by Kimbra Swain
Levi tensed beside me but didn’t speak.
“So, you don’t have information. Right. I think we will be going now,” I said, turning away from him. Levi followed my lead.
“I do have information, but there is a price,” he said.
“If the price is sitting here and allowing you to disrespect me, then it is too high. Because if it continues, you will lose your life over it,” I snarled without looking back at him.
“Your mother is alive,” he said.
For the life of me, I wanted to keep walking, but I stopped. Looking back over my shoulder, his facial expression had not changed, but his body was tensed. He did not want me to leave nor did he want me to dust him.
“Is that all?” I asked.
“Price,” he replied.
I turned around to look at him. “Go ahead,” I prompted.
“There is a shifter in your town that is behind your protective ward. He owes me a debt. Swear that you will deliver him to me, and I will tell you more about your mother,” he said.
“Who?” I asked.
“Troy Maynard,” he said.
“What is the debt? I will pay for it,” I replied.
“No. His life is mine.” A growl bubbled up from his throat and shook the room.
Tennyson, Stone, and Seamus burst through the doors behind me holding guns high. I wasn’t sure what had prompted their entry, but the frog hadn’t scared me.
“I will not give it to you. Troy is my loyal servant and friend. He is one of my knights. Your information is useless to me at that cost,” I said, stepping toward him.
“Ah! Tennyson. I should have known that you would serve his daughter,” the frog laughed.
“We came here for information, Bogart. Deliver or we are out. If you threaten her again, all of us will wipe this place from the Otherworld,” Tennyson said.
So, we were in the world below.
“You heard him. Spit it out,” I said. “Or perhaps that is a poor choice of words.”
“I’ll say,” Levi smirked.
The frog’s skin morphed to an inky black and two large wings rose up behind him. I knew then what flavor fairy I was dealing with. His arms disappeared as his glamour dropped. A long, lashing tail protruded from his bulky body. The Welsh call him, Llamhigyn Y Dwr, the water leaper. He hovered over his pedestal, peering down on us.
“How dare you come into my town and act like you are the most important person here?” he wailed. “I can squash you like a bug.”
His tongue lashed out toward me, but Levi was quicker, grabbing it just before it hit me. I pulled one hilt from my bra and produced an icy blade. In a quick movement, the frog lost part of his tongue.
“Kill them,” he garbled, shrinking back from my icy dagger.
The fairies around the room moved slowly toward us.
“Get her out of here,” Tennyson yelled.
Levi clasped my hand with the same one that he’d grabbed the tongue.
“Yuck!” I said trying to pull away from him.
He held my hand tight and growled, “Home!”
I expected to materialize outside of our house in Shady Grove, but nothing happened.
“Wards,” Tennyson said, stepping up to my side. “Seamus, how much?”
Seamus stood casually, taking a puff on his vape. “Room full of baddies. Two hundred.”
“Damn it, man,” Tennyson swore.
“Two hundred dollars?” I asked.
“Thousand, Love. Two hundred thousand,” Seamus smirked.
“Done,” Tennyson growled.
“You are a good fella, Lance. Pleasure doing business,” he smiled, producing two ancient looking flintlock pistols.
“You are going to hurt yourself with those,” I scoffed, pulling my second hilt out of my bra.
“I wish you’d hurt me with those,” he said eyeing my breasts.
Levi stepped between us.
“Um, bad guys coming, Bard. Play us some battle music,” Seamus teased, not fazed by Levi’s fronting.
Levi obliged with a loud chord jolting the advancing fairies. Several of them stumbled to the floor while the others teetered with the force of the music. Levi continued the beat, making hard on our advancing foe.
“Lead them out of here,” Tennyson ordered.
“This way, Friends,” Seamus grinned, as he paced backward toward the swinging doors. Levi linked his arm with mine, and we ran for the doors.
“Lachlan!” I yelled back.
