Through Time-Whiplash (7 page)

She laughed. “You were told?”

“Again, my friend Red—Princess Royce. Besides, you have said it, and it made sense to me … sort of. Red has often tried to make me see there is more to your race than I have observed. I am beginning to agree that some of you … can be endearing.”

Jazz grinned. “Some of us, eh?”

He ignored this and said grimly, “What I have to do now is find a way to call to the orb with the hope that it will be able to link to me, and perhaps use it to return him to the Dark Realm, and then us to our time period,” he answered.

“I might be able to help you with that,” Jazz said.

He snorted. “
You
—help? You are not even Fae. Why would it respond in any manner to you?”

“Hey, who just sent that Dark Prince flying?” she countered.

He considered this. “Indeed, little Fios, you have a formidable power, but you have no connection to our Relics. I, on the other hand, have the ability to locate Seelie Fae Relics.”

“I can locate them when they are near because they in turn respond to me.” She eyed him and said, “We Fae seers have lots of abilities. Not all of us have the same ones. I have three very important ones. Speed—I can be very fast. I am a
slammer
,
and I’m also a
sounder.
” She gave him a superior smile.

He laughed right out loud and patted her head as though she were a favorite pet. “Well then, this grows interesting. Shee Willow, who is Fae on her father’s side and Fios on her mother’s side, is a sounder as well. Right then, sweet Fios
, sound
away!”

She shoved his hand off her head and pulled a face at him. “Don’t do that. I am not your kitty cat.”

“No, and you are
not immortal
, so try and remember that and stay close to me so the Unseelie Royal can’t take you hostage again,” he said irritably.

“Hey, you told me to stay where I was, and against
my
better judgment, that is what I did.” Jazz gave it right back.

“Even so, be more careful,” he answered obstinately.

“Oh, of all the arrogant—”

“As soon as we can get our hands on the orb, Jazmine Decker, you will be able to go home. Isn’t that what you want?” he asked.

His gold eyes seemed to look through her. She knew he had used Glamour to mitigate the Faeness of his ancient brilliant eyes, but even so, as a seer she could see the ‘alien’ in him. It was, she reminded herself, what all Fae really were—
aliens.
Her mother had taught her that.. They were another race from a place called Danu. But she felt something for him growing inside her. She had to wrap it up in ice and throw it out; she simply had to.

“Yes, it is what I want.” Silently, however, she asked herself,
Right?
Isn’t that what you want?
A part of her whispered,
No,
you want to stay and help fight against the Dark Fae. It is in your blood.

“Then I suggest, little Fios, you get to work and find the orb with your ‘sounder’ ability,” he said authoratively.

She pushed at him with all her might, but he didn’t budge, standing there like a huge, sculptured boulder, and she said agitatedly, “Oohh!”

“I have annoyed you,
why
?” he asked on a frown.

“You can’t help it—you are what you are,” she said on a heavy sigh.

“Well, of course I am. You have a knack for stating the obvious, Jazmine Decker.”

She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. She wouldn’t think of him. Instead, she would do what her instincts told her she could do. Only once had she been put to the test. Her mother had a small pendent, handed down from mother to daughter for centuries. Oddly enough, the story went that it had been a gift from the Queen of the Seelie Fae, Aaibhe, for a service her ancestor had done.

Her mother had hidden it, and Jazz had located it with her ‘sounder’ talent, over and over again. She touched the locket now, but before she could proceed, Trevor moved in so fast the air rushed around her like a small wind. He took the locket in his hand and held it. “
This
 … belongs to my queen. It is not only a Fae artifact, it is the queen’s
loi
céad
. It holds very unique magical properties. What are you doing with it?”

She slapped his hand away. “It was given to one of our ancestors by
your queen!
”

“Why?”

“I don’t like your tone,” she answered, glaring at him. Didn’t he believe her? Did he think it had been stolen? Like anyone could steal something from the queen! Ha.

“You don’t like my tone?” he returned, looking both annoyed and perplexed. He shook his very handsome head while she studied him, but finally he grimaced and asked, “Very well then, do you know how to use it, Fios? Because
I do
.”

