Hotter Than Blue Blazes

by Kimbra Swain

  “You want to continue?” I asked.

  “What for? I was unconscious for several days. I suppose it's your turn to tell the story,” she said. Her turquoise eyes glittered at me. “I see that smile. Go ahead. I'll stop you when I'm ready.”

  “Why do you have to be so damn difficult?” I asked.

  “Watch your mouth, Bard. Besides, you love it,” she laughed.

  She was right. I loved every minute of it.

  Unfortunately for the door to my apartment, I was in a hurry. Holding my palm out, I imagined the door exploding into bits. Too bad my application wasn't as good as my imagination. However, it did swing open so hard that it came off the hinges. Not too shabby.

  The two women sitting on the couch jumped up in shock. Neither of them was the woman I was looking for.

  “Levi! You are home,” Jenny said.

  “Where is she?” I asked through heaving breaths. Once Finley and I stepped into Shady Grove from out of a tree, two miles south of the church, I had run full sprint to my apartment where Finley said Grace was living with Jenny. Finley lagged behind because he had Winnie with him. He had told me to go ahead. The heat of the day weighed on me. The air was as thick as soup, but I pushed myself. I couldn’t feel her, and it was killing me.

  “Good to see you too, Levi,” Riley said.

  “Really?” I said shooting a look at her. I wasn’t surprised to see her here. I knew that if she got the chance to come back to Shady Grove, she would. She didn’t like her mother but tried her damnedest to please her. By the time I left Summer, she had had enough of Rhiannon.

  Her eyes widened as she got a good look at my face. “Levi, what happened?”

  “Where is Grace?!” I shouted at them.

  “She’s at the clinic. She got hurt in Summer,” Jenny said. She ran around the table pulling me away from Riley. We ran down the steps of the apartment then across the street to Jenny’s green Gremlin. “Get in!”

  I jumped in without thinking. “How bad is it?”

  “She’s unconscious. Has been ever since we got back,” she said. “Tabitha is doing everything she can, and the baby is ready to be born. The doc says she needs to be awake for the birth.”

  “Get me there as fast as you can,” I said.

  “It’s a Gremlin, Levi. Not a Mustang,” she quipped, but with the scowl on my face, she decided not to press it further. “Your face.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I growled.

  “Oooookay,” she responded.

  The Gremlin made good time from the main part of town to the other side of city hall where the clinic stood. When we pulled up outside, I saw Nestor’s pick-up there. I bolted out of the car without thanking Jenny. The thank you could wait until later. She would understand.

  The automatic doors flew open as I ran toward them. The cold air conditioning slapped me in the face causing a slight dizzy spell. My eyes adjusted from the bright sun to the florescent lit room. I could hear hear voices in the room ahead. Barreling into the waiting area, I saw Tennyson Schuyler stand up. He and Remy were in deep conversation.

  “Dear god, boy. Thank heavens you are here,” he said. “Down the hall on the right.”

  Running at top speed, I passed the dark and empty clinic rooms. As I approached the lighted room at the end of the hallway, a burly redheaded man stepped out into the hallway. He ran his hands through his hair, then leaned hard on the wall outside the door. He heard my approach, stepping up into the center of the hallway.

  “Who are you?” the deep gravel of his voice boomed in the hallway. He had no intention of letting me pass.

  “Move it or lose it, Ginger Spice,” I said, shoving my way past him. He nailed me to the wall. His thick arm pressed against my neck. I had learned a few things in my captivity, and no matter how big a man was, he couldn’t overpower me.

  “Daze,” I muttered, pulling power from the tattoo on my arm.

  The big guy stumbled backward. Something inside of me clicked to show me that I shouldn’t hurt him. He was only protecting her. I would have done the same to an unknown man who tried to get to Grace.

  “Bard,” he groaned.

  “Yes,” I said, turning hard into the room. Nestor stood immediately when he saw me.

  “Oh, thank the gods below,” he said. A curtain hid the bed and Grace from my sight.

  “Levi,” the doctor’s voice came from behind me.