“Go! We are fine,” he said as he and Stone engaged the advancing fairies. Shots fired and fairies fell to their demise.
“This way, my Queen,” Seamus said slinging both doors open but walking through before us.
“Such the gentleman,” Levi mumbled.
“Ah! Bard, what I lack in manners, I make up in the bedroom. Sometimes a girl just wants an arrogant bastard. Right, Grace?” he asked, as we turned to the right instead of passing through the next set of double doors.
We followed him to the end of the hallway to a single metal door. He leaned on it nonchalantly, but I felt his magic move. He was testing the room on the other side of the door.
“You going to answer my question?” he asked.
“The answer is no. I’ve got enough arrogant. I don’t need any competition in the bedroom,” I said playing along with him.
“For the record, Bard, she lies,” he said as he opened the door, pushing through with one pistol held high.
We filed through the door behind him. A dimly lit corridor stretched before us. The concrete walls were lined with pipes, and the floor glistened with moisture.
“Where does this go?” Levi asked.
“Escape route under Las Vegas Boulevard. It takes us to another hotel,” he said. “Let’s move quickly. I won’t pretend that this is safe.”
He pulled his wool coat tightly, then began to sprint down the hallway. Levi and I took off after him. The heels kept me from running.
“Home?” I asked.
“I still can’t feel it,” Levi said. “Feels more like a blocking spell than a ward.”
“Witches?” I asked.
He didn’t answer. His silence was a confirmation of what he suspected. It answered many questions like who put the hit out on me. If the Order of the Red Cloak was involved, you could bet that they were trying to kill me.
We turned another corner to find a woman with a Hispanic complexion, but the body of a Snake. My assassin had returned. I wondered how she had escaped whatever bindings Stone had placed on her back at the hotel.
“I’ve got you now,” she hissed.
“Not today, Gorgon,” Seamus yelled firing his flintlock at her. Fire hurled out of the pistol and a hole about the size of a ping-pong ball appeared on her forehead.
“Holy shit, does that thing fire cannonballs?” Levi asked.
“No, but it’s fun for beer pong night,” Seamus said, jumping over the snake woman’s dead body. He ran through the murky darkness and we followed. Seamus stopped at an intersection ahead of us.
“You need a glamour,” he said.
“What kind?” I asked.
“Something festive,” he said. “This corridor leads to the huge Christmas display at the Bellagio. They are having some sort of corporate Christmas Party there. The guests are dressed to honor the ice queen of the Bellagio in the botanical gardens. Something red, white, and furry would be perfect.”
“Ice queen?” I asked, lifting an eyebrow.
54
“Let me get a glimpse of her,” I said pushing Levi out of the way.
Towering above the indoor garden, a woman in a white dress made of plants loomed over us.
“Wow,” Levi said.
“She doesn’t look like me at all,” I said.
We stood behind tall decorations where no one from the party could see us. The display was larger than anything I’d ever seen in my life. In Vegas, everything was larger than life. I knew about that because as a fairy queen I had alway
s felt that way until the people of Shady Grove humbled me. That feeling was still there, and I could tap it now if we needed.
Taking a deep breath, I pulled power to me. My red dress shimmered to white and a large crystal crown stood on my head. Levi’s eyes widened. Taking one of my hilts, I held it high producing a long wand with a shimmering snowflake on the end to make the display.
“Now, I need a polar bear,” I said, looking at Levi. Around the base of the queen’s dress, several polar bears played at her feet.
“No, but how about a white deer?” Levi asked.
“Seamus, do you bear?” I asked.
“Afraid not, Love. But I do invisible very well,” he grinned. “Move through the party to that exit.” He pointed across to the far side of the room.
“Meet you there,” I said.
“We could just use a spell,” Levi suggested.
“That’s not fun at all,” I replied. “Where is my deer?”
Levi brooded, but quickly shifted to his white deer form. I swiped a red ribbon from the tree near us and tied it around his neck.
