The Series that Just Plain Sucks: The Complete Trilogy

by Charissa Dufour

  “Yeah. You coming, Tereus?”

  I nearly hugged Josh for his consideration. He knew what was going on, and he knew that I’d be more relaxed with a third wheel present. Instead of contriving to get me alone, he graciously worked to make me feel more welcome.

  If I were keeping score, he’d get a point for this one. But I’m not. I’m totally not keeping score.

  “Yes. I’m sure you two need a chaperone,” Tereus growled.

  We both laughed at him as I scooped him up and followed Josh upstairs. I scratched Tereus behind the ear and he nuzzled my face into his thick fur. His jealousy made me smile for some reason.

  What started out as a very bad night, turned into something full of peace and rejuvenation.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I woke feeling disoriented. It took me a few minutes and few blinks to realize I wasn’t in my own room. The lights were still out and I glanced around, trying to make out my surroundings. It wasn’t until I tumbled off my narrow sleeping surface that I remembered where I had fallen asleep: Josh’s room.

  Shit!

  I held my breath to make sure I hadn’t woken Josh. What about Tereus? It took me a second to remember that we had sent him back to my room before starting the second movie.

  I peaked over the nearby chair to see the clock next to Josh’s bed glowing bright red numbers: 4:30 p.m.

  It was definitely time to get up and slip back to my room. The seethe would already be stirring, and the last thing I needed was for Nik or Mikhail to think I’d stayed the night with Josh.

  I slipped out of his room as silently as I could. It wasn’t until I had the door closed that I noticed I was still wearing the blood stained shirt from our last battle. I was uselessly brushing at the stain as I turned away from Josh’s door and bumped into a solid body.

  Double shit!

  I glanced up, perfectly aware of who had caught me.

  “I don’t even know what to say,” whispered Nik.

  I sighed. “We were watching movies. I fell asleep. Nothing happened.”

  “She’s right,” said Josh from behind me. He had slipped his head out to speak. “Just watched movies.”

  I cringed.

  “Thank you, Josh. That will be all,” said Nik.

  I didn’t look back at Josh, but I could hear him pull the door shut. Nik took me by the arm and nudged me toward the staircase leading down to my lower level.

  “Out of curiosity, why did you feel the need to explain yourself?”

  “What?”

  “If there is nothing going on between us, then you had no need to explain why you were with Josh all night.”

  I felt my mouth drop open for a second before I could pull myself together. Was he really going to use this incident to reason me into dating him?

  “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings,” I said through clenched teeth. Mikhail’s warning of “men’s hearts” rang in the back of my head. Nik was sure making it difficult to care whether I hurt his feelings.

  “Uh-huh. Sure.”

  I jerked my arm out of his grasp, starting to get deeply frustrated with him. “I know my own way to my room. Why are you following me?”

  “I came to ask a favor.”

  “Great way to start,” I grumbled. “Well?”

  “I want you to stay behind while we meet with the queens.”

  “Hell no!”

  “This could be extremely dangerous, especially since they have already tried to kidnap you. I can’t have you getting hurt.”

  “You mean more than before?” I asked, motioning toward the signs of my latest wound.

  It was a low blow, and I regretted it the instant the words were out of my mouth, but I couldn’t quite figure out how to shove them back into my mouth. In a sense, it was the truth. I had been hurt repeatedly over the last couple days, with or without Nik’s protection.

  “Nik. Let’s talk hypothetical for a second. If we were to ever get together, and that’s a big if, you would push me around, telling me what to do and when to do it. And that’s just not how I roll. You want to be in a relationship with me, prove to me that you trust me to take care of myself. Until, then, not a chance in hell,” I said with the best “bring it” look I could muster up.

  “This issue is dangerous.”

  “This issue directly relates to me. I’m going. I’ll meet you in the main hall in a few minutes.”

  With that I turned away and practically ran back to my room.

