by Elle Casey
“First, tell us exactly what happened, then perhaps we can all piece it together.”
I looked at Finn. “Do you remember what happened?”
“Nope. I remember bringin’ you to the trainin’ ground, talkin’ to Robin, and then I ended up here. I ain’t got no idea how I got here, neither.”
Finn was going to be useless, apparently. “Fine. So what happened is that I went there to do some training with Finn. Robin said something about them testing my self-preservation instincts, and then he told me I had thirty seconds to defend myself. Next thing I know, all thirty of those trigger happy elves had their arrows up and were getting ready to shoot me dead – right there in front of Finn. I tapped into The Green, told Finn to get the hell out of the way, and then I let ‘er rip.”
“You let her rip,” said Céline.
“Yeah, that’s what I said. I let ‘er rip.”
“ ‘Her’ being ... ?”
“ ‘Her’ being the connection. The power. The energy. You know, Céline. The Green.”
Céline nodded, a smile on her lips. “Yes, I do know.”
“It was different this time though.”
“In what way?” asked Dardennes.
I was about to answer, but then I decided I’d had enough of their twenty questions. It was my turn for a change.
“Listen. I’m getting tired of all these questions. I think it’s time you answered some of mine. Like first of all, how come all the fae around here keep trying to kill or maim me? And how come you tell me you’re going to help me figure out what my powers are, as if that’s important to you, and then do it by having other people try to drown me, drain me, or shoot me? Why the secret hallways? What’s up with tricking the brownies with chocolate balls? How come my bedroom doesn’t have a window? Why does everyone but me have a group of friends to train with? Where’s Tony and how can I contact him? And what’s with the mystery meats that are still moving on the buffet?”
I had more questions, but I’d run out of breath. I was getting ready to let them have another barrel-full, when Dardennes held up his hand.
“Okay. Fair enough. You have a few things on your mind, I can see. Let us do what we can to clarify some of these issues for you. I cannot guarantee that you will like the answers you hear though.”
“Just, for the love of all that is holy, tell me the friggin’ truth, would you please? I’m tired of all the lies and secrets.”
“I will do my best.” Dardennes cleared his throat. “To answer your questions, if I remember them correctly: we certainly did not plan for any of the fae to hurt or try to kill you. What happened in the lake was sanctioned by me, but you were not in danger of dying. The worst that could have happened would have been the need to pump your lungs – but we were fairly certain you had the affinity to Water that would have made that outcome unlikely. Regarding the situation with the green elves, we are not sure what happened there. The actions taken by Robin of The Green were not part of the plan and so we need to speak with him to determine his reasoning.”
I interrupted him. “Yeah, good luck with that. All he does is cry and call me Mother.”
Dardennes and Céline both got funny looks on their faces. They looked at each other, and then back at me.
“Are you certain? He called you Mother?”
“Yeah. And he’s not the first one to do that either.”
“Who else has called you this?” asked Dardennes, anxiously.
“The hag. The one I killed during the test.”
“When did she call you that? When she first saw you?”
“No. After I stuck her with Blackie ... my sharp stick. Her face changed – it got younger and pretty. Then she called me mother and ... well ... disintegrated.”
Spike was looking at me with his mouth hanging open. He stepped over and nudged me with his elbow. “What’s up with all the secrets, woman? Fess up. What other juicy info are you leaving out?”
“Has anyone else called you this name?”
“No. Just the hag and Robin. Oh, and Finn too.”
Dardennes turned to Céline. “We need to call an emergency meeting. Get everyone in the compound. Now, please.”
Céline moved to leave the room. “Finn, come with me.”
They left the room without sparing us a glance.
“Alright Dardennes, explain to me what’s going on before I really lose my cool.”
“All will be explained to you in the meeting. I expect the soonest we will be able to get everyone together will be in one hour. The green elves will need assistance and I need everyone at the meeting. Please join us in the large meeting hall at around three-thirty.”
“Dardennes ... ”
He stopped on his way out, taking me by the arm and gently propelling me in front of him. Spike followed behind. “Jayne, I know you have questions. Believe me, I understand. I promise you, I will answer all of them to the best of my ability at the meeting. Just please be patient a little while longer.”
I stopped in my tracks, refusing to move any farther. “I’ll make you a deal; I’ll be patient a little longer if you let me email Tony – right now.”
Dardennes sighed loudly, obviously annoyed. “You can wait ... ”
“No! I’m not waiting. Hook me up or get the hell outta my way, ‘cause I’m outta here.”
He looked at me sternly, reminding me for a moment of my father – and that wasn’t a good thing. I launched my crazyass high school staredown tactics on him. There was no way he could defeat me now.
“Fine. Follow me.”
That’s right, bitch. But I was only slightly pacified ... he still hadn’t answered my questions.
He led Spike and me down the hall to a door that opened at his touch. Inside were three computers lined up next to each other on a long table. “You may use the computers here. They have firewalls to protect against intruders. Please don’t forget the meeting at three-thirty.”
He left in a hurry, before either of us could remember to ask him where the large meeting hall is.
