New World Order (War of the Fae: Book 4) (6 page)

The old fart on the council who’d never made a secret of his dislike for me said, “What case was the exception?”

Robin looked at the council and then back in my direction.
 
I couldn’t see his facial features, but I could see his head turned in my direction.
 
“We had Jayne outside the gargoyle door.
 
She used her powers to enhance ours.
 
We were able to hit all of our targets, even in the middle of a maelstrom brought on by a wind and fire elemental.”

The twittering of voices rose up and I felt several eyes upon me.
 
“Damn,
so much for being invisible,” I muttered to Spike.
 

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
 
“Don’t worry.
 
We’re here for ya.”

I reached over and put my other hand on Scrum’s warm forearm, finding comfort in his bulky presence.
 
He patted my hand briefly.
 
He, apparently, wasn’t worried, but I kept a hold on my two friends.
 
I was feeling seriously wimpy today for some reason.

“Just tell ‘em like it is, Jayne.
 
Don’t take any crap from that crusty old man-witch,” said Tim, all full of pixie fight.
 

I was glad someone was.
 
I just wanted to disappear into the seat cushions.
 
It was decidedly unlike me, but I’d had enough of the fighting for right now.
 
Maybe tomorrow I’d feel like killing Ben again.

The unwanted attention turned from me when the gray elves began to summarize our losses and the number of battles that had actually been fought yesterday.
 
There were five in total, and we’d lost eight elves, one ogre, nine dwarves, and possibly one water sprite – the jury was still out on Becky, which made me sad and hopeful at the same time.
 
I didn’t even know we had that many dwarves around – I’d only ever seen two of them.
 
I was told before that whenever there was a fight, we lost more dwarves than any other of the races.
 
They were the feistiest of all the fae, and too small a lot of the time to effectively fight the enemy.

Niles had made it through, though.
 
He stood in his usual place behind the council table, scowling at everything that was said.
 
I wondered what he’d look like without all those angry wrinkles on his face.
 
I was trying to picture it when Tony’s voice caught my attention.

“With regard to the reinforcements, we have several flights contracted to bring them in.
 
The call has gone out and we have had an overwhelming response.
 
Approximately two hundred and fifty Light Fae, mostly from North America and Europe will be coming in to join us.
 
Everyone here will be expected to either share a room in the compound with one of the newcomers or make accommodation for them out in the forest.
 
We will make every effort to consider each of your, um, proclivities as we make the room assignments.”

“Proclivities?” I whispered to Spike.
 
“What the hell is he talking about?
 
Is that even a word?”

“Yeah.
 
It means they’re not going to put an incubus with a hot elemental.”
 
He looked at me and moved his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

“Oh.
 
No sexy time during war, is that it?”

He laughed quietly.
 
“Something like that.”

“That’s a relief,” I said, without thinking.

Spike raised his eyebrow at me in question.
 
“Meaning ... ”

“That I’m too busy for any of that right now.”

He nodded, saying nothing and turning back to the gray elves.

One of the witches in the audience asked how many Dark Fae had died during the battles, and my ears perked up at this.
 

“We are not sure of the exact number, but we know at the gargoyle door the count was approximately twenty.
 
That was our most successful defense.”

Robin’s head turned towards me and then he stood.
 
So did all of his green elf friends.
 
Every single one of them put their fisted hands over their hearts and bowed slightly in my direction.
 
I felt my face flaming up.
 

“
Mooootheerrrrrrrr
,”
said Tim in his best ghost-haunting voice.

“Shut the fuck up, pixie, before I feed you to the buggane,” I whispered angrily.

Tim gifted me with a pixie fart that I could do nothing about since we were hemmed in on all sides by fae who were staring at me.
 

Unable to force myself to smile, I nodded my head to Robin and his group, hoping they would hurry up and stop that saluting crap and sit back down.
 
I didn’t feel like I was worthy of any pledges or bows right now.
 
Falco, and Becky possibly too, had died.
 
That was not a success as far as I was concerned.
 
I got all angry at myself again, my good mood disappearing completely.
 
Damn this war to hell.
 
Why can’t we all just get along?

I stood up when the signal was given that the meeting was over, namely the council getting up and walking out.
 
I stood in front of my seat, waiting impatiently for the fae to the side of me to move out into the aisle so we could follow and leave.

“Hello, lovelies, what did I miss?” came Valentine’s
lispy
voice from the end of the row, accompanied by a brilliant smile.

“Stop being so cheerful.
 
There’s a war going on, you know,” I said, grumpily.
 
Valentine was always happy, just like Becky, only with a little tinge of danger to his glee.
 
If he wasn’t so flamboyantly gay, I’d probably be attracted to it.
 
Right now, though, it was just annoying.

“
Ooooh
, grouchy.
 
You sound like you need a little incubus love.
 
What’s the matter?
 
Spike not up to the task?
 
You can always call on Valentine when you’re in need,
babycakes
.
 
You know I’m here for you.”

I rolled my eyes, ready to let him have it, but he interrupted me.

“Oh my goodness, will you get a load of those eyes?
 
