New World Order (War of the Fae: Book 4) (14 page)

“That was for asking me stupid questions.
 
You know Chase is my daemon.
 
Plus he’s my friend and who knows? ... He could be my possible future life mate.
 
So out with it, or else.”

“I’m not supposed to tell.”
 
She pouted.
 
“But I am very interested in hearing about your life mate plans.
 
Can I be in the wedding?”

Tony sighed.
 
“Just tell her, Becky.
 
Your attempts at distraction won’t work.
 
You know she’ll get it out of you eventually.”

I pulled some of The Green into me, sending it to my eyes, letting it sit there and glow.
 
I meant it as a threat, to show my supposed power, but instead of scaring Becky, it mesmerized her.

“Holy moly, Jayne, your eyes are so incredibly bright now ... bluuuue and greeeeen and bluuuuue and greeeen ... all swirly and whirly and girly and twirly ... ”

“Becky!” I yelled, grabbing her upper arms and shaking her, “Snap out of it, you fluff brain!
 
I need you to talk to me!”

Her head snapped back and forth a couple times before she looked like she was back on this planet again.
 
“Wh ... what happened there?
 
Wow, I felt like I’d drank too much strawberry wine for a minute there.”

“No, you goof, no strawberry wine here.
 
Tell me about the pixie blood.
 
I’m not kidding.”

She looked up in the air around us and whispered, “Is Tim still here?”

I whispered back, “I’m sure he is, but I have no idea where.”

“Fine,” she capitulated, huffing out a breath and rolling her eyes, gesturing for me to come closer so she could whisper in my ear.
 
“I was talking to one of the elves who works in the clinic, and he told me that they had run out of Tim’s blood, so they had to use another pixie’s blood for Chase’s antidote.”

I whispered back, “Why would Tim care about that?”

Becky spoke even quieter, “Because it had to be the blood of a relative of Tim.”

“A relative?” I whispered back.
 
“Like who?” I couldn’t imagine that the blood of his wife would have the right stuff they were looking for – unless pixies married their relatives, which was kind of gross.
 
Tim didn’t strike me as the cousin-marrying type.

“It was the blood of his
son
.”

I sat straight up and yelled,
“Whatthefuckareyoutalkingabout?
 
Tim doesn’t have any
kids!”

Becky started flapping her hands at me madly, like a crazy girl in the middle of a slap fight to the death.
 

I ducked, my arm held up in front of me as a shield, trying to avoid the worst of it.
 
“Cut it out, you crazy bitch!”

“I told you it was a
secret
, Jayne! Couldn’t you just keep your big mouth shut for once?”
 
The slapping slowly died down as her energy faltered.

I frowned at her, still keeping my arm up in front of my face for protection, but I could see she was too tired to continue with the physical abuse, so I lowered it cautiously.
 
“Hey, watch it with the personal insults, lady.
 
My mouth isn’t
that
big.”

“I’m sorry, but geez.
 
You know he heard you.
 
Plus you called me the b-word.”

“Well, you earned it, abusing my delicate person like that with your crazy ninja moves.
 
And trust me, if Tim heard me, he’d be in our faces right now, buzzing like mad.”

“Who’d be in your faces right now, buzzing like mad?”

I jumped in fright, just now realizing he was standing on my shoulder.

“Holy
shit!
 
Not funny, pixieman.
 
I was having a private chat with my friend here.”

“So I see.
 
What did I miss?”

“Uh, nothing.”
 
I bugged my eyes out at Becky, hoping Tim wouldn’t see my signal telling her to play along.

Becky was staring daggers back at me, so I did the only mature thing left to do and stuck my tongue out at her.

“Why the death stare from old weenie water sprite over there?” he asked.

“She doesn’t want me sharing her secrets.”

“Are they secrets about me?”

“Maybe.”

“Then you have to tell.
 
It’s roommates’ honor code.
 
You’re not allowed to keep secrets about the other roommate.
 
If you do, you have to move out.
 
You’ll have to room with Scrum probably.”

“Or you will,” I said, trying not to laugh at his new code.

“Nope.
 
Only the person keeping secrets has to go.
 
It’s in the book.
 
Look it up.”

“What book?
 
I’ve never seen it.”

“Sure you have.
 
It’s on my nightstand.”

I reached up to grab him, but he took flight.
 

“Not so fast, Miss Grabbyfingers.
 
You have secrets to share and I have places to go.
 
Chop, chop.
 
Out with it.”

“What’s he saying?” asked Becky, her eyes following his flight path over our heads.

“He wants to know what your big secret is.
 
Apparently, he didn’t hear me and
my big mouth
.”

“Well, you can’t tell him,” said Becky, firmly, back to staring me down again.
 
“I’m serious.
 
We cannot have a pixie war on our hands right now.
 
That’s all those creatures from the Underworld would need – all of us laughing and dancing around, totally defenseless.”

Tim buzzed down until he was in front of her face, nearly making her go cross-eyed.
 
“You’re not her roommate, you watery little tart, so back off!”

I burst out laughing.
 
“Tim, easy, no need to get all worked up.
 
You know your snores are the only ones I ever want to hear when I go to sleep at night.”

He turned around and folded his arms, hovering there and getting himself into a real pixie snit.
 
“You haven’t seen me worked up yet, believe me.
 
And for the record, your drool glistening on your pillow across the room is the only drool I ever want to see.”

“So sweet.
 
And I think I have seen you lose your cool,” I frowned at him.
 
