“Tell him you want to meet privately and you can meet Ben later,” said Jared.
‘HOW BOUT JST U N ME? I CN MT BEN LTR. CAN’T WAIT!’
I could just picture Maggie the witch yelling, ‘Lie!’ in my face at that last part of the text. No, I really don’t want to meet Ben at all, Tony, thank you very much. But I had to lie just in case Ben was reading the texts.
The return text came back right away.
‘K. C U SOON.’
“Huh. That was easier than I thought it would be.”
I looked at the guys and they all had the same cautiously optimistic look on their faces that I know I did.
Finn stood up. “Well, I’m starvin’. Let’s go grab some grub. I’d kill for a juicy burger right now.”
“There’s a burger place about two minutes from the school if you guys want to eat there.”
“I want some pineapple,” said Tim.
“They have a mixed fruit plate too. But Tim, you’re not gonna eat that shit in my hair.”
I could hear him grumbling something about pixies getting no respect.
“Great. We’ll take a taxi,” said Jared.
Jared handled the transportation and within thirty minutes we were at the grill ordering our burgers and fries plus a side of two chunks of pineapple picked out of a mixed fruit cup. I took Tim into the bathroom so he could eat his pineapple in a stall while I pretended to pee. We had almost an hour before the meeting. The library was close to the school and it would probably take us about ten minutes of walking to get there. Luckily the weather was cooperating, meaning it wasn’t raining like it did a lot of the time here at this time of year. It was horribly humid, but that was normal.
The closer it got to six, the more nervous I became. At five-thirty we left the burger place and went to the library. Tony and I used to study on the second level, in the back where it was quieter. There were several rows of bookshelves there on either side of the banks of study tables, so the guys went and stationed themselves between them where they could remain hidden from Tony’s view. Tim stayed with Finn in one of his front shirt pockets. I sat at one of the tables, cell phone in hand. Chase sat next to me, a book open in front of him. He looked pretty funny sitting there, trying to act like he was studying. I didn’t think he would fool anyone, especially since he rarely turned a page, and when he did, it was in reverse order. No one else was back there though so it didn’t matter. I couldn’t see the other guys from where I was sitting. I got this weird feeling that we were doing some kind of sting operation instead of having a reunion. It didn’t feel good to me at all.
I heard the soft fall of footsteps on the carpeted floor coming from around the corner. I stood up anxiously as I saw a guy in jeans and ragged flannel coming towards me. If I hadn’t seen Tony in my astral travels, I would have watched him walk right by without recognizing him. He looked totally different. Chase nudged me from under the table but didn’t move from his seat.
I pushed my chair back and ran over. I couldn’t help myself – I jumped into this stranger’s arms, squeezing him for all I was worth. At first he just stood there, his arms hanging down by his sides. I felt the tears threaten at this one-sided love attack. Before I thought too much about it I said, “Tony, you’d better fucking hug me back or I’m gonna have to kick your ass right here in the library.”
I felt him laugh once over my shoulder and then his arms reluctantly went around me and squeezed back. He rested his head on my shoulder for a second and said, “I can still feel your vibe. All this time I wasn’t sure if it was you, but now I know it was. It was you all along.”
I pulled back for a second to look at his face. I put my hands up on his cheeks. “You look so different, I almost didn’t recognize you. What the hell happened?”
Tony looked around nervously. “Lots of stuff. I’d rather not talk about it here.”
I looked around too, slowly dropping my hands from his face. “Is there something wrong?”
“No.”
I didn’t believe him. Something was off.
“Come on, Tony, it’s me. Tell me what’s going on.”
Tony looked me in the eye and reached up, putting his hand on my arm. He looked like he was getting ready to say something, but then a voice spoke up from behind him.
“Hey, Tony, what’s up, man? I didn’t know you were gonna be here.”
Tony smiled and turned around, dropping his hand from my arm. “Hey Ben! I didn’t know you were going to be here either. What’s up?”
“Nothin’. Just hangin’. Who’s this?”
Tony stepped to the side and I got my first look at my new arch nemesis. Ben.