  I considered skipping the shower, but the blood had stained more than just my shirt. I gathered up the shopping bag with the bathroom supplies, and a fresh change of clothing, before hurrying down the hall to the dorm-room style bathroom we lesser beings got to share. I jerked the curtain shut and flipped the water to hot. I stripped out of my soiled clothing and stepped into the stream of water, pleased to find it already hot. I scrubbed at the stains and washed my hair as quickly as I could before reluctantly leaving the hot water and toweling off.

  A few minutes later, I was dressed, with my wet hair up in a ponytail and my stuff stashed back in my room. I gave Tereus some more food and a quick pet before hurrying up to the main hall.

  By the time I got there, most of our crew was assembled, which was good and bad. Nik and Josh were standing as far away from each other as they could without actually leaving the group. I spotted Samuel glancing between the two men, looking amused. I ignored them and took up a seat next to Lauren.

  We sat on the couch with Edith, trying our best to look relaxed. Lauren wasn’t doing so hot in that department. I could hear her heart racing through her chest; thought, to be fair, she was sitting in a room full of vampires, werewolves, and fae.

  I glanced over to where Aeson, the brother of the Summer Fae Queen, stood with his twin henchmen. They looked uncomfortable too.

  Then again, so did the wolves. The entire pack was huddled in human form near one of the fireplaces. They were each drinking from mugs of steaming coffee, by the smell pervading the room. I noticed some of the vampires were also drinking coffee.

  From where I sat, I could easily see Jim, Josh, Nik, Samuel, Mikhail, Emma—who looked like her normal self again—and two vampires whose names I couldn’t remember. All of them, except for Mikhail looked just as uncomfortable as I felt.

  Just as I was considering starting a conversation to break the painfully tense silence, the door creaked open and Helen entered, followed closely by Periphetes. I smiled at him. He was just about to move to my couch when he stopped in his tracks, his face going blank.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see what he was looking at: Aeson and the Summer Fae. Aeson didn’t look any happier than Periphetes.

  “What is he doing here?” demanded Periphetes.

  “I could ask the same question.”

  “Gentleman,” began Mikhail. “I know there is a millennium of bad blood between the Summer and the Winter Fae, but you have both come to me with a desire to stop the fae from going into all-out war. Please, put your differences aside for the betterment of all supernatural beings.”

  I glanced between the two fae lords. Their expressions of loathing hadn’t softened, even in the slightest.

  “This has nothing to do with our genetics. This is a matter of honor,” said Periphetes, lifting his chin in defiance.

  Had the threat of violence not been real, I might have laughed at his extremely serious demeanor. He looked as though he was ready to defend his sister’s honor from a man who had kissed her before they were married.

  “What would you know of honor?” asked Aeson. “You abandoned your family when they needed you most.”

  “I went to fight for my country.”

  “Ah yes, the Union.”

  “I fought for the government of the time.”

  “And the confederacy were just rebels?”

  “Wait!” I shouted, standing up. “Hold on a moment. Is this all about who fought for which side of the American Civil War?”

  The two men were
silent for a moment. I glared at each in turn.

  Finally Periphetes nodded. “I fought for Lincoln.”

  “And I fought for my state,” growled Aeson.

  “So you guys hate each other because you fought on different sides of a war that took place 150 years ago?” I asked.

  “It’s a little more complicated than that, Ash,” sighed Nik.

  “No, it’s not. I’m sure if we started discussing politics we’d all find areas that we don’t agree on, but that hasn’t stopped us from working together to stop those who would ruin our way of life. Why should they get to chicken out of our fight? Because they have a century and a half old fight to settle first? I don’t think so. You two: state your hurt, forgive each other, and shake hands.”

  Neither of them spoke, and I began to feel like a kindergarten teacher as I stared them down.

  “Aeson, why does Periphetes fighting for the Union make you mad?” I felt like an idiot for asking this question.

  “He abandoned his people, his state.”

  “Periphetes, can you see why Aeson might feel hurt by this?”