Mmm
-mmm-mmm, aren’t you just the most viciously gorgeous thing I’ve seen in a long, long time?
 
Come here, precious ... let us have a look at you.”

I could see his hands held out like some old granny getting ready to squeeze my cheeks.

“Uhh, no thanks.”

“Come here, elemental,” he said, all humor and lisp gone from his voice. “It’s not a request.”
 
The dangerous glee edge in his eyes just got plain old dangerous.
 
All the glee was missing.

I sighed, properly cowed.
 
“Fine.
 
Here I am.
 
I’m half blind.
 
Are you happy?”

He took the sides of my head in his hands and peered into my face.
 
At least, that’s what it looked like he might be doing.
 
All I could see was a blur this close.
 
I had been able to see him better from far away.
 
He was turning my head from side to side, viewing my eyes from all angles.

“Tsk, tsk, this
is
a problem, isn’t it?”

“It’s better than it was yesterday.”

“And how’s that, sweetness?
 
Were they bluer before?
 
Because I highly doubt that.
 
You are as blue as blue can be.
 
All tangled up in the elements, aren’t you?
 
Poor baby.”

“No, I meant, at least I can see a little now.
 
Yesterday I was blind.”

“Yes,” he said distractedly as he continued to examine me, “I imagine you were.
 
You’re lucky to be seeing anything, really.”
 
He dropped his hands from my face.

“Why do you say that?
 
What do you know about this?”

“Oh, just a little something, perhaps.”

I felt other fae pushing past us to leave, and part of me wanted to go with them, but another part of me wanted to talk to Doctor Valentine here and find out what the hell was up with my eyes.

“Tell me what’s going on with me, Valentine.
 
Seriously.
 
The doctors don’t have a clue.”

“That’s because they’re too young.”

“I seriously doubt that.
 
Tim told me the one who examined me was a crusty geezer.”

“He’d have to be as old as Céline, Anton, and myself.
 
He’s not.
 
I’ve seen this before.”

“Where?”
 
I was almost afraid to hear the answer.
 
He was being a little evasive, which wasn’t like him at all.
 
He normally liked saying things just for their shock value.

“With the elemental who used to live here.
 
We lost him though.
 
He took to his element and eventually never came back.”

I swallowed hard, my throat instantly dry.
 
“So what does that mean about my eyes?”

“Well, lover, it means that whatever you did yesterday was some dangerous business.
 
You’re an elemental of not just one element, but two.
 
Using and combining those two forces could get you more than you bargained for.”

“How so?” asked Spike, now suddenly very interested in hearing more.

“Spend too much time
in
your element, Jaynie-poo, and you will become
part
of the element.
 
Then it’s bye-bye Here and Now and hello ... well ... we don’t know what.
 
Not the Overworld.
 
Not the Underworld.
 
You just ...
poof!
... disappear.”
 
He used his hands like a magician to add flair to his explanation.
 
He let his words sink in for a second and then said, “Well, babies, I’m off to go drink some delicious fae energy.
 
Spike, care to join me?”

I turned to look at Spike’s face, now very close to mine, and I could see the colors flaring up in his eyes, even if I couldn’t see the swirling that I knew was there.
 

“Uh, yeah.
 
Sure.”
 
He squeezed my arm.
 
“See you at lunch?”

I shrugged.
 
“Whatever.”
 

I should probably have been jealous that he was leaving to go mess around with some fae girl somewhere, and possibly in a very sexual way, but I honestly couldn’t allow myself to care enough.
 
It’s who Spike was, and although I found him incredibly sexy, I didn’t really feel like he was good boyfriend material.
 
Now, of course when he was kissing me, it was a different story.
 
But I can’t be held responsible for my feelings when I’m in the middle of something like that.
 
No girl or fae could.

“So,” said Scrum, tentatively, “I guess you’d better be careful about using your power like that again.”

“Yeah,” I said, noncommittally.
 
Of course I didn’t want to be lost in my elements, but if I could blast Samantha and Ben to the Underworld where they belonged?
 
I’d probably do it again, even if it meant losing myself in the process.
 
Besides, I wasn’t so sure I believed Valentine anyway.
 
I needed confirmation from a more reliable source, like Céline.
 
I decided I was going to track her down, right after I talked to Naida about Becky.

“Scrum, are you going with me to see Naida?”

“I go where you go, Jayne, you know that.”

“Okay then, let’s blow this joint.”

“Can you leave me in the room?” whined Tim. “Those water sprites smell like rotten fish poo.”

“Tough shit.
 
You’re going.
 
And watch out, or I’ll throw you in the lake and make you swim for your life.”
 
Tim was making me seriously cranky today for some reason.

“You know, Jayne, that’s really not funny.
 
Some of those water sprites spend so much time in the water, they’re more like fish than fae.
 
And a wingless pixie looks an awful lot like a largish dragonfly.
 
One bite and that would be the end of me.”

“Well, then, I guess I can count on you behaving.”

He pulled my hair.

I sighed.
 
“And then again, maybe not.”