Darkness & Light (War of the Fae: Book 3) (26 page)

I became distantly aware of a hand touching my waist, stroking up my back.
 
It blazed a trail of heat that seeped into my bones.
 
I moved languidly in response.
 
I couldn’t control that anymore than I could stop the moan from coming out of my mouth.

The next thing I felt was my body being jerked backwards and Spike’s mouth leaving mine.
 
The connection to that swirling red and blackness was severed in an instant.
 
I could feel the cold stone of the floor on my back and cool air brushing over the overheated skin of my face and arms.
 
My lips felt swollen and used.
 
I kept my eyes closed, not yet ready to come back completely to reality.
 

I could sense there was a struggle going on nearby, but I figured it was probably Scrum and Spike duking it out – something I didn’t need to worry about.
 
Clearly the feeding had turned into something more erotic than Scrum could stomach.
 
As good as it had started to feel, I was glad he had been there to break it up.
 
The last thing I wanted was to know that I’d gone all the way with an incubus in front of my friends.
 
And I might even have done it too – I had been that
far gone
.

“Is Jayne okay?” asked a worried-sounding Tim from across the room.

Of course no one could hear him, so I answered, “I’m fine.
 
Just relaxing.”

“Well, you might want to get out of the way.”

I cracked my eyes open to see what he was talking about and rolled over towards my bed just in time to avoid being stepped on.
 
Scrum had Spike in a total body lockdown again, but this time, Spike didn’t seem as pissed about it.
 
His face was flushed a healthy looking pink and he was smiling devilishly.
 
His eyes were bright red.
 
I looked away so I didn’t fall into them again – there was a danger in doing that, I knew it for sure now.
 
Unfortunately, it was one of those dangers that a girl couldn’t help ignoring since it felt so good and came in such a pretty package.
 
Now Spike didn’t just
look
like a bad boy – he
was
a bad boy, in the truest sense of the word.
 

I realized how tired I was when I tried to get up off the floor and into bed.
 
I didn’t have the energy for it, so I just
laid
back down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

Scrum came back inside the room a few seconds later.

“How’s Spike?” I asked, not moving my eyes from the ceiling.

“He’s fine.
 
I let him go.
 
He’s going out to the forest to work off some excess energy, I think.”

“Good for him.”

“Not so good for you though,” said Scrum, worry in his voice.
 
“Do you need help getting onto the bed?”

“Maybe.”
 
I wasn’t ready to admit how weak I felt.

Scrum bent down to help me up.
 
“I’ve seen this before.
 
Usually when they do it to a fae the fae passes out.
 
I think you’re lucky to still be conscious.
 
 
But it’s weird, because I think he might have overdosed a little.”

“Is that why his face was so pink?” asked Tim.

“Tim wants to know if that’s why his face was so pink,” I said wearily.

“Maybe.”

Come to think of it, Spike’s face was usually pretty pale when he was feeling normal.
 

Scrum helped me up so I could
lay
down on the bed.
 
“Better?” he asked.

“Yeah.
 
Thanks ... for your help today.
 
With Spike and stuff.”

Scrum smiled.
 
“No problem.
 
Just doing my job.
 
Being a daemon is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

It was hard not to smile back at his enthusiasm for fae life.
 
I think being drained of all my energy made it easier for me not to be annoyed by his eager puppy personality.

“Where are you from?”

“I’m from California.
 
East Bay.
 
A little town named Tracy.”

“Did you like it there?”

He shrugged.
 
“It was okay.
 
My mom died though, so I kinda stopped liking everything for a while.”

“Oh.
 
Well, that sucks.”
 
My mom was a pain in the ass, but at least she was still alive.

“Yeah.
 
But now my life is much better.”
 
He smiled at me, making me feel like a total
dirtbag
for being so mean to him before.
 
He was so easy to pick on,
though,
it totally wasn’t all my fault.

“Listen, I’m sorry if I gave you a hard time before.”

“You didn’t give me a hard time.
 
Really.
 
Don’t feel bad.”

Boy, this kid must have been treated like shit
before,
if he thought what I said was fine.
 
I vowed then to try harder to have patience with him.
 
Hopefully it wouldn’t be too difficult.

He turned to leave but somehow his foot caught the edge of my side table, causing him to trip and take my furniture down with him.
 
The lamp that was on top shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor, and the tampons that I had in the drawer spilled out everywhere.
 
Scrum looked up, surrounded by glass and feminine products, and said, “What happened?”

Tim started laughing his stupid, wingless pixie butt off and I just sighed.
 
The universe sure did delight in giving me nearly impossible tasks.
 
“Just clean it up, klutz.
 
I’m going to take a nap.
 
Tell whoever’s in charge for me, will ya?”
 
I fell asleep before I heard his answer, and I didn’t hear another noise for hours.
 
I dreamed from lunchtime to dinnertime about red demons and black smoky ghosts, reaching out to stroke me and pull me into their world.

