They had brought Angela artifacts that needed to stay in the Human realms, and yet Humans weren't quite ready to handle. Some things slept in the Human atmosphere, but if they were exposed to the condensed power and magical atmosphere of the Fae realms, they might explode into life and alert sentience--explode being the operative and much-to-be-avoided word. Divine's grew stronger with the slowly growing presence of magical, slumbering items.
In the last ten years, it had become a tradition for Will and Phill to spend the holidays in Neighborlee, helping out the friends they had come to know. They had discovered many children with a touch of magic in their blood. Phill and Will loved to think up amazing gifts for the children, and to hide little treasures all through their houses, or at school, or their places of employment. It amazed and amused them that Humans could pick up ten dollar bills all over town in the space of a few weeks, and not realize they were a thousand dollars or two richer. Mostly this was because the treasures came in small increments and were spent almost immediately on needed items, a treat for the family, or to pay off a debt to a friend.
The only problem with Will and Phill's tradition was that two or three years might pass in the Human realms between visits. Adorable children turned into nasty, rebellious teens, or the families moved away, or the sweet youngsters they wanted to fix up with someone fell in love with someone inappropriate, or even got married. Will and Phill couldn't figure out how to get around the time differential between the Fae realms and the Human realms, other than settling in Neighborlee and actually living there, year round.
"Wouldn't that horrify the matchmaking uncles and aunties?" Will muttered, as he paced in front of the cave where Phill would emerge soon, and studied the snowy landscape of the Metroparks in winter. A quick check and told him it was December fifth. Only nineteen more shopping days until Christmas. He knew what he wanted for Christmas this year, but the problem was convincing Phill that her favorite playmate was someone she wanted to grow up with, and maybe grow ancient with.
"Maybe I should just stay in the Human realms and find a nice girl with a touch of Fae blood," he mused aloud. "Yeah, that'd work. Lots of Halflings around. Settle down here. If she's stable enough, if the magic is strong enough, make her a Changeling and build a bond. Who really needs Need, anyway? I'm all for freedom of choice." His voice shook a little, and he winced as it grew loud enough to echo softly, breaking the snowy hush of the twilight before dawn.
Who am I trying to kid? He silently scolded himself, and stared out into the white and stark black of the trees in winter. Phill's the only one for me. I have to trust in the magic of Neighborlee--and get some really good advice from Angela--and figure out how to state my case. I'll watch the Humans. See how they manage courtship. I'll use the next three weeks for my campaign. I'll keep Phill here in Neighborlee, and I'll win her heart. And if I don't get a kiss under the mistletoe on Christmas Eve... I have to get a kiss under the mistletoe on Christmas Eve. That's all there is to it. I'm not leaving Neighborlee until Phill and I have crossed the line. Either she's with me forever, or we're apart forever.
He felt as if an enormous weight had fallen off his shoulders with that decision. And the next moment, he felt as if that weight had bounced back and crushed him.
Forever, without Phill?
* * * *
Phill sank back against the cave wall, feeling like she had been punched just below her ribs. She wanted to fold up into a little ball and learn how to breathe again. She had been hoping to talk to Will about them, about making a commitment and hopefully triggering Need.
What she overheard made it very clear to her he hated Need, hated the whole bonding concept. He was so terrified of the traditional way of making a marriage that he actually wanted to spend years searching for a Halfling girl who wouldn't go crazy when he proved magic and the Fae were real.
What's wrong with me? Why can't he see that we're best friends, we've been together all our lives, and we should stay together all our lives? We're perfect for each other. She sighed, muffling the sound just as she had muffled her magic when she emerged through the doorway through the space-time continuum. Obviously Will doesn't think we're perfect for each other. So what am I going to do? I want him. I need him, even if Need refuses to kick in.
