New World Order (War of the Fae: Book 4) (44 page)

“Gorm!”
I shouted.
 
“Get away from that pixie,
right this instant!”

The buggane was perched on top of my bed, his nasty, furry, dirty feet on my pillow, his lumpy, hairy arm outstretched, trying to reach a panicked Tim flying up near the ceiling.
 
He turned to look at me, his glowing red eyes glaring out from
mucousy
-looking, saggy eyelids.
 
He no longer looked anything like Chase.
 
He looked like, well, the boogie monster from my worst nightmares.

“You said my name,” he growled menacingly, temporarily forgetting about Tim.

I took a step into the room, reaching around behind the door to grab my cloak off the hook while trying to distract him with my words.

“You’re damn right I did ... ” I paused to send Spike the sexiest thoughts I could possibly muster with this disgusting glob of awfulness in front of me, praying he’d feel me and come a-runnin’, “ ... and I’m not afraid to do it, either.
 
Gorm, Gorm,
Gormagon
.
 
There.
 
Said it three more times.”

His head tilted to the side, turning to face me fully, temporarily forgetting about Tim.
 
“Gormagon?”

“Yeah.
 
That’s your nickname.
 
I gave it to you.
 
Gormagon.
 
Gormie.
 
Gormster.”

“Familiar ... ”

“
Yes.
 
Gormagon.
 
It’s familiar because you and I are friends.
 
Remember?
 
We hung out?
 
Ate meals together?
 
You were pretending to be Chase?
 
You were my daemon?”
 
I swung the cloak over my shoulders and quickly tapped into The Green.
 
My cloak began to glow, a turquoise sparkle-effect rising up to surround me.

Gorm took a step off the bed and onto the floor, his hand held out in front of him, as if reaching for me.
 
“Preeeetttttyyyy.”

I practically baby-talked to him.
 
“Yes ... it’s pretty ... that’s right.
 
Follow the pretty cloak, Gormagon.
 
That’s right, follow the pretty colors ... ”
 
I stepped backwards out of the room and out into the hallway.
 
Sexy thoughts, sexy thoughts, Spike I NEED YOU!!!

Tim’s voice followed me out the door.
 
“Here I come, Jayne!
 
Don’t shut the door!”

“Okay!” I yelled, keeping my eyes locked on Gorm who was just advancing into the hallway with me, almost in a trance, still reaching for my cloak.

I felt a disturbance in the air behind me and then heard Spike saying, “What do we have here?” in a sexy voice and then,
“Ew
, what’s
that?”
in an obviously disgusted tone.
 

Theresa’s voice came next.
 
“That
... is a buggane.”

Felicia added.
 
“A happy buggane, thankfully.”

“Well,” I said, stepping back towards their voices to keep Gorm from getting too close, “he’s only happy right this second.
 
A minute ago, he was trying to eat Tim.”

Tim came flying out of the room and zoomed past us, down the hall.

“Chicken!” I yelled.
 
I didn’t get an answer in return – he was long gone, saving his sorry ass and leaving me behind to deal with this shit.
 
Typical.

“So, what’s the plan?” asked Spike.
 
“What can we do?”

“Well, I’m not exactly sure.”
 
I took two more steps back.
 
“I guess I just didn’t want to die alone.”

“You’re not going to die,” said Theresa, wryly.
 
“Step aside, elemental.
 
Let Felicia and me handle this bad boy.”

“With pleasure,” I said, letting the energy of The Green mostly fall away so my cloak would stop glowing and capturing his attention.

Gorm frowned for a second and then shook his head as if to clear it.
 
Then his eyes narrowed at me and he said, “You tricked me.
 
No more pretty glow.
 
No more pixie.”

Theresa and Felicia moved to stand on either side of me.
 
“Hey there, buggane.
 
Whacha doin’?” asked Felicia.

He looked at her, a grouchy expression on his face.
 
“Looking for food.
 
Gorm is hungry.”

“How about some nice incubus?” she asked, “Doesn’t that sound good?
 
Mmmm
, tasty incubus.”

I turned around to look at Spike.
 

The look on his face was classic ‘befuddled guy in the midst of confusing women’.
 
“Hey!
 
What’s that supposed to mean?
 
I’m not what’s for dinner!”

“Gorm likes incubus,” said the buggane.

“Follow us, buggane, we have an incubus right here for you.
 
All you have to do is catch him first.
 
It’s fun to chase our food, isn’t it buggane?”

Gorm’s eyes lit up.
 
“It is fun to chase the food first.”
 
His head was nodding slowly as he drank in the sight of Spike, now revealed to him as I had stepped to the side.
 

I had complete confidence in the twins and knew – or at least hoped like hell – that they wouldn’t actually let anything happen to Spike.
 

Gorm lunged at Spike, but Spike zoomed away at incubus warp speed to a spot about ten feet farther down the hall.
 

Spike laughed nervously and said, “Ha, ha, missed me.
 
Try and catch me now.”

The twins nodded at him, huge grins on their faces.
 
I realized at that moment that I was witnessing some kind of sick cube-eye game, but I didn’t care.
 
So long as they kept Gorm from eating anyone and contained him until we could get rid of him, it was fine with me.
 
I couldn’t imagine they’d actually try to hurt him by sucking out his energy – something told me it would taste disgusting.

“Get him to that room he was locked in before!” I yelled down the hall.

Felicia waved at me, as they rounded a corner out of sight.

I sighed deeply, turning to go back to the phi room.
 
At least now I have something of note to add to the meeting’s agenda – mad, hungry buggane on the loose in the hallways.
 
