Druid Dreams

by M F Adele

  I was going to save that information for later. Right now though, “Are you okay, mate? Do you need a ride to your car or something?”

  “Nah man, I’m good. Sloane sent me. Apparently she saw him and didn’t think it was important to tell me until someone other than herself was in danger. I know you’re a High Winter Fae, but iron bullets are iron bullets and that guys got a gun.” He casually tossed his head in the direction of an unconscious Taylor Caplin. “Uhm, had a gun,” he corrected himself.

  I nodded my head while I processed what he’d just told me. Sliding some more information away for later, I looked over and noticed a gun laying a few feet from where Taylor landed. Huh, he wasn’t lying. I never saw the gun.

  “I think I can fix that gun for him,” I offered. As I made my way over to Taylor I fought the urge to kick him in his face. I took the gun and bent the barrel up, then removed the bullets and encased them in ice before I crushed them in my hand. The iron burned the surface of my skin, but a little ice would heal it right up. I'd be left with nothing but a raw area on my palm from the minor iron burns by the time I got home.

  I didn’t know if Taylor would understand what transpired here tonight. No one would believe his story either. Not that I gave any flying fucks about him, since it would appear that he was going to try to shoot me. With iron bullets, no less. Did he know I was fae or was it just a guess? That would be more information to think about later. I was going to need to get Novak and Stone to help me do some digging. I already dreaded that conversation.

  “Maybe we should call an ambulance for him....” I trailed off as I heard the sirens growing closer. Guess Jack called them before he came from, uhm, wherever the hell he came from. I have so many questions about tonight.

  “Time to go, Vaughn. I’ll take that ride around the block to my chariot now.” Jack replied with a wink.

  Vaughn

  Saturday Morning

  By the time I made it home it was after 6am. I was exhausted from all the shit that had happened in the last 24 hours. I really looked forward to falling face first in my bed so I could take a long nap. Maybe I’d dream of Sloane. Her arms wrapped around my neck as she leaned back, leaving her bare breasts on display. Her nipples brushing my chest with each movement we made, long legs locked behind my back as I... FUCK! Get. A. Fucking. Grip. Vaughn. On second thought, maybe I didn’t want to dream about her. That seemed like a sure way to wake up with a raging boner, or have a wet dream.

  As I opened the front door of the flat I shared with my friends a few smells assaulted me at once. New smells that weren’t here last night when I came home to change out of my work clothes.

  One: It smelled like the gas from the stove mixed with bacon and eggs and orange juice. Breakfast was being cooked which meant Palmer came home early from seeing his family. He must have decided Novak and I had enjoyed enough take out and protein bars in his two week absence. Thank the gods. Novak was a terrible cook and I wasn’t much better. Palmer was a step up from Stone in the kitchen, but none of us compared to Briggs.

  Two: The fresh, earthy smell of mud and grass invaded my nostrils as I silently shut the front door and tiptoed through the entryway. That meant Briggs was home too. He’d be cleaning all this fucking mud up, because I wasn’t the one who tracked it all the way from the front door of our building to our door. It then led from our front door to the couch and from there it trailed underneath his bedroom door. He was so sloppy sometimes. It wouldn’t have been hard to take his shoes off at the door. He does this shit to aggravate me.

  Three: The smell of ash and burning wood like something was on fire. That could only mean-

  Fuck! Something’s on fire!!

  I darted through the flat, following the scent, and found... Stone. He was squatting in front of the living room fireplace, poker in one hand and a small flame in the other, teasing the fire bigger like the Devil-damned Demon he was.

  “Fuck! You ballbag. I thought the flat was on fire.” I had to take a deep breath to calm my rapid heart beat. He wasn’t supposed to be home from his convention until the end of the week. The fires never caught me off guard when I knew he was home.

  “We told you Fae, it’s an apartment, not a flat. I don’t know why that’s so hard for you to understand.” He rolled his bluish black eyes at me like I was the dumbest Fae to walk the earth.