Some of her interfering aunties believed Need would never kick in because she spent so much time with Will. His presence prevented her from taking that final step to maturity. The nudge of deep magic that forcibly brought two partners together into soul and mind and physical wedlock obviously--according to the aunties--refused to activate in his presence. That meant Need did not approve of Will as her eternal partner. So Need stayed asleep in her, because otherwise Will would be bonded to her if it kicked into life in his presence. And that meant Phill stayed one step short of full maturity.
Phill decided right then that deep magic sucked. Who was the idiot who'd woven something so uncontrollable and nearly impossible to decipher, into the blood and bone of all Fae from the beginning of time? If she could get hold of one of the ancient time travel spells, she would go back to the idiot and smack his head against a wall for a couple of years until he straightened out his thinking. The idiot had to be a man who couldn't get a date if he trapped the girl with a net.
It occurred to her that such vicious thinking was totally out of character. Could it be a twinge of Need trying to awaken? Was that a good sign, or a bad one?
Enough tangling your head and your heart into knots. She took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and pasted a smile on her face. She used a spatter of magic to put some color back into her cheeks and a sparkle of excitement in her eyes. After all, she was in Neighborlee, the most magical spot in the entire northern hemisphere. Disneyland wasn't even a close second. Then she stepped out of the cave.
"Hey, what'd you come up with?"
The sound of her voice made Will leap five feet into the air. She projected a rosy haze into the air when she was flustered. Will shot off purple sparks. An entire cloud surrounded him, spinning and whizzing in orbit as he slowly settled back down to the ground.
"Neighborlee at Christmas." He spread his arms, gesturing to indicate the entire town lying before them, just visible through the snowy trees of the parklands.
"Yeah. What about it?"
"It's Lori's answer. Bring her here to Neighborlee. It's busy enough that she'll find something to distract her, take her mind off things. All that magic spinning around. It'll cloud her trail, at the very least. If anyone tries to follow her and drag her back--if the dreadful Greats send some moronic suitors after her, they'll get lost here. We're such a part of Neighborlee, if anybody shows up, we'll sense it and we'll have time to get Lori out of town before anybody finds her. Brilliant, huh?"
"And it gives us a good excuse to spend the entire season here."
Phill envisioned all the fun they had at previous Christmases, all the magical, secret giving and spying and frolicking she and Will enjoyed so much. While they were busy catching up with their favorite Humans and helping with all the activities in Neighborlee, she could campaign to impress on Will just how much they belonged together.
Getting Will away from the Fae realms, with all his interfering relatives who wanted him to find a nice girl--read: boring, quiet, stay-at-home--settle down and stay in the Fae realms, might just do the trick.
At the very least, she would enjoy one more magical, giving Christmas season with Will before their lives changed forever.
"Absolutely," she said. "Lori needs this. It's perfect." She turned and let her Fae instincts point her in the direction of Divine's. She felt the warm, gentle pulses of magic emanating from the shop all the way out here. "Neighborlee, and Divine's Emporium, at Christmas. What could be more magical?"
If she had to, she'd sit Angela down for an all-night, girls-only gabfest and get some advice, or maybe a Human love potion, and ambush Will. He was hers and she was his, but getting him to open his eyes and realize the truth--and enjoy it--was
the hardest thing she would ever do.
Thursday, December 6
"She's got magic," Harry whispered. He studied Bethany through the curtains while the emcee warmed up the audience for Alexi and Megan's last show of the night.
"Not... Well, you might be right." Megan frowned and adjusted her top hat. "I know she's not Fae. I would have sensed it the first time we met, even if it was just one ancestor, four generations back. But there is something about her that makes my fingertips tingle." She patted him on the back. "You're starting to fade."
"Oh? Sorry." Harry concentrated on his anti-invisibility spell, and turned back to watching Bethany Miller in her shadowy corner table. Did she really think that big, floppy hat and garish muumuu could hide her? There was something to be said for hiding in plain sight by dressing in loud, obnoxious clothes to trick people into ignoring her.
