Little Prick (3 page)

“Why?”

“You may not know this but you tend to sniff the air when there is a fae in the area. It is rather obvious.”

Pansy laughed. “If you want to know why, it is because you smell like wind, leaves and sunlight. Those are all scents that catch our attention.”

“I hadn’t heard that particular description before.” Her aunt looked around her, and the wind came out to play with her locks.

Pansy was content simply to walk for a while in the very familiar woods.

Keelie turned their path to the mound at the edge of the property. “This is where I first met your mother. Right here.”

Pansy smiled. “Really?”

“Yes. She was confronting me about being on her territory. She knew what I was, and I have to admit that I was a little taken aback by her flashing fang at me.”

Pansy was enjoying the story, and she took a seat on a fallen log.

Keelie sat on a nearby rock.

“What did you do?”

“I inclined my head politely, begged her indulgence and explained that I was tracking magical hot spots. We happened to be standing in one.”

“Why do you look for those spots?”

“Why do people seek water tables? We look for the magic, because with the human population shifting and moving into the wild spaces, the natural magic is harder to find. Looking for the packs of shifters is usually a good clue that there is a magic well in the area. Your folk don’t even know that it is here, but you gather around it.”

Pansy perked up and closed her eyes. She could feel the energy that Keelie was talking about. “It feels like wind and mint if that makes any sense.”

“It is the same scent that you have, Pansy. You are part shifter and part pure magic. You are tied to me and tied to this land. It is the reason that I have been giving you properties in this area. You need never leave the home that you are part of.”

Pansy frowned. “Do you think I can find a man who will come back here with me and face down my family?”

“The pack won’t have a choice. You are going, and you will find a mate of your own who will accept you for what you are, or so I have been told.” Keelie blinked with a wry grin.

“You don’t know?”

“No fae allowed at the shifter’s Crossroads. This is for you alone. I mean, it would be nice if some of the half-breeds had a similar place to go, but we would have to create it for them, and I don’t see any fae willing to part with that much magic.”

“How did the Crossroads get built?”

“A few very old and very powerful shifters created it so that their offspring could meet in a safe environment. Part of the design was to reduce inbreeding in areas that did not have a lot of movement socially. You will see it when you arrive, and perhaps, you can explain it to me when you return.”

“But what is it?” Pansy knew that there was something Keelie wasn’t telling her.

Keelie looked around and then leaned forward. “It is a mobile bubble dimension that floats around, and the human mages known as the transporters can lock onto it at certain times when it is in their vicinity. Only the Guild Master can make the connection whenever she wishes it.”

“So, where is my transporter going to appear from?”

“Oh, she will be here at midnight. Don’t worry about anything. You can obtain all you need at the Crossroads. Consider it an all-inclusive vacation resort where the men are all looking for mates instead of just trying to get laid. It makes for a stimulating, if tense, atmosphere.”

Pansy sat in shock. “Tonight? I am going tonight?”

“There is no time like the present, and this will be a true birthday gift—the chance at a new life with someone who doesn’t set you aside in your own house. Don’t tell me I am wrong. I have noticed it every year I have visited you.”

She shook her head. “It is pack protocol. We did the best within the rules of the pack regulation. I live with my family, we eat together…I am just not allowed to do any chores in the pack house. I do my own laundry and housekeeping.”

Her aunt sighed. “Well, that is less horrible than what I had imagined.”

“I am not a Cinderella figure. I am just a woman who doesn’t quite match her family. Of course, playing touch football when we were kids was hilarious. The amount of scars my brothers are wearing due to grabbing me too tight are highly amusing. I couldn’t actually control my shift until I was thirteen or so.”

Keelie sighed and leaned forward. “Now, why don’t you have any girly clothing?”

“I don’t go anywhere that requires it. I work, I go home and I read. And then, I do it all over again. Weekends are spent with family and running around in the woods. I like my life, but I am tired of the alone parts. So, I never have need of fancy clothing.”

