Call to Arms (War of the Fae: Book 2) (12 page)

I shrugged to myself.
 
The stick had done well by me, so I wasn’t complaining ... at least, not anymore.
 
There was something about it; it felt like it was made for me.
 
And when I had stabbed the hag with it, a beautiful, rich green glow had come from it that reminded me of the energy of The Green.
 
During the fae test, when the orcs had gotten a taste of it, the green glow had radiated out of the stick and burned off all of the black orc blood, leaving it clean and unblemished.
 
If I’ve learned one thing in my three days in this forest, it’s that nothing
is
as it seems.
 
Blackie may look like nothing more than a dark, pointy stick – but it’s much more than that.
 
It’s a hag
‘n
orc killer.
 
Fierce.
 
Just like my little
pomeranian
doggy, badass Blackie, may his tiny soul rest in peace.

I sighed, putting the stick back where I found it.
 
As I was closing the drawer, I heard a light tapping at the door.
 

“Come in!”
 
I wasn’t sure if I was hoping it was Spike again or praying that it wasn’t.

The door swung in and Finn stood in the doorway.

“Finn!” I said, rushing over to give him a hug.
 
It was nice to see someone standing there who wasn’t going to try and suck the life out of me or drown me.

He held out his arms, taking me in and giving me a friendly squeeze.

“Hey girl.
 
Whatcha been
up to?”

I stepped back and laughed nervously.
 
“Oh, nothing much.
 
Giving Céline a stroke, learning how to breathe underwater, being attacked by a very sexy incubus.
 
How ‘bout you?
 
How’s your day going?”

Finn looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
 
“Wait.
 
Back up the tractor a sec.
 
Start with the stroke thing and then move forward from there, only real
slow-like
for us country folk.
 
I’m an elf you know.”
 
He smiled, obviously not so pissed off about his fate anymore.

“Do you have an hour?
 
Because that’s about how long this is going to take.”

“Come on.
 
You can tell me over lunch.
 
I’m supposed to bring you down to the dining hall.”

“On whose orders?”

“Mr. Anton Dardennes.”

I said nothing, following him out and shutting the door behind me.
 

We got to the lunchroom, the same room where we had breakfast, and filled up some plates with food.
 
I stuck to food groups I could recognize for this meal too.
 
I was feeling braver, being a fae and all, but not brave enough to eat things that were still moving or things that looked like entrails or dung.
 
And there was some stuff that certainly resembled that on the buffet today.
 
I tried, not very successfully, to suppress a shudder.

I sat down at the table in between Finn and Becky.

“So, spill the beans.
 
What’s all this about giving Céline a stroke?
 
You really shocked her about somethin’, eh?”

“No.
 
When I say ‘stroke’ I don’t mean ‘shock’.
 
I mean
stroke
.”

Finn’s fork stopped halfway between his plate and his mouth.
 
“I beg your pardon?”

I was eating a roll, but I just started talking anyway, food rolling around in my mouth.
 
“Yeah.
 
I showed her the tree hugging thing, and she just like, overloaded or something.”

“Well, that never happened to us, did it Finn?” verified Becky.

He shook his head.

“Yeah.
 
Well.
 
See ... I might have ... um ... given her a little more juice than I gave you guys.”
 
I swallowed the hunk of bread with a guilty gulp.

Finn plunked his fork down on his plate and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, taking in a deep breath.
 
Then he looked down at the table, shaking his head slowly.
 
“Lordy, lordy, lordy ... Jayne, Jayne, Jayne ...
what
are we gonna do with you?”
 
He started eating again, a smile on his face.

Becky’s eyes were bulging out of her head.
 
“You did
not
.”

I felt a little chagrined.
 
“I did.”

Becky’s mouth dropped open.
 
She was speechless, her eyes reproachful.

“I didn’t do it on purpose!
 
How was I supposed to know she couldn’t handle it?
 
I thought these fae were supposed to be all badass and stuff.”
 
I pushed my food around with my fork, my appetite suddenly gone.
 
“
Shit ..
.
”
 
I
was grouchy now.
 
How had I become the bad guy in all this?
 
I was just doing what Céline had asked me to do.
 

Finn leaned in closer, talking in a low tone.
 
“Personally, I would have loved to see that.
 
A very small piece of me
is
happy you got one over on her.
 
But that’s only because I know she’s fine now.
 
I just saw her a few minutes ago ... talking to Dardennes.
 
Look ...
”
 
He nodded his head toward the door and stopped talking.

I looked up in the direction of his nod and saw Céline walking in with Dardennes.
 
She was moving a little slower than normal, but she was moving.
 
She had all her limbs and she was smiling at something he had said.

“You should go apologize,” whispered Becky.

“Screw that!
 
I’m not apologizing.
 
I was just doing what she told me to do.”

Becky sighed and gave me a look.
 

Damn
, she sure was going to be a good mother some day.
 
I scowled at her and growled,
“Fine.”

