Call to Arms

by Elle Casey

  Suddenly there was a bang on the door and we jumped apart, my face instantly going red as I realized what we had been doing ... or were about to do. Holy hotness. Holy double hotness.

  The door swung open to reveal Rick the Dick. “Your boyfriend needs to leave now.”

  Chase leaned towards me, giving me a quick, outwardly casual kiss on the lips. “See you tomorrow morning.” Then he walked out, pushing past Rick.

  Rick stood there in my doorway for a second, sneering at me. Then he walked away.

  I kicked my door shut and locked it, turning to fall down on my bed.

  He kissed me. I can’t believe he actually kissed me. Chase!

  He’d barely touched my lips, but wow, I was still feeling it. Chase? This one kinda took me by surprise. All this time I’d been looking at Chase as ... well ... just Chase. The quiet guy. The guy who was only half there most of the time. Now suddenly he’s my big daemon hugger, kisser guy.

  I got up and went over to my window, lifting it up. I watched Chase’s form recede as he went to join up with the others. I knew he would come get me when it was time to go to Tony’s. In the meantime, I was going to moon over that kiss and figure out what the hell I was going to say to Tony to convince him to come back with me, before it was really too late.

  Chapter 28

  I left the window open so Tim could get in. Around eleven he came flying up and stood on the windowsill.

  “Rapunzel! Time to go! Your chariot awaits!”

  “I think you’re mixing up your fairy tales,” I said wryly, as I sat up and put my shoes on. “Where does a pixie learn about fairy tales, anyway?”

  “Oh, you’d be surprised what I know about the human world,” Tim said mysteriously.

  One of these days I was going to get into that tiny head of his and find out all his secrets. He has a lot of them, I’m pretty sure.

  “So what’s the scoop, poop?”

  “Well, Tony was out with Ben, but he just got back. We watched Ben drop him off. He’s in his room now, listening to music.” Tim started dancing a jig on my desk. “Time for us to stage our fae intervention.” He was a little too excited about breaking into Tony’s house, talking with his happy-happy singsong voice.

  I went over to the window and lifted the sash up all the way. I climbed out and got onto the porch roof. I snuck across the shingles as quietly as I could until I was on the edge near the gutter. I saw the guys waiting for me out on the sidewalk in the glow of the streetlamp. It was a pretty far drop to the ground but there was a tree nearby. Now seemed as good a time as any to have a conversation with the local trees. This one was an oak.

  I sent out a signal for help. The tree responded, but it was slow ... as if it had been a long time since anyone had linked up with it. The Green here felt different. It’s like everything was sleeping or in a fog – different than the energy I had reached through the library ley line. I asked the tree to lean towards me and provide some branches for the way down, and it responded the best it could; it wasn’t the biggest tree in the world – nowhere near the size of those in the Green Forest – but it was good enough to give me a few less feet to jump down. I stepped out onto the branches and lowered myself to a spot five feet above the ground. I jumped the rest of the way, landing without breaking or spraining anything; so even though I got a little dirty when I fell into the grass, I considered it a successful breakout.

  I could have probably just walked out the front door, but then I’m pretty sure my mom would have locked me out. Rick had managed to convince her in the space of a couple hours after dinner that I was in trouble and needed to be managed. She had stopped by my room on her way to bed and told me that I needed to go to sleep and we were going to have a talk in the morning.

  Yeah, right. Like that was going to happen.

  I kept my thoughts to myself though, because I had to stay in her good graces for a little while longer; if I couldn’t convince Tony to come back with me tonight, I’d have to stay here one more day and regroup. I could have gone back to the hotel, but I worried about being too far from Tony. I decided the best plan of action was to stick to him like glue – Ben, or no Ben. I was going to be outside his door in the morning, and standing outside school in the afternoon ... whatever it took.

  I walked out of my yard and started towards Tony’s, Chase keeping pace to walk next to me and the other guys following. I looked up at him, but he kept his gaze straight ahead as he walked. Was he was thinking about that kiss at all? Tim buzzed ahead of us, oblivious to my stress.

