‘Jayne. I’m fine. No cops needed. Just busy. Talk to you later. Tony.’
I was furious. This was not my Tony. Someone had to be hacking into his account, which then meant Tony wasn’t able to contact me. I clicked the mouse to open up a new message and my fingers began flying over the keys.
‘Whoever you are who has hacked into Tony’s account, you can go fuck yourself. You’d better watch your back because I’m coming for you asshole.’ I pressed send without thinking twice. My heart was pounding and my face was sweating.
Tim was looking at the computer screen, studying it and my corresponding movements intently. I watched as he flew over to the mouse and then pushed it until the cursor was over the ‘New Message’ button. Then he jumped on top of the mouse, causing it to click open a new message. Then he flew to the keyboard and started jumping around on the keys. Slowly, a sentence started to appear on the screen.
‘who is tony’
I got suddenly sad, the fight temporarily leaving me. “He’s my best friend in the whole world. The human in Florida.”
‘his message makes you sad’
“Yes. I don’t think it’s him though. I think it’s someone else pretending to be Tony. Tony would never send me a message like this.”
‘why don’t you go see him’
“I’m going to. I think. I just have to figure out how. I’m not sure how to get out of this forest or back to Florida. Plus I have no money to pay for a ticket.” I sighed. “Tony and I live in different worlds now and I’m supposed to move on and let him move on too. When I first became fae I thought I’d stay here just a few weeks and then go home. But the more I learn about the fae and their lives and history and future, the more I realize that going home might not be a good option for me. I don’t think I’m going to fit in there anyway.” I laughed bitterly. “Not that I fit in before – but I think I really, really won’t fit in now.” This was the first time I’d voiced my fears out loud. It seemed easier to do it to Tim for some reason ... maybe because he was so dang small.
Tim got busy on the keyboard.
‘you are special, you are not like other fae’
“I don’t know about that. But I know that Tony chose to stay human instead of becoming a changeling. And they said once you deny your fae blood, you don’t get a second chance. So he’s going to be human forever and I’m going to be fae forever. I should just let him go. It’s killing me, but it seems like the only way to be fair to him. He needs to find new friends. I can’t keep holding on to him like this. I know it’s the right thing to do. It’s just that I’m selfish and I want to keep him all to myself. I keep getting all paranoid, thinking someone is influencing him. I’m sure it’s just my imagination though.”
Tim looked a little panicked. I don’t think he was prepared to deal with sadness like this. His face lit up all of a sudden and he jumped over to an empty space on the desk and started dancing.
He looked hilarious, poking his elbows out and kicking his feet out in all directions. I couldn’t help but laugh. “What the hell is your problem? Are you a mentally ill pixie? Is that why they were able to catch you?”
He stopped dancing and put his hands on his hips, acting all defensive.
“Kidding, I’m kidding. Relax.”
Just then a beep rang out in the room. It was coming from the computer. I had received a new message alert. Tony!
I clicked open the message, Tim temporarily forgotten.
‘Jayne, it’s not a hacker. It’s me. Remember, the guy who can read your vibes? I just need some space is all. I miss you too much. Give me time. Tony.’
I slowly went through the motions as the tears stung my eyes, logging off and shutting down the computer. I guess this is it. The beginning of the end. Tony was cutting me off. It felt so, so wrong, but I knew that feeling was coming from a selfish place. I felt like my heart was breaking. I had to force the weak-ass tears to go back where they were trying to come from.
“Come on – let’s go eat some dinner. I’ve had enough excitement for one day.”
Tim got a worried look on his face and started flying back and forth in front of me, agitated about something. I held my hand out. “What? Chillax, will ya?”
He landed on my hand and started talking. I strained so I could hear him.
“Some fae like to eat pixies!”
“Whaaaat? That’s disgusting. Who eats pixies?”
“Ogres!”
“Ew. Ivar is an Ogre, but he didn’t eat you. Besides, you wouldn’t make much of a meal. You’re kinda small ... and boney looking.”
