“Yes, it was that way for me with your grandfather. Kisses like fire, those fae men.”
Not fire exactly. More like electricity and storm waves and lightning bolts, night wind and moonlight, it was all there in his kiss and his touch, and I wanted him in a very, very bad way that made my heart race as uncontrollably as if I were closing in on a heart attack. I dropped my head between my knees and did some slow breathing until my blood cooled.
A few minutes later, I heaved a sigh and got up to finish my preparations for the night, which took some time. I pulled a few books off the shelves of my room before making my selection. I went to work on the spine, taking the pages out, and more than a few fluttered to the ground. After much sweating and cursing and, let’s be honest, a bit of a mess, into my bag went Gran’s book of spells. Next to it was Bob-John’s invisibility powder, my flashlight, and an extra shirt.
Around my neck hung the talisman that Alan had tried to steal. I didn’t know just how it was important, but I knew that it was and there was no way I was taking it off.
“Ready as I’m going to be,” I said more to myself than Gran as I looked at the clock. Eleven-thirty. “You look after Eric, watch out for eyes on him,” I said as I headed down the stairs. Suzy stood in the entryway, as did Eric and Feish. I pulled Robert’s finger bone out of my bag and set it on the floor. A blink and he was there, swaying side to side.
“Robert, can you call the skeleton horse up in the garden? We need a ride out to the Hollows without being seen,” I said.
“Friend. Horse,” he said as I opened the door, and he stepped out, his bones clacking on the steps as he went down to the garden.
I put a hand to my back, reassuring myself that it was there. That this wasn’t all part of some strange out-of-body experience. I looked at my friends. “Be careful, all of you. We still don’t know who shot me the other day. We could have more than O’Sean to deal with tonight.”
Eric pulled me into a sudden hug. “You too. You’ll be taking the brunt of this.”
Hugs all around, then Suzy and Feish hurried off, one going toward the water, the other toward Forsyth Park. I waited until they were gone and then gave Eric his final task beyond staying hidden in the house.
I wrapped my hands around his as best as I could. “Gran will help you. But you have to hurry, and cover your tracks well.”
He swallowed hard. “I won’t let you down.”
I left him there and pulled myself up onto the back of the skeleton horse, a little more gracefully this time. Robert climbed up behind me and then we were off, leaping over the garden gate and racing down the streets of Savannah, heading for the Hollows and a showdown I wasn’t sure I was ready for.
21
The horse under me seemed more solid than the last time Robert and I had ridden it. If Robert were capable of more than one-word answers, I would have questioned him about my suspicion that the horse was—for better or worse—becoming more alive. More real. But he wasn’t likely to say anything more than “friend,” so my thoughts branched in a different direction as we galloped the streets of Savannah.
If everything came together according to plan, then we’d free the Hollows Group and Crash from O’Sean’s machinations, and the fairy cross would be safely hidden from any other idiots wanting it for nefarious purposes.
Maybe we’d even stop the shooter who’d come after Eric and me, although I wasn’t so sure on that one. Crash had said it was a shifter.
I let my mind mull that over. The only shifter I really knew was Sarge, but he wouldn’t shoot at me.
Would he?
“Oh duck me,” I whispered. “What if it was Sarge?”
He’d been coming at me hard lately, and that spell had made everyone in the Hollows Group act so weird . . .
As my mount leapt the fence surrounding the Hollows graveyard, my suspicions were confirmed.
A bounding black shape with shaggy fur ran straight for us. Jaws wide open, snarling, slavering tongue.
The really bad thing? Luke was behind him, trying to stop him, tears running down his face. “Breena, he’s going to kill you!” Luke screamed. “Get out of here!”
I vaguely wondered how he could see me on the horse but didn’t have time to question it. Maybe it was a shifter thing? Because Sarge could see Robert. There was no time to wonder more than that.
I pulled a knife and threw it, hitting Sarge in the right shoulder. Down a leg, he howled and snarled. I pulled the solid stone out of my bag and gave it to Robert. “Go, bury it deep!”
