Call to Arms (War of the Fae: Book 2) (21 page)

“Come on, come on, come on,” I chanted, eyes shut.
 
“Sexy Spike, sexy Spike, Spike is sexy, sexy, sexy.”

“Hmmmm, I like the sound of that,” said Spike, suddenly standing right next to me, the sound of his voice caressing my neck, along with his breath.

I shoved him hard.
 
“Not now, Spike.
 
Help me with Chase.”

Spike pouted.
 
“Hey!
 
What happened to ‘Sexy Spike’?
 
I’m right here, Jayne.
 
You called
,
I came
.
 
Let’s play.”

“I’m not kidding, Spike, Chase is hurt!”

“Oh.
 
Shit.
 
Sorry, I didn’t notice.”

“Look, he has a fucking arrow in his back.”

“Wow, that sucks.”
 
Spike blinked a couple times, giving himself a mental shake, and then got serious.
 
“Come on, let’s get him inside.”
 
He looked around,
 
“Whoever did this could still be out here.”

“Yeah, thanks.
 
He’s a little big for just me.”

Spike grunted while he manhandled Chase’s giant body into the doorway.
 
“So ... you didn’t call ... to play ... eh?”

“No, sorry, not this time.”

Spike got Chase in the door and shut it behind us.
 
“That’s alright.
 
We have plenty of time.
 
Did you know that incubi live an average of two thousand years?”

“Tell me all about it later.
 
Let’s get Chase to the doctor.”

Together we were able to get him partway down the hall until we ran into a couple of elves.
 
With the four of us working together, we got Chase to the healer fae who pronounced him a victim of a spelled arrow.
 
None of his organs were damaged, but they had to find a witch who could figure out how to reverse the spell.
 
Until then, he was going to be in la-la land.

Spike and I walked slowly back to my room, talking the whole way.
 

“So, you were saying incubi live a long time
... ?
” I prompted him, trying to get my mind off Chase and the fear that someone was trying to assassinate me.

“Yeah.
 
Like two thousand years long.”

“No shit?
 
Wow.
 
I wonder how long an elemental lives.”

“More.
 
Unless they go crazy like the last one did.”

“Crazy?
 
Oh yeah, Céline mentioned something about that.
 
I wonder if that’s ... common.”

“I heard it is.
 
With elementals anyway.”
 
I glanced over and caught him looking sheepish.

“What did you hear, exactly?”

“Oh nothing.
 
Just incubus gossip.
 
Valentine’s a big gossip
,
did I tell you that
?
 
Yeah, he’s always talking shit about someone.
 
Today he was talking about the daemons.
 
Did you know that ...
”

“Cut the crap, Spike.
 
Fess up.”

“No, seriously.
 
Did you know Jared is five hundred years old?
 
And he dated a hag for like the last two hundred.
 
I think she’s dead now though.”

“Yeah, I killed her.
 
Back to the other story, please.”

“
You
killed her?
 
Oh man, wait ‘til I tell Valentine.
 
He’s gonna die.”

“Seriously, Spike, you scare me sometimes.
 
And not in the scary way; in the ‘you’re so gay’ way.”

“Most incubi are not gay.
 
So far as I know, it’s only Valentine.
 
Although, I have to say, being an incubus does open your eyes to the sexiness that’s present in both males and females – and all races for that matter.”

We’d finally arrived at my room.

“Whatever, Spike.
 
Too much information for me right now
;
I’m worried about Chase.
 
But don’t think you’ve gotten out of this conversation.
 
We
are
going to discuss the subject you’ve been avoiding ...
soon
.”

“Sure, Jayne, whatever you say,” he said, winking at me.
 
I could tell he was twisting my words into some sort of
x-rated
invitation, but I couldn’t think about that right now.
 
Chase had me very worried and the doctors didn’t seem all that confident about how they were going to fix him.

I shooed Spike away from my room and went inside, shutting the door behind me.
 
He sure was persistent these days.
 
I was
kinda
surprised that I wasn’t taking him up on his obvious offers, but I was just too stressed out with everything that was going on.
 
Maybe I’d be able to focus on indulging in some heavy duty making out with the sexiest incubus alive after Chase was taken care of.
 
Hopefully.

I went to my dresser and reached in the back, pulling Blackie out.
 
I felt something under it this time that I hadn’t noticed before.
 
I grabbed it and took it out too.
 
It was a leather sheath with a belt attached to it.
 
It was too big for my arm, but it fit perfectly around my waist and over my jeans to hang by my thigh.
 
I put it on and slid my black stick inside the holder.
 
I looked at myself in the mirror above the dresser, angling it down so I could see my lower half.
 
Holy badass bitch!
 
I looked friggin’
awesome
with a weapon attached to my delicious body!
 
I practiced jumping into a few attack stances, drawing my stick out from its sheath and brandishing it at my imagined enemies.
 
Obviously I was going to need some work in this area.
 
