The Brotherhood of the Snake (Return of the Ancients Book 2)

by Carmen Caine

  I swallowed and nodded, not feeling the slightest bit relieved.

  "Well, I'd better be getting back to work. You kids stay out of trouble now!" Al warned jovially, threading his way through the maze of boxes back to the kitchen. Collecting his bags and pipes, he began to whistle as he disappeared into the garage, carefully locking the door behind him.

  "We must find out how they appeared and where they’re coming from," Rafael remarked quietly once Al had gone. “They've clearly been here at least twenty years.”

  "I've been unable to find a reference to them from before then, or at least that particular form." Jareth nodded in curt agreement. "The chupacabra legend originated in Mexico. It would be valuable to—"

  Abruptly, he fell silent, but before I could ask why, he charged to the front door and violently flung it open.

  Rafael was behind him in an instant, peering over his shoulder. "What’s the problem?"

  "Don't you hear it?" Jareth hissed, holding his hand up and leaning forward as if straining to hear something. "There it is again!"

  I held my breath, but the only sound I heard was that of faint laughter coming from the TV in the other room.

  After several long moments, Rafael shook his head. "I fail to—"

  "Silence!" Jareth made an angry, slashing movement.

  Rafael gave him a long, measured look and said, "Perhaps you've heard the arrival of the Protectors. I summoned them, just moments ago."

  I wondered how he’d done that, and then recalled him fingering his bracelet. Apparently, that bracelet could do a lot. I glanced down at the one still circling my own wrist before Jareth’s angry voice recaptured my attention.

  "You think I'd not recognize our own Protectors?" He practically snarled.

  "What's a Protector?" I asked, moving closer to Rafael. I felt safer near him.

  Jareth whirled on me, obviously more than a little irritated. "Sydney, can you really not hear them?"

  I didn’t like the sound of that. Suddenly, I felt like I was caught in the middle of some horror movie. "Them?" I swallowed. My fingers gripped Rafael's arm of their own accord.

  Jareth's dark eyes bore through mine, and through the open front door, I saw several tall, dark shadows detach themselves from the pine trees in the front yard. They moved so quickly that I didn’t even have time to scream before three Fae stepped into the circle of light surrounding the porch.

  The first one was Melody, swathed in a dark cloak from head-to-toe and with her blonde curls woven tightly around a silver circlet.

  Behind her stood two male guards, one fair and one dark, both dressed in glossy black body armor and both with a creature at their heels resembling a white spotted leopard with sharp, pointed horns.

  Melody's chilling gaze swept over me, lingering a moment on my hands glued to Rafael's arm. And for the briefest of moments, her piercing eyes held the most disturbing of expressions. But then she tilted her head at Jareth and asked without preamble, "What is it?"

  “Nothing. My mistake,” Jareth replied curtly, snapping his mouth shut.

  Rafael stepped around him to give Melody a formal bow. “He wasn’t aware the Protectors had arrived, my mentor,” he inserted smoothly.

  There it was again. They were both lying to her.

  I wondered what was really going on. With the level of distaste they carried for one another, it was more than strange that they’d keep covering for each other like that.

  Perhaps I wasn’t the only one who found her creepy.

  “Al is quite creative. He dabbles in surveillance and shouldn’t be underestimated,” Rafael was saying to the two Fae Protectors with their horned cats. “His equipment is rudimentary but effective. Be certain he doesn’t capture your image.”

  “Yes, my prince,” the light-haired guard smacked his arm diagonally across his chest in a kind of salute.

  The dark swarthy guard faced Jareth, apparently awaiting orders.

  But Jareth scarcely spared him a glance. He was staring at Mrs. Patton’s yard across the street. Every muscle in his body was as taut as a bowstring.

  It clearly had something to do with the Mesmers, and it was all I could do to keep from shaking him and demanding right then and there that he tell us what was going on.

  Only Rafael had the presence of mind to send the Protectors away. “You both may go.” He bowed politely, dismissing them with a wave of his hand.

  They bowed in respect and with their big cats padding silently behind them, melted back into the shadows, leaving Melody standing alone on the porch.