“Awe, that’s sweet,” I said.
“Would you just stop?” he whined.
“You are no fun,” I laughed but brushed the side of his face where his scar showed through the shift. He pressed his head into my hand.
Stepping out into the party, the crowd gasped as people began to notice us. I walked toward the main aisle between the displays, waving my wand like Glenda, the good witch.
“Welcome to the Bellagio,” I said cheerfully. “As the Ice Queen, I want to wish a very, chilly Christmas to you all.”
As I looked around the room, the partygoers stood in awe, but the employees that wore distinctive uniforms looked confused. Shit. Might as well go big. Waving my wand toward the ceiling, snowflakes started to fall inside the building. The crowd was enthralled with the weather thinking it was part of a show especially for them. They weren’t completely wrong. It was a one-time performance.
“Move it, Snowflake,” Levi said in my head.
“Bite me, Deer,” I replied. He snapped his teeth behind me, causing me to jump. “Oh, my! My reindeer seems to be anxious to return to our realm. Ladies and gentlemen, please do not try to pet him. He really isn’t tame.”
Levi groaned loudly in my head, but we proceeded to pass through the mesmerized people. Levi remained close, as we made our way to the exit. I saw a slight shimmer, then Seamus reappeared at the door. He nodded toward it urging us across the room.
A squawk of a radio caught my attention. A security guard appeared at another door across the room with two other uniformed men behind them.
“Time to go!” Levi said.
Then two more guards came out of the door beside Seamus. We were suddenly surrounded.
Our only option would be to turn around to try for the tunnel where we entered.
“Can you get us home?” I asked.
He shook his head. “We need to make a run for it.”
“Oh, really? How do you propose we do that?” I asked under my breath while waving at the crowd like a beauty queen.
He huffed. Turning to look at him, I grinned. It was about time the tables turned.
“Say it,” I prompted.
Levi twisted his white fur skull and antlers towards me, shaking his head. I folded my arms across my chest with my wand in hand.
“They are coming,” he said.
“Then you better say it,” I urged. He knew what I wanted. I had begun to think that Levi had always known everything I wanted.
He stomped a hoof and shook his head. His antlers caught in the decorated Christmas tree beside him. He grunted, pulling free with a set of jingle bells attached to one of his points. As his head moved, the bell jingled loudly. Once I started laughing, I couldn’t stop. I held my sides as I giggled.
“Grace! They are coming!” he said, as the guards moved toward us. Frustration laced his words in my head.
“Say it,” I demanded with no force or magic.
He groaned mournfully. Behind us, a commotion drew the attention of the people mingling at the party. Our pursuers were hot on our tails, but I would have this one satisfaction. He owed me.
“Dublin!” I scolded.
He opened his deer snout and mumbled, “Ride me, Grace.”
Jerking myself quickly onto his back using the red ribbon, I leaned into his furry ear and said, “I think I will.”
“Stop!” one of the guards yelled.
“Giddy-up!” I yelled, pointing my wand at the guards. The floor beneath them turned to ice, and they slipped to the ground. The partygoers laughed and clapped. All part of the show.
Levi bounded toward the door where Seamus waited. He jumped over a small polar bear and knocked over a decorated Christmas tree. All the while the bells attached to his antlers jingled. I froze the ground beneath the guards between us and the door.
“Jump!” I yelled as Levi leaped over the scrambling guards. He landed on the other side. I leaned down holding on to his neck as he ran through the door that Seamus held for us. We were in the lobby of the Bellagio. “Well, this will be interesting.”
“Don’t worry. Vegas has cleaners,” Seamus said.
“Cleaners?” I asked.
“Yeah, some connection to law enforcement here,” he said.
“The kind that hunts fairies?” I asked.
“Yep,” Seamus said.
“Go, Levi,” I urged him forward. He dodged people who stood wide-eyed. Two more guards tried to stand in our way, but instead of freezing the floor here, I pulled the power of the wind stone forcing it toward them. They fell backward, kicking to try to regain their footing.
