Through Time-Slamming

by Conn, Claudy

  Ete broke into her thoughts, “Do you see them—the monoliths. They are beautiful are they not? It’s so sad that they should be used for such evil.”

  “I agree. I wonder how they are floating like that above the river. Is Pestale causing that?”

  “No. They aren’t floating Jazmine. If you look closer, you will see that they are at the water’s edge. The monoliths have an aura that only Fae can see. That is what makes you think they are floating.” She smiled at Jazz. “Your transition must be near completion if you can see the aura of the monoliths.”

  “That’s good, right? I gotta tell you I don’t feel like I’m Fae. I mean, I can sense a new power just like when I sense my Fios. I still feel like… well… like me,” Jazz said frowning over it.

  “You are still you, Jazmine. You will always still be you and I have no doubt that while the Seelie Fae in you will be dominant in most respects, your human side will always drive your nature.” Ete shrugged. “How could it not? We are what we are because of many things, life experiences being top on that list.” Ete looked around and suddenly said on a very sad note, “We didn’t arrive in time. The abominations are almost here. They are already in the web of the portal. It will start spitting them out, but our first priority is to contain the creatures and spare the humans.” She took Jazz’s hand. “Repeat what I say, but don’t just say the ancient Danu words. Concentrate on all of your abilities in giving those words meaning.”

  Jazz licked her bottom lip. Before she was able to ask Ete how she was supposed to understand, Danu started translating for her as Ete spoke.

  Jazz heard Ete and repeated each word with feeling, and a deeper understanding. “ballai cloiche a chaomhau, greilli agus treilis, beartoidh mé, ni, aon, ni, coimeadam.”

  Jazz realized as she said these words and concentrated her newfound power on the meaning, that she could feel the might surge and penetrate the atmosphere.

  She had Seelie blood pumping through her. She would never get used to that. She looked at Ete who looked totally absorbed in what she was doing and continued to repeat the words that demanded the portal to close and seal its predators within its membraned tunnel and shift to the wasteland.

  As Seelie Fae, they should have the ability to override any Unseelie commands or spells. Though the portal spluttered it did not close. It had remained right where it was!

  “What’s wrong?” Jazz shouted over the noise the portal was creating. The winds had picked up as though nature was being tormented by their spell and their presence.

  Ete looked at Jazz and answered, “The Dark King is Seelie, probably Daoine Seelie. If the Dark Princes, as the Queen and I have long suspected, have the Dark King’s blood then the portal would sense the Seelie in them. It would be impossible to deny their request to open. Closing the portals will be more difficult than we anticipated.”

  They repeated the words and suddenly Ete turned to be greeted by forty warriors at their back. All of whom had Danu weapons recently forged by Danu dust. The Queen had discovered them in abundance near the Upper Lake of Killarney. Ete bade her warriors be ready for the Portal’s mouth was widening, instead of closing.

  There was total and utter silence. Then with a howl of hunger--they came.

  Coming out of the portal, in groups of not less than ten, were monsters with limbs shaking, saliva dripping, spiked hair and teeth grinding. Jazz thought she had never seen anything quite so hideous or as frightening as this mass of attacking hordes of hungry beasts. Not even in her time in the Dark Realm. From what she could determine, most of them looked like giant insects; the kind of insects that create nightmares of the worst kind.

  Spiders as large as tigers, roaches as huge as cars, centipedes and vicious beetles as large as humans, clicking their pinchers as they emerged.

  And thus, it began.

  Ete spread out her arms as the warriors formed a band.

  “Jazmine spread out your arms and call for your energy. They can’t pass through our wards. We can contain them for a few moments while the warriors lessen their numbers.”

  Jazz without thinking did as Ete asked, but before the ward was fully formed, a few of the clicking, drooling insect type creatures got through. They made their way to the avenue leaving a slimy residue in their wake, much like a slug does when it is on the move.

  Some of the humans who were out doing their daily exercises and errands, stopped to do a double-take.

  Jazz could see that some were smiling, and knew that they didn’t believe it was real. No doubt they thought they had stumbled upon a movie set. Those people never stood a chance. They were the first to be plowed down in a gory and bloody hunt.

  Before Ete and the warriors were able to circle the first troop of monsters; a few more of the many limbed creatures got through. Jazz helplessly watched as the next set of humans fell in a splatter of blood.

  Panic took over. People driving by in cars witnessed this with growing horror. In a flood of fear they drove recklessly and began colliding into one another.

  For a moment Jazz felt overwhelmed by fury as she thought of the innocents who never stood a chance against the onslaught.

  She raised her sword high. She wasn’t a trained warrior. She was a Seelie. And as Seelie all instincts came into play.

  It occurred to her that it was odd to think what one could do when backed into that proverbial corner.

  She smiled to think she held one of Trevor’s Lugh Death Swords in her hands, and jumped into the fray.

