Dragon Fae (The World of Fae) (3 page)

She heard three male voices drawing close to the door at the top of the wooden stairs, and she quickly lay back down on the bedding, pretending to still be knocked out with whatever drug they’d given her. She tried to recline in the same position she had been in when she woke, facing the wall where her hands were manacled to the steel pipe. She wasn’t sure what her next plan of attack could be. The last one sure hadn’t worked.

She wondered if that was because they’d done this before. Several times before. And that’s why they were so prepared, knowing that if they didn’t clamp her in iron, she could fae transport away. Then she could bring others of her kind back to eliminate them.

They were like vampire hunters hunting vampires. Instead of being afraid of letting the fae know they could see them and worry that the fae might terminate
them
, they had taken the initiative first. Not in a million years when she thought she was only a fae seer, would she have considered eliminating any fae who might have recognized she was a fae seer. She’d been careful not to let them know she saw them as if it had been a deadly game, but that was all.

If she told these boys she’d been raised as a human, maybe they would let her go. She nixed that idea quickly enough. She couldn’t risk believing they would. For now, she would pretend to be a docile fae, sound asleep.

The door lock clicked. She tensed. The door squeaked open on rusty hinges. She barely breathed. A single bulb light flicked on overhead and made an annoying electric buzz. The door shut with a clunk. Her heart nearly pounded out of her chest. Heavy footsteps tromped slowly down the stairs, cautiously, as quietly as they could, one person, two…three, the stairs creaking with their weight. Now she was alone with the three fae seers. The wolves, she thought.

They shuffled across the floor in rubber-soled sneakers, squishy as they moved. When they reached her, they each stopped. For a long time, they stood near the edge of the sleeping bag at her back, watching her, trying to determine if she was awake. She tried very hard to keep her breathing even and not make any move that would make them suspicious.

“What now?” the one boy whispered.

“We could drown her like the others, but she was looking for someone in particular in English class. I’d like to know who.”

Ohmigod, they had drowned other fae?

“Yeah, like
me
maybe. She came to the same class I was in. Tore the phone out of my hands as I was texting you guys. That’s who she was after.
Me
.”

“No, Bryan. I think she must have been after someone else in the classroom. You said she was looking at Cassie, then glanced around as if she was trying to find a seat and saw you. I think she was after Cassie.”

“Yeah, right, Brett. Cassie’s not of the fae,” Bryan said. “We all know that.”

“No,” Brett said. “We don’t think she is. But some guy’s been hanging around who is.”

Micala.
Alicia barely breathed. If he showed up again to see Cassie, they’d grab him, too.

“And now this one shows up?” Brett asked.

“Okay, look, I talked to Cassie about it,” Bryan said. “Not, you know, flat out. But just hinted at faeries. She laughed. If she was one of us, she would have said so. She’s not. She doesn’t see the guy unless he’s visible to humans. I’ve seen the way her expression changes when she actually sees him.”

“So you think it’s just that this fae has got the hots for Cassie and
what
? Another shows up to see her?” Brett asked. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”

“I recognize this girl from last year,” the other guy said. “She wasn’t a fae then. I would have known.”

“Or she hid her fae aura,” Bryan warned.

“They can’t do that. If they could, they would. And then we’d never see them. They wouldn’t have to worry about eliminating us. Doesn’t that make you wonder a little bit?” Brett said, sounding a little nervous.

“Wonder about what?” Bryan asked.

“Why…she was not a fae, and then…now she is?”

That made Alicia wonder about them, too. What if they were like her? Raised by humans and were really the fae, but just had not come of age? If she told them that, maybe they wouldn’t drown her like they had done the others. The notion they might attempt to drown her made a shiver go up her spine.

Everyone stopped speaking. Great. Had she given herself away?

***

Ena followed the trail of the fae dust—Alicia’s—to the room where Cassie had fifth period English Lit. She’d checked everywhere that Alicia had gone, and it all led back to this one class.

