I think somebody had a rat phobia. I gently shut the bedroom door and walked down the hall to check on my favourite rat. Lady Antebellum moved in with me before the Fae, so they would have to learn to live with her.
Aeric followed two steps behind, a perfect shadow.
I thought about Falin in the bathroom mirror and squeezed my hands into hard fists, nails digging in. I was not going there, especially with the perfect boy.
Lady Antebellum was running on her wheel.
“That cage doesn’t look sturdy,” Aeric disparaged. I had paid good money for the cage, even if it was second hand. She was a rodent, not the most long-lived of pets. “It’s thin wire. Rats have very sharp teeth,” he added, showing definite signs of rat-a-phobia.
Those little spider legs will creep all over me. Fears tended to blow things out of proportion.
I sighed. “She cannot chew through metal and she would get lost if Falin let her go free in the apartment. The cage is for her safety. I’ll leave Falin her ball to let her play with him.”
I pulled out the big plastic ball meant for her to go inside and run around for exercise. It was like a hamster ball, but bigger. It was heavier, too, but only because rats were more powerful and could knock themselves silly in a lighter, smaller ball if they got it up to speed.
I left the ball on top of Lady Antebellum’s cage, filling up her food and water while Aeric followed. He could have sat at the kitchen table and watched. This was going to get old fast.
“Why don’t you sit,” I finally suggested, suddenly turning around. It was really an order.
He had fast reflexes, stopping hard or else he would have run into me, following so closely.
“Are you going to sit?” he asked.
“I’m going to pee, alone,” I answered.
“Dain said-”
“I have a pair of metal handcuffs and I’m not afraid to use them,” I lied. He was one more step towards me from getting bashed over the head with a rolling pin anyway.
“Handcuffs?”
“Shackles,” I described. “Big, iron shackles.”
Aeric shuddered. “I’m Light Fae.”
“I guessed,” I mocked, turning to go to the bathroom. I didn’t need to pee again. I wanted to brush my teeth in peace.
“I’ll wait, just outside,” Aeric timidly compromised.
It was five minutes of me staring at my bathroom mirror, trying to get through my morning routine without thinking about Falin’s dark, lustful look. I had gone all through adolescence without any serious crushes, avoided first kisses and awkward high school dances, and now, surrounded by my Fae wannabe lovers, my libido decided to blossom like a late flowering desert rose, just waiting for the right conditions.
What was wrong with me?
After witnessing Eloden’s disappearing trick yesterday, I acknowledged there really was magic happening with all of them. I was practical. Science and technology couldn’t explain the impossible, only magic.
Were they using that magic on me? Was there a love spell, as corny as it sounded?
“Are you ill?” Aeric asked, politely knocking on the bathroom door.
“No,” I answered, brushing my hair into a simple ponytail.
How had it come to this? Six Fae living in my tiny apartment with me and sleeping in my bed. If they weren’t crazy, then I was insane. I didn’t need this temptation.
“Have you fallen?” Aeric asked when I was quiet for another minute.
Apparently, I wasn’t even to be given a moment of privacy for my own thoughts. I put down my brush and opened the door. “You’re an idiot,” I said.
“Well, you are always getting injured,” he pointed out.
I pushed past him and walked back into the kitchen. I was not accident-prone. Getting attacked by a knife-wielding gangster was not my fault. Banging my head on the car was mostly my brother’s fault. Banging it again on Dain was because he didn’t know when to back off.
“We can’t all be powerful Fae,” I excused after I pointed these things out to Aeric, opening the fridge to search for something. I was starving after skipping dinner last night.
“You’re half-Fae,” he said, missing the point.
I found a lonely apple and milk in the fridge. I wasn’t sure about the milk. I grabbed the apple, peeled the sticker and rinsed it under the tap. How come nobody ate the apple, I wondered, taking a juicy bite through the green skin.
“Look, I have some nice books for you to read while I’m gone. Even I can manage a day at my parents’ house without life-threatening injury, so why don’t you chill with Lady Antebellum and Falin?” I suggested, and I even did it nicely for me. It may have ended with a question, but my tone implicated it was more of an or else.