  “Doc, I’ve got to see her,” I said, pulling back the curtain. “Oh, Grace.”

  Her pale body lying in the bed cut through me like the coldest wind in my winter prison. There was a point when I thought I’d never see her again. This was not how I expected our reunion to be with her lying in a bed looking like death. Her skin had paled to a greyish pallor. Her lips looked blue as if her body had already turned cold. I remembered back when we all thought she had died. This was worse than that. Her chest barely moved with her breath. My hands flexed seeking to touch her.

  “Levi, wait,” Tabitha said.

  “I’ve waited long enough,” I said. “I can help her. I know things now.”

  “I understand, but we’ve got to get the baby out of her,” she said.

  “Then cut her open after I’m done,” I said.

  “No, fairies can’t have a cesarean section. The baby has to be born naturally or it will kill them both,” she said.

  “What do you need for me to do?” I asked.

  “Her body is contracting. I need her awake and pushing. I don’t care if you have to make her mad or upset her. Just get her awake and pushing. Can you do that?” she asked.

  “I’ll do anything for her and that baby,” I said.

  She reached up to touch the scar on my face. “What’s this?”

  “Her Uncle doesn’t like me much,” I said. “The feeling is mutual.”

  “Geez, do you need anything?” she asked.

  “Just her,” I replied.

  “Let’s do it. By the way, childbirth isn’t pretty,” she said.

  “I got that. I’ve birthed cows and horses. A human can’t be much worse,” I said.

  “Alright. Wake her up, then watch the monitor. When the line peaks, make her push,” she said.

  Nestor patted me on the shoulder. I turned into him, hugging him tightly. “Damn, boy. We thought we lost you.”

  “I was very nearly lost,” I said. The torture was horrible, but there was a reason I took it. No one here could have possibly known. I needed to tell Grace. I knew exactly how to make her mad.

  “Go ahead. Wake her up,” he said.

  The ginger brute now stood in the doorway leaning on the frame. The dizzy spell I put on him had worn off faster than I expected. Looking at him with my sight, he glowed with a light green hue. It was like he was Summer but mixed with something else. I heard the wood of the door crack as his heavy weight mashed the boards. “Who are you?” I asked.

  “My name is Astor. I am First Knight of the Tree of Life. Well, I was,” he said, hanging his head in shame.

  “Finley said you are a good man,” I said, remembering that he was the one that helped Finley come to Winter.

  “I’m just glad you are here. She needs you,” he said.

  Focusing on my task, I allowed the power in my tattoo to swirl around in my body. I approached Grace’s still form in the bed. Part of me wished she would wake up without me calling out to her. What would she think of the scar running down my face? She always looked at me with admiration and love. Would my physical appearance change the way she felt about me? I knew all of these things to be ridiculous thoughts, but they ran through my doubting mind nonetheless. Finley told me about the knight who was trying to steal her heart. He seemed like the good sort, but he would have to get in line. If we didn’t get Dylan back, she would need Winnie, the baby, and me. Not some strange fairy knight who suddenly burst upon the scene. Grace had many admirers, but I knew her heart. Her beautiful, unique heart. There were moments in our past when I felt like I had held that
heart in my hands. I wanted it back.

  My mind continued to race despite my efforts to calm it. Would she take me back as her servant? Did she hate me for wanting our ties cut? I did it to save her life. More than anything that Brockton’s torturers did to me, being cut off from Grace almost killed me. I never wanted to be without her again, even if she wasn’t mine.

  With a shaking hand, I touched hers. Her cold skin and the tingle accompanying it felt familiar. A lot like home.

  “Grace, can you hear me?” I asked. She didn’t move. I felt Tabitha move behind me. She pulled out a monitor showing me a jagged line that crested upward on the screen then died down. She only pointed toward it. I knew they were the contractions that her body was trying to have to push out her child. I nodded to her, then turned back to Grace.

  “Hey, I thought you would be happy to see me. This isn’t the welcome I expected. I mean, we can skip the sloppy kisses, but I thought at least a hug would be appropriate,” I said trying to tease her out of it. Her mind still seemed a distant fog to me. I ached inside craving the sound of her voice in my head.

