True of Blood (Witch Fairy Series)

by Lamer, Bonnie

  “It’s not working,” Maurelle hisses. “She looks like she’s drunk but nothing else is happening.”

  Drunk? Does she mean me? I hope not because I’ve never had a drop of alcohol in my life. Oh no, is that what these darts in my coat are? Did they get me drunk with them? I’m only seventeen. It’s not right to contribute to the delinquency of a minor.

  Turning to Maurelle, I ask, “Did you get me drunk?” Hmm, my words aren’t slurring. Shouldn’t they be slurring if I’m drunk? I don’t know because Mom and Dad never drink but that’s how it always happens on TV.

  “Um, yes,” Maurelle says as if she’s not sure.

  Standing up I put my hands on my hips as I face her. “You’re not supposed to give alcohol to minors. That’s against the law.”

  “What is she talking about?” Olwyn hisses.

  Maurelle shrugs. “I do not know, just go with it.” To me she says, “It is not against the law where we come from. And we need to be getting back there now.”

  Back there? Where? Oh, I remember now. They want to take me back to the Fae realm but there’s something else. Something about me and my blood. Then it hits me and I start to feel really mad. “Hey! You guys are going to kill me!”

  Maurelle and Olwyn are backing up because I’ve started walking towards them. “It’s even worse to try to kill someone than it is to give a minor alcohol. You are not nice people, or Fairies, or whatever you are.” I put my hand to my head because I’m starting to get a headache. It must be because I’m now getting bombarded with visual memories. There’s Kallen being a jerk, that one’s coming up a lot in this barrage of images scrolling through my mind. I remember Maurelle and Olwyn trying to catch me in the woods and Maurelle threw me into a tree. I remember kissing Kallen and that’s so much better than any of the other memories. But the scrolling of memories stops as the last two sink into my mind. They may have killed my brother and they may have killed Kallen. Neither of those actions are forgivable.

  It’s as if remembering these two things clears my mind of a lot of its haziness. My eyes focus more clearly on Maurelle and she gasps as she comprehends that I’m no longer as confused as I had been for the last few minutes. “You hurt people I care about,” I say as I move closer to her.

  “Olwyn, do something,” she hisses at him.

  Like an ox, Olwyn lumbers towards me. I don’t want to waste my time with him; it’s Maurelle who needs to pay for what they have done. Olwyn’s just her lackey. Taking my eyes briefly from Maurelle, I pull on my magic and ram it so hard into Olwyn that he flys backwards several feet. “Sleep,” I order him and then his eyes are closed.

  “What can I do to save Kallen?” I ask Maurelle as I focus my attention back on her. She’s looking from Olwyn to me and back as if she doesn’t understand what happened. Well, she should be paying attention to just me. Pulling on my magic again, I reach out for her and I feel it the second my magic starts to burn inside of her. Not too much, not enough so she can’t tell me what I want to know. “What can I do to save Kallen?” I ask again.

  “N-nothing,” she stammers. “The poison has been in his blood too long. He’s going to die soon.” Oh, now that just pisses me off so I shove more magic inside of her and she screams.

  “Oh, be quiet,” I say and no more sound comes from her mouth for the moment. I look back at Kallen and he’s completely on the ground now. “Stay there,” I say to Maurelle and I hold her in place with my magic. Now I reach out to Kallen and I imagine my magic burning the poison from his body. I’m not burning him, just the poison. There’s a lot of it, so it takes a moment. I wish it would hurry up because I still need to get more information from Maurelle about my brother.

  After what seems like forever, Kallen coughs and then coughs again and his breathing becomes more regular and some color starts to come back to his skin. Finally. But now I have this poison hanging between us. Magic needs balance Kallen told me. The poison can’t be taken from Kallen and then given no place else to go. I turn back to Maurelle and smile at her but it must not have been a very nice smile because her eyes are as big as saucers and she’s trying really hard to say something but I still have her gagged with my magic. “Live and let live – fairly take and fairly give,” I say right before I shove the poison inside of her and she screams a silent scream as it burns a path to her vital organs.

  “Speak,” I say and sound is coming from her now. “Tell me where my brother is.”

  She shakes her head and doubles over with the pain of the poison just like Kallen had. “I can make this last a very long time,” I tell her matter-of-factly because it’s true. I can.

  She looks up at me and between gasps she asks, “How are you doing this?”

  I point at my chest. “Witch Fairy, remember? You know, a dichotomy wrapped up in an enigma.” She doesn’t seem to understand the big words so I roll my eyes and spell it out for her. “I’m not affected by magical things the same way a Fairy or a Witch is because I am both joined together. And my magic is stronger because of it. Which I’m willing to continue to prove to you if you don’t tell me where my brother is.”

  Maurelle debates whether she’s going to tell until she convulses with another wave of pain. “If I tell you will you promise not to kill me?”

  I purse my lips. “Murder is pretty distasteful.”

  “We never had him. We went back to your house and they were all gone, even your ghost parents. I only said we had him to force you to come with us.”

  “Wow, Kallen was right all along. I should probably listen to him more but he just frustrates me so much it’s hard to not push him over a cliff sometimes. He’s gorgeous, though, isn’t he?”

  Maurelle looks at me like she doesn’t know if she’s supposed to answer me or not. I raise my eyebrows in an ‘I’m waiting’ way. “Yes,” she finally says, “he’s the handsomest Fairy in the Fae realm.”

  “Did he have a lot of girlfriends there? You know, did he date a lot?” I ask. Why does she keep looking at me like that, I think it’s a pretty reasonable question if I’m considering dating the guy. Fairy. Whatever.

  “I-I do not recall ever hearing of him having any connections to a female Fairy other than friendship.”

  I narrow my eyes at her. “Are you telling me the truth? I don’t want you to say something just because you think it’s what I want to hear.”

  Maurelle glares at me. “I hate Kallen, I’d be glad to tell you if he did.” Oh, jealous much? Sounds like she has the hots for him, too.

  A sudden wave of nausea hits me and I stumble slightly. Looking down at myself, I realize I never pulled the Fairy darts out of my coat. I tug on the first one and a sharp gasp of pain escapes my mouth. Looking down at it, I complain loudly, “Hey! These have barbs in them so they hurt more coming out!” I pull out the other two getting madder each time the pain hits me.

  Maurelle is on her knees and she’s looking at me like she thinks she may have a chance at escape so I refocus my magic and she falls to the ground again. You know, I thought it would be more fun hurting these two but it’s really not. With a heavy sigh of disappointment I stand over her. I’m distracted momentarily by Kallen who is now sitting in the snow staring at me like he’s never met me before. He better not use being poisoned as an excuse not to remember that he’s got a serious crush on me. I’ll be pissed.

  Pulling my attention back to Maurelle, I say, “What am I going to do with you two? Kallen thought that if I showed you how much stronger