Tainted (10 page)

Please don’t count me as an enemy just yet.  I have more than enough good in me to give you the moon if you’d just let me show you.

Are you responsible for the heavy amount of weeds that seem to follow me?  Was that you...following me?

Endless amounts of wishes.  I was hopeful, that’s all.

I would come to regret my next question one day
.  And your wish is?

I will tell you soon enough, my lady though you’ve already said it.

We were interrupted by yelling.  He glanced back as if listening.  If I were betting, I’d guess he was more powerful.  Could he hear others from that far off?

“Yes and yes.”  He turned back to me.  “Only because the power ages with time as does with all of those born to the royal courts.”

Would he tell me this if he as all bad?

“See, I told you to give me a chance.  Grace, spend a day with me.”

WHAT?
  My face said it all.

“One day.  I’ll return you to your court at the end of it.  Twenty-four hours.  It doesn’t make up for all the years they hid you from me, but I can compensate.  One day.”  His eyes pleaded with that sweet gorgeous jock smile that melted many of the girls at school.  He just looked like…he was begging me.

“Please?” he said acknowledging he heard me. 

Oh, my.  I feel like I should record this moment.  Will it just be a memory?  “I can’t Kin.  They would hunt you down.”  Was I actually considering this proposal?  To see if I could solve the Nym rivalry once and for good.

He snorted, “And do you see them here?  They didn’t even predict your own prowess, your highness.  The jasmine was crafty, but the artful way you made it in and almost out was amazing.”

“Almost being the key word.”

“With training.”

“I don’t want to be conniving.  It’s just the way to get things done without a watchdog over me.  I don’t like playing Cinderella anymore.  I want out of the tower.”

“They underestimate you and what power you will have.  They kept that detail from you in addition to many other things.”

The candor of his proposal made me curious.  His observations made me even more curious.  He was completely right.  Yet another man linked to me, oh, little me.  But I would hold this as an advantage if it will end the tides between the feuding groups.

“I will think about your proposal.  For now, I wish to return to my own court.  But I would like something from you.”

“Anything for a day with you.”

Wow! 
Anything?  Just to be with me?  Surely there was a catch.  “Why are you watching my parents and why won’t you leave them alone.”

He downed his eyebrows at this as if he was ashamed.  It humbled me but not enough to ignore I was getting what I came here to get. 

“I only watch them and nothing more.  I sit in wait watching for you angling for this single event that is taking place as we speak.  I only wanted a brief moment to converse with you, alone, but out of ear shot of those hindering you from your greatest feats in this world.”

“You knew I would come?”

“I hoped.”

“And what more would that include that wasn’t already said,” I asked a little too coyly by tilting my head and smiling.  A little charm might get me information.  Yep!  He ran with it.

“Oh, you would be so much more if taken out of the clutches of those who hold you back.  Your ability to arrive here undetected even by my own guards and myself set you apart from any other queen that has ever existed.  Can’t even you see that?”

Did Ian see that?  He thinks I’m not capable of anything.

“Hmmm!  Exactly.  But not really.  He fears you.”  His evil smile returned making me rethink what side he’s really on.  He is so bipolar.

“How so?” I asked, shock and fear set in.

“He sees you are already growing power that surpasses even him.  He acts possessive because he doesn’t doubt your ability to act on your instincts, but he worries about your sudden impulses.  I was counting on this about you.  You’ll think more wisely with time.”

Kin giving me insight into why Ian acts the way he does just felt...wrong.  Made me feel like crapola!  “Well, can you just leave now?  Leave my parents alone?”

“Is that what you want?”

He was asking me.  “Yes!”  I breathed loudly clutching the seat.

“Very well.  Will you consider my offer?”

“Yes.”  I’m not hesitating if it means my parents are safe.

“Then I will find you at a later date.  For now,” he bent down on one knee and the very same Kin that teased me in every single possible way my entire life, kissed the back of my hand with intense blue eyes watching me the whole time. His eyes were like two pools of a swirling emotional oceans leaving the one in the lifeboat gasping for air.  They spoke to you.  Made you do things you questioned. 
WOW
!  If anyone asked me to predict this, I would have laughed in their faces.

I stood and watched him cross my parents’ yard strutting with his bad self.  He really is good looking in every way easily capturing the bad boy look and keeping it real.

Thank you.

