Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 1, After the Fall (2 page)

"Um, yeah.  It kind of does," replied Tim as he began taking things out of his drawers and putting them on top of his dresser in a stack.  "You're stuck together for life.  Like thousands of years.  You're the Mother, he's the Father.  I suggest you get to more of that kissing stuff and not try so hard to resist the inevitable."

"Pfft. 
You're one to talk.  Your poor wife's been waiting for you to see reason for what?  A year?  Slaving over there in the Dark Fae lab, trying to come up with a cure for pixelation so you guys could be a family again and live in harmony with other fae instead of being sent to a pixie colony ... "

Tim frowned at me.  "Low blow, Jayne.  Even for you."

I tried not to feel guilty, but I wasn't entirely successful.  I knew Tim felt terrible about the misunderstanding that had kept him separated from his wife and caused him to miss the birth of his baby boy.  Apparently, pixie births were a super huge deal too, since they were so rare.

"Whatever.  Just so we're clear - I'm not going to go jump into bed with Ben just because he's hot and we were bound in front of the whole friggin world.  I don't just sleep with any guy like that."

"I'll keep that in mind," said a deep voice from the doorway.

Fuckbuckets. 
I didn't want to turn around.  Maybe if I never made eye contact with him again after this, my shame could never be fully consummated.

"Oh, hey, Ben!" said Tim.  "Nice to see you there.  Standing right behind Jayne this whole time.  Come to collect your bride?"  Tim giggled and then stuck his tongue out at me. 

I knew Ben couldn't hear Tim, so I amplified for him.  "Tim wants to know what you're doing here." 

I heard footsteps coming towards me and then his voice again.  

"I came to see if you needed any help."

I felt his presence at my side.  He practically vibrated, he had so much energy coming off of him. 
Has he always been like this and I've just never noticed it before? 
I caught a whiff of something nice. 
Cologne, maybe.  The woods.  Fire.
 
Ben.

I turned to face him, taking a step back to put some distance between us.  "Hey.  What's up?"  I tried to smile but my face was spasming in its nervousness, so I quit.

Ben looked me straight in the eyes, neither smiling nor frowning, and it made my heart race a little faster than it already was.  I had to fight the urge to fan my face with the socks I was holding in my hand.  I broke eye contact with him, acting interested in the top of my dresser.

"Nothing much," he responded.  "I got my stuff moved into my room; and since we're neighbors, I thought I'd come over here to see if you needed me for anything.  I'm good at carrying stuff."

I tried not to look over at his biceps, I really did; but it was impossible not to.  He had some mighty fine specimens.  They weren't as big as Chase's, but I definitely wasn't complaining.  

The bleakness descended with a speed that took even me by surprise.  The brief thoughts I'd just had of Chase instantaneously brought back the memory of him opening up his huge white wings and taking off to disappear into the clouds above us, after my bond with Ben had been officially recognized by the Spirit.  The last thing I saw, after Chase told me he would watch over me forever and wait for me in the Overworld until the day I died, were the tears that ran down his face.  Any happy thoughts I might have been having about Ben standing next to me in my room went right out the door.

"Did I say something wrong?" asked Ben, concern marring his devastatingly handsome features.

"No."  I stepped back to the dresser and opened up the last drawer, pulling out the towels and few other odds and ends that remained of my possessions.  

Ben put his hand on my shoulder.  "I'm sorry about Chase," he said, turning me back towards him and searching my face, doggedly refusing to let me look away.  

I could feel the tears coming, so I jerked myself out of his grasp and went to the bed, grabbing my backpack out from under it to stuff my things inside.  "Don't worry about it.  It's not your fault."

"I know it's not; but I know how close you were to him and how much he meant to you.  He was your daemon.  Your protector."

"No, he wasn't.  He was
never
my daemon or anyone else's for that matter."  My voice held the bitterness that my heart couldn't let go.  There was nothing I wouldn't give to have Ben's words be true.  "He was an angel who wasn't even supposed to be here.  It's not your fault he had to go back to the Overworld, I know that.  I'm not going to dwell on it, and I don't want to talk about it anymore." 
Because I don't want to cry in front of you. 
And I didn't like the way it made me feel so empty inside.

