“At the risk of sounding like my sister Phil, that was completely inappropriate. You can’t talk to kids like that!”
He shrugged.
“I find it’s better to be truthful with children and not talk down to them. I work with them a lot in my pro bono cases. In fact, when I took your case I was under the impression that you and your sisters were children”
“Well you just can’t talk about things like that!” Cass fumed. “And I am not a child.”
Jake gave her a penetrating glance and reached out to brush a stray curl out of her eyes. “So I’ve noticed, Cassandra.” He caught her eyes and held them and Cass felt completely incapable of looking away.
“Okay. Well, thanks again for everything,” she babbled. “I’d better get back to the class now. I mean, back home. I mean…”
Jake frowned. “Are you so anxious to get rid of me? I think you’re forgetting that we have some unfinished business.
“Unfinished business? What…what do you mean?” Cass clenched her hurt hand behind her back and swallowed hard.
Jake gave her another penetrating glance. “Let me see your hand, Cassandra.”
“No.” She squeezed the hurt hand into a fist and yelped when the motion resulted in a stabbing pain. “I mean, it’s fine. You don’t need to worry about it,” she lied weakly.
“I will be the judge of that.” Jake’s deep voice was stern now. “Show it to me. As your protector, I am charged with your well being. If you have an injury I can heal it is my duty to do so.”
“It’s not your duty to do anything.” Cassandra backed away from him. The memory of how she’d felt the last time he’d healed her was still fresh in her mind. The warm waves of pleasure radiating through her entire body until she almost…Well, she’d already made a fool of herself crying all over him. She didn’t need to add anything else to that. Especially not going into some kind of weird sexual heat the moment he started healing her.
Jake seemed to read the emotions passing over her face because he smiled reassuringly and stepped forward, holding out his hand.
“Just let me see it, Cassandra. I think I know what you’re worried about but you can rest easy on that account. The bite of a soul-sucker is bound to be much too painful to allow any pleasure you may feel at the touch of my power to overcome you.”
“Seriously?” Cass looked at him uncertainly. She had never dreamed that the idea of having too much pain would be a good thing but now she welcomed it. If the bite hurt too bad to let her make a fool of herself, so much the better.
“Yes, seriously. Now, please—your hand?” Jake nodded at the hand she was hiding behind her back. Reluctantly, Cass held it out to him. It was the first chance she’d really had herself to examine it since the soul-sucker had bitten it and what she saw alarmed her.
“Holy crap!” She stared down at her puffy, discolored palm with red streaks running up her wrist. “That looks really bad.” From the stern look on Jake’s face she could tell he thought the same but he only nodded curtly. “Well?” Cass looked up at him. “Aren’t you going to heal it?”
Jake shook his head. “Not here. This is a very serious wound. I need to take you back to my center of power in order to deal with it.” He pulled her closer and put an arm around her.
“Wait a minute.” Cass tried to shrug the heavy, muscular arm off her shoulders without success. “Where is this center of power? Are you taking me back to the Realm of the Fae? Because I’ve had about as much of that place as I can stand.”
“No,” Jake said but he didn’t offer any other explanation either. “Hold tight to me,” he murmured in her ear and then, putting his other arm around Cass’s waist, he pulled her out of her world and took her someplace else.
Sixteen
“Whoa.” Cass blinked, wishing that everything would stop spinning. She felt dizzy and disorientated from the strange trip. Magical travel might be nearly instantaneous but she would still rather drive—at least riding in a car didn’t give her an instant sense of vertigo and nausea. Any form of transportation that made you want to hurl the second you engaged in it was a no-go as far as she was concerned.
“Are you all right?” The deep voice in her ear made her realize that she was clinging to Jake for dear life as she waited for her heart to stop pounding and her stomach to stop lurching.
“I’m fine.” She made her good hand unclench from his charcoal gray suit jacket and took a step back, even though she still felt a little off balance. She looked around at a room that seemed to be all dark, somber colors and dim golden light. “Where are we?”
