Phantom Fae (19 page)

Made him a mage, dragon and phantom fae, Brett thought. At least his parents had.

"Then there's another possibility to consider," Mark said. "That
we
are fae."

"What? You're out of your mind," Gary scoffed. "What? Did some of them brainwash you?"

"The one we had taken hostage was a fae princess. One of her rescuers killed my stepdad and took Brett as her hostage. Princess Alicia had been taken hostage earlier because she was a fae seer."

"Wait, so you're saying she was just human, then they turned her into a fae princess?" Jim asked, skeptically.

Gary was frowning, but Kenny looked interested.

"No, she was a fae princess all along, but she didn't know it. Her mother never told her, and she had notes from her dad, who taught her what to look for in the different fae realms. When she was taken into the fae realm, she discovered—to her shock—that she was a fae princess," Bryan said. "She hadn't been killing fae, just keeping her fae seer ability secret. Then she turned out to be one of them."

"How do you know this?" Gary asked.

"I told you. We had taken the princess hostage, thinking she was fae, which she was, but she'd been human at our school before this, no fae aura. So we were confused, until she said she'd been human, or thought so all along. Then here comes this other fae, who had always been a fae and never lived in our world. The princess saved Brett's life, saying he might be a fae himself. So see? We may not really be human. It's just something to consider," Bryan said.

"Well, was Brett one of them or not?" Kenny asked.

"We were taken hostage in the fae world," Bryan said.

Jim folded his arms. "What? No way. You're making all this up."

Mark shoved his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, way. We had stolen a fae princess. And we were taken hostage, but the fae who had taken Brett in, and given him room and board, not treated him like a prisoner, came for us and wanted us released. That was her payment for saving the princess's life. So yeah, we saw their fae kingdoms, and lived to tell the tale."

"So you don't know which side to be on, sounds to me," Jim said.

"Hey, just telling you that this might not be all black and white," Mark said.

"Come on, let's take these two fae to where the other is. I'm not sure we should take these two with us," Kenny said. "Sounds like they're fae lovers."

"Yeah, until the fae come for them and kill them," Jim said. "Let's go. You two are on your own."

Jim got into the passenger seat. Kenny drove. Ena sat on Jim's lap, which meant he'd lose the feeling in his legs. Gary sat in the backseat with the two fae. And Brett stayed with Mark and Bryan. But they were already moving toward another car.

"We're stealing a car," Mark guessed.

"Borrowing. We'll have it back before school lets out, hopefully," Brett said.

Bryan found a brand new, black mini-van. "What parent would give their teen a mini-van?"

"Works for us." Brett appeared inside of it, unlocked the doors, and then Mark got to work on hot-wiring it.

They hurried after the other car and drove out into the country until they reached a facility with storage units ranging from small to boat-sized lockers.

The boys parked at a small unit and Kenny got out to unlock the door as the others waited in the car. Within viewing distance, Mark parked the mini-van down at the end of the row of storage lockers. A truck drove past them and parked in between them, the bed of the pickup stacked high with boxes.

"As soon as they disappear into the storage facility, you can join us. I'm going to the car now to lend Ena a hand if she needs it," Brett said.

"Stay safe," Mark said.

"They won't be expecting dragons." He transported to the car, standing just beside it, waiting to see what would happen next. The storage unit was dark and empty, except for a fae chained to the floor. Had to be Duke Tully. His eyes widened when he saw Alton and Freya arrive as hostages.

Kenny motioned for his friends to come and bring their hostages. Gary then yanked Freya out of the car, she cried out in pain, and Brett growled. He hadn't meant to make a sound, but it just slipped out. Everyone was quiet then. The fae seers stared in the direction that Brett had been, though after he growled, he quickly moved into the storage facility to free Duke Tully.

The duke's eyes were saucer sized to see the fae—the unknown phantom fae, and the known dragon shifter, Alton.

"Someone else is here. Someone we can't see," Gary said, his face ice-white.

The color had drained from Kenny's face also.

"What do we do?" Gary asked.