  “My Queen, I’m here. I need you to come back to me,” I said into her mind. It was almost as if it hit a brick wall, echoing back into my head.

  Magic was the only thing that was going to pull her out of this. I sat on the edge of the bed, placing my palm on her cheek. She was so cold. Too cold. The power in me churned with the anxiety tied to waking her up. I opened my sight to look at her. A dark shadow swirled around her right shoulder. Pushing the bedding away, a bright pink wound pulsed with pain and power. She had been hurt, but a spell also held her.

  “Can you break it?” Tabitha asked. “I couldn’t.”

  “Yes. Are you ready? It’s probably going to hurt her,” I said.

  “I’m ready if you are,” she replied.

  “I’m here too if you need help,” Nestor said.

  “Alright. Here goes nothing,” I said. Leaning over her body, I hovered over her lips. “Dispel.”

  The shadow hovering over her shoulder dissipated, but she didn’t move. In fact, she stopped breathing. A monitor began to beep loudly. I shot a look at Tabitha who promptly turned it off.

  Taking a deep breath, I used everything I had left, “Invigorate.”

  Power rushed out of me, into her. Arching upward in pain, her body flushed with life and her breathing restarted. I could hear her heart pounding in her chest. The connection between us was strong, but not complete. Only she could let me back into her mind.

  Her eyes fluttered. Shock registered on her face as she gasped. Her cold hands thrashed out of the sheets seeking my face. Tears welled up in her eyes as she traced the scar that started above my left eyebrow curling beside my eye then stretching down my cheek to my neck.

  “My first day in captivity. He took a knife and tried to peel my face off,” I said, wincing as I remembered the pain. Brockton said it was his way of letting me know that if I intended to stay, that he wasn’t going to make it easy for me. He didn’t. Not by a long shot. There were so many times I wanted to give up, but I couldn’t. There was too much at stake.

  “I’m going to kill him,” she said. I looked at the monitor where the spike was about to go off.

  “You can’t kill him,” I said.

  “The hell I can’t. He better cower in fear for doing this to you. I will rip him limb from limb. I hate him with every bone in my body. I’m going to freeze his nuts and shatter them to pieces,” she said grunting. Suddenly awake and very alive, the blood rushed through her veins. Her skin turned a pale pink then darkened as the contraction approached.

  “You can’t right now. You gotta push,” I said.

  “Huh?”

  “Push, Grace!” I said as the contraction hit her. Her body bowed up in pain as she let out a howl of agony. She grabbed my arms, digging her nails into them. I had felt worse pain, but knowing she was in that kind of pain made my head swim.

  “Good! We are going to do it again!” Tabitha said.

  “He beat the crap out of me, Grace,” I said. Anger flared again in her eyes.

  “Why didn’t you run? You had the power to wipe him out!” she said as the next contraction built up. The kid wanted out now that he was getting his chance.

  “I chose to stay,” I said.

  “What?!” she screamed as the next contraction hit.

  “Push!” Tabitha and I said together.

  Her face tightened wrenching up in pain. Nestor held her hand next to the bed, burying his face in the mattress. He couldn’t handle her in pain either. The contraction subsided and she grabbed the t-shirt I was wearing, curling her fists into it. She was fighting mad, like a mule chewing on bumblebees. She sputtered to speak.

  “Why didn’t you leave!? I needed you!” she screamed in my face.

  I watched the contraction read-out carefully before I answered her. She shook my shirt to get my attention. I felt the knight at the door move closer. Surely, he knew this would be a bad time to interrupt. When the read-out started to peak, I pressed my forehead to hers drowning in her turquoise blue eyes.

  “I didn’t leave because they had Winnie, Grace. If I stayed and took whatever he dished out, they promised not to harm her,” I said.

  She choked, gasping for breath as the last contraction hit. She screamed at the top of her lungs, “I’m going to kill you, Brockton! I swear it on my life!”

  Silence followed her scream as she leaned forward into me. She drew in heavy breaths. I kissed the sides of her face. Her salty tears rested on my lips. “Not if I kill him first,” I muttered.