I was not prepared for the utter gorgeousness that greeted my eyes. He had dark tousled hair, a little on the long side and nearly black, and very dark green eyes. At first I thought they were brown but he turned his head a little and I saw them in the light. His skin was tanned and super smooth. He had the sculpted full lips, a strong but narrow nose, high cheekbones and the squared jaw of a male model from some foreign country. He was bigger than Tony but smaller than Chase, with a broad, muscular chest and shoulders. Holy Blessed Mother Fucker Be. He must have the girls at school drooling like dogs over one hell of a meaty bone. I hoped like hell Spike had his little medallion with him right now so he could breathe through the sexy thoughts I was having at this moment, because, hoo-boy! This guy was gorgeous. Well ... in a bad guy, awful person kind of way.
I saw his eyebrow rise up in appraisal of me. I’m not sure if he liked what he saw or not, but I didn’t care. I saw the nervous look on my Tony’s face and I knew I had to get him the hell away from this gorgeous monster.
Tony held his hand out towards me and smiled. “This is Jayne. Jayne, this is Ben.”
Ben held his hand out. “Nice to meet you, Jayne.”
I reached out to take his hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you too.” Lie!
I felt the heat as soon as we touched. It wasn’t normal heat. It was fire heat. I didn’t even think about it before I did it – it was an automatic reaction. I reached out to The Green of Florida, through the ley line I was happy to discover running under the library, and it answered me with lightning quickness. It surged into my burning hand and put the fire out like someone had dumped a handful of ice into my palm. I smiled serenely at Ben. “I’m so glad to finally meet the guy who tried to steal my Tony away.” Emphasis on the ‘tried’, asshole.
He smiled shrewdly back at me, dropping my hand and subconsciously rubbing his palm that had just touched mine with the fingers of his other hand. “I wasn’t aware that he was your Tony.”
“Oh, he is. Trust me.”
Tony reached up and patted my shoulder. “She always was a little possessive.”
“Really?” said Ben, staring me in the eye, his anger barely checked.
“You have no idea,” I said, my underlying threat unmistakable.
I heard a throat clearing behind me, and Tony looked confused for a second, staring over my shoulder. “I know you from somewhere,” he said. “I can’t place your face exactly though.”
Chase held out his hand. “Hey, Tony. I’m Chase. You and I met in Miami once.”
“Oh. Huh.” Tony mindlessly shook Chase’s hand. “So, are you here with Jayne?”
“Yeah. Just hanging out.” He looked over at Ben and nodded his head once.
Ben gave him an appraising look, saying nothing.
“So, what did you want to talk about, Jayne?” asked Tony, smiling vaguely.
I stared at Tony, searching his face and eyes, but could not figure out what his deal was. He seemed happy, but nervous too. I thought earlier he was going to say something to me but then Ben showed up. But Tony didn’t seem afraid of him, really. I didn’t know what to do now, so I just decided to wing it.
“Oh, you know, old times, see what you’ve been up to, fill you in on what I’ve been up to, that kind of thing.”
“That sounds interesting,” interrupted Ben, “I’d love to hea
r about it.”
I looked at him and said saccharin-sweetly. “Yes, well, Ben, I’d love to tell you all about it sometime, but I’m sure you’d understand if I said I missed Tony and really would like to have some alone time with him.”
Ben shrugged. “I guess that’s up to Tony. What do you think Tony? Am I a third wheel at the party?”
Tony looked uncomfortable. I gave Ben the stink eye when Tony wasn’t looking and he just smiled back at me, raising one of his eyebrows like a cocky jerk.
Asshole.
“Well, to be honest, Jayne, Ben and I had plans for this evening. But maybe tomorrow or something. You’re staying at your house, right?”
“Uh, yeah.” I panicked. I’m not sure why I said that. “I haven’t gotten back there yet, but I’m going over now.”
“Okay, well, I’ll call you at your house then. Later. When we’re done.”
What was I going to do? Tell him no? I didn’t want him to think I was mental and then refuse to see me anymore. “Yeah, okay, that’s cool.” I stepped over and hugged him hard. “I’m so glad to see you again. I missed you.”