Had someone in Cassie’s class grabbed Alicia?

It was the day after Alicia had vanished, but Ena had to speak to Cassie to see if she could discover Alicia’s whereabouts. As soon as she saw the girl fitting the description King Tibero’s people had given her, dark brown hair and eyes, same petite build as Alicia, and that she was in this class at this period of time—Ena walked up to her and said, “Hi, are you Cassie?”

Cassie considered Ena’s black velvet tunic, same-colored slim-fitting pants, and thigh-high boots that made her look perfectly Goth, then cast her a warm smile, and said in a cheerful voice, “That’s me.”

“Good. Can I talk to you for a moment?” Ena asked, thrilled that she had the right girl. It was easy to get humans mixed up. So many of them looked very similar to each other. But she was trying hard not to look impatient or worried.

“Sure. What did you want to talk about?”

Ena smiled, genuinely impressed with the girl. She’d never met a human…or fae…who had been that friendly when first meeting her. No wonder Alicia liked her.

“I’m trying to track down Alicia, your friend? She had to move away last year?” As if Ena had to explain who she was. Then again, Cassie might have more than one friend named Alicia.

Cassie’s expression clouded over. “She was supposed to meet me for lunch yesterday. Two of my friends said she talked to them, and she said she would join us at the Chicken Wings Party Stop. I was so excited, but she wasn’t there. They said she was wearing a costume. You know like something old time? Like she was in drama class and decided to wear it for the rest of the day. Only it was
really
glamorous, they said. Not anything like the worn out old stuff they wear in class. Do you…know her?”

“
Yeah
,” Ena said, elongating the word. “I’m a cousin of hers. Distant.” She was. They were both dragon fae. Cousins.
Very
distant.

“So what’s happened?” Cassie sounded alarmed. “Is she missing?”

Ena didn’t need to get the police involved in this. “No, I think I got my dates mixed up and thought I was supposed to be meeting her here today. Can I sit in with you during your class?” She hoped the question didn’t sound too bizarre. She wanted to check out the other students.

She’d found Alicia’s fae trail that had come inside the room, crossed the floor to a desk on the far side, returned, and left the room. Then she went to the students’ parking lot. Lots of kids had sat in the chairs, so it wouldn’t have meant anything that Ena hadn’t found a lot of fae dust on any of the seats. But she didn’t see a
speck
on any of them, and that seemed odd. Like Alicia came to class, walked across the room and left sprinkles of sparkling dust on several desk tops as she moved straight through them, but never took a seat. Why?

“Uh, sure, I guess. Did you check in as a visitor?” Cassie asked.

Ena pulled a visitor pass from her pocket that she’d grabbed at the office.

They entered the room then, told the teacher she was a friend of Cassie’s and wanted to sit in on her class if it was all right. The teacher told her to take any empty seat she would like. Cassie had wanted her to sit closer to the front nearer her. But Ena had to watch the kids in class, observe them, see if she could learn anything from them.

Ena took an empty chair in the very back where she could look over all the kids in class. She assumed if one of them had grabbed Alicia, it would have been a guy, and he would have been fairly powerful in build. She also listened to the teacher calling names from the roster to see if anyone was absent. Like someone might be serving guard duty over a fae prisoner. Only two girls were absent.

More than anything, Ena focused her attention on the seat that Alicia had walked over to and hadn’t sat down in. The big guy sitting there was really nervous about Ena being in class. He looked like he was the kind of build that the fae liked to hire as bodyguards or castle guards. Size-wise, he fit what she was looking for.

Everyone else was curious about her being there, a few odd stares because of her unusual Goth outfit, but the one guy—he was different. He kept trying to study her when she wasn’t looking. Bryan Jessup, the teacher said his name was. Ena had been watching him as the teacher called out all the names. He hadn’t said anything, as if he didn’t want Ena to know who he was. But she’d been watching him. Saw him raise a finger in the air in a silent way to alert the teacher he was here without making it obvious to Ena, had she not been watching him.