“Cool. Computers. Internet.” Spike sat down at one of them and wiggled the mouse, getting the screen to power up.
I sat down next to him, doing the same thing, looking at him askance and wondering if I had to worry about him biting me or anything.
He caught me looking at him. “Listen Jayne, about earlier ... ”
“Yeah, what was that all about anyway?”
“I’m not exactly sure, but I do know that as an incubus, whatever sex drive I had before, it’s like, multiplied by a hundred now. Valentine is trying to show me how to control it, but to be honest, he’s not that good at controlling it himself, so he’s not a lot of help. Actually,” he paused to laugh, “Jared and Chase were more effective at helping me with that than Valentine has been so far.”
“How so?”
“They threatened to beat the shit out of me if I touched you again.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “It’s not up to them who I touch and who I don’t.”
Spike held up his hand, not looking at me. “I hear ya, Jayne, believe me. But don’t even for a second give me any signal that you’re interested in doing anything with me right now, not even a kiss, unless you’re literally ready to get the life sucked out of you. This isn’t a game. I realized that today. This fae shit is dangerous, and I need to figure it out before I go making any more moves on you.”
He looked at me then, an apology on his face. “It’s nothing personal. You know I ... well, like I said. It’s better if I don’t talk about it now. I’m just gonna go read the sports pages and get my mind off it.”
He turned back to the computer.
The rebel in me wanted to do something to tempt him. The survivor in me, the one who had just fought off thirty wacko elves, told me to leave it alone. For now, that’s what I was going to do. Later though? No promises.
I got into my Internet account and searched for an email from Tony, but there was nothing. I tried not to b
e upset about it. He’d only been home a day or so, and I wasn’t sure how much that erasing had affected him.
I started a new message: Hey Tones. What’s up? How’s school? Well, I really miss you. Can’t wait to see you. Hugs! Love, Jayne.
I was afraid to say more than that. I wasn’t even sure what story they gave him, to account for where I was. Did he think I ran away? Did they make him believe I was on vacation? Did they erase me from his mind entirely?
The thought of that instantly got my blood boiling. If they did, there was going to be hell to pay. I’d pull up The Green and put every one of these motherfuckers in a friggin’ coma. I’d ....
“Uh, Jayne? Are you doing something right now?”
I looked over at Spike to see what his problem was. His eyes were glowing red again. “Spiiiike ... ”
The red faded and he chuckled. “Phew! For a second there I thought you were going to Green me or something.”
“Green you? What the hell is that?”
“You know. Send me into the light or whatever you do ... where Finn was earlier.”
I shoved him hard, knocking him halfway out of his chair.
“Shut up, you idiot.”
Spike smiled, holding up his hands waving them back and forth like a crazy clown, “Nooooo!! Don’t go into the liiiigght!!!”
I pointed my finger at him. “Don’t piss me off, incubus boy.”
“Oooh, scary.” His eyes started to glow again.
“Put your shit away, suck fuck. It’s not sexy time right now.”
The glow flared up strong but then died down until it was just a tiny ember, deep in his eyes.
“I love it when you talk dirty to me.”
“Spike, I’m warning you ... ”
“Whatever you say ... Mother.”
I shoved him super hard this time, sending him completely out of his chair. He was laughing his ass off on the floor. He kept pointing at me, trying to talk, but by now he was in hysterics. “Mo .... Moth ..... Moth ...”
The door opened and Chase was standing in the doorway. “What’s up?”
Spike and I looked at him in silence for two seconds. Then we both started laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants. Every time I looked at either of them, it got worse. I think the stress of everything that had happened just finally got to me. My laughing seemed to be an overreaction to something that wasn’t very funny, but at the same time, seemed perfectly appropriate. Surviving a near drowning and firing squad skewed my reasoning, I think.
Chase shook his head silently and shut the door, coming in and kicking Spike out of his way so he could sit down at the computer.
He clicked on the mouse a few times and said, “Cool. Martha Stewart has a new cookbook out.”
That was it. I was done for. I was cracking up so badly now I was snorting, just trying to breathe. Tears were pouring down my face. Spike was wheezing on the floor, curled up in a ball. He couldn’t even get up he was laughing so hard.
Chase didn’t even bother looking at us. He was too busy reading reviews on Amazon for the new book. “Looks like a winner, too.”
I put my hand on his shoulder, gasping for air, trying to talk. “Chase ... dude ... you’re killing me ... stop!”
He reached up and patted my hand, saying nothing.
I had just started to get control of myself and Becky walked in. “Hey guys! What’s new?”
Spike sat up, rubbing his hands on his face and then through his unkempt, spikey black hair. “Oh, nothin’ much. Jayne’s been kickin’ fae ass all over the forest. I’m stalking her. Chase is mooning over Martha Stewart.”
I pointed at him. “Do not start this all over again.” I hiccupped, trying to keep myself from falling into fits of laughter again. If I wasn’t careful I was gonna barf.
“Wow. Looks like I missed all the good stuff. I always miss the good stuff. It’s not fair.” She looked at what Chase was doing. “Oh, Internet. Let me on!”
He tilted his head towards the other two computers.
