by Kimbra Swain
“Which one was her?” I asked.
“The driver,” he muttered. “I’m sorry, Grace.” He pulled over to the side of the road as we waited for Troy to catch up.
Putting my hands on his cheeks, I said, “Honey, I don’t blame you. How mad is Kady?”
“She’s pissed,” he muttered.
I wrapped my arms around him, crying into his neck. “I’m sorry, Dublin.”
“We will get him back,” he said. “Kady will get over it.”
“Damn straight we will,” I said. “We need to go back to his car. I need something to track him.”
Troy pulled up next to us. Levi rolled down the window. “We lost them.”
“Show me where you last saw them,” he said.
We drove back up the road toward Shady Grove a couple of miles to the curve where we lost sight of the Camry. Getting out of the truck, we looked up and down the sides of the road for a hidden turn off.
Turning on my fairy sight, I looked and saw the faint residue of a spell, but I wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
“You see it?” I asked Levi.
“Yes, but I don’t know what it is. Concealment, maybe,” he said.
“Where?” Troy asked.
I indicated the general area. Troy turned circles in the spot breathing deeply. “Smells like swamp,” he said.
“Bayou priestesses,” I offered.
“You guys, go back to town. I’m going to shift and track the scent. It’s easier to track in wolf form. Make sure there aren’t any others in town,” he said.
“I don’t want to leave him out here,” I protested.
“I’ll call you as soon as I have something,” Troy said.
“I’d rather stay here if it’s all the same to you,” I said.
“Okay, just stay by the truck. Better yet inside it. Don’t let them take you, Grace. He’d kill me if I let something happen to you,” Troy said. “If they are after you or Levi, they will offer Dylan back to us.”
“No, he won’t kill you. You fall under my protection just like everyone else,” I said. “Even from Dylan Riggs.”
“I’ll find him,” he said as he took a wide stance in the center of the state highway. Exploding into fur, he turned into an ebony wolf. He sniffed the ground as he spun in the spot where the spell residual hovered over the road. He whined looking at me, but then took off south. He was fast. Faster than a normal canine. His form blurred away down the road leaving Levi and I standing at the truck.
“Get in, Grace,” Levi said. “Just in case we have to move quickly.”
“Okay,” I muttered as he helped me into the truck.
My phone rang. “Hello,” I answered.
“Grace, why is Dylan’s car sitting in the parking lot of the Food Mart with the door open?” Nestor asked.
“The swamp witches are in town. They took him,” I muttered as tears rolled down my cheek.
“Give me,” Levi said, reaching for the phone. He took it from me and explained to Nestor what happened. “Don’t worry. I’ve got her.”
Levi hung up the phone handing it back to me. I leaned my head back, staring at the ceiling. “If I’d just died, maybe they wouldn’t have come up here,” I said. “We need to go back and get something of his.”
“We will when Troy gets back,” he said. “All of this goes back to my mistake, Grace.”
“Don’t do that right now, Dublin. Or I’ll smack you,” I said.
“I deserve to be smacked for being so stupid,” he said. “We should call Jeremiah and tell him she’s up here.”
I handed him the phone back. He dialed Jeremiah, but it went straight to voice mail. “Jeremiah, get back to Shady Grove. Lisette and at least one other of the coven are in town. They took Dylan. We need your help.”
He stuck the phone in his pocket, wrapping me up in his arms. I leaned into his chest as we waited.
“Fucking trolls. Fucking witches. What’s next?” I blurted out.
“Don’t ask that question. You might regret the answer,” he said.
“You are probably right,” I said. My cell phone rang in his pocket. “Fuck me.”
“Okay,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. I punched him in the shoulder as my phone rang. He answered. “Grace’s phone.”
“You have got to be kidding me?” Levi said, listening to the voice on the other end. It was definitely female. “I’ll ask her what she wants to do, but we have a situation here, too.”
“What?” I whispered.
