“Do you not know these people?” Jake was frowning.
“No—not a single one. I wonder where my Nana is?” Cass said worriedly.
“Do you want me to find her?” Jake raised an eyebrow at her.
“Yes, please,” Cass said gratefully. She had no idea what was happening but she had a feeling that her flamboyant grandmother was probably right in the middle of it. “I’ll just go upstairs and wait,” she said to Jake who nodded and disappeared into the crowd.
Cass was about to make a break for it when she caught sight of Rory.
“Rory? Hey—over here!” Cass called for her sister who appeared to be trying to slip around the edges of the rowdy crowd as unobtrusively as possible. She had something clutched in one hand and she looked up eagerly at the sound of Cass’s voice.
“Cass?” She came over as quickly as she could, having to evade one of the men who was trying to grab her. “Oh, thank goodness you’re back!”
“What is all this?” Cass gestured at the crowd of people, raising her voice to be heard over the Eagles crooning about “Lying Eyes.”
“It’s Nana again,” Rory said desperately. “After she dumped the Star Trek guy, she somehow got involved with a biker gang. I don’t know what website she’s going to but I don’t think it’s really seniors seeking seniors like she told me.” She shook her head. “Honestly, letting her on the Internet is turning out to be worse than when she was trying to do witchcraft!”
“A biker gang?” Cass could hardly believe it. “I don’t see how—”
“Hey, pretty darlin’.” A big, rough man wearing a leather vest which said, Tampa Renegades on the back in bold red letters, suddenly hooked an arm around Cass’s waist. “How about spending a little alone time with me over in the corner?”
“What? No! Get off me! I don’t even know you!” Cass exclaimed, shoving his arm away—or trying to, anyway. He had a pretty tight hold on her and clearly didn’t want to let go.
“Now, don’t be like that, honey—we can get to know each other real easy,” the man crooned in her ear. His breath was heavy with alcohol and his beard was long enough to reach his belt buckle.
Cass knew that beards were really trendy right now but she had never cared for them herself—other than a close-cut, neatly trimmed one. The Grizzly Addams look did absolutely nothing for her at all. And even if it had, she didn’t care to be grabbed by a man she didn’t know.
“Get off me!” she insisted, planting an elbow in the stranger’s considerable beer gut.
“Oof!” he doubled over but somehow didn’t let go of her. When he rose again, there was an ugly look on his bearded face. “That wasn’t nice, darlin’,” he snarled. “Is that any way to treat your new friend?”
“You’re not my friend. I don’t even know who you are or what you’re doing in my house!” Cass snapped. “I do know you’d better get your hands off me or you’re going to be in a world of hurt!”
“Oh, and who’s gonna hurt me, sweet thing? You?” The man chuffed out a whiskey-scented laugh that turned Cass’s stomach.
“I will hurt you—quite badly—if you do not take your hands off my client right now,” a deep, angry voice growled.
Cass turned her head to see Jake standing there again, his face like a thundercloud. He was dressed in more casual clothing this time since, as he had explained, he didn’t have to be back to court for quite some time. But even in jeans and a neatly pressed t-shirt he looked imposing.
“Who the hell are you?” the biker guy snarled. He was pretty big himself—only an inch or two shorter than Jake—and now he looked like he was spoiling for a fight.
“I am Cassandra’s court-appointed elf,” Jake said crisply. “And if you do not step back right now, I promise you’ll be extremely sorry.”
“Oh yeah? And who’s gonna make me sorry?” the biker slurred. “You think you can take me, buddy?”
“I know I can,” Jake said. He made a gesture in the air and spoke a word that made Cass clap her hands over her ears.
Suddenly the asshole biker was on the ground screaming with all his limbs at awkward angles.
“Oh my God,” Rory exclaimed, her eyes going wide. “What did you do to him?”
“I simply reversed the way his elbows and knees bend,” Jake said, frowning. “The spell will wear off eventually but it will cause him a certain amount of pain and distress until it does. No more than what he deserves for trying to assault a female.” He looked at Cass. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here earlier. I was trying to help your grandmother disentangle herself from a most imprudent match.”