“Well, not sure. The family story was that we could call on the queen if an injustice against one of us was being committed. That is all I know.” She shrugged. “I just wear it because it’s pretty, and I used to think maybe it would bring me good luck.” She looked around. “Not so sure about that anymore.”

“Why did you think it would bring you good luck?” he asked, looking at her with obvious curiosity.

She thought for a moment. Her mother had given it to her the day of the accident, telling her to always wear it, as though she knew something was coming …

She had been thrown clear and lived. Luck was a double-edged sword. She lived, but she lost them. She returned her gaze to his golden eyes. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Well then, what does this tell you, Jazmine Decker?” Trevor asked with a growing smile.

“I don’t know, but I am certain from the look on your face that you mean to tell me.”

“It tells you, little Fios, that we have found our way home—
I think
.”

~ Five ~

HORDLY STOOD AT the edge of the monoliths that hovered over the Middle Lake of Killarney. He was confused and looking for answers. What had gone wrong? Why had the dolmens been sucked into the past with him? Why had
he
been sucked into the past? And why the year 1816? Was it significant or just an accident of fate?

Dark Fae could not touch Seelie Fae relics. Nor could they successfully command them, but he and his brothers were not just Dark Fae. They had their father’s Seelie essence. They each represented a Royal House, and each had precious gifts. However, because the Dark King had used Dark Magic and the preserved genes of beings extinct in the Seelie’s beloved Danu when creating his sons, they were neither all Unseelie nor all Seelie. Thus, Seelie artifacts never reacted quite as they were supposed to when he or his brothers tried to use them. Was that the reason he had been sent back to this time period?

He had been careful not to touch the orb when he used the incantation, hoping it would not ‘feel or sense’ the Unseelie in him. He had been specific in the use of that incantation, limiting it only to the opening of the portal, a portal that Gais had used to travel to Killarney. Gais had been a Seelie Fae, and it had finally worked for him, but it had also worked for his brother Pestale.

Why then not for him? Was he darker—less Seelie than Pestale? Was he readily recognizable as Unseelie by the orb?

Without the Wheel of Being, the Dark King had needed more than his own and Morrigu’s essence to create true Fae, so he had implemented the use of the darkest magic he could find and combined it with the science he had perfected. Thus, the first of his sons, Pestale, had been created. Later, with the others, he had altered the method so that none were exactly alike.

Hordly knew Pestale had been favored in his father’s eyes. He had stopped caring about that centuries ago. However, now it seemed it was Graely that held the Dark King’s true affection.
Graely, stupid, soft-natured dolt!

The Dark King had made small alterations when he had finally created Hordly and then Donworth, now dead by a Milesian’s hands. That alteration had given him fangs, but he liked that. He liked the feel of ripping something apart…

But all that didn’t matter. Soon, they would take over the universe. Their father didn’t care. He was off with his whore … his Crystal … evolving into pure energy.

He and his brothers had a secret they could use against the Seelie Fae. And that secret was a weapon—it was the fact that they had Seelie inside them waiting to be utilized!

The Seelie Royal had looked at him as though he were nothing more than an evil being, and that angered him.

He was more. Yes, he had wicked desires, but he also had the ability to feel affection. He had affection for his brothers and for Queen Morrigu, whose essence had been used to help create them. He had a sense of loss for the brother killed by the Milesian Lana. He was more than the Seelie Royal saw. But, he also knew, he had a strange desire, the need to feed on blood from time to time. It was because of the genes the Dark King has used when creating him …

He sighed over it. Soon, however, he would find a way out of the past, and then he and his brothers would enter the Human Realm and rule the whole damn universe, Faery included!

Freeing his brothers would be difficult because of his present predicament, but he would find a way. After all, it was he who had planned to keep Pestale from losing his memory. Pestale was whole because of him.

Because the Dark King had evolved beyond understanding, he had only been mildly interested in watching Pestale drink from the Cauldron. He had not really seen. He had not expected his third son to outsmart him.

