New World Order (War of the Fae: Book 4) (25 page)

We were on the plane within an hour, heading down the runway.
 
Tony and I sat with Céline on one side of the aisle; the twins and Finn sat across from us.
 
For a while I ignored them, but then it became impossible.
 
They kept whispering and looking over at me.

I started grumbling under my breath.
 

“What’s wrong?” whispered Tony.

“Those two.
 
They’re talking about me.”

Tony looked over.
 
“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Jayne,” Tony said softly.
 
“Maybe you should just go over and introduce yourself.
 
Get it over with.”

“I already did.”

“No, you didn’t.
 
First you were attacked by them, and then I’m pretty sure you threatened them.
 
Right?”
 
He was giving me his patented Honest Tony Look, which I could never stand against for very long.

“Maybe.
 
Okay, fine.
 
Yes.
 
I threatened them.
 
But I’m not going to apologize.
 
They are a danger to everyone I care about.”

“Come on now.
 
You don’t
really
think they’d actually kill any of us, do you?”

“Maybe.”

“Jayne?”

“Fine.
 
Probably not.
 
But they could.
 
If they wanted to.”

“So could you.
 
But we don’t give you the evil eye and refuse to talk to you.”

“Tim gives me the evil eye all the time.”

“Hey!” squeaked a tiny voice from the cup holder in the arm of my seat, “Don’t drag me into your lover’s quarrel!”

I banged the edge of the armrest.
 
“Oops.
 
Sorry about that.”

I was rewarded with a reminder of Tim’s indigestion problems and rolled my eyes, refusing to acknowledge his petty, disgusting attempts at revenge.
 
He giggled right after, fully aware of how much it irritated me.

“Say ‘excuse me’, piglet.”

“For what?
 
I didn’t do anything.
 
It was the dog.”

“We don’t have a dog here.
 
All the werewolves are back at the compound.”

“It was the ogre then.”

I glanced over to where Ivar was sitting, in another row of seats all by himself.
 
He was always on the plane when it flew.
 
He must have like a billion frequent flyer miles.

“I’m going to tell him you’re blaming him for your farts.”

Tim’s head peeked up above the rim of the cup holder.
 
“You’d better not!”

I pointed at him.
 
“Behave.”

“You be
Hayve
,” he said, settling back down into his bed.
 
“I’ll just be Tim.”

I rolled my eyes.

“What did he say?” asked Tony, watching us with a smile on his face.

“Absolutely nothing worth mentioning.
 
He’s being childish again.
 
And he’s gassy.”
 
I nudged Tony in the arm.
 
“Move.
 
I’m going to get this over with.”

Tony swung his legs off to the side so they pointed out into the aisle, giving me room to get by.

Céline’s eyes followed me as I stood to get out of our row of seats.
 

I winked at her and she frowned a little in return.
 

I could hear Tony assuring her that I wasn’t going to start a war between the fae on the plane.

I sat down next to Finn, across from the twins.

“Hey,” I said, instantly getting their attention.
 

They stopped talking, and the more dominant twin said, “Hey,” in return.

“So, I’m here to make peace.
 
Tony insists.”
 
I tilted my head towards my friend and they both looked over at him, sizing him up.

“He commands you?” asked the shyer one.

I laughed.
 
“Hardly.
 
He guilt trips me, though, and that’s more powerful with someone like me.”

The bossy one smiled.
 
“I’m the same.”

The other one smiled too.
 
“I’m more of a ‘take commands’ type of girl.”

Finn leaned so far forward, staring back and forth among the three of us, I thought his head was going to fall right off his shoulders.

“Finn!
 
What is wrong with you?”

“What?” He looked at me, his eyes all murky.

I looked at the girls suspiciously.
 
“Did you do this to him?”

The bossy one shrugged.
 
“Maybe a little.”

“Seriously, you need to stop.
 
He’s a really nice guy
and
he’s spoken for.”

Her eyebrow arched up.
 
“Really?
 
By whom?”

I purposely clamped down on my angry reply.
 
“By a really sweet water sprite who wouldn’t hurt a fly.
 
A really good friend of mine.”

The nice sister nudged the other one.
 
“Come on, Theresa.
 
Stop.”

Theresa rolled her eyes.
 
“Fine.
 
Whatever.
 
Plenty more fae in the sea.”

“Are there?” I asked, wondering if she was putting a spin on the human saying or being literal.

She smiled.
 
“Sure.
 
In the sea, on land, in the air ... ” She leaned forward, conspiratorially, whispering in a spooky voice, “We’re
everywhere
.”
 
The way she said it freaked me out, which I think was the whole point.
 
I was glad I was one of them and not a weak human – otherwise known as fae prey.

“So, your name is Theresa,” I said to the spooky one, before looking at her sister, “And your name is ... ?”

“My name is Felicia.
 
Nice to officially meet you.
 
Sorry about the bathroom thing.
 
You kind of took us by surprise.”

I laughed mirthlessly.
 
“No, I think it was
you
who took
me
by surprise.”

“Let’s just call it a surprise party and leave it at that, shall we?” suggested Theresa, the edge of her mouth turning up in a half smile.

I smiled at her.
 
