by AE Jones
Marina adjusted her stance and circled him slowly. She tensed slightly before her next lunge, slicing at him and narrowly missing his chest.
Besides being her lover, he had also been her sparring partner. He’d taught her the moves she was using on him now. Unless something had changed radically in the past year, he knew her tells.
With no elven powers to call on, it was the only advantage he had.
* * *
How could she help him? The blade moved so quickly that Alex could barely track it before Devin jumped out of the way. Alex cringed, biting her lip to keep from making another sound that might distract him.
Her eyes locked on the broken chair. Could she use a leg to beat Marina senseless?
She slid along the outside wall toward the broken pieces. Kneeling down slowly, she reached for the heftiest piece, the one that would cause the most damage. It scraped on the floor.
Marina called out. “Don’t bother, human.”
Alex stood up defiantly with the chair leg in hand. She took a step toward them and faltered when Marina’s eyes met hers. They seemed to be lit from within, twin green beacons in the dusty basement.
This could not be good. And Alex’s thoughts were verified when Marina’s blade began to hum. Based on the tension in Devin’s body, he wasn’t happy with the latest development either.
Tendrils of warmth spread through Alex’s chest, and she had trouble concentrating on the fight in front of her. Was she going into shock? She blinked hard and stared, willing the heat to stop coursing through her veins.
The fight came back into focus. Marina’s arm shot forward toward Devin’s stomach, but he stepped to the side, blocking the blow with his forearm. He punched with his other hand into her chest, pushing her off balance. She staggered back a step, righted herself and lunged again.
Alex bit her lip to stop from crying out. Devin kicked out into the side of Marina’s knee and her leg crumpled. She hovered in the air for a moment like a supernatural version of the Karate Kid, screaming as she flew toward him. She raised her arm and he used her momentum to pull her toward him, twisting her arm back so the blade plunged into her chest.
Marina looked down at her chest and then back at Devin in disbelief.
“You cannot stop us. We are everywhere.” Her pupils flashed a brilliant green for a second before fading to gray as she hit the floor.
An anguished cry erupted from Alex as the chair leg she’d been holding dropped to the floor with a dull thud. For the briefest of seconds she was elated, but that was quickly replaced by horror so profound it ran over her skin in cold tendrils. How could she be happy that someone had died?
Devin yelled “all clear,” and was across the basement in seconds, pulling her to him and wrapping her so tightly in his arms she had trouble breathing. Footsteps pounded down the stairs and Connor and Charlie rushed over to them.
“You both okay?” Charlie asked.
“I’m fine.” Devin let her go and ran his eyes over her. He reached up and touched her short hair. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine too. Hair can grow back.”
His eyes softened. “You still look beautiful to me.” He leaned down and brushed his lips across hers. “I’m sorry it took so long to find you, Alex.”
“I knew you would. I kept telling myself to be patient.”
His eyes widened. “And it worked?”
“Most of the time.”
* * *
They moved upstairs, away from Marina’s body, which was fine with Alex. Stan lay facedown on the living room floor. It had taken seven darts to bring the big man down, and then both Connor and Giz had to sit on him while Charlie cuffed him.
Devin helped her skirt around Stan so she could go outside. He grasped her arm and steadied her while she stood, watching the sunset. He had been hovering over her for the past ten minutes, always touching her somewhere, as if he needed the physical assurance that she was there and alive.
Giz and Connor dragged the handcuffed men from the bushes. Devin stared at her with one eyebrow raised in question.
“What is it?”
“I have to ask. How did you know to go limp and flip Marina?”
“Charlie taught me some moves.”
“When did he have time to do that?”
“You were unconscious for a couple days, Devin. It was a way to keep busy.”
“Well, I don’t want Charlie showing you any more moves.”
“Jealous?”
He chuckled. “You never stop surprising me, Alex.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Most definitely.” He paused before continuing, “I’m sorry about telling you we were done.”
“You were right about my going into the alley. It was stupid of me. And I’m so sorry about Marina.”
“Why should you be sorry?” he asked.
“Because I know you felt responsible for her death, and all along she was trying to destroy you. I’m sorry you had to kill her in the end.”
His mouth tightened into a thin line. “She had to be stopped, Alex. She would have killed us both and continued hurting others.”
Charlie walked up to them effectively ending their conversation. “The simian’s gone. It’s like he has nine lives. He’s an ape, not a frickin’ cat.”
“Cat! The simian hit Cat—”
Devin held up his hands. “Cat is fine. I took her to the house, and we’ve been watching over her.”
Alex took a deep breath. “Good. Thanks.”
“Do you know where the simian is?”
She nodded. “Marina sent him on a job. Wait, what day is today?”
“Saturday,” Charlie answered.
Alex’s heart sped up. “Did we have a wedding scheduled tonight?”
Devin nodded. “Yeah, you do. Peggy said it’s the Marshall wedding.”
“Stan joked about birds of a feather earlier, and I didn’t get it.”