Tim folded his arms. “That ogre wanted to eat me; and I’ll have you know, pixies are considered delicacies by many.”
I shook my head. “Whatever. Stay with me, you’ll be safe. Anyone who tries to eat you or jar you will taste Blackie’s dragonflame ... or dragonfire ... whatever.” I pulled out the tooth to show him.
He zipped to the ceiling so fast, all I saw was a blur. He was gesticulating wildly, but I had no idea what exactly he was saying, just that he wanted me to get Blackie the hell away from him. I put it back in my sheath. “It’s gone. Come back down. Come on, I’m hungry.”
He floated down slowly, keeping an eye on my hands the whole time. “Listen little pixieman, stop looking at me like I’m going to hurt you. If that were my plan I would have done it a long time ago. I’m trusting you to not pixie me or any of the other fae here and you have to trust me to not burn you. Okay?”
He hovered in front of my face so I could see him nod, his hand over his heart again. Boy, this pixie sure likes his formal swearing stuff.
I left the room with Tim on my shoulder. As we neared the dining hall, I felt him move into my hair. My ponytail was pretty loose and messy at this point, giving him lots of places to hide. I guess while I had a pixie friend, I was going to have to make some hairdo concessions – one of them being messy ponytails instead of neat, tight ones. I shrugged as I considered it. It’s not like I had a love life here or anything.
I opened the door and entered the room, expecting to be greeted by the normal noises and clanking of dishes and utensils. Instead, the noise that was there in the seconds before I opened the door immediately stopped. The only clanking I heard was that of a couple fae actually dropping their forks in mid-bite. Several people stood suddenly out of their seats and backed away from me, looking for other exits.
“Oh, for shit’s sake people! He’s just a tiny pixie! He’s not going to hurt any of you!”
The only ones who didn’t look scared were my friends. They looked at me and then at the rest of the group in complete confusion.
I tried one more time. “Do I look pixied? Well? Do I? No! I don’t. See? I’m as angry as ever. You guys are racists, you know that?”
Some of them looked at me in shock. Others looked to their neighbors – probably checking to see if they heard me right.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head, walking over to the buffet. The fae who were there tried to casually move out of my way while acting like they weren’t. Idiots.
“Don’t worry about it, Tim – they’ll get used to the idea.” I grabbed a plate at the end of the line. “What do pixies like to eat?” I said to no one in particular, hoping Tim would tell me in my ear. But the noise had started up again in the room, so I couldn’t hear what he was saying, even though he was trying.
I felt someone bump my elbow. I looked down and Niles was standing there. I was ready for him to start up with me again, so I was instantly on my guard. But Niles held up his hands in front of him. “I’m not here for a fight,” he said in his gruff voice. “I came ... to apologize.”
Apologize? Niles? “Have we just been pixied, or did I just hear you say you wanted to apologize?”
“No need to make this harder than it needs to be,” he said gruffly.
“No need to make it easier than it needs to be,” I said, angrily.
If my eyes weren’t fooling me, the edges of his mouth turned up a fractio
n. “Fair enough. Just so you know, pixies eat fruit.” He turned and walked back to his spot at one of the tables now set up on the edges of the room.
I saw that he was sitting with the group that had confronted Tim and me in Dardennes’ office. I shot them all a dirty look, but they didn’t return it. Instead, they all looked a little chagrined. Good. Let them stew in that for a while. I put some sandwichy looking meats on my plate and some different fruit from a fruit platter at the end of the line. I went and found a seat with my friends.
“What the heck was that all about?” said Becky breathlessly. “Man, oh man, you always bring the drama. I don’t know whether I should be jealous or feel sorry for you.”
“Believe me, you should feel sorry for me. But if you give me pity right now, I might slap you.”
“So, my little trouble-maker, what have you done to get all of the fae so upset this time?” asked Spike, a smile in his amber-colored eyes.
“Well, when he’s ready, I’ll have Tim show you.”
“Who’s Tim?” asked Finn.
“You’ll see.” I said mysteriously, digging into my dinner.