  We arrived outside of Tony’s house and I could see a weird glow in his window that meant Tony was on the computer – or that his computer was on, anyway. We gathered in a tight group on the sidewalk.

  “Is he home?” I whispered.

  “Yeah. Tim said he was up there, right before we came to get ya,” said Finn.

  “So what should I do? Send him a text?”

  “Yeah. Tell him to come out,” said Spike.

  I shook my head. “No, his parents would watch him if he went outside. They can’t know we’re here.”

  “Tim, what’s he doing?”

  Tim flew up and then came back. “He’s on his computer.” Tim giggled at that and I brushed it off as one of his weird pixie habits – giggling for no apparent reason. Freak.

  “I want to go up. Someone give me a boost.” I started walking over to the fence that ran right under the part of the roof nearest Tony’s window. His house had a front porch like mine, so the roof made a perfect spot to sneak into and out of the upstairs rooms. His bedroom was even easier to reach than mine.

  Chase walked over with me and stood next to the fence, lacing his hands together so I could use them as a stepladder. I grabbed his shoulders, trying to avoid looking in his eyes so I wouldn’t go all ga-ga on him when I needed to be focusing on Tony. I put my foot in his laced fingers and prepared to jump up. The scent of his cologne or whatever it was that made him smell so good was filling my nostrils and my head, making it really hard not to imagine his lips on mine like they had been earlier. Why did that kiss have to be so short? I could hear Spike clearing his throat a few paces over and I knew if I looked at him his eyes would be glowing right now. He seemed to have radar for me being attracted to someone, and it was starting to get really annoying.

  I leaped up with Chase’s help and grabbed the edge of the roof. I put my feet on the fence and used it to climb up the rest of the way. Thank goodness for all those workouts I had done with the dwarves. My abs were rock hard and that made it much easier to pull my lower body up onto the roof. Once I was up, I crawled across the roof on hands and knees up to Tony’s window. I could see him sitting at the computer, his room totally dark except for the light coming from the glowing screen. I tapped on the glass lightly, hoping he wouldn’t be too freaked out.

  He didn’t respond so I tapped harder. He turned, but I couldn’t see his face; the room was too dark. He stood slowly, walking over to the window. His face dropped down and looked out, registering shock as he recognized me. I put on my happiest smile and waved excitedly.

  He opened the window. “Jayne? What the heck are you doing out here?”

  “Shhh. Someone will hear. Can I come in?”

  “Uh, yeah ... I guess.” He opened the window the rest of the way and stepped back.

  I got up and climbed in. Tony started to shut the window behind me, but I told him to leave it open. I wanted to be sure Tim could listen in and report back, but I didn’t tell Tony that.

  I turned to look at Tony and start explaining myself, and for the first time I realized he was standing there in his underwear. “For shit’s sake, Tony, you’re half naked!” No wonder Tim had been giggling earlier. He was probably busting a gut right now knowing that I was seeing Tony like this. He knew full well that we did not have the kind of relationship where we saw each other unclothed. Little punk. I was going to get him for this.

  Tony strode over to his bed, picking up the pants that were in a
pile on the floor, hurriedly putting them on and turning his back to me while he zipped them up. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t expecting company. What are you doing here anyway? I told you I’d see you tomorrow.”

  “I couldn’t wait until tomorrow. I had to talk to you now.”

  He sighed. I could tell he was irritated, and I was trying not to be upset about it. The old Tony would never have been mad about me sneaking over – maybe worried I would get in trouble with my mom, but not mad.

  “You know, Jayne, something weird is going on with you and I wish you would just tell me what it is. I’m not comfortable with this whole thing.”

  “What whole thing? I just need to talk to you.”

  “Don’t play dumb, Jayne. You know what I’m talking about. First you disappear without a goodbye, then you send me some cryptic emails, and for all I know you’re out doing drugs and hanging out with criminals. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Just accept that? Pretend like it’s okay? Because it’s not.”

