“She’s stubborn and sick and will stay that way until her muse comes tomorrow, whatever the hell that means.”
“What?” Mia looked at me. Her hair stuck out at odd angles, giving her sort of an Einstein on crack look.
“Old Mother says your muse will come tomorrow, but you are going to be sick till then.” I said all of it in a rush, hoping it wouldn’t sound as silly if I mushed it all together in a blob.
“Son of a bitch.” Mia bit her lip and looked shocked.
“Is that bad?” Cocking my head, I continued to watch her.
“No, that’s good. I am going to be better and my muse is coming. That is what you just said, right?”
I blinked at her. Yup, that was what I had said. Still didn't see what good her muse coming would to do for her cold, but hey, I was a siren, not a witch. “Okay then. Sven can stay with you and Vic, and Vance and I can go after the Harbor Hammer and—”
“Bad idea.” Mia shook her head. “What if she catches this?”
“Then your muse can make her better, too?” It was feeble, but I had to try.
“Nope, that would be messing with freewill and fate. Sven can take care of Vic, and Vance can take me to his place till my muse gets here.” Mia shook her head, curls bobbing madly.
“Shit!” I hit my fist on the wall. “Does Old Mother have to be right about everything?”
Mia blinked at me owlishly. With the crazy hair, pale skin, and red nose, she looked clown-like. “Duh. She is Old Mother, dumb ass.”
I plodded back upstairs and called Sven's cell phone as ordered. He agreed to close Odd Stuff and put Vickie to bed. After guaranteeing I’d be on my own to hunt the Hammer, I helped Vickie with her homework. Then I kicked her butt at UNO. I was awesome at UNO.
When we were done, I trotted downstairs to confer with Sven regarding wardrobe for the night’s mission. We decided that due to weather, I should go with something trashy, but discreet. We wanted me to look dumb enough to attract a killer, but still be warm.
I kissed Vickie goodnight and locked myself in the public bathroom in the store. After slipping on my hunting attire, I came out and spun for Sven.
I wore a pair of tight jeans with holes at the knees that looked worn enough to give at the ass, but were actually reinforced. With these, I wore clunky, funky clogs, and under them purple and black striped tights. Under my coat, I wore an off the shoulder top made of crepe like material with baby doll sleeves in black. I decided not to wear a sticker over my visible siren mark. Most would think it was just a tattoo. I put on a choker with a single amethyst heart as my only jewelry, spiked my hair, and added a bit of black eye liner and black lipstick. I looked Goth enough that most people who knew me would not recognize me. That would hopefully cut down on the assassination attempts…if there were going to be any soon. I really didn't know. Once those who cared found out what I was, I would be on everyone’s hit list. Until then, maybe I could hover below the radar. Better safe than sorry became the motto.
I felt pretty cool in the getup. Halloween for Christmas. I was Sculley gone emo…or something. The disguise was as good as it would get. I shrugged and got Sven’s stamp of approval. I chose to ignore the fact that the seal came from a man who regularly wore leopard print and pink.
I didn't have to waste gas on the mission as Mia’s store sat conveniently in the scenic and historic Ashtabula Harbor. I crossed the street to one of our many bar neighbors. As I entered, a crowd of kids in their twenties, who seemed to have not a care in the world, swallowed me into their midst. None of them worried about hit lists or vamps, or supposed soul mates. Every one of my forty years pressed down on my shoulders, and I instantly felt desperately old.
Two bars, three beers, and a half an hour later, I had seen no one bearing a hammer. I had found no dead bodies. I had, however, been propositioned to a threesome, a foursome, and a lesbian experience. I had also been offered twenty bucks for head.
Quality folk go out on Monday nights, apparently. Dollar beer night, after all.
In the third bar, I found what I thought was a welcome sight. I glanced across the room and saw a bright red head. I grinned. It had to be. I cut through the crowd.
My cousin, Santino, hung out close to the pool tables. “Hi!” I sounded ridiculously breathless.
“Uh.” The single syllable grunt was all my cousin had to offer.