The first one to sit down with me at the dinner table was Tony.
 
It was the first time we’d been alone since what seemed like forever.
 
Well, kind of alone, since Tim was now stomping around on the table being goofy.
 
I ignored him.

“You look happy.
 
Tell me what you’ve been doing,” I said.
 
The sense of relief I felt at realizing how content he was nearly overwhelmed me.
 
I hadn’t appreciated how much I was worrying about his integration here until I had just said this.

“I
am
happy.
 
I’m not sure I’ve thanked you enough for doing this for me – for convincing me to come here.
 
So, thanks.”
 

“You’re very welcome,” I responded, nudging him with my shoulder.
 
“It was entirely selfish though.
 
You’re my best friend and I needed you with me.”

“You can say that, but I know the truth.”

I ignored him.
 
I’m no saint, that was for sure; but if he wanted to think my motives were unselfish, I wasn’t going to argue.
 
“So, what did you learn this afternoon?”

Tony worked to swallow the huge bite of food he’d just taken.
 
If I weren’t so sure he was a
wrathe
, I’d wonder about the amount of food he was eating.
 
He ate like a daemon, minus the squiggly meat.

“More stuff in the Gray.
 
Plus Gregale invited me to a meeting of the gray elves.
 
We have a lot of common traits,
wrathes
and gray elves.
 
They let me participate in one of their war strategy meetings.”

“Really?
 
That sounds cool.
 
What did you guys talk about?”

“Stuff like numbers of Dark Fae, what they’re doing out in the human world, powers their fae have, our training.”

“Training.
 
That’s interesting.”

“How so?”

We were joined at the table by Becky and Scrum who listened in to what we were saying
.

“I know there’s a war coming and all, but it seems like our training has kinda been disorganized.
 
They don’t even realize when I don’t show up half the time.”

“You’re right,” agreed Tony, enthusiastically.
 
“I’ve only been here a day and I can already see that.
 
We talked about it today and I gave them some ideas.”

“You did?
 
To who?
 
The council?” asked Becky.

“No, the gray elves.”

She nodded her head in admiration.
 
“Good for you, Tony.
 
You’re smart.
 
They should listen to you.”

“Thanks,” he said, shyly, blushing a little.

“Our training’s not bad,” said Scrum, stabbing some wormy thing on his plate and shoving it into his mouth.

“No, the daemon training is in the best shape,” agreed Tony.
 
“That’s because Jared is directly involved.
 
He’s the one who’s in charge of organizing the training of all the fae changelings – but he’s also in charge of recruiting, so I suggested that he’s probably spread too thin.
 
They need someone else to take charge of the training programs.”

“Who’s it going to be?
 
Niles?”
 
The dwarf seemed to be the most logical choice, if only because he was the most belligerent of all the fae I knew at the compound.

“No, he manages the dwarves only.
 
He’s kinda ... short-tempered with other fae.”

“
Pfff
.
 
You can say that again.”
 
I liked him, though, even if he is a cranky little bastard.

“They’re going to talk to the council and come up with someone.
 
You guys will probably notice a difference in your daily routines after that happens.”

“You’ve really jumped right in, haven’t you, Tony?” asked Becky.
 

He shrugged.
 
“I guess so.”

“That’s awesome.
 
Really.
 
Jayne totally missed you when you were gone.
 
And she was very worried about you.”

“I missed her too.”
 
He looked up at me and I could see a shine in his eyes.
 
Damn
, I was so glad he was here.
 
All would be totally right with my world when Chase was back with us – the regular Chase, not the dancing Chase.
 

That thought led me to another one.
 
“Hey, when you go into the Gray, can you find anyone you want?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Even a Dark Fae?”

He hesitated.
 
“Uh, maybe.
 
I’m not sure.
 
Why would you want to, though?”

I leaned in closer to him so I could speak softer.
 
“So I could check on Chase’s progress with Goose.”

Tony nodded slowly in understanding.
 
“I could try.”

“Tomorrow?” I asked.

“Yes, tomorrow.
 
You can come out to the Infinity Meadow with me and we’ll try.”

“Where’s that?
 
Have I been there?”

“It’s the door with the infinity symbol on it.
 
The figure eight lying on its side?”

“Oh, yeah, I know that door – the symbol that looks like a racetrack.”
 
It was the one Gregale took me to when he brought me into the Gray to see Tony.
 
“After breakfast, we’ll meet there then.”

“I’m coming too,” said Scrum.

“Fine.”

“And me,” said Tim.

I rolled my eyes.
 
“Fine.
 
Anyone else?
 
Beckster
?
 
You want to join the party?”

She smiled.
 
“No, I have to work with Naida and the others.”

“Party at the lake?” I asked, sarcastically.
 
I’d been allowed to confirm my affinity to Water there at that lake and do a little training, but they’d never let me totally integrate into or explore their underwater world.
 
I may have an affinity to Water, but I was no water sprite or siren.

“Yeah.
 
Don’t be jealous.”