"We get the other one in the car and drown the three of them, pronto," Jim said. "Come on, Gary, you put that one back in the car. And stay with them. You, too, Kenny. I'll get the other one."

This worked even better. As soon as Jim moved toward Duke Tully, who was very calm, knowing he had a dragon at his back now, Brett waited for Jim to bring out the keys to the manacles since Jim had to unlock Tully from the floor.

Ena stayed with the car in case the two fae seers decided to do something to Freya or Alton, though Alton could shift at any time and show them what a mistake they'd made.

"We should have brought the two new guys," Jim said. "We could have made them kill these three and seen just whose side they are on."

Gary said, "Yeah, too late now. But that would have been a great idea."

As soon as Jim touched the key to one of the manacles, Brett punched him, knocking him on his backside. Jim cried out and did a quick backward crab crawl. Still invisible, Brett unlocked Duke Tully's manacles.

"Thanks," the duke said, though he looked a little startled that he couldn't see Brett either.

"Go home. Tell the queen that Brett and Ena and others came to save you."

Jim was still sitting on the floor, looking too scared to move. Then Brett turned visible. "Yes, I was like you—a fae seer, and the tale my friends told you about me was true. I'm Brett, by the way. Who knows if any of you are also fae, or if Mark and Bryan are, but we've come to terms with it. Wise up, or you can be the ones drowned in the lake. Or worse. Incinerated?" Brett turned into his very scary dragon form. Beautiful gold scales, but still very wicked teeth and talons.

Even Duke Tully took a step back, his jaw dropping.

The boys stumbled backward away from him. Then they heard sirens and four police cars roared down the drive into the storage facility, blocking each exit. Brett immediately turned back into his invisible state. He'd had enough talks with the police and if they saw any more of him, he figured he'd get them all in trouble.

Mark and Bryan, thankfully, had already exited the stolen vehicle and were motioning to where the trouble was—the boys with manacled hostages, telling how they'd drown them in the lake.

Well, they hadn't expected this. Then Brett noticed the men with the pickup truck and their cell phones in hand. Apparently they had seen the manacled teens and had called the police. Now, as fae, they could just vanish. Wouldn't it be better to pretend to be the innocents in all this?

Freya began talking before Mark or Bryan could speak when they should have been the ones to talk because they knew more of what to say. "Oh, sir, they wanted to get rid of us because they say we're fairies."

The boys looked aghast and Jim immediately shook his head. "We were just playing a game. Just a game. Nothing more. We didn't call them fairies."

Officers had manacled all three boys while others had removed the manacles on Freya and Alton.

One officer was taking notes. "So, you're saying this was a hate crime?"

"Oh, no, not at all." Kenny pointed at Freya, as if she'd back him up on his story. "She told the other students at school we were working on a project."

"Is that so?" the policeman asked Freya.

She showed her red wrists where the fae seer had yanked at her and bruised and rubbed her fair skin raw in places. "No. They were going to drown us in a lake. What school would allow us to work on a project like that? They said if we didn't tell the other kids that at school, they'd go after others." She let a tear slide down her cheek and then several more followed. She looked so sweet and innocent and so very sad. Then she fell against the police officer as if the horror of it had finally sunk in.

Brett smiled at her. He thought she would do great at this business of rescuing fae in the human world.

The officers asked each of them in turn—who were visible—what the story was.

Each of the fae accused the fae seers of believing they were fairies and wanted to get rid of them, and the boys vigorously denied it.

But the witnesses that had driven the pickup truck said the same thing and since they were adults, and the fae had been manacled, it really sealed the deal.

Freya suddenly straightened as if she was feeling less intimidated now. "You know, you might still be just like us and end up joining us so there's no reason to hate us." Then she smiled so sweetly that she had the police officers totally bowled over.

As to the fae seers, they knew they were in real trouble as the policemen hauled them to different police cruisers.

"We'll need to call your parents," the one officer said.

The fae could all disappear at that point, but then the boys would be released and well, they had such a great story going, they couldn't do it. Not that the fae would be around to testify or anything.

