell is that?” Wiz said from down by what had once been the edge of the lake.

  “It’s a baby!” Stratos said as she bent down to see. She didn’t touch it, but just squatted down and stared.

  Bruce and Laddin looked at each other, their eyes wide with shock. Bruce was the first to speak. “It can’t be.”

  “I bet it is.”

  “But… it can’t!”

  “Yes, it can. The pixies made what we thought about—him.” Laddin looked down at Erin. “Right? That’s our baby?”

  Erin nodded. “You had a very good thought.”

  “Yes, he did. We did!” Laddin said as he took off running down toward the edge of the lake.

  Bruce watched him go, his mind refusing to move but his body quickly following anyway. But when he got to the edge of the lake, Lady Kinstead was there, and she knelt down to where Stratos refused to go. With gentle hands, she scooped up the child and wrapped him in her scarf. Laddin was at her side, looking the baby over with greedy eyes.

  Then he looked up at Bruce and pointed to the child’s face. “He has the dimple. Right there. Your dimple.”

  Lady Kinstead smiled. “And he has your eyes and nose,” she said sweetly. Carefully, she offered the child to Laddin. “You have a beautiful son.”

  Laddin gathered the child. Someone had taught him how to hold a baby, because he quickly tucked it close. Then he looked up at Bruce. “We made a baby,” he said, laughter in his voice. “Bruce, look!”

  Bruce was looking, but his mind couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. “We were just talking,” he murmured, even though he knew it was a lie. They’d been creating. They’d been forming a future with words, fairy magic, and love.