She bought and horded fashion magazines but that was not what Keelie had asked her.

“I see. Do you mind if I send instructions along to the store? You are going to need a head-to-toe makeover before you begin.”

The thought was both thrilling and terrifying. “It isn’t necessary.”

“Oh, it is. Your clothing is more suitable for Nascar than for courting. I am not insulting you, and I know that your clothing has served you well. This is a change in your life and that will necessitate a new uniform.”

Looking at it that way made sense. “Can I get a new wardrobe there?”

“They will provide what you need. If it isn’t there, they will bring it in.” Keelie smiled.

“How do you know all about the Crossroads?”

Her aunt sighed, “When your mother got sick, she gave me all the contact information she could lay her hands on. It has taken me the last five years to get it all together, but I am prepared for the send-off that you truly deserve.”

Keelie got to her feet. “So, are you ready for lunch or is that breakfast still backed up to your collarbone?”

“I am on the way to hungry, Aunty. Never underestimate a shifter’s appetite.” Pansy stood up. “I do have to ask one thing that I have always wondered.”

“Please. Today is not a day for secrets.”

“Who the heck named me? Pansy doesn’t match the rest of the family names.”

Keelie’s mirth rang through the forest and brought birds to seek the source of the musical sound. When she sobered, she put her arm around Pansy’s shoulders. “Your mother lost a bet.”

Shock turned into amusement and a creeping smile made itself at home on her lips. Her name had a story she hadn’t suspected. This day was looking up.

Everyone in the diner froze in place when Pansy and her aunt entered. Pansy waved a cheerful hello to Sandra and picked her favourite booth near the window.

After the heavy protein of breakfast, she ordered chili fries and a salad, watching Keelie’s puzzled frown as she looked over the menu.

Pansy kept her mouth shut and didn’t offer any suggestion and let Keelie pick her own salad and cheeseburger with an iced tea.

Sitting and waiting, Keelie kept a benign smile on her features. “I am guessing that you still don’t get many fae in this area.”

“Not really, no. I think I have only seen one around here before. It was about seven or eight years ago.”

Keelie’s face clouded over. “Was it a male?”

“Yes. He was really pretty. Dad and he ran into each other at the garage, and after the first glimpse of him, he disappeared. We merely assumed that he left.”

She sighed. “He did leave. He didn’t say where he had been, but he was a mess when he returned to his home.”

“Who was it?”

“The fae ambassador. My brother. When I started giving you the properties that I had accumulated, he decided that it was his responsibility to find out what kind of hold your family had over me. The fae don’t willingly part with their properties.”

Remembering the scent of blood on her father’s hands, she winced. “I guess that Dad had a
talk
with him.”

“Well, the scars healed rather messily, so it was a conversation worth witnessing.” Keelie grinned.

“You were afraid he had come after me?”

“Oh, he did come after you. I am just glad that Karl stepped up.”

Pansy blinked as she realised that her father had defended her. Sure, he kept other werewolves from trying to think she was an easy target, but she had never known that he had taken on a giant fairy and won.

Watching Keelie eat was not something Pansy had ever been treated to before. She handled the food gracefully and not one drop of the burger escaped, which filled Pansy with envy. She usually looked like she had massacred the darned thing.

“How do you manage to eat so neatly?”

“Long practice, Pansy. I am older than I look.”

Pansy knew when she should keep her mouth shut, and a woman’s age was definitely that topic.

They finished lunch with a staring audience, and it struck Pansy that aside from the fact that she had known Keelie all her life, she never changed. They looked like they were the same age but that was where similarities ended.

“How do you do it?”

“Do what, Pansy?”

“Live every day knowing that you will outlive those around you by decades if not centuries.”

Keelie paused on their way back through the town, and the traffic on the sidewalk ceased movement with her. She sighed, stroked Pansy’s hair and urged her off the paving and into the woods.