He placed his hand over the phone. “Troll number eight has appeared. Troy is out here chasing the witches. Dylan is gone. They need someone to help,” he grimaced.
“We will go. I can get something out of Dylan’s car to track him while we are there. Where is the bastard?” I asked.
“At Sally’s SnoCone Shack,” he replied.
“Okay,” I muttered.
“We are on the way, Mable,” he said, cranking up the truck.
The Food Mart was the center store in a long strip mall. The Grove Diner sat in the front of the parking lot. As we approached, the patrons of the diner stood outside looking towards the grocery. Nestor’s bar was on the same block, but not in the same parking lot as the strip mall. On the far-right end of the mall just past the nail salon, a small storage building sat with two windows. A small wooden porch was built across the front, and the hand painted sign proclaimed it to be Sally’s SnoCone Shack. On top of the shack, a gangly fellow sat with his legs hanging off the roof. Sally stood with Mable at the entrance of the Food Mart looking terrified.
Levi pulled right up in front of the shack. As we got out the “brother” spoke, “My queen and her bard have come to sing for me!”
“Get down,” I ordered him.
“Well, I’m afraid of heights, my Queen. It seems I cannot get down,” he laughed.
Mable approached us cautiously. “He was ranting about Sally not having frozen custard. You know she only sells that during the summer,” she said.
“I will bring you down if I have to,” I said.
“Dearest Gloriana, you would do no harm to me. The view is nice up here,” he chuckled swinging his legs.
“What do you want?” I attempted to negotiate.
“Some of Miss Sally’s famous frozen custard. I’ve heard it tastes just like frozen skyr,” he explained. “I’ve not had any skyr since I left the old country.”
“I’m going to send your ass back to the old country. Get down now!” I screamed. I’d lost my patience. Dylan was more important than this nonsense.
“Come and get me,” he teased. “I bet your custard is frozen too!”
“You son of a bitch,” Levi growled.
“Hey! You know my mother!” he laughed swinging his legs.
I growled, “Fine!” Pushing power through my tattoo, I pointed my hand to the ground. The pavement turned to ice as Mable retreated to the safety of the grocery dragging Sally with her. A large cloud covered the sun, and the chilly temperatures dropped to frigid depths.
“Grace,” Levi muttered.
“Shut up, Levi,” I spouted at him. I twirled my hand in front of me creating a vortex of snow and wind. Stepping into it, my body thrust upward toward the troll.
“Agh! Help me! Help me! She’s gone mad!” he squealed backing away from me.
Grabbing his shirt, I turned to throw him off the building as Levi begged me not to hurt him. So, I slung him at Levi who broke the troll’s fall. They both skittered across the ice in a tangled web of flailing limbs.
“Get off me,” Levi hissed shoving the troll off of him.
Allowing the wind to die down, I waved at the cloud, and the sun appeared again. As I stepped across the icy parking lot with ease, the snow ceased. “Take me to the jail with my brothers,” he begged.
“No, I’m tired of this bullshit!” I railed. “You and your damn brothers are a menace. I am going to kill every single one of you!” I stood over him as he cowered covering his head.
&nbs
p; Feeling my bard stalking behind me, I spun around on him. “Don’t you fucking touch me or say a word,” I said.
“There you are with her, again,” a voice came from the grocery store exit. Kady stood with her hands on her hips staring at Levi.
“Listen here, Cunt. I am the only one that gets to berate my bard. You got that? Shut the fuck up. This doesn’t concern you,” I turned on her. Her eyes flashed with fear.
“Grace, I know you are upset, but you’ve got to calm down,” Levi coaxed. “Please, don’t let her take over.”
“She is me! I am her! That’s what all of you can’t understand. The thing that keeps the bad guys away from Shady Grove is this! Me! The dreaded fairy Queen! You all wanted me to do this, but you had no idea what I’m actually capable of doing,” I twirled talking to the patrons outside the diner who stood with Betty and Luther. “You provoke me. This is what you get!”
