“When help finally arrived,” I continued, “he was swaying from his injuries and lack of blood. He was basically out on his feet but kept going by sheer willpower, long enough for his backup to net one zombie at a time from behind and drag them outside where they were hit with flamethrowers, fire being one of the few ways to kill one of these things. The zombies never turned around, they kept their entire focus on him. It was courageous, impossible, amazing, I just have no words to describe it. He let himself collapse as the last one was dragged away. Even with his healing power, he was a month recuperating, then he spent three years tracking down the witch that had done this thing, finally seeing that witch put in jail.”
“You fell in love with an ideal,” Jane said. “The best of that which makes us love.”
“Yes,” I said. “I didn’t realize it at the time. What I just knew would happen has not happened. We have become friends, quickly, and there was an initial spark of attraction, which is now a friendship instead. I guess I should be happy with that. I can think of no better friend to have.”
“Did he ever kiss you?” she asked.
“Never been kissed,” I replied.
Chapter Sixteen
I wasn’t sure she had heard the last thing I had said; she was now asleep.
Time to go,
I thought, leaving through the broken french doors and making my way out of the community, easily climbing over the fence at the same wooded place we had entered. I had some cash on me and as soon as I made it out of the residential area, I had a man at a convenience store call a cab for me. My tendency to overstock and plan for possible glitches was going to payoff.
I had rented a stall at a mini warehouse, paying cash a year ahead under a phony name, storing some furniture there, mainly an old beaten up looking desk and some chairs and other miscellaneous junk. Everything I needed was in the desk, it was warded extensively and locked. I had both the warehouse key and the desk key in my purse, now in my backpack. I paid the cab driver with a nice tip and asked him to wait around a few minutes as I walked down to my spot. Inside the desk, I had cash, disposal cell phones already set up through some phony prepaid accounts, and a few weapons. I took all of the cash and six of the phones, not taking a chance with taking the weapons. I made my first call standing there at the warehouse door. My personal banker had been expecting my call.
“I saw the news last night,” he said as I asked him to execute our planned exit strategy. “I have already moved your money off shore and overseas as we discussed. They will not get a penny.”
I gave him a series of numbers, he knew what they were for. He would be on the next flight out, probably under an assumed name. I wished him enjoyment in his early retirement. I crushed that phone in my hands and made my next call.
“Sarah,” I said, “It’s Linda, from the witch council. I was wondering if you could tell me what is going on down there?” I had given it a fake accent, but with just a tiny push of magic so she would know who was really calling.
“There is no proof of witch involvement,” Sarah replied. “They keep hinting at it but no direct accusations yet. The Mayor has asked that Chris and I be taken off the case because of our association with Jade but our agent in charge is fighting it. I just had a call from him saying that it might be inevitable, however. Somebody is pulling some big strings at FBI headquarters. The only thing they have is testimony from the vamp, the one that we were unable to get any information from. Apparently, the Captain and the DA were able to somehow persuade him to talk, behind our backs. We asked to be able to interview the vamp again now that he is talking, but they are stonewalling. Unfortunately, they did not make a tape of this conversation. Jade’s partner was taken in for questioning last night. So far, I haven’t heard anything about that. The Captain personally drove him to the station a few hours ago after they raided Jade’s flat at the Portmeirion.”
“Thanks, Sarah,” I replied. “Keep us updated, please.” I hung up, crushing that phone as well. Sarah had given me some valuable information, hopefully without revealing to anyone monitoring her phone that she had been talking to me. I hated to say it, and I doubt Rolfe had really thought this through, but our beloved Captain was probably up to his eyeballs in this mess. I hoped Rolfe would be okay. Neither he, nor I, had anything to do with this. They were clearing the field of something they considered a threat.
I asked the cab driver to take me to an internet cafe. The first thing I did was buy a six-shot espresso with four pumps of dark chocolate. I was going to need some energy and my system was already clamoring for nourishment. I looked like a student, cramming for an examination. What I needed to do was find a safe base of operations, something that we could use without fear of being detected.
“Google is my friend,” I muttered to myself as I logged in. I even said it three times, sometimes a little minor magic helped. With Google, sometimes you need all the help you can get.
I rented a cabin at Tanglewood using one of my now hidden and in another name accounts. A single, gated entrance that I could ward giving me warning of anyone that would enter looking for me, with the cabin far enough away from the entrance to give us ample time to escape through the woods. WiFi and cable, a winery (I really liked that part), private yet not completely isolated. Both vamps and shifters would have no problem getting to us through the woods, yet any human authorities would come to us by only one direction. There was even an RV park close by and we could move some of Jane’s vamps close by for support and protection. The gate closed at sunset so I would need to rent a van to get Jane there during the day while giving her protection from the sun.
Our story still dominated the news. There had been a press conference where the Mayor had basically put a curfew on the southern territory’s supernatural community. Known supe hangouts and properties had come under attack and demonstrations against witches, fae, shifters, and vamps were going to be non stop today. Several children of witches had been attacked at school, the Mayor had ordered all shifters to stay inside Pack territory until further notice. Most shifters had jobs outside of the territory and this was going to put them under a severe financial strain. As an emergency measure, the mayor had frozen all supe assets in the southern capital with the entire southern territory following his lead. Supe hate was spreading to the northern and western territories as well.
The big news came as I was finishing my search for a base of operations. Evidently, Rolfe had managed to break into the cell holding the vamp that had accused us, killed him, and then managed to escape. His whereabouts were unknown and the cops had orders to track him down and arrest him. His status was listed as armed and dangerous.
