The Fey (44 page)

Without moving his lips, a demonic mime
spoke in Eleazar’s laughing voice. He pointed toward her lost
husband, her lost father, and her lost home. He took her lighter
and burned her Green Beret. The burning pieces of fabric grew to
burning ropes that held her in place. She could only watch in
horror.

Laughing, he launched a fireball. Zack,
Matthew, and Troy screamed and writhed as they burned. As Trece and
White Boy screamed in horror, he shrank the enormous men to spider
size then squashed them under the ball of his foot. He pointed his
index finger toward Max.

A bullet flew out of the end of his finger
to catch Max in the forehead. Turning his finger, the demonic mime
shot Joseph then John. Laughing, the mime executed Raz with a
bullet behind his ear. He pushed her parents, Rebecca, Patrick and
Ben, into blood red quick sand. Screaming and begging for Alex to
save them, her parents sank to their deaths.

Standing at the memorial, the mime called to
the zombies of her dead friends. They rose from their graves to
chase her through Fort Logan Cemetery until they trapped her in the
limestone vault. The laughing zombie Charlie closed the limestone
door leaving her inside surrounded by dead bodies and blood. She
pounded on the door begging Charlie to let her out. Slipping on the
blood slick floor, she fell face first into her own rotting dead
body.

And then, Alex lost her mind.

F

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

October 14 – 9 A.M.
Olde Town Arvada, Colorado

Alex opened her eyes in the dark room and
wondered where she was. Remembering the hotel room, she looked for
the light under the door. Seeing nothing, she puzzled. She patted
the space next to her to see if John was there. Nope.

Her face pinched instinctively against the
odor of urine, vomit, sweat, stale cigarettes and garlic. Pushing
her greasy hair out of her face, she realized that she was the
smell.

“
Heya Jesse.” Alex smiled
at the apparition of her best friend.

“
Shh, Alexandra. They are
monitoring you,” Jesse said. His apparition moved to sit down next
to her. “Use sign language.”

“
Lucky you’re a ghost
because I smell pretty bad,” she signed. “Where am I?”

“
You were taken hostage,
beaten up then stuck in this room,” Jesse said.

“
Ah shit. That sucks. I
thought the whole beat up and stuck in a dark room thing was a
dream. Did you use the Captain’s voice last night?”

“
I did,” Jesse said. “I’m
sorry.”

“
It worked.” Alex
shrugged.

“
Did he really get a court
martial?”

“
Yep,” Alex signed. “He’s
been working basic. After humiliating this poor girl in front of
her team, he assaulted her… pressed himself against her, jumped on
her… that stuff he used to do. Remember Jason Smith?”

“
JS? He was in training
with us? Why?”

“
He’s a big deal now.
Caught the Captain in the act. Court martial city! He asked me to
testify but I… I didn’t want to leave the house,” Alex said. “I
always tell you Jesse. Bad guys lose. It’s inevitable. Hey, why can
I see you?”

“
Light reflected off the
snow.”

“
Oh look! It snowed.” Alex
pointed to the snow on the street above. “At least the snow will
block some of the wind.”

“
I guess your fever
broke,” Jesse said.

“
I had the most amazing
dreams,” Alex signed. “I don’t know Jesse. It’s like everything
fell apart, then cell-by-cell, I came back together again. What’s
next?”

“
Today is rape and torture
day.”

“
Well we can’t have that,”
Alex signed. She pushed herself to her feet then slipped back to
sitting. “God damn. I hurt. If I ever see that fucker and his
rubber hose again…”

“
You can’t be too angry.
He’s kept British Intelligence informed about what’s going on here.
His handler is working with your father.”

“
Which father?”

“
Both,” Jesse said.
“Remember Eleazar doesn’t know that you know.”

“
There’s a lot of things
Eleazar doesn’t know,” Alex signed.

“
Your father asked
Matthew, who asked Max, to tell me to remind you that they will try
to blind you with the light. Max said to remember the slit
glasses.”

“
That’s a lot of asking,”
she signed. “I can make them while I wait. When do you think
they’ll get here?”