A pink Cadillac drove up and a woman got out. Not any woman, but Queen Viviana herself. She had a home in the human world and had raised her daughter, Alicia, as a human for years, so she did have a driver's license and all the ID she needed to prove who she was. "I'm responsible for these teens. Freya, Tully, and Alton are my stepchildren."

"Will you see that they come forth as witnesses concerning this case?" one of the police officers asked.

"Of course. Gladly."

"Good. This kind of thing needs to be stopped. We appreciate your cooperation."

"Okay, kids," the queen said with humor lacing her words, "Let's go back to school. I'll talk to your teachers about your absence."

"Oh, Momma, thank you. I had a test in English and…" Freya said, climbing into the pink car.

Tully and Alton hurried to join her, grinning. Brett was sure the queen was getting a kick out of Freya calling her momma.

Ena took Brett's hand and said in a hushed voice. "Let's go."

"What about Mark and Bryan?"

"The others will come back for…no, the queen is waving for them to get in also."

"But…maybe they should return to their home, as far as what was their home."

Queen Viviana asked the very same question of Brett's two friends. "Would you prefer living in the human world?"

Mark and Bryan emphatically said no. "We have so many more adventures with Ena and Brett. Life would never be the same back home," Mark said.

Bryan agreed.

Ena pulled Brett into her arms and kissed him, sweetly at first, and then much more like a dragon shifter with a mind of her own. They were floating in the dark between worlds, wrapped up in each other, and Brett was eager to be the one and only one for Ena.

"Does this mean—?" He was hoping she'd settled on him and no more considering the other dragon shifters.

"It means you passed one of
my
trials. At least the first one. If you want to be my mate, you'll have to earn as much as I do. We'll be the wealthiest dragons in the kingdom."

Amused, he raised his brows. "I thought you wanted me just for being me."

She smiled. "You know that you are the one for me. Since you seem to have declared I am the one for you. But I had to make sure that you could go on missions with me and not mess them up."

He laughed. "Man, I like this kind of trial. Or at least the finale." Then he kissed her again, loving her, loving what he was now, and yet, he had loved being human, too. Just maybe having been in both worlds, he saw their viewpoints somewhat more clearly. Maybe he could convince the fae seers and the fae that they didn't need to kill each other off, but could work things out. Maybe not be friends, but they didn't need to be enemies either.

"What will happen to the fae seers?" Brett asked, wishing this could have ended better for all concerned.

"We won't be there to testify against them. We'll have disappeared into thin air. The pink Cadillac will go back to wherever it belonged and the queen will most likely never return."

"How in the world did Queen Viviana know to come here and rescue us? I never thought we might end up facing the police and that we'd need an adult to get us out of the jam."

"When you were watching everyone else, I fae transported back home, told the queen the trouble we were bound to have, and she came back with me. She saw the pink Cadillac at the mall next door, borrowed it, and there you have it. She'll return it and everyone will fae transport back home." Ena smiled up at Brett. "Did you like turning into a dragon for them?"

"You bet. Maybe the fae seers will hope they're like me. And not kill any more fae. Maybe they will all try to wait it out and see if they are like us. If so, we have truly accomplished the mission." As they settled down in the courtyard of her castle, he asked, "So what is our next mission?"

"Find a missing dragonling, baby dragon. But I also want to help you learn who your parents were, quickly."

As soon as they let go of each other in the courtyard, her staff ran out to greet them. "Oh, my lady," her lady's maid said, "we have learned that Brett isn't listed as a golden dragon baby to any family in this area. So that's good news, isn't it? He can't be related to you?"

That was good news, Brett thought. But Ena still didn't seem real sure of the situation. "What did the phantom fae healer mean when she said you weren't one of them?"

"I was part dragon shifter." At least that's what Brett assumed.

"What if there is more to it than that? You spoke an ancient dragon language. I've heard of it, but no one uses it and hasn't for centuries. How did you know it?" Ena asked.