“It's me, Janie! What are you doing out on a Monday? Don't you work first shift?”
“Yeah.”
It seemed odd he had so little to say. “It is so good to see you.”
He pulled me into a hug. When he let me go, he shook his head. “You should have stayed away from me. I mean, you knew she would plant me.”
“Huh?” Sometimes I was so oblivious.
And then, I got grabbed.
Santino watched helplessly. “Your mom is the frigging queen. What was I supposed to do?”
I nodded, as I tried to break free from the arms that held me. It wasn't his fault. She could have kept him in the raft for an eternity for not obeying. As a full fairy, he was her minion. He had no choices when it came to her.
But, damn it, I did, and she knew it.
I struggled against my captors, but one self-defense lesson did not help me break free from what seemed to be, if the smell was anything to gage my situation on, two goblins. Maybe a red cap. Definitely bigger, badder things than me unless I wanted to sing and bring down everything in hearing distance. Which she had counted on me not doing.
My captors hauled me outside and stuffed me in a car, which took me five miles past Jefferson to New Lyme. Mother’s house seemed innocuous, just another house set up on a hill. When Vickie visited her grandma, she visited that plain, quiet house. The fairy raft floated between times, sort of under and in that house.
I hated going into the raft.
We stood on the grass and waited. The snow sucked at us, the wind blew. Then, slowly we began to sink. If the raft felt particularly evil, it could torture its victims by leaving them in the in-between place for years. Any moment spent there was torture. An invisible force sucked us below the earth, and the ground pulsed like a grave around me. It closed in and I could not breathe. Trapped, I could not move. If I struggled, the raft would leave me there. I lay back, relaxed, and waited. When it felt ready, it moved on. Inch by terrifying inch.
When we finally arrived, the wonder of my mother’s world momentarily distracted me from my anger. No place exists on earth more beautiful than the land of Faerie. Golden sea. Purple skies. And silver grass. Gilded fruit filled ornate bowls and hung from a rainbow’s array of trees. Seats made of sparkling crystal were scattered about, offering comfortable places to eat the fruit and consider the scenery. My darling mother wore a crystal crown, shamed by the rainbow of her wings. She also gave me the evil eye, which only ruined her elegance a little.
I sighed.
The Fairy Court had not looked upon me since I announced my plan to marry a mortal. I hadn't even come for Vickie's 'judgment' when they had proclaimed her mortal. They had cast me out. I wanted to stay out.
“Yes, mom, you kidnapped me?” I hoped irreverence would remind them that I was not a member of their court, that their laws did not apply to me. I was a top-sider, not a flipping fairy. They had voted me off the island, so to speak. They had no right to jerk me back into their cluster fuckery.
“Let’s not be dramatic, Janie.”
“Oh let’s.” My tone could have cut glass. Whatever a being’s personality in the mortal realm, it doubled in the land of fairie. Sarcastic by nature, I lose the ability to temper my tongue in Mom’s world. I was also really klutzy, so I stood pretty still whenever I got sucked into the melee.
“I told you earlier.” Her brittle tone raked on my nerves. I gritted my teeth before turning my lips up in a fake smile. “We have something very important to discuss.”
“What could we possibly have to talk about?” I quirked a brow at her.
“Many things.”
Fairies, like cats, play with their food before eating it. She had me, and she knew it. Playtime began.
The last time I had stood before the Grand Fairy Council, I had been a mouse. The council had hoped that I would become a super powerful thing. Instead, I had requested to marry James, Vickie's dad. I had asked, very prettily, to withdraw from the council once and for all. In response, they had tortured me for a week to see if I had any latent abilities.
Did I mention fairies suck? Because I’m not a fan.
Once they decided I had nothing of interest to them, they let me withdraw. My mother ranted for years about her great disappointment. I moved to Pennsylvania. When Vickie visited her grandmother, I stayed at a hotel, and Mother and I exchanged what passed for civilities. End of story.
Now that I had come to power, I expected that the fairies, ever in tune to nature, had to have picked up the vibrations. I hoped it would take them a while to understand that loser me had caused it. Apparently not. As Vickie would have said, “bummer.”