Hordly smiled as he thought of the tray of water he had installed in the Cauldron. That tray held plain water from their Realm’s Dark streams and had been only mildly contaminated by the Cauldron’s magical libation. Pestale’s memories had been affected but not removed, and when the Dark King had withdrawn, as he always did, to his universe with his evolving human consort,
he
—
not Graely, but
he
—had begun Pestale’s reeducation!

Now, he had to find a way to free him and Graely.

He’d also free Morrigu, who was quite mad, but was lover, mother, friend, and the only female being they had been able to enjoy for eons. She would finally have an outlet for her cravings, perhaps find peace once she was free of the Dark Realm. Pestale thought he was the only one who had affection for Morrigu, but that wasn’t so; Hordly also had some caring for her.

He had many purposes now, and one of them was to avenge his youngest brother’s death. Lana, the Milesian, had killed him. True, Pestale had killed Lana, but for Hordly it did not end there. He wanted to destroy every Milesian that existed. He could not rest until he, with their Dark Army, charged into their little human and Milesian worlds and took them down to the last child.

His youngest brother, Donwith, who had always made him laugh but would never make him smile again, had to be avenged.

Pestale had been with him at the portal when he had been sucked back into the Dark Realm, but Hordly had found himself alone as he was spit out of the portal. He stood at its mouth and knew something had gone wrong.

What he didn’t want to do was return to the Dark Realm. He had to find a way of getting his brothers and Morrigu out from this side of the portal.

Ruefully, he thought it was better to be in the past than in the Dark Realm.

This would have to do. At least it would have been a partial answer if the Seelie Prince hadn’t appeared to make things more difficult.

He had never thought of himself as a problem solver. That had always fallen to Pestale. He had, however, surprised himself as of late, but even so, he didn’t want to charge into the human world alone. He needed his older brother and even his resistant brother Graely at his side. He wanted them all. They were familiar. His brothers and Morrigu had been with him for all time. All time? He sneered as he thought of the Seelie Prince, for he was old, so much older than this young Seelie Prince who dared to challenge him.

He would not make the same mistakes Pestale had made. Pestale would be dead if the Dark King had not interceded.

Pestale ‘felt’ too much. Pestale had doubts about how far he would go to attain his needs. He, however had no such doubts.

He had two problems to deal with: the Seelie Royal and the little human who was not quite human.

The little pretty had power.

He liked that. He also liked the look of her. Her form was more than pleasing, and something in her eyes caught his attention. She was more than human, less than immortal. Intriguing, and what was even more exciting was the fact that he could not seduce her with the Lianhan
.
He could, however, force her to have sex with him, and the notion was damned thrilling …

He was amused that she had managed to best him in their first encounter. He liked that. He had never been challenged by a woman before. Pestale would be surprised to see how well he handled the setback. Pestale thought him cold and calculating, and he was, but so much about him was growing. Each day in the Human Realm, even in the past, he was discovering more about himself.

However, he had not anticipated a Seelie Royal running him to earth like this so soon. He thought he would have had more time. Fate was a bitch, and apparently that bitch had somehow put the Seelie Royal in his way. He would take him down. It was just a matter of time.

If only he had the Death Sword that Pestale had managed to obtain. For now, he would have to do without this invaluable weapon.

When he got his hands on one, though—then the Seelie Prince would meet with death, and the woman would be his.

She was a beauty, a piece of artwork he would enjoy exploring. Perhaps he would even take the time and seduce her, use her … damn, but he wanted to use her! In the meantime, plenty enough peasant women awaited him.

A smile curved his lips as his cock distracted him from his goals. He turned back to the two women he had brought with him. They were lying in the grass playing with one another, calling to him. Did he have time?

He thought of the Royal Seelie and frowned. No, he would have to keep on the move.
Leave the pretties.
Time enough for more of that later, when he completed his plans and brought Pestale and Graely, and their Morrigu, through the monoliths. Soon, the stars would align and the future would be theirs.

* * *

“You think?” Jazz said in some exasperation.