  The cry of a baby split the tension.

  “He’s fine,” Tabitha said, as she approached the side of the bed with a squealing bundle of baby.

  Grace’s hands shook as she reached out for the child. I started to back away, but she said, “No, don’t leave. Not ever again. Don’t leave, Levi.”

  “I’m not leaving, Grace. I swear it,” I said, watching as Tabitha handed her the baby. She turned to the door where the large knight waited.

  “Go tell everyone he is here, and the mother is doing better,” she said.

  “Congratulations, Gloriana,” he said. She made eye-contact with him and gasped.

  “Astor?” she said quietly.

  “Later,” he responded, then slipped out of the room.

  As she pulled her son to her chest, his cries ceased looking up at his mother. She had never been more beautiful to me. My heart ached that Dylan wasn’t here to see the birth of his son. His heir. I swore to him to protect them, but I knew the moment I looked at that baby in her arms, that I would love the child as much as I loved her. He was the product of two people who fought supernatural odds to be together. If he was anything like his parents, he would be stubborn, strong, and fierce.

  Writing Grace and Dylan’s story became that much more important to me. If Dylan never returned, this child deserved to know how great his father was, how much we loved him, and how big a hole he had left in our lives.

  “Damn, Dublin,” Grace whispered, as I spoke the last words along with my typing.

  She was just as beautiful at this moment as she was in the moments after Dylan’s son’s birth. Pink cheeks and rosy lips. Her eyes swam in tears. The depth of the turquoise deepened almost to cobalt as she thought about the day her son was born.

  “It was a special moment. Not perfect by any means, but it was amazing,” I said.

  “It was. I’m so glad you were there. I might have died on that table taking him with me,” she said.

  “Nah. You are too stubborn to die,” I said, hoping that to be true for a very long time.

  “This is true,” she said with a smile. “Thank you for being there with me.”

  “You thanked me a long time ago,” I said.

  “Yes, but it’s been a while since I was nice to you,” she smiled. “Plus, this part of your story is over. Right?”

  “Right. I’m just waiting on you now,” I teased.


  She threw a couch pillow at me. I dodged it then slung it back at her like we were children. She giggled as she hugged it close to her. I knew the deeper we got into this story, the harder it would be for her to tell it. We needed a few pillow fights and orange sodas to get us through. But more than anything, we just needed each other.

  MOVING OVER IN THE BED, I patted the mattress beside me coaxing Levi to move next to me. He seemed tentative, but he turned with his back to my pillows, resting behind my shoulder as we looked into the flame blue eyes of my beautiful son. The little one already looked so much like Dylan that I knew he would be a lady killer one day. He certainly held my heart. Levi leaned into me, putting his finger in the boy’s tiny hand. The little fingers wrapped around it tightly. His arms and legs twitched about as I stared at the one thing in this world that I’d given my whole heart to without hesitation.

  “He’s beautiful,” I said.

  Nestor beamed with pride looking at the next generation of his line. “Just like his mother,” he said.

  “Just like her,” Levi agreed.

  The wiggly bundle had a head full of blonde hair, but it wasn’t as white as mine. It was almost yellow, like cornsilk. “Nah, he looks like his daddy,” I said. His mouth clamped down on my finger, and I felt the tug of his little mouth sucking on it.

  Looking at Tabitha, she answered the question before I could ask, “Yes, you should try to feed him. Very few fairy mothers feed their own children, which is a shame. It’s up to you though.”

  “Of course, I want to feed him,” I said. What kind of mother wouldn’t want to feed their child if they could? I knew very well through the ages that the opinions on breastfeeding had fluctuated, but looking into the eyes of this child, I knew that I didn’t care what anyone thought. I would feed this child by my own breast.

  “I think I’ll exit and leave you alone,” Nestor said, kissing the little one on the head.

  Levi moved to get up, but I reached for him with a free hand. “Please don’t leave,” I said.

  “I’m just going to let you feed your child in peace,” he said. “I’ll be right outside.”