Robert slid off the horse.
I had one knife left. And a spell I couldn’t break on Sarge. Which meant I had to try reasoning with him.
“Sarge, this is insane, what the hell is wrong with you? We’re friends!”
His teeth snapped as he lunged at me, and it was then I realized that Luke had a rope around his neck like a leash, although it was barely holding the big werewolf back. With a yank he pulled him off balance, toward the right leg I’d hurt.
“I’ll kill you, he’s mine! I love him!” Sarge snarled, snapping his teeth again.
Crash? “You want Crash, you’re going to have to come through me first, dude. Me and two stupidly beautiful girls with unreasonably perky boobs.” There. I’d said it. I did want Crash, damn it. Jealousy was not a good look on me.
Sarge paused, confusion rippling over his face. “Crash? Not Corb?”
“What the hell does Corb . . . have . . . to . . . do . . . with . . . this?” The words kind of floated out of me. The conversation with him about unrequited love floated back to me. Sarge wanting me to move out and into Crash’s place. Corb’s attention to me. Suzy’s loss of confidence. Luke being more afraid than usual.
The spell took their weaknesses and amplified them, or maybe twisted them. “Holy shit, you really did shoot me, you asshole!” I slid off the horse, strode over to him, and kicked his furry butt as hard as I could. He turned and snarled, and I grabbed an ear. “Listen here. Corb might make a move on me, but he is not for me. You got that?” I tugged his ear hard for good measure. Luke curled away from me like I was scaring him. “You’re acting this way because of a spell that O’Sean put on you. It’s making you an even bigger asshole than usual.”
Sarge tried to pull away from me, but I hung on tight. “I love him. And you’re in the way,” he whispered.
My horse gave a low, wet-sounding nicker that was sort of gross, but it had me lifting my head in time to see Corb himself running our way. “Well, shit.”
Corb tried to hug me. “You’re okay? Jesus, Breena, I’ve been searching the rubble of the restaurant with the emergency crew. I couldn’t find you!”
I grimaced. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
Sarge growled and I twisted his ear further. “Everyone go to the Hollows, okay? We need to discuss a few things.”
Corb tried again to hug me, but I sidestepped him. “Take Sarge and go. Wait for me there. Please get all the mentors and trainees up by the angel. Okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” Corb agreed slowly. “You’re going to tell us what’s going on?”
“Yes, just ducking go!”
Gawd in heaven, it was like herding cats!
The three men left me there at the gate, and I pulled myself back up onto the horse’s back. “You need a name. How about Skeletor?”
The horse snorted. I’d take that for a yes. “Let’s find Robert.”
Skeletor—yes, that definitely worked—turned on his haunches and leapt to the right, running out to the middle of the graveyard, where Robert stood next to a tombstone. I slid off the horse’s saddle and went to stand next to him. “You think this is a good spot?”
“Friend,” he said softly and tapped the tombstone. I bent to read the name, which was surprisingly still there.
“Evangeline L’Andre.” I didn’t know that name, but I trusted Robert if he thought it was a good place. He wrapped his hands around the stone and slid down into the soil. Minutes ticked by before he pu
lled himself back out and stood next to me. It had to be closing in on midnight.
“Time for trick number two,” I whispered, pulling my bag around to me and flipping it open. Bob-John’s rhinestone-encrusted box felt heavy in my hand. I lifted it over my head and opened it up.
“Please work, please make me invisible.”
A tingling sensation started at my scalp and quickly shifted downward, rolling down my body like droplets of water instead of powder. I held my hand out and stumbled backward. I couldn’t see me. I closed my eyes and grabbed my bag, then opened my eyes and held the leather surface up to my face. Only I couldn’t see the bag either.
A string of curses left my mouth that made Robert and Skeletor stumble backward. “No, no, I’m not mad. Just shocked. Can you see me, Robert?”
“Friend,” he said.
I’d have to take that as a yes. I didn’t know how long the powder would last—it had only cost twenty dollars, after all—so it was time to hurry. “Come on then. Douche Canoe O’Sean should be there by now. Skeletor, you stick close.”