“My center of power. Otherwise known as my home.” Jake made a sweeping motion with one large hand. “Please, make yourself comfortable while I gather the things I need to heal you. I’ll just be a moment.” Stepping away from her, he left her alone to look around.
Cass wasn’t about to waste the opportunity. Already her imagination was working overtime—Jake O’Shea was an irritating but fascinating man, er…elf, she admitted to herself. Would his home reflect his personality at all? She bet he was the kind of guy to have all his suits lined up just so in the bedroom closet and his shoes arranged in order in a neat military row beneath. Probably if she looked in his underwear drawer she’d see that his boxers were color-coded and his socks were all in perfectly matched pairs.
Cass herself was so messy that she never had a matching pair of socks. That was one reason she’d started wearing all black in the first place—not as an artistic statement but because everything always matched. The way she looked at it, every precious minute of her life she spent doing mundane chores like laundry was a minute she could have been creating something new. But she bet that someone like Jake O’Shea loved having a tidy sock and underwear collection—the kind of clutter she lived in would probably drive him crazy.
Dragging her mind back from the possible contents of her court-appointed elf’s underwear drawer, Cass saw that the area he’d left her in looked more like a living room than a bedroom. In fact, it looked disappointingly like any other bachelor pad she’d ever been in. A lot neater than most—that was true—but still, it just looked like a place where a guy lived by himself. That was what she thought, anyway, until she started looking around and noticing the little details.
For instance, there was a fireplace in front of the dark blue leather sofa but the flames that were popping and crackling quietly to themselves in the hearth were navy blue with pale green flickers. The colors put her in mind of Jake’s eyes. They were strangely beautiful, reminding her of a driftwood fire she’d seen once but they weren’t the only odd thing in the room.
To one side of the fireplace, on the wall where a regular human man might have hung his plasma TV, there was a wide oval that seemed to be filled with inky black liquid. How the liquid didn’t spill out and run down to wet the plush dark blue carpet below was beyond Cass—magic she supposed—but it was still weird to see what amounted to a large puddle apparently defying the laws of gravity and hanging on a wall.
Curious, she walked forward and touched just the fingertips of her unhurt hand to the black liquid. A ripple of color spread from her point of contact and suddenly a woman’s face with long blue hair and silver eyes appeared.
“Good evening, Counselor O’Shea,” the face purred in a voice that fairly throbbed with sensuality. “And thank you for tuning to U-News, the only magical news broadcast tailored specifically to your life. In family news tonight, your father, the Spell Singer of Landolin isn’t getting any younger and soon will reach his time of fading. Your mother remains disappointed that you chose not to follow in his footsteps but believes you will see the error of your ways before it is too late.”
The beautiful face with silver eyes faded for a moment to be replaced by a picture of two elderly people standing together and staring at what Cass had begun to think of as the screen.
The man (or elder elf) had pure white hair and dark eyes and though he was old he was still standing straight and proud
with a stern look on his face. His strong features were a mirror of Jake’s and Cass thought that despite his upright bearing, he didn’t look exactly well. His wife, obviously Jake’s mother, was still willowy and slender. The silver hair and the faint laugh lines around her mouth were all that gave away her age. Her leaf green eyes were exactly like Jake’s.
“He’ll not come back, Trillian,” Jake’s father murmured to the silver haired elf woman. “We quarreled so long ago. He has his own life now, he won’t abandon it just because my time is near.”
“Hush, Sibon.” Jake’s mother put a finger to her husband’s lips gently. “He’ll come. He knows his people need his skills as a healer more than those self-absorbed fairies need him to manage their legal affairs. In the end the Lady will guide him.”
Jake’s father sighed heavily. “I hope you’re right, love. May it be so.”
The two old people faded from the screen and the beautiful female face reappeared.
“My, my, quite the guilt trip from those two,” she said and made a tsking sound with her tongue. “Enough of that, then. In the society pages your ex-fiancé, Glorianna deVan has taken a new lover—a brownie boy-toy sources say is only half her age. It’s rumored she’ll be taking him to the Summer’s End ball to show him off and prove she doesn’t miss you.”