How convenient,
I thought. Accuser dead and Rolfe, I wasn’t sure. Reading between the lines my bet is that he got wind of what was going on and got out of there. They had no intention of bringing him or me for that matter, in alive. Rolfe killing the vamp was pure BS.
I connected to my email through a university proxy my, now retired, banker dude had provided me. I had the usual bunch of junk, as well as a few that were very interesting. Emily had sent me an invite to join her on her next full moon hunt, she was trying to tell me something, I was sure of that but unsure of what she was trying to say. I would have to think about this one some more. She knew they would be monitoring e-mail. The Summer Queen sent me a portion of a poem of
Faerie
by Sophia White:
winter fairies come
a-calling
faces pressed window panes
twinkling
frost makes lacy prints
glittering
light snow pristine pure
falling
world young life fresh
breathing
winter fairies come
a-calling
Now, this one,
I figured out. It was the meeting with the Winter Queen I had been waiting for and I knew how to activate the spell.
So, I had a few things I needed to do today, rent a van, search for Rolfe, and now the Winter Queen. My gut was telling me that the Winter Queen should be my first step but my heart was pushing for me to find Rolfe. I decided to go with my gut, if Rolfe was in hiding, me looking for him might not be the safest thing to do for him or me.
Chapter Seventeen
I needed a fogged-up-by-cold-air window pane. I decided on Walmart. There are many strange creatures and characters that go in and out of Walmart on a daily basis, and I hoped I would be able to pull this one off. I was still dreading the rent-a-van part of my to do list, I did not like the thought that I would soon be driving again, so I hoofed it about a mile to the local Walmart and went straight to the frozen goods section. The pizza aisle looked very promising with several fogged up windows. As unobtrusively as possible, I set wards at both ends that would discourage folks from going down that aisle, a sort of, “this is not the pizza droids aisle you are looking for” section.
Then I had to wait about ten minutes as one rather strange lady had to read the ingredients on almost a dozen different pizza boxes to make her selection and leave the aisle.
I opened the door that offered the most cold fogginess and wrote the Faerie poem in the fae language, inverted as if seen in a mirror.
Then I spoke the poem aloud and gave it a little magical push, thinking Winter Queen and willing my spell to connect. Her image appeared immediately, she looked up, saw me and smiled.
“I have been waiting for your call, Jade,” she said.
“Sorry for the delay, your Grace,” I replied. I could not refer to her as my Queen as I was a member of the Summer Court. “I seem to have gotten quite popular all of a sudden.”
“Make no mistake about it,” the Winter Queen said, “what we have here is another war, this time a war on all of us in the supernatural community, a war that has the sole purpose of eliminating any power and influence we have in your world. The Summer Queen has spoken to me extensively about you and given me the information you provided her. We have been betrayed by a member of my court. I intend to take a hand in this matter personally. We have made great strides since the fae wars, and now all that work is going to come crashing down if we don’t expose this conspiracy for what it is. In this matter, think of me as an ally. I have discussed this with your Queen and I will partner with you to resolve this issue.”
“I have also partnered with London Jane,” I answered.
“Then we shall indeed make a formidable trio,” she replied and held out her hand to me.
“Your face and your beauty is well known here,” I said, hesitating. I did not want to expose us.
“I have prepared a bit of a glamour that you might appreciate,” she replied, so I took her hand and drew her to me.
Her glamour was very impressive. Standing next to me, was well, me. My identical twin. People would notice yet not even begin to think of us as the Winter Queen and Jade, just as a set of attractive female twins. She even had the blue eyes and clothes down perfectly. I would have a hard time telling us apart if I were not me.
“You may call me Jill for the duration of our efforts here,” she said.
Jill, Jane, and Jade,
I thought. “Three is a good number,” I said.
The fae don’t much care for cars and I got a lecture on various cars and metals that they could tolerate without a lot of pain. It seems the Winter Queen had a secret, one she kept from the other fae, she loved to drive.
“I like the speed and power,” she said. “We will drive one of mine.”
I had to laugh, this partnership thing was already turning out to be great. I told her about me and driving not mixing too well. She had a couple of her cars stored in a rented garage just outside of the city limits. The Accura NSX was her favorite. All aluminum and carbon fiber frame and it was sleek and fast.
“Where are we going to put Jane?” I asked. It wasn’t like the van I had considered renting.
“The windows are heavily tinted, blocking the UV rays. We can stuff her in the back seat and cover her up with a blanket. She’ll sleep through the whole thing,” she added.
I didn’t object any further. If she was driving, I was happy. I didn’t realize it at the time but Jill’s plan had me driving later.
We drove out to Tanglewood, checked in, and checked out the little cottage I had rented. Jill agreed it would be perfect, and was eager to see me set the wards for when we brought Jane back later this afternoon. The fae Queens have a huge amount of magic and never tire of picking up some new tricks along the way. The little alarm-if-intent-to-do-me-harm ward was one she was not familiar with. I would set my ward tonight when we entered the gate just before sundown, the park’s closing time. I even had time to pick up a few bottles of the local wine at the manor house, which I proceeded to open up and guzzle down as she sped me around the city.
We decided to eat, she loved human food, and I explained my dietary needs to her as well. After dinner, we would pick up the matching NSX and I would attempt to follow her to Tanglewood where we would park one of the cars outside the gate in a secluded spot and enter in the other. After sundown, the three of us would exit the park, get the second car and pay her suspected fae traitor on this side of the divide a little visit. Jill was calling us the three J’amigos, she was having a blast planning out our strategy.