New World Order (War of the Fae: Book 4) (27 page)

“Just you!” said Rick the Dick, loudly.
 

I stopped.
 
“They’re my friends.
 
They’re coming with me.”

“No they are not.
 
This is my house, not yours.”
 
He jabbed his thumb at his own chest.
 
“I
make the rules around here.”

“I have a better idea,” said Theresa, sidling up to him.
 
“Why don’t you let them all go up, so we can get ... better acquainted.”
 
She pushed out her chest a little and tilted her head to the side with her chin to her chest a little.
 
Then she turned her hips left and right suggestively, as if she was just an innocent little schoolgirl, nervous in the presence of awesomeness.
 

“Well, okay.
 
Yeah.
 
That’s a good idea.
 
You all go on up there and leave me with your two other friends here.
 
What’d you say your names were?”

Cha-ching!
 
Hook, line, and sinker!
 
I wasted no time taking off, my friends following closely behind me, Tim the dragonfly buzzing in the air at my shoulder.
 
I took the stairs two at a time, thanking the heavens for all the workouts I’d done as a changeling that left me in the best cardio shape of my life.
 
I wasn’t even winded when I got to the top.
 
I took Blackie out of its sheath and crept along the hallway leading to my mom’s room.
 
I didn’t even stop at mine, although a brief glimpse at its interior through the open door told me Rick the Dick had taken it over for his space now.
 
Shithead
.

I reached my mom’s room and pushed open the door cautiously.
 
“Mom?” I said into the darkness.

I could hear a rattling breath coming from inside, near her bed.
 
“In here,” she said.
 
“Is that you ... Jayne sweetie?”

It was my mom’s voice, but she sounded weak as hell and all mucousy in the lungs or something.
 
I reached my hand over to the wall and flipped on the light switch.
 
The room stayed dark, the bulb burned out.

“Don’t turn on ... the light,” she gasped weakly.
 
“It hurts ... my eyes.”

I looked back at everyone behind me, and I knew my eyes were as big as saucers.
 
I couldn’t see into the room and I was scared shitless about what was in there, sounding like a very unhealthy version of my mom.
 
I’d already experienced a buggane imitating a friend and had almost fallen for it.
 
I didn’t trust the sound of my mom in that room.
 
It wasn’t quite right.

“I’m going to go open the curtains,” whispered Tony behind me, squeezing past Finn to get by and into the room.

“I will stand next to the bed to be ready for what happens when the light comes in,” whispered Céline.

I could hear an arrow being slowly drawn out of Finn’s quiver.
 

“I’m gonna keep my distance to make sure I get a good shot.
 
Only if need be, though Jayne.
 
I ain’t gonna shoot your momma if you don’t want me to.
 
Just give the order, though, if you do.”

I watched as Tony crept over to the window that was across the room, one hand reached out to grab the drapes while the other held his axe at the ready.
 
I could see the light blue glow coming from the weapon, telling me that the thing was going to light up like a Christmas tree if he got mad or felt threatened.
 
That made me feel a smidge better about our situation.
 

Céline took up her position at the side of the bed nearest the door, while I moved to the one nearest the window.
 
I knew my mom normally slept on that side, and I wanted to see her up close when the light entered the room.
 
I held Blackie out in my hand just in case of surprises; it was invisible in the darkness of the room, blending into the blackness.

A slight draft pushed through the room, lifting my hair off my sweaty face; I had a feeling it was coming from Céline, who I’d seen riding the wind a couple times.
 
Maybe, if there was some dangerous creature in here, she could blow it away or spin it around the room a few times.”

“Ready?” whisper-yelled Tony from across the room.

“Jayne?
 
Is that you?
 
What are you ... doing?” asked my mom, again in the squishy, rattling voice.

“Do it,” I said, ready for anything, my heart racing a million miles an hour.

I heard the sound of the rings holding the drapes zip along the bar that held them up as Tony threw them to the side.
 

A flood of bright sunlight filled the room from corner to corner.
 

My mom started screaming as soon as the brilliance hit her eyes.

I started screaming as soon as I saw her face.

The hideous thing sitting in my mom’s bed was my mom.
 
I could see that.
 
But her face was a swollen, lumpy purple bruise-fest, from her hairline down to her neck that disappeared below the covers.
 

“Mom?!”
I yelled, not caring that Rick the Soon to be Murdered Dick would hear me, incredible sorrow in my voice.
 
Tears sprang to my eyes and began cascading down my cheeks.
 
“What the
fuck
happened to your
face?”

“Hi, hon,” was all she said.
 
It was all she could say.
 
Her lips were split and her jaw swollen so much, it looked like it was broken in at least three places.
 
I could see that her front teeth had been knocked out.

“Oh, Mrs. Sparks,” said Tony in a hushed voice, coming up to the side of the bed to stand next to me, “what happened to you?”
 
He grabbed my cold, empty hand in his and squeezed it hard.
 

“Jayne,” said Céline, her voice all business-like.
 
“Your mother has been beaten severely.
 
This was no accident.”

“Mom,” I wept.
 
“Is that true?
 
Who did this to you?
 
Was it Rick?”
 