Robert and Skeletor followed me as I jogged across the graveyard, heading for the angel tomb leading down to the Hollows. As we went, I slid my bag over Robert’s head. “You hang onto this for me.”
As I drew close I counted the people there. The four trainees, five mentors, Missy, Crash, and O’Sean.
“Why the hell are we here?” O’Sean yelled at Crash. “You said that you were taking me to the cross?”
“He did,” I said, knowing that they couldn’t see me. I motioned for Robert to stop. O’Sean whipped around.
“Who said that?”
Trick number three. I softened my voice, allowing the accent I’d lost to crawl back over the words. “Celia O’Rylee. I’ve come back to make right what you’ve wronged for my town.”
O’Sean stumbled back a few steps. “You’re dead.”
“Yes, and you are going to join me,” I said as I worked around the one side of him. He stared at the place where I’d been and threw a spell of black magic that stunk like death. Oh crap. Then it was the worst of the worst, if Gran’s book was right.
“No!”
“Free the Hollows Group from the spells you cast on them,” I whispered right in his ear, then ducked down. He twisted, stumbled back over me, and fell onto his ass. “Free the fae king.”
“No!” he screamed. “You aren’t real.” He scrambled backward, scuttling on his ass. His fear was a palpable thing and hope surged through me. This was going to work. He’d free everyone, and we could all just go home. Hot damn for a plan going right!
“Crash, protect me!” he screamed.
Oh. Shit.
For some reason I hadn’t expected that, and it most surely was not in the plan.
A blast of magic whipped through the air, stripping me of my invisibility.
Douche Canoe stared up at me. “You! How are you doing this?”
“Breena, I can’t defy him! You have to get out of here!” Crash yelled. I twisted to see him pulling his weapon. A sword that was easily four feet long, silver and shining in the darkness.
Well, two could play at this game. “Corb, keep him busy while I deal with Douche Canoe! But don’t kill each other!” I just needed enough time to make Douche Canoe break the spell.
Corb stepped between me and Crash and the clash of weapons rang through the air. I pulled both of my blades and charged O’Sean, who was on his feet once more. He flung a spell at me that smelled like lavender.
Why the hell would he want to knock me out?
To use you, just like Gran warned. You’re a new weapon and he wants whatever you are.
I twisted to the side and brought both blades cutting through air, dispersing the spell into nothing but a few sparkles. “That’s a no from me.”
We sidestepped each other as if were in a ring. “You killed my gran, didn’t you?”
“No, but I was there when she died.” He smiled. “And I know who did it.”
“Mother ducker!” I lunged at him and the tip of my blade slashed through his right arm, drawing blood.
He snarled and flung a spell at me, this one sticky and pink. It hit my feet and locked me in place. A second spell shot at me right after the first, this one that lavender scent again. I barely managed to knock it back as I struggled to stay upright.
“Let us see how you protect your friends then?” Douche Canoe was out of reach of my blades as he prepped a spell that smelled like brimstone—another really bad one. Duck my life. Gray tendrils curled around his hands. “A slow death for them all, yes?”
“No!” I slashed down at the spell that held my legs to the ground, desperation making me sloppy. I cut into my own leg, the wound shallow but deep enough for the blood to flow. Pain rippled through me, and I fell forward onto my hands and knees. My one foot was free. The one I’d cut. I didn’t hesitate to reach down and nick my other leg.
The blood burned away the spell, and I didn’t question why as I scrambled forward. Douche Canoe must have seen me coming at him from the corner of his eye. He twisted, the grey magic hitting me right in the middle of my chest, but I was still moving and I tackled him to the ground.
My heart stuttered. Douche Canoe’s eyes widened as I drove both blades into him at the same time. Heart and neck. We fell to the ground together, and I sat on top of him as the life bled out of him. The same magic I’d seen hit the Hollows Group just a few nights before whipped around him, dispersing in the night air as if it had never been.
I pushed the blades deeper even as my own body began to scream for oxygen. I wasn’t breathing, I knew I wasn’t. But I had to see this through.