Oh
, I jumped. 
Dang!
  I retrieved the broken chain missing the pendant lying in the fallen jasmine he’d taken. Would this all work out in the end and all four of us come to some kind of understanding.  It sure seems more and more like I’m Goldilocks and the Three Bears are in the ultimate chase. 

About the time that Kin hit the back wall that was now blown out by my hand, including my bedroom balcony, I felt a wave of air hit the back of me pulling me to the ground and covering me completely.  I scrambled to check on Kin and his safety seeing through the slats in the gazebo in his direction.  My two guards were inches from him before he disappeared having broke free of the binds Kin’s goons had on them during the three minutes tops that Kin had me in seclusion.  That surprised me.   

Evaporated!  Vanished!  Like Ian did once.  Whoa!  I want to do that!  Becoming invisible just sounded like such superpower extreme. And Kin just had to show off what I couldn’t do.

A voice behind my ear whispered, “Are you okay?” Then he was patting me, EVERYWHERE! 

“Stop Pike.  Hands off.”

“Why did you leave like that?”  He wasn’t yelling.

“My parents mean everything to me and I’m not going to let one of you get killed trying to save them.  This was my battle.”

He looked to where Kin had just vanished, “Was Kinsler just with you?”

“Yes.”

“And he didn’t hurt you?”   Why is he so adamant on that possibility?

“No,” I rolled my please-don’t-see-through-me eyes.  “Guess he just wasn’t up to taking me out today.”  For some odd reason I felt like keeping to myself the agreement with Kin.  For now, my parents would be safe, left alone, and I could watch if Kin kept his word.  For all I know that’s exactly what he wants me to think so he can get close enough to do me more harm.  Or my parents.  That theory doesn’t pan out since he had plenty of opportunity today.  I tried my best to block with my mind, but I just didn’t have it down yet when I couldn’t stop to focus heavily on the task.

“All is solved.  Kin will not be back.”

Pike looked at me unbelieving. 

After the two to three minutes this short conversation took to find a stopping point, the entire Nym guard was gone from sight.  Guessing Pike now considered me safe, I watched him leave me standing alone with Bane and walk to see my fireworks display.  Oh, my, I thought, how am I going to explain that.  It wasn't the best move to blow up the house but they weren't supposed to turn backwards.

I turned to leave the gazebo entrance and lost my footing on the first step.   I grabbed the post reorienting myself and took the next two steps down knowing Bane would just follow me.  Ian was there when I hit the last one. 

“I don’t know whether to take you over my knee and spank you or congratulate you.”

“Whatever do you mean, Ian?”  I was scared, kind of!  Smiling probably wasn’t the best defense at the moment, but it’s what I did.   I was proud to have solved it even if it was an odd sort of diplomacy and against their hold on me and completely against the plan they mapped out that would have never worked.  I heard Bane shuffle backwards to give us privacy or whatever.

“You might have won your little battle today in your eyes, but with Kinsler there is always tomorrow.  Whatever he said to you or you to him is but a small part of a larger picture Grace.  Count on that.”

“Why Ian, you act as if perhaps he is incapable of a civil conversation with me.  How is it that you might know that?”

“Not all is what it seems, Grace.  He is motivated by many reasons to acquire you and have you for his own.”

“And you know all of these…motivations?”  I was challenging Ian.  What is wrong with me?

He regarded me slowly, “Yes, Grace.  He has but one singular desire.”             

I gulped in the little air that seemed to circulate around me.  How can it seem like a fog of doubt seemed to be swirling around the two of us?   “Ian, we can talk about this later.  My parents need me right now.”

“Here!”   We heard Pike scream in defense mode.

Both of us scrambled our weapons and ran.  Two Nyms had stayed behind in hiding and were attacking Pike.  Once again I threw myself into the heat of the battle but this time the enemy was armed and aiming at me.  I twisted around without my legs moving at all. 

Oww!
  That hurt.

Ian did some kind of body twisting slam into the first goon and pounded his head in with one blow.  Whoa!  My man is one scary awesome fighter.  I would never doubt the protector Ian ever, ever again.

Two more were coming around the corner.  One dude threw a spin fist at Pike landing it on his jaw.  He flung the goon down with the ease of a cowboy tossing a lasso.  When he finished with it, a third appeared in midair and Pike had him down and out before I could blink my eyes to catch up to the actual action pose he held. 

