Call to Arms

  “Tony. If I can prove to you that the fae are real, will you please give me a chance to help you see the truth?”

  Tony shook his head. “No, Jayne, I can’t keep letting you do this. I’m going to get my parents.”

  He stood up, but I jumped in front of him.

  “Please! Just one chance!”

  “Jayne, don’t make me hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  That pissed me off. “Listen, Tony. I haven’t been picking flowers in a fucking meadow for six weeks. I’ve been training. For war. The only one who’s going to get hurt if we tangle is you. Now sit the fuck down so I can prove you wrong.”

  He took a small step forward and I took up a fighting stance. “I. Will. Fucking. Do it. Tony.” I started to cry a little. “I will hurt you, even though I love you, so that you can see I’m telling you the truth.” I angrily wiped the weak ass tear off my cheek and cleared my voice loudly, forcing the frog in my throat to go the hell away.

  He held up his hands and took one step back. “Fine. I’ll listen to one more thing. If it doesn’t convince me, then you have to agree to let me go.”

  “Deal.”

  I released my muscles from their fighting stance and held my hand out. “Tim, could you come here for a minute?”

  Chapter 29

  I heard Tim’s wings before I saw him arrive. But arrive he did, thank goodness, landing neatly on my outstretched hand.

  “Tony, I’d like you to meet my fae roommate, Tim. Tim is a pixie.” I looked at Tim standing in my hand, looking like the most awesomely badass pixie with a fanny pack that I could ever hope to see. “Tim, this is my best friend in the whole entire world, Tony. He is a human.”

  “Nice to meet you Tony!” shouted Tim.

  “He says it’s nice to meet you. I know he’s hard to hear. His voice is tiny, but his power is mighty.”

  Tim preened under my compliment, swaying from side to side, trying hard to look like a pirate, I think, thumbs hooked in the edge of his fanny pack.

  Tony just stood there staring at my hand, his mouth hanging open. I waited for his brain to catch up to what his eyes were seeing. His hands reached up to his face, scrubbing it a few times and then slowly moving away. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them back up wide, staring at my hand.

  “Is ... ?”

  Tony’s mouth and voice didn’t seem to want to work together. His mouth was moving but no sound was coming out. Then his mouth stopped moving but his throat was making noise.

  “What’s wrong with him?” asked Tim. “Is he retarded?”

  “No, he’s not retarded,” I said impatiently. “He’s just in shock. He’s never seen a pixie before.”

  Tim farted.

  “Oh, for shit’s sake, Tim, not now. Geez.”

  I looked back at Tony who broke his gaze away from Tim to look at me.

  “That’s ... he’s ... ”

  “Yeah. That’s a fae. He’s a pixie. I’m a fae. You’ve got fae blood. This is what I’ve been trying to tell you Tony. I’m not friggin’ lying. All of this shit is real.”

  “Is he wearing a ... fanny pack?”

  I laughed, the joy bursting across my face. “Yes, he is. Cool, right?” I lifted my eyebrows at him, begging him to play along.

  Tony’s phone buzzed in my hand. I lifted it up and looked at the screen. It was a text from Ben.

  ‘WUTZ UP? TRUBL?’

  “Look.” I held up the phone to Tony’s face. “Try to tell me your boy Ben isn’t fae. How could he possibly know what’s going on with you right now? Fae have powers to sense other people’s emotions. Or they have little friends who spy for them.” I lifted Tim up higher as evidence. “Hello!”

  Tony looked at the screen, doubt flooding his face.

  I pulled the phone back. “I’m going to text him back and tell him you’re okay. You are okay, right?”

  Tony nodded numbly.

  I texted Ben back. ‘IM FINE. MOM. :( CU LTR’

  Tim jumped off my hand and into the air, showing off his mad flying skills. He buzzed around the room, doing flips and barrel rolls and midair cartwheels. He finished by landing on my shoulder. Tony didn’t take his eyes off Tim the entire time, and Tim was loving the attention.

  “Tim, can you go tell the guys to come up?”