Tony patted my back. “Yeah, me too.”
“It was nice finally meeting you,” said Ben, “especially after hearing all about you these past couple months. Hopefully we can get to know each other while you’re visiting.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said. Not fucking likely, douche bag. I gave him my biggest, fakest smile.
Tony and Ben walked away and I sagged against Chase when they were out of sight. He put his arm around me and squeezed, moving his hand to my shoulder when he was done and leaving it there.
“You did good.”
Tim came buzzing over and landed on my other shoulder. “Well, that was interesting. I thought we were going to have a showdown!”
“Yeah. I’m glad I picked the library.” I looked down at my hand – the one that had shaken Ben’s. “Well, let there be no mistake. That guy is Dark Fae and he has some sort of tie to Fire. I thought he was going to burn my hand off.”
Spike came walking up and took my hand. “Looks okay to me.” He pulled it up to his mouth and kissed it, winking at me. “All better now.”
Chase’s hand on my shoulder squeezed a little. I looked up at his face but it was expressionless, just staring at Spike.
I pulled my hand out of Spike’s and slapped him gently on the face with it. “Keep your fangs to yourself.” I tried to ignore the heat coming from Chase’s body standing so near and his hand still on my shoulder.
Jared and Finn came walking up, standing next to Spike.
“So, what’re we dealin’ with then?” asked Finn, “Dark Fae? Incubus?”
“Yes and no. Dark Fae but not incubus. Elemental maybe? I don’t know all the races yet.”
“Huh. I thought that guy was full-on incubus the way you were sweatin’ it,” said Finn.
I whacked him on the chest. “Shut up. I can’t help it if he was a lot hotter than I was expecting. I thought Dark Fae were like, I don’t know, orcs or something. He was supposed to be butt ugly.”
Jared spoke up. “I got a little twitchy there. I’m glad Chase was next to you.”
“Twitchy? What do you mean?” I asked. It wasn’t like Jared to open up about his feelings or let us see what was going on behind his closed doors.
“Daemon get twitchy feelings when a protected one is being threatened. He did something when he touched you. Or tried. I couldn’t see what was happening though.”
Chase grunted his agreement, squeezing my shoulder one more time before letting it go.
“Well, he shook my hand and tried to burn me with some kind of fire, so I brought The Green in and cooled him down a notch.”
Finn held up his hand, grinning. “Gimme some skin on that, girl. You showed him who’s boss. I like it when our Light Fae women get tough.”
I gave him a high-five, smiling back. “Yeah, I was pretty awesome.” I held up my index finger by my shoulder so Tim could high-one me.
I felt his tiny hand make contact. “You go, girl!” he said, admiration in his voice.
“I wonder what they’re doing tonight,” said Chase.
“Yeah, Tony said he couldn’t see me tonight because he and Ben had plans. He’s supposed to call me at my mom’s. I don’t know why I said I’d be there. I panicked.”
“That’s okay. You should go and say hi to your mom. If Tony can’t meet you today, set it up for tomorrow. Stay with your mom overnight if you can. Maybe we’ll get the opportunity to meet Tony later, after he’s done with Ben. It’s better if you can hang out at your house and not out on the street somewhere. The hotel is too far to walk and taxis are a pain.”
The thought of spending the night in my bedroom had me overwhelmed with instant cold sweats, even though the only thing there were bad memories. And I wasn’t so sure my mom would even be down with it. But I was willing to give it a shot. I had missed her, even if we didn’t see eye to eye on pretty much anything lately, and Jared was right. This was the easiest way to handle things ... and my mother’s boyfriend was long gone, so I had nothing to worry about. I shook my head, scrubbing those thoughts out of my mind as much as possible. Ugh.
We left the library and I called my mom on the cell. She started crying at first, saying how happy she was to hear from me and how worried she had been, which made me feel a little guilty. Then when I told her I wanted to come home for a visit, she got really excited and told me of course I could come stay there. I didn’t tell her it was only for one day, but she seemed alright with the whole idea of just a visit.
