Gully Washer

by Kimbra Swain

  “No. I can’t seem to stand on my own two feet,” I said giggling.

  He leaned into my ear. “Does that mean you want to lay on the bed?”

  “Not with my brother and bard in the next room,” I said.

  “Right,” he smiled. I could tell he felt better. “Go. If you can walk.”

  “Hey!” I protested.

  “They say in your old age you revert to your childhood,” he grinned.

  I opened my mouth wide, but I had no response. I just wanted to kick his ass.

  “It’s rude to talk about a woman’s age,” Levi said from the other room.

  I cocked my head sideways and tried to hold back a grin.

  “Shut up, Levi,” Dylan said.

  When I walked into the room, Levi and Finley acted like they had heard nothing from the other room. Levi was explaining college football to Finley who had no idea about the concept.

  “It’s not even August, Levi,” I said.

  “Doesn’t matter. Texas will be back this season,” he said confidently.

  “Texas had to be somewhere in the first place to be back,” Dylan called from the other room.

  Normal. I liked normal.

  “Y’all want something to drink?” I asked.

  “Do you have sweet tea?” Finley asked. Sweet tea was not something I kept in my house. I never acquired the taste of it and received many beatdowns from my fellow southerners for my lack of taste. But when I opened the fridge, a large jug of sweet tea sat there.

  “Dylan, did you buy tea?” I asked.

  “No, why?” he said, joining me in the kitchen. He looked in the fridge because he knew I didn’t drink it. He did, but he usually picked it up at the diner.

  “Trying something new. Did it work?” Levi’s voice echoed in my head. I teetered again like I did in the bedroom.

  “Grace, you need to sit down,” Dylan said, grabbing me again.

  “Damn it, Dublin. Get out of my head. Yes, there is tea here,” I said rubbing my temples.

  Dylan shot him an evil look. I hadn’t heard Levi in my head since just before Finley took me to see the vault.

  “Tea it is,” I said, gently pushing Dylan away. He took the jug before I could grab it. It was my cue to go sit down.

  “Did it hurt? It’s never hurt you before. Are you feeling okay?” Levi asked. His face was filled with concern. His voice had been loud before, but I had never lost my balance.

  “No. Just rattled around a bit,” I said, staring at Finley to get out of the recliner.

  “Oh!” he said, jumping up. He joined Levi on the couch. They sat on opposite ends.

  “Sorry,” Levi mumbled.

  “Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

  He sighed, leaning back in the chair.

  “Why are you here?” I asked out loud.

  “We have everything ready for the concealment spell for the town. Mayor Jenkins said he got the okay from Judge Chastain. Apparently, the water in Shady Grove has gone toxic, forcing all the residents to relocate. We should do it at night to avoid any suspicion,” Finley said. Finley was good at the politics side of things. He told me that when he wasn’t looking after me in the real world, he was in court with father. He said that he learned a lot about ruling. I had already decided that he should rule the Otherworld instead of me, but I hadn’t told him that just yet. It was painfully obvious that we had to take back my father’s kingdom. He and I actually talked strategy. Dylan helped sometimes, too. We needed a lot more support, but I didn’t know where that support would come from. I could walk in there and claim it, but that didn’t mean that it would automatically be mine. Finley said there would be many challenges. Some just to acknowledge my rule, but the others would be real. I would have to fight. Or choose a champion to fight for me.

  I didn’t tell them, for fear it would hurt their manly egos, but Levi was the most powerful among them. Finley had a natural fighting instinct, and Dylan was like a five-star recruit. But the sheer power that Levi possessed staggered even me. He felt it too. He feared it. No matter how much I pushed, he only dabbled in it. I couldn’t fault him. I had been doing the same thing. However, it was time to jump in the power pool. Stephanie’s arrival cemented that thought in my head.

  It was time to be a Queen.

  “What the hell are you dreaming about?” Finley asked, smirking at me.

  “None of your business,” I replied.

  “Me,” Dylan interjected. Instead of sitting with me in the recliner, he pulled up a chair next to me.