Life is never dull at the Light Fae compound.

I got back to the phi room in record time, cloak on and only slightly glowing.
 
My mind was having a hard time letting The Green go, knowing that a hungry boogieman was somewhere in the compound.

I knocked the requisite three times and entered, finding a seat as quickly as possible.
 
Everyone was already sitting down, and once I was too, Dardennes began speaking.

“Thank you everyone for coming.
 
I will keep this short.
 
I just wanted to get your thoughts on this upcoming meeting with the Dark Fae.”

I raised my hand.

Dardennes stopped talking and raised an eyebrow.
 
I took that to mean I was allowed to proceed.
 
I didn’t know what the protocol was, so I stood up by my seat, having to scramble somewhat ungracefully to grab my chair to keep it from falling backwards, since I was a little too eager about getting on my feet.

“Before I answer that question, I just wanted to mention that there’s a rogue buggane roaming the halls near the changeling rooms, but the cube-eyes have it in hand and will be locking him back up in that dungeon if all goes as planned.”
 
I sat back down and folded my hands on the table in front of me, focusing all of my attention on Dardennes, and ignoring the looks of the others at the table.

Dardennes’ mouth opened but nothing came out.
 
He looked like a fish out of water trying to find air for a second before he was finally able to speak.
 
“You said ... a buggane ... cube-eyes?
 
I’m sorry, but could you repeat that for me?
 
I don’t think I understood you correctly.”

I took a deep breath and stood again.
 
“Okay.
 
What I said was, there is a buggane in the compound.
 
He was in my room when I went back to get my cloak, and he was trying to eat my roommate, Tim the pixie.
 
So I called the cube-eyes – that’s what I call the group of succubi and incubi that are here – and they came to rescue me.
 
They’re luring him down the hallways and into that room where you had locked him up before.”
 
I looked around at the faces at the table, most of which I’d at least seen before, but only a couple I knew.
 
I saw dawning comprehension on most of them.
 
Figuring I was done with explanations, I sat back down.

Red spoke up.
 
“You encountered a buggane here?
 
In our compound?”
 
He looked suspicious.
 
“And you dealt with him in the short period of time you were gone?”
 

“Yes.
 
But now the cube-eyes have taken over.
 
They’re playing chase-the-dinner with him.”

“Chase the dinner?” asked Niles.
 
“What is that?
 
A game?
 
I have not heard of it.”

“It’s something the bugganes do.
 
Maybe the cube-eyes do it too.
 
They like to chase their food before they eat it, I guess.
 
So Spike, the incubus, he’s the dinner and he’s running and the buggane is chasing him while the twin succubi are egging the buggane on.”

Niles’ upper lip curled in distaste.
 

I suddenly remembered the poor dwarf that had been roasting on the spit over the orc’s bar-b-que pit a few months back and immediately felt bad.
 
It must suck to be so little and only have an axe to fight off boogie monsters.
 
I’d bet lots of his friends had played chase-the-dinner and lost.
 
“Sorry, Niles.”

He frowned at me.
 
“Don’t apologize to me!
 
I don’t need your pity!”

I sat back quickly, shocked into silence.
 
I had no idea he was so sensitive.
 
But he’d just told me not to apologize, so I didn’t know what to say next.
 
Instead I just sat there, determined that watching and listening was better plan for me right now.

Dardennes cleared his throat.
 
“Well, I am glad to hear you worked it out; nevertheless, I would like Ivar and some of his ogres to go ensure all is well.
 
Niles, would you mind taking care of that?
 
We will certainly wait for you to return before we begin.”

Niles jumped off of his seat and left the room to do Dardennes’ bidding.
 

I took the time during our brief hiatus to look at the fae around the table with me. Dardennes and Céline were there of course, near the far end of the table to my right; Red was next to them, and Niles’ chair next to Red’s was empty.
 
The werewolf man who I’d seen the first time during my changeling test was sitting next to me on my left.
 
I was relieved to see he was fully clothed and man-like instead of wolf-like.
 
That hadn’t been the case the day we’d met.
 
I gave him a small smile and a nod.
 
He returned the gesture, but said nothing.

Naida the siren was at the other end of the table, opposite the silver elves, not speaking to anyone and gazing out into nothingness.
 
I wasn’t even sure she was fully here.
 
Who knows?
 
Maybe those sirens had figured out how to be in two places at once.
 

Next to her was an old lady wearing the tunic of a witch under her cloak.
 
I’d seen her in the hallways before and at dinner a few times.
 
She muttered to herself a lot.
 
I always wondered if she was a little loony or busy casting spells.
 
Either way, I steered clear of her.
 
She caught my eye but didn’t respond to my current surveillance of her person.
 
She just started whispering to herself, and I tried not to be creeped out about it.

There was one seat open between Celeste and Red, which I assumed belonged to Jared.
 
He had been gone for weeks.
 
I’d heard through Scrum that he was coming back any day.
 
I looked forward to having another fae under the age of five hundred at future council meetings with me.
 
I felt totally out of my league in here.
 
I couldn’t tell what the criteria were to be on this council.
 
It obviously wasn’t an age thing, since I was practically an embryo compared to these old coots.
 
And it wasn’t a race representative thing, since there were two silver elves but no gray or green elves.
 
Maybe someday I’d get up the nerve to ask what had earned me this pretty cloak.
 
I hated to think it was the Mother thing.
 
I still wasn’t sure they were right about it or that I wanted it to be true.
 
Sure, I wanted to be awesome – who didn’t?
 
But I wanted to be
good
at being awesome, not to suck at it.