When the closer Nym aimed his sword at me Ian covered me like a shield.  Anger boiled me over.  My dagger was in my hand and sort of hovering in front of me, but I only had time to catch this and not ponder the whys before I felt the empty hilt pushing into my stomach.  “Bring it on,” I sidestepped and curved around Ian throwing a blow to the goon’s head.  Ian tried once more to stand off guarding me against my own danger and this time goon boy threw a rock hard jolt of thrashing pain across my head with the hilt of his sword, but not before I had a dagger pinning the opposite hand to his own thigh. 
Ha! 
Score one for me!
 
I’m so missing my high school buddies back home.  Caylie was the best of them.  She had an acronym to boost your ego for everything.

Pike was all over me again now. 
DUDE!
I screamed in my head. I was being crushed by his mega rock hard Pikeness and waiting very impatiently to be let up.  I heard the other Nym go down and knew Ian had taken care of him.

While Ian checked the boundaries, Pike repeated his same words in my ear once more letting his mouth touch the skin on my ear while checking me over, “Are you okay?”  This time I shivered just slightly but only because he surprised me.   He felt the shudder and groaned.

“Grace, you are affected by me.  When will you just admit it?”  He stayed there, hovering over me and touching more of me than I wanted.

When evil monkeys rule the world!

I don’t get why all three of them really think we can just all hang out hunky dory.  I think men fight over women like they do their cars never realizing they are making me have to choose one knowing they will resent each other after. And cars are replaceable.  What did they consider me?  All three of them can just have each other if they’re not careful.  They can just mancrush all they want and leave me out of it.

Pike laughed his dangerous melt your heart bad boy laugh as he pulled my hand up and helped me stand.  “No, that is not what any of us want Grace.  The Fey don’t sway that way.”

This, I know. 

I watched Ian finish cleaning up the fireworks remnants out back, walk around the house one last time, and found me standing in my bedroom.  He wiped his sword clean and replaced it at his side. 

My bedroom was a mess. My most prized possession books were destroyed. Kin had wrecked what the fireworks didn’t even after he left me it seems.  He didn’t just vanish.  He came in here to look for something.  My clothes were strewn everywhere that couldn’t have possibly been tossed from a closed chest of drawers.  Socks!  Shoes!  Even my bras and underwear! I’d managed to pick up most of them and stuffed them in an old garment bag still lying on the bed where I sat with my cheeks blushing the whole time worrying that Ian would walk in.  And that he did.  Life is never just...simple. 

Ian’s eyes were on the bed behind me so I followed his eyes to the spot where he was fixed on.  My black lacy bra I’d bought on one of my mall trips with Caylie to the city was sitting right out in plain view.  I snatched it up faster than meant to, held it, and stuttered, “Caylie ma—made me buy it.”  I tried to stuff it in the bag with the rest of the things I wanted to take, but I was fumbling all over and ending up sitting on it.  It was a great sale so I bought three of them.

“I know,” he whispered looking away.

I was glad his anger subsided for the moment,  but silently begged him to please save me right now from dying of embarrassment
.
I sensed his not so shy grin and fought back the laugh only to wince at the pain my head was feeling leftover from the blast and then a blow to the head.  He was on me like peanut butter on jelly.  “Are you okay?” 

My anger rose.
It was just like Pike.

He folded back in horror.  “What?”

He heard me.
Holy crap
!
Parc! Crap
! “Pike attacked me earlier thinking I was this fragile flower about to dissolve.  I am a little more durable than the two of you make me out to be.”  I rolled my ABSOLUTELY STUPID eyes!  “I’ll be fine.”

He stayed back still, “What do you mean, attacked you?”

Oh my!  “Overbearing pretentious guy stuff.”

Satisfied with the answer he asked, “Are you dizzy?  Light headed?  In pain?” 

Oh, Ian.
“Fine.  It just hurts.  I’ve not had too much experience with being hit in the head by a sword, but I’ll manage.” I sounded angrier than I was and felt worse when he started to circulate the room.

“You know, I read a lot of books out here,” he changed the subject for me heading towards the blown apart bookshelf by the French doors that led outside.  Where was warrior Ian?

“What do you mean?” I should not be quick to judge on the reasons for his avoiding certain topics since I myself do the same.  He is a great man! 

