“Why don’t you see for yourself?”
“830. And how is it you have a ten year credit history?”
“Child prodigy. Now could we perhaps see the houses?”
She looked at her watch. “Of course.”
Charlie took house number two. It was a two bedroom, two bath, with a separate office that had its own entrance. There was even a garage. Off the beach and near the highway, it was perfect.
The rest of that day was spent in a crazy-assed flurry. Charlie and Jay bought a TV and somehow managed to get the cable guy in. Goodwill delivered the few items of furniture they’d purchased and they never deliver. Then we’d hit a bed and mattress place and they delivered too.
I’d been watching Charisma Man pretty closely throughout the day. He’d do his thing with the salespeople and the managers. But around us, he’d be his normal worried, sometimes grumpy self. I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t use that gift all the time. I mean he’d have friends up the kazoo, plus he’d be so much easier to hang out with.
I watched Jay and Charlie teasing each other. He was always friendly with Jay. It must be me.
That night we wrapped it up by hitting a super discount store for towels, sheets and food. The guys let me have one of the bedrooms. It was the first time I’d had a room to myself. Ever. I slept like the dead.
After breakfast, we were lounging on the small couch and chair from Goodwill, when Charlie said, “Time’s up.”
I ignored him. “Man, this place is the bomb.” I put my feet on the cushiony ottoman and leaned back with a sigh.
They looked around the room and frowned. Jay poked at the arm of the chair. “It’s okay, I guess.”
“Peter would laugh himself silly, ” Charlie said.
“Why?” I asked.
Jay answered, “He’d say it’s about one step up from camping out.”
“Well I think it’s awesome. You guys must be rolling in moolah.”
“Actually, we’re rolling in the direction of almost broke, which is why I took that job with the werewolf.”
“The woman you spoke to was a werewolf?” I asked, sitting up, a creeping sensation rolling down my spine.
“Yeah, from a pack on Catalina Island. We’re going there Monday.”
No. No. No, this can’t happen. I stood up, but there was nowhere to go.
“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked.
“The prophecy was right.” My eyes filled. I didn’t want it to be true, but if he was going to help the Catalina wolves, he must be an enemy.
“I don’t understand. What part of that prophecy applies to your race?” Charlie asked.
“It…it says you’ll side with the wolves, turn your back on your own people, the glorious fae, and you will lead your demon armies against the kingdoms of the unseelie.”
“Who told you that bull crap?” Jay asked, almost laughing.
I frowned and turned to Charlie. “That’s not in the prophecy,” he said. “Someone lied to you.”
“So what does it say?”
“Pfft. It’s all bull.” Charlie stood and walked toward the kitchen. “I’m making coffee.”
Jay leaned closer, speaking softly. “It’s not bull. A demi-fey who’s a seer spoke the words. She said he’s going to lead the fae against the demons who attack them and that his mixed blood will make him stronger and that he’ll always be Tuatha De Danann. That’s a name for the ancient fae.
“But this isn’t what we’ve been taught. At least it’s not what Tellek says.”
Charlie had come back, plopping down on the couch next to me. “So your people have it in for me?” He gave me a twisted grin, as if that idea was funny.
“You’re a prince of Faerie. They’d probably be so terrified of you, they’d bow.”
“Yeah, well I won’t be going there, that’s for sure.” After his kindness, I couldn’t imagine taking him to Tellek, but if I brought him to the chieftain, then Tellek would still have to honor his agreement, wouldn’t he? And the chieftain would never harm a fae.
Charlie ran a hand through his hair. “With me, what you see is what you get. I’m finished becoming what other people want me to be. That’s part of the reason I’m interested in this kind of work. I can help other supes, even the unseelie species.” He winked.
“You look like you’re gonna barf, Ariel.” Jay sounded concerned.
“You can’t work for the wolves.” I tried to stand up again, but Charlie grabbed my arm.
“Tell me the truth. Your twenty-four hours are up, anyway.” He pulled me back down.
“The island was our…” I groaned, bending at the waist. Sharp pains were digging into my temples, a reaction to the spell I was under. “I can’t…I can’t tell you.” My skin was heating up, burning every nerve ending. “I need water. My head hurts.” I dug fingers into my scalp, trying to massage away the pain.
Jay ran ahead to the kitchen, pouring me a glass of water. “I’ll look to see if we have any aspirin.” He headed for the bedroom where they kept their packs.
Charlie had his arm around my shoulders. “Do your people have something to do with the missing werewolves?”
“We’d never attack their pack. We have a… Oh god.” The pain was worse.
“Do you know who might have taken them? Harmed them? Do you know where they are?”
“No.”
“Ivy…”
“Leave me alone,” I pleaded, stumbling to the door, wrenching it open and running down the stone path to the sidewalk.
“Wait.” With his long legs and cheetah speed, Charlie was able to cut me off easily.
I sank to the grass of the neighbor’s yard, perched on all fours and panting like a rabid dog. The pain—my eyesight had blurred, my focus lost as I started to panic. What if I’d gone too far and the spell killed me? “Please…”
“I’m a healer, remember? I might be able to help you.” His voice cracked. He was afraid for me.