“Tim. Lunchtime. Come on out. Better hurry up or I’m gonna eat your fruit.”
I felt him moving but he didn’t come out.
“I know you’ve gotta be hungry. You were in that bell jar for at least a day.”
I felt more crawling around. Then his light steps on my shoulder. A couple seconds later, he was buzzing in the air next to my ear.
“They’re not going to freak out – are you guys?” I said, looking at my friends, giving them a warning look and then rolling my eyes. I was trying to let them know Tim was a bit of a wuss.
Slowly he buzzed out from beside me so that he was hovering above my plate.
Becky gasped and then smiled with glee. “Oh my goodness, he is so freakin’ cute!” She started to reach her hand out towards him, but she yelped and jerked it back when he zipped over and slapped her finger. “What the heck’d you do that for?” she asked, her feelings hurt.
I laughed at his indignant look. “He’s not cute, Becky. Just because he’s small, doesn’t make him cute. He’s a serious badass. He could pixie this entire place and send everyone here to eternal la-la land.”
Becky’s eyes got huge and she slowly put her hand under the table, as far from Tim as she could. “S-sorry. T-t-tim.”
He buzzed back towards her with a huge grin on his face. He spun around in the air until he was just a blur of wings. He came to rest just a few inches from her nose.
Becky sat there, stunned and unmoving, now looking at him cross-eyed because he was so close.
“Tim, back up. You’re too close. You’re going to give her a heart attack.”
I nudged Becky, breaking her trance. She looked over at me, still in shock.
“He’s not going to hurt you. He promised to keep his pixie dust or whatever to himself. Hey – can you pass me the salt?”
Finn handed me the salt, the entire time not taking his eyes off Tim.
“You mean to tell me ... this little ... I mean this tough ole pixie ... can take out this entire room all by himself?” Finn was obviously in awe.
“Yes. Like I said ... he’s a badass.”
Then badass Tim swooped down and tried to grab a strawberry from my plate. I had a feeling he planned on taking it back to my hair to eat it, and I wasn’t going for that at all. I didn’t need to worry though, since the strawberry was obviously too heavy for him.
Finn watched the little pixie struggle and tried to hide his smile behind the back of his hand. “I guess physical strength ain’t in his bag-o-tricks.”
Tim looked up at him and scowled.
“Tsk, tsk, Finn. Haven’t you learned yet? Small doesn’t mean weak. In the fae world, small usually means concentrated. As in concentrated power.”
Tim stood, trying to look all nonchalant, but he was obviously preening. He ran his palm across the side of his hair, smoothing it down, flexing his teeny tiny arm muscle as he put his hand down.
Holy bat balls, this little guy was friggin’ hilarious. I just hoped they weren’t going to banish him to some damn pixie colony any time soon. He was cheering me up, and I’m pretty sure it was all-natural cheer and not the pixified kind.
Chapter 19
We all finished dinner and went to Spike’s room after. None of us had ever been there before. It looked pretty much like my room, the only difference being that he had some artsy stuff on his dresser. He also had a silver token tray that was similar to mine, only it had different scrollwork on the edges.
I walked over to the dresser and picked up the silver art thing sitting there. It was a heavy pendant on an ancient-looking chain. I held it up, watching it swing back and forth in front of me. Tim flew over and grabbed the pendant, swinging on it, a big smile on his face. He was like a little kid at the park.
Spike walked over and watched him swing from behind my shoulder.
“This is cool. What is it?” I asked.
“It’s a cross.” And it didn’t look like a normal Christian cross either. It had some different elements on it and the cross part was symmetrical.
“I can see that. Are you religious or something?” I was kind of surprised that he’d have a cross. I remembered when we first saw Valentine in the forest, we’d all assumed he was a vampire. He had bitten Chase on the neck and looked like he was sucking his blood, even though later Chase told us he was sucking the life force out of him. I had seen blood in Valentine’s teeth, so I wasn’t totally convinced.
