Fever 4 - DreamFever (27 page)

  After all I'd been through, after all I'd seen, I still couldn't come home.

  There was a whole world out there in trouble. My mom and dad were safe. I felt a
sudden rush of gratitude toward V'lane and turned to him. "Thank you," I said. "It
means the world to me that you protected them."

   He smiled, and I think it was the first real smile I'd ever seen on his face. It was
blinding. "You are welcome, MacKayla. Shall we go?" He held out a hand.

  I would have taken it, should have taken it, but just then I heard voices.

  Cocking my head, I listened. My heart constricted. It was Mom and Dad. They were
on the screened lanai that overlooked the pool in back of our house. Dense bushes at
each side afforded privacy from our neighbors.

   I could go press myself into the holly branches and, shielded from their gaze, catch a
glimpse of them. I was starved for a glimpse of them.

  I slipped off my MacHalo, dropped my backpack and gun. "In a moment," I
whispered. "You stay here. I'll be back."

  "I deem this unwise."

  "Not your decision. Back off."

  I slipped into the shadows near my home.

"We've been over this again and again, Rainey," my dad was saying.

  I wedged quietly into the bushes and stared hungrily.

  Mom and Dad were sitting on white wicker chairs on the lanai. Mom was sipping
wine, and Dad was holding a glass of bourbon. I hoped he wasn't drinking too much.
There'd been a bad time after Alina had died when he'd slurred too often for my
comfort. Dad's not a drinker, he's a doer. But Alina's murder had fried us all. I
absorbed my mom's face greedily. Her eyes were clear, her face gently lined and
beautiful as ever. My heart swelled with emotion. I ached to touch her, hug them both.
Daddy looked robust and handsome as ever, but there was more silver in his hair than I
remembered.

   "I know it's dangerous out there," my mom said. "But I can't stand this not knowing!
If I just knew for certain she was alive."

  "Barrons said she was. You were here when he called."

  Barrons had called my parents? When? How was his phone working? Damn, I
wanted his service provider!

  "I don't trust that man one bit."

  Neither do I, Mom. And I slept with him. My face heated. Sex and Mom are two
thoughts that don't fit comfortably in my head at the same time.

  "We have to go to Dublin, Jack."

  I silently willed a thousand "no"s in my mom's direction.

  Dad sighed. "I tried to go back. Remember?"

  I blinked. He had? When? What had happened?

   Mom pounced on it. "My point exactly, Jack. You believe that man hypnotized you,
planted blocks in your mind that prevented you from bringing her home, forced you to
leave, and is somehow keeping you from going back--you couldn't even get on the
plane, you got so sick--but the moment you left the airport you were fine. Three times
you tried to go! Yet you accept his word that our daughter is okay?"

  You could have knocked me over with a feather. My dad knew Barrons had done
something woo-woo to him and actually believed it possible? Daddy didn't believe in
woo-woo things. It was he who'd taught me an abject rejection of all things paranormal.
And he and my mother were calmly sipping their drinks, discussing this stuff?

  "We can't go over there now. You heard what the scouts told Officer Deaton. Fae
reality has gotten mixed up with ours. The few airplanes that have taken off have either
come crashing down in flames or disappeared."

  "What about a private charter?"

  "What good will it do if we die trying to get to her?"

   "We have to do something, Jack! I need to know she's alive. No, I need more than
that. We have to tell her. You should have told her then, when you were there, when
you had the chance."

  Told me what? I pressed deeper into the shrubs, all ears.

  Dad rubbed his eyes. I could tell by the look on his face that he and Mom had been
having this conversation a lot lately. "We promised we'd never talk about it."

  I nearly beat the bushes with frustration. Talk about what?

   "We made other promises we broke," Mom said pointedly. "That's what got us into
this situation to begin with."

  "What would you have had me tell her, Rainey?"

  "The truth."

  Come on, Daddy, spill it.

  "What is the truth? One person's truth is another person's--"

  "Don't play attorney with me, Jack. I'm not the jury and this isn't your opening
argument," Mom said dryly.

   He opened his mouth and closed it, looking sheepish. After a moment he said, "Mac
was having enough problems dealing with Alina's death. There was no way I was going
to tell her about some crazy Irish woman and an even crazier prophecy. Our baby'd
been battling depression for months. She had enough on her plate."