It made me a little angry that she was so okay with me, her seventeen-year-old daughter, just being a visitor in her house, but whatever. Some kids had awesome moms and some kids had moms like mine. At least I had one. She was already planning to make me my favorite dinner. I told her I was bringing a friend, meaning Chase. I didn’t tell her about the others because I didn’t think she’d be okay with a whole group of strange guys in her house; but she would love Chase – my new all-American boyfriend.
The guys were going to have to fend for themselves overnight if we weren’t able to get to Tony later; but they said they would wait outside my house until I told them it was a no-go, before they left to sleep at the hotel. No matter what, Chase was going to stay with me, even if he had to sneak in my window and sleep on the bedroom floor. He insisted on it, apparently taking his daemon duties very seriously, even here in Florida. I was so, so glad when he said that too, even though any fear I had was irrational. My mom was no threat to me, other than the damage she could do to my heart – and that had already been done. Tim was going to stay back with Jared, Spike and Finn, even though he could have hidden in my hair; he wasn’t afraid of any Dark Fae, but he was afraid of Mr. Biggles, my mom’s cat. All pixies are apparently petrified of cats.
We left the library and stood outside for a few minutes, firming up our plans.
“I’d like to see where Tony lives, if you don’t mind showing us, Jayne,” said Jared. “Maybe we can keep an eye on his place so we know when he gets back. If it’s not too late, we could probably make contact.”
“Sure, it’s not far. Come on.”
We walked the few blocks to Tony’s house, standing a few houses down and across the street. “That’s it there – the blue one. And mine is just two streets over and one block that way. Forty-three Cherokee Way.”
“Perfect. We’ll hang around the general area and get a feel for the people coming and going.”
“I can fly up to his window and watch from up there if you tell me which one it is,” said Tim.
“Good idea, Tim. His window is in the front there – on the right.” I pointed to it and watched as Tim flew over, buzzing up and down in front of it, before coming back to my shoulder. “Yeah, that was the right one.” I turned to look at the guys and explain, since they weren’t able to hear my conversation with the pixie. “Tim will be up at the window watching for stuff from up there.”
“I dunno how much help that’ll be. None of us can hear a dang thing he says,” said Finn.
“He’s pretty good at charades.”
“Ask him if he knows what I’m saying now,” said a cranky Tim, who was busy buzzing up and down while flipping Finn the tiniest bird you’ve ever seen.
I swatted at him to make him stop. He flew back to my shoulder and pulled my hair.
“Do that again and I’ll squash you like a bug.”
He answered me with a tiny pixie fart and then flew up to Tony’s window. I could barely make out his tiny form, sitting on the outside windowsill. He’s lucky he can move so fast.
“Little shit.”
The guys were ignoring my exchange with Tim, busy finishing up the planning.
“Alright,” said Spike, “So, Chase you and Jayne are going to her house then, and we’re gonna wait for you to come out later and tell us what’s what – whether we’re going in for Tony or waiting until tomorrow.”
Chase nodded. “Yeah.”
“Okay. That’s the plan then. We’ll see you guys later.” Jared nodded at us, stepping back and giving Chase and me room to get by.
Chase and I began walking to my house. As we passed Tony’s, I could see Tim up on the roof, dancing to some internal disco beat, if his moves were any indication. Anyone else who looked up there would probably think they were seeing a dragonfly having a seizure. I couldn’t help but giggle.
“What?”
I shook my head. “Nothin’.” Goofy ass pixie. He made my heart feel lighter.
Chase and I arrived at my house ten minutes later, at the same time my mom was pulling up in her car. She freaked out when she saw me, crying and running up to me, hugging me until I couldn’t breathe, all the while ignoring Chase who stood off to the side. She calmed down soon enough and released me, going back to her car and reaching into her backseat – pulling out two armloads of groceries that no doubt included the special mix of meats and herbs that somehow magically turned into her famous meatloaf. She smiled vaguely at Chase but focused her attention on me. Chase moved quickly to take the bags from her and we all went into the house where she hugged me hard again and cried a little more, telling me how glad she was that I was back.