“No, I’m not religious at all really. It’s just that as part of my training, I have to focus on something to help me find my center. You know, get control of myself so my urges don’t get the better of me. Lots of incubi use these cross medallions. I think this cross comes from some area of the world where this particular design has a special history or something.”
Spike leaned in and sniffed my neck. The sensation sent shivers up and down my spine.
“Spike. Focus on the cross. Find your center.”
He chuckled. “Give that to me.” He grabbed for it, sending Tim away in a flurry of pixie wings. Tim stayed buzzing over my opposite shoulder, cranky that he’d been evicted from his swing.
“I have a question about incubuses,” I said.
“The plural of incubus isn’t incubuses. It’s incubi.”
“Okay, so incubi then. How come Valentine isn’t a vampire? I mean, he sucked Chase’s blood – we all saw him do it.”
Spike looked confused as to why I even asked the question. “Because he’s not undead?”
“Undead? What’s that? I mean, does it mean something other than like a zombie or whatever?”
“Not really. Well, kinda. I guess it’s a little complicated. I’m just learning some of this stuff myself.”
“I was wondering about that too,” said Becky. “Valentine bit Chase. Does that mean you’re gonna bite people too, Spike? Are you like a vampire?”
I was impressed by Becky’s attitude. She was so matter of fact about it. I had been worried about offending him – I guess I shouldn’t have.
“The way it was explained to me, if I understood it right, is that when a fae is alive, here in this world, guys like me are incubi. The girl version is the succubus. I can’t wait to meet one actually.” His started rubbing his hands together, the red in his eyes firing up at the thought.
I grabbed the pendant away from him and waved in front of his face again. “Focus! Tell us the story, dope.”
Spike shook his head. “Oh, yeah. So, anyway, as I was saying,” he shot me a dirty look, “when I’m alive here, I’m an incubus. My life span is a few thousand years or so. I thought at first I’d be immortal, but apparently no fae is immortal – although some of them live a really, really long time and are hard to kill. So anyway, when I die, I’m going to go to one of the Otherworlds.”
“Oh yeah, I heard about that from Gregale, the gray elf,” I said.
&nbs
p; Spike continued. “So if I somehow earn the privilege, and I’m not sure exactly how I do that, I end up in the Overworld.”
“So, what, is that like heaven?” asked Finn.
“Yeah. I guess. And then if I somehow screw something up, I end up in the Underworld.”
“Don’t tell me, lemme guess ... hell?” said Finn.
“Well, maybe. Not exactly. But, yeah. And if I go to the Underworld, I join the legions of undead, apparently.”
“Holy moly, what happens then?” asked Becky, anxiously.
“Then I become a vampire. Incubi become vampires in the Underworld. We’re similar, but not the same.”
“I hate to say it, but this is interesting as hell,” I said.
“Why do you hate to say it?” asked Spike.
“I don’t know. Vampires? The Underworld? It’s kinda creepy. So what about the blood sucking while you’re an incubus? Isn’t that a vampire thing?”
“Well, I’ve never done it before, but apparently the incubus gets his ... energy from sucking the sexual or life energy out of other creatures. Humans are the best, but fae are pretty decent too – some more than others ... ” with this he gave me a pointed look, which was on one hand, flattering, and on another, scary. “And Valentine says that if you pierce the skin of the ... energy giver ... the feeling is more intense and the flow stronger. Like you pierce the shell and it comes pouring out better.” He chuckled, a little self-consciously. “I was told to picture a bag of sugar. You can suck on the outside of the bag and eventually you’ll taste the sweetness. But cut a hole in the bag, and all the sugar comes pouring out, really fast. You can get a pretty big sugar rush doing it that way.”
I shuddered. “Yeah, but ripping a hole in the bag makes it come out even more. So why didn’t Valentine just rip Chase’s throat open?”
“Ah ... the key is that you can’t kill the host. The sexual and life energy disappears with the host’s spirit as soon as it leaves this world – so, like, when the host dies. So you have to make sure they stay alive. And not just a little alive ... a lot alive. Of course, sucking too much of their energy can also kill them so ... ” He shrugged.