Harry turned his vision sideways, looking into the 'tweening spaces, those half-step areas between dimensions. It was a result of his long-term invisibility spell that had mutated over the years, moving him halfway into the next dimension.
A soft, rainbow-streaked corona shimmered around Bethany, marking her as someone who had been touched by magic for so long, it had become embedded in her essence. The colors didn't quite clash with her outfit, but it was enough to make his eyes ache after a while. Still, he kept watching. She fascinated him. He loved puzzles, and Bethany had just presented him with one.
"So, she wants to be invisible?"
"She wants to spend the holidays with her father without being mobbed every time she steps outside," Megan said. "She's a nice girl with a lot of natural talent, who got famous by having fun. She's not ready for the rat-race of stardom, and that makes her even more popular with everyone, especially when she refuses to change and act like a star. Kind of like a girl who isn't in Need is a whole lot more attractive," she added.
Harry blushed, and his concentration slipped so he felt himself fading out. Which was actually a good thing. He wasn't about to admit to anyone that he wished he knew the annoyance and terror of being the target of a woman in Need. None of the girls he had grown up with had targeted him when they went into Need. It was humiliating. Hera-Jane maintained that if he socialized more, so people realized he had grown up into something of a stud, he would be hunted. Harry was too busy with his experiments to take the time to find out. Although, this adventure would be an experiment, wouldn't it?
"She doesn't mind having a stranger around?"
"Funny, that's the same thing she said about you." Megan gave her top hat one more tiny adjustment, tilting it forward a fraction more.
"We're on, sweetheart." Alexi caught up with them, wrapped an arm around Megan's waist, and kissed her for luck as he did every night. A kiss that packed a lot of heat into a two-second liplock, so much that Harry actually burst out in sweat. The two then stepped out onto the stage amid thunderous applause.
Harry gulped, locked down his counter-spell so he wouldn't fade out at an inopportune moment, and headed for the side entrance. Time to meet his assignment.
He stepped into the supper club seating area and kept to the sidelines, trying not to block anyone's view as he meandered around the perimeter to the booth where Bethany waited. On stage, Alexi kept up the patter while Megan searched the audience for the first volunteer assistant. All the women watched Alexi, all the men watched Megan, and Harry felt slightly nauseous from the rising pheromones filling the atmosphere. Didn't these Humans have any self-control? Especially when it came to two entertainers who made it very clear they were married to each other?
He didn't see anything wrong with window-shopping, as it were, and appreciating what was on display. But Harry drew the line at pressing his face against the display window, salivating a waterfall, and plotting how to break the glass and steal what was inside.
"Bethany?" he murmured when he reached her table. Harry admired her self-control, so she didn't even flinch or look his way, betraying her disguise. He held up the half of Alexi's business card that served as his identification.
Bethany peered from under her floppy hat and slid her half of the card across the table toward him. She didn't take her fingertips off the card until he matched up his half to hers.
"Harry Morton," he said, and held out his hand. He flinched, repressing a little gasp, when Bethany's soft, slim, but strong little hand slid into his and something sparked, almost a buzz, between their fingers.
"Static electricity." She offered a crooked little smile and a whisper of laughter as she jerked her hand away.
"Uh. Yeah." Harry slid into the booth facing her while he gathered his thoughts. She had felt that? This fully Human girl had soaked up more magic than he had first guessed.
Fascinating.
"I think Alexi insisted on all this cloak and dagger just for the fun of it," she said, as the audience applauded the first illusion of the evening. She grinned as she said it, which made an inexplicable world of difference for Harry. If she had scowled or showed reluctance in any way, he didn't know what he would have thought of her.
"Yep, that's my favorite cousin." He rested his elbows on the table, and yanked them off a second later when she flinched back from him. Megan had warned him about aggressive behavior, no matter how innocent. Even elbows on the table, leaning in close to her, could be seen as a threat. Just how badly burned was this poor kid?
"You look like him." Bethany offered an awkward little smile.
