For a Pixie in Blue

by Cecilia Randell

  They were surrounded.

  Felix stopped and fell into “one.” Blue pulled her blades and stood beside him. She didn’t adopt a stance, but she was ready, her weight centered, just waiting to know which way to move. Mo’ata took a place on her other side, and she felt movement at her back. Phillip and Levi.

  The five of them circled together, ready to face their opponents. Opponents who had been maneuvered into fighting for their own enemy.

  “What the hell do we do now?” she asked.

  “We fight,” Felix said.

  “We need to get to the mountains,” Phillip said.

  “Then we need to fight our way there,” Felix said.

  The guards had stopped a few yards away, out of reach, and surrounded them fully.

  “Why aren’t they attacking?”

  “They’re waiting,” Phillip said.

  “Yes,” said Levi. “They waiting for Chief Elder.” A pause. “You are sure?”

  Blue and Mo’ata answered together. “Yes.”

  More movement behind her, but she didn’t take her gaze off the men before her.

  “I will explain more when we are on the way,” Phillip said, the deep tones of the plinar in his voice.

  Red appeared in the distance, growing closer. The Chief Elder was coming.

  A transport, sleek and shining in the sun, shot out of a side corridor of the construction zone and aimed for Blue’s small group. Guards threw themselves out of the way, and the slowest were clipped and thrown aside by the vehicle. The doors slid open as Felix picked Blue up and threw her inside. The others piled in behind her, and the doors slid shut as Trevon accelerated away and up, again knocking aside Prizzoli not fast enough to evade him.

  He hit a button, and two beams shot out, hitting a building on the edge of the construction zone.

  He fired twice more, aiming for mostly vacant areas, but leaving confusion behind him. The transport turned to where the mountains rose in the distance and sped up.

  “Can someone tell me why we just declared war? Not that I’m complaining or anything, but this isn’t how I had planned to actually go about it.” Trevon’s cheerful tones carried over Blue’s harsh breathing and Phillip’s quiet mutters.

  “How long to the mountain?” Blue asked.

  “Which one?”

  All heads turned to Levi.

  He shrugged. “I do not know. They are still forbidden.”

  “Where did Forrest and Jason go?” Mo’ata asked.

  Blue’s stomach clenched. “We need to get them first. If the Chief Elder radios their guards, they could already be in trouble.”

  “We need to get to the mountains,” Phillip insisted again.

  Blue twisted to see him huddled on the floor of the transport between Levi and Felix’s feet. “Do you know exactly where to go? No? Then we get the others first.”

  Chapter 17

  JASON

  They’d ended up somewhere in the foothills. One of their guards, Spencer, hovered over Forrest, and the other, a brute called Dimo, was tailing Jason.

  Jason sighed. He’d hoped this would be an opportunity to spend some time with Blue. He so rarely got any real interaction with her. The Chief Elder had nixed that early on, though, so now it was just Forrest and the cubs.

  It was strange. Blue’s presence continued to bring out that seed of longing—the same one from when he’d first met her. Her smile, her determination to figure out solutions to the most impossible problems... that wacky ass wedding ceremony.

  His thoughts skipped to Rachel. Not for the first time, he wondered at his own attraction to Blue. She was remarkable, but was he drawn to her simply because he missed his friend? Sometimes he heard Blue laugh and, for a split second, he could imagine it was Rachel.

  And Blue, well, she had more than enough on her plate. She had her clansman and Forrest, and if he wasn’t mistaken, she had a mercenary, a Family head, and possibly even a Prizzoli.

  What did she need a mid-level Ministry agent for? One who couldn’t even decide how he felt?

  She wasn’t Rachel. She was Blue. She drew him in a way Rachel never had. He just didn’t know if it was enough, if that feeling was based on something real or built on similarities he couldn’t help but draw between the two.

  He blew out a breath. These thoughts swirled in his head and did nothing but make him dizzy. He needed something to do, something to concentrate on other than worrying about Blue. And the birthday party for a dead girl that he had to go to in twelve days and wasn’t sure he even wanted to.

