Blood, Body and Mind (23 page)

Demetrius watched as things began to appear around Mel as she walked. A basket of fruit filled with apples, pears, and bananas, a glass of wine. She took each thing and sampled it as she continued to pace the small room. She seemly didn’t even realize what was happening.

“
Once you use what you need, you give back to her ten times that amount. Its recycled energy is used in the colors of flowers: yellows, pinks and reds, also in the green of the tree leaves. There are also creatures that can change the colors, but the magic must be there, the magic of the earth to sustain their magic. The purer the magic returned, the brighter the colors in the fauna in that area.

“
Black magic is not renewable. It only takes from Earth and most importantly, from the user. It also burns them up very fast. That’s the reason people who practice it are always in packs. They nearly always have to combine their resources to make whatever magic they’re using last for longer than a few minutes. Once someone in the pack begins to grow in power, he’s killed.” A flurry of her hands and a hologram of a field appeared, and on it, several figures. Suddenly, one broke free and killed one of the others. A patch of blackened earth appeared in his place then the entire scene disappeared. “They’d rather kill than to have one of their kind get strong enough to overpower them,” Mel explained.

“
And if she is a royal? What then? Will she be able to destroy him? I thought that as a royal he would be an immortal like you. I guess I don’t understand the differences of an immortal or a royal,” Demetrius said.

“
I’m a true immortal because of my birth. I cannot die.” He watched as Mel reached over and touched the violet on the desk. It suddenly doubled in size and overflowed with fat purple blossoms. “I can fade away if I choose, but that isn’t death, it’s not permanent.”

She sat in the chair again, looking exhausted and worn. “I’ve just called my mother home from Ireland where she’s been a fairy ring for centuries. Sherman isn’t a royal by blood, just by mating with me. When we claimed each other, so that he could be with me forever, he became a true immortal by proxy. That’s the only way we could spend eternity together. And so long as I don’t denounce him publicly, he’ll continue to be. The only way to destroy or kill him, he must do one of three things; he must kill another royal, attempt the life of an immortal, or be stripped of his status. Any one of the first two will automatically strip him down to his former self, but then he will still have his magic, and will need to be killed.”

“
So, his attempt on your life, it should have taken away his immortality. But it didn’t, why?” April asked her with no hostility in her voice at all, Demetrius was relieved to realize.

“
Not unless someone in the High Council is aware of his involvement in the plot. I doubt when Sara was fleeing the castle with my body after the explosion, she hung around to explain what went on. And without my body…” Mel shrugged. I’m sorry to say that she was guilty until proven innocent. No, what Sherman is doing is more than likely sanctioned by the Council because they believe that Sara and the others failed me or were the ones who committed the crime. It is in all likelihood that Sara is a wanted fugitive.”

“
Then he’s the one who had her arrested.” At her nod, he continued. “High Council of Magick? You’ve mentioned that before. Is that some sort of court system or something?” Demetrius asked her, trying hard to understand a whole other world other than the two he currently lived in.

“
Yes, that’s exactly what they are. I am magic, but without someone to govern even me, things could be one sided. The Council wants for nothing, the people see to their needs. So they enforce my law for me. If not for someone to back me up and with nothing to gain, I could become a tyrant.” She looked at April. So did he. But his mate just smiled at them both and continued as if Mel hadn’t given her a perfect shot.

“
That probably explains why she is working for smaller airlines, and when she does fly for the bigger companies, she does it under the company name and not her own. She is hiding out, just not from anyone in the human world. All this time we believed her to be hiding from the law. Just never imaged that it was the law of another realm,” Demetrius mused out loud.

“
What happens if she is able to prove Sherman is the one who caused your demise? Is he then stripped of his royal sanction?” April asked her.

“
Yes, and once that happens, he’ll be a mere immortal. Then...then Sara will be able to fry is ass,” she stated with a huge smile.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Sara waited until full darkness before she opened her hand to the bright orange stone. Looking toward the door to make no one could see her, she blew gently across it.

She’d been given one of these stones before, a blue one then. It had been many years ago when she was still being tested and trialed to become a guard. The instructions had been to open it. It had taken her several hours of studying it, rubbing it between her hands, throwing it. She’d even tried soaking it in water. As she was drying it off, she blew a piece of lint off it and it opened up, revealing the message.

The stone rocked softly in her hand, vibrating little shakes. As she watched, the stone began to morph; tiny wings began to separate themselves from its surface. Then a face formed and took shape, its features so small they looked surreal.

As the wings started to flutter, the rest of the stone became arms, legs, and a body. The little creature rolled over in Sara’s palm and stretched tautly. It was a pixie, a woodland being that worked with the forest. Sara watched as the pixie pulled her little wings tightly against her back as she continued to change and become whole.

When it had rested for several minutes, it suddenly flew from her hand and across the room toward the sink. Then she flitted over to the toilet and around the rim. Her wings were going so fast that it was nearly impossible to see with the human eye. Sara watched her until she came back and landed on her bent knee.

Sara smiled at her. She wasn’t at all what the movies portrayed a pixie to look like. Her wings were diaphanous, of course. But the rest of her was purely female. Her short hair was bright, bright orange and spiked all over her head. Her eyes were also orange, but not quite as bright as the hair. She had a piercing in her little nose and a chain of something sparkly around her ankle. In addition to the dark green Grateful Dead t-shirt, she also had on a pair of Capris that reached just below her knees, and flip-flops.

“
Don’t you just hate Ohio weather? It can be hotter than the Sarnillian’s belly one day and colder than Daphne’s tit the next.” Her voice was tiny and squeaky, but Sara could hear her.

“
I’ll have to take your word for those places. You have a name, Pix?” Sara asked her.