“
Three, maybe four hours,”
Jesse said. “Eleazar isn’t here yet. I heard Ben say that he’s due
here this evening.”

Smiling, Alex nodded.

“
I’m so glad you’re my
friend,” Alex signed.

Jesse wasn’t sure what to say. She used to
say that. She’d smile her bright smile and thank him for being her
friend. She hadn’t said anything like that since the team died.

“
You’ll let me know when
they get here?” Alex signed.

Jesse laughed. Looking at her smiling face,
he felt like his best friend had returned from a long journey. And
he was the one who was dead!

“
Of course.”

FFFFFF

October 14 – 5 P.M.
Northern Scotland

(9 A.M. in Colorado)

John Drayson was standing at the top of a
small hill working on a broken fence. Pulling the broken barbed
wire from the wood post, he had the sense that Alex was near.

Maybe she’s thinking of me.

He hadn’t heard a word from her or her
family since he left Denver. Leaning against the post, his hand
instinctively wrapped around her dog tag. He wondered if he would
ever see her again.

Moving to the back of the truck, he unwound
a length of barbed wire from the spool and smiled.

He wouldn’t even kiss her until Father
Seamus said they were husband and wife. Standing at the beach
party, she suggested they ‘test out the works.’ Then she smiled
that crooked smile. Oh God. Sand, crowd, party be damned, he almost
jumped her right there. Everything in him longed to connect with
her, but he… somehow he managed to step away. John shook his head.
To this day, he had no idea how he resisted her.

Clipping a length of barbed wire, he
remembered the electric charge that ran through him when he finally
kissed her. He still felt that spark sometimes. She ignited the
very core of him.

Overcome by the idea of being married, he
took his bride-of-ten-minute’s hand. He gained control with each
step toward the street. When he raised his hand for a cab, he
already had a plan in place–bed her, quick annulment, no feelings
hurt, back on track. He even smiled at his brilliance. Of course he
had to marry her. How else could he bed his best friend’s
sister?

Sitting in the back of the cab, he brushed
her lips in a kind of “kiss the wife” way then could not stop
kissing her. Every thought of retreat vaporized in that cab ride.
He would have had her, right there in the back of the cab, if… If
what? If she wasn’t his wife. She became his wife on that cab
ride.

John’s laughter echoed off the Scottish
hills.

He was so drawn by her lips, tongue and
teeth that he didn’t notice that the cab slowing at the apartment
until the cab driver hit him on the back of the head.

“
Pay up. Jeez, get a
room,” the cabbie said.

Certain that Alex would be offended, he
started to move toward the cab driver when his eyes caught Alex.
She was beaming. Seeing the look on his face, she began
laughing.

“
Yeah, very funny lady.
Get out of my cab.”

She scooted out then waited for John. He had
never carried a person before and had certainly never carried a
woman. Everything is a first with Alex. He scooped her up simply to
give him better access to that supple mouth. He carried her up to
the apartment then found himself in front of the locked door, keys
at the bottom of his tight pocket, and his arms filled with his
beloved. He wasn’t going to set her down.

She laughed when he kicked the door open.
Setting her inside, and somehow managing to close the door, he
ripped her silk blouse open. As her buttons ricocheted off the
entryway, he dropped his mouth to her captivating mouth. Pulling at
his tongue with her teeth, she worked his T-shirt from his body.
They ripped their way through jeans, underwear and bra to plush
naked skin.

She stepped back from him. They stood in
front of each other. Naked. Neither moved. They just looked at each
other.

When her lips turned upward, he
responded.

“
JOHN.” Tom Drayson
touching John’s shoulder.

John raised his eyebrows.

“
I’ve been calling you
from down the hill. Where’s your head, boy?”

John shrugged.

“
You’re almost done here,”
Tom said. “We need to get to the North end.”

“
To look for the fox?”
John asked.

“
Right, he comes out this
time of day. Fox and chickens. You can’t have one without the
other.”

John nodded and moved toward the fence with
the barbed wire. Tom took the other end of the wire.

