Darkness & Light (War of the Fae: Book 3) (14 page)

Chase went down like a ton of bricks, landing right on top of me.
 
I grunted loudly as the air was pushed out of my lungs.
 
He giggled relentlessly.

“That was a
great
idea, Jayne.”
 
He started snuggling my neck, sending chills up my spine.
 
“
Mmmm
, you smell good.
 
Let’s make love.”
 
He started pulling at my tunic, trying to figure out how to get it off me.
 
That’s when I decided it was time to slap some sense into his crazy ass.

SMACK!

He looked at me with a pained expression.
 
“
Ow
,
that hurt.”
 
He pouted for a second and then smiled like a maniac again.
 
“But it’s okay, because I
forgive
you!
 
Now help me get your tunic off.
 
We can make love under the moon, Jayne; it’ll be
magical!”

I pushed him away as hard as I could, growling out, “No ... one ... is making ... love ... to anyone ... under the ... fucking
moon
...
shitforbrains
... ”

I couldn’t even get him to budge.
 
He was two hundred and I don’t know how many pounds of frisky daemon that wouldn’t be dissuaded from his romantic agenda.
 
I hated to do it to him, but it was the only way I could get away.

I pulled Blackie out and touched his back with it.
 
I heard a sizzle just before his scream.

“
Ahhhhh
!!!
 
Ow
, man, that
hurt
.
 
Oooh
,
geez
, that’s a burner.
 
Wow.
 
Holy smokes, what’s wrong with my back?
 
I need to dance.
 
Get me out of these weeds so I can dance the pain away!”
 
He shoved me away so he could reach down and wrestle with the vines still cinched around his ankles.

I rolled away from him and walked quickly to the edge of the meadow, sending a message to The Green that he needed to be held captive there until further notice.
 
I had to find someone who could help him, but I didn’t want Dardennes or any of the council members to get wind of this.
 
They’d take Tim and banish him forever to a pixie colony somewhere and I’d never see him again.
 
Plus he was without wings right now, and it was partially my fault, so it wasn’t right to let him go when he was grounded like that.

Chase started singing some old country song that was probably now going to be stuck in my head for days.
 
He sang pretty well, all things considered.

I tuned him out and tapped into the nearest ley line, reaching out to Maggie the witch.
 
Once again, she was my only hope.
 
I was afraid that I’d used up all my favors though, so I had no idea how I was going to compensate her for this second healing of Chase.
 
I hated that I needed her help so soon after having just asked her to take care of Tim.
 
I needed to find some other witch friends, especially since I’d now seen firsthand how handy they were to have around.

I felt Maggie’s cranky energy out there, recognizing me.
 
I sent her images of where I was and my problem, and then I waited.
 
I got nothing back from her, but I wasn’t really sure how this worked, so I just sat down and waited, letting the link drop when all I had left from her was a dull hum.
 
Maybe she’d come and maybe she wouldn’t.
 
I would give her an hour and then work on figuring out a Plan B.
 

While I waited, I sent a message across The Green to Finn.
 
He was sleeping; I could tell by the low hum of his presence.
 
I nudged him pretty hard and sent him images of the door in the hallway with the flower on it, hoping he’d understand that I needed him.
 
He was the only one I knew how to contact this way.
 
I had no link to Becky at all.
 
With Spike I’d have to use sexy thoughts, and after being fondled by Chase, I wasn’t in the mood.
 
I liked Chase and found him pretty damn good looking and all, but not like this.
 
Maybe some other time we could make love under the moonlight or whatever, but not when he was crazy as a loon.
 
Crazy was not sexy
at all
.
 
This wasn’t Chase anyway.
 
Someday, if he ever wanted to do that with me, I know for sure he wouldn’t say it like that.
 
Right now he sounded like the guy in a really cheap romance novel.
 
Yuck.

About ten minutes later I heard the door open on the edge of the meadow and the sounds of footsteps and whispers.
 
Soon the faces of Finn and Becky appeared.

I breathed a sigh of relief.
 
“Thanks for coming, guys.
 
Sorry to bother you so late.”

Becky looked at me with concern on her face.
 
“What’s up?
 
Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.
 
But he’s not.”
 
I pointed at Chase, lying on the ground, struggling valiantly to get free while he giggled his head off.

“Is that
... ?
” Becky asked, incredulously.

I sighed.
 
“Yeah.
 
It’s Chase.”

“What in the
hell?”
asked Finn, taking a step towards
him.

“No!”
 
I grabbed Finn’s arm.
 
“Don’t.
 
Just leave him be,” I said disgusted.
 
“Don’t get too close.
 
He may try to make love to you under the light of the moon or something.”
 

“Oh, hey!
 
Finn!
 
What’s up, man
?!
” yelled Chase, interrupting us.
 
“Come on over here and help me out, would ya?
 
Wow, you look great.
 
Is that a new haircut?
 
Let’s dance.
 
I feel like dancing, don’t you?”

Finn turned and looked at me in horror.
 
“What in the
sam
hill happened to that poor guy?
 