  “You’re the second person whose acted like I’m stupid in the past three hours.” I muttered under my breath. I know I’m not a genius like Palmer, but I’m not not smart, you know?

  “Make that three in as many hours,” Palmer slid in, “Where’ve ya been?” He gave me a sly look that made me want to roll my eyes. Of course they were going to grill me. “It’s not like ye to come strollin’ in at this hour. Busy night was it?” I thought about ignoring his questions. I wasn’t ready to talk about her with them yet.

  Palmer let his accent out when he was at home. When he was working he acted as American as I did. He didn’t have a heavy accent, but you could hear it lightly when he spoke. He’d been in the States longer than I had. I thought that helped him lose the edge of his accent. It was funny when he bounced back and forth between accents while talking to us. He hated the questions people asked him about his time in Ireland. My favorite one that he got was “Are you Irish or Scottish?” It was one of the only times you’d ever see Palmer lose his cool, because he wasn’t from either. He was from Norn Iron. That was what he called his homeland. It’s Northern Ireland. Somewhere near Belfast. Please don’t get him fucking started. We’ll never hear the end of it.

  He wasn’t the only one that hid it though. All of the paperwork and information that could be found on me stated that I grew up in Seattle, Washington, which was a complete lie. I grew up in the Fae realm. The portal was hidden in Oxford, England. If you don’t know where that is then grab a map, because I’m shite with directions.

  “I thought the flat was on fire,” I emphasized again.

  “Apartment.” I ignored Stone’s interruption and kept talking.

  “I didn’t know everyone came back last night. You could’ve called. I do have a cell phone.” I waved my phone around at them, and saw that they were both looking at me with blank faces. I glanced down at my phone and touched the screen to wake it up. “Oh.” That was all I could say. I had sixteen missed calls and twelve text messages. All the calls were from Palmer, Stone and Briggs. Ten messages were from Novak, because he was a serial texter. One was never good enough for him. Two were from a number I didn’t recognize.

  “So,” Palmer slowly began his interrogation once more, “Are ya gonna tell us what you were doin’? Or should we start guessin’?”

  “I went to that red carpet club downtown to see someone.” I stated dismissively with a wave of my hand, already halfway down the hall on my way to my bedroom. I really didn’t want to talk to them about Sloane right now. If I stayed in there then they’d keep badgering me. I couldn’t believe I was ready to call them a little over an hour ago to figure this shit out. Now that I was face to face with them, I just wasn’t ready. I liked Sloane so far and I knew as soon as they saw her they would too. It would be nice to have my friends like my girlfriend for once. Fuck. She’s not my girlfriend. I just met her yesterday. I would like to see her again though.

  Palmer was saying something to me, but I tuned him out. I didn’t care what he had to say. All my attention was on the unknown number that texted me. The snippet of the first message had my undivided attention as I opened the tab.

  “Taylor Caplin will be waiting for you by your car. Please be careful. He’s angry that you were with me and his thoughts are dark tonight.”

  And

  “You should’ve kissed me. (Shoulder shrug emoji.)”

  “Who the...” I breathed out before it hit me. “Oh. Ohhhh. Shit. Maybe I am stupid.” Fuck. My. Life. I knew I should have kissed her. No. I should’ve done exactly what Jack said. Godsdamnit. I’m a fool.

  “We’ve been telling you that for
years.” Novak piped up from my bed. MY bed. Where he was sprawled diagonally, in nothing but boxers, on his stomach with his face buried under my pillows. Why is he always in my fucking room? I just wanted to go to sleep.

  “Why are you in my bed?” I hissed instead. “You have your own room. A room that holds very similar furniture to mine.” He could go lay in his own damn bed.

  He moved the pillow from over his head and leaned up just a little, turning his neck at an odd angle. “There’s a naked girl in my bed,” he whined. “And she. Just. Won’t. Leave. Make her go away, please.” His last words were muffled as he slammed my pillow over his head again, like if he could smother himself then she might magically disappear. I huffed a laugh at him. He’s fucking dramatic.