  “Guys?” asked Tony. “There’s more of them?”

  “Yeah ... well, no, not more pixies. I brought our friends. Guys you know. I want to see if you remember them.”

  Tim left to go deliver the message.

  Tony was shaking his head. “Either I just saw a miniature guy with wings flying around my room wearing a fanny pack, or you drugged me and I’m having some seriously strange hallucinations. Is this what using LSD is like?”

  “Holy bat balls, Tony, you are like a dog with a bone sometimes. I wish I were on drugs and not actually living this shit. Well, that’s not true ... but please, trust me. I have never done drugs and I never will. I have no idea what an LSD trip is like. I’m finding life is crazy enough. I don’t need the extra stimulation, believe me.”

  “Yeah, well, if your world includes pixies in fanny packs, now I can see why. I can’t believe I’m saying that. Pixies. As if they’re real.”

  I leaned in closer to Tony, happy to notice he didn’t back away. “Listen, Tim is tiny, but he has a big ego. He hates it when people act like he doesn’t matter, just because he’s little. So try not to act like he’s a figment of your imagination. He can be a real pain in the ass when he’s not happy.”

  “Oh,” said Tony, still pretty stunned. He sat back down on his bed with an empty look on his face.

  Soon there were noises by the window. I watched as first Jared came in and then Chase, Spike, and finally, Finn arrived.

  “Come over here, guys. I broke the news to Tony and he’s finally agreed to try and believe me.”

  Jared came over first. “Hey, Tony. Nice to see you again. Do you remember me?”

  Tony looked embarrassed. “No, sorry, I don’t.” He stood up from the bed and they shook hands.

  Finn was next. “Hey, Tony. Finn. You probably don’t remember me – but I remember you. Even though you don’t recall any of it, you were good out there in the forest, during the test an’ all. You kicked some serious orc ass. Saw it with my own eyes.” He nodded his head for emphasis.

  “I did?”

  I nodded my head in confirmation.

  Chase came up next. “Chase.”

  “Tony. Nice to meet ... see ... you again.”

  Last came Spike. He walked up and held out his hand. Tony took it and started to shake it.

  “Hey, buddy. I know this is hard for ya. My name’s Spike.” And then Spike gave Tony a huge Spike smile. He started to pull his hand away, but he was stopped by Tony’s grip.

  “Your smile ... ”

  Spike raised his eyebrow. “My smile?”

  “There’s something familiar about your smile ... ” Tony looked at me. “Jayne, why am I remembering his smile? His ... teeth?”

  I felt the heat rising in my face. I leaned in so I could whisper in his ear. “I’ll tell you later.”

  Tony let Spike’s hand go, willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, thank goodness. No way did I want to confess my obsession with Spike’s teeth in front of everyone. At least that obsession had one good outcome; it had rubbed off somehow on Tony – or at least made a hell of an impression. Must be all the times I had vibed him while I was oogling Spike in Miami.

  The guys all stood in the middle of the room.

  “So, what’s next?” asked Finn.

  No sooner had he said that then the sound of a loud wind could be heard coming from outside Tony’s window. The blinds that were hanging halfway down started blowing up and banging around, twisting and bending over themselves. We all looked at each other, confused. The night had been so calm. Why would it sound like a storm was coming through now? Unless ...

  Before the thought could completely form in my head, it
was too late to act. I saw the movement at the window before the words of warning could come out of my mouth.

  The wind had delivered the one person I least wanted to see.

  Ben.

  He stood there in all of his Dark Fae glory, dressed all in black, materializing out of the wind that apparently did his bidding, delivering his black hearted, gorgeous self, right into the middle of Tony’s bedroom.

  “What happens next, is Tony comes with me.”

  Chapter 30

  I stepped in front of Tony, pushing him behind me to protect him. “Over my dead body.”

  The guys quickly assembled and formed a line in front of me, with Chase standing the closest, effectively blocking most of my view of Ben’s angry face. I was kicking myself for leaving Blackie in the hotel. How could I have been so stupid?