"Okay.  I'm not going to make you talk about it now.  But later? ... I can't promise I won't bring it up again."  He walked over and took my now full and zipped backpack off the bed.  "Anything else?  Toothbrush?  Favorite pillow?"

"Everything I want and need is packed.  Except that pixie over there.  You can just shove him in your back pocket or something."

"As if," said Tim, buzzing out the door.  He yelled over his shoulder, "Don't forget my furniture!"

I walked over and grabbed the tiny bed, dresser and side table off the top of my chest of drawers, putting all of them in the small front pockets of the pack that Ben held for me.  

"Come on," he said, slinging the backpack over his shoulder, "I'll show you to your new room."

I followed him out the door and down the hall, not even glancing in my rear view. 
Moving forward, never back
. 
That's my new motto.

I didn't see anyone I knew along the way.  My friends were all busy moving, too.  Everyone was starting a new chapter in their lives today, but none of them had lost as much as I had, and none of them had the mantle of responsibility lying heavily over their shoulders like me.  Except for Ben.  He was in the same boat I was - Father to the Fae and barely eighteen himself.

I scarcely noticed the doors and halls we passed along our way.  I had heard that the Light and Dark Fae witches had worked together from the moment the bonding ceremony was over to connect the two compounds and create one giant living space for all of us, hidden by magic in the trees of the Green Forest of Ardennes, France.  I knew that former Light Fae were being mixed in with former Dark Fae so that there wouldn't be a segregation of old habits causing friction in our midst.  I wondered if I'd be able to find my way around this new, confusing place.

Ben stopped in front of a set of double doors.  

They immediately struck me as strange.  The only other room in the whole compound I knew that had doors like this was the assembly hall - and it was huge inside.

"Welcome to your new home," said Ben, pushing them open.

What the hell?
  I stood there, speechless.  My eyes scanned the large space, left to right, from ceiling to floor.  I couldn't figure out how this room could even be possible.  I turned to look at Ben but his expression was guarded.  It was impossible to tell if he was happy or sad, curious or scared.  He seemed ... expectant.  As if waiting for my reaction.  

I had no idea what I should say or even what I should be feeling.  But who could blame me?  I was standing in the entrance of a room that looked a hell of a lot like an indoor Garden of Eden.

CHAPTER TWO

TIM CAME BUZZING UP TO my face with his son in hand.

"Do you like it?" Tim asked, a huge grin on his face.  "Abby's been on those flowers all night and day.  Make sure you tell her they look nice."

"Nice!" yelled his son, Willy, just before sticking his finger up into his tiny nose.

I bit the inside of my cheeks to keep from laughing out loud.  Tim's son was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen in my life.  He was a third Tim's size, making him about as big as a large bumble bee and just as chunky.  Apparently, he didn't miss many meals.

"Ew,
gross!" exclaimed Tim, reaching down and pulling his son's finger out of his nose.  He took a breath and schooled his features to look encouraging.  "That's right, Willy, the flowers are nice.  Go tell your momma.  And tell her Papa says she's hot stuff."

The little pixie went buzzing off, looking as if he were stumbling in the air and possibly drunk.  "Hot stuff!  Momma is hot stuff!"

"I think he needs a little work on that flying business," I said, watching the little guy disappear around a group of plants in a far doorway, leading to a terrace.

"He's only a baby, Jayne.  Give him a break," said Tim, buzzing over to land on my shoulder.  "I had no idea how fascinated they were with the inside of their noses, though.  I hope that's normal," he said, sounding concerned.

"I'm sure it is," I mumbled, stepping farther into the room, my eyes skimming over the rock walls that had trees growing right out of them somehow.  Flowers were coming out of the floor on the edges of the room.  For the first time since entering the compound, I felt like I was actually living in the forest and not some hidden ancient military bunker.  I looked up and saw that the ceiling was a mass of branches and leaves, so thick, it was impossible to tell if there was sky above it or more stone.