“Sounds good to me.
 
Next time there’s going to be a party though, send me an invitation.
 
So I can dress for the occasion.” I put my hand on Blackie meaningfully.

They both followed my movement and then laughed.
 
“It’s a deal,” they said simultaneously.

“Seriously, you guys.
 
Weird.”

“We like to freak people out,” said Theresa.

“It’s fun,” said Felicia.
 
“Shakes things up a little.”

“I can’t imagine why you two think you need to shake things up.
 
You guys just walking into a room does that.”

They both rolled their eyes.
 

Felicia said, “You were right earlier.
 
With some of the things you said.
 
It does get old sometimes.”

“But it’s in our nature to draw people to us – so we’re kind of stuck with it,” explained Theresa.

“Well, I’ll tell you what ... ”
 
I leaned in a little closer to them. “I should probably feel guilty about saying this to you, but I refuse.”
 
I gestured for them to come closer, which they did, so I continued in a soft voice.
 
“There’s this guy you’re going to meet in a few hours.
 
His name is Rick, but I like to call him Rick the Dick ... ”

“Jaaayyyne ... ” came Tony’s voice from across the aisle.
 
“You’d better not,” he warned.

“Shut up, Baloney Head.
 
Mind your own beeswax.”

He shook his head but left me alone.
 

I turned my attention back to the twins who were now definitely interested in what I had to say, especially since Tony felt the need to censure me.
 
They were troublemakers after my own heart, I could totally tell.
 
“As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted ... there’s this guy, Rick the Dick.
 
He’s a total loser, asswipe of a guy – but if you get hungry, he’s absolutely the one you want.
 
He’s so damn dark inside, I’ll bet he tastes like ... I don’t know ... brown sugar or something.
 
Dark chocolate.
 
Whatever is super tasty to succubi ... that’s what he tastes like.
 
Feel free to drain him of every last drop of human energy he has in his disgusting body.”

Theresa’s and Felicia’s eyes glowed a dark crimson at the idea of sucking the soul out of Rick the Dick.
 
I tried not to feel giddy at the idea of him being tortured to death, but it was really hard.
 
Good Jayne was definitely taking a back seat right now to Bad Jayne, who was in the driver’s seat and steering toward revenge.

Tony looked over and said, “I agree you should probably go after him – but you can’t kill him.
 
He’s not worth it, first of all, and I can’t have Jayne suffering the karmic aftereffects.
 
So let him live.”

I stuck my tongue out at him.
 
Then I turned back to the twins, to clarify.
 
“Just barely, though.
 
Only a very small, tiny spark of life left.
 
That’s all.
 
Feel free to overdose on the Rickness.”

They smiled.
 
“Don’t worry, Jayne,” said Felicia, “we get the picture.”
 

Theresa picked up where Felicia left off, “The
whole
picture.”
 
She raised her eyebrows at me as a signal, and I could have sworn by that look that she knew what Rick had done or had tried to do to me when I lived with him in my mom’s house.
 

I nodded my head at her, not trusting myself to speak.
 
If I said anything to them at that moment the least I would do is take a contract out on his life and forget the whole ‘leave a spark of life’ plan.
 
He didn’t deserve to live, the molesting asshole.
 
It was nice to imagine him being assaulted for a change, though.
 
I felt a smile break out across my face as I imagined his possible future interlude with my new friends, Theresa and Felicia – the succubus twin bombshells from hell.
 
Or heaven maybe.
 
The jury was still out on that for now.

I went back to my seat and soon fell asleep, dreaming of Rick the Dick begging for mercy as the twins sucked the last spark of life from his rotten, shriveled soul.
 
The next thing I knew, the jet was touching down in West Palm Beach, Florida at the Executive Airport just fifteen minutes from my mom’s house.

I shook the drowsiness off from the long flight and nudged Tim, still asleep inside his cup holder nest, with my finger.
 
He grouched at me a few times and groaned a bit but then got up, stretching and yawning.
 
“Time to put on the glamour I guess,” he said, flying up into the air in front of me.
 
He continued to hover a foot in front of my face as I left the plane and walked out onto the already steamy asphalt and headed to the small airport building nearby.

“Glamour, what glamour?” I thought he was talking about clothes or makeup or something.

“A pixie’s best defense against humans,” he said, “the dragonfly charm.”
 

I’d reached the door and was about to open it, but I had to wait for the performance that I sensed was coming.
 
Everyone backed up behind me, waiting for me to finish dealing with Tim.

He spread his arms wide and then slowly drew them down across his body.
 
When his hands had reached his thighs, he threw his arms out widely to the sides, shouting,
“Behold!”
in a majestic, resonating voice.
 
Well, as majestic and resonating as a pixie voice could possibly be.

Nothing happened.

I giggled.
 
“I think you’d better work on that charm, buddy.”
 
I opened the door and stepped into the air-conditioned interior.

“Laugh all you want, but I know it worked.”
 
He buzzed in behind me, fluttering near my head.
 
“Now humans who look at me will only see a gorgeous dragonfly that they cannot bring themselves to touch or crush or capture or dissect or pin or any of the other terrible things humans do to those who are smaller and weaker than they are.”