“If I try to tell you…anything…it hurts.” I was sobbing now, clutching at his shirtsleeve.
He lifted me easily, carrying me back into the house. When he laid me on the couch, Jay was there with a couple of aspirin and more water. “It won’t help. It’s a spell,” Charlie said, his hand cool on my forehead. “Let me inside. Trust me.”
“I can’t.”
“You’re suffering. Please. I won’t do anything to hurt you.” He put my hand against his chest, right above where his heart beat. “I swear to you on my blood and by my honor. I will not harm you.”
“Please...” And the world went dark.
CHARLIE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
It made me ill to see how they’d messed with her head. I’d known her aura wasn’t human, but for someone to force these kinds of magical blocks in someone’s mind, particularly one of their own subjects, was sick.
This wasn’t a spell. A spell could be dissolved with a counter-spell. My mom’s dad, Simon would have been able to show me what to do to release her. No, this was different. It was like they’d re-wired a part of her brain and then blocked off another.
“Uh, Jay…”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to need to connect to your mind to give me some form of reference.”
“Oh, she’ll love that. Go ahead. I can’t wait to hear her reaction when she finds out you based her new brain on mine.”
“She’s not getting a new brain, dimwit.” I sighed. “This is gonna be tricky because I don’t know what species she is.”
“Doesn’t healing energy make things clearer?”
“See, I knew I had you around for a reason.”
“I thought it was because I could cook.”
“Okay. Busted.”
“What’d they do to her?”
“They used an energy I’m not familiar with to change some of her magical pathways. It’s definitely not demon or fae, but I think I can handle this. Liam’s had me practicing on all kinds of species.
“Don’
t zap yourself with that unseelie hocus-pocus. She could be booby-trapped.”
“Sit down and shut up. I need to concentrate.”
“Some prince of Faerie you’re gonna be.”
It took me forty-five very long minutes to figure out that there were outside shields melded to a section of her brain that didn’t even exist for any of the races I was familiar with. The blocks were created from someone else’s magical DNA, not Ivy’s, and even though her body seemed to accept the magic, it felt foreign to me. Everything else was set up pretty much the same as any magic user’s brain, although I’d never explored an unseelie’s mind before.
So now what? Tear it down and take a chance that I was harming her or leave it and try to find her guardian? ‘Course he might be the guy who put it there in the first place. Should I get Liam here to handle it? He was a much more experienced fae healer. None of these choices was good.
I thought about Ivy and all that I’d learned in the few days I’d known her.
“C’mon.”
“Where’re we going?” Jay asked.
“The ocean. Put on your bathing suit.”
“You’re nuts. It’s raining and there could be some lightning.”
“She needs the sea. I don’t know why, but I think it’ll help her.”
“Are we changing her into a bathing suit?”
“No, you tool.”
“Okay, okay. Just asking.”
We both changed into suits. Jay carried her into the ocean while I swam along side, resting my hand on her forehead.
We’d gone deep enough to tread water, Samson paddling beside us. She seemed to have no trouble floating, even in an unconscious state wearing jeans that had grown heavy in the water. I’d done the right thing, I was sure, but I’d feel better if she woke up.
“It is freakin’ freezing.” Jay was starting to turn blue. I shot him some magic to warm his skin. “Ah, better. I knew I kept you around for a reason,” he joked.
“I thought it was ‘cause I’m a chick magnet,” I said, adding a touch of warmth to Ivy’s skin.
He looked at the girl floating without effort, her hair a dark halo around her face. “She’s trouble.”
“She’s in trouble. I’m going to help her.”
“She can’t be a client. She’s got no money.”
“That’s a rather mercenary comment, douche bag.”
“Hey, we’re gonna need to buy more groceries. We’re not starting one of those not-for-profits, right?”
“Triad’s a business. The wolves are paying us. In fact the retainer should already be in my account.” I furrowed my brow, concentrating on putting a couple of tiny holes in those blocks, hoping it would relieve some of the pain.
“So are your mind games helping, or is she still unconscious?”
“I think she’s smiling.”
One eye opened, then the other. “How did you know?” she asked in a whisper.
“That you were smiling?” She giggled, relaxing some of the tightness in my gut. She would be all right.
“That I needed the ocean to feel better.”
“I’m a fae prince, right? We know these things.”
“Samson and I are heading back to shore. We’re freezing.”
“Did you mess up my head?” She touched her forehead, pushing away some of the wet hair.
“Someone blocked a whole section of your mind, so I put in a couple of tiny holes to relieve the pressure.”
“I gave them permission to block me,” she admitted.
“So you’d appear human?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“And so you couldn’t speak the truth.”
“I’ve told you as much of the truth as I was able to, more than I was supposed to. Now my family might suffer because of my stupidity.”
“Your leaders want to meet with me, right?”
“Yes.”
“Can you ensure our safety? On your honor as a…an unseelie?”
“I have that authority.” She wasn’t lying.
