Reality Check

by Sophie Martin

  Dom took in the vulnerability that Jim’s entire body exuded and decided, “To hell with that.” He pulled the little fey closer to himself and hugged him tightly. He murmured some nonsensical words into the smaller man’s ears, trying hard to give him some comfort. It worked and soon Jim found back his composure. He gave Dominic a grateful smile and then sat back in his chair, drinking some tea while his hand remained in Dominic’s as if drawing strength from the simple gesture.

  Not much time had passed, and the three men entered the kitchen. There was new decision in their moves. It was clear that they had come to a solution.

  “We will help you,” said Jason, who now resembled a normal human being, and there was nothing left in him of that stone statue rigidness he presented when Dominic and Jim first entered his house. “And here’s what we’ll do…”

  Chapter Seven

  Jim watched Dominic, Tyler, and his two men leaving and didn’t know what to think. It was deemed safest for him to stay in Jason’s house and wait for them. He had to agree. He was no fighter, and would probably be more of a burden to them than help. Still, he had no idea what to think of Tyler’s weird confession. Apparently, Jason Thorne, the owner of the house and the person who saved both Tyler and Toby, had some kind of weird power. Tyler didn’t say more than that and insisted that it would be invaluable in the rescue mission. Jim wasn’t so sure, but he had to trust his friend. He had no other choice.

  Besides, the man did deal with a vampire, and from what Ty said, he incapacitated all of said vampire’s cronies. Still, when he said that they would go into the whole escort-agency-slash-paranormal-trafficking-base and everyone would see them as the most respected customer and his entourage…Jim couldn’t help but be doubtful. But he had no other options, so he went with it and tried to believe everything would work out for the best.

  But that was several hours ago, and Jim was getting more and more anxious. Logically, he knew the whole mission would probably take more than a mere several hours, but it didn’t stop him from worrying. The mission was polished, and the finest details refined. Dominic contacted some people he never mentioned and got some interesting experimental drug-filled grenades to use that would cause temporary amnesia, wiping out all of the memories from the previous twenty-four hours in everyone affected. Tyler went with them as a backup, and Jim had to believe that the mission will be a success.

  But being left at home alone gave him nothing to do but worry, so worry he did. He thought of everything that could go wrong, and the thought of never seeing his brother again almost made him cry. But he stopped himself and decided it was time to think of something else altogether. So he changed the subject of his musings to Dominic.

  Dominic Sawyer, the private investigator, the wolf-shifter who denied being anything other than human, and the person who invaded Jiminy’s dreams, making him wish for a relationship he never thought he’d have.

  True, when he decided to leave for human world, he told Tim that he wanted to look for a mate there. But in whole truth, he did not believe his own words. Sure, he was barely one hundred and twenty-five, which made him twenty-five in human years, but he’d never fallen in love before. His heart never beat harder for anyone. After a while, he started to think that maybe there was a defect inside of him. Maybe it was because he was a pixie, or maybe because he and Tim were born as identical twins, which was unheard of in fey. But he never expected to meet someone and suddenly feel so attracted to them, like he did Dominic.

  He never believed in the whole “love at first sight” bullshit, and it wasn’t love. But the instant attraction, the urge to learn all there was to learn about Dominic’s body, it was something he had never experienced before. And then there was friendship. He’d gotten to know the other man and discovered that Dominic Sawyer was a warm, funny, and good guy through and through. They shared some of their life stories and Jim discovered he genuinely liked the guy. Sometime during the two weeks they spent together, Jim started to care. And it scared him witless.

  He was a pixie. He was not powerful, or very intelligent, or any of all the other stuff that attracted people to you. Well, at least in the fey world. He didn’t have much experience with humans, but he reckoned it had to be similar. Hell, he couldn’t even help his brother or open a portal on his own to call for his family’s help. He was useless and he had nothing to offer a prospective mate.