“Indeed, how can I know for sure when I have never had it in my possession and, therefore, am uncertain just what it does?”

“Okay, but—” Jazz cut herself off and frowned at the scene taking place only a hundred feet down the road from where they stood.

A man was shouting at a child Jazz assumed was his daughter. She was a dirty little urchin no more than eleven or twelve years old. Jazz felt a moment’s irritation with the man, until she saw his hand rise and the child cringe.

Irritation turned to fury when the man smacked the child across her face and sent her flying backwards to land hard on the ground.

The beast of a man took hard, long steps to stand over her. He bent and grabbed the collar of her worn sack of a dress, but Jazz, using her hyper-speed, arrived in time to catch his attention by slamming her boot down on his foot.

He yelped and hopped on one foot, stood, and turned to her, a fist in the air as he bellowed, “I’ll kill ye, ye little tart!”

Karate was a human skill, and one that her father had made certain she acquire and perfect. She used it now and with great pleasure. Her leg came up and into position, landing him a round kick that sent him flying. He tripped over himself and went down, hard. Winded, he lay there while Jazz put the child behind her.

Visible now, as she was out of the prince’s circle of Féth Fiada, she stood in position, ready to dole out more.

The brute lifted his head and stared at her as he made his first attempt to get up, saying, “Eh … whot the hell?” He got to his knees and then rose from there. “Where did ye learn to hit like that? And wot be ye wearing there, she-devil?” His voice was hushed, and caution laced his movements now.

All at once, apparently thinking Jazz had just landed him a lucky blow, he released a low and ferocious sound as he charged, bent like a bull.

“Ah, foolish beast …” Jazz sneered as he paused. She waved him to bring it. “Come on and get some more.” She wanted to taunt him; he needed hurting, and she wanted to be the one to dish it out.

He completed the charge at her, all brawn and fury, and got his head kicked in for his effort. He lay there on his back again, but this time he was unconscious.

Jazz turned to the child. “Are you okay?”

“What is ‘okay’?” The girl’s Irish lilt was lovely, but her hazel eyes were bright with worry.

“It means are you all right?”

She nodded. “Aye, that I am, but when he wakes up, he will kill me for this … och, but he will.”

“
No,
he won’t. Is he your father?”

“No, I be an orphan, and he bought me from the orphan home … to help on his farm, last month.” She said this in a resigned tone, sounding so much older than she looked.

“Did he?” Jazz said in some disgust. “Well, you don’t belong to him anymore.”

“But I have nowhere to go,” the child said pragmatically.

“Yes, you do. You will come with me, and we will see about finding you a better home. How is that?”

“What are you doing?” Trevor demanded as he stepped forward and leaned into her.

“What do you think I am doing?” Jazz answered, thinking,
Oh no, the child will think she is going crazy. One minute I’m here, the next I’m invisible.

“I can’t have a child in tow,” he answered. “And besides, we are not supposed to interfere in human matters and events.”

“Well, I am not bound by your rules,” Jazz said.

“A Royal,” the child whispered and reached for Jazz’s hand.

Both Trevor and Jazz turned to the child in shock, and Trevor asked, “You can see me, lass?”

She lowered her gaze and did not respond. Jazz bent to her and said, “It is safe. You don’t have to worry. Are you a seer?”

When the girl looked away and would not answer, Jazz realized she must have been taught never to reveal what she was.

She said softly as she took the girl’s chin and looked into her hazel eyes, “You don’t have to be afraid.
This Royal
will not hurt you. I know because I had to reveal to him that I am also a Fios …”

Startled, the girl’s eyes opened wide, though she still did not speak. Jazz continued, “That’s right.
I can see
Fae.” She waved towards the prince. “This Royal will not carry you off or harm you. Instead, he will keep you safe, won’t you, Trevor?” Jazz straightened as she turned to him with an arched look.

The prince released a low curse in Danu, but when Jazz pinched his arm he frowned at her and told the child, “Of course—isn’t that what we Royals do?
Babysit?”
He grimaced at Jazz and murmured as he bent to her ear, “Sure, what is one more piece of baggage?”