  She didn’t waste any time. “You must return to Avalon at once, Rafael,” she announced brusquely. “The Queens would speak with you.”

  “Now isn’t the time.” He shook his head.

  Her eyes widened dangerously. “There are those who may read traitorous motives into that choice, my prince.”

  Rafael was quiet only a moment before murmuring, “So be it.”

  At that, Jareth wrenched his gaze from Mrs. Patton’s yard to eye Rafael in dark satisfaction. “How far you’ve fallen, Rafael,” he observed in a tone plainly meant to be sarcastic but strangely lacking in his usual venom.

  We stared at him in surprise, but further conversation was cut short as the garage door began to creak and grind open.

  Immediately, Melody returned to the shadows as Rafael pulled me back into the house and Jareth followed, closing the front door behind him with a click.

  We returned to the kitchen just in time to hear Grace demand from the family room, “Hey, where’s my Coke?”

  Reaching for the glasses on the counter, I shouted back, “Be right there!”

  But Grace wasn’t done. “You guys are sure taking a looooong time in there!” And with her voice adopting an ornery, teasing edge, she added in an even louder shout, “Whatcha you doin’? Kissing?”

  I jerked, knocking a glass of ice off the counter, but Rafael caught it with a deft flick of his wrist before it hit the floor.

  Silently, he handed it back to me with his face wiped of all expression.

  Quickly, I averted my eyes and concentrating on the glasses, willed my cheeks not to blush.

  “Better behave yourself in there!” Grace yelled again.

  “Don’t be ri-ridiculous!” I retorted, stumbling a little over the words as I turned to Jareth and thrust two glasses of Coke with half-melted ice into his hands. “Make yourself useful and give those to Grace and Betty!” I ordered.

  I expected a derisive response, but he surprised me by simply walking away towards the family room. As he disappeared behind Betty’s mound of Ebay boxes, I frowned and turned to Rafael. “What’s wrong with him?” I asked. “He’s not acting normal.”

  But Rafael just stood there, staring at me with his enigmatic gray eyes in a way that was impossible to ignore.

  I don’t know how long we stood there, eyes locked, before he took a deep breath and abruptly said, “I must go, little green-eyed pixie. I’ll send Ajax shortly.”

  Before I could say anything, he disappeared in a cloud of mist.

  “Pixie?” Jareth’s sarcastic tones rippled through the kitchen. “He’s calling you ‘pixie’ now? And he’s shifting?”

  I whirled to find Jareth sizing me up and down with a critical eye, his brows furrowed in an angry line. He was still holding the Cokes.

  Apparently, he hadn’t followed my orders after all.

  “What’s wrong with ‘pixie’?” I asked defensively.

  Rolling his eyes, Jareth stalked into the kitchen and slammed the glasses onto the counter. “Oh, ‘pixie’ isn’t a term that’s used lightly, and you know as well as I do that he shouldn’t shift. The Queens could have activated traps for him by now. And if not, they’ll definitely pick him up if he goes to Avalon and then tries to return to Earth. As things stand now, he’ll likely spend the rest of his life in prison … or worse.”

  That made me scared, but angry as well. “And that’s your fault, Jareth! You’re the one that lan
ded him in this mess by lying!”

  “I never lied, you little fool!” Dark emotions played over Jareth’s face. “You don’t have the faintest clue of what’s really happening here, do you!’

  I blinked, taken aback.

  Ignoring me, he rolled back his sleeve to reveal a golden bracelet identical to mine. A spark of light leapt from its surface to melt into his skin. His brown eyes flashed angrily, and he pounded his fist on the counter. With a growl of frustration, he shouted, “The fool went to his mirror! Why would he do that? He knows it’s far too dangerous!”

  He stood there with his feet planted widely apart, looking very dangerous himself.

  I think that was the first time I truly internalized that Jareth was something much more than a petulant rock star. He played the part so well that I’d come to think of him as more of a troubled celebrity than a Fate Tracker playing a human role. The guy standing in front of me now was tall, dark, and powerful, reminding me more of a Navy SEAL commando than a singer specializing in onstage moves designed to make girls swoon.