"How long before he can fly straight?" I asked, moving on from Tim's concerns about his son's booger-picking problems, since I didn't want to spoil my appetite for dinner any more than Willy already had.  

"Several years.  It takes lots of practice to be at my level," said Tim.  "I make it look easy, I know.  It's a burden to be so awesome at being awesome that you make everyone else look bad."  He sighed.

"Yeah.  Poor you," I said.  "Where do you want me to put your furniture?"

"Abby has a spot all picked out for us.  Follow me."

I looked at Ben.  "Can I have the backpack?  I need to go put Tim's stuff away."

Ben slid the pack off his shoulder.  "Want me to stick around?  Need me for anything else?"

I shook my head.  "No.  I'll see you at dinner."  I started to walk away, but he caught me by the arm, halting my exit.  I looked down at his hand and then back up at his face.

"You know, you don't have to feel weird around me."

"Okaaay," I said.  As if him telling me that could possibly make it any easier for this to seem normal.

"I'm not going to bite you, ya know."

"I know.  I'm not worried about that.  Anymore."

He smiled, letting my arm go.  "Good.  Why don't you come over and see my room when you're done with Tim?"

I shrugged.  "Where is it?"

He pointed to the archway that was across the foyer area where we were standing.  "Just through there.  I'll leave the door unlocked from my side."

"Maybe I'll see you later," I said, not wanting to commit to anything where he was concerned.

Ben reached up as if to touch my arm again, but I shied away.  His hand dropped to his side and he gave me a half-smile, before walking away and leaving me standing alone in the entrance to my room.

"Are you coming?!" came Tim's voice from around the corner.  "I can feel myself getting older in here!"

I rolled my eyes.  I'd thought before that Tim was bossy; but now that he had a wife and child to impress, he was getting positively annoying.  I wondered how we were going to work everything out, with his whole family living with us.  I hadn't had time to talk to Abby much yet.  I really didn't know what she was like at all.

No better time than the present
, I said to myself.  I walked through the hallway and around the corner, following the direction I'd seen Tim and Willy fly.

CHAPTER THREE

MY EYES WIDENED AT THE room that appeared before me.  It had actual living room furniture in it, like a house.  It was nothing like my former cell.  There was a couch and two sitting chairs with a coffee table in between them, and a sunroom and terrace off to the side.  Fancy carpets were placed in both rooms, making them seem homey, but in an elegant kind of way.  An arched door set into the stone of the far-right wall looked as if it might lead to a bedroom.

Tim and his son were hovering over a table out in the sunroom that was up against a tree and stone wall.  "Out here, Jayne!" said Tim.  "This is where we want our stuff.  On this."

I walked over, reaching into the backpack's front pocket to pull his things out.  His new home was a round tabletop, covered in plants and flowers, with a space in the center that had been left clear.  It looked like a tiny jungle campsite.  "You want it right here?  In the middle of all this junk?"

"Shhh!" admonished Tim, looking furtively, left and right.  "It's not junk!  It's our Eden, dummy.  Now put the things in there before Abby gets back and hears you."

"Junk!" shouted Willy, his finger in his nose again.

Tim pulled Willy's finger out.  "No.  Not junk.  Pretty, pretty.  Like your momma.  Pretty."

"Pretty momma!  Junk!"

Tim rolled his eyes and then glared at me.  "Can you please watch your mouth around him?  Damn kid copies everything he hears."

"Damn kid!  Damn kid!  Damn kid copies everything!" shouted Willy, breaking free of his father's grasp and flying off in a drunken fit of spins and dips.  He disappeared into the garden, singing a tune whose lyrics included things about a damn pretty momma living in the junk.

I snorted.

"Do
not
laugh at that, Jayne.  It's not funny."

"Sure it is," I said, chuckling as I pulled out his bed and set it down in the space between the plants.  "I think he's going to be keeping you very busy."  I put Tim's dresser and side table down next, adjusting it beside the tiny bed.  "And that's my politically correct way of saying he's going to be a total pain in your ass."

"Tell me about it.  Abby better get back here soon.  That kid is wearing me out."

"Your days as a childless bachelor are over, I guess.  Life was so easy back then ..."