But it was still weird having him in my old bedroom.  He walked over to the dresser and started to straighten and pick up items that were thrown all over the place.  Items he’d been the giver of in some circumstances. I pondered the fastidious way he went about it and realized I’d never seen him clean anything up before.  Spoiled prince boy!

Pike yelled the cost was clear a floor below and I heard him call for my mom to come out.

“While you slept, I read several of the books you left out here.  You seemed particularly interested in several of them since you read them often, so I ventured to read them.  Human males are not unlike the Fey ones.  But human females are very…um…dreamy.”

“Dreamy?”  He better not be trying to make me jealous!

“Well, they seem to sigh a lot, and dream about everything, and imagine a lot. ‘Dost thou love me?  I know thou wilt say Ay.’
It helped me understand why your mind pictured you and me so often.” 

He was quoting Shakespeare.  This was unreal!
“Oh, Ian, don’t go there.  I don’t want to think about what you might know about my thoughts of you for so long.”

“I’m right though.” The devil couldn’t beat his winning smile.

The difference is in each of their smiles.  Ian has that boyish sweet smile that says I’m dangerous, but good.  Pike’s smile says I’m all bad boy but I want to show you I can be good.  And Kin is all devil smile with a hint of secret ambition behind every lip curve.  Jane Austen doesn’t know everything!

“Take the one you read the most,
Romeo and Juliet
.  That guy had his facts right, but twisted.  Romeo snagged the girl, should have run away with her, but ignorance led him and his love to their deaths.” 

I couldn’t help but glance at the ground.  The two of us were standing on a balcony like a symbolic ode to my ironic ridden life. And yet this type of conversation was my main reason for loving the book, not the death part. “I didn’t read it for the death part, but for the avid attention he gave her from the start.” 

Call me cheeky, but it got the reaction I wanted.

“Alright!  Dreamy-like though.  And I’m catching your hint whether you think I am or not.  Poe and his logic then if we’re analyzing literature.  Always powerful in love and protection and grieving, but always ends in death. I see a theme sprouting.”

We were no longer in a destroyed room amidst a problem I caused, but in our own little world of discussion with specified intentions to thwart the other into understanding the opposite sex.  Arms crossed and gripping the bottoms of my sleeves, I wanted a sarcastic comeback but couldn’t think of one.

“Human writers tend to exaggerate the drama of it all,” he said.

“Yet both were men who wrote them.”

“Still, not everything ends in death.”

“Perhaps we humans like to dwell in the fantasies of those who we can’t fathom existing.” I enjoyed saying this.

“Changing the subject?  We are speaking of just humans.  Right?”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because I want to be sure you know that us…what we have must not end in death.  I won’t lose you, Grace!”

My heart stopped.  Hadn’t we just been just so angry with one another and now the anger deflated and tears were leaking like a faucet down my face.  The Ian tunnel vision effect was in full swing.  He raced across the balcony to hold me.  “Why would you say all that?  Just to make me angry?” I choked.

“Not to make you angry, to make you see what has to happen next.  You can’t keep endangering yourself by throwing yourself into the fire.  Coming here without me was just…well, not the right thing to do.  Don’t make me poison myself because I lost you.  You have to be more careful with my heart too.”

I didn’t want to speak and say any blubbery girl like mushy stuff.  He was mushy enough right now.

“Puhlease?”  He mocked my usual sassy voice.  He even rolled his eyes and put his hand on his hip in a mocking attempt to make fun of me.

“Okay!” I wiped my eyes and nose of flowing liquids.
I thought of his perpetual obsession with my safety.  I’ll try, but I will keep who I want safe too.

He kept his eyes on mine.  One eyebrow rose signaling my face or mind spoke for me.

Rats!   
“I thought you couldn’t read my mind all the time.”

“She speaks, yet says nothing.  What of that?”

“Stolen words!  Quoting my favorites will not make the grade.”

“I couldn’t read your mind just then, Grace!  What
were
you thinking?”

I furrowed my brow.

“Ahh, her eye discourses; I will answer it.  I can only read thy mind when high emotions are present.”

“Stop the Shakespeare!”  I smiled hoping he’d see I did not really want him too.  “I will try my best to keep you safe too.  Today I did.  That’s what I can promise you.  You are mine to protect also.”  I expected his man pride to step in.

He was not satisfied.  “Then promise me you won’t hide anything from me because I might get hurt and you intend to damsel me into being saved.  No, I don’t want to fail you, but more important to me is you stay unscathed and remain the perfect vision you are to me.  Let me attain the scars of battle.”

