Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 3, Portal Guardians (23 page)

Spike was going bananas, ripping feathers out of Moriah's wings and eventually biting her neck.
 
Two seconds later, though, he was off that plan and doing his best to spit out every last drop of demon blood that was stuck to his teeth.
 
"Holy
 
... damn she tastes bad!"
 
He went back to his plucking, every single feather removal eliciting unholy shrieks from the bitch in leather.

"I got her!" grunted Scrum, seizing her and putting her in a full-body lockdown.
 
"I've got her!
 
Just go get Jared!"

"I can't leave Jayne!" yelled Spike, now no longer plucking but staring down at me with horror-filled eyes.
 
"Oh my god, Jayne.
 
You're ... in trouble!"

I smiled weakly, the burning pain now a sharp throbbing that pulsed with every heartbeat.
 
I could feel my hot blood still coming out and pooling underneath me, making my tunic sticky.
 
"Yeah.
 
I think the word you're looking for is stabbed. Or skewered maybe.
 
Shish kabobbed?"

Spike dropped down beside me, now that Moriah was off to the side with her raggedy-ass wings and a daemon immobilizing her.
 
"Babe ... babe ..."
 
He was pushing the hair away from my face.
 
"What should I do?"

"Shhhh, stop freaking.
 
I'm pretty sure this is not fatal.
 
I feel strong.
 
Just watch my back for a second while I call someone, 'kay?"

He nodded, his face as white as a sheet.

I closed my eyes and reached out through The Green for the ones I knew I could find.
 
"Finn, Robin ... I'm in the Infinity Meadow.
 
Bring the healers.
 
Aidan, sorry about this dude, but ... "
 
I let out my supersonic werewolf whistle, combining it with visions of my mother's oak.

I opened my eyes up to find Spike staring at me, tears going down his cheeks.
 
"Dude, I'm fine," I said, not as strongly as I would have liked.
 
My voice had lost its volume for some reason.

"You're not fine, Jayne.
 
You're bleeding bad."

"Didn't anyone ever tell you to be positive around injured people?
 
I think I'm the one who's supposed to be saying I'm going to die, and
you're
the one who's supposed to be reassuring me."

He smiled weakly.
 
"Is that right?"

"Yeah.
 
That's right.
 
That's how it goes."
 
I was so tired, all I wanted to do was shut my eyes.
 
Just for a minute or two.

"I'm sorry.
 
Don't worry, Jayne.
 
You're going to be fine."

I wanted to lift my hand up to pat his handsome face and tell him thanks, but I couldn't.
 
It was time to go to sleep and deal with all of this later.

The last thing I remembered thinking was how pissed Netter was probably going to be about this tunic Moriah had ruined with her stupid-ass sword.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A FLY WAS BUZZING AROUND my face like I had a picnic on it.
 
I wanted to lift my hands up and brush it away, maybe even smash it, but my arms felt like they were encased in concrete.
 
I wiggled my nose a little to discourage it from landing on me.

"She just moved."
 
Something tapped my cheek.
 
"Hey!
 
Jayne!
 
Wake up, sleeping-used-to-be-beauty-but-isn't-so-much-right-now!"

"Ugh," I said, the only word I was capable of right now.

I heard stumbling footsteps next to my head.
 
"Phew!
 
Someone get a toothbrush over here, stat!
 
And put a rush on some mouthwash too, while you're at it!"

"Have I died and gone to the Underworld?" I asked weakly, still not able to open my eyes but knowing for certain now that my message to my stupid pixie roommate had apparently worked.

"Ha!
 
You should be so lucky."
 
The voice moved back over to my ear.
 
"You are in soooo much trouble.
 
Whoo, am I glad I'm not you.
 
And
that I was a hundred kilometers away when you were out there making a mess of things.
 
No way is this sticking on me.
 
I'm innocent."

I cracked open an eye.
 
"How's Willy?"

Tim's hands were on his hips now.
 
"Fine, thanks to you.
 
Or so I hear."

I closed my eye, the effort from keeping it open too much right now with all the talking going on.
 
"Little shit snuck in my bag."

"Yeah.
 
Well.
 
Next time do a pocket check before you go anywhere.
 
Pixies are very crafty."

"Believe me, I will.
 
He was a total pain in the ass."

"Word on the street is he saved your sorry butt
and
the sorry butts of all those other top gun fae who were the supposed chosen ones for that mission."
 
Tim snorted his disgust.
 
"As if.
 
The fae world is in a sorry state when a baby pixie has to save the day."

"He is your son," I offered, knowing the surest way to cut off this lecture was to stroke Tim's ego.

Tim was silent for a second before responding.
 
"Yes, well, you do have a point, obviously.
 
He's no
ordinary
baby pixie, I'll give you that."

It was then that I realized I was hearing outdoor noises and not the ones I would have expected in the clinic.
 
"Where am I?" I asked.

"I'll give you three guesses," said Tim.
 
"And I'll just tell you right now that if you guess you're out in the meadow under your mother's tree, you'll be correct."

I chuckled, despite my confusion.
 
"Okay, my first guess is ... the clinic."

"EEErrrhhh!
 
Wrong.
 
Try again.
 
Guess that you're outside under your mother's tree."

"Ummm, hmmm ... maybe I'm ... in my bedroom?"

"EEErrrhhh!
 
Wrong again.
 
One more guess.
 
Guess that you're outside in the meadow under your mother's tree."

"Okay, let me see ... what can it possibly be?
 
I can't decide.
 
I'm going to take a nap until I can come up with something good." I snored for effect.