As though mentioning Nana had called her to them, Cass saw their diminutive, silver-haired grandmother threading her way through the crowd, followed by a huge biker.
“You heard me, Harlan,” she was saying as she frowned over her shoulder at the biker. “I think it’s time for you and your, er, friends to go now. I never expected you to bring so many people with you on our first date and really, enough is enough!”
“Aw, come on honey—we can’t leave yet! This party’s just gettin’ started and the Tampa Renegades never leave until the fun is done,” the biker exclaimed.
“It is done now,” Jake growled. Taking a deep breath, he spoke another word of power that made Cass feel like she was going to go deaf. Suddenly the living room was empty of everyone but Cass, Rory, Nana, and their court-appointed elf.
“Wow!” Rory looked impressed. “Where did you send them all?”
“Merely outside.” Jake waved at the large bay window at the front of the room which showed the front lawn where rows of motorcycles were parked.
The entire biker gang was looking around themselves in surprise, as though they couldn’t understand how they had suddenly gotten outside. Some of them started heading for the front door again but Rory ran to lock it.
“Thank goodness that’s over!” she exclaimed, coming back. “Nana—you really have to be more careful on that website! This is the second time you’ve accidentally hosted a con when you were trying to go on a date.”
“Oh, I know it!” Nana exclaimed, her silvery-purple eyes going tearful. “I don’t know how it keeps happening but it’s most upsetting! And just look at the state of the house!”
She gestured to the trash and empty beer bottles that littered the floor, as well as the sticky puddles of alcohol that had spilled on the couches and side tables.
Cass looked at Jake.
“Do you mind?”
“Not at all.” With a word and a gesture, the entire living room was once more in pristine condition.
Rory gasped and Nana cried excitedly and clapped her hands for joy.
“Oh, I had forgotten how wonderful it is to have an elf around the house! There are some things I do miss about the Realm.” She turned to Jake. “Thank you, Counselor O’Shea! Thank you with all my heart.”
“You’re very welcome.” Jake took her hand and bowed over it gallantly which caused Nana to blush and titter like a school girl.
The sight made Rory and Cass exchange a reluctant grin. Nana always had been a sucker for a good-looking man. It got her into an awful lot of trouble but it was just part of her bubbly personality.
At last Rory cleared her throat.
“Well, now that you’re back and everything is okay, maybe you can help me with a problem upstairs,” she said, giving Cass a pointed look.
“Oh, uh okay—sure.” Cass nodded and started to follow her sister up the stairs but Jake put a hand on her arm to stop her.
“Cassandra, I should say goodbye now.” He spoke reluctantly, as though he didn’t really want to go. “Your problems should hopefully be resolved shortly although if they are not, please feel free to call on me.”
“Oh, uh…” Cass wasn’t sure what to say. Was this goodbye? Was she never going to see her court-appointed elf again? The thought made her stomach twist unhappily. After what they had just been through together, the idea of going their separate ways never to meet agai
n made her feel like there was a lump in her throat she couldn’t swallow down.
“It has been my very great pleasure to serve you,” Jake murmured, stepping closer and cupping her cheek gently. “I will never forget you.”
“I…I could never forget you either.” The words came out sounding breathy and uncertain which was not like Cass at all. But somehow she couldn’t think what else to say—what else to do.
You know what to do, whispered a little voice in her head. Don’t let him go! Think of a reason to make him stay or at least come back again!
“Wait,” she said when Jake withdrew his hand and it looked like he was going to poof out of her life forever.
“Yes?” He turned back to her—was there an expression of hope in his leaf-green eyes? Cass wasn’t sure.
“You…you can’t go yet,” she said, casting around for a reason to make him stay. “You, uh, promised to try and teach me that housekeeping spell—remember? And I’m a hopeless slob—I really need to learn it.”