The face faded again to show a tall fairy woman with long, perfectly styled blonde hair with a faint lavender tint. Like all the fairies Cass had seen in the Realm of the Fae, she was anorexicly thin with cheekbones so high and sharp they could have cut glass. She had glittering purple wings and bluish-purple eyes and she was wearing a perfectly tailored plum dress that looked like it probably cost more than Cass’ car. Her slender body supported a pair of improbably large, firm breasts that overflowed out of the plum dress’ low-cut neck line and didn’t seem to move.
Cass frowned. They must have plastic surgery in the Realm of the Fae because there’s no way those things are real. Wonder if she got them before or after she and Jake broke up?
The bitter zing of jealousy she felt surprised her. Why should she care what Jake O’Shea’s ex-fiancé looked like or if she had fake boobs or not? After all, it wasn’t like Cass had any claim on him other than being his client.
And it’s not like I want any claim on him either, she told herself. Mostly I just want him to leave me alone. Right, but where would she be if he had left her alone when the paint monster turned into a soul-sucker and tried to eat her and her entire last class?
Pushing the guilty thoughts away, Cass studied the screen where Jake’s ex was still on camera—or whatever it was they used to take pictures in the Realm of the Fae.
The fairy woman reminded her of someone and after a minute, Cass remembered who. Glorianna deVan reminded her of the mothers of the kids who attended the Titus Academy. Like Jake’s ex they all had that rich, bored air about them, the superiority that only obscene amounts of money can confer. They spent their days taking tennis lessons and shopping and never had to work a day in their lives.
Was that kind of woman Jake O’Shea’s type?
Cass was surprised and dismayed at feeling another stab of jealousy at the thought. Whatever else her irritating court-appointed elf was, she hadn’t taken him for the type to be attracted to a popsicle stick with fake boobs and a snotty attitude. Also if he was looking for a privileged skinny immortal being with sparkly wings, well, there was no way Cass could measure up since she was poor, mostly human, and totally without wings, sparkly or otherwise.
Although at least her boobs were big enough, she reminded herself, remembering Jake’s approval of her “endowments.” And they were real. Not that she wanted to measure up to his ex—it was just nice to know. Sighing, she looked back at the screen.
Standing beside the snotty fairy was a muscular young man that reminded Cass surprisingly of her own boyfriend, Brandon. He was slightly shorter than deVan but he more than made up for it in bulk. His smooth dark tan skin and powerful physique drew Cass’ eye but the artist in her couldn’t help noticing something strange.
The boy-toy, as the talking reporter face had called him, was nearly monochrome in appearance. His carefully gelled and spiked brown hair was the exact same color as his skin and his eyes matched too. Only the whites of his eyes and his teeth leant any contrast. Even his lush, pouty lips were the same tannish brown as the rest of him. Weird.
“Glorianna,” he was saying in a whiny voice that set Cass’ teeth on edge. “I’m tired of shopping. Can’t I go hang out with the guys for a while?”
“Hush, Valen,” the skinny fairy with the fake boobs snapped. “I have to find just the right gown for the Summer’s End ball and after that I have to get you an outfit to match. You know everything has to look perfect so don’t start.”
“But, Glorianna,” he whined and then the scene dissolved to the disembodied reporter face again.
“Well, I know you said to stop showing Miss deVan but I couldn’t resist giving you a glimpse of the new man in her life. Also it’s worth noting that she still takes reports on you, Counselor O’Shea, so maybe somebody isn’t quite over the big break-up, hmm?” The face winked one silver eye playfully before continuing.
“Touching briefly on current courtroom drama, Judge StoneThroat, whose courtroom you had to hastily vacate a few hours ago in the middle of a tax evasion trial, has vowed to extract a heavy penalty the next time you enter his domain.”
The face faded again to show a squat, ugly troll-looking creature sitting behind an impossibly high stone podium, holding a large clunky gavel that appeared to be carved of granite. He had small, piggy yellow eyes and a nose that was so flat and upturned it was almost a snout.