  “What you’re siding with him?” asked Periphetes.

  “I’m not siding with anyone. Can you see how Aeson might view your actions as abandoning your people?”

  After a long, cranky pause, Periphetes jerked his head down in a nod.

  “Now, Periphetes, why did Aeson choosing to fight for the confederacy hurt you?”

  “He rebelled against the government of the day. Being nearly immortal means you have to concede to the humans in charge. He threw all…”

  I held up my hand to forestall Periphetes’ rant. “Aeson, can you see how Periphetes might view your choice to fight for the confederacy as an act of rebellion against the expectations of all fae?”

  Again we waited. Finally Aeson nodded. I took a deep breath.

  “Now, will you two shake hands and agree to set aside your past hurts to help us bring peace to THIS day and age?”

  Each one waited for the other to nod first. Finally one of them made a slight move and they both began to nod. Each one stepped forward and shook the other’s hand.

  I glanced at Mikhail who was doing his best to hide a smile. He nodded to me before taking the stage. “Now that Ashley has brought us to this place of peace and Kumbaya, we can get down to business. There are cars outside waiting to transport us to our chosen meeting place. Please remember this is not an attack. We are here to talk, and nothing more. Each of you have been asked to come to represent a fraction of the supernatural presence here in Olympia.

  “Let’s get moving.”

  We each climbed to our feet and made our way out of the seethe. The row of matching black SUVs was impressive. It made me realize just how much money the seethe had at its fingertips. A chauffer stood by each vehicle with a sign that indicated who was to ride with them. There was one SUV for the wolves, one for the summer fae and a few vampires, one for Periphetes and a few vampires, another for the wizards, and even one for a group of humans. I wasn’t exactly sure why they were going.

  Mikhail was organized if nothing else. Or was this really all Jim?

  I climbed into my designated SUV, pleased to see Nik was not part of my group, but stressed to see that Josh was. The red-haired vampire climbed in behind me.

  We had been driving for a few minutes before Josh leaned toward me and whispered, “I told Nik.”

  “Told him what?” I asked as I glanced around at the others in our vehicle.

  Periphetes was sitting in the front seat, and Jim and Samuel in the middle row, leaving the back for Josh and myself. I noticed Samuel glance over his shoulder once before going back to admiring the outside scenery.

  “I told him, while nothing happened between us last night that I am, in fact, interested in you. It is only right that he knows he has competition.”

  “You did what?” I hissed.

  Josh turned to look at me. “It is the mark of a gentleman to court his lady openly and not in secret. I will not hide the fact I like you from Nik.”

  I rolled my eyes. This whole thing was getting out of hand!

  This was the first instance where I saw the man Josh had been before being turned peek through his careful façade. Josh did a very good job of blending into the here and now. Nik on the other hand usually looked a little out of place. Evidently, in the area of dating, they had traded roles.

  We drove to the Olympia Auto Mall and stopped at the only vacant lot. The lot hadn’t been empty for long; I could tell because there weren’t any cracks in the pavement with creepy-crawly weeds growing through them. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it doesn’t take long for nature to take over man-made structures that have been neglected. Based on the complete absence of green stuff, I could tell this lot had very recently been sprayed for weeds.

  Being that I struggle just to pay my rent, the Auto Mall was not a place I frequented. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been in this part of town. I walked over to where Mikhail stood.

  “Why the Auto Mall?” I asked.

  “With this many cars around, both Summer and Winter will be weakened. Only slightly, but I hope it will be enough to deter them from any sort of violence. Also, there aren’t any bodies of water or forestry for Winter or Summer to use to their advantage.”

  I thought back to when a Summer Fae had tried to use the tree to kidnap me. She would have been successful if it hadn’t been for Nik. Then again, the Winter troll that had attacked shortly after that would have killed me had it not been for Josh.

  I shook off any thoughts of romance and started looking around. The lot was empty, and therefore the normal security lights were mostly off. If I had had human vision, I would have only seen the occasional swath of the pavement. Speaking of humans, I turned to look for the humans Mikhail had brought along and noticed an SUV parked a short way away from the others. I assumed that one carried the humans.