But I was no longer a mouse. I wouldn’t let her make me back into one either. I glared at her and whoever else was dumb enough to meet my gaze. “What do you want, Mother?”
“We want to reinstate you as a member of the council.” Her look was positively feral.
“Thanks! What a fantastic honor. I’ll pass.” I put on a cheerful smile, the same smile I used when a Jehovah’s Witness came to the door. I felt kind of the same, too. Not their fault. They believed in what they offered. I just didn’t buy it.
“You are my heir.” She sounded reasonable even when she spouted the irrational.
“Mom, you are immortal, you don't really need an heir. Besides, isn't second cousin Kierra going to be your heir in my stead? Won't she be bummed out if you vote me back on the island?”
Mom’s brows furrowed. She never did get pop culture references. She didn't watch cable. “What we do, we do for the good of the family, not an individual. Kierra would want what is best for the entire race.”
I glanced over at where I had spotted Kierra. A full-blooded fairy like Mom, my cousin had long black hair and eyes that shone like jewels in a perfect, tiny face. Her head bent in acceptance, but she did not look thrilled. She didn’t say anything though. I stood alone on the battle with the Queen front.
“Well, the queen has to marry someone among the Faerie, and I was already married, so I guess I can't. Sorry. You didn't think this through.”
Glad I had paid attention to all those stupid laws they taught me, I smiled, confidant I had Mom on the ropes. Ha! I thought of a rule that your council missed.
My mother just looked at me. A small smile played around her lips. A rainbow formed over the endless golden sea of fairie. That sea which flowed below Lake Erie. I looked at the brilliant rainbow. The raft reflected the mood of the queen. Not a good sign.
I looked back at mother.
She definitely smiled at me. “Do you remember Cousin Clancy?”
Cousin Clancy had married a mortal. After they divorced, the council declared the marriage null and void as if it had never happened because, really, mortals aren't people. Their lives span so short a time compared to the average fairy that it’s like having a pet piece of toilet paper. Cousin Clancy’s arranged marriage to a red cap was reinstated. When her husband later killed her, the scandal lingered for years.
I blinked. Oh crap. Think. Did I have an arranged marriage? Yes…to whom?
“You are no longer married to the mortal, so I have decided to reinforce your arranged marriage.” Her voice, although still sounding like bells, rang oddly flat, reminding me in an uncomfortable way of that digital voice from Portal.
“The hell you have!” Oh, this was a bad Monday. Bad, bad, bad Monday. When, precisely had my life gone so far down the paranormal crapper? A fairy engagement? Oh, not good. That was not what I needed. I did a quick rehash of the men in my life. I had a vampire boyfriend and a whatever-the-hell-Chance-was, wanna-be soulmate. I already had one guy more than any girl needed if she wanted to sleep. And good old mom wanted to throw another in the mix. Nice.
Who exactly was my fiancé, anyway? I looked at her.
She smirked.
I bit my lip. To ask suggested that I would allow it all to happen. I had no intention of allowing it. At least I was pretty sure I wasn’t, not if I could think of a way to stop it without getting killed.
I quickly reviewed mental notes. Who was I engaged to? It seemed like something that I should have remembered. But my arranged marriage had become such a joke in the fairie world that I didn’t think anyone had taken it seriously. Or maybe just I hadn’t. I really was not the arranged marriage type. I was too…much of an ass.
I fell back to that consistent talent. “I won’t do anything. You can’t make me. Isn’t there some ceremonial crap that I would have to do and all before I could join the Fairy Council after abjuring it?”
My mother’s chief butt kisser, McNair, stepped out of her shadow, where he generally lurked. “In light of your preference for top-side dwelling…” He left the half-finished statement hanging.
I quickly translated this to mean that since I had no intention of living down there, and was bloody unlikely to take part in whatever mumbo-jumbo they had planned to make me do, where I wouldn‘t be—
McNair smiled a sickeningly confident smile. “Your mother has completed all necessary tasks in your absence for you.”