  Slicing and dicing, blood and grueling guts flying as she emitted sounds without thinking, Ugh, ewe, ah, oh no, aah. She felt invincible as she took down spider after spider, roach after roach and then she saw it; a huge multi-colored beetle standing on two limbs while the others made thrashing movements in the air. The pinchers near what must be its face were working furiously as it had discovered a human woman holding an infant wrapped in a blanket, frozen with the look of horror on her face. The ugly Unseelie was closer to them than Jazz. Even if she shifted it would reach them before she could stop it, but she had to try.

  Sword held ready, she shifted, and then stopped with utter amazement as she watched with disbelief. Dark Prince Graely, Pestale’s second brother, had been nearby. He could have hindered her movements but instead he jumped in to help. He swooped mother and babe into his arms and sat them down a distance away and commanded, “Run!”

  His black eyes found hers and as his lids lowered, he was gone.

  Jazz shook her head and said out loud, “What the hell?”

  Before she knew it the infuriated beetle had noticed it’s meal was gone, and it had decided that she would now be its main course. He reached for her and his pinchers closed around her middle. She drove her sword into it and it fell over quite dead, but her blood was flowing freely. She backed up against the brick wall of the nearest building and collected herself.

  She was Fae, she told herself. She would heal immediately if only her human would accept that.

  The blood still flowed and she closed her eyes and repeated, “I am Seelie Fae, and will heal.” A moment later, she found that this worked.

  The bleeding stopped. The poison the monster had sent coursing through her was immediately struck with a Seelie Fae antidote and she grinned, “That’s more like it.”

  Ete called out to her and she returned to the battle.

  ~*~

  Trevor and his warriors were surprised to find the portal quiet at Edinburgh Castle.

  It was an easy task for him to spell the dolmens, which effectually closed them down before he sent them to the Wasteland Dimension the Queens had prepared for their ‘resting place.’

  As he turned and readied his warriors to return to Tir, he was hit with a wave of repulsion.

  Unseelie, in Edinburgh.

  They had not come through the portal.

  Pestale meant to keep them guessing. He had sent in a small troop of twenty higher caste monsters who had the ability to shift.

  This group
had several castes of different shapes, and sizes. Each caste had its own distinct way of feeding and they were already doing so at a speed that suggested their orders were to get in and get out.

  Trevor and his Seelie fighters could hear the people screaming, horns honking and cars crashing. They looked at one another grimly before they shifted onto the scene.

  What met their eyes was horrific.

  Five Unseelie who appeared wraithlike, with skeletal features, had circled a number of women and were sucking the life out of them. They could see the light from their lives leave their bodies as the boney beasts absorbed their energy.

  . In all his years, Trevor had never seen anything like the two ten foot tall creatures. They were dark gray with grotesque spikes and wrinkled skin. He saw that they had children trapped in the alley, so he rushed there first leaving the other Unseelie to his warriors.

  “I would make a much better meal,” Trevor shouted at them and got their attention.

  One of them dropped the child that he had been feasting on. Blood still dripped from the monster’s suction cup mouth. It seemed to grin.

  “Yes you would, but how can I catch you?” said the Unseelie beast.

  “You can’t,” said Trevor with loathing as he shifted in and drove his Death Sword into the center of the beast.

  It wobbled and looked surprised before it disintegrated. Its partner, evidently a female, started to rant without a word. Trevor zoned in and shifted once more. She too, disintegrated.

  Why had Pestale sent in a few of each caste? These two were slow and not very bright. It appeared that he was testing them to see who was the smartest and best at fighting.

  He needed to have the best as his back up so he was sacrificing Unseelie to find the best amongst them. That was the only answer he could come up with.

  He shifted to his men and saw that they were spread out and making short work of their targets.

  Evidently these Unseelie wouldn’t make the cut. He doubted that any would have the sense to shift back to their safe haven before they were taken out.

  Jazmine Decker; his sweet beloved. He could feel her, even as far away as she was. When his mind reached for her he could feel her warmth spread through him.

  He called to her saying her name softly through their mind link. She didn’t answer him.

  He sighed. Apparently she was still annoyed with him.

  He wanted to hear her voice in his mind. He needed to hear her say his name in that way that was all her own.

  He wanted to touch her, feel her tremble with love. He hated the way they had parted.

  And then his eyes opened wide as an unusual monster came into view.

  It was different than the rest and it slipped out of the fray and quietly pulled open a car door. He could see that a woman was backing away inside the vehicle from the grotesque thing reaching for her.

  Trevor thought he could make it in time, because it was no more than twenty feet away. His Death Sword was raised, but even as he brought it down the blue lizard thing had a hold of the woman. It grinned at him and shifted off with her.

  “Damn you to Bloody Hell!” Trevor growled and immediately followed using his better than average tracking ability.

  The monster had only jump shifted. It was hungry and wanted to feed. It thought it was safe. It saw no one but humans milling about.

  It never knew what hit him as Trevor’s sword took off its head.

  The woman who had been screaming all the while, fainted.

  Trevor wondered if he should return her to her car. He looked about and saw that this part of the city had not been attacked. He picked her up and set her on a bench outside a store front and returned to the fray.

  An Unseelie that had the body of a snake and the head of a giant Venus Fly trap, slithered towards him eating people along the way.