Devin touched her shoulder. “Alex, I’m not following you.”
“The bride is a bird demon. They’re going to attack the wedding!”
Lorinda’s Wedding Tip: Even well-planned weddings will have a surprise or two. You have to be willing to roll with the punches.
Chapter 39
The bride’s plumage was showing. Alex stared in amazement at the bride’s shoulders which were covered in baby blue feathers that narrowed down to a thin line, dipping under the back of her low-cut dress. She was reciting her vows when the team rushed en masse into the vestibule of the church.
But the plumage didn’t stop with the bride. Feathers of every size and hue were prominent throughout the church. Alex doubted there were any backless dresses left in San Diego stores.
The groom appeared human, standing tall in a black tuxedo, his groomsmen lined up to his left.
Julian and Fiona were in the last pew of the church, watching the proceedings. They glanced up at the disturbance, and then quietly walked to the back of the church. Julian scanned the group and stopped on Alex, taking in her disheveled state. “This can’t be good. What can we do to help?”
Devin answered, “Use those vamp senses of yours and look for anything out of the ordinary.”
“Like what?”
“Not sure, exactly.”
“Okay, that wasn’t helpful at all,” Julian answered.
Devin barked orders, “Just head right, Connor will check the left.”
Julian and Connor started walking around the back of the church up the side aisles. The couple finished their vows and kissed. They then walked up to the altar and reached for wooden tapers. They were going to light the unity candle.
Devin tensed next to her and then took off running down the aisle, with Charlie hot on his heels. “Everyone down!” He tackled the bride and groom as they started to light the candle.
The mother of the bride screamed, followed by the entire bridal party. A rainbow of feathers erupted in a poof, blinding Alex for a second as people scrambled
for cover.
Charlie grabbed the candle and bolted through the side door of the church. A few moments later, a small explosion rattled the windows.
Alex cried out and ran toward the side door, sliding to a stop halfway down the aisle when Charlie came back through the door in one piece.
Devin dislodged himself from the bride and groom and rushed up to her, grasping her shoulders. Before she could breathe a sigh of relief, a woman screamed and pointed to the choir loft.
The simian was perched on the balcony edge. He let out a yowl of rage and leapt, throwing himself toward Alex. Devin instinctively pushed her behind him and braced himself. Alex grasped his back, a surprising heat radiating from where she touched him. She gasped and held on tighter.
The simian stopped in midair, hovering within inches of Devin, as if he had encountered an invisible force field. He howled in pain while the smell of singed skin and hair began to fill the air around them.
Devin held up his hands, and the Simian flew backward, landing on the ground with a hard thud.
In seconds, Connor and Charlie had him subdued with handcuffs.
Alex dropped her hands from Devin’s warm back and stepped away from him. The screams died down, but so many feathers still floated around them, it was as if the guests had participated in a giant, church-wide pillow fight.
Devin turned to her, his eyes tightening on her face. Before she could ask him what was wrong, he went into command mode.
“Is everyone okay?”
Everyone on the team nodded or called out in the affirmative.
“What was in the candle, Charlie?”
“An oil bomb. Pretty nasty. It would have maimed or maybe even killed the guests up front.”
Devin nodded. “What did you do with it?”
Charlie’s lips twisted for a moment before answering. “I threw it into your car and shut the door.”
Connor chuckled. “Good luck explaining that to the rental car agency.”
Devin scowled while a feather landed in his hair and slipped down onto his nose.
Alex reached up and plucked it off his face. “You’re resourceful. You’ll think of something.”
* * *
Organized hysteria replaced pandemonium. The bridal party sobbed, while the mother of the bride swooned and was carried away to the dressing room. Connor and Charlie tried to calm the guests. Devin asked Julian and Fiona to watch over Alex while he also helped with crowd control.
Sheila and Peggy made their way to Alex and hugged her until she finally had to push them away so she could breathe.
Peggy grabbed Alex’s hand. “I don’t see Jack and Gizmo. Are they okay?”
“Yes. They’re at the house where I was held captive, guarding the men we captured.”
Julian wrapped his arm around Fiona’s shoulder. “If this keeps up, I’ll never be able to go to a wedding again. I’ll suffer from PTWD.”
Alex stared at him in confusion, so he elaborated. “Post traumatic wedding disorder.”
They groaned in unison.
Alex shook her head at how true that statement used to be for her.
Fiona chuckled.
“It must be love, if you think that was funny,” she chided Fiona.
“I can’t help myself.”
Alex smiled until Peggy gasped next to her. She followed her gaze. Her grandmother walked toward them. Why was she here? And how in the hell was she going to explain this?
“Alexandra, are you all right?” Lorinda frowned. “What happened to your hair?”
“I’m fine. I’ll explain the hair later. About the feathers…”
Lorinda waved her hand in the air. “No problem dear, avian demons are quite skittish. It’s to be expected.”
Alex goggled at her grandmother. “How do you know about…?”
“Supernaturals? I believe I owe you an explanation, Alexandra,” she answered, patting Alex on the arm.