  “I would prefer to keep you alive, Jayne. Perhaps with Tony on our side I can persuade you to join us too.”

  “Keep dreaming. Tony’s not going with you and neither am I.”

  Ben lifted his eyes in Tony’s direction.

  “Tony. Do you remember what I said about Jayne? About her friends?”

  “Yes,” Tony said weakly.

  “Was I right?”

  “To some degree, yes.”

  I turned. “What did he say Tony? He lies, you know. You can’t trust him. He’s just trying to get you over to the Dark Fae side.”

  “He said you would come here and try to persuade me to join your gang.”

  “It’s not a gang, Tony. We’re a family. And Ben may try to deny it, but he’s part of a fae family too, only they’re the bad guys and we’re the good guys.” I grabbed Tony’s hands in mine. “You have to pick a side or Ben is going to pick one for you!” I was desperate and I know right then I looked like a crazy person, but I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t lose Tony to this guy. I could feel his dark presence in the room near me. It burned.

  “If I was going to force Tony to do anything, wouldn’t I have done it already? You’re the only one forcing him. Hey, Tony ... did I ever ask you to join a gang? Leave your family? Do anything you didn’t want to do?”

  Tony shook his head no.

  I felt him slipping away. I had to show him Ben wasn’t for real. That Ben was going to force him – if not today, then some day soon. But how?

  I didn’t think; I just acted. I let go of Tony’s hand and reached out in desperation for a connection to The Green. I realized as soon as I started that Tony’s house had to be either directly over or very near a ley line, just like the library. The conduit was here, empty and unused, waiting for a fae like me to awaken its true potential.

  I called on all of the trees and the bushes and the flowers making their home in the soil. I called to the creatures of the night who roamed the Earth away from the human eyes around them. I reached as far as my heart could go, through the oceans and waters that I had an affinity to, the places that connected us to the Green Forest and beyond. I called it all to me in my one bid for Tony’s life.

  The hum filled my ears and the power crackled in my fingertips. The roar of the world’s life energy rose up all around us. Even Tony, who was not yet fae, could feel something happening. The air was filled with it. The floor and walls vibrated with its immensity.

  “You!” yelled Ben. “It’s you!”

  And then he let out a growl. His mouth opened and a fiery redness burned within, black smoke seeping out and running down his chin. It looked like black blood moving in slow motion down his body.

  Jared took one step back so he was in line with Chase. They moved tighter together, blocking my view even more. Finn and Spike fanned out so they were diagonal to them, forming a semi circle with Ben near the middle.

  “Tell us what you want us to do!” yelled Jared, waiting on my signal. None of them had their weapons either. I was the only one who could do anything against Ben right now.

  I felt a pull from the other side of the room ... a heat that was building, coming from Ben. I looked between Chase’s and Jared’s shoulders, and I could see a red glow coming up behind Ben’s back, surrounding him, boiling up over him, taking over him completely. He was turning into a flaming red demon fae.

  “Tony!” I yelled. “Can you see that?!”

  “Yes!” he yelled.

  “Him or me, Tony! Choose now!”

  Chapter 31

  Tony grabbed my arm, completely freaking out. “I don’t know what to do, Jayne! I don’t know what to say!”

  “Time to get off the goddamn fence, Tony!” I was yelling to be heard over the dull but ominous roar coming from Ben’s flaming body. “Are you with me or not?! Because if you say ‘not’ right now, you’re going to lose me forever. There will be nothing I can do for you after that. You will belong to Ben and his Dark Fae forever. And when I say forever, I mean it. Fae live for thousands of years and then ... well ... ” I looked deeply into his eyes and spoke to his heart from mine, “... let’s just say forever is a long time.”

  Tony looked over at the flaming red angry fae that was Ben. The fae creature still looked like Ben, but he was practically on fire, seething with his Dark Fae power. He wasn’t burning, but I knew if he wanted us to burn, we would be aflame in seconds. I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t just throw a fireball at us and kill us right then. Probably because then Tony would be gone and he wanted him pretty badly for some reason.