  Queen, be a queen.

  Bah. Who was I kidding? A real fairy queen would have Finley guarding the door while I fucked both Levi and Dylan. Levi grunted. I raised my eyebrows at him. He blushed. Holy shit. Time to block my thoughts.

  “Good idea,” he said.

  “What was that?” Dylan said, not missing a beat.

  “My mind wandered,” I said. “I’ll explain later so Levi doesn’t bust a nut over there.”

  Finley laughed, then punched him in the arm. “What about the kid?” Finley asked. “Is he yours?”

  “Don’t know. Stephanie wants me to try to bond with him,” Dylan said.

  “What does that entail?” Levi asked.

  “He has to share his fire with him. If the fire moves to the kid, then he’s his heir. If the fire burns him, then he’s not,” I said.

  Dylan stared at me. “How did you know that?”

  “Daddy,” I mumbled.

  “His knowledge or you talked to him?” he asked.

  “Knowledge. It seems that I can access a lot more of it,” I said.

  “You are accepting it,” Finley said.

  I nodded. Queen. Be a queen. “Call Tabitha and see if she can keep Winnie for one more night,” I said.

  “Woohoo!” a shout came from Winnie’s room.

  “Fucking brownies,” Levi said.

  “All the time,” I said. “I had to put a dampener spell up to drown out the thrusting and grunts. Who knew two little things could make so much noise?”

  “I wondered what that spell was when I saw it,” Levi said.

  I was happy that he was even looking for such things. He probably felt it when he came into the trailer. I only put it up when Winnie was away, because for the most part Bramble and Briar kept their sexual exploits to times when Winnie wasn’t here. However, I was well-aware of the fairy sex drive. If I ever caught them doing it with her around, both of them would be out on their asses.

  “I’ll call,” Dylan said, taking his phone out of his pocket.

  Finley and Dylan went to all the entrances into town from the other parts of the state. They had signs made saying that the town was closed. Troy worked with state officials sent by Judge Chastain to move the Sherriff’s department to another city. They had built a new jail in Sarasota which was about twelve miles from Shady Grove. Almost all of the department would be moving there. Except for the few that were on the force that were fairies or Lycans. Troy kept those he trusted, and we would form our own Shady Grove Police Department. Dylan and he would be in charge together. Dylan insisted on having Troy as an equal partner because of his connection with me. He didn’t want anyone to think he was biased which made me laugh, because I knew if anyone opposed me it would be him.

  I made a quick trip to town stopping by the diner for some lunch, and then by Hot Tin to talk to Nestor. He knew I’d want to talk to him alone after everything that happened the night before.

  “So, the house is sitting there like it never moved?” he asked.

  “Yeah. It brought back memories,” I said.

  “It was a good Christmas,” he said. “The best I’d ever had.”

  I smiled because it was the only Christmas we had all spent together as a family. It meant the world to me. It saddened me, even more, to think about the rainbow room that Dylan had made for Winnie in the house. It was almost like he knew before we ever got together that she would be our child. I didn’t think that premonition or foresight was an
ability of a phoenix, but perhaps it was.

  “I don’t know what to do,” I said.

  “About the child?” he asked.

  I nodded as tears began to flow. He sighed, offering me his towel. I blotted the tears, trying to find the right words to say. “Is it selfish of me to hate the fact that she got to give him a child and I didn’t? It should have been me,” I said. “it’s like all those years we worked together, I could have pursued him if I hadn’t been so afraid of Jeremiah and the Sanhedrin. We had a connection, but I ignored it.”

  “Grace, you and Dylan have always been connected. You never ignored it. Neither did he, but Jeremiah forcefully kept the two of you apart. I believe he was angry at Dylan for choosing Stephanie in the first place. Dylan knew very early on it was a mistake, but by then he was in too deep. There are still many things that you don’t know. It’s not my place to tell them, but one day you will know. It will help you understand it all. In the meantime, let’s operate on the idea that Devin is not Dylan’s son. Okay?” Nestor said.

