Through Time-Frankie (12 page)

The Blue Demons stood very still, aware that even the slightest scratch from a Death Weapon would mean a slow and horrible end. They needed to get into the portal, and Frankie was in their way.

Worley beside her said, “You may not believe me, but I am on your side, Frankie. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Ye be in the right of it,” she said on a sneer, “I don’t believe ye.”

All at once, she saw him nod and then Sventer and two of his soldiers were coming at her. She turned to point her sword at them, aware that she was still incredibly weak, when all at once, she felt herself pushed.

Stupid, dork of a girl
, she told herself. Ye knew Worley was not to be trusted…ye knew, but there were those words again,
too late
. She was already being sucked into the portal, sucked into darkness.

The last thing she heard before she went tumbling into the black pulsing portal was hearing her father cry out her name…

Chapter Thirteen

FRANKIE CLUTCHED AT the dark membranes of the portal’s sticky walls.

Blue Demons went whizzing by her. They weren’t trying to stop their journey, but she knew if she could just hang onto something, she might be able to get up the strength to shift home.

She was in a weakened condition but she managed to grab onto what seemed like slimy tree roots.
They turned out to be snakes.

Screaming, she let go, and found herself flip flopped by the force of the wind swirling through the tunnel banging her from side to side of its living walls. Finally she found something in the sticky wall, some kind of metal ring and held on.

Bam! Slam
, she was hit with the weight of Blue Demons, bumping into her as they were pulled willingly through the portal’s black hole. She heard them grunting as they knocked into her and yelled at her for being in their way.

She got tossed about, but held onto the metal ring. Other objects flying about freely collided with her and suddenly she lost her hold on the ring.

She thought about her Death Sword, and was relieved that it had the power to retreat on its own to its secret air space, ever ready to be called upon when she needed it. When she landed, she was definitely going to need it.  No doubt the Blue Demons would be waiting for her.

The Demons didn’t fight the portal, but allowed its wind force to carry them through, though she didn’t think it was much more pleasant for them than it was for her.

She had been hoping to shift home, but try as she did, the portal would not, could not let her go. Apparently its directive was to take whatever entered and spit it out at the other end.

A portal has but one mouth open at a time. Its mouth now on earth was closed, but the mouth where she was going would open and she was sure, she would be thrust out before the portal closed completely.

She imagined all the Blue Demons on the other side, wherever that was and sighed. In her weakened condition, this was
so not good
, as her Jazz would say.

If she could just stop it from dragging her. If she could just get a moment and shift home. But try as she did, her attempts to shift out of the membraned dark hole were unsuccessful. The portal seemed to prohibit her from using her shifting powers.

She told herself that she had to keep it together. What she needed to do now, she decided, was be ready for the landing.

She had perhaps another couple of seconds before it would shove her out and into their waiting arms.

Ha!
Well, if they thought they were going to capture her without a fight, they were oh so wrong. When everything looks hopeless, Jazz had once told her, and you think there is no way you can win,
go for broke.

Frankie stoked herself, bracing for the moment when she would fall into another world, and would have to face a platoon of Blue Demons all around her. She was sure they would be armed and ready.
She was sure they would want her dead.

If she hit ground zero right in their midst, she had to be ready to shift out of their range, a difficult thing, as she didn’t know the terrain, and wouldn’t know where to shift to. Aye, she almost smiled in spite of her predicament. She was a Sluagh, which meant she had wings.
There was always sky.

* * *

Jazz marched right up to Prince Worley and shoved him hard. He fell a few feet back and steadied himself. She had not regained her full strength but there was something she could do and she did. She was on him, and kicked him hard right in the balls!

He bent over with a loud shout of pain and she said, “
You traitor
. You pig. You pushed Frankie into the portal!”

“I didn’t. It was an accident.”

Trevor was behind Worley and had his arms pinned at his back. He said, “Lie and I’ll break these for you, over and over again.”

“Don’t think of shifting,” Jazz added, “Because if you do, Trevor we shift with you, and I know m’mate will then break your legs as well as your arms.” She shrugged, “Me? I think I’ll just kick you in the balls again…” she lifted her foot.

He screamed, “Wait!”

