New World Order (War of the Fae: Book 4) (43 page)

“Ben’s not on the council.
 
He’s powerful, yes, ‘cuz he’s their elemental and he’s got seriously wicked fire and wind skills, but he’s not in charge.
 
He has to do what they say for the most part.
 
He can’t directly stop Maléna from doing what she does, but he did report her for what she did to you.
 
And I’m pretty sure she got in trouble.
 
And Leck did too.
 
I don’t know the details, but I heard some things.”

“Whatever, Becky.
 
You weren’t there.
 
Ben told Leck to go ahead and torture me.
 
He was in on it.”

Becky frowned and so did Tony.
 

“You can ask Tim.
 
He was there too.”
 
I was getting pissed that they weren’t believing me or maybe thought I was exaggerating.

“It’s true!” he shouted, buzzing in front of Becky’s face and then over at Tony’s.
 
He stopped at Tony’s shoulder, and yelled in his ear.
 
“Ben gave the order for Leck to melt Jayne’s brain!
 
As you can see, there were some side-effects!”

Tony half-smiled, glancing up at me to see if I was okay with Tim’s wisecracks.
 

I just rolled my eyes.
 
A least the little turd corroborated my story.

“Well, maybe he had his reasons,” said Tony.
 
“Hopefully, someday we’ll find out what they were.”

“I don’t need to wait to hear his lame excuse.
 
He wanted to get into our compound.
 
He was totally clear and upfront about that.
 
I don’t need to know anymore.”

“Well, you held out and he didn’t get in.
 
Neither did any of his friends, even though they played dirty.
 
You showed ‘em you’re better’n they are, Jayne.
 
You made us proud over there.”

I nodded at Finn in thanks.
 
“I’m just lucky Chase was there.
 
If he hadn’t been, I don’t know how I would have gotten out.”

“Seems kind of funny how he was able to do that, without anyone seeing,” said Tony.
 

I shrugged.
 
“He had plenty of time to get the lay of the land over there.
 
Plus it was in the middle of the night.
 
Everyone was sleeping.”

“Ben let you go,” said Becky softly.
 
“He knew Chase was letting you out.
 
He wanted it to happen.”

I got mad at her.
 
“Oh, please, Becky, give it a rest, would you?
 
I don’t know what your game is, but let it go.
 
Ben’s not our friend.
 
He’s not on our side.
 
The sooner you realize that, the sooner you’ll have your head back on straight.”

Becky stood up in a huff.
 
“You’re
wrong
, Jayne.
 
And I know you don’t like to hear that – and I sure don’t like being the one to say it – but you are.
 
And the sooner you realize
that
, the sooner you’ll know what the right thing to do is when you wear that shiny cloak!”
 
And then she disappeared into thin air.

“Sonofabitch!
 
I
hate
when she does that.”

“What?” asked Scrum, innocently, “Tells you off or teleports?”

I grabbed the wadded up, dirty sock I’d just taken off my foot and threw it at him.
 
It bounced off his stupid head.

“What?
 
What’d I say?”

Finn laughed.
 
“Dude, you are almost too clueless.
 
Did your momma drop you on your head when you were little or somethin’?”

Scrum looked confused for second.
 
“No.
 
But my grandma did.
 
I still have a flat spot on my skull from it.
 
Wanna feel it?”
 
He tipped his head towards Finn, giving him access in case he wanted to verify.

All of us started laughing our asses off.
 
It was too perfectly awful to not be comical.
 
Poor Scrum with his psycho grandma.
 
I wish I could have met that lady so I could have slapped her silly.

“No,” said a disgusted Finn, “I ain’t feelin’ your dang head, boy.
 
Git yourself together.”

Scrum shrugged.
 
“There was no permanent damage.
 
Besides ... it was just an accident.”

I was holding my stomach, trying to keep the laughing pains away.
 
I couldn’t stop.
 
I think all of the stress I’d been holding in was coming out as guffaws and snorts.
 
Every time I thought I was going to be able to stop, I’d look at Scrum’s confused face and start all over again.
 

It was only a knock at the door and Céline’s voice that finally sobered me up.

I joined Céline out in the hall, giving my friends some privacy so they could collect themselves.
 
Tony was still laughing with a silent laugh-scream look on his face when I stepped outside the door and closed it behind me.

“Hey, Céline, what’s up?”

“I just wanted to let you know that the council is meeting right before dinner, in about twenty minutes.
 
We’d like to discuss this upcoming conference with the Dark Fae.
 
Can you come?”

“Of course.
 
Where?”

“Do you remember the room where we met before you went to get Tony?”

I searched my memory for the door.
 
“The one with the symbol that has the circle and the line through it?”

“Yes.
 
It’s the phi door.
 
Meet us there in twenty minutes, okay?”

“Okay.
 
Twenty minutes at the pie door.”

“Phi, not pie.”

“Oh.
 
Okay.”
 
Whatever that means.

I went back inside the room and saw everyone but Scrum, lying on the floor, holding their stomachs.
 