  I pondered his words. Nestor just skimmed over information that I didn’t know. More things that were hidden from me, but he was right. I had to truly believe that Devin wasn’t Dylan’s son. It was my only hope of getting through this. I can’t imagine what my state of mind might be if it turned out that he was Dylan’s son.

  “Okay,” I said.

  “How’s the set up going for the concealment?” he asked.

  “Hopefully, very well. I saw something about it on the news, but the state troopers came in to make sure no reporters tried to get into the city. Once we have the spell up, they won’t be able to see anything anyway. Provided that the spell works. It’s all dependent upon Levi remembering the spell correctly from the book,” I said.

  “Why was there a spell like that in the book?” he asked.

  “Black Death,” I said.

  “Oh, for a quarantine?” he asked.

  “Yes. Taliesin hid a city that was free of the plague so that people would have a safe haven. Mostly fairies. From what I understand, the disease spread quickly. Even through the fairy population,” I explained.

  “I remember. It was devastating on the exiles at the time. We hid out the best we could from it,” he said. “I had to move several times as it swept through Europe.”

  “I was with a band of Roma then. It was hard on them as well. Thankfully, I never got it,” I said.

  “As a matter of fact, she nursed most of us back to health. The plague never touched her,” a voice said behind me.

  When I turned around, a young man from my earlier days stood before me. My mouth fell open in shock as I looked at his features. He hadn’t changed a bit from the time I knew him. Pale green eyes and dark hair falling in waves around his head under a large black hat. Beaded necklaces hung around his neck, and leather bracelets adorned both arms. The white shirt he wore opened in the middle revealing dark caramel skinned chest and black hairs.

  “Fordele,” I whispered.

  “Hannah,” he said smiling.

  “By the gods, you are alive. Finley said you were, but I didn’t believe it,” I said, standing up from my stool. A grin stretched across his face, as he took three quick steps to me. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders. He stood almost six and a half feet tall.

  “Hello, beautiful woman,” he said. I pushed away from him gently. “Sorry. I know that you are taken. I am as well. My wife Wendy is outside with the rest of our group.”

  “Gypsies? You brought them here?” I asked.

  “Yes. Word has spread through all this country and the old one about Shady Grove, and its Queen,” he said, lifting my chin to look him in the eyes.

  “I’m sorry for what happened,” I said.

  “It was a long time ago. I hated you for it, but no longer. To hold that sort of anger for twenty lifetimes is even more than I could bear. You ran because you were afraid.”

  “I ran because I saw them take you. I knew they would kill you,” I said.

  “Funny thing that,” he said. “They intended to use me as bait for you. It was a good thing you ran.”

  “They finally caught up with me,” I said.

  “But here you are,” he said.

  “Here I am,” I replied.

  “Come meet my wife,” he said, holding his hand out to me. He looked up to Nestor for the first time. “Do you mind if I take her for a moment?”

  “Ford, this is Nestor, my grandfather,” I said.

  “Oh, I thought he looked a little old for your tastes,” he said.

  I giggled. “No, he’s a little too much kin for my tastes.”

  “I hear they do that kind of thing in this place,” he said.

  “Vicious rumors,” I said. “Don’t confuse Alabama with Mississippi.”

  I followed him into the parking lot of Hot Tin. It was filled with station wagons. They were painted in various bright colors with tassels hanging from their antennas. Ford led me to a Volvo V90 by which a beautiful, tall woman stood. Her long colorful dress sparkled in the sunlight. The golden jewelry she wore hung down around her neck and ears in cascades. A large ornate ring was attached from the inside of her nose to the outside with small dangly bits hanging from it. A smile spread across her face.

  “Oh, you must be Hannah!” she said, embracing me tightly. I’d forgotten how handsy the gypsy people were. I felt the tingle of power when she touched me.

  “Grace. I go by Grace now,” I said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Wendy,” she said smiling. The Volvo boasted a large, magnetic sign on the side that said Wendy’s Fortunes and Fates.

  “Fortune teller?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she replied as Ford hooked his arm around her waist. He smiled broadly, kissing her on the forehead.

  “Are you a real seer?” I asked.

  She blushed, “I am. It is why we are here.”

  “You brought them to Shady Grove?” I asked.

  “Yes, I foresaw a time in the near future when our kind will be hunted. We will be safe here, with your permission, of course,” she said.

  “Of course. I see no reason you all can’t stay here,” I said.

  “Be sure you know there are close to one hundred of us,” he said.

  “Oh, wow!” I said. “We’ve had an exodus of humans leaving, so I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of room here for all of you. There is a council, but I doubt any of them will object. Well, I take that back. They might, but frankly, I’m the deciding vote.”

  “We have a bad reputation, you know?” Ford said.

  “Ford, I used to live with you guys. I have all the bad reputation this town can handle. I doubt any of you can match it,” I said. They laughed. Ford knew it was true.

  “We will stay, for now,” he said.

  “You are travelers. I know that, but you are welcome here as long as I have a say in things,” I said. Dylan pulled up in a plain black four-door car. I supposed he had turned in his cruiser to the county. He walked up to me, put his arm around me matching Ford’s stance, and said, “Howdy folks.”

  “Hello, I’m Fordele,” Ford said, offering a hand to Dylan.

  Dylan shook it. “The Fordele?” he asked looking at me.

  I blushed. “Yes. Ford, this is Dylan. My fiancé.”

  “Well, congrats to you, Dylan. She is a fine woman,” Ford said.

  “Now we both get to have exes in town,” Dylan grinned, knowing full well that Remy lived here part of the time.

  “Ugh,” I said. “Don’t mention it.”

  “Welcome to Shady Grove. May I talk to you a moment?” Dylan asked.

  “Sure. Please excuse me,” I said.

  Dylan held my hand as we walked back toward the black car he arrived in. “Everything is set up for tonight. We’ve done a sweep. None of the humans that were here except Cletus and Tater, remain,” he said.

  “Good. Have you spoken to Finley and Levi?” I asked.

  “No, but we will hit them
up in a minute. So, Fordele, huh?” he said looking over my shoulder at the gypsy man whispering in his wife’s ear.

  “Yeah, he came in the bar when I was talking to Nestor,” I said.

  “What’s that like seeing him after so long?” he asked.

  “Weird. Very weird,” I said.

  “No lingering feelings?” he asked. I shot him a look but realized he was playing. I pinched him hard in the side. “Damn, Grace, that hurts.”

  “No. The only feeling I felt was, oh shit, I left him to die. He’s here for revenge,” I said.

  “Well, I suppose that’s a possibility,” he said. “He would have to go through me.”

  “Where do we send them to set up?” I asked, ignoring the testosterone.

  “Probably down to the ballpark, you think?” he asked.

  “Yeah, that sounds good,” I replied. When I looked up, Nestor stood in the doorway of the bar surveying the newest additions to Shady Grove.

  “Wow. So many of them,” he said.

  I sighed. More people for me to protect. Be a queen. My new mantra rattled around in my head. I didn’t know what to think of myself, but it didn’t matter at this point. I asked for all of it, or rather, accepted it with a nudge from my fiancé. He took that moment to press his body into my back, wrapping his arms around my waist. His breath tickled my neck.

  “Don’t worry. You’ve got this,” he said.

  I didn’t respond, except to lean back into him. Troy pulled up in another black car. Approaching us, he took off his sunglasses and stared at the spectacle.

  “Gypsies?” he asked.

  “Yeah, can you lead them down to the ballpark to set up camp? If they want houses, we will have to coordinate that with the council. I think Betty is in charge of housing,” I said.

  “Sure thing. The perimeter is set for when we start the ritual,” he replied.

  “Thanks, Troy. Oh, and congratulations,” I said.

  He blushed, “Thanks, Grace. That means a lot.”

  “Congratulations for what?” Dylan asked.

  “He asked Amanda to marry him,” I said.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. Troy, when were you going to tell me?” Dylan shouted out to him.

  Troy laughed, “I didn’t tell anyone. Amanda must have told.”