Call to Arms (War of the Fae: Book 2) (44 page)

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.
 

After she got over her mini-breakdown, we moved to the kitchen where Chase received a proper welcome.
 
We sat at the little kitchenette table while my mother unloaded the groceries.
 
We didn’t talk
about me running away or why I had done it
; neither of us wanted to go there, and I had bigger, more pressing problems to deal with right now.
 
Her enthusiastic welcome didn’t mean a whole lot when I thought about the reasons I had left in the first place.
 
My mother was a conflicted person – but it didn’t change the bare fact that she had chosen her douchebag boyfriend over me too many times to count.
 
Her daughter.
 
It didn’t matter that he was gone now.
 
He hadn’t left because she had kicked him out – he had left because I had forced his hand and exposed him for what he was.

Chase looked over at me and raised an eyebrow.
 

I guess my anger was seeping out of my thoughts and becoming obvious.
 
I took the hint and forced myself to push my troubled memories of her callousness to the back of my mind, so I could focus on my ultimate goal – saving Tony and getting the hell out of here.

I watched her cook and chat with Chase.
 
He was a great fake boyfriend.
 
He talked more with her than I’d ever seen him talk with anyone before.
 
She was thoroughly charmed by his all-American boy good looks and politeness.
 
The mystery that is Chase once again caught me by surprise.
 
I put the thoughts of figuring him out in the back of my mind too, though.
 
As much as I would have liked to play the part of doting girlfriend to my hot daemon friend, I had to figure out this stuff with Tony first ... like how I was going to get him away from Ben for our heart to heart talk.
 
And then what exactly I was going to say to him when I did.

My mom had just finished pulling the meatloaf out of the oven when she said, “Jayne, will you set the table please?”
 
We were alone in the kitchen, Chase having moved into the dining room.

“Sure.
 
Will you hand me three plates, please?”

She didn’t say anything, she just reached into the cabinet in front of her and handed me the plates.
 
I looked at them, noticing there were more than three.
 
“I think you gave me one too many; there are four here.”

“No, it’s right.
 
Set the table for four.”
 
She began preparing some mashed potatoes, so I couldn’t see her face.

“Who’s the fourth place for?”

“Whom do you think?” she asked, testily, refusing to look at me.

Then it hit me.
 
The douchebag was still living here.
 
I guess my little fantasy that she’d gotten rid of him was just that – a fantasy.
 
“Are you fucking kidding me?
 
You’re still living with that asshole?”

She slammed down the potato masher she’d been using, still not looking at me.
 
“Watch your mouth, Jayne!
 
You will
not
speak to me like that in my house!”

I stared at her incredulously for a second and then stormed out of the kitchen, slamming the plates down on the dining room table.
 
Unfortunately they didn’t break.

Chase looked up from the magazine he was paging through.
 
“What’s up?”

“My mother is still dating the douchebag asshole piece of shit that she was dating before I left.”

“I take it you and he don’t get along.”

I laughed bitterly.
 
“Yeah, you could say that.”

“Am I going to get any details?”

“Well, I’ll avoid the hairy ones, but let’s just say he’s the reason Tony started carrying a gun and why we ran away to Miami.
 
He’s the reason for my decision to become fae.”

“Sooo, you’re glad he’s an asshole, right?”

“Chase!”

“What?”
 

“Stop with the silver lining shit, okay?
 
It pisses me off and I’m not in the mood.”

“Okay.”
 
He shrugged and went back to reading his
Martha Stewart Living
magazine.

I set the table, deliberately dropping the douchebag’s utensils on the ground and stepping on them before putting them at his place.
 
It took all my inner strength to not also wipe them on my butt.
 
Chase saw me do it but didn’t say anything.
 
I was
kinda
hoping he would because I was in the mood for a fight, but I think he knows me well enough now to stay away when I’m cranky – smart daemon that he is.

I heard the front door open and a bunch of heavy things being thrown on the ground.
 
That would be the asshole dropping his tool belt and lunch box on the floor for his personal servant, my mother, to come pick up and put away in the closet that is located just next to the spot where he dumped them.

I went and stood behind Chase, putting my hands on his shoulders, angry and nervous at the same time.
 
I was not only angry at the asshole, I was also angry with myself for being nervous.
 
The guy was lucky to be alive right now – I had nothing to be nervous about.
 
But something about him, about what he’d done to me, had made me afraid and anxious.
 
I felt like throwing up.
 
Then I felt Chase’s hand come up and cover mine, even though he didn’t seem as if he was paying any attention to me, still paging through his magazine.

The first thing I noticed when the asshole came around the corner was his new haircut.
 
He used to wear it long and stringy; now it was short.
 
I guess my little electric razor to the scalp attack necessitated a change in style.
 
That made me happy.
 
I was sad to see that his eyebrow had grown back.
 
You couldn’t even tell that I’d shaved it off ... shaved it off during that fateful night that started this whole fae thing going.
 