Cuz that
ain’t
Chase.
 
That’s some kinda imposter, or Dark Fae voodoo goin’ on there.”

“No,” I said sadly.
 
“That’s Chase.
 
He got accidentally pixied.”

Becky’s hand flew to her mouth and her eyes grew wide.
 
“Oh, no!”
she whispered.

“Yeah.
 
Tim did it.
 
He was
kinda
still out of it from his wing removal and Chase surprised him, so he just ... I don’t know ...
blammo
, pixied him.
 
Chase has been doing this dancing and laughing shit ever since.
 
I had to tie him up so he’d sit still and let go of me.
 
You don’t want to get too close to him right now, trust me.”

“What was he trying to do to you?” asked Becky, tentatively, still in disbelief.

“First he just wanted me to join him in his fucked up dance routine which made me almost barf.
 
Then he got a little frisky.
 
Think Spike, but with big muscles and psychotic circus clown charisma.”

Becky drew back her lips in a grimace.
 
“Oh.
 
Bummer.”

“Yeah.
 
He didn’t get anywhere with it, but still.
 
It’s Chase.
 
It just felt so
wrong
, especially because he’s acting so ... different.”

“Weird.”

I nodded.
 
She totally got it.

“So what the hell are we gonna do with him?
 
Just wait it out all night, or what?”

I shook my head sadly.
 
“There is no waiting it out, from what I hear.
 
He’s pixied for life unless Maggie can come up with something to help him.
 
Otherwise, he’ll keep doing this shit until he dies from exhaustion.”

Becky got tears in her eyes.
 
“Oh, my heaven.
 
Oh, my
Water
.
 
He’s going to die from being pixied to death?
 
What a horrible way to go.”

“Come on now, Becky, we’ll figure somethin’ out.
 
Don’t go
cryin
’.
 
We
ain’t
gonna let ole Chase just go ‘n die on us.
 
He’s a strong guy and Jayne’s got her connection to The Green.”
 
Finn looked over at me.
 
“Can’t you just heal him, like you did for me and Becky during the test?”

It’s true.
 
I had been able to heal both of them from some pretty bad wounds they’d received from some cranky fae who were there in the forest to help us fail the test.

“I actually hadn’t thought of that.
 
I guess I can try.
 
It might be better if we were all near an Ancient – one of the bigger trees.”

“I’ll go see what I can find.
 
You girls stay here with ole lover boy.”
 
Finn jerked a thumb in Chase’s direction.

Becky came over and sat down with me, rubbing my back with her little hand.
 
I’m not a large person myself, but she is positively tiny.
 
She made me feel like a moose when she was near me.
 
Right now I didn’t care so much, though.

“Don’t worry.
 
We’ll get this taken care of, one way or another.”

“I called the witch.
 
Maggie.
 
I’m not sure if she’s coming or not.”

Becky shivered involuntarily.
 
“I’m not her biggest fan, I have to tell you.
 
She was just a
liiiittle
too happy to take Tim’s wings off.
 
It was creepy.”

“I know.
 
But if anyone has a remedy, it’s her.”

“I hate to think what’s actually
in
that remedy though.”

“Yeah.
 
Me too.
 
Probably newt balls or something.”

Becky giggled.
 
“You just said balls.
 
Do newts even have balls?”

“Of course they do.
 
I mean, I’ve never actually
seen
a newt’s
nads
, but they must have ‘em.
 
How else would they make babies?”
 
I smiled back at her.
 
This was one of the more stupid conversations I’d ever had in my life, but at least it was getting my mind off my poor friend who was now singing something that sounded like
Moon River
, a song my dad used to sing, only it was the same line over and over and very out of tune.
 
It was weird that Chase knew this old song.

Finn came back from the trees, jogging over to us and talking at the same time.
 
“I found one.
 
It’s not far.”
 
He looked over at Chase.
 
“Question is, how’re we gonna move him from here to there?”

“Leave that to me,” I said, linking up once again to my source of power.
 
I imagined Chase being dragged behind us by the vines, and they began to do my bidding.

“Show us the way,” I said.
 
“Just don’t step on the vines that are holding Chase.”

Finn offered us his hands so he could help us get to our feet.
 
We stood and followed him into the woods, Chase dragging behind us.
 
He’d probably suffer a few abrasions, but that was better than getting into another wrestling match with him.
 
And he was too damn heavy to carry.

Chase laughed and sang intermittently while he struggled against his bonds.
 

As soon as I saw the tree that Finn picked, I knew it was the right one.
 
It was
huge
huge.
 
Almost as big as a sequoia.
 
This forest was so strange.
 
It had all kinds of trees in it, and not just the ones you would expect for the area.
 
I knew
we
were in Europe ...
France
probably, by my estimations of the time it took to get here from Florida, the climate, and the info I’d seen in the compound’s computers.
 
Some of the trees shouldn’t be here, but they were.
 
I shrugged it off as a fae thing.
 
Pretty much anything I couldn’t explain these days was chalked up to being a fae thing.