Levi shot past them with Seamus on our heels. Or hooves, whichever way you look at it.
“Open that door!” I screamed to the bellhop who stood there with his knees knocking. In fear, he opened the door as Levi and I ducked again to find ourselves next to the dancing fountain in front of the Bellagio. Snow drifted from the sky and a chill wind blew through my hair.
“Why is it snowing out here?” Levi groaned.
“The ice queen is in town,” I smirked.
“Go to the street,” Seamus instructed. We rushed forward to the road when a large black limo pulled up and the door opened.
“Get in!” Tennyson yelled.
“Hold on,” Levi said as he dashed toward the door.
“Levi!” I screamed. There was no way we were getting through that door as we had the ones in the hotel.
When we reached the door, I felt his power move, and he shifted as we breached the back of the limo. We tumbled to the center of the wide floor. I landed on my back with him hovering over me.
“Are you hurt?” he asked immediately.
I burst out laughing at the farce we had just created in the Bellagio Botanical Gardens. My laughter infected him, but not Tennyson.
Once we controlled our giggling, he leaned down over my lips taking them with his. A light moan escaped me before he let go.
“Get a room, mate,” Seamus said. Tennyson grunted approval as the limo moved down Las Vegas Boulevard.
Levi rolled off of me, taking a seat across from the knight and the pirate. He helped me off the floor, and I snuggled in next to him.
“So much for keeping our presence discreet. Did you have to make it snow? It never snows in Vegas,” Tennyson said.
“When have I ever been discreet?” I asked.
“Never,” Tennyson grumbled.
“Indiscreet. That’s a damn fine trait, Love,” Seamus said.
Ever the flirt. I liked him even if he was a paid middleman. There was something intriguing about him, and I looked forward to perhaps using him again in the future. I was willing to bet that I wouldn’t have to pay nearly as much for his services as Tennyson. Then again, I might.
“Why can’t I take us home?” Levi asked.
“Not sure, but while we fought Bogey’s minions, this guy showed up who wasn’t on either side.
He had a mage with him. She had some kick to her magic. They wanted answers, but we ran,” Tennyson said.
“So, the mage did it?” I asked.
“They are cops,” Seamus said. “Steer clear of them.”
“Okay. But why would a random mage cop want to keep us locked down?” I asked.
“They probably had the whole city locked down with all the buzz about your arrival,” Seamus explained. “I assure you that there is more than one mage with those cops. They have more than enough firepower to shut down skipping.”
“Lovely. They are just as bad as wizards,” I grumbled.
“The plane is ready to go. We are heading to the airport,” Tennyson said.
“We got nothing out of this,” I said.
“Your mother is alive,” Tennyson said. “That means something. Right?”
“I was never close with my mother. She wasn’t as in tune to my father as he was to her,” I said. “She had some part of a gypsy soul.”
“Like you,” Levi said.
“She and I are different. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m much more like my father than my mother,” I admitted.
“It means that some of your father’s harem and possibly others escaped Brockton’s wrath in the Otherworld,” Tennyson said.
“Why don’t they come to Shady Grove? We aren’t exactly a secret,” I said.
“No, but I’m sure there are those who are still unsure about you,” Tennyson said.
Of course, how could these exiles trust me when I hadn’t bothered to take back my father’s throne? To them, I was probably still a spoiled brat. In some ways, I still was, but I’d like to think that in the last year or so I’ve made progress to become more like a ruler.
When we arrived at the airport, we said our good-byes to Seamus, who admitted he might need to move on from Vegas. Tennyson and Stone hadn’t killed the frog, and he was more than likely not happy with Seamus either. However, he flat out refused to come to Shady Grove.
“I haven’t lived this long so that I could die in that place,” he said. “Now, if you’ll share your bedroom with me, then I might consider it.”