  “If I make her leave will you get out of my room?” I bartered. I really wanted to sleep. I was almost as dead on my feet as he was. I know. That’s a corny vampire joke, but it’s true.

  “Yes.” He dragged the word out. “I asked her to leave hours ago but she wouldn’t take the hint. I mean, she’s cute, but not cute enough to stay for breakfast.” He rolled his eyes. “I guess Palmer will be the white knight that he is and feed her. Then, she’ll never want to leave.” He sniffled and wiped imaginary tears from his exposed cheek. “I’ll have to move into your room so I can permanently avoid her.” He sighed. He was such an asshole. “Make her leave Vaughn.” He whined again.

  “You could’ve just compelled her...” I let my sentence hang, waiting for him to figure it out. Maybe he’d be smart today. Nope. I knew exactly what he was about to say. I mouthed the words as he spoke them, having them memorised long ago.

  “Yeah, but then I’d have to look into her eyes again and I just can’t do it, Vaughn.” He mumbled like it was a new confession. It was not new. He’s a dog.

  “Bad sex, huh? You let her down?” I couldn’t help but tease him. He was terrified of commitment. Stone and Palmer avoided relationships because they were waiting on their mates, but Novak? He was a one-and-done kind of guy, most of the time. Occasionally he was a 24-hour kind of guy. Those girls never got brought to our home though. Briggs was weary after his last heart break, and wouldn’t be looking for a companion anytime soon. I didn’t do relationships because I was too busy. I was leaning towards a change though. Fuck. Am I? Do I want to be with Sloane? I’d have to think about that later. When I was by my godsdamn self.

  “Fuck you, Vaughn.” There was no heat behind his words. He sounded truly exhausted. He still had his head covered with my pillow. He thrashed his legs violently, almost like he was throwing a silent tantrum, before rolling over and removing the pillow to continue, “She said she wants a relationship with me,” he pointed to himself for clarification. “After one good fuck. I’m not interested, and I told her straight up. She didn’t listen. She’s waiting for me to come back in there with my mind changed. It’s not happening. She doesn’t understand that she means absolutely nothing to me. Last night, today, just showed me that I’m fucking sick of this. I’m ready to find my mate. I’m tired of all these bullshit one night stands.” He heaved a heavy sigh of relief, and if I had to guess he needed to get that off his chest.

  He sounded so serious that I almost wanted to believe him, but Novak is.... well, Novak. I’ll believe it when I see it. We all wondered sometimes if he’d already met his mate and just didn’t notice. He’d been binge drinking for the past couple of months so it wouldn’t surprise me. I’d asked him to talk to me about it but he always shot me down. He'd talk when he was ready though, and he knew I was here to listen when he was. I could tell he wasn’t going to say anything more so I decided to reroute the conversation.

  “Do fae have mates like vampires do? Because if they do, then I think I found my mate yesterday, Novak. I’m a mixture of confused, terrified, and excited,” I whispered. It was an admission I wasn’t quite ready to say out loud, but I’d known Novak longer than anyone in this realm. He was always the first person I told things to. He was what I needed to work my feelings out. A vampire therapist. I needed someone to tell me what I felt wasn’t my imagination. It was real. I really hope it’s real.

  He looked up at me with wide eyes and then looked around the room like someone else might be in here. “She’s not here.” I scoffed. “But, that’s where I was last night. I didn’t know you guys were all coming back at the same time. I thought you’d be out until later today. The others weren’t due back for days. Briggs came home too? What’s going on?” I questioned him, hoping he’d have answers.

  “Neither did we.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I just had this feeling like I needed to be home. Like something big was gonna happen, but I didn’t know what.” He had his brows drawn down and his eyes squinted like he’s trying to piece together a puzzle while talking to me. With what pieces, I didn’t know, but he never failed to figure it out. Sometimes he was a dumbass, but other times he made me wonder if he was more of a genius than Palmer.

  “What are you thinking?” I inquired. What did he know that I didn’t? The feeling that I was missing something huge was weighing on my shoulders. I still felt that strange pull on my chest too. I distractingly rubbed at the center of my chest and Novak snapped his attention to my hand. His eyes widened, eyebrows flying up in the process, and his mouth gaped open before he could compose himself.