"Listen, Jayne ... much as I'd like to sit out here all day and wait for you to grow up, I'm afraid the earth just doesn't have enough ozone left for us to wait that long.
 
So, hurry up and wake up enough to tell your lovely friend, the Earth element, to let the dang sword go so we can get you inside."

His last comment had my eyes flying open.
 
I looked up at the night sky above my head, and the thousand bits of flickering light dancing around my head and in the air around me.
 
"What in the hell ... ?"

"Hey, you guys!" yelled Tim.
 
"Come on over here and say hello to the messenger!"

The little lights that were dancing and floating all converged over my head in about five seconds.
 
They went from little pinpricks of light to a spotlight of blinding white light so intense I had to shut my eyes again; and even then, I could still see their glare from behind my eyelids.
 
"Whoa, shut the lights off.
 
You're burning my retinas."

"Shut it down, friends, shut it down.
 
Just give her the minimum," ordered Tim, sounding every inch the drill sergeant.

I opened my eyes when I sensed the light pulling back.
 
Above my head was a huge cloud of buzzing, smiling pixies, all of them with lights on their butts.

"Jayne, I'd like to introduce the firefly pixies of the Jade Colony.
 
Pixies, say hello to my roommate!"

A thousand voices came at me, mostly in unison.
 
"Hello, roommate Jayne!"

I found the strength to turn my head and look at Tim who was only inches from my face.
 
"What the frig, pixieman?"

"You call, we come.
 
Ta daaaa!"
 
He threw out his arms, gesturing around us - not just to the firefly pixies above my face, but to the other crowds of pixies, that hovered just beyond.

"How many of them are there?" I whispered, freaking out about the catastrophe of having thousands of pixelations on my hands, probably enough that it would wipe out the last unhappy fae on the entire planet.

"Pretty much all of them, from every colony."
 
Tim started dancing some crazy tap dance jig, his elbows flying out all over the place.
 
"It's a revolution, Jayne, all thanks to you!"

I closed my eyes and started to cry.
 
"Oh, fuck.
 
I'm doomed.
 
Just shoot me now.
 
Someone get this sword out of me and shove it into my eye."

"No, Jayne!" said Tim, ceasing his dance moves to run over to my ear.
 
"This is a good thing!"

"How could the pixelation of every living fae be good?"

Tim leaned his hand on my cheek.
 
I couldn't see him, but I knew that he was examining his cuticles.
 
He had that special tone in his voice.
 
"Jayne, Jayne, Jayne ... whatever am I going to do with you?"
 
His hand left my face.
 
"Every pixie here has sworn a blood oath to keep his dust to himself.
 
There will be no pixelations now or ever.
 
Or, heh, heh ... not without consequences, anyway.
 
We're all good!"

"I can't believe Dardennes is okay with this.
 
He put your butt in a bell jar not that long ago.
 
You were the exception to the no-pixie rule."

"Bell jar, smell jar.
 
That was just a precaution.
 
Dardennes knows me.
 
He's known me for years.
 
I just ... you know ... can get a little feisty sometimes, so he did what he had to do.
 
I don't hold that against him."

I frowned, opening my eyes again, my confusion and frustration at once again realizing how in the dark I always am firing me up enough to give me new energy.
 
"What are you saying?
 
That Dardennes knew who you were personally?
 
Why would he put you in jail then?"

"I can't believe you're asking me this, oh airheaded roomie of mine.
 
You know that I'm passionate.
 
Spending a week in the Overworld with the fruit of my loins should have clued you in if all the other months you've known me hadn't already."
 
He came over and put his head nearly inside my ear canal.
 
"What I'm about to tell you cannot leave this eardrum, do you agree to my terms?"

I nodded, not sure I was telling the truth, but too interested not to at least let him think I was.

"I am a secret agent spy for the fae.
 
I had just completed a mission for them and returned a little ... hot.
 
So they had to, you know, contain the fire that is Tim for a bit until I could keep my dust under control."

"But they were going to send you to a colony."

"Yeah, well, hot is really hot when it's Tim hot."

I shook my head, sending him dancing out of the way.
 
"You're nuts.
 
Seriously, get me out of here.
 
I'm not even sure this isn't a nightmare."

"I will.
 
The healers who are standing just over there will.
 
But we need you to get this sword out of the ground first.
 
They've done their best to heal you here in the meadow, but until that blade's out, you're not going anywhere."

It was then that I finally realized that I was still pinned to the meadow like a butterfly in a display case.
 
I'd forgotten to tell The Green to let the damn blade go.
 
I sighed heavily, asking it to release the weapon from its hold, instantly feeling a shock of pain as it moved just a millimeter in response to my breathing.

"Holy ... shit on a stick, that hurts!" I moaned.

Tim took off, and I heard him bossing somebody around.
 
He was probably yelling in their ear from the sound of it.
 
I felt some vibrations in the ground as someone approached.
 
From the light of the still-hovering pixies, I could see the wrinkled face of the healer who'd once taken Tim's blood for me.

"Can I take this out now?" he asked, concern marring his features.

"Yes," I said.
 
"Do it carefully, though, please.
 
It's friggin killing me just to breathe."

He looked up and nodded at someone.
 
Beau came into view, his giant wings tight against his back.
 
I heard whisperings of awe coming from the pixies nearby, and they flew out of his way as he stepped over me, straddling my torso with his legs.

I stared up at his gorgeous face, wondering what a girl says to an angel who's about to rip a blade out of her shoulder.

"Got stuck," I said, unable to come up with anything more.

He nodded.

"You're going to take it out?"