Even Tim, except he was lying on the top of my dresser.

I smiled.
 
“You guys look like you’re in pain.”

“We are,” said Tony, sighing deeply.
 
“Laughing is painful when it goes on for too long.”

“Well, get up.
 
I’m kicking everyone out but Tim.
 
I have a meeting to go to.”

Tony sat up, all of a sudden serious.
 
“Already?
 
I thought they wanted me to check on the meeting time at ten tonight.”

“No, it’s not that meeting.
 
It’s a pre-meeting, meeting.”

“Can I come?” asked Tim.

“No, Tim, you can’t come.”

“I could hide in your hair ... ”

“No, you can’t hide in my hair.
 
I can’t be all sneaky with the council.
 
It’s my first day.
 
I don’t want to screw it up by engaging in pixie smuggling.”

Tim grumbled a little but didn’t argue.
 
I had a feeling he was going to try and sneak in anyway.
 
I didn’t care.
 
If he got caught it would be all on him and I could walk away clean.
 

As Scrum was walking out the door, the last one to leave, I grabbed his arm.
 

He looked at me in innocent confusion.

“I just wanted to say that I hope you know we were just messing with you today.
 
No offense to you or your grandma or anything.”

He smiled.
 
“I know.
 
Don’t worry about it.
 
I can take a joke.
 
I’m used to it.”

I didn’t think about it – I just grabbed him in a hug and squeezed him fiercely, trying to push the sad feelings I was having for him away.
 
As I had gotten to know him better, I’d realized what a good guy he is.
 
To think he’d been treated like shit most of his life was really, really depressing to me right now.

“Somehow your forgiveness only makes me feel more like shit, Scrum.”

“Oh, sorry,” he said over my shoulder.

“Not your fault.
 
I’m just overly emotional right now.”
 
If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was PMSing, but I did know better.
 
The only explanation for my irrational behavior was my mother’s death and the narrowly-escaped demon sex.
 
That shit was emotionally scarring.

I pulled away from him.
 
“I just think you got a bum deal growing up, so I’m glad you’re here now.
 
You’re valuable to me.
 
To all of us.”

He looked down at the ground, coloring.
 
“You think so?”

“Yeah.
 
I know so.
 
Now get the hell out of my room.”

He looked up and smiled at me one more time before leaving the room.

I went over and grabbed the sock I had thrown at Scrum and sat down on the edge of my bed, pulling it back on along with my moccasins.
 

“Are you going soft on me, Sparks, or what?” asked Tim, lying on his back on his miniature bed with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling.

“No.
 
I’m just ... appreciating my friends more, I guess.”

“Good.
 
Feel free to appreciate me more too.”

“I think I appreciate you as much as any person who spends every waking and sleeping moment with you possibly could.”

He looked over at me, frowning.
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well ... you snore.
 
You fart.
 
You pull my hair.
 
Shall I continue?”

He sighed.
 
“Just wait ‘til you get married.
 
You’ll wish my insignificant and mostly charming little peccadillos were all you had to deal with.”

“Good word,” I said, impressed.

“You know it.
 
There’s more than meets the eye with this pixie.”

“You aren’t kidding,” I said as I stood.
 
“I’m not worthy.
 
And by the way, speaking of being married ... we’ll be talking about your wife and son tonight after dinner.
 
Just giving you a heads up.
 
And don’t try to hide.
 
I’ll just come and find you.”

Tim turned his back to me and started snoring extra loudly.

“Fake snore all you want.
 
If I have to physically pin you down and breathe garlic breath all over you until you beg for mercy, it is going to happen.”

A well-timed pixie fart was his only response.

I left the room shaking my head and wondering what the heck I’d do with myself if I didn’t have him around to drive me nuts all day.

I found myself in front of the phi door in less than five minutes.
 
I knocked three times and entered, noticing that I was the last one there ... and that everyone but me had their cloaks on.

“Where’s your cloak?” demanded Red.

“Uh, in my room.
 
Is that a problem?
 
I thought it was only for assemblies.”

Red turned away grumbling.
 

Céline walked over and put her hand on my arm.
 
“I should have told you, I’m sorry.
 
You must always wear the cloak on council business.
 
It has ... magical properties that will keep others from being able to impersonate you or listen in on our conversations.”

“Oohhhhh, okay.
 
I can go back and get it real quick if you want.”

She nodded her head.
 
“Yes, please.
 
We’ll wait for you.”

I didn’t even bother to see what Red’s reaction to me delaying the meeting was.
 
I just left, running down the hallway to get back to my room.

I reached the door and was just about to open it when I heard raised voices inside.
 
My hand froze in midair, just as it was about to make contact with the wood.
 
I leaned in closer, putting my ear to the surface, trying to hear who it was and what they were saying.
 
I immediately recognized Tim’s agitated, high-pitched voice and another one, gravelly, with a slight growl to it.
 
I couldn’t quite put my finger on whose it was, but when I heard Tim yell, “I’m not on the menu, buggane!” I didn’t hesitate.
 
I threw the door open.