  Still, as intimidated as I was, I snuck an accusing glare his way. I still didn’t trust him one bit. As far as I was concerned, the jury was still out on whether he’d tried to kill me or not.

  And as sneaky as I thought I’d been, he caught my look. Tossing his dark hair over his shoulder, he moved to hover over me in a threatening manner. “Oh, I know quite well that you’ve convinced yourself that this entire mess is all my fault!”

  I swallowed but stood my ground.

  But he wasn’t done. “Never forget that you’re playing a role in this drama too, Sydney. Rafael’s Blue-Threaded because of you. And now—”

  Suddenly, he stopped and looked over his shoulder towards the window.

  I knew he was sensing something about the Mesmers. I balled my hands into fists. I didn’t know what to do. I was a little scared of Jareth, but I was terrified of the Mesmers.

  An incredulous expression flashed across his face. “What are you up to, Sydney? Now, you’ve got the Mesmers yammering as well!”

  Pushing me aside, he strode over to the window and peered out into the darkness.

  And then I suddenly knew.

  When the first Mesmer had screamed, Jareth had collapsed in the parking lot. He’d just asked me if I could hear them. And he kept staring in the direction of Mrs. Patton’s lawn menagerie. “You hear them, don’t you,” I said. It wasn’t a question.

  Jareth’s shoulders tensed. He didn’t have to say it.

  I shivered. “How?” I didn’t think he was going to tell me.

  But after a moment, he turned slightly to one side. I could see the outline of his jaw. It was tight, clenched. “Perhaps it was the Tulpa," he offered. "It seems to have changed everything. You should never have let that thing loose.”

  I went rigid as guilt washed over me.

  He was right. I had played a role in this drama. But I wasn’t about to admit that to him. And I didn’t want to think about any of that right now. I was becoming increasingly worried about the Mesmers. “Are they out there right now?” I asked, joining him at the window to point across the street.

  “They’re there, watching us. And they want the Tulpa,” he explained tersely. “They know it’s still here.”

  “Huh?” I gasped, glancing around.

  “Yet it isn’t,” Jareth muttered, drawing his dark brows into a line. “It’s almost as if it’s caught between the dimensions somehow. But how can this be?”

  “What? Where is it?” I prompted when he fell silent. “How can you tell?”

  “That’s precisely the problem, Sydney,” he retorted irritably.

  He wasn’t making sense, but it wasn’t the first time. I didn’t like hearing the Tulpa wasn’t completely gone. I knew we had to catch it, but I wanted to be ready, set some kind of trap. I didn’t want that thing randomly popping up in my bedroom again, taking me by surprise.

  “Hey, where’s the Coke?” Grace grumbled, stepping into the kitchen.

  I jumped in surprise, but Jareth didn’t respond. He just kept his eyes focused on the inky darkness outside.

  Grace’s mouth dropped open. Flapping her hands, she drew a big question mark in the air and mouthed the words: “What’s he doing here?”

  I took a deep breath, desperately thinking of a reply, but she didn’t really care. Grabbing her phone from her pocket, she began snapping his picture.

  Snatching the glasses of soda from the counter, I shoved them at her, and grasping her shirt, led her towards the family room. She resisted at first, leaning back to catch a glimpse of the rock star in the kitchen but finally allowed me to guide her back to the family room.

  I couldn’t blame her, but I was close to screaming in frustration that he was really a fairy who, at the very least, suffered from a horrendously bad attitude and, at the very worst, might have just tried to kill me.

  But even as I thought it, I knew that in spite of whatever he was pulling that he wasn’t one of the bad guys. Somehow, I was beginning to believe that he’d just wanted us to break the Glass Wall.

  Betty glanced up from her seat on the gold shimmery couch and sent us both a vague smile before returning her attention to the show and chuckling along with the laugh track.

  As I tried to drag Grace over the threshold, she held her ground and asked in a fierce whisper, “Hey, aren’t you going to tell me why he’s here? I thought you liked Rafael!”