  Because he knew the feelings that rose within him were just that, an urge to let himself go, to mate with the strong and handsome wolf. But he couldn’t. No matter how his magic insisted that Dominic Sawyer was perfect mate material, no matter how much his brain and dick insisted that the man was also perfect relationship material, he couldn’t let that happen. Because as much as he agreed with his magic and his brain and libido, there was one thing that stood in a way. It was the fact that, as perfect as Dominic was for him, Jim wasn’t perfect for Dominic.

  * * * *

  Dominic was nervous. After he left military, he never thought he would be taking part in this kind of mission ever again. He was wrong. Here they were in a car parked in front of the building where most likely Jim’s brother was being kept, and they were ready to go in and save him. Dom had no idea how the farfetched plan they came up with was supposed to work. Tyler insisted, that Jason could convince everyone he was someone entirely else and without even disguising himself, but Dominic had his doubts.

  “Are you ready?” Jason asked and Dominic grumbled his acknowledgement. The man had to be more perceptive than Dom gave him credit for, because he leveled Dominic with that creepy gaze.

  “Just remember to play your role, and don’t focus on anything else. Understood?” His tone of voice reminded Dominic of his military days and he straightened instinctively nodding.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  They entered through the front door, and sure enough, the concierge behind the counter immediately recognized Jason as one of their clients. Dominic didn’t show his surprise. He was now in a mission mode. He was hyperaware and scanned their surroundings at all times.

  Jason sat on a sofa chatting up the weasel who greeted them, trying to make him take them to where Timiny could be kept. Dominic did his best to seem uninterested in their conversation but in all reality he heard everything that was being said. He also couldn’t help but stiffen when he finally heard where their conversation was going. The concierge man was talking about some substance, something seldom found on Earth. Jason played his role of slightly bored and mildly interested very well, when he asked.

  “Well? Don’t keep me waiting. What substance is it?”

  “Fairy dust.” Answered the stranger and that was what made Dominic suddenly tense. He immediately remembered all those things Jiminy told him about forcibly harvesting pixie’s mating dust and of how it affected said pixie. The situation was worse than they suspected. The man was now offering to take Jason to witness extracting the dust and Dominic braved a tiny nod to encourage his companion’s agreement. It could be their only way of getting to Tim.

  They waited for a few minutes while the stranger went to prepare everything for them. Soon the man came and asked Jason to follow him. They weaved through long corridors of the building going into the basement. As soon as they reached the right room, Dominic knew he had to be ready to act as soon as possible.

  There was a man chained to the wall with his arms and legs spread wide so he wouldn’t struggle. The man was naked from the waist up, and there was a cloth tied behind his head that seemed to gag him, preventing from making noises. The chained man’s body was tense, as if he already knew something bad was coming. A man stood on each of his sides, guarding him, or, more likely, preventing him from doing anything to free himself. And there were unmistakable big, almost translucent wings folded tight, close to his back. Dominic couldn’t help but venture in his head to the moment he met Jim. It was the same wings that drugged him out of his mind that first day. Dominic felt himself tense even more. He was like a spring, ready to snap any
moment and jump into action.

  The host pointed them to an overstuffed sofa that sat opposing the scene in front of them. The room was clearly prepared for whatever was supposed to take place here. Dominic couldn’t help but wish the time move faster.

  When they were seated, the man who brought them here approached Timiny’s back and grabbed his wing roughly. He pulled it to the side, outstretching the thin translucent membrane even.

  “As you can see, Mr. Z, this is a real fairy.” Said the man addressing Jason with the name of a customer he thought him to be. “During the procedure, his wings will produce the most amazing hallucinogen known to the paranormal world. Fairy dust is the strongest, most potent aphrodisiac as well as a miracle cure for many illnesses. For some paranormal races, it works as a way of enhancing their abilities. We will now start the procedure of extracting it.”

  The man had his two goons keep Timiny’s wings spread wide open and went to touch them but Jason’s sudden “Don’t” stopped him.