Someone behind me was yelling my name. “Free him,” I said the words, and the mark of the crescent moon bloomed over Douche Canoe’s head, dispersing in the same way.
The light slid from his eyes, a film of white rolling over them as the last breath escaped his mouth. He smiled up at me. Because, of course, not all of his spells had been broken. Gran had thought his death would nullify them, but she’d been wrong.
The gray tendrils wrapped tighter around me.
I was pulled off O’Sean’s body. Hands touched me, and frantic voices filled my ears as someone tried to push their magic into me. Missy’s voice snapped above all of them.
“Your fae magic won’t save her now, Crash.”
I mouthed a word, a name.
Robert.
A skeletal hand clutched mine and I stood up, only I was looking down on my body. My friends had gathered all around me, Corb doing chest compressions as Crash breathed for me. Suzy held one of my hands, tears streaming down her face. It was all very sad, but I wasn’t really dead. Was I?
I turned to the hand that tightened on mine. Robert stood next to me. Only he wasn’t a skeleton. He was a man. About my height with long black hair tied back in a ponytail, sharp angular features, and eyes like ice. “Holy shit, Robert?”
“You are the first to know my name in a very long time,” he said, then shook his head. “You aren’t going to die. They will think you are dying. They might even bury you if we don’t get you back quickly. But this is the first threshold.”
I tightened my hold on him. “You mean I’m going to come back like a skeleton? Like you?” I wasn’t sure that I was ready for that.
“No. You’re going to go back, but things will be different. You will see more like me. More like . . . Skeletor.” He laughed. “That is a good name for the horse. He likes it.”
“Oh, well that’s good. Um . . .” I looked at the frantic energy rolling around my friends. “Can I go back now?”
Robert pulled me into a quick hug. “Go. And know that you are loved, and you deserve that love. Accept it for what it is. I will be with you.”
He shoved me hard, and I stumbled, flipped over backward, and hit the ground hard enough to pull a gasp from my body. I sat up, head-butted Crash, shoved Corb off me, and was up on my feet in a flash.
My entire body shook a
s I turned to look at my friends. “Hi.”
22
Suzy was the first to grab me, pulling me into a tight, slobbering, sobbing hug. “Oh my God! Breena, your heart stopped!”
I hugged her back, though I’ll admit I didn’t have a ton of energy for it. “Right, well, I’m back. I’m good now.” And, strangely enough, it was true. Energy flowed up from the soles of my feet through my limbs and the fear and exhaustion slowly peeled off me. I stood a little taller. Around me the tombstones seemed to light up, like they had LED lights embedded in them and I wondered if that was where the energy was coming from. “Honest, I’m okay.”
Corb stared at me like he was seeing a ghost. Crash seemed . . . bothered by the fact that I was standing there, fresh as a ducking daisy. I gently pushed Suzy off me. We still had Missy to deal with, and while I had very little left to bargain with her, I was still going ahead with it. Knowledge was power in this world, and Missy had knowledge I needed.
“Robert, bring me my bag please.” I held out a hand to him, but my eyes were on the old woman, who watched me like a hawk eyes a bunny rabbit. Only this rabbit had fangs. The bag strap settled in my open palm and I closed my fingers over it. Suzy gasped, which told me that the bag had just reappeared.
“Cool trick,” she whispered.
I pulled the bag over my head and flopped it open, pulling out the book. “If you want this leather-bound book, then you need to give me something for it,” I said.
Her eyes narrowed. “What, pray tell, would that be?”
“Three answers,” I said.
“One,” she fired back.
“Two it is,” I said, and she nodded.
“Are you still a guardian of Savannah?” I asked, and her eyes bugged wide for just a moment. Obviously that was not the question she’d been expecting.
“In my own way, yes,” she said. “I am not Celia.”
“You sure as hell aren’t,” I muttered, took a breath, and asked the next question. “How many bad guys are we dealing with?”
Midlife Fairy Hunter: The Forty Proof Series, Book 2 Page 23