If only I really had handcuffs to dangle in front of him.
“Doesn’t that apple taste like chemicals?” he asked, sounding more curious than disgusted.
I shrugged. “Tastes like an apple,” I replied and got a knife from the drawer to cut off half for him. He looked hungry. Picky was for full tummies.
The Fae didn’t like artificial things, I gathered. First Falin complained about my smell, although that had been after I layered myself in styling products and makeup, and now Aeric was whining about the pesticides I was sure were sprayed in the apple orchard.
Aeric walked over to take the half of the apple I offered him and gingerly bit. He made a face and grabbed one of the daggers from his weapon belt to pare out a wedge, walking over to Lady Antebellum and dropping it in her cage. “It tastes awful, but it has to be nicer than those dry pellets you feed her.”
It was nice of him, but I wasn’t sappy. I saw an opportunity while he was distracted instead of a tear-jerking admiration of a simple act of kindness.
I carefully cupped my keys in my hand where they were sitting on the shelf by Lady Antebellum’s cage, making sure not to jangle them. Aeric had long legs but I had lived here longer, and I knew how to zip out quickest to the car. I could throw something at him and turn the lock on the door to slow him down.
“So, I’m going to have breakfast and stay for dinner at my parents’ house today, but I’ll be back home to sleep. The rat ball opens by twisting, not pulling. You can have the milk if you’re still hungry,” I said inching towards the door.
“I don’t want to go in the car,” Aeric whined, looking away from Lady Antebellum. He had not been using his comprehensive listening skills.
“Keep this then, in case Falin lets her loose and she tries to nibble your toes,” I yelled, throwing the rest of the apple at him like a pro-baseball player. He caught it one-handed.
Shit. Aeric was fast, with hand-eye coordination to spare.
I opened the door and slammed it shut, sticking my key in the lock and turning it so hard I almost broke the metal in half. A second later, I was sliding down the railing, very thankful it was made of heavy plastic. I hit the first landing just as I heard Aeric slam into the door like a battering ram.
I slid down another railing and practically flew out the front door, then I ran. My parking spot was close, mostly because it was a small triplex. I needed to buy some better sneakers if I was going to keep running away all the time. Right now, running barefoot on the rough pavement was a lesson in always being prepared.
I was about five feet from the car when I realized I was going to make it, and then I made a mistake. I slowed down. It was barely perceivable, enough to stop me from scraping a layer off my feet as I turned direction to get to the driver’s door. Falin dropped out of the sky in front of me, wings slamming down on either side of him to block off all access to my car.
Scary demon Dain had nothing on Falin when it came to wingspan. These were iridescent green and completely out of proportion to his body, at least twelve feet on either side. Where did he even get the muscles to move them?
I stopped a few inches from Falin’s chest. It was the first time I had seen him without a shirt and, as expected, his piercings continued below the ne
ck. The barbells piercing his nipples winked at me in the morning sunlight. What really caught my eye was the incredible tattoo stretching across both his shoulders and halfway down his chest. Although too detailed to take in completely, I suspected the words encircling his shoulder were in Fae language, drawn in curving, fine script. It was like he was wrapped in a holy words, a crusades warrior with his covenant tattooed permanently on his skin.
I blinked. This was no angel come to save me.
“Put the wings away before somebody sees you,” I yelled at him.
“They are glamoured from humans,” Falin muttered, and boy, did he sound grumpy. A nocturnal creature, indeed.
“I can see them,” I insisted, glancing around us.
“You are a Halfling, Baby,” said Falin.
I was... well, something. I blinked again. Falin wasn’t human.
My brain was struggling to process, stuttering and threatening to backfire.
“Go put on a shirt, at least,” I said, realizing how inane that sounded if nobody else could see. My eyes were noticing that Falin did have the muscles to propel himself through the air now that I was looking past his tattoo, and the tight six pack of his abdominals rippled into leather pants barely clinging to his slim hips.