Turning back to Levi, his blue eyes watered on the edges. He dropped his head and slid across the lot to Kady dragging her back into the grocery. The diners returned to the safety of the diner. Mable stood inside the Food Mart staring at me, but I realized her mouth was moving. Was she casting a spell? Looking at her hand, her cell phone glowed with life.
“Gloriana, stand down,” a thick deep voice came from behind me. Slowly I turned to see the black cloaked form of Caiaphas, the head of the Sanhedrin. His eyebrows were still overly bushy.
“No, this is my town. You don’t get to control me anymore,” I said as the troll tried to move away. “Stay still, varmint.”
“You cannot display power like this. It’s against your contract,” he said.
“You can take my contract and shove it up your tight ass,” I sneered.
He chuckled. “So belligerent. It’s almost endearing.”
“Your operative has failed to control the Cane Creek Coven. They are here and have taken Dylan Riggs. Forgive me if I’m a little testy!” I said.
“As you said, this is your town. Deal with it. Have fun, dear,” he said fading away.
“Self-righteous, smug, mother fucker!” I screamed at the last remnant of his visage.
Trying to back down off the power coursing through my veins, my hands started to shake. I couldn’t lose control. If I let it back off too much, I would die. The troll watched me as if I were about to implode. To be honest, it felt like I was.
“What’s your name?” I asked him as my voice shook.
“Kevin,” he muttered.
“I don’t have time for you, Kevin. If you don’t want to be bloody ice chunks of troll, I suggest you get off your ass and get into the bed of my truck,” I said through clenched teeth.
He slipped while trying to stand up, but hurried over to the truck climbing in. The automatic doors of the grocery whooshed open, and Levi walked toward me.
“If you leave me now, we are done Levi Rearden!” Kady called behind him.
“Just stay with her,” I muttered knowing he could hear me.
“Glad to see you’ve come to your senses,” he said. “She will get over it. If she doesn’t, oh well.” Grabbing my arm, he led me to the truck. I climbed into the passenger side watching Kady scowl from the inside of the store. She really looked ugly at that moment. I always considered her very pretty, but as she punished Levi for his connection to me, I thought the troll in my truck looked way better than her.
He jumped in starting the truck up. We rode in silence to the holding cells for the Sheriff’s department. I shook my hands along the way releasing the power little by little. Levi watched me closely as I did it.
When we arrived he said, “Stay here. I’ll take him in.”
He dragged Kevin off to holding to share a cell with his brothers. I waited in the truck, and my icy demeanor melted into tears. I buried my face in my hands. What a bitch. “I’ll have to apologize to the whole town,” I muttered to myself.
“A tad out of control, huh?” a deep voice said from the driver’s seat. I jumped back, but quickly realized that my father had decided to visit.
“Daddy, what are you doing here?” I asked.
“When people get scared, they call the biggest bad guy to take care of the little one. Mable is a faithful servant. Although, if we were really to fight, I’m not so sure you wouldn’t destroy me,” he said plainly.
“Don’t flatter me,” I said.
“Gloriana, you are in uncharted territory. You are cursed. Your bard has serious baggage. Your, um, Dylan, what is he exactly? Pet? Boyfriend? Lover?” he stopped mid-thought.
“Daddy,” I growled.
“Yes, well, Dylan is your foil and currently kidnapped. The trolls are amusing,” he said chuckling.
“Get to the point, Daddy,” I spouted at him.
“You’ve taken on responsibilities that I honestly never thought you ever would. With that power and responsibility comes trouble. It’s just the way it is. A ruler must control their realm in the good times and in chaos. You just happen to be in the center of chaos. I know my advice is the last thing that you want, but I’ve come here to say this. You cannot control chaos, but it most certainly can control you. You cannot allow that to happen. Use the chaos to cement your leadership here. Rise above it. I know that you can,” he said.
“I wasn’t ready for this job,” I said.
“You’ve been ready for this job since you were a child. It’s in your blood. I know this, because it’s my blood,” he said smugly.