“Chase?
 
Remember?”

I leaned to the side so I could see around him and lock Becky in my gaze.
 
“So what’s the deal?
 
Can you go get Chase for us?
 
I need to see him.”

Becky stood, glad to have an excuse to go.
 
“Yes.
 
I’ll go get him.
 
And I’ll see you guys in a few days, when I’m feeling better.”

She began walking away and Finn moved to walk with her.
 
They went a few steps farther and then stopped, talking quietly between themselves.
 
I tried to make out what they were saying but they were purposely being quiet.
 
Then I watched as Finn bent over awkwardly to give Becky a kiss on her cheek.
 
For the first time today, she had some color in her face – a delicate pink that belied her embarrassment.
 
Or excitement if the smile on her face was any indication.
 
I grinned, watching them.
 
They were so adorable I wanted to puke.
 
But in a nice way.

“How cute is that?” asked Tim, sighing.
 

“Seriously, it is,” I agreed.
 
“I totally want to vom right now.”

“I know, right?” asked Tim, coming to rest on my shoulder.
 
“Young love ... ”

“Huh,” said Tony.

I looked at him curiously.
 
“What’s the matter, Tones?”

“Oh, nothing.
 
I just ... didn’t realize they were ... a couple.”

I laughed.
 
“I don’t think they realized it either.”

He smiled.
 
“I guess teen romance isn’t any easier in the fae world than it is in the human world.”

“Why would it be?” I asked.
 
“We’re just as clueless here as we were there.”

“True, so true.”

“I had a girlfriend once,” said Scrum, coming over to stand next to me, holding out his hands to help me up.

“Oh yeah?
 
What was her name?” I asked, grabbing his hands and getting to my feet, then turning to give Tony my hand to help him up.
 
We stood there brushing leaves and twigs off our butts and legs while we listened to the tale of love lost as told by Scrum.

“Her name was Millicent.
 
She lived next door.
 
When we were little we played together all the time – every day in the summer.
 
She said she was my girlfriend.
 
At school we were friends too, until the fifth grade.
 
Then she got ... well ... boobs and it went all downhill from there.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.
 
“Boobs?
 
Boobs were the downfall of your relationship?”

He shrugged.
 
“Kinda seemed that way.
 
One day she was flat-chested and hanging out on the swing set in my backyard, next day she has boobs and three different boys are trying to get her attention all the time.
 
After a while she kinda forgot I existed.”

Tony looked at him sadly.
 
“Didn’t you try to talk to her?”

“Yeah.
 
A couple times.
 
I tried to warn her that those guys didn’t have her best interests at heart; but she didn’t listen.”

“What’d she do?” I asked, almost afraid to hear the sad answer.

“She told me to get my scrubby face out of her face and to leave her alone.”

“Woof.
 
She sounds like one mean bitch, Scrum.
 
I’m sure you’re better off without her.”

“I know.
 
That’s the common sense way to look at it.
 
But it hurt anyway.
 
Still does, actually.
 
She was my best friend for a long time.”

I looked at Tony and felt my heart squeeze a little bit.
 
I couldn’t imagine what I’d do if Tony told me to get out of his face.
 
I wanted to hug him, but instead I hugged Scrum.
 
I pulled a little of The Green into me and sent it to him, hoping I could bring him a small measure of peace.
 
“She didn’t deserve you, Scrummers.
 
She really didn’t.
 
You’re a good guy.”

“I know.
 
That’s what my grandma always said.”

“Well, you should listen to her.
 
She sounds like a smart lady.”

“She also used to say that squirrel stew would help me grow big and strong so that all the girls would like me.
 
I ate plenty of that stuff, but it never helped.”

I patted his back absently while making crazy faces of disbelief at Tony over the fact that someone would feed her grandchild squirrel soup.
 
“Well, so she may have been missing a few marbles.
 
But that’s okay.”
 
I pulled away from him, gripping him by the shoulders.
 
“Your day will come, Scrum, just wait and see.
 
Some fae girl will take one look at you and fall madly in love.”

He smiled weakly, “You think?”

“I know it.”
 
And I really did know it, too.
 
Somewhere there was someone who would love this keg-o-beer ... gnome-head and all.
 
Or maybe she’d convince him that shampoo was not the devil’s brew.
 
Either way, I was going to give up on this world entirely if a good fae guy like Scrum couldn’t find love in it.

I dropped Scrum’s shoulders just as a crashing through the trees off to my right assaulted my ears.
 
I caught a flash of Chase’s face, right before I found myself picked up and nearly crushed in a big embrace.

“Jaynie,” he said into my neck, in a soft, growly voice, as his big arms enveloped me in warmth and the manly smell that I recognized as belonging to my daemon.

“Chase ... ey,” I said back, giggling at the ridiculousness of it.

Chase slowly lowered me to the ground, keeping his strong arms around me.
 
I stood there on my tiptoes with my arms around his neck for a few seconds, reveling in the excitement of being in Chase’s embrace.
 
Before he’d been accidentally pixelated by Tim and delivered by my stupid ass to the Dark Fae compound for healing, we’d never actually gotten physical in any way.
 
Sure I’d touched his well-muscled arm from time to time and we’d shared a few looks – but that was it.
 
Somehow, though, his constant desire to protect me and his unwavering loyalty had done something to my heart.
 
Chase had a special place there, reserved just for him.
 
It was different than the spot I had for my best friend, Tony, and different than the place I held for Spike – my friend and occasional hot sexy distraction.