Deimne was on him and while Trevor had him pinned, “Deimne took his dagger and hissed, “This won’t kill you Worley, but it will make you bleed and I won’t let you heal…and if that doesn’t work…” he moved off and looked at Jazz, “I won’t be as kind as she was. I won’t bother just kicking you in the balls. I will cut them off and feed them to you, watch you choke on them…or you can tell us where you shoved my daughter to.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know. If you harm me, you will have to answer to Queen Mab,” he told Deimne.

“What I just said I want to do is what Queen Mab just may do anyway. She knows what you have been doing with your little band of Daoine citizens,” Deimne snapped. “Now, where is my daughter?”

“Conglam,” Worley said.

“You lie. Conglam is warded against a Fae entering,” Trevor said.

“No, he is telling the truth,” Jazz stuck in. “If they are working with Pestale and we have to believe that they are, then they have gone to Conglam.”

“Where we can’t follow,” Deimne said with sudden fear clipping the words.

Deimne said, “Let’s take him to Queen Mab, and see if there is a way we can enter Conglam.”

However, before they shifted off, Jazz called, “Wait!”

Trevor frowned and followed the line of her vision and frowned some more.

“Graely,”
Jazz called excitedly. “Graely, I am so glad you have come!”

Chapter Fourteen

FRANKIE PLAYED WITH scenarios in her mind. She could of course, cut off their heads, and that was what she damn well would do if they got too close to her when the portal spit her out.

She was still too weak to take all of them on.

But, she could use the time to find out why they had set off bombs. What was the purpose? What could they hope to gain?

Why kill all those innocent people?

She had managed to slow her progress when she latched onto what did turn out to be a root and not a snake. Looking over her shoulder she saw light, a glowing light.

Almost there.

She would call for her Death Sword upon landing.

That was what she would do. Hers had been given to her by her father. It was attached and bonded to her.

In addition to her Death Sword, she had her secret Fios weapon, her
fireball,
and that was fiercely devastatingly accurate, but she reserved it for moments when nothing else would work.

She bumped her head and her body a few more times before the portal shoved her out and that was what it felt like, as though many hands were pushing at her back, forcing her out of the portal.

She landed and looked around and as she feared, there she was, right in the center of a troop of angry Blue Demons.

Her open hand went up, and she fisted it around her weapon which glinted threateningly in the sun’s rays. She swayed it left to right and waited.

Her meaning had been clear and the Blue Demons stood still, either unwilling to engage, or waiting for something…

She had the feeling they weren’t frightened but waiting for something.

She arched a brow, and gracefully circled her sword in the air between them. She heard their apparent leader as he raised his hand and cautioned them, “Hold.”

She listened to their grumbling as they stood ready to charge at her and one said out loud as he looked at the tall fierce leader, “Just kill the wench and be done, Sventer.”

Frankie thought it time to reply to this idea, “I don’t know who ye all are, but I have m’Death Sword pointed and ready, as ye can clearly see. So then, I have given ye fair warning, and tell ye that even if ye or yers were to receive the slightest scratch from its deadly blade, ye will not survive, but ye know that, don’t ye? Aye, ye do. ‘Tis why ye don’t charge me.”

“What are you? I have never seen your like…
you are winged
,” Sventer said on a dark frown.

“Winged am I? Well, well…aren’t ye observant,” Frankie returned arching her brow to match her crooked smile.

“Some of us will die, but one of us will get through,” Sventer said, “Take her now.” Sventer ordered, and watched as his men stepped toward her.

“I’m not one that kills lightly, but I think ye need a lesson because
ye do kill lightly.”
Frankie swung her sword, catching a Blue Demon soldier’s dagger and flipping it out of his hand. It went flying, and she could have nicked him, but refrained. At that moment another Blue Demon launched at her, and she stabbed him through. He fell back against his comrades, spluttered and died on the spot.

The remaining warriors hovered angrily, cursing at her head. “I did give ye fair warning, and a lass has to protect herself, now doesn’t she? Fae Death Hallows never miss their mark,” Frankie’s nose lifted. She hated killing, but there was always something charging and demanding its death! “Downright fools,” she told them as suddenly those glistening black wings of hers opened. She displayed them while the Demons hung back, some in awe.

The tips of white sparkled as she lifted high and took to the skies. She looked down and said, “Bye, bye boys, but don’t worry. I’ll be back and when I come back,
I won’t be as
friendly.”