  “I want to do it myself. I can’t be sure otherwise that you’re not tricking me somehow.” Jason said and stood up approaching the bound fey. Dominic knew they will have to act soon. Just tell me, what do I do?” Jason asked. And at the man’s answer: “You simply need to stroke his wings” he proceeded to do just that.

  “That’s amazing. Feels like pure silk.” Said Jason invoking their signal to act. Dominic didn’t hesitate. He threw a drug grenade and held his breath to stop himself from inhaling it. Soon both the goons and concierge fell unconscious on the floor. Dominic counted on his fingers downwards from ten, and as soon as he stopped, they all took a deep breath.

  “You can breathe now, Tim,” Jason said removing the gag from around the man’s head.

  “How do you know my name? And who the hell are you?” the fey asked. Dominic hurried to answer.

  “We know it from Jiminy. He hired me to find and rescue you. And with a little help, I managed.”

  “Help? What help?” asked Tim, trying to turn his head as far back as he could from the awkward position, chained face-first to the wall.

  “Mine,” answered Toby, coming fast towards them. “And it looks like you need it again,” he said, starting to unchain Tim.

  “What? How did you get the key?” asked Dominic, stunned.

  “One of the guards had it on him all the time. I noticed it as soon as we entered the room. You would too if you just focused.” He snapped, clearly tense because of the danger they were still in.

  “Toby?” asked Tim with disbelief. “Is that you? How did you get here? How did you manage to free yourself?” he asked as soon as one of his arms was free and he could turn to see the man who did it.

  “It’s a long story, and now is not the time to chat. We’re not out of the woods yet,” he said, passing the key to Dominic once he freed Tim’s leg. Dominic then took to unchaining his other side. “We can be discovered any second,” Toby said tersely. By then, Dominic finished with the chains, and Tim was able to turn on his somewhat wobbly legs. First thing he did was to give Toby a hard if brief hug. He then straightened and looked at Dominic, nodding with a simple “thank you”. He then looked at Jason and tensed. Dominic understood why. The man still wore his psycho-killer face. Without a hint of emotion on it, he sure looked scary.

  “Who the hell are you?” asked Tim in a steady voice that belied his weakened state.

  “I’m your back up. And we better get going. We don’t know when the other guards will start to suspect something is wrong. We need to be long gone by then.”

  “Right.” It was once again Toby who took command. “Timmy, do you know if there are any other prisoners here, people kept against their will?”

  “Yeah.” Tim was still reluctant to turn his gaze away from Jason. “There are. We were all kept in this same corridor. I know how to get there from here, but we need keys. And that man is right. We need to hurry. The guards will soon know something happened. It usually only takes about a quarter for them to ‘extract the substance.’”

  “Let’s move it then,” spoke Dominic calmly. “There’s more than one key on this ring, so let’s check if they’ll open more than just your chains.” Everybody agreed and exited the room in silence. Dominic checked, and surely enough, one of the keys locked the door where they left the unconscious men.

  “What about them?” asked Tim, tipping his head towards the now-locked doors. “Won’t they wake up soon?”

  “Nah,” said Dominic dismissively. The narcotic they inhaled will render them unconscious for hours and cause a minor case of amnesia. They won’t remember a damn thing about today.” He was happy he still had those contacts from his time in military. The drug-grenade was an ingenious invention and could prove really helpful in their situation.

  They followed the corridor halfway up when Tim stopped next to one of identical-looking doors. He had to count them to know which ones to go through.

  “It’s here. Try the keys, maybe one of them works.” It did and soon they entered another hallway, this one with cell-like doors on each side of it.

  “Right, okay, we don’t have much time. Check which key will open the door, and we’ll check which of these cells are occupied.” Jason ordered. Dominic soon found the right key and started to open the door of one of nine cells which held prisoners, but Tim stopped him.