Which meant that my mom was the queen and what she said went. Fan-freaking-tastic. They had voted me back on the island and not told me about it. They had even found a way to do it without letting me know. Told you fairies sucked. They even broke their own rules.
Okay, being a card-carrying member of the Fairy Council, was not good for my continued health and well-being. On so many levels. Once my mother announced that I had happily realigned with the council and come to power, as planned—as if it had been planned—she would set me up to get killed, though she would not look at it like that.
I bit my lip. Oh, bad, bad Monday. I closed my eyes.
“Avery.” My mother’s voice rang out, shattering the silence.
I opened my eyes. Oh, shit. Yup. That was who I was engaged to. Avery Montgomery.
Avery Montgomery, the jock. Of the same ilk as Brad Pitt or say Jude Law in the looks department, he had shiny black hair and skin so pure and perfect any actor would kill for it. Sapphire eyes sparkled at me full of mischief or mayhem, I wasn’t sure which. Broad shoulders tapered down to lean hips that reflected years of perfectly proportioned genetics. The combination made him irresistible to most females, and his arrogant stance said he knew it. However, though Avery might be the picture of full fairy hotness, he barely topped four foot tall.
Really not my thing, not that I have something against short men or anything. Full fairy cockiness didn’t sit well either. He had that in spades. I looked at Avery and remembered that his height had helped me not take the whole engagement thing seriously in the first place. Mom had meant well, don’t get me wrong. He was, amongst our kind, a fantastic catch. The perfect man. Perfect looks, reputedly a great lover, the works. But I had been raised both in and out of the raft and my tastes had developed somewhat…un-Fae. I wanted a man I could look up to, not one I could carry if he got tired. He was like a pocket pet.
I turned to my mother and glared. I had to come up with another loophole, and fast, to get myself out of being shackled to what looked like an attractive action figure. As the queen, Mom could call an entire kingdom down on my head. I admit I did not know the extent of my new powers. Somehow, I doubted I could take them all on by myself. I closed my eyes and a voice spoke in my head. Have a little faith.
Chance.
I opened my eyes and he appeared, there, smack dab in the middle of Fairie. For one, it had not occurred to me to call him to Fairie, as I did not know he could go there. Only the fae, the goblin, fairy, the creatures of true magic could enter the raft. For another, why would I call him, of a
ll people, for help?
I hated myself a little for being so happy to see him. His red curls glistened like newly shed blood in the strange underground sun. Another person would have probably thought something poetic like garnets, but Chance was a predator, even if I wasn’t sure what type, so pretty stones would not fit even my mental description of him. Just like his eyes weren’t emeralds, but the bottoms of beer bottles. He stood there, bare inches from me, his hair moving in that odd underground magical wind, as if I had called him into being with my fear.
I wondered if he was real or some fabrication of my panicked brain, until I heard my mother shout, “Guards!”
Chance moved behind me and we stood defensively, back to back. I couldn’t take the fairy on my own, but my odds increased greatly with him behind me.
So long as he decided to stay on my side this time.
CHAPTER Five
Back to back with Chance, I could hardly feel the thrum of life from him. It made me feel safer to have him there, but I decided, as the denizens of fairy closed in to attack, that it would hardly matter as we were about to die.
My mother pushed to the front of the crowd that had moved to surround us. She held her head high, and I noticed how very young she looked. I probably looked older than she did. Or, at least I had prior to coming to power.
“Who are you?” She demanded an answer in a tone only a woman who had ruled supreme for a millennia could have used.
“He’s Chance.”
At the same time Chance answered, “Her soul mate.”
My mother lifted her chin and looked down her nose at us, a considerable feat since she was shorter than I was, and far shorter than Chance.
“Impossible.” Her voice rang out like wind chimes. “Janie is something that has never existed in the natural world. The principal of soul mates suggests that—”
Chance interrupted her, after spinning and moving me behind him, “That principal suggests a mate for us all. I have waited longer than you have breathed, Queen of Goblin Kind, for her to come to me.”
Odd Melody (Odd Series Book 2) Page 5