"You think so?" He glanced at Alexi, who stepped back and held up the silk purse on a pole, so Megan could demonstrate there was nothing in it.
Real magic made things so much easier for magicians, Harry mused, but for some reason Alexi and Megan insisted on practicing sleight of hand, doing it the way full Humans did. He supposed it was all in the challenge, maybe the knowledge that they had accomplished something, instead of just snapping their fingers to have whatever they wanted.
Of course, the way his magic had been reacting lately, he was having a hard time snapping his fingers.
"He has more glitz, but there's a strong resemblance. Of course, combing your hair back like that and dressing so casual, that makes people kind of pass over you. So, you're really good at this invisibility thing?"
"Umm... What exactly did they tell you about me?"
"Oh, I figured out the whole not-quite-Human thing a while ago. I just never confronted them with it." Bethany blushed and looked at her fingers, which she kept twining and untwining, folded together on the table in front of her.
Harry felt something drop inside his chest, and warmth steal over him. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to take the paparazzi and the other jerks who had been harassing Bethany, stealing her privacy, and send them to the Dungeon Dimensions for a couple hundred years. Nobody he knew blushed. The simple little reaction made her seem small and delicate and vulnerable.
Which she was anything but. He had seen her first movie, the tough chick who turned her world upside down to save it, who devised bombs and weapons from nothing for the sake of protecting innocents. Harry wondered if he would have fallen in love with her right that moment, if he had known anything about the real girl behind the makeup and costume. Even with someone else's words in her mouth, there was something similar about the Bethany sitting before him now and the girl on the screen. Which was ridiculous, but Harry didn't care.
"So, say something." Her smile went crooked and she blushed even darker.
"You're pretty calm about it. A lot of people would probably be freaking out, faced with the fact of a lot of other dimensions of reality, side-by-side with the one they know. I've always wondered what the CIA and FBI and all those foreign intelligence agencies and governments would do, if they knew about the Fae realms. If they'd maybe try to bomb us out of existence, or prosecute us as illegal aliens or whatever."
"So, who was here first? Fae or Humans?"
Harry sat for five seconds with his mouth hanging open, stumped by that question. That was definitely somethi
ng for the Ether Lexicon. For all he knew, that was part of the no-need-to-know information the Lexicon sometimes stubbornly refused to divulge. Then he laughed. Bethany blushed darker, but she grinned and leaned over the table a little more and laughed with him.
How come girls like her don't exist in the Enclaves?
* * * *
"So, what do you think?" Megan said as she stepped into the lounging part of her and Alexi's dressing room backstage.
Alexi and Harry had gone to get their car and bring it to the backstage entrance, for a quick getaway. Megan had confided in Bethany that she thought Harry was cute, so excited about riding in a real, Human-made car.
"I like him. How does his wife feel about him spending the holidays with me and my Dad?"
"No wife." Megan shrugged and slipped into her clogs before sitting down on the other end of the couch. "Which is a total injustice. It just makes me sick, thinking about the few girls who are friends with Harry, but can't see past his science experiments and all his research work, to the really great guy under the brainy persona."
"What kind of science experiments?" Bethany imagined Harry doing a Nutty Professor routine, his lab coat smeared with stains, maybe scorched in places. That didn't turn her off at all. How long had it been since she let herself feel anything but mild social friendship with a man?
Maybe the fact that he didn't ask for her autograph, didn't ogle her figure, had a lot to do with the attraction. Because yes, she admitted there was a strong attraction between them, from the moment that zap of static electricity made the hair stand up on her scalp and sent a lovely, hot shiver down her back.
It was great to realize she was a normal woman after all, not a frightened, frigid little teasing twit, as that last studio-arranged date/mistake accused her of being. She was a normal woman who knew how to appreciate the finer things among the male of the species--no matter what species it was--and that was a wonderful realization, and a relief.
Have Yourself a Faerie Little Christmas Page 4