  “Let me speak to them first. I don’t think they’re human, and they can be dangerous not knowing what’s happening.” The fey said and he then proceeded to do just that. As soon as he explained the situation they freed the person locked in each cell. Unfortunately one of the prisoners was in really bad state. Apparently he was a cuberow-shifter, the Ethiopian wolf and they didn’t do well separated from their packs. Dominic suggested they carry the poor guy and entered the cell to pick him up.

  “We’re almost out of time by now, and I have only three more grenades. We need to stun everyone in this building so that they don’t remember what happened. Let’s get going, people.” He addressed the freed captives. “We will go to the back door and then decide what to do next. If we encounter any guards, stay back and we’ll take care of them. If I give you the command to ‘drop,’ it means you are to take a deep breath and hold it as long as you can. I will then say ‘safe’ when it’s safe to breathe again. We’ve got a dangerous drug that will render you unconscious in seconds if you breathe it in, so be sure to do as I say. Now let’s move.” He finished and went to move, when Jason stopped him.

  “I’ll take him,” he said in his cold, emotionless voice. “You need to have your arms free to fight and throw the grenades, and I’m not good in fight anyway.”

  Dominic only looked at him like the man was crazy but passed him the sleeping captive. One thing he was sure about. Jason might be useless in hand to hand combat, but he didn’t need to enter it with his freaky power.

  They entered the basement corridor and moved towards the door. They only went a few steps when several guards entered from the opposite side of the hallway and closed in on them fast. Dominic threw another grenade and gave the “drop” command. There was a small hiss and all but one guard fell down unconscious. The last one however didn’t even look dizzy. He approached them quickly and Dominic soon was engaged in a fight, and he was quickly starting to lose. Dominic was trained in a hand to hand combat, but his opponent seemed equally skilled. Dominic felt his was outmatched until the man took a swing. His eyes opened wide in surprise as did his mouth, and he suddenly dropped unconscious to the ground. Dominic watched him for a second to make sure he’d stay there and then gestured for everyone to follow him.

  They left the basement area and the rest of the mission was a piece of cake. They led all the freed captives outside and left them with Toby and Tyler. Then Dominic and Jason went back inside to deal with the rest of the guards. Jason made everyone still conscious in the building come to the reception area where Dominic stunned them with the last grenade. After that it was only a matter of getting all the freed prisoners som
ewhere safe. As they approached Tyler and the group gathered around him and the car, it seemed that this too was already resolved.

  “Annette here,” said Ty, “is an older vampire, and she can disseminate. With a little help from Timiny, she’ll take everybody home. The only problem is Jack. He’s got nowhere to go.” He kept talking but Dominic was still hung up on the little detail the tiger revealed.

  “He’ll go with us.” Said Jason about the cuberow shifter. “Anything else?”

  “Yes, there is,” Dominic spoke suddenly. “What do you mean ‘with help from Timiny?’ What is he going to do?”

  Tyler looked at him with a grimace. “He’ll give Annette some fairy dust. For vampires, it works by increasing their abilities for several hours. She’s exhausted, and they starved her for weeks fearing that otherwise she’ll escape.” Annette stepped forward and continued.

  “I fed, thanks to Toby, but even if I was back to myself, I couldn’t disseminate with more than one person at time, and I wouldn’t be able to do it several times in a row. With Tim’s help, I think I might be able to take two or three people and do it three times in a row. I read some on fairy dust, and it said it may triple my abilities or makes them even stronger.” She barely finished when Dominic turned to Timiny.

  “Are you sure you want to do it? Let her take your dust?” Dominic couldn’t help but remember Jiminy’s story of what having too much of the mating dust taken could do to a pixie. He also pictured Jim in that position. He couldn’t help it; the twins really did look alike. That new, wild part of him got suddenly very growly and protective of the fey, but Timiny clearly didn’t understand his attitude. The pixie narrowed his eyes as he asked.

  “And why would you care? I don’t even know you, dude.”

  “I care because you’re Jiminy’s brother. And he told me all about the dust. Everything! Did you know it can be highly addictive?” He turned to ask Annette.