  He cleared his throat and then carefully asked “Vaughn, does your chest hurt like you’ve been punched?” He paused for a beat, but I knew he wasn’t done. “Or, does it feel like someone threaded invisible strings through your heart that they’re pulling on right now?” He made a motion with his hand like he was stringing two objects together. I felt the blood rush from my face. My heartbeat was rapidly increasing. My hands were clammy. He saw it all, and he kept talking.

  “I’ve only heard stories about fae having mates, but I suppose it could happen. We’d have to talk with Palmer to be sure. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say you’re not ready to bring that up to the others yet.” He raised a skeptical eyebrow at me and I nodded my head silently. He slowly nodded his head back at me and dropped his voice. He sounded like he was speaking to himself when he continued, “Surely we didn’t all get the same feeling that we needed to be here solely because you found your mate.” The way he said “your” didn’t go unnoticed.

  “What are you talking about, Novak?” I needed to know. It’s going to drive me crazy. He was onto something. He had that distant look on his face that he got when he was focusing on putting all those invisible puzzle pieces together. I just didn’t know what all the pieces were that he had. Clearly more than me. He didn’t answer. I wasn’t even sure that he heard me.

  I sat on the edge of my bed and gave him a few more minutes of silence before I repeated my question. This time he looked at me and shook his head. His hair flopped down into his eyes. He pushed it back before he shook his head again. “It doesn’t make sense yet, Vaughn,” he admitted to me, but I didn’t think he was trying to answer my question. He was talking about whatever he was working through. He’s answering his own question. I didn’t know what the question was though, so I couldn’t help him.

  He shook his head a few more times and then groaned. “Naked chick. In my bed.” He brought me back to the task at hand and I sighed dramatically. I didn’t like doing his dirty work, but sometimes it was fun.

  “Did you give her a fake name?” That was what he usually did. He said it was to distance himself from them, but I honestly didn’t understand. It’s his thing though, not mine. He just flashed me a big smile in answer. I honestly think he enjoys making me do this shit. That was why he always hid out in my room. Briggs would let her cry on his shoulder as he told her the truth. Palmer would make her breakfast and send her on her way after calling a cab to come get her. Stone would carry Novak out of his room and throw him back on his own bed with his naked issue.

  Me? Well, I had my own way of dealing with his shit. I wasn’t fast enough to catch Novak and use Stone’s method. I also wasn’t n
ice enough to handle it the way Briggs and Palmer would. Which, in a nutshell, is why he came to me. Every. Fucking. Time.

  “Let me get the naked girl out of your bed so you can at least put some fucking clothes on. Later, after I’ve slept for a few hours, we can make some plans to go out tonight. Sounds like we all need a good night out.” I strode out of my room as Novak started muttering to himself. Probably talking to his dick, that was my educated guess. I swear, we need to buy that Vampire a chastity cage.

  Novak

  Saturday Morning

  I listened to Vaughn through the bedroom walls while I scolded myself. I’d probably already met my mate and was just too drunk to notice. We’ve all said it before. I seriously needed to slow down on the drinking before I really fucked my life up. We’ve all said that too. What if I had already met my mate? No. I would’ve known if I had. I hadn’t met her yet, but I thought I may know who she is. If I was right though... Man, it was gonna get a little weird around here. Total mindfuck of the interesting variety.

  Vaughn’s room was on the other side of mine, so it wasn’t too hard to hear him while he put on another one of his best performances. Academy Awards here comes Vaughn Winter. He happened to be great at running them out. It was one of the reasons why I always came to his room when it didn’t work my way. I mean, that and he made it so funny to listen to. I almost felt bad for the chick in my room, but then I remembered that I asked her to leave and she refused.

  “What are you doing in my bedroom?” He demanded in a voice that sounded like a war general on a tangent. I could picture him with his eyebrows drawn over his cold blue eyes, looking totally offended while staring at the naked, human woman in my bed.