“I don’t care what the problem was, no excuse is good enough to leave my court in the middle of a trial. O’Shea is going to pay!” The trollish creature (or maybe he was just a troll, Cass thought) had a voice like someone gargling with a mouthful of gravel. He smashed the granite gavel down on the stone podium, making a sound like distant thunder and scowled at the screen.
Cass shivered, remembering that Jake had said he’d had to leave in the middle of court to come and rescue her from the soul-sucker. So this must have been the judge he pissed off when he left. What kind of penalty would he have to pay? A monetary one? She hoped it wouldn’t cost him too much and wondered what they used for money in the Realm of the Fae.
The angry troll judge faded back to the face again which smiled almost as if it could see Cass.
“And in breaking news, that naughty little human client of yours, Cassandra Swann, has been watching your confidential U-News,” the reporter face said as the scene changed to show a picture of Cass standing in front of the magic TV puddle and watching raptly. “I recommend a stiff spanking to put her in her place, Counselor,” the reporter face’s voice went on. “You know these humans—if you give them an inch—”
Oh my God! Cass lunged forward and pressed her fingertips to the dark liquid that served as a screen again, hoping she could turn off the TV puddle as easily as she had turned it on. To her immense relief there was an immediate ripple and the image of herself staring at the screen dissolved, leaving only inky blackness again. She breathed a sigh of relief.
But what she had seen was enough to make her think. At any rate, she now knew a lot more about her court-appointed elf than she had previously. It was kind of nice to know that he wasn’t as perfect as his expensive suits and severely professional manner had led her to believe. It made him more human. More…accessible somehow. Not that he was human or that Cass wanted or needed him to be assessable but still…
Hoping that Jake hadn’t heard her listening to his news, she backed away from the magic mirror/TV puddle and looked around the room. After the bright images coming from the black liquid screen, it seemed too dark so she searched for a way to turn on or turn up the lights.
Sitting on a small, richly carved table to the right of the couch she saw a slender silver lamp with a creamy white shade. The light
coming from it was quite dim and Cass wondered if there was a way to make it brighter. She looked for a switch at the base of the lamp and couldn’t find one.
Wondering if the switch was higher up, she looked down through the shade. But instead of a bulb she saw what looked like a tiny person curled up on a white velvet pillow. The person might have been male or female—it was impossible to say since he or she was only about the size of Cass’ pinky finger and a mass of tousled pink hair was obscuring the features. Even more strange, the dim golden light that filled the room appeared to be emanating from the tiny body.
Cass shook her head. Okay, a TV puddle on the wall that spouts personal gossip and a living light bulb. This is getting weirder and weirder.
Moving away from the lamp, she decided to look out the window instead. It was a floor to ceiling plate glass affair that would have let in more light if it wasn’t twilight outside. Cass did a double take—twilight? It had been barely two thirty when Jake rescued her and the children from the soul-sucker in her last art class. So how in the world had it suddenly become dusk? Had he taken her across time zones or something when he whisked her away? He’d told her he wasn’t taking her to the Realm of the Fae but where exactly were they?
Looking out the window she saw a distant mountain range, its craggy peaks wreathed in mist. The sky behind the mountains was a beautiful bruised purple shade that made her hand itch for a paintbrush. High above the tallest peak was a crescent moon and a single brilliant star casting a silvery half-light over everything.
The beauty of the scene almost drove the questions about where she was (there were certainly no mountain ranges in Florida) out of Cass’ mind. Hardly knowing what she was doing she put a hand up to the window. But when the cool glass connected with her hurt hand, the jolt of pain she felt reminded her immediately of what she was doing in Jake’s home.
“Ouch!” With a little hiss of pain she pulled back and examined her hand again. What she saw made her sick to her stomach. It hadn’t even been ten minutes since her court-appointed elf had dragged her out of her world and into his, wherever it was, but already the reddish streaks that looked like some kind of weird blood poisoning were marching higher up her arm.
Be Careful What You Wish For Page 14