  “Tony, what the hell are you talking about?” I was flabbergasted. I had no idea what he meant, but I was getting the sneaking suspicion that something had gone wrong with the erasing.

  Tony sighed. “Listen. I think you should just leave. Ben was right. I need to just move on with my life ... and so do you.”

  The sound of Ben’s name set me off. “That motherfucker’s been feeding you a line of bullshit ever since you got back from the forest, Tony. You can’t believe anything he’s been saying to you. He’s brainwashing you.”

  “Shhh. Lower your voice. You’re going to wake my mom.”

  “Yeah, so? What are you going to do? Throw a shoe at her again?”

  Tony froze. “How do you know about that? Have you been spying on me?”

  I walked over and turned on his desk lamp. “Tony, sit down. We need to talk.”

  I saw him looking at his desk. I followed his gaze and saw his phone sitting there.

  “Why do you keep looking at your phone? You want to contact Ben right now, don’t you? Don’t you?”

  Tony looked guilty. “He’s my friend, Jayne.”

  “No, he’s not, Tony! He’s the enemy!”

  “Ben said you would say things like this. It’s the drugs.”

  “Tony, if you say I’m on drugs one more time, I’m gonna smash you one.”

  “That’s the drugs talking.”

  I walked over and stopped right in front of him. “You know me better than anyone else in the entire world, so ask yourself this question: what would Jayne Sparks do if someone kept insisting she was using drugs when she wasn’t?”

  “She’d kick their ass.”

  “Exactly. So say it one more time and see what happens.”

  Tony looked at me. He reached over and flicked on his overhead light and then looked at me some more. “Well, your eyes aren’t dilated.”

  “Thank you! Oh, and look, no track marks on my arms!” I pulled up my sleeves so he could see. “Oh, and look! My teeth have been brushed every day!” I grinned maniacally at him. “I’m not a druggie and I don’t have time to play these fucking games with you, Tony. There is some serious shit going down and you’re right in the damn middle of it!”

  “Well, I can see your gangster life hasn’t cleaned up your language any.”

  “Tony, I swear to all that is holy ... ”

  He held up his hands, “Okay! Okay, I’ll stop saying it. It’s just that Ben said ... ”

  “Yeah. I get it. Ben’s been filling your head with shit since the day you got back.”

  “Why do you keep saying that? Got back? From where? And what did you mean when you said I was in a forest?”

  I sighed. This was going to be a lot of friggin’ work, getting him on board. Way more than I had anticipated. I was going to have a serious talk with whoever it was that was supposed to erase Tony only up the point of the meeting. Apparently that dumbass eraser had taken Tony’s memories away starting long before that point.

  “Sit down. I have a lot to tell you, and it’s super important, or I wouldn’t have bothered breaking into your room in the middle of the night. Trust me – it couldn’t wait until tomorrow.”

  Tony went and sat on his bed. I sat next to him told him the story – from when we had our head-to-head with Brad Powers to when the fae erased Tony and sent him back home.

  Fifteen minutes later, Tony looked at me with a patient smile on his face. “Okay. So let me get this straight. I’m supposed to believe that you and I ran away together to Miami, hooked up with some other runaways, signed up for some test, got drugged and shipped to some remote enchanted forest, battled ancient, supernatural beings, and then were offered a chance to join their secret race? Because there’s going to be a war and we need to help them fight it?”

  “Well, when you put it like that, it does sound a little crazy ... but yes. That’s the gist of it.”

  “Jayne, these drugs you’re on have done one hell of a number on your brain. I’m really worried about you.”

  I stood up, furious. “Listen you fuckwit ... I am not high, I am not wasted, and I am not suffering a mental breakdown. Your friend Ben is not your friend. Ask yourself a couple questions, would you? Be smart. Why is the hottest guy in the entire school instantly your friend? Huh? All our lives we’ve lived here and been pariahs at our school. Invisible. Suddenly after passing the fae test, you’re his best friend? And where the hell did he come from? Did he ever tell you that? He supposedly just arrived in town last month, but that’s funny, because I have a picture of him at our Halloween dance last year, following you and me around. Yeah. And I’ll bet he started filling your head with negative shit about me from day one, didn’t he?”