I slowly sat down on the edge of the bed, terribly afraid of jiggling her and causing her more pain.
 
My heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vice.

“I can’t ... re ... member,” was all she could get out.
 
Tears were leaking from behind the swollen slits that were left of her eyes.
 
Part of me was happy they were swollen nearly closed – I could only imagine what her soft and defenseless eyeballs must look like if her face and skull looked like this.
 
I was getting nauseous just looking at her.
 
I had to turn away to catch my breath and calm my stomach.

My eye caught Finn’s.
 
He’d lowered his bow and was looking at me now.
 
“Jayne.
 
I don’t think the enemy is up here.
 
I think it’s downstairs.”

I nodded my head, unable to speak.
 
Without even thinking about it, I pulled The Green up into me, and like a raging, flooded river, I started overflowing with all of the energy I could hardly contain.
 
My grief caused me to reach with abandon, pulling more and more and more.
 
My mom didn’t deserve this.
 
She was a nice person who had lost her way with the wrong man.
 
A very wrong, and soon to be very dead man.

“Jayne,” said Céline sharply, “control it!
 
Control your power and the flow!
 
We need you whole and able to see.
 
We have other enemies to attend to and I have a feeling it will not be long before they arrive.”

I could hear sounds of raised voices outside my mom’s room and down the stairs.
 
I wasted no time, throwing back the covers to find my mom’s hands.
 
I needed to hold them to send the power to her soul.
 
But the things I saw and smelled under that blanket made it impossible for me to be reasonable or smart.
 
I bent over and grabbed her broken upper body into my arms, hugging her to me as she screamed in pain.

I sobbed with the agony I had caused her, leaving her here with that monster.
 
“I’m so sorry Mom,” I cried,
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,”
my litany of apologies continued as I sent every last ounce of healing power I could muster, out of my body and into hers while I rocked her back and forth.
 
Sobs wracked my body while tears and snot flowed freely down my face and landed on the bed behind her.

“Please don’t die, Mom,” I begged, “I’m so sorry!
 
Take the energy I’m giving you.
 
Heal
yourself with it.
 
Don’t leave me now, Mom.
 
Don’t go
, please.”
 
I could feel her body going limp on me and it only made me cry harder.
 
“
Mom!
 
You have to hold on!
 
I
know
I can fix this!
 
I can
fix
this!”
 
I was sobbing loudly, my words coming out a garbled mess.
 
I couldn’t stop the pain that was destroying me.
 
It felt like it was eating me alive.

I felt Tony’s hand on my shoulder as he gently tried to pull me back.
 

I refused to go.
 
I couldn’t let her leave me, but I could feel The Green bouncing back into my body now, unable to do anything with the empty shell I held in my arms.
 
“NO!”
I screamed, squeezing her harder, trying to force the energy to do my bidding.
 

But it was no use.
 
It had nowhere to go.
 
My mom’s spirit had already left this realm.

I held onto her for a little while longer, bawling the entire time, until I had no more energy to do anything; I gently laid her back on the bed, placing her head on her pillow.
 
I slowly moved the matted hair away from her face and lovingly placed it to the sides of her head.
 

Tony’s hand squeezed my shoulder.
 
“Jayne.
 
I can help her if you want.”
 
His voice was emotional but solid.
 
I needed solid right now.

I turned to look at him, “How?” I asked in a pitiful, tearful voice.

“I can find her in the Gray ... show her which way to go so she doesn’t wander long.”

I reached up and squeezed his arm.
 
“Can you bring her back to me?” I asked, desperate hope filling my eyes.

“No.
 
I can’t.”

I looked down at the floor, the swell of utter pain and despair blocking my throat, making it impossible for me to speak; I tried, but only a weird sound would come out.
 

“I can feel you Jayne.
 
You want me to do this, don’t you?”

I nodded my head.
 
What my mouth couldn’t say, my heart had.
 
Tony knew me better than anyone else and for once I was perfectly okay with him being in my head.

“Help me find her,” he said, “Hold my hand.”

I grabbed onto his hand without question, staring into my mom’s battered, but strangely now peaceful, face.
 
I thought of her smiling at me, so proud when I’d finally defeated chemistry and come home with a B plus.
 
I remembered how we’d sit at the kitchen table and do our nails together on Sunday afternoons, and how we’d garden together and laugh when my cat sprawled out on the warm soil, getting in our way on purpose.

“She’s here.
 
She’s okay, Jayne.
 
She’s happy.
 
She’s already finding her way.”

I started sobbing again.
 
“Can you tell her I’m suh ... suh ... sorry?” I hiccupped.
 
I couldn’t even speak properly, I was so wrapped up in her loss.

Tony was silent for a second and then he sighed.
 
“She says you have nothing to be sorry for.”
 
His voice caught for a second, and he continued after clearing the lump from his throat, “She says she’s sorry for failing you ... for letting him into your lives.
 
She needs your forgiveness to move on.
 
And Jayne, you don’t want her wandering the Gray like this.
 
She’ll become tortured.”

I stood up all of a sudden, now feeling ravaged and pissed at the world, taking it out on Tony.
 
“Of course I forgive her.
 
How could you think for a second that I wouldn’t?”