  “Tony!” roared Ben, “Come to me now!” He sounded like Ben, with a touch of orc roar added, giving him a scary, commanding gravelly voice. I tried not to be scared but it was impossible.

  Tony’s face filled with fear. He looked at me, grabbing me by the arms. “I don’t want to go with him, Jayne.”

  Now Tony was making me cranky. “So, does that mean you want to go with me?”

  “I care about you, Jayne, you know that, but can’t I just stay here? Can’t you come back home and stay here too? Why can’t we just go back to life the way it was ... without all this ... crazy fae stuff?”

  Right at that moment, Tim decided to get a little feisty. I’ll never understand what got into him, because everyone else in the room saw a flaming badass Dark Fae demon looking thing, and stayed way the hell back. But not Tim. No ... he was more like a moth to a flame.

  “I’ll take care of this!” yelled Tim in his wee voice.

  “Tim! No!!” I yelled; but he didn’t listen, as usual.

  He launched himself off my shoulder and started flying towards Ben, his body stretched out in a miniature Superman pose, his wings beating furiously.

  I shrugged Tony off of me and shoved between Jared and Chase. “Tim! Don’t!”

  Finn and Chase tried to grab me but I wiggled away from their grasp. I got three steps forward, hoping to grab Tim and haul him back – maybe shove him in my pocket or something – but I didn’t get there in time.

  Ben saw him coming and smirked. He held up a hand and let out a red laser shot of demon flame or whatever it was that was covering him without consuming him. It hit Tim directly in his left wing.

  There was a spark where it hit him and some smoke, and then we all watched in horror as Tim started spinning down to the ground in an uncontrolled flameout. I could hear his tiny screams of pain and shock as he went down.

  Tim landed with a bounce on the carpet, coming to a rest face down and unmoving. I got there in time to scoop him up quickly and back away. I looked down and saw that his left wing was now a shriveled up lump of melted flesh and bone. His eyes were closed. I couldn’t tell if he was breathing.

  “You are evil, Ben ... whatever your last name is. Evil to the core. Only the world’s biggest fucking asshole would shoot down a tiny harmless pixie.”

  I kept backing up until I felt Chase behind me. He tried to get in front of me, but I wasn’t having it. I turned and handed Tim to Chase. “Hold him. I have to teach our friend a lesson.”

  “Jayne, don’t,” said Jared. “We can’t do this here.”

  “Jaaaayne,” said Spike. ?
??I think you’d better listen to Jared this time.”

  “Ben should have thought about that before he killed my friend Tim and tried to take my best friend Tony away from me.”

  The Green that I had called up before was still there, waiting for me, humming and buzzing with power. I took it into my body, channeling it through to my arms and then down to my hands. I held it out in front of me like a giant glowing green ball. The power nearly consumed me. I almost put my being inside the glow, but at the last second, I held that little piece back.

  I watched Ben and the red glow building up behind him, rising over and gathering around from his sides to rest in his hands. The brightness of his red and orange flames matched the glowing green brilliance of my energy. I could hear its snarling roar clashing against the hum of The Green.

  There we stood, face to face, ready to throw our energy at each other. I stared him in the eyes and he stared right back. I wished right then that I could read his mind. He looked like he was seeing into my soul. Who was this guy? Why did he want Tony so badly? Why was he in that photograph of Tony and me from last year? And why did I want to throw this green nuclear bomb at him but at the same time want him to live?

  I’m pretty sure neither of us knew exactly what was going to happen; but whatever it was, it was going to be epic. I lifted my arms over my head, winding up to let The Green go at Ben.

  “Wait! Stop!” yelled Tony, his voice sounding like it was far away. “You don’t need to do this ... Jayne!” he got past Chase and Jared and stood directly behind me where I could now hear his voice clearly.

  “Jayne, I’m coming with you! ... Do you hear me?”

  He reached his hand through the cool energy of The Green that surrounded me, putting his hand on my shoulder.

  “Jayne,” he said more calmly now, “I’m coming with you.”

  Read on for a sneak peak at

  War of the Fae: Book Three --- Darkness and Light

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