  A Seelie warrior hovered in the air over it. He came down and sliced off its head, but the horror of the head with the jagged teeth kept chomping at anything and everything, regardless of the fact that its body now lay lifeless. Trevor set it on fire with a thought. He turned to find yet another Unseelie who was tearing a man in half.

  Even as the creature chewed on his flesh, its tongue reached out and caught another young woman.

  Trevor was on it. He downed and beheaded the creature in a moment for it was no more than a simpleton of a monster. No thought other than to feed. No thought to escape.

  The woman threw herself into his arms. She was a lovely brunette, and she cried and screamed, and wailed as she held onto him for dear life.

  ~*~

  Ete and Jazz looked around and smiled at each other. Their mission was accomplished. The Portal was now in the Wasteland and the Unseelie monster insects had been vanquished.

  Inverness would never be the same, but it was momentarily safe.

  Ete called to the Queen for instructions and she was told to take some of the warriors with her and join her mate Breslyn, who had encountered massive resistance.

  “And me?” Jazz asked with her mind wondering how she would ever remember now that she had been a human. Fae was beginning to completely obliterate her human responses.

  “My dear, Edinburgh is very dangerous at the moment. A higher caste of Unseelie than you have encountered in Inverness has attacked Edinburgh, and Trevor needs reinforcements. Do you think you are up to the challenge?” the Queen asked gently.

  “Yes,” Jazz answered. She was surprised to discover she was grinning and very up to the challenge.

  A moment later with twenty warriors at her back, she shifted into Edinburgh. They sliced their way through some powerful Unseelie creatures and then Jazz finally found Trevor.

  She had been feeling guilty about the way she had given him the cold shoulder. She had allowed her human emotions to play havoc with her logic. He tried to control her out of love and all she had to do was stop him from doing so. Punishment had not been called for.

  And then she saw her mate, Trevor of Lugh. There he was right before her eyes.

  A beautiful woman had her arms around him and he was holding her, stroking her back, and patting her shoulder.

  Jazz could hear him telling the woman, “Now, lovely lady, all is well. What you need is rest.”

  “Don’t leave me,” the woman cried.

  “I’m not leaving you… not just yet. I must join m…” his gaze at that moment found Jazz’s gaze and their eyes locked.

  Jazmine Decker folded her arms and she tapped her foot impatiently. An Unseelie came up from behind. She spun to face it and took off its head. She then turned to Trevor, gave him an angry look and shifted away.

  Trevor was on her trail immediately. They both landed in the middle of the fray. They fought back to back in the midst of monsters.

  “I just saved the human’s life…nothing more,” he shouted trying to explain as he stabbed a drooling thing that looked half insect half human. It fell and he stepped over it as it made a puddle of obscene goo, oozed out of its wound.

  “For a Fae who has never related well to humans, you were doing a pretty good job of it.” Jazz snapped at him and took off the head of another monster, wondering how many more there were.

  “Jazmine Decker, it was not what you thought,” he countered.

  “It was exactly what I thought! You’re opportunist—you—you…” A monster reached out with its claws and slashed her across her face. Blood poured out of her cheek. Trevor made quick work of the fiend trying to feed on the human in front of him so he could help Jazz. He had Jazz in his arms and shifted to a quiet spot while the warriors continued in the battle.

  “What are you doing? We are in the middle of…”

  He touched her bleeding cheek and watched it heal a moment before he answered her. “There are only a few of them left and our warriors out number them now.” He clicked his tongue, “What is it Jazmine Decker? Do you not believe me? Do you not trust me? I had just saved her life. She was holding on to me because an Unseelie had almost eaten
her. It was no more than that and you know it.”

  She looked up at him and she did know it. She sank into his arms and said just one thing, “Trevor.”

  “Aye, so much so soon,” he answered. “By Danu, don’t you know I am bonded to you love? My essence calls your name. My mind thinks of you above all others. I am a Fae. I live by earth, wind, and fire, but now you are my ground. You are the breeze that gives me life. You are the fire in my blood.”

  She looked at him with her mouth open. Her heart was swelling. Then she dove at his chest, hitting him hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

  A shaky laugh escaped her.

  She had never thought it possible that a male could love like that, especially a male Fae! She wrapped her arms tightly around him. She laughed as she realized she had Fae strength.

  “Right then, my little warrior,” he said after a long breath, “I see a few more Unseelie on the loose…”

  She grinned at him before they dove into the fight together.

  Chapter Eleven

  BANZAR HAD BEEN working furiously to get the votes he needed to overthrow the Queen. He had used some very persuasive arguments and it was because he had the full council at his back, that he had the confidence to march down the elegant corridor that led to the Queen’s private quarters.

  What he was about to do would put him in jeopardy.

  Neither he nor the members at his back were royals. They had served on the Council for centuries and that gave them all a sense of power.

  The Queen was not just a Royal, but a Daoine Royal., Daoine Fae were the highest caste of Fae with the most magical and scientific abilities imaginable. He knew she was respectful of the Council’s position in her reign, and would not use those powers against them.