“
Yeah, well duh. Everyone has one, don’t they? Sheesh, the queen said you were smart. It’s Mari. Well, it’s really Marigold, but I go by Mari. Do you believe this flippin’ hair? I wanted to be pink, but that girl Petunia beat me to it.” Mari began flipping her hair around with her finger tips.

“
You mean there can only be one pink...you know, I don’t care. You have a message for me, Mari?” Sara hated dealing with pixies. They tended to be self-centered and not a little narcissistic. This one was proving to be both.

“
Yeah, the queen said to sit tight. And not to do anything stupid. I guess we can mark that one off the list. You are in a dungeon. I’m also supposed to tell you that your vamp is well. You know a vampire? Ooooohhhh, has he nipped you yet? I would love to be bitten by one. That would be so cool,” Mari gushed.

“
He’d crunch you in half. What does she mean, sit tight?” Sara’s head was beginning to ache already and the pix had only been here five minutes.

“
I don’t know, just sit tight. You know that really is a stupid statement. Are you supposed to pucker up your butt while you sit here? Stupid. And I bet if you asked nicely, he’d bite me. Could you do that for me? I’d be your friend for life.” Mari looked around the cell. “Okay, that really isn’t a long time, but I could sneak you in some cigs to bribe the guards with.”

“
No, he’s not going to bite you, and no, I don’t want any cigarettes.” Sara rubbed her forehead to try and ease some of the sudden tension. “As for the butt thing, I’m not even going to think about why you want to know. Can you take a message back to her for me?”

“
Yeah, but you have to put me somewhere that I can get past the magick first. I can’t break the ward put on the door to keep you in. Although why you’d want outta here is beyond me.” Sara flicked her with her finger. Mari landed with a soft bump on the floor.

~~~

Aaron had been trying to contact Sara for nearly four hours when Demetrius shimmered into the room. He simply dropped to the nearest chair.

“
What’s happened? Did the plane go down? Please tell me she didn’t suffer. Oh Demetrius, I...”

“
Sire, she’s all right. I’m sorry, I never...I’m sorry, sire. She’s...the queen, Melody, sent me to talk to you. She said that I needed to explain what’s happened.”

“
Where is Sara? I need to see her. Where?” He reached for her again and was terrified once again at the finality of their connection. It was as if she no longer lived. “If she’s all right like you say, why can’t I reach her?” He stood up and began pacing.

“
She’s been arrested for—” Demetrius started

“
Arrested! For what? She hasn’t done anything wrong. Take me to her right now. We’ll clear this up in no time.” He began walking to the door. When he turned around, the other vamp was still sitting. “What else, Demetrius? What haven’t you told me?” He sat down again. He suddenly felt his fourteen hundred years.

“
Sara’s been arrested for treason and murder. They have her in a dungeon in Malt...Mult…the castle. Melody said that you must not go to her, nor should you plan her escape. She also explained that you mustn’t try and contact her, that Mel’s mate must continue to think she, Mel, is gone.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Sara had been in the castle dungeon for three days with only a small patch of light from a vent high on the wall to mark her time. She wanted to see Aaron, just one more time before they passed judgment on her. She knew that she was to die, but they were slowly killing her by keeping her away from Aaron. She had stopped asking last night; no one paid any attention to her anyway. She was getting hoarse from screaming for someone to let her see him.

Sara’s magic didn’t work here; the cell was engineered in such a way to keep anyone inside from using anything to escape. Made sense if you thought about it, and she had. Every day, every hour, every second since she’d been tossed in here. She now sat in the corner of her cell, contemplating what had brought her to this end. Sherman. He seemed to be the bane of her misery.

Sara looked over at the tray of food from her evening meal. Her food left untouched as were the other meals that had been placed in the room. Her appetite was simply gone. It was too bad, really; it always looked like she was being fed more than bread and water. The bread that was there didn’t look like it had one single worm in it either. She laughed manically at her own joke. They didn’t serve food that way here, she knew that.

The cell really wasn’t that bad either. There was a nice cot with a thick mattress on it. In addition to the clean sheets were two blankets and a fluffy pillow. It was by far softer than the back of her van had ever been. She’d fallen asleep in it twice and while she didn’t sleep well, it was no fault of the bed. There was a toilet and a sink with a plastic mirror over it. On the stone floor where she was currently sitting was a thick rug. There weren’t any pictures on the walls, of course, but someone, long ago probably, had used something to carve his name in the dark stone. There were also a few crude words there, written well before Sara had been a thought in anyone’s mind.

Sara felt them before she heard them unlocking the door. It was nearly time to come for the tray, so she didn’t move when the door opened. That seemed to be the only power she had retained, feeling them, but not reading their intent. So she was surprised when one of them touched her. He must have tried several times to speak to her, but she was too far gone in her depression to have heard him.

Sara looked up at him now, seeing him for the first time, and realized with a start it was Tyler. He looked so good to her. She nearly jumped up to hug him to her, so happy she was to see someone familiar. But her bonds, the shackles at her wrists and ankles, kept her from moving.

“
Hello, Sara. Can you get up and follow me, please? The High Council is ready to see you now.”

Sara looked at him for long moments, and then turned back to the small patch of waning sunlight. “Lend me your dagger, Tyler, and leave me. Tell them you found me in my cell dead. I’d appreciate it. I don’t want to die like a coward and we both know the penalty for killing a royal blood.” It was beheading at the gallows. They both had been witness to it enough. “I promise you it won’t be a lie by the time you get back to them.”

“
Come on, up with you. You need to bathe and dress. The others are waiting to see you, and it isn’t like you to keep people waiting. Come on.” His voice held a bit of authority that she couldn’t help but obey.

When she was standing, he let her go, and she crumbled to the floor again bumping her head against the hard wall, not because she wouldn’t go with him, but because she was weakened from lack of exercise and food.