High overhead and out of their range, Frankie soared, taking a look at the world she had been deposited in. She tried thinking of home and shifting, but something was blocking her. She knew what it was. It was
a ward.

A ward blocked her from shifting home.

That was a problem, but only a temporary one. She would need to figure out what sort of ward it was, and deactivate it. She had paid attention to her da when he taught her just how to do that. She knew the steps, she knew the spells, but such things took time.

Right then
,
Frankie
, she told herself,
find a place to set down and figure out yer next move.

She had taken flight to get her bearings. She didn’t want to shift and find herself in the middle of a mountain, or an ocean, so while in flight she took a moment to survey the landscape below.

Now where the devil are ye
, she asked herself.
In trouble as always, deep, deep, to yer knees in horse-shit trouble
, she answered her own question
.

She saw a river, tucked in her wings and shifted to its edge.

She stood gazing at the serene and lovely landscape all around her, and sighed.

Thirsty from all her exertions, not Fae thirsty as Fae especially Daoine Fae could go for a very long time without food or water.
She was human thirsty
. Her human would always be a part of who she was.

She started to bend toward the swiftly moving stream as it bubbled over rocks and sand and wondered if it was drinkable.  She was Daoine, a Fae of earth, wind, and fire. All she had to do was sniff…

Oh no.

Oh no oh no oh no.

Chapter Fifteen

JAZZ WENT FORWARD to meet Graely who had hung back. She knew with both Trevor and Frankie’s father on the spot, he would not intrude.

She eyed him and not for the first time saw what Frankie always saw.

He was magnificent in his dark brown leather pants, sandals and nothing hiding his muscular chest but his intricate rune tattoos.

He frowned at her, and she noted at once, he was looking for Frankie. He broke his rule and came toward her regardless of Trevor and Deimne’s attitude. His speaking eyes asked her about Frankie and she could see as he moved a mass of rock hard muscle, he was more than a little concerned.

His black hair blew around his too beautiful face and Jazz could see the terror take over his features. All at once, she knew. He would not survive without Frankie. He loved her.

Jazz saw it all. He was the ultimate bad boy, a bad boy that wanted ‘saving’.  It was a completely lethal combination. Could Frankie save him?

Looking at him now, he looked more beast than pliable male. He looked too headstrong for anyone to control. He stalked toward her and she regarded him from eyes that had become slits, giving nothing, and seeing everything.

What is that Daoine doing here?” his chin indicated Worley. “Where is Frankie? Why is Prince Trevor holding on to the Daoine like his life depended on it—where is Frankie?” Graely said in quick succession. “What has that thing done? Where is Frankie?”

Trevor shouted, “Don’t get to close to Jazmine Decker, Dark One!”

The Dark Prince ignored him, and Deimne sent out an electric charge of blue fire. It hit Graely square in the chest. Graely staggered but even before he straightened, he gritted his teeth and continuing forward, ignoring all except Jazz.

She saw pain and worry written all over his face, as he just kept stalking toward her, his lips pulled in tight with determination.

Trevor shouted at him, an angry frown drawing down his eyebrows, “Stand your ground, Unseelie!”

“What have you done? What have you all done?” Graely growled. “Where is she? What have you done with Frankie?”

Jazz shot a hard look at her mate and Deimne. “We don’t have time for you two to flex your muscles and prejudices. This is not the time for feuding, for ‘tis nothing more than that.  Just keep Worley in tow. Can’t you see that Graely wants her safe?” She turned to Graely.

“Jazmine Decker,” Trevor called grimly, “I like to please you in all matters, but…this? Him? Now? You can’t ask it of me.”

She gave him a soft look filled with love. She knew how distressed he was, but he was in the wrong of it, “Graely might be able to help us,” she said to him, “And we need help immediately.” Jazz frowned at Deimne and added, “You know he cares about Frankie, so it doesn’t matter what you think of him. You know that he wants to help. You two would see that, if you could see past your own noses!” She shook her head, “Your prejudice is based on what? That he is an Unseelie, and think all Unseelie are evil. Be that as it may, he is not just an Unseelie, is he? He isn’t one of those monsters. He isn’t his brothers. There is more to Graely. Don’t forget what Crystal told you Trevor, she said he has more of his father’s Daoine genes than his brothers.” She waved Deimne’s objection off with a sharp movement of her hand and continued, “If you both weren’t so blind with preconceived notions, you would see that. The sorry truth is we aren’t sure the portal goes to Conglam and even if it does—we don’t know how to get past the wards.  Time might be important…we need his help.”