  I scowled, frantically searching for something that would sound logical and then hit upon the truth, or most of the truth, anyway. “Jareth’s moving in with Rafael for a while. They’re cousins.” With another little shove, I added, “Believe me, you’ll see more than enough of him, and it won’t be so pretty. And for the record, I don’t like him at all.”

  “Cool!” Grace’s eyes lit with excitement. She practically bounced onto the couch, her fingers flying over her phone as she began texting her friends with the news.

  I turned to go, but then the sight of Betty and Grace sitting next to each other on the couch made me pause.

  I experienced a wave of protectiveness. They looked so comfortable and cozy together, what I imaged a normal family to be like. There were times, of late, that I could easily imagine that I belonged with them.

  I stood there for a moment and fervently vowed to do anything I could to keep them safe from the Mesmers before scurrying back to join Jareth in the kitchen.

  He was standing exactly where I’d left him, staring out the window, apparently oblivious to the fact that I’d even been gone.

  “So, what’s the plan?” I asked after a moment.

  He didn’t respond.

  I waited a few minutes, but as the ticking of the kitchen clock grew louder by the second, I cleared my throat and asked again, “Jareth! What are we supposed to do now? How are we supposed to catch this Tulpa? And what about the Mesmers? Are they still out there? How do we get them to go away for good?”

  He just stood there, eyes locked on the window.

  My heart jumped in my throat. Rafael had warned me about this. He’d said the Mesmers could hypnotize their victims and put them into catatonic states.

  Had Jareth fallen under their spell?

  I wanted to scream in terror. Instead, I forced myself to shake his arm in the attempt to rouse him. “Jareth! Wake up!”

  He didn’t react. His unblinking eyes were glued outside.

  Thinking quickly, I spied a fork on the counter, and picking it up, jabbed him in the arm.

  The response was instant.

  Grabbing my wrist, he twisted me around and pulled me close.

  We shifted, and a moment later, I stood in a place that I’d thought to never see again.

  I was back in Avalon.

  Chapter Five – The Impersonator

  In less than twenty-four hours, I was standing once again in Rafael’s house-sized closet amidst three-tiered racks of clothing and shelves stuffed with hats, boots, and feathers, all neatly arranged ac
cording to color.

  Anger washed over me, followed quickly by fear and betrayal.

  Jareth had sworn I could trust him, but the first thing he’d done was bring me right back to Avalon without my consent.

  This time, there was no Glass Wall to break that would send me home.

  This time, I really might get stuck.

  Jareth was scowling and scratching his arm where I’d poked him with the fork. Shooting me a dark look, he opened his mouth to complain, but he didn’t get a chance to speak because Rafael suddenly appeared.

  “Why did you bring her here?” he thundered at Jareth, looking very angry. “It’s far too dangerous!”

  Jareth’s head snapped around, and his lips curled in derision. “How could I stay away?”

  With a look that could strike fear in the heart of anyone, Rafael demanded, “Take her back! You have no business here!”

  Jareth pointedly eyed him up and down. “You know about the Queens’ snares as well as I do, Rafael. She’s stuck here now.”

  I gasped, but I was too mad to be scared. “Then why did you bring me?” I fairly shouted at him, grabbing his arm and shaking it.

  “Oh, Rafael wouldn’t come here without an escape route,” Jareth replied rolling his eyes at me and jerking his arm free. “But more importantly, I find I’m insatiably curious as to why he returned. He’s clearly up to something, and I know quite well that I won’t get answers from him unless he is, shall we say, properly motivated.” He reached over and obnoxiously patted me on the head.

  “Are you implying that I’m a hostage?” I asked, outraged. I liked Jareth less and less.

  “Hostage is such a strong word.” Jareth laughed but then shrugged. “Let’s just say I can’t get you home, but he can, so don’t fret, dear Sydney.” Facing Rafael, he folded his arms in challenge. “I can’t fathom what’s so critically important that you’d risk everything … unless you’re not risking anything at all. That’s the only thing that makes sense. You’ve got a way around the Queens, don’t you?”

  Rafael sent him a look of cool disgust, but I could tell by the tense line of his jaw that his anger was rising fast.