  Tony started to squirm a little.

  “Yes, you know he did. He’s one of them, Tony. Dark Fae. He wants you to join his side. He wants to use you against me ... against the friends that you made with me when we ran away together. You recognized Chase for shit’s sake!” I threw up my hands. “I don’t know what else to say to you, Tony. This is the truth. I am not making one bit of this shit up.”

  Tony was looking down at his hands. “It’s true that Ben is pretty popular. I have asked myself a lot of times why he wants to be my friend.”

  “Yeah. Hello.”

  “But I figured it’s because I’m a nice person and a good friend to have.”

  He sounded so pitiful, I instantly felt like a complete asshole. I ran back to the bed and sat down next to him, grabbing his hand. “You are a nice person and the most awesome friend of all time! I know that! But people like Ben never see that stuff! They are too self-centered to ever see it!”

  “Yeah, but he’s different.”

  “You’re right. He is different. He’s not human, he’s fae.”

  Tony shook his head looking at me. “Jayne, you’ve been a good friend to me. I want to believe you, but what you’re saying is just too out there.”

  “Tony, you have the memories in your head. They were just erased or washed over. But you were there with me! You were almost killed!”

  He cleared his throat, trying to get the next words out. “Well, if I was such a good friend of yours, why did you let me go?”

  I laughed bitterly. “You know, I’ve been asking myself that same question. But the truth is, you didn’t want to be in the middle of a war that you didn’t think was your problem. The stuff we saw freaked you out. You wanted your normal life back. I respected that. And I thought after I did some training there, I could come back here and be with you again.” I sighed. “I guess I didn’t really think it through very well. But to be fair, I didn’t really know how things were going to turn out.”

  “Well, assuming just for argument’s sake that everything you’re saying is true – and I’m sorry but I still don’t believe a word of it – why would I change my mind now and get involved? It’s still not my war, and I’m not a magical person.”

  “It’s called being fae, not magical, and you are fae. And whether you want to be i
nvolved or not, you are. Ben has targeted you as a valuable asset. He wants you on his side. For some reason he hasn’t forced you over, but he will when he wants to if you don’t go willingly. The Dark Fae don’t care about making it a voluntary thing. What they want, they take. I don’t know what he’s waiting for, but something tells me now that I’m here, he’s not going to wait much longer.”

  Tony put his hand on mine, his face holding only pity. “I think you have your heart in the right place, but something happened to you when you ran away – and I’m sorry, but I think you need to see a doctor.”

  I started feeling desperate. This was getting worse not better. The more I tried to get him to see reason, the crazier he thought I was. I had to trigger his memory.

  “Remember last night, or the night before? You were listening to that song, My Immortal. You looked at our picture and threw it against the wall. How could I know that? I was here, Tony, doing astral projection with a gray elf.”

  Tony looked at me a little afraid, pulling his hand back from mine. “Jayne, you were probably standing out on my roof, just like you did tonight. You are seriously deluding yourself and probably stalking me. You need to be on medication.” He was backing away from me slowly, trying to be cool about it, but he kept darting glances at his phone.

  I reached over and grabbed the phone.

  “I’ll bet Ben has been keeping very close tabs on you hasn’t he?”

  Tony got mad. “He’s been a good friend. You left. He came and picked up the pieces.”

  “No! We ran away because you sensed my mother’s boyfriend was molesting me. You paid for our tickets to Miami on the Tri Rail. You went into the forest with me and won the right to claim your place with the fae. Ben is an imposter trying to take you away from me. From us!”

  “Us who, Jayne? Who?”

  “Me!” came a little voice from the window.

  Of course Tony didn’t hear it. But I did. And that’s when it came to me.