I stood up and walked over to Céline, suddenly nervous.
 
Okay, so maybe I had been a little rough on her.
 

“A-
hem
, Céline?
 
Can I talk to you for a sec?”

She nodded at Dardennes, and he left her with me, nodding as he passed by.

I cleared my throat again.
 
“Um, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for ... what happened earlier.
 
I didn’t mean to ... ”

“Jayne.
 
Stop.
 
You have nothing to be sorry for.”
 
She reached down and took my hands, looking me right in the eyes and smiling.
 
“You showed me something beautiful.
 
Something amazing.
 
Something
powerful
.
 
Don’t apologize for it.”

“Really?
 
You’re not mad?”

“No.
 
Just do me a favor ... Next time?
 
Warn me.”

I smiled.
 
“I’ll try.
 
To be honest, I didn’t know that was going to happen.
 
Not like that, anyway.”

She nodded understandingly.
 
“I know.
 
We will need to work on that.
 
And we will.
 
Now go eat with your friends.
 
You and I will do some more work after lunch.”

I returned to the table where I had left Becky and Finn and started eating again, my appetite back in full force.

Chase came in and made a
bee-line
to the buffet, joining us after filling his plate.
 

“You okay, Jayne?” he asked, sitting down.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Finn looked from Chase to me.
 
“Yeah, you were saying something about Spike?”

Chase frowned but looked down at his plate, spearing something that looked like goat entrails and stuffing it in his mouth.
 
I worked on not gagging, but I wasn’t helping myself by staring at him.
 
I couldn’t seem to help my fascination with his ability to eat everything and anything.
 
I wondered if he’d eat a dwarf if it were on the menu.

“What happened with Spike?” asked Becky, now very curious.
 
She nudged me with her elbow.
 
“Eh?
 
Eh?
 
Tell us.
 
Especially the juicy details, please.”

I sighed.
 
“He came into my room and used his goo-goo, voodoo eyes to trick me into kissing him is all.”

Finn choked on whatever he was trying to swallow.
 
He grabbed for his water glass as Chase thumped him on the back with one hand to try and help him breathe again.
 
Chase continued to eat his breakfast entrails with the other hand.

Finn recovered and then looked at me. “He did
what
?!
”

“Tell him, Chase.
 
I’m not exactly sure what it was all about.
 
And I’m also a little confused about how you and Jared ended up being there to save me too.”

Finn didn’t wait for Chase’s explanation.
 
“
Shee-it
, you people have all the fun.
 
You guys are
givin
’ people strokes and
havin
’ sex parties and doin’ rescues while I’m off gallivantin’ in the forest, shootin’ at some stupid dang targets.”
 
He was disgusted once again with being an elf.
 

Chase put down his fork and slowly used his napkin to carefully wipe off his mouth.
 
Then he began speaking.
 
“Spike is an incubus.
 
He was craving energy and he found some in Jayne.
 
As an incubus, his particular mode of getting energy is through sexual type behavior.
 
Jared and I found him in Jayne’s room, engaged in a ... compromising position with her that could have put her in danger.
 
We intervened and neutralized the threat because that is what we do as daemons.
 
End of story.”

We all sat there, just staring at him, our mouths hanging open.
 
It was the longest group of connected sentences any of us had ever heard him say.

He looked at all of us and then shrugged.
 
“I’m going back to the buffet.
 
You guys want anything?”

We all shook our heads soundlessly.

Chase got up from the table and went to refill his plate at the buffet.
 
Once he was gone, Becky said,
 
“Who is that guy, and what has he done with our friend, Chase?”

“Man, you ain’t jokin’,” said Finn.

We all just stared at Chase’s back as he loaded up his plate again.

A minute later, he came back to the table with another gigantic helping of disgusting mystery meats.
 
I tried not to look at it as I finished with my salad and bread.
 

Everyone around us began standing up, heading towards the exit leading to the hallway of magical doors.
 
Chase wolfed
down
his food in record time.
 
It was like watching a starved animal eat.

“Are you sure you’re a daemon and not an ogre?” I asked, before I could stop myself.

Chase shrugged, not the least bit insulted as far as I could tell.
 
“I’m a daemon with an ogre’s appetite I guess.”

“Come on, time to go to training again,” said Finn.

I stood.
 
“I wonder where I’m supposed to go.”

“You’re going with me,” said Finn.

“I am?”

“Yeah.
 
I got a message from Robin.”

“Who is Robin and when did you get a message from him?”

“Robin is the head of
trainin
’ for the green elves and I got the message just now.”

“Now?
 
How is that possible?”

“What?
 
Didn’t ya hear it?”
 
Finn started laughing.
 

“No.
 
Is that some sort of elf joke?”

“Yeah, actually it is.
 
He did just send me the message, but he sent it here.”
 
Finn tapped his temple.

“A telepathic message.”

“Yeah.”

“That is fucking
cool
.”