  Basically, he wasn’t sure of anything.

  He pulled away from the tree he leaned against and picked his way over the rocky shore until he stood beside Forrest.

  The younger man sat on a small stool, a drawing pad held in front of him. Zeynar had brought it and some other basic drawing supplies—pencils, paints, even chalks—back with him. He’d called it a “wedding gift” and handed it over to Forrest while Blue and Mo’ata had... Well, while the two had had their mini-honeymoon.

  Honestly, Jason didn’t even want to think about it.

  Right now, Forrest was using the pencils, capturing the scene before him. A pool, still except for the occasional ripple when one of its inhabitants broke the surface. There was no wind, and the water reflected the clear blue tinged with purple that was the Padilrian sky. They were nestled in a small area of the foothills, the slopes covered in gold-tinged grass and trees in wide leaves and silver bark.

  It was peaceful.

  Forrest made another stroke over the pad, somehow creating the pool with that small movement. He grabbed a new pencil, this one a light green shade, and the hills were there. Phillip continued to watch for a few more minutes until the view was captured. Forrest flipped to a new sheet and started again. Same scene, same pool, hills, sky, and trees, but this one was different. Darker. Something ominous lurked in the shadows of the trees, reaching for the still and peaceful pool.

  He flipped again. This time he concentrated on the mountains in the distance.

  Another. A close up of one of the trees, capturing the swirl of the bark and varying shades of silver.

  He flipped the sheet again and started another, his fingers almost frantic.

  A face took shape. Heart-shaped with delicate cheeks and a mischievous smile. Wide eyes stared at Jason from the paper, and a curl of her lips invited him to smile back.

  Blue.

  “She’s fine,” he said to Forrest as the other man’s fingers finally stilled.

  “I shouldn’t have left her there.”

  “She’s not alone.”

  “What the hell are you doing, Jason? Why are you talking to me? Why are you here?” Forrest flipped the sheets of his pad back over, closing it and cutting off Phillip’s view of Blue.

  His words cut to the heart of Jason’s confusion. “Would you believe me,” Jason said with a hint of sarcasm, “if I said I had no idea?”

  Forrest sat straight, looking out over the pool into the peaks beyond. “Yup.” He glanced up at Jason and sighed. There were shadows under his eyes and a droop to his shoulders. “Which would make you like most of us, except maybe Zeynar.”

  “I’m pretty sure he’s just winging it most of the time, too.”

  Forrest looked away, then back up, his expression now hard. “Don’t do that. Don’t act all buddy-buddy with me. We both know you never liked me or Phillip or Derrick. We were an assignment for you. Hell, we didn’t even factor in to your assignment until going through that first portal. So, don’t pretend like we’re friends, Jason. We’re not. I will smile for Blue, I will tolerate you, and I will let you have your time with her. But we are not friends. I mean, have you even once thought of Kevin or asked about him? He was your friend. All those guys were your friends. Eric and Danny, do you ever think of them?” Forrest’s voice lowered as he spoke, and the words were almost a hiss by the end. He glared up at Jason, who stepped back.

  Where was this coming from? Jason crossed his
arms as the familiar detachment fell over him. “I do think of them. Do not take your own frustrations out on me.”

  Forrest tossed the drawing pad onto the rocky shore. It skid a couple feet before coming to rest against a small boulder. “Fuck.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. Twisting, he looked over his shoulder, spotting the guards. They stood a few yards away, the younger faced out, surveying the trees and mountains, the older, larger one keeping his eyes on Forrest and Jason. “Jason, I—”

  Jason’s comm let off a low signal just as the cubs came scrambling out from the underbrush on the far side of the pool. The larger guard, Dimo, also pulled out a comm and then looked up at Jason, something dark entering his face. Jason risked a glance at his comm.

  Not safe. Coming for you.

  Then he had about half a second to do something.

  The cubs rounded the edge of the pool and were maybe ten yards away. Forrest half rose from his seat. Dimo pulled his blade.