Hands grabbed me from behind and popped me off my feet.
“Oh, for crying out loud,” I complained. “Put me down, I’m not going anywhere,” I told Aeric.
“I’m not staying behind to babysit the rat,” Aeric grouched, releasing me.
I dropped to the pavement on my bare feet. Aeric was tall so it was quite a drop.
“That hurt,” I told him. It hadn’t been enough to get my usual potty mouth, but still, I needed my shoes.
The sun disappeared as Falin stepped closer. He was barefoot as well, but it didn’t seem to bother him. I remembered Dain’s wing touching me and shivered. This was happening. They were Fae and magic and apparently, so was I.
“Are they like Dain’s?” I asked.
“No,” Falin answered, seeming embarrassed. Why hadn’t that mattered a moment ago? His wings disappeared before I could reach out to stroke one, not that I was going to touch them. I could resist.
“I have to go to my parents’ house and I can do it on my own,” I pleaded to Falin. “I’m feeling better,” I added, and I realized I really was telling the truth.
“Dain said you can’t be left alone,” Aeric repeated from behind me.
“I won’t be alone,” I retorted, turning around to face him. “My family will all be there,” I explained, looking down at my watch. “They are going to be wondering where I am.”
These Fae were interrupting my life. I was never late and now here I was running behind the second day in a row.
“I’m going,” Falin and Aeric said together. They glared at each other.
I threw my hands up. “Fine and dandy,” I gracelessly agreed. “I want my shoes and my door locked.”
Falin didn’t have to be asked. He simply picked me up as he walked past me, leaning to the side and scooping me into his arms from his vantage. I wrapped my arms and legs around him willingly, snuggling my face into the curve of his neck.
He smelled like smoke and the ground after a good, soaking rain. I wondered if this was the scent of his magic. If so, I could learn to tolerate it.
“Are you sure you’ve had enough sleep?” I asked, feeling a tad guilty after he had watched over me last night and now he was carrying me.
“I expect to be compensated tonight,” Falin grumbled at me.
I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see me. Big, threatening talk but I had his number.
Falin climbed the stairs without an ounce of effort. He bent down and grabbed my shoes with one hand, carrying me back out the door. “Lock it,” he ordered, turning sideways to assist me.
“Put me down.”
“After you open the car and Aeric is sitting inside, I will place you in the driver’s seat and personally belt you in. If you even think of trying to escape again, I will find those handcuffs you threatened Aeric with and bind you to me for the rest of the day.”
Well then, I guess I was getting carried out to the car.
If I brought both of them to my house, my mother would no longer think I was crazy. One could be a boyfriend, but two were friends. I had told the twins I was thinking of playing an online game with them, so it would only be a little more of a stretch to say we had bonded quickly over the game and kept in contact. Friends hanging out on the weekend was normal.
I was faking normal. The irony smarted.
It wasn’t like these guys were going to leave my life all that soon. Babies took at least nine months to make and I didn’t plan to cooperate in the least. I had gotten my shot. Now, I could focus on getting what I needed from the Fae since my acknowledgement of their origins was no longer an issue.
Who was I? It was the most important question that pounded at me since my grief was ripped away by their insistence on pushing me out of my rut. They said I was a Halfling and that meant I didn’t know anything about a part of me that had been hidden.
“Open the car,” Falin demanded as we finally got back to it.
I leaned down from my perch in his arms and unlocked the front door. Falin opened it one handed and unlocked the back door, opening that one, too. He didn’t wear gloves.
“Dark Fae?” I guessed out loud.
Aeric looked at me like I was telling a terrible joke.
“I’m not pierced with plastic, Baby,” Falin bragged, dropping me into the driver’s seat and buckling me up as promised.
Good point. I guess this made me Dark Fae as well? Did that mean Falin was either royalty or the darkest kind of Fae? He closed my door before I could ask, taking the keys with him.