Chase was right about that – I was grateful for that one side effect of his attempted molestation.
 
Fucking asshole.
 
There was something so wrong about seeing the bright side of someone sexually attacking me.

“Well, well, well.
 
Look who’s
here.
 
If it isn’t little miss
priss
.”

His voice absolutely grated on my nerves.
 
I clamped my teeth together hard, causing an ache to start in my jaw.

Chase laid down his magazine, slowly closing it and putting it off to the side.

“When did you get here?” the dick asked, ignoring Chase and staring
bodly
right at me.

I spoke in a low, vicious tone, “Let’s get one thing straight,
asshole
, we are
not
going to pretend we’re friends or that I even want to see your ugly face right now.
 
So go
fuck
yourself.”

He smiled lecherously at me, squinting his beady eyes.
 
“I see you haven’t lost any of your charm.
 
But that’s
alright
.
 
You know I always did like your dirty mouth.”
 
Then he winked at me.

I started to gag.
 
I wanted nothing more than to smash his grizzly face, yellow teeth and glazed over shit-brown eyes with every ounce of strength I had.
 
I’d thought he couldn’t possibly get uglier, but I’d been wrong; he’d gotten even more disgusting while I was gone.
 
He was worse than an orc.
 
I started to tremble with the hatred that was threatening to erupt all over my mom’s dining room.

Chase slowly stood, pulling out his chair to the side a little so he could stand behind the table unimpeded.
 
He rose up above me to the point that he blocked out my view of the asshole completely.
 
I leaned to the side and saw the asshole’s eyes follow Chase’s form as it continued to rise up, several inches taller than him.
 
That wiped the sneer off his face for a couple seconds.
 
Fuck, yeah, Chase.
 
Bust his sorry ass!

Then the douche said, “D’ya bring your boyfriend with ya?
 
Hey there, man.
 
Name’s Rick.”
 
He walked over and held his hand out.
 

I willed Chase not to shake it – to break it instead – but he leaned over to take the asshole’s hand politely in his.
 
Bastard Rick.
 
Bastard Chase
.
 

“Chase,” was all Chase said.
 

Well, at least he didn’t say, ‘Nice to meet you.’
 
I think if he had, I would have punched him in the kidney.

“Is that you, Rick?” my mother’s voice called from the kitchen.

“Yeah!” he yelled back rudely, not taking his eyes off Chase and me.

“Come here for a minute, will you?
 
I need some help with this meatloaf.”

Rick looked at us for another second and then chuckled to himself as he walked away.

After he left the room I whacked Chase on the back.
 
“What the hell was that all about?
 
What’d you shake his hand for?”

Chase pulled his chair back in and sat down.
 
“Just being polite.”

“Well, I hope you know you were just polite to the biggest douchebag of all time.”

“Yeah.
 
I got that.”

I just looked at his back, shaking my head.
 
Guys
.
 
They made no fucking sense sometimes.

My mom came out of the kitchen then with the potatoes, followed by Rick the Dick, carrying the meatloaf.
 
Once all the food was put down on the table, my mom told us all to have a seat.
 

I sat between Chase and my mom, Rick across from me.
 
I worked very hard the entire meal never to look at his ugly face, but I did smile a few times when I saw him using his dirty silverware.
 
I was hoping like hell that I’d stepped in some dog poop today somewhere.
 
His eyes narrowed at me when I smiled, which made me even happier.
 
Let him try to guess what was making me so happy.
 
Maybe I’d tell him later.

Thinking about possible animal crap under my shoe made me think of my cat.
 
“Where’s Mr. Biggles, Mom?
 
I haven’t seen him yet.”

My mom looked down at her plate sadly.
 
“Mr. Biggles is gone, sweetie.”

“What do you mean gone?
 
Did he die?”
 
I was instantly sad.
 
He was a really cuddly guy, even if he did have an attitude problem sometimes.

“I don’t know what happened.
 
One minute he was fine and the next he had foam coming out of his mouth and ... well, it was terrible.
 
Let’s just leave it at that.”

“Yeah.
 
It was terrible all right,” said Rick, smiling through his meatloaf.
 
“It was like someone had poisoned him or somethin’.”
 
He chuckled.

“You know
what?
 
Rick
...
?”
 
I dropped my fork and threw my napkin down by the side of my plate, getting ready to blast him.
 
I could tell by the look on his
fugly
face that he was the one who had poisoned my cat.
 
He wasn’t even trying to hide it.
 
How could my mother be so stupid?

My mom stood up all of a sudden. “Time for dessert!” She shrieked, quickly gathering up plates, even though Chase was still eating.
 

He shoved the last half of a hunk of meatloaf in his mouth and handed her his plate, looking at me with a warning on his face as he chewed.
 
I glared back at him but picked my napkin back up and put it in my lap.
 
I just had to get through this meal and then I could get away from this turd monkey and my idiot mother.