I wondered if they had taught Chase any combat moves yet.
 
Maybe he could teach me some when he got better.

I got tired of messing around in my room and had some time to kill before dinner, so I went to the computer room again.
 
I logged on and saw another message from Tony.
 

 
‘Jayne
,
 
Hi
.
 
I don’t have a lot of time to write.
 
I’m in the school computer lab.
 
Ben will be back in a second.
 
Every time I try to write you he’s got another crazy idea of something to go do.
 
Anyway, having fun with Ben, chilling out.
 
Gonna
hang out with him after school.
 
He’s awesome at video games. I’m quitting computer and chess clubs.
 
I’m tired of hanging out with those losers.
 
Anyway, Ben’s back.
 
Gotta
go.
 
Tony.’

 
I sat there in the computer room feeling even worse than I already did.
 
Losers?
 
Tony never says ‘losers’.
 
And those guys were his friends.
 
This was not good.
 
Not good at all.
 

My daemon bodyguard friend was bewitched because he got in the way of someone trying to kill me, and my best friend Tony was falling prey to some bossy, I’m pretty sure,
asshole
who was influencing him to change his look, attitude, and group of friends.
 
My paranoia was getting the better of me as I read into Tony’s message that Ben was trying to distract him from writing to me.
 
But that was just plain stupid.
 
I was intelligent enough to recognize jealousy in myself when I saw it.
 
I sighed.
 
Time to grow up and be a good friend.

I clicked open a new message.

‘Dearest Tony.
 
Did I mention how much I miss you?
 
I’m bummed you quit computer and chess club.
 
You liked those guys, even if they were a little dorky.
 
Have fun with your new friend but don’t forget your old one.
 
Me!
 
See you soon.
 
Love, your best friend of all time, Jayne.’

There.
 
That should do the trick.
 
A little subliminal best friend manipulation.
 
Time to go talk to Dardennes about someone’s apparent plot to knock me on my ass.
 
I left the computer room and found his office easily enough.
 
I knocked, but no one answered.
 
I pushed on the door experimentally and it swung open.
 
I peeked around the open door.

“Hello?
 
Is anyone here?”

No one answered and the place looked empty.

I walked over to the desk, my eyes roaming around the room.
 
This place looked like a museum.
 
Every shelf had not only books on it but gadgets and knickknacks, many I couldn’t identify.
 
I reached the desk and stood in front of it, looking at the surface.
 
Sitting among the items was something I hadn’t seen during previous visits to Dardennes’ office.
 
It was an upside down glass jar.
 
And something was inside it.
 
Moving.

I bent over, looking closer.
 
“What the hell?” I whispered in shock.

There was a little tiny person in there.
 
A tiny little person with teensy weensy friggin’ wings.
 

“Holy shit!
 
Wings!
 
You have wings!”

I could see the tiny person’s mouth moving but I couldn’t hear what it was saying.

“I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

The tiny person rolled its itty-bitty eyes at me, making lifting motions with its hands.

I think it wanted me to lift the jar up.
 
I put my hand on top of the glass, wondering what would happen if I did.
 
Would the little winged creature just stay there?
 
Or would it fly away?
 
And more importantly, would I get in trouble?

“Hey!
 
What are you doing in here
?!
” yelled a voice from the doorway.
 
I immediately jerked my hand back and stood up, spinning to face the voice.
 

I immediately recognized the fae in the gray tunic, the one whose voice I had overheard outside the bathroom discussing my elimination!
 
“I could ask you the same thing,” I said, my voice full of false bravado.
 
I had to try to keep him off balance until I could summon Spike or scream for someone else.
 
Maybe this guy was the one who had arrowed Chase too.

“No you cannot.
 
I have permission to be here.
 
You do not!
 
I am going to report you right now.”

“Go ahead.
 
Why don’t you report yourself while you’re at it.”

“That is ridiculous.
 
I am not going to report myself.”

“Well you should.
 
You wouldn’t want the other fae to think you’re a hypocrite, would you?”

“Hypocrite?
 
What?
 
That makes no sense whatsoever.
 
Just stay right there.
 
Others will be here momentarily.”

“Aren’t you going to report me?”

“I already did.”

“On your cell?”

“What is a cell?”

“A phone, duh.”

“Elves do not need phones,” he said haughtily.

I gave him my ‘well, aren’t you fucking special’ look.
 
He shot me a dirty look in response.
 
We stood there staring at each other in a tense standoff.
 

Soon the door opened wider and Ivar stepped inside, followed by two other gray-tunic-wearing elves.
 

“She’s here.
 
The intruder.”

“Ivar, I’m not an intruder.
 
I was looking for Dardennes.”

“She was going to release the pixie,” said the elf.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“The pixie on the desk.
 
Under the bell jar.
 
You were going to release him, I saw you.”

“Ooooh, the pixie.
 
I wasn’t going to release him.
 
I just wanted to hear what he was saying.”