“
Rita won’t let us kill
the fox.”

“
That’s what we used to
do.” John tacked the wire to his post. He moved to tack the wire
Tom held.

“
She won’t have him in her
chickens either.”

“
What would you like to
do?” John asked. He bent to pick up his tools and they walked
toward the truck.

“
I have a
plan.”

John nodded and stepped into the passenger
seat.

Turning the key in the ignition, the old
truck caught with a roar. Tom caught the goofy look on John’s face
and laughed.

“
She must be some
girl.”

“
She is.”

FFFFFF

October 14 – 10 A.M.
Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado

“
You guys worked a lot
with the Fey?” Sean Hudson asked.

The British intelligence officer, Raz and
Matthew were working on their laptop computers in a small
conference room. Matthew was tracking Eleazar as well as running
interference for the gathering team. Raz worked with Alex’s
database. Sean compared the information Raz came up with from
Alex’s notes, journals and database with what British Intelligence
had on Eleazar.

“
Sure,” Raz said. “I’ve
worked with her for… five, almost six years? I’m her Homeland
partner. Matthew just started working with her as her second in
command here at Military Intelligence.”

“
We’ve been friends for
twelve years,” Matthew said.

“
How do you know Alex?”
Raz asked.

“
She appeared in my bed,”
Sean said.

Raz and Matthew looked up at him.

“
I was sound asleep and I
roll over to find this… tasty woman was lying in my bed. She’s just
lying there wearing this tank top and tiny panties.”

Sean fell quiet remembering.

“
And?” Matthew
asked.

“
I thought, ‘If this is an
enemy agent, I may as well show her a bit of hospitality.’ I’m
smooth, you see. So I slip on top of her to have a go. She smiles
and puts her arms around my neck. Her mouth is right next to my ear
when she says, ‘You have a leak in your department. Your entire
team is targeted for elimination.’ I move to kiss her and she says,
‘If you think you’re going to use that, you should think again.’
She slips out of bed and is gone before I’m awake enough to follow
her.”

Sean laughed.

“
Was there a leak?”
Matthew asked.

“
Oh yes. Very big, very
messy. My boss, actually. If she hadn’t warned me? I’d be dead..
and everyone on my team, as well. Nasty stuff.”

“
When did you see her
again?” Raz asked.

“
How did you know?” Sean
laughed.

“
It just had to happen,”
Raz said.

“
A couple years later. I’m
bored and frustrated, sitting, in a meeting. We’ve got this
impossible hostage situation. We’ve tried everything we know to do
and… Nothing. We’re fucked. I figure the hostages are dead. Behind
our backs, the PM rang some Yank expert. And the great expert is
late. We’re sitting in a conference room like ripe old buffers when
her team arrives. Did you meet those guys?”

Raz nodded.

“
Bloody hell. They were
huge guys. Tall, at least six feet, every one of them. Testosterone
everywhere. Bulging muscles. Very macho. They push their way into
the room with machine guns and dark glasses,” Sean
laughed.

“
Ten guys stand around
edges of the room. Alex wags her hips across the room with this
tawny pit bull looking guy by her side. That was THE Jesse that
General Hargreaves was talking about?”

Matthew nodded his head.

“
She sits down at an empty
chair in the middle of the table. We’re so taken back that no one
speaks. She smiles then says, ‘Next time? Call me before you fuck
it up.’ She stands up to leave and my Unit Chief sputters, ‘What
about the hostages?’ She looks at him, puts her dark glasses on and
says, ‘They are waiting for you in the hall. MI-5 saves the day’
and leaves the room.”

Sean blushed bright red.

“
Uh huh, what else did she
say?” Raz asked.

“
Every person in the room
is watching her bum as she swishes toward the door. She gets to me.
I’m sitting near the door. She raises her glasses and says, ‘Heya
Sean. I didn’t recognize you with your clothes on. While there’s a
certain element missing,’ she looks straight at my crotch then
raises one eyebrow. ‘It’s very nice to see you again.’ I was so
embarrassed that I think my face bled. My team went wild to find
out what that was about.”