Deimne lost control. His fear for his daughter, the blame he put on all Unseelie, Graely standing so erect in the face of this horror sent him reeling. He had both hands wrapped around Graely’s wide neck, as he attempted to choke him, all the while bellowing out the sound of his helpless rage.

Graely took it from him, keeping his hands open at his sides.

Jazz could see Graely would not raise a hand against Frankie’s father.

Jazz pulled him off with Trevor shouting for him to stop.

It was, Jazz thought, a nightmare.

Frankie’s father dropped his choke hold, he spat at Graely in the face and accused, “This is your brother’s doing. Where would he send her? I’ll kill you if one hair…”

“Stop it, Deimne. You know this was not his doing—we both know it. My Jazmine Decker is right. This Dark Prince might be able to help us,” Trevor said and Jazz sent him a thankful look.

Worley had remained silent throughout but at this juncture he said, “You trust an Unseelie, but hold me in contempt?”

Deimne sneered, “He is right…Graely is an abomination.”

“You are no gem,” Trevor said to the Daoine, but we’ll deal with you in good order.

Ignoring Frankie’s father, Graely flicked a wrist and washed the spit off his face, and then looked past him at Jazz, “Tell me everything that happened after you got to this place. All I know is that I felt Frankie’s mind go into a wave filled with shock, and then distress. She was grappling with the walls of the portal. That was all I could see and then I lost our link. I have not been able to find her through our link from that moment on.”

“Your link? Your link? You have a link with my daughter?” Deimne was beside himself and enraged all over again.

Trevor dragged the Daoine and stood between the Sluagh and Graely, and glared at Deimne. “Deimne, you waste precious time.”

Jazz said, “Sluagh, enough! You are getting in my way. Don’t do it any longer.” She turned back to Graely,

Her Fios was now on the alert, and she put up a shield between Deimne and Graely, and stepped within its circle. She and Graely were now untouchable for the moment.

“Graely, it seems to me you must have lost the connection after she was sucked deeper into the portal. I thought that such links, like the one I have with Trevor are not affected by space and time.”

“That is a variable.” He said on a frown. “You two are mated…Frankie and I…are friends.”

“Right, then if she is in Conglam…” Jazz started.

“She is. The Blue Demons come from Conglam. The portal was created by Pestale and Hordly.” He glanced at Worley and asked, “Why does your mate have the Daoine in a death grip?”

“Easy now, and you must promise not to kill him, when I answer you, agreed?”

“Promise not to hurt him?” Graely moved toward the Daoine Prince, but Trevor shot him a warning glance and Jazz grabbed his forearm.

“Graely, promise!”

“I promise not to hurt him now, I can’t promise for the future,” Graely answered on a hard note.

“Quibbling! We don’t have time to quibble. He shoved Frankie into the Portal,” she answered but did not let go of his arm as he appeared as though he were about to break that promise on the spot.

For the moment, she knew that the shield would not let him through, but it wouldn’t hold forever.

It was a Fios shield, designed to help a Fios escape the Fae in a time of danger. It wasn’t meant to work for long.  “Your connection to Frankie—hers, to you, is what I am counting on. Tell me, what you know about the Blue Demons.”

Graely’s face was unreadable but he said, “They are working with Pestale, ‘tis all I know.”

Jazz clicked her fingers and the shield was no more. She eyed both her mate and Frankie’s father warningly as she led the Dark Prince to the spot where the portal opening had been just at the edge of the river. “Can you find a way of shifting there and getting past the wards?”

Graely didn’t speak. He ignored them all as he took a step toward the river’s edge, stretched out his arms and hands as though to grab the very air, before he began whispering the arcane words of a world he had never seen anywhere but in his dreams.

Slowly, he turned to them, but ignored Frankie’s father and Trevor, as he spoke only to Jazz and in a whisper, “I will find her and bring her back to you.” So saying, Graely shifted.

In a panic, both Trevor and Deimne immediately used their tracking skills, trying to locate his direction, but it was as though he had vanished into thin air.