I reached over and hit ‘Send’ on my message and then logged out. Tony was six hours behind me, which I found out by doing a quick online search based on the computer’s IP address location– turns out this Light Fae compound was somewhere in Europe ... France I think – so I wasn’t sure if he’d see the message until much later. Right now he’d be in school. I was going to have to figure out some way to get back here after lights out to check if he sent me a reply.
“What time is it?” Spike asked, getting up from the floor.
“Almost three,” said Becky, as she surfed the Net.
“We have a big meeting at three-thirty. We all have to go. It’s in the big assembly hall. Anyone know where that is?”
“Yep,” said Chase.
“I’ve never been there,” said Becky. “The couple meetings I’ve been to were in the smaller meeting room – the informal one.”
Spike pulled up a chair from the edge of the room so he could sit behind Becky and me. “So Becks, what’d you do today?”
“Nothing much. Worked on teleporting farther distances. Met some more sprites. I met a totally hot wood sprite today. He is like totally buff, Jayne, you would not believe the muscles on his arms. He ... ”
I grabbed her arm to stop her. I noticed Spike was listening a little too closely, the embers in his eyes flaring up.
I snapped my fingers in front of his face. “Easy there hot stuff. Relax. She’s talking about a wood sprite for fuck’s sake.”
Spike shook his head out of its daze. “Ooops, sorry. I must have been latching onto her arousal.”
Becky looked at him in disgust. “My arousal? Ew. Stay away from my arousal, Spike. That’s none of your business.”
He shrugged. “Can’t help it. If it’s sexy talk, yours or anyone else’s, I’m interested. I can sense it from a loooong ways away too.” He moved his eyebrows up and down a few times at us. “So, if you need me, just send me a signal and I’ll come runnin’.” He gave us both a lecherous smile.
I whacked him on the arm. “Seriously, Spike. You’re starting to get annoying now. I liked you better when you were more understated about it.”
“You like understated? I can do understated.”
Chase turned in his seat, glaring at Spike. “Cool it down, or I will cool it down for you.”
Spike sat back, putting his hands up in surrender. “Chill, daemon, chill. I’m cool.” He looked at us innocently, like Chase was the crazy one, “We’re all cool here, right girls?”
Chase turned back around, and Spike rolled his eyes.
I looked at Chase with new respect. I wondered what daemon tricks he was learning that made Spike afraid of him like that. Man, I wished I’d had Chase with me today. I wondered if he would have gone into that green haze along with all the elves. I’d hate to have to drag him around all wasted too. Finn was bad enough, but at least he was small and easy to maneuver.
Becky and Chase logged off at the same time.
“You guys wanna go to the meeting hall now? I don’t think it’s a big deal if we’re early,” said Becky.
We all agreed we might as well go, and left the room, following Chase down the hallway. Soon we were standing in front of a large double door. This one was bigger than any door I’d seen at the compound so far. I wondered why I hadn’t seen the damn thing in all the other trips I’d made this way.
Chase pushed the door open and we found ourselves at the back of an amphitheater. There was a space at the opposite end of the room where the speakers or other important people would stand and then a semi-circle shaped table behind that with a single row of ten seats behind it, all of them raised up a couple feet higher than the main standing room area. In front of these were rows and rows of tables curved the opposite direction with aisles cut between them, down the center, and on the ends. These seats were for the audience. There was probably enough room for two hundred fae or more, if you included the spaces on the sides of the room and behind the
last row of seats.
Already seated in the single raised row of ten seats at the far end of the room were Dardennes, Niles, Robin, Naida, the wolfman, and several others I didn’t recognize. Several fae were coming in the door behind us, filtering through and taking seats.
I was huddled next to Becky and Spike, Chase standing behind us, when two fae walked by, talking to one another. I overheard part of their conversation.
“Like I said before, we have to be careful ... ” the fae stopped talking when he saw me watching him, grabbing his friend by the elbow and steering him away from us. I saw him say something in the fae’s ear, and the other fae turned around to look at me before his friend jerked his arm and whispered feverishly again.
He didn’t look familiar, so why did he sound like someone I knew?
I nudged Becky. “Hey, Beck. Do you know those fae?” I pointed to the pair who was hurriedly moving away from us.
“Nope.”
“Chase, do you know either of those guys?”
Chase frowned, shaking his head no.
“Why?” asked Spike.
“I don’t know. I remember his voice from somewhere, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
Then it came to me.
“Wait! I know where I’ve heard him before! He was the one outside the bathroom the other night, talking about eliminating fae!”
Chapter 10
“Who’s eliminatin’ fae?” said Finn, walking up.
“Shhh! Not so loud.” I looked back over, but the two fae had disappeared into the crowd.
“Where the heck have you been?” asked Becky.
“Sheee-it. Cleanin’ up Jayne’s mess.” He flinched. “Ow! Damn, Chase, lift weights much?” Finn was rubbing his arm where Chase had just hit him.
“What does he mean, he was cleaning up your mess?” asked Becky.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Yeah, let’s focus on the fae eliminating other fae, why don’t we,” said Spike.
“Tell us,” said Becky.