  Jason took it all in. This was what all his training had been for. He was an agent of the Ministry, yes, and while that usually meant he infiltrated worlds and did surveillance, he had to know how to take care of himself.

  He grabbed the collar of Forrest’s shirt and pulled him away from where he had been, falling himself. A blade flew through the air in the precise spot Forrest’s neck had been.

  They rolled, stones digging into him, his armor only protecting his chest and back.

  Dimo closed the distance, now three feet away, another blade in his hand. Jason rolled again, taking Forrest with him.

  Why didn’t he have a damn sidearm on him? Standard issue for those in internal security or external agents not on active assignment on a closed world, it was a cross between a gun and a stunner.

  Because you’re on leave, idiot.

  Forrest shoved himself away and kept rolling, using the momentum to gain his feet and head for his pack, which was near the small boulder his drawing pad had landed beside. Jason, still on the ground, narrowly avoided a stab from the Prizzoli, who, despite his size, moved with the same liquid grace all of them did.

  Someone was coming though, which meant that if Jason and Forrest could just hold out long enough, there would be help.

  Jason pulled himself to the right, avoiding another slash, then rolled to his feet. It was a bad move and put his back to the Prizzoli. The blade glanced off Jason’s armor and nicked the back of his arm. He spun, facing Dimo, and his attention narrowed to the larger man, his stance, and seeing if he could decipher the next move.

  Should have spent more time in the training yard with the others.

  The man moved, but it was a feint. Jason managed to dodge the next swipe, and then the second guard was there. A light sheen of sweat covered his brow, but he held his blade with an easy grip as he approached from the left.

  Jason couldn’t take his eyes off them long enough to see where Forrest or the cubs were. He hoped Forrest was okay, that the second guard coming after him wasn’t a sign that the other man had already been taken care of.

  And where were the cubs?

  Dimo came in high, the other guard low, and Jason did the only thing he could think of. He threw himself to the ground and rolled again. He couldn’t fight them off, but maybe he could evade them long enough...

  Something whooshed over his head, and the younger guard gave a small grunt as his hand spasmed open and his blade dropped to the ground. Two streaks of golden-gray flew by, one low, one high, and slammed into Dimo. The man didn’t go down, but he now had two yowling cubs attached to him.

  One hung from his arm, and its small claws dug into the dark skin of his forearm, slashing at tendons until the blade fell. The other was on the man’s back, climbing up until it could open its jaws and bite down on the side of Dimo’s neck. Another little paw came up, and claws embedded themselves into the vulnerable flesh.

  The man screamed as blood welled in his open throat. The cub there pulled back and bit in again.

  The one at his wrist let go, gathered, and leapt again, going for the groin. In fact, they were going in like they had been trained. Disarm and then go for the soft areas, the veins and arteries. Slash don’t stab.

  The words echoed in his mind. Standard training and lessons. Every agent went through them.

  Hadn’t Felix been giving Blue and Forrest pointers before...?

  He shook off the thought as Dimo fell to his knees, a growing stain spreading across his thighs and chest. The cubs jumped away from him and watched, squeaking growls rumbling from their chests. Beyond them Forrest stood over the younger guard, who now clutched his own wrist, staring wide-eyed at the cubs and his fellow guard.

  The whole thing had taken only a few seconds.

  Dimo groaned and slumped to the ground. The man’s chest lifted in shallow movements. He was alive—barely—for now. The cubs backed up a few feet, watching the man. A few feet more. One crouched, eyes fixed on Dimo’s throat. The big man shuddered and stilled.

  Dead, or near enough.

  The cubs looked at each other, looked at Jason, looked at Forrest, and let off a cry. Then they trotted over to the pool and waded in, splashing as they went. One disappeared below the surface and then back up, swimming out into the middle.

  Jason met Forrest’s gaze. “Okay then. Glad they’re on our side.”

  Forrest sent him a smug smile. “Yep, that’s my Vivi. She’ll rip your throat out if you mess with me too much.”

  So Vivi was the one who’d gone for the throat. That meant Garfield had gone for the groin.

  Huh.