“I was born knowing that I would outlive humans and shifters alike. We are taught that we do not burn as brightly, but we burn longer. I think of humans as fireworks—brilliant and I wouldn’t miss watching for the world. Shifters are bonfires. You have to be careful, but they are beautiful and deadly all mixed together. The fae of all kinds are slow-burning candles. We light the corners and cast the shadows.”

“Very poetic.”

Her aunt grinned. “Thank you. It has taken a while to work out suitable comparisons. Fire seems to be the best unit of measure as we all burn out in the end. It just takes some of us longer than others.”

Pansy couldn’t get that image out of her mind. “When did you meet your first shifter?”

Keelie stepped lightly over a fallen log on the path. “I worked for a dragon quite a while ago as a housekeeper. She was a good friend and remains so to this day. She was my first shifter.”

“An actual dragon?”

“They do exist, you know. Most of the mythical shifters do, somewhere in the world. I have heard whispers of the phoenix, tales of unicorns and, of course, seen the silhouette of a gryphon. You just have to keep your eyes open.”

The thought of mythical creatures had Pansy grinning. “You never did tell me how I was named.”

“Ah, that. Well, your mother had six boys already, and she said,
I bet this is another boy
, and I said,
I bet you are wrong.
She said,
If this is a girl, you can name her.
I asked,
What if it is a boy,
she said,
You will have to give him a car on his sixteenth birthday.
”

Keelie smirked, “It was confirmed after the first trimester, so I named you after my grandmother. Pansy Adara.”

“You knew I was going to be a girl.”

“Of course I did. Your mother’s scent changed and her power signature was shifting dramatically. You had to be a girl. Once that was determined, the second part of the plan was put into action, and I grabbed all the information on power bonding to a shifter that I could find. While you were still developing, you were given all the magic that this area could muster and that changed you from wolf to porcupine before you even saw the world.”

“Why were you willing to put that much power into me? I mean, it must have cost you beyond what the local land gave up.”

“Very perceptive. I do not have children of my own yet, and the opportunity to be godmother to a little girl whose mother was not long for this world was too tempting. I had to take the chance. There might never be another opportunity for me to be involved in a child’s life. It was too good an offer for me.”

“Are children scarce in the circles of the fae?”

They were approaching her home, and Pansy could sense all of her brothers and her father inside its walls.

“They are not common. Our kind is slowly approaching its demise. There are small programs in place to blend us with humans, but there is the old guard who believe that if we are dying, we should do it with pure blood. I say, whatever happens, we should fight it and spread ourselves where we can, even if it is sharing our energies with other species.”

“That is a very forward-thinking attitude.”

“It is not a popular one among the fae. Our half-bloods have been less than what has been hoped for, but the amusing thing is that if our elders were keeping close track, they would notice that the children of the half-bloods are showing tremendous increases in magic. It is almost as if the power needed time to adjust to being in human form.”

Pansy looked into Keelie’s face and nodded. “I can see how it might need time to adjust. Do you think that my children will have more of the natural magic than I do?”

Keelie blinked. “I hadn’t thought about it. Your children might go with your form, the form of your mate or they could revert to wolves. As for the magic, no one knows. This sort of thing doesn’t happen much. There are no records of it occurring before.”

“It must have happened though, or how would you know how to do it?”

Keelie snickered. “I improvised.”

Pansy laughed helplessly. “I am glad you have creative impulses, but I am more delighted that it was successful.”

Keelie sobered. “I hope you know that I would have kept trying. Nothing would have stopped me from trying to carry out Bethanne’s last wish.”

Pansy hugged Keelie with one arm. “I know you would have kept going. I am just glad that it worked and you were able to spend some quality time with my mother before she faded.”

“As was I. Now, on to your party. I am sure that your family will throw you an event to remember.”

Wrinkling her nose as she opened the door, Pansy said, “They usually do.”

Dinner was a selection of her favourites. Pot roast, spaghetti and a giant bowl of glazed carrots were among the dishes.

Once the meal was over, the cake was sliced and it was time for gifts. Each of her brothers gave her something small, but her father’s gift always made her tear up.