He garnered all of her attention now. He kept fidgeting, glancing at his watch, touching a phone in his pocket. At least that’s what she believed it was. The teacher was focused on the students, asking questions, and Ena thought the boy wanted to text someone, but was afraid of getting caught. The teacher would probably take his phone away if she saw him using it.

As soon as the class ended, Bryan jumped from his seat, yanked out his phone and began texting as he tried to move out of class.

Ena was quicker. She blocked his path, and he nearly ran into her because he was so intent on texting. She smiled up at him. “I know you from last year. Don’t I?” She thought she sounded so sweet, pixie-like, to match her pixie-like—Gothic look. Sweet and innocent.

He quickly shook his head, his face a little pale, is blue eyes wide. He wasn’t buying that she was sweet and innocent at all. Which was fine with her. He would make a mistake with her anyway. He was already running scared, no one to back him up at the moment. And if he was calling someone, there was more than one fae seer involved. How many? That’s what she had to know.

“Sure I do,” she continued. It wasn’t like she could do anything with him at the moment, but rattle him. That would force him to make a grave mistake. “Oh my hair was blond last year, longer, and I was a little shorter. And I had a way better tan.”

“Excuse me,” he said, trying to get around her.

She moved aside and Cassie joined her. “Did you want to have lunch with me?”

“I’d love to. Some other time though.”

Cassie looked crestfallen.

“Really. I…I’ve got to see if I can locate Alicia.” Goddess, Ena felt terrible, but she had to keep Bryan under surveillance, and she couldn’t get sidetracked.

“She is missing, isn’t she?” Cassie said, her brows knit together in a tight frown.

“I have to go. As soon as I find her, I’ll let you her know you want to see her. Okay?” Ena tried hard not to sound as though she was panicking. She never panicked. Well, maybe rarely. But this wasn’t the time to panic.

“Sure.” But Cassie still sounded worried about her friend.

“Okay, uhm, I’ll try to see if I can come with her the next time. Gotta run.” Ena gave her what she hoped looked like a bright smile and hurried after Bryan, wanting to see if he got together with someone else.

If he really was a fae seer, she needed another fae to appear before him so she could judge his reaction. She was not about to show off her own fae aura, not when she was trying to appear human to any fae seer in the school.

That’s when she saw Bryan rush to meet up with another guy. They had just gotten together when she saw Prince Deveron and his cousins Micala and Niall, and the prince’s bodyguard, Herlinkis, stalking in the direction she was standing, though they were talking to each other, and they hadn’t seen her yet. They were all in fae form. Not that it mattered. If they were in human form, they’d still show off their fae aura to a fae seer.

When Micala saw her, he immediately told Prince Deveron. From where he was, he quickly dipped his head in greeting, then made his way across the common area to reach her. She shook her head at him, and looked at Bryan and his friend, who were busy conversing. Motioning with her head, she indicated that Deveron and his companions should approach the two boys.

She was certain Bryan thought she was trouble. But he couldn’t figure her out because she didn’t look like she was one of the fae. Or at least didn’t have the shimmer to indicate it.

She wanted Deveron to show himself to the fae seers, if that was what they were. They’d react. They couldn’t help it, especially when they saw so many of them coming at them at once when no one should be able to see the invisible fae. They’d know why the fae had targeted them, too. These guys most likely had Alicia locked away somewhere, if she wasn’t already dead. And the fae approaching them had to be friends of hers.

Imperious as the crown prince of the Denkar was, Ena knew he’d make a good showing. The four dark fae stalked toward the two guys. The humans suddenly realized someone was approaching them. Both turned and saw the four fae coming toward them. The humans turned white as sheets, eyes rounded, mouths agape.
Yeah.
They were fae seers, just as if they had witnessed the appearance of ghosts that no one else could see.