“Ah…” Jake looked thoughtful. “I need to go at present but I could come back later and try to teach it to you—it’s not difficult if you have a natural talent for elf magic. And I think we proved earlier that you do, indeed, have potential.” He gave her a significant look and Cass found herself blushing.
“When?” she asked, feeling tongue-tied. “When will you come back?”
“Very soon,” he murmured. “But unfortunately, I cannot teach you the spell without something in return from you. That is the law of magic—you must give and take equally.”
“Oh?” Cass felt her heart hammering against her chest. She was very aware that Nana and Rory were standing to one side, watching this exchange silently with their mouths open. “And…what do you want in exchange for the spell?” she asked, wondering what he might say.
If he was after more sexual favors…well, she was all kinds of confused about that. Her body shouted yes to the idea while the guilty part of her brain said a flat, no. She had already cheated on Brandon enough—even if it had been necessary in order to heal Jake.
“What I want—what I need—is someone to accompany me to the Summer’s End Ball.” Jake was watching her carefully as he spoke, as though gauging her reaction. “It’s going to be held very soon and I would rather not attend without a partner.” He gave Cass a meaningful look. “I think you can understand why.”
“No, why?” Rory broke in eagerly.
“Aurora, please.” Nana put a hand on her arm. “I think that is between Counselor O’Shea and your sister.”
Cass bit her lip.
“I’d love to attend the ball with you,” she said regretfully. “But, well…I don’t exactly have anything to wear. And I really need to get started on painting another portrait for my show at the I.C.U.—once I get my painting back on-line, that is.”
Jake arched an eyebrow. “And if you can get your rather untrustworthy lover to come and sit for a portrait?”
He had a point there, Cass had to admit. Brandon was almost impossible to pin down and there was no way he was going to have the patience to sit for another portrait if she had to start all over again from scratch. Suddenly she had a thought.
“I tell you what,” she said, “I know you said time moves differently in the Realm—you’ll go and be gone a couple of days in your time and when you come back here, only hours have passed for us. Right?”
Jake nodded. “Essentially, yes. Although the length and distance between times can change. But time does usually move slower here than in the Realm.”
“Well…if I could come and paint you in the Realm, I would have time to finish the portrait and attend the ball with you.” Cass was beginning to have a cautious sense of excitement but she didn’t want to get her hopes up until she heard Jake’s answer to her idea.
He looked surprised.
“Me? You want to paint me?”
“Of course she’d like to paint you—you’re freaking gorgeous!” Rory exclaimed. “Sorry, Nana—I couldn’t help it,” she added when their grandmother shushed her.
Cass grinned. “I would like to paint you,” she told Jake seriously. “Very much, as a matter of fact.”
“Well, if you really want to…” Jake spread his hands in a gesture of offering. “Then I’m all yours. Though I’m not sure how good of an artist’s model I’ll be—I’ve never posed for a portrait before.”
“You’ll be wonderful,” Cass assured him. She bit her lip. “Although I’m not sure how good of a date I’ll be to your ball. I’ve never been to a fancy dress ball either and I really don’t have anything to wear.”
“She’s not kidding,” Rory put in. “She skipped her own prom to go watch an artsy foreign movie festival in St. Pete.” She made a face. “Ugh!”
Cass shot her little sister a glare but Jake was already talking.
“As for evening wear, please let me handle that,” he told Cass. “I’m sure you’ll be the perfect date.” He gave her a smile that Cass could feel all the way down to her toes.
“Well, thank you.” She felt tongue-tied again but she tried to be more coherent than she felt. “Then…I guess I’ll see you soon? Hopefully as soon as I get my painting situation sorted out?”
“Call me the minute you do,” Jake told her. “And we will meet again before you know it.” He brushed his knuckles gently over Cass’s hot cheek. “I’m very much looking forward to posing for you—and to showing you off at the Summer’s End Ball.”
“I’m looking forward to it too,” Cass whispered. “I…I can’t wait.”