  Prophecy? Mom and Dad knew about the prophecy? Did everyone know about the
blasted thing but me?

  "What you heard all those years ago when you went digging for Alina's medical
records doesn't seem so crazy now, does it?" Mom said.

  Dad took a sip of bourbon. He exhaled and seemed to deflate. "Christ, Rainey, fifteen
years passed. Perfectly normal."

  "She ranted about fairies. Who wouldn't have thought she was crazy?"

   I'm not sure Dad even heard her. He tossed back the rest of the glass in one swallow.
"I let Alina do the one thing I promised the adoption people I'd never let either of them
do," he said roughly.

  "We let her do it," Mom said sharply. "Stop blaming yourself. I let her go to Ireland,
too."

  "You didn't want to. I pushed."

  "We both made the decision. We've always made the big decisions together."

  "Well, this was one decision you weren't there to help me make. When I was in
Dublin with Mac, you still weren't talking to me. I couldn't even get you on the phone."

   "I'm sorry," Mom said after a long pause. "The grief ..." She trailed off, and my
stomach knotted. She was getting that look in her eyes again. That one that had bruised
my heart every day until I'd run away to Dublin.

   Daddy looked at her hard, and right before my eyes, he changed. I watched him
inflate again, shake off his own emotions, and puff himself up for her. Become her man.
Her rock. I smiled. I loved him so much. He'd dragged Mom kicking and screaming
from grief once before, and I knew I could rest easy that he would never let grief steal
her from him again. No matter what happened to me.

  He stood up and stalked over to her. "What would you have had me say, Rainey?"
Dad said loudly, jarring her, keeping her from slipping inward. "`Baby, I'm sorry to tell
you this, but according to some ancient prophecy, there's something wrong with you
and you're going to doom the whole world'?" He snorted, then laughed. "Laugh with
me, Rainey. Come on!" He pulled her to her feet. "Not our girl. Not a chance. You
know it's bogus."

  I gagged. Hand to my mouth, I staggered backward and nearly fell. There was
something wrong with me? I was going to doom the whole world?

  "Their mother gave them up because she believed it," Mom fretted.

   "That's what the crazy lady alleged," Dad said firmly. "She didn't have a single
shred of evidence. I interrogated her thoroughly. She'd never seen this supposed
`prophecy' and couldn't point me in the direction of anyone who had. For Christ's sake,
Rainey, it's a country that believes in leprechauns, rainbows, and pots of gold! Can I
rest my case?"

  "But there are fairies, Jack," Mom persisted. "The crazy woman was right about that.
They're here, now, in our world, destroying it."

  "Circumstantial. One accurate prediction doesn't make an entire prophecy."

  "She said one of our girls would die young and the other would wish she was dead!"

   "Alina almost died when she was eight, remember? But she didn't. That's young. Just
because she died in her twenties doesn't mean anything else the woman said is true, and
it certainly doesn't mean anything's wrong with Mac. I think the Fae are far more likely
to doom our world than any human is. Besides, I don't believe in fate, and neither do
you. I believe in free will. All the advice I gave her, all the love and wisdom you
showered on her, that's what she has now, and I believe it's enough. I know our
daughter. She's as good as they come."

   He reached for her hands and pulled her into his arms. "Babe, she's alive. I know she
is. I can feel it in my heart. I knew when Alina was dead. And I know Mac's not."

  "You're just saying that to make me feel better."

  He gave her a faint smile. "Is it working?"

  My mom punched him lightly. "Oh! You!"

   "I love you, Rainey. I almost lost you when we lost Alina." He kissed her. "I won't
lose you now. Maybe there's some way to get into contact with Barrons again."

  "If only I knew for certain," Mom said.

  He kissed her again, then she was kissing him back, and I was feeling strangely
embarrassed, because my parents were pretty much making out.

  Still, watching them was comforting. They had each other, and there was a love
between them that would withstand anything. Alina and I had always intuited, with no
small wry pique, that, although our parents adored us and would do anything for us,
they loved each other more. As far as I was concerned, that was the way it should be.
Kids grow up, move on, and find a love of their own. The empty nest shouldn't leave
parents grieving. It should leave them ready and excited to get on with living their own
adventure, which would, of course, include many visits to children and grandchildren.