“Arrogant much?” I asked.
“There is a fine line between arrogance and confidence. Arrogance is confidence pushed down people’s throats. Confidence is a beacon that they all want to follow, emulating your example. Your council idea is the right direction to take, but you must navigate the chaos to get there,” he said. “I know you can do it.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” I whispered.
“You are welcome, my beautiful child,” he said fading away.
My tears continued because I didn’t have the same confidence that he had in me. Levi walked out of the building as Sheriff Maynard pulled into the lot.
Jumping out of the truck, I ran to where he parked his cruiser. “I heard you caught a troll,” he said.
“Yes, he’s inside,” Levi said.
“I found him,” Troy said.
“Where is he?” I gasped.
“They are in the old Palmer place on Milltown Road. The scent ran up to the house, but I didn’t get close enough to set off any traps. Let me grab some back-up, and we will go after him,” he said, heading toward the building.
“Was that your father?” Levi asked me.
“Yes,” I said. “You saw him?”
“I came out before and you didn’t see me. I ducked back into the building to let him talk to you,” he said.
“He has far more faith in my abilities than I deserve,” I muttered. “I’m sorry about Kady.”
“Grace, Kady knows that we aren’t doing anything. She’s making excuses to get out of our relationship. I haven’t figured out why yet, but it doesn’t matter. The town is a mad house, and you need me,” he said.
“I do need you, Troy, and everyone else,” I said hugging him.
“I’m telling Dylan,” Troy grinned from the steps at the doorway with his girlfriend Amanda Capps standing next to him. Amanda and I didn’t get along, but she was a wolf, too. Her help would be better than any of the vanilla human deputies in the force. She’d joined the department on the lowest level, working her way back up the ranks after her mistakes with my lawyer, Lysander. Troy made sure that other officers approved her work schedules and assignments. No one questioned his relationship with her.
I watched her closely as well, in case she decided to dabble in the darkness again. For the most part, she was a dedicated mother. She and Troy were working on mending the broken pieces of the relationship they’d had, but both lone wolves found a natural connection to each other. I watched, keeping my distance.
“We gotta get him back before you can tattle,”
I said.
“We will,” he said.
“Yes, we will,” Levi said.
“What are we waiting on?” I asked.
“What’s the plan?” I asked Troy as we crouched in the forest. The night blanketed over us, and the stars flickered in the cold night. The moon, almost full, illuminated the ground around us.
“Amanda and I will circle around the back. When Levi starts to play, you need to cast a spell to trigger the traps so we can see them. Once the traps are neutralized, we move in,” he said.
“Let me handle them. If possible, you get Dylan out, and leave them to me. That is, if for some reason they aren’t incapacitated by Levi,” I said. They both nodded, stalking away, then bursting into fur. They took a circular route to the back of the dilapidated house. Dylan and I had been here before together. The house was abandoned, but we found a moonshine still. The moonshine burned our throats, but it was effective. Dylan was pissed that I had dared him to drink it, but he quickly got over it. I smiled thinking about the adventure prior to our first tryst.
“You okay?” Levi asked.
“Yes, just memories,” I said.
“Good ones, apparently,” he said.
“I love him,” I said.
“You should probably tell him that,” he scolded.
“Well then, you better play your heart out, Dublin,” I said.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said as he strapped on the guitar stepping into the moonlit grass in front of the house. His fingers glided along the strings. Usually, we employed the lullaby technique for putting our victims to sleep. I suspected that the witches would anticipate that move, so I decided on something more, Gracesque. The melody resembled a power love ballad from an eighties hair band. He slowly approached the front door of the house. Through the windows, I could see movement as the occupants responded to his song.
Gripping the oak tree that I’d positioned myself against, I drew power then forced a cold wind along the grass at breakneck speed. Several audible pops resounded around the house.
“Keep playing, baby,” I encouraged him from behind. His fingers deftly flowed over the strings. The combination of the movement of his hands and the power of the music was mesmerizing.