“Then I’ll meet with them on Wednesday. My office, 11:00 am.”
“They…they may have trouble on…on land in human form for an extended period of time. The meeting would have to last no more than half an hour.”
“A boat?”
She nodded. “A boat would be manageable because they can reboot.” She pointed to the water.
I thought about how vulnerable that would make us. Traveling the lines was more difficult over water. In fact using any kind of magic was more difficult and it didn’t help that this was saltwater. Salt was another magic blocking substance. Just heating Jay’s skin had taken twice as much energy as it would have on land.
“How do you contact them?”
“Only here.” She spread her hands, smiling, moving them though the water as if she were dancing. In the ocean, she had a natural power, a grace not evident on land.
“I want a blood agreement with your leader to ensure our safety. I don’t know your people and we’ll be more vulnerable over the ocean.” I thought about all the meetings my dad had made me sit in on, meetings with wolves and shifters, vampires and the fae. I was usually grumbling and bored to tears, but maybe there’d been a point to them after all.
“Keep yourself and your people safe,” Garrett would always say. “Once secure, you’ll be free to discuss any subject, no matter how controversial.”
“I can’t speak for the chieftain, but I’ll ask.”
“How long do you need?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
“Fine. The meeting is Wednesday at noon. We’ll charter a boat out of Nick’s Marina and take it one mile out.”
“Thank you.”
I glanced at Jay, then Ivy. “I’m trusting you.”
She watched Jay running on the beach, tossing a clump of seaweed toward Samson. The dog dodged the smelly stuff, tackling Jay and frantically licking his face. “I understand.” He had his friends to protect.
“Go ahead. We’ll wait on the beach.”
IVY
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
We spoke in the language of my species; both of us back in human form.
“You have returned so soon? Is there a problem?”
“The fae prince will meet with you.”
“Here?”
“On a boat one mile from shore. Wednesday at noon.”
“Perfect.”
“He wants a blood agreement with our chieftain ensuring his safety and the safety of his friend.”
Lord Tellek circled me. “Why do you smell like wet dog?”
“He has a dog, Samson. The dog will be there too.” I kept my eyes on the floor.
“For him to bring a dog is the highest of insults.”
“He doesn’t know our ways or our nature. The dog is fae—a cu sith. A bodyguard.”
“Have you witnessed the Target’s magic?”
“Teleportation.”
“Nothing else?”
“Healing. Warming. Glamour. He tries not to use magic without cause.”
“Then he is still weak.” I laughed. There was nothing weak about a male who could get what he wanted with a smile, who could heal a great pain with a touch or teleport three other beings through a river of magic we had no access to.
Tellek grabbed my shoulder. “Do you think I am making jokes?”
“No, lord. But I see no weakness in a male who could destroy but instead seeks peace. When you meet him, you’ll understand.”
“You’ll be at this meeting.”
“Yes, lord.”
“He will try to protect you?”
“Yes, but…”
“Good. Go back to him now.”
The two guys were waiting, just like they said. They were reliable that way. “What did your chieftain say?” Jay asked.
“He wasn’t there, but Lord Tellek said the meeting’s on.”
Charlie looked happy. “Good. We’ll all meet at the Marina at noon, exchange blood and then hop on the boat.�
��
“What?”
“We’ll swear a temporary truce at the marina—that should only take about ten minutes.
I shook my head, frowning. “You didn’t say anything about exchanging blood before we leave.”
“I’m not taking chances. This leader of yours could decide he wanted to drown us.”
“I’ll have to go back.”
“We’ll get some food and meet you back in in an hour. You want Chinese?” Jay asked.
“Sure.”
This time I went directly to the chieftain. After arguing with the guard, I was finally announced.
I bowed low. This male deserved my respect, unlike Tellek. “Chieftain Marea.”
“You are Ivonne are you not? My cousin’s child?”
“Yes, sire.”
“What is it you need from me?”
“The fae prince, Charles Cuvier, has agreed to meet with you.”
“He has? How wonderful. We will show ourselves to him and we will be accepted by the fae once more.”
“Um, maybe not quite yet. He wants to help with the wolf problem.”
“My son is missing. Did you know?”
“No, sire.” His son the prince was young male who liked to party on the mainland. Maybe he’d just passed out somewhere.
“The wolves have him.”
“Charlie will do his best to find out.” I explained about meeting on the dock on Wednesday, and he the chieftain agreed.
There was a knock. It was Tellek. Unfortunately, the chieftain was called away and I was left alone with my worst nightmare.
“What is it now?” Tellek hissed.
“The blood exchange must be done at the marina. I’ve informed the chieftain and he agrees.”
Lord Tellek’s eyes turned to slits, his mouth thinning. I’d grown to hate this expression during my weeks of torturous training. It usually meant I was in for more pain. “This young man is brash, giving orders, assuming himself to be equal to the chieftain.”
“Should I call it off?”
Tellek backed up a step. “No. Tell him we agree, but make no mistake, he will be put in his place.”
Breaking Out Page 12
