Call to Arms (War of the Fae: Book 2) (43 page)

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 hear 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.