  I took one last long look and went to join V'lane.

  He moved into step beside me in silence and offered his hand, but I shook my head.

  I picked up my stuff, went to the mailbox, and pulled the LM's photo album out of
my backpack. I looked through it for a few moments until I found the perfect picture of
Alina, standing in front of the arched entry at Trinity College. She was smiling,
openmouthed on a laugh. I smiled back.

  I turned it over and scrawled on the back:

  She was happy.

  I love you, Mom and Dad.

  I'll be home as soon as I can.

  Mac.
 

Y    ou may find you have need of me, MacKayla," said V'lane, as we materialized in
the street outside BB&B.

   I'd been thinking that very thing. There was no disputing that V'lane was the fastest
elevator in the building. Dani was great on the ground but not across oceans. Sifting was
an invaluable tool. Even if V'lane appeared only half the times I called him, it would be
better than nothing. I would never count on him again, but I would use him if I could.

  "I cannot always be checking to see if you do. When my queen does not have me
occupied with her tasks, I am busy battling with other Seelie against our dark brethren.
They do not consider your earth enough. They seek to wrest our court from us, as well.
My queen is in ever-increasing danger, as is my home." He turned me in his arms, tilted
my face up, and ran a gentle finger over my lips.

   I looked up at him. I was still numb from seeing Mom and Dad, from the
conversation I'd overheard. I wanted him to give me his name back, and quickly, so I
could drag myself inside, shower, and crawl into a warm, familiar bed. Pull the covers
up over my head and try with all my might to fall asleep instantly, so I wouldn't have to
think anymore.

  Doom the whole world.

  No way. Not me. They had the wrong person, wrong prophecy. I shook my head.

  He misinterpreted it. "It is a gift," he said stiffly.

  Wounded, proud prince. I touched his face. He'd given me my mom and dad, my
whole town, the entire state of Georgia back. "I was shaking my head at something I
was thinking, not your words. Yes, I'd like to have your name, V'lane."

   He gave me that brilliant smile again, then his mouth was on mine. This time, when
he kissed me, the unpronounceable Fae name slid sweeter than tupelo honey across my
tongue and pooled there, warm and delicious, filling my mouth with a feast of taste and
sensation beyond description before melting into the meat of it. Unlike the other times
he'd implanted his name in my tongue, it felt natural, unobtrusive. Also unlike those
times, I wasn't battered by an erotic attack, forced into orgasm by his touch. It was an
extraordinary kiss, but it invited without invading, gave without taking.

  He drew back. "We are learning from each other," he said. "I begin to understand
Adam."

  I blinked. "The first man? You know about Adam and Eve?" V'lane didn't seem the
kind to study human creation myths.

   "No. One of my race that chose to become human," he clarified. "Ah, Barrons comes
growling." He gave the startling equivalent of a human snicker and was gone. I reached
instinctively for my spear. It was back in the holster. I frowned. I'd forgotten to check.
Had it ever been gone?

  I turned. "Growling" was a mild word for it. Barrons stood in the doorway, and if
looks could kill, I'd have been flayed alive in the street.

   "One would think you'd have gotten all the Fae shoved in your mouth you could
stand, Ms. Lane."

  "One would think that I'd gotten all the male shoved in my mouth that I could stand.
One day I'm going to choose to kiss a man. Not because I'm being raped and not
because I'm being scraped up off a street named Pri-ya and not because I'm being given
the mystical equivalent of a cell phone with all the usual cell phone service problems
but because I bloody well want to!"

  I pushed past him. He didn't move an inch. Electricity sizzled where our bodies
brushed.

  "Tomorrow night. Ten o'clock. Be here, Ms. Lane."

  "I'm fighting with the sidhe-seers," I tossed over my shoulder.

  "Call it an early night. Or find somewhere else to live."

At noon the next day, Dani, all the other sidhe-seers at the abbey, and I were gathered in
one of their enormous cafeterias, seated around tables, listening as Rowena addressed
the crowd, and, oh, did the woman know how to sway sentiment!