“May the time fly until we see each other again.” Jake leaned over and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek although Cass was fairly certain if Nana and Rory hadn’t been there staring he would have gone for the lips.
Then, before she could even kiss him back, her court-appointed elf was gone in a puff of smoke.
Twenty-Eight
“Wow…” Rory breathed softly as the navy-blue smoke cleared. “You didn’t tell us you were getting busy with our court-appointed elf, Cass!”
“I’m not!” Cass put her hands to her hot cheeks, wishing she could hide the blush she felt there. “I’m just…doing him a favor. And he’s doing me one. Like he said—an exchange.”
“And he thinks you might have a talent for elf magic?” Nana looked interested in this. She was always trying to do magic that didn’t suit her—her forays into witchcraft, which didn’t mix well with fairy magic at all, had caused several disastrous situations.
“Well, yes—he thinks I might.” Cass blushed even harder when she thought about how she and Jake had used the little spark of magic she possessed.
“And how exactly did he find this out?” Nana asked, raising one silver eyebrow at her.
“Oh, um…Look, Rory, didn’t you say you needed help with something upstairs?” Cass asked desperately. There was no way she was about to start discussing her love life with Nana.
Although really it isn’t my love life—I was just helping Jake out. Just healing him, she told herself.
“Oh, yes! I do need your help!” Rory’s eyes got wide and she clutched the thing she’d been holding all this time tighter. Looking more closely, Cass saw it was a bottle of Nyquil cough syrup. What did Rory need with that? It wasn’t like she had a cold or anything.
“Well, you girls run along then.” Nana sighed and shook her head. “And I guess it’s back to the drawing board for me. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong on that dating site. Maybe I should have kept Arturo after all instead of trying to play the field.”
“Oh, Nana, please give the dating a rest for a minute,” Rory pleaded. “The Star Trek convention was bad enough but those bikers were the worst!”
“I’m sorry if my lack of a romantic life is a trial to you, girls,” Nana said huffily. “I’ll certainly try to do better in the future.”
Turning on her petite heel, she marched off in the direction of the den, where she kept the little computer hutch and the ancient compute
r she had bought at a yard sale which Josh, Phil’s fiancé, had set up for her.
“Well, there she goes.” Rory sighed gloomily. “You know what that means—we’ll probably have a circus clown convention take over the house next. Or maybe it’ll be a bunch of bee keepers, complete with bees. Who knows what she’s going to come up with?”
“Well, that’s Nana,” Cass said, frowning as she climbed the stairs and gestured for her sister to follow. “She doesn’t give up until she gets what she wants—you have to give her that.”
“Speaking of getting what you want, what’s going on between you and Counselor O’Shea?” Rory gave her a knowing look. “I thought you were still with Brandon?”
“None of your business, and I am still with Brandon,” Cass snapped, feeling guilty. Should she have agreed to go to the ball with Jake when she was still technically dating another guy? She was really going to have to reevaluate her relationship with her boyfriend soon.
“Well, there’s no need to get touchy about it,” Rory remarked mildly. “I was just worried about you when you disappeared. I didn’t know where you went and I couldn’t reach you on your cell phone.”
“I’m sorry.” Cass felt another pang of guilt, this time for running off without telling her sister where she was going. “Jake had to take me to the Realm again for a second court date.”
“What? You went back to fairy court again after that first time? Wow. Um…” Rory flipped a strand of red hair out of her eyes, her tone a bit too casual. “When you were in the Realm did you…see anyone? I mean, anyone we met there before?”
Cass frowned. “If you’re talking about that phooka horse thing, no I didn’t see it and Jake says it’s bad news. So you need to stay away from it.”
“He, not it,” Rory exclaimed. “He has a name—he told it to me. It’s Daegan.”
“Daegan?” Cass shook her head. “How could it—sorry, he—even speak to you? He was a horse.”
“He spoke to me,” Rory said in a low voice. “I…I heard him in my head. And I’ve been hearing him in my dreams ever since.”
Be Careful What You Wish For Page 25