“Yes, you do.”
Devin walked over to the group and his gaze locked on her face. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. What about you?” Alex asked.
“I’m fine.”
“That’s all you’re going to say? How do you feel now you’ve got your powers back?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what happened, but those weren’t my powers.”
“What are you talking about? I felt heat course through you when I touched your back. How did you stop the simian?”
Her grandmother interrupted them. “Devin didn’t stop the attack. You did.”
Alex’s eyes widened. “What did you say?”
“I said you stopped the simian.”
She gawked at her grandmother. “How exactly did I stop him?”
“You channeled your energy through Devin,” she answered matter-of-factly.
“I…don’t understand.”
Lorinda smiled at her. “You’re a faery, dear.”
“Oh, that explains it. I’m a faery.”
Alex’s eyelids fluttered as the weight of her words hit her like a two-by-four. Her knees buckled and the world went gray.
* * *
She was in a Twilight Zone episode. Alex woke on a couch in a small room, her grandmother sitting in a chair next to her. She really needed to work on the whole fainting thing. It was getting redundant.
“I’m a faery. Or at least I was,” Lorinda told her gently.
Alex stared at her grandmother for a moment, expecting her to smile or tell her it was a joke. When she didn’t, Alex stammered. “How is that even possible?”
“Back when I met your grandfather, having a relationship with a human was not permitted. But I fell in love with him anyway, and broke from the supernatural world to be with him.”
“And they stripped you of your powers. Did you ever regret it?”
“I never regretted it for myself. Your grandfather meant everything to me.” She paused before continuing. “But it was more than that. They also stripped my descendants of powers as well.”
“So Dad was human like me?”
Her grandmother’s eyes filled with pain, and she closed them for a second before continuing. “And that is what I regret. If your father had retained his powers, he could have survived the car crash.”
Alex grabbed Lorinda’s hand. “But if you hadn’t gone with Grandpa, he would never have been born.”
“Nor you. You are part faery as well, but your powers have been blocked as part of my punishment.”
“Then why do I have powers now?”
“Something had to supersede the block. Something more powerful.”
“What?”
“Love. You were protecting Devin.”
“No…I don’t…” but she couldn’t finish her sentence. She would be lying to herself and her grandmother. She loved Devin. He was stubborn, overbearing, and infuriating, but she loved him.
“Will they take away my powers again?”
Her grandmother’s eyebrows lowered in thought. “They can’t take your powers away from you. You have done nothing wrong.”
“Peggy told me that faeries are pretty high on the supernatural totem pole.”
Her grandmother chuckled. “We’re at the top, actually.”
Alex frowned. “So you knew all along what Peggy was doing? How come you never said anything?”
“It was no longer who I was. I trust Peggy, and up until now, we have had no problem with our more unique clientele.”
“So why didn’t you believe there was a problem?”
“At first, I thought Peggy was blowing it out of proportion. But when I realized the sabotage was happening with our supernatural weddings, I was truly frightened for perhaps the first time in my life.”
“About what?” Alex asked.
“That you would be hurt. That you would find out about the supernatural. That you would realize what I had taken away from you. So I pushed you away.”
“You didn’t take anything away from me. I’ve been fine as a human.” She p
aused for a moment. “I thought you didn’t want me to help because you’re disappointed in me.”
Lorinda grasped her hands. “That’s ridiculous. I could never be disappointed with you, Alex.”
“You called me Alex.”
“It’s what you like to be called, isn’t it? I think it’s time that I stop trying to run your life.” She smiled. “I do have to ask, though, what are your plans with Devin?”
Alex wanted to be with him, but her stomach clenched. “Devin is an elf. Can an elf and faery be together?”
Her grandmother’s eyes softened on her. “If a faery and human can be together, so can the two of you.”
“But they took away your powers.”
“In the past twenty years, humans and supernaturals have been allowed to marry. But there is still a ban on supernatural cross-species relationships.”
“So Devin could lose his powers?”
“As could you, dear.”
Right. She had powers. Her brain buzzed with the possibilities.
“Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’m never going to be normal again. I wanted so much to be like everyone else.”
Lorinda’s eyebrows rose. “Why in the world would you want to be normal, Alex? You are exceptional and always will be, powers or not.”
Alex shook her head. “I’ve spent so much time being afraid.”
“As have I. But from what I’ve seen over the past few weeks, you aren’t afraid of anything anymore.”
“I’m not fearless, but I’m not going to let it stop me.”
“That’s my girl. Now tell me what happened to you.”
Alex told her everything, including her kidnapping. A while later they met the rest of the team back in the church.
Devin grabbed her elbow. “Are you sure you should be up?”
“Yes, we need to talk.”
“I agree, but now isn’t the time or place.”
She started to argue, but he flinched, closing his eyes for a moment.
“What’s wrong?”
It took him a moment to respond. “I’m being summoned.”
“What do you mean?”
“My Tribunal was today, and I didn’t show up.”