I rolled my eyes, again. It wasn’t like I was going to drive away without him. Aeric didn’t see my insubordination because he was bent over like Eloden did when he rode in the back seat, only he looked worse. Glowing like a freaking kid’s night-light toy was not subtle.
“Can’t you glamour at all?” I snapped at him, merciless. He was the one insisting on coming along.
Falin smirked at him while getting into the passenger seat. “Light-weight fairy,” he mocked.
“Duck down, at least,” I ordered, holding my hand out to Falin for the keys. “And you,” I told Falin, “Stop calling me Baby. I don’t want my family getting the wrong idea.”
“What is wrong?” Falin innocently asked, eyes sparkling with too much merriment to not already know the answer.
“Everything is wrong about you,” said Aeric, softly groaning in the back seat.
“No puking,” I told him, slowly and carefully backing up. I needed to start putting a plastic bag in my Baby to protect the seats if I was going to keep chauffeuring Fae around. “You are both coming over to my house as friends. We have been playing an online role-playing game about Fae and my brothers already know we met at the rink when I had car trouble.”
“Do your brothers get to call you Baby?” asked Falin.
“If you call me Baby even once while we are there, or either of you screws this up in any way, I will make you sleep in the kitchen.”
Falin found the lever for his seat and leaned himself back, ignoring Aeric’s protest. “I’ll sleep on the floor if you want me to, Baby. I can understand if you don’t think we’ll make it past the kitchen before ripping our clothes off.”
I clenched my teeth and drove to Walmart. The Fae would have to babysit the car while I got the eggs and two sets of tall men’s sweats. I couldn’t take them to my parents dressed in cosplay like Aeric or shirtless with pierced nipples like Falin. The shock of me arriving with two boys at home was going to be bad enough.
“I need to buy stuff,” I told them, curt. “Stay.” I didn’t offer options. “I’m taking the keys with me,” I added. The windows were manual. They could roll them down to regulate the temperature.
“Give me Eloden’s charm,” Falin said in
response.
I hadn’t offered that as an option.
“Can’t you use it to track me?” I asked, leery. I really couldn’t bring in a glowing Fae and Walmart had a policy of no shirts and shoes, no service.
“I can modify it,” Falin said. He didn’t elaborate what for, but I presumed it was either I let him play with my charm or I wasn’t going into Walmart alone.
I parked the car and handed the keys with Eloden’s charm to Falin. “I’m going to call my mom, so she knows I’m running late,” I said, pulling my phone out from my bag.
My mom sounded chipper despite the early hour. She reminded me to get the organic, free-run eggs my stepfather preferred. I excused my lateness on sleeping in and told her I was going to bring a couple of friends over to practice a new hobby in archery, asking if we could use the huge backyard. It was the best excuse I could think of and I was staring at the bow strapped to Aeric’s back while I was talking to her. Bow and arrows were added to my list. Hopefully, Walmart stocked them, or at least a crossbow.
“You want me to show you how to use a bow?” Aeric asked, eavesdropping on my conversation shamelessly. “Seems counterintuitive to teach a brat like you how to cause more trouble.”
Falin was still focusing on the charm, so he didn’t comment.
“Please, you can barely sit in my car without losing your cookies,” I derided Aeric. “I’m better off learning to protect myself if you’re all Dain leaves in charge of my safety.”
“He’s more powerful than you realize,” Falin quietly commented, stabbing himself on a jewelled pin and letting his bloody finger drip onto my charm. How lovely.
I eyed up more-powerful-than-I-realized still hunched over in the backseat. “I make a lousy student, but I would appreciate you showing me how to use a bow,” I said. “Is there anything I should know before buying a practice bow in the store?”
It was so uncharacteristically nice for me that Aeric’s gorgeous blue eyes looked confused as he met my questioning gaze. The glow wasn’t only coming from his skin. His eyes practically sparkled. If the sun started making his skin sparkle, too, I was dumping his ass to the curb. He reached out for my hand and pulled it straight out, letting go when my arm was stretched fully.
No Faerie Tale Love (Faerie Series Book 1) Page 15