  “And the humans?” I asked Mikhail.

  He had just opened his mouth to answer when a slight noise announced the arrival of someone else. We turned toward the sound and spotted a young woman with beautiful honey brown hair draping down her back in rich, wavy folds. Her face was young and dreamy, almost as though she had just woken up. She walked as though asleep, or as though she was too high to know where she was going, and yet her movements were smooth and graceful. She wore a flowing, silk night gown, which she occasionally lifted with her thin fingers, as though she might trip over it, even though it barely reached the middle of her shins.

  Behind her appeared three other beings. One was still using her glamor. She was a pretty little blond woman with a narrow chin and no curves. The other two took a slightly longer look.

  Now, I have heard of centaurs—half human and half horse. I’m not sure this had a name, though it was similar to a centaur. The top half was a muscular African man with gazelle horns coming from his shaved head. The body was that of a gazelle. He carried a large cudgel and a sharp-looking axe.

  The second fae was an exotic man with wings that must have been able to encompass our enormous Yukon SUVs. They draped from his broad shoulders until they dragged upon the ground like a train. His hair was white, like the feathers of his wings, and blended in until I couldn’t tell where the hair ended and the feathers began. His chest was nicely sculpted and he wore snug, leather pants. Everything about him said pleasure and indulgence.

  I caught myself licking my lips before I forced my eyes back to the woman in the night dress. Based on where she walked, and the way the others looked around, I got the impression she was Hemera, the Summer Queen, and Aeson’s sister.

  Before we could begin the pleasantries, the Winter Fae appeared. At first I couldn’t figure out what Orythyia was wearing. It definitely wasn’t the 1950’s get up she had on last time we met. Her silhouette looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it until she stepped into the light of a nearby street lamp. She was dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, dog included. O
nly it wasn’t a little Terrier, it was the biggest Rottweiler I had ever seen. I thought it might actually be larger than the werewolves when they were in their wolf form.

  I took a step back without realizing it.

  Behind her came three more Winter Fae. One of them I recognized as Hephaestus, Periphetes’ father. He held onto Chloe’s arm. I breathed a deep sigh of relief seeing her alive. Still, her beautiful ebony skin was mottled with old and new bruises. I could see that her lip was swollen and cracked from a fierce blow. Her left eye was swollen shut.

  A new rage built up inside me. In an effort to suppress my desire to kill them all, I turned to look at the other two Winter Fae. One was a man with long white hair pulled back with a sort of spiked crown. He carried a long, thin sword at his hip. The last Winter Fae was a ultra-thin woman with long black hair and the brightest red lips I had ever seen. They didn’t look to be covered in lipstick, but rather naturally that bloody shade of red.

  “Quite the assemblage, Mikhail,” Orythyia said, waving her free hand toward our rag-tag group.

  “I felt that all supernatural beings deserved to have a say in this. After all, what the great courts of the fae do affect us all.”

  “And yet I do not see Richard,” said Hemera in a whispery voice. Her eyes were still half lidded and I wondered if she thought this was all a dream.

  “Richard asked that I speak for all the vampires of the area. He had no wish to be here,” explained Mikhail.

  “I see you have allowed yourself and the wolves a larger presence than us,” said Orythyia. She began to absently pet the Rottweiler’s head in a way that caused a shiver to run down my spine. The dog looked at me with knowing eyes.

  And there was another shiver.

  “I think the overall power ratio is rather fair. Besides, I doubt either of you have obeyed my request for no more than three of your lords or ladies to accompany you,” responded Mikhail. I noticed his eyes flickered to the dog, too.

  Both queens smiled demurely, neither one denying Mikhail’s accusation.

  “Now Mikhail, why have you called us here?” asked Hemera. “I assume you have not come to give us the girl.” She motioned toward me with lethargic movement.