“Okay, together!  First, I don’t know of any of your scars but one...so I am willing to investigate. Trade out..”  I let that get a reaction I wanted.  Score!  “Second, fine with me on the not letting me in battle so long as you know that I can defend myself a little more now and getting better at my skills so I’m not some helpless throne warmer.  And third, I will return the unfortunate favor of what I will not hide from you. Kin and I had a conversation today.”

He stiffened. 

“He says not to let you or Pike hinder me anymore and that you’re holding me back from my full potential.  Do you have any idea what he might mean?”

His eyes said he did.  He thought carefully by the way he hesitated, “Perhaps.  But I still don’t feel you are ready for the challenge of what his big mouth expels.  If you will hold out a little longer, I will give in to your ploys and teach you another one of your many talents.”

“How do you know my talents and I not?”

His eyes rose, “Son of the Seelie court queen knows what his queen can do.  And you, my lady, are capable of double I am told.”

“By who?”  My eyes were wide with interest, his filled with fear.  I’ve heard that monarch butterflies fly to South America for the winter.  My stomach must have flown with them because I feel like I’m about to dry heave.

“Altheon.”

“Figures,” I sneered.

“Why the malice?”

“He knows much and tells nothing.”

“As is his job as seer.  And all the more trusted because he only reveals in due time.  A seer who sets the court off course endangers us all.”

This is understandable.  “Okay.”  But all three of these dudes have alluded to this great power that me, the almighty Grace, would have and I would know it one way or another.

He kissed me gently on the cheek and looked down at the balcony railing that was holding us up.  He stayed there long enough for me to hold my breath and curve into him.  I sighed audibly.

“Of thy tongue’s uttering, yet I know the sound.”

“Stop that!” I tugged my arm on his jacket.

“Never!  It makes you swoon, my fair lady.”

“Not any more, lover boy.”

“Keep dreaming!”

“I know you can’t.”

“Ah, but
you
will.”  He pointed to me putting a gentle finger out to poke my stomach in fun.  I saw the scratch on his hand.  My
mark
on him, Altheon said.  I chuckled to myself and unnoticeably relaxed my legs dismayed he could sense the butterflies going ninety to nothing.

He could make me do that.  As much of a fool he was acting like, he could do that.  He inched his mouth towards my ear in the quickness of his movement but I caught his seduction act and ran through the balcony door. 

“One more thing.  Kin said something.  He called you two, you and Pike, prince thieves.  Why is that?”

He shrugged, “Yet another way we have wronged him.  I continue to steal you away, my queen.  He sees you as his and his only.  But that simply won’t do.” 

I sighed thinking I’m very thankful to be saved once again.  How awful that would be to finally be caught by Kin.  I shuddered at the thought remembering the promise I made.

“Cold?” he turned his head sideways.

I nodded a no, not wanting to share my worries with him.  I’d vowed that I wouldn’t give any extra anxieties over to him concerning me and failed partly today.

“Time to get you out of here, my queen,” he announced my title more than once today.  I fathomed that was a claim on me in some way, but didn’t ask.  He gestured towards the stairs but I turned and asked, “Do you mind if I get a few extra things from my room.” 

He nodded looking at the black bra.

I had a thought.  A scary one!  “Did you come to my balcony all those years while I was…in here?”

From across the room he looked at the balcony door, my bed, me.  “I’ve never been in your room before today other than when Kin got in here.  And I had Miss Dan draw the curtains tight, every night, so no one could disturb you. No telling what might be out lurking out there.”  He shivered dramatically, but it didn’t go over well coming from a very masculine figure like himself.

I smiled at his humor and blushed bright cherry red lip stick red while staring at my shoes.  “So you never saw me…” 

“No, Grace.  Give me more credit than that.  And we better get downstairs before your mother starts to wonder if I really am stealing your virtue.”

“Oh!”  More blushing.  I can’t believe I’m getting married to this guy. And not just any guy.  The one I’ve wanted my whole life.  It was so weird to stand in my leftover teenage years bedroom and say that. Granted, it won’t be for a while, but still.  I thought about what it meant to possibly be married so young, but I decided that finding out one was half human, a Seelie court fairy queen, and finally getting to be with the person I pictured spending the rest of my life with, it must be more than okay.