  “Also. What the fuck?” Forrest turned back to the young Prizzoli, who hadn’t moved a muscle. He held a knife in his right hand, low and to the side, ready to move if the guard did.

  Though if the cubs were off frolicking in the water, Jason assumed the immediate danger had passed.

  Jason climbed to his feet, testing his weight and checking himself for any injuries other than the slice on his arm. He needed to get that tied. He looked Forrest over, but other than a few bruises showing up on his right shoulder, the one that first hit the ground, he seemed whole. “You okay?” Jason asked.

  “Yeah.” Forrest flicked a quick glance his way and swallowed. “You should get that wrapped.”

  “Yeah.” Jason took a step and stumbled, the adrenaline dropping fast and leaving his limbs weak. His gaze caught on Dimo again, on the torn muscle and flesh, and he swallowed hard. “Someone will be here soon.”

  “Someone good or someone bad?”

  Jason pulled his gaze from the body and scanned the ground, looking for his comm. “Someone who isn’t trying to kill us. I didn’t see who sent the message, but they said something about it not being safe and that they’re coming.”

  Forrest snorted. “Not safe. Understatement there. Jesus.”

  Jason took another step forward, still looking for his comm. He swayed, a bout of dizziness hitting him.

  “Dude, sit down before you fall. Ah, crap. Vivi!” Forrest glowered at the guard that was left and pointed his knife as the cub came running up. “Guard.”

  Vivi looked up at her human then back at the guard. Jason wasn’t sure what passed between her and Forrest, but something must have because the cub nodded. Actually nodded. Forrest left her standing there, a small growl coming from her chest, as he went to his pack. He pulled a shirt from it and, using his knife to get it started, tore strips from the bottom. He bound up Jason’s arm, tying off the makeshift bandage with enough force to pull a grunt of pain from a Ministry agent.

  Garfield finally emerged from the pool and shook himself off. He trotted over to where Jason and Forrest sat. He nudged at Jason’s hand until he picked it up. The cub scooted under it and started up a low purr.

  Forrest rose and searched the area, kicking among the small rocks of the shore. “If we don’t hear from them soon, we should think about taking the transport out of here.” He sighed then headed back to where Jason sat. “I couldn’t find your comm, and I’v
e got nothing on mine.”

  “Someone is on the way.”

  Forrest looked down, his lips thin.

  “We should hide. Just in case,” Jason said.

  Forrest helped him up, and they chose a spot just inside the trees. They would be able to see anyone who arrived but would not be immediately visible. Spencer, the younger guard, came with them, Vivi still guarding him, but they left Dimo where he lay.

  Now to wait for whoever was coming.

  BLUE

  Blue stared out the front window of the transport and leaned forward, as if doing that would somehow make the transport move faster or get them to the foothills right now.

  She gripped the seat. “How much longer?”

  Trevon looked at the dash and the glowing characters and gauges that she didn’t know how to read. “Maybe... another thirty minutes? Assuming they are at the coordinates Levi gave me.”

  “That is where said go.” Levi sat stiffly, his face blank. She could only imagine what was running through his mind.

  Blue looked to Mo’ata. “And no answer on the comm?”

  He shook his head. “But there is interference. I am not sure either of their comms will receive through it.”

  “Many kinds of crystals in area. Some not good for comms.” Levi’s lips were stiff as he spoke. He was a statue carved from some dark stone.

  The ground flew by underneath them, but the mountains weren’t getting any bigger. They may as well have been floating in a bubble of timelessness. Or a nightmare.

  “I need to explain, Blue. Please. Before it’s too late.” Phillip was on the floor wedged between Levi and Felix. He hadn’t attempted to get up, just sat there, his foot tapping and his fingers twisting.

  They had time, apparently.

  “Explain.” She didn’t try to soften her tone.

  “Shardon. It escaped from Brika. She told me, in my last meditation. We spoke. It was...” He trailed off, and a dreamy expression crossed his features. Unlike other times, when he talked of the lives he took, this one was... peaceful, different. Content, somehow. Blue couldn’t put her finger on what made the difference, but it was there.