Chasing Cats

by ERIN BEDFORD

  “Well, for one, I would get really fat. Then there is diabetes, heart disease,” I began, “But it’s good for anxiety in a pinch and has been known to heal a broken heart in no time flat.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “But if you could eat this and feel so wonderful, why deal with men at all? I know it has been a while, but from the few times I have had relations, while they weren’t altogether unpleasant, if you do not wish for a child, I do not see the point.”

  I laughed so hard I snorted. “Relations? You mean sex?”

  “Yes, if you must be so crude.” She blushed at the word.

  “Sex is not crude by society’s standards. Fucking would be crude.” I laughed at the shocked expression on her face. “And if all you can say about your experiences was that they weren’t unpleasant, your partner wasn’t doing it right.”

  “I do not understand. How do you not do it right?” Her lip pushed out in a cute confused pout. “I did exactly as my mother instructed when she advised me in preparation to be married. I’ll admit, the first time did hurt quite a bit, but after that, it wasn’t so bad.” She shrugged. “But I have to say, I do not understand what the whole fuss is about.”

  I paused, my spoon in midair, and then waved it at her. “There is a lot to fuss about. If you’ve only ever had all right sex, you’ll never know what you are missing. And having bad sex can make or break any relationship.”

  “Much has changed since I was in this world. I fear I will never catch up.” She shook her head and scooped another spoonful of icy goodness.

  “Oh, Alice. There is so much to tell you. So much to teach you. I don’t even know where to start.” I stopped at that and giggled as I had a naughty thought. “Speaking of not needing men. Let me tell you about this wonderful invention called a vibrator.”

  Chapter 18

  Mirror, Mirror

  IT HAD BEEN several days since Alice and I gorged ourselves on ice cream. Things were beginning to get back to normal. With no new attacks, and no Fae showing up at my doorstep, I felt safe enough to go back to work.

  So, while I was slaving away at work, Alice hung out, reacquainting herself with the human world, via reality TV.

  “I still don’t understand these silly women. How do they not know who the father of their children is?” Alice asked me the moment I stepped in the door.

  She had taken to wearing my clothes instead of her usual tea dress and was lounging about on the couch in a pair of yoga pants that I knew said ‘Bite me’ on the butt and an oversized t-shirt. I had offered her one of my tank tops, but she had looked at me with such horror that I hadn’t offered it again. I would think being around the Fae would make her less of a prude, but apparently, you could give a girl magical powers, but the thought of showing her shoulders was unspeakable.

  “I told you to stop watching that crap.” I plopped down on the couch next to her, glaring in disgust at the latest reality talk show she had taken up.

  “But they are so interesting. How am I going to learn about this new world if I don’t watch your magic box?” She gestured toward the TV, before grabbing a handful of chips from the bag on the coffee table.

  “It’s not magic.” I snatched the bag from her and snagged my own pile of greasy goodness. “It’s science. Electricity, wires, and such.”

  “All the same to me.” Alice shrugged her shoulders. The neckline of her shirt fell off, which she yanked back up with a slight blush on her face.

  In the last few days, I had taught her about the things she had missed, such as electricity and the Internet.

  “Anyway, to answer your question, she doesn’t know because she is a ho,” I said through a mouthful of chips. Nothing like junk food to relieve the stress of a hard day at work.

  “And being a garden tool is a bad thing?” Her brow furrowed in confusion.

  I gave an impatient sigh. “A ho, as in a loose woman.” I ignored the shocked gasp and continued, “As in someone who has sexual relations with multiple partners without taking the proper precautions.”

  “Right,” she said slowly, though I wasn’t sure she actually understood. “Well, this man is definitely the father, they have the same facial structure and everything.”

  “Yeah, well, sometimes people only see what they want to see.” I stood from the couch and stretched. “On that note, I’m going to take a bath, holler if you need me.”

  “Lady?”

  I paused at her voice.

  “Have you heard anything or seen any…?”

  She trailed off, but I knew what she meant. Had I seen any other Fae in this world? Thankfully, I hadn’t. My day had been unremarkably boring. The only thing that worried me was the lack of a certain feline presence.

  I hadn’t seen or heard from Chess since he had left abruptly in the middle of the night. Every time I thought of that time, a smile crept up on my face, and over the last few days, it had happened more often than I’d like to admit.

  “No, I haven’t.” The unspoken yet hung in the air.

  I made my way to my bedroom for fresh clothing. A nagging worry pressed down on me. Where was he? He had said he needed to make preparations, but what kind of preparations could he make? There were many things I still didn’t know, but I thought he was done keeping secrets. Apparently not.

  We didn’t know how the humans would react to the Fae, or if there was even anything to worry about. I’d been watching the news like crazy, and there hadn’t been any state of emergency about unknown creatures as of yet. No doubt if there had been any word, my mother would have been all over my ass to move closer to town, or god forbid, in with her.

  I shuddered at the thought as I snatched up my favorite pair of pajamas: a pair of red men’s pajama pants and a black t-shirt that said, ‘I’m here. What are your other two wishes?’ I had found it hilarious at the time, but now knowing how wishing could end with your death, it wasn’t that funny.

  As I rummaged around for a clean pair of underwear, I had a vague feeling of being watched. I spun around. My eyes scanned the room. There was no one there. I had felt it. I was sure of it. But I almost shrugged it off when there was a movement. It was small, but there, behind the sheet thrown over my mirror was a figure.

  I doubted they could see much into my room, but it didn’t make me any less upset about it. Sitting my clothes down, I crept over to the mirror. Snatching up a hammer I had left out after patching up the hole, I held up my other hand to pull back the sheet. I yanked it back.

  My mother, Queen of the Seelie Court, stood in the frame, an amused look on her face.

  “What did you think you were going to do, human? Beat me to death?” She threw back her head and laughed, the sound of it grated on my nerves.

  Standing there in all her splendor, she looked very much the queen she was. A white gown coated her figure, billowing out from mid-thigh and down to the floor. Her white blonde hair was piled up on her head in an extricated hairdo that I would have destroyed in five minutes.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, not beating around the bush. If she was here, it was because she wanted something. I would rather get it out of the way than stand there for hours listening to her pretend to care.

  Her ice blue eyes narrowed, and I might have worried, but I was tired and really had no fucks left to give.

  “Do not speak to me in such a way, human. I wish to speak to my daughter, bring her to me,” she demanded as if it were so simple.

  I shook my head. “It doesn’t work that way, I’m afraid.”

  “Do you dare defy me?” She took a step back from the mirror as if appalled that anyone would even think it. The movement allowed me to see the white and gold of the throne room behind her. There was the distinct sound of chatter in the background, letting me know she was not alone.

  Resisting the urge to return with a smartass remark, I took a seat on the edge of the bed. I was going to be here a while. Her usually cool and collected face morphe
d into rage.

  “How dare you sit in the presence of your queen? Do you have a death wish, child?” She crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her nails against her arm.

  “Mother,” I stated in a firm and confident tone. “Please shut up.”

  “How dare you—”

  “Stop,” I snapped, my patience wearing out. “You do not come to my home and demand things of me. I am not the human, and I am not a child. I am the Seelie Princess that was once your daughter but now happens to reside in this human form. Regardless of our relations, you are not in any way my queen.”

  I could tell my words were just adding to the flame of her rage, but when she opened her mouth to speak, I cut her off again.

  “As I see it, you need me.” I waited for her to deny it, and when she didn’t, I continued, “And while you may keep all the secrets you like from me, the truth of the matter is, you aren’t in any position to demand anything of me.”

  “Well, see here now. There are things that must be done, rules that must be obeyed.” For the first time in all my life, I saw fear in her eyes. “Events have already gone far beyond what we believed possible, and much of that I believe is your fault, not that silly little twit everyone else seems to blame.”

  “You’re right.” I stood from my seat and approached the mirror. “It’s not her fault, and while some of the blame certainly falls on my shoulders, the base of the blame is all yours, Mother.”

  Her eyes widened, and her gaze darted around the room as if she realized an audience wasn’t such a good idea for this conversation. Turning from the mirror, she muttered to a gold-plated guard. He began clearing the room.

  “Not him.” She pointed off to the side, and then returned her attention to me, with a suspicious, but worried expression. “What have you heard?”

  “Not much, really.” I shrugged.

  It was true; I didn’t know a whole lot, most of it was just conjecture I had gotten from the various misleading conversations with the citizens of the Underground. Then there were the visions I’d had with Seer.

  Not to mention, the argument I had witnessed between my mother and Mab over what to do about the Shadows and then the tree, the tree that seemed to know everything but gave away so little. I’d give anything for an hour or two with that tree.

  My mother waited for me to fill in the blanks. I didn’t want to show her my whole hand, but unless I gave her something, she wasn’t going to move an inch. There wasn’t any time for there to be a stalemate between us.

  “You and the UnSeelie Queen had a disagreement over what to do about the ones who are now known as the Shadows.” I paused, and she nodded. “You didn’t want to kill any more of our kind, and so you cast them out into the abyss that is now known as the Shadow Realm. What was it before?”

  She hesitated, before indulging me, “A graveyard. What some refer to as the Reaper’s playground.”

  “But how did you even get into there? I don’t remember ever seeing anything in my studies about anyone even being able to reach it. It’s not connected to the rest of the realms.”

  “Not directly, no.” She pressed her lips together into a fine line as if it pained her to tell me anything about the door. “It took quite a bit of magic and some incantations to make a hole.”

  “The door in the Between with the rest?” I thought back to the beaten up door set in the circle with the others and the two-headed sisters that guarded them.

  “Yes,” she snapped, and then composed herself. “But now it’s done, and if I could take it back I would, but the fact of the matter is that they are out now and looking for blood. Fae blood.”

  “I know. I was there.” My voice was small and a bit ashamed of what I had done.

  “So I’ve been told.” Her anger fluttered in the air even through the glass.

  Changing the subject off of my failings, I held my hands out. “So, what do I have to do to fix it?”

  “It is quite simple.” Her face began to light up.

  “Well, if it is that simple, why does it have to be me?” I retorted. “Couldn’t it be any half-blood?”

  “No. It cannot.” Her voice was blades on my skin. “It has to be you.”

  “Why?”

  “As much as I loathe to admit it, you are the only one powerful enough to defeat them.” She looked off to the side, bitterness on her face.

  Was my being more powerful than her such a big deal? Knowing my mother, it was a very big deal. Having a weakling for a daughter was something she could handle but one more powerful than her? I was lucky she needed me, or I would have been dead already.

  “Fine. What’s the deal? A talisman I have to wave at them at the light of the moon? A sword made by Tibetan blind monks?” I said, naming off a few options I had seen in movies and books.

  “Nothing of the sort. A little blood, a few words, and poof. Problem gone. The Shadows no more.” A secret smile curled up her face, telling me she was holding back something.

  “All right. Then we should just get it over with then, shouldn’t we? Where are the Shadows at now?” I was suddenly glad I hadn’t gotten ready for bed already and still had some decent clothes on. Not really fighting material, but it would work for this.

  “Not so fast.” She held her hands up. “The ritual itself is simple, of course, but from what I have learned, you are far from ready to face the Shadows.”

  “Not ready?” I frowned, wondering who had been speaking to her on my behalf. “I admit, I haven’t quite mastered all of my powers in my human body, but I’m sure I could figure it out should it come down to it.”

  “It has nothing to do with your powers, but with you.” She once again looked off to the side at something I couldn’t see. I could hear some distant noise that could have been a groan or something else I equally didn’t want to know about.

  Ignoring the sound, I tried to get some answers. “What does it have to do with me?”

  “How is your fiancé doing?” She turned her attention back to me, a small, mischievous smile on her face. The question came so far out of left field that I almost thought I’d misheard her.

  What did Dorian have to do with any of this?

  I frowned. “How should I know?”

  “That’s not what I heard.” Her eyes locked with mine as if she knew more than she was saying and in her case, it was probably true. “I heard you stomped all over the poor Prince’s heart after he caught you with our darling Jewels.”

  I gaped at her and then ground my teeth. Bastian the bastard had been spinning tales again. Next time I saw him, I was going to do more than kick him in the balls—I’d make a necklace out of them.

  “Not that I blame you,” she continued as if my expression didn’t matter. “He is quite a delectable piece of meat, if a little full of himself.”

  “More like tried to mind rape me,” I growled out, not believing my mother could ever find anyone but my father attractive.

  “Nonsense.” She waved her hand at me, dismissing my accusation. “He was only trying to fulfill his orders. You can hardly blame him for being a little over enthusiastic.”

  “Over enthusiastic?” I scoffed. “He tried to own me! If I wasn’t as powerful as everyone says I am, I’d be his little sex slave right now, and that doesn’t bother you?”

  “I had no doubt you would have overcome any who would seek to control you, which is another topic I wanted to discuss.” Her gaze turned serious as if she hadn’t just tried to justify rape. “There may have been a few rumors about you that have gotten out into the populace. While I have heavy guards on the doors out of our world, you will want to be on the lookout.”

  “You are a little late on that. I had a nasty visit from a few faeries and a troll already.” I crossed my arms, still irritated at the hole in my bedroom that was barely held together by a piece of plywood. “And what kind of rumors?”

  All kinds of things began to run through my head. Anything could be goin
g around. From my involvement with the Shadows to my crazy powers. Either way, it was best to know what I was to be prepared for.

  “A troll? Really? How did you ever get away from it in that pathetic human body?” She laughed, not making me feel any better.

  “What kind of rumors, Mother?” I ground out, choosing to be the bigger person and ignore her blatant insults.

  “Very well, if you must know.” She sniffed. “Someone, I do not know who, let on that your blood has some kind of magical properties, and that they could gain your powers by draining you.”

  “What?” My voice rose to a high-pitched squeak. “That’s ridiculous, you cannot transfer powers between Fae, not even through blood.”

  My mother shrugged. “I did not say it was a logical rumor, only that some of the people have begun to believe it, and they could very well attack you.”

  It made sense now why the faeries had attacked. They had tasted my blood before, and no doubt it was easy to sway them into believing the rumor was true. If they believed it to be true, it would be too easy to convince some of the other Faes to believe it, as well. As if my life was not complicated enough as it was.

  “Fine. Consider me warned. Now, what do I have to do to be ready?” I tried to steer the conversation back to the larger threat.

  “You will know when you are.” She turned, as if to end the conversation, but stopped mid-turn. “Oh yes, one more thing. I found something of yours.”

  “What?” I asked. I didn’t remember losing anything.

  “He was found snooping around, and since he had been avoiding me for a while now, we had a lot of catching up to do.” I suddenly knew who she had been looking at through our conversation.

  “What did you do?” I snarled, my anger flaring to life.

  The power in me crackled along my skin. The grunting from before had to have come from Chess. With all the horrible things she had already forced on him, I couldn’t imagine the horrors of what he had been subjected to now.

  “Do not get upset.” She tutted at me as if chastising a child. “He was mine before he was ever yours, and I was simply trying to get what was owed to me.” She frowned off to the side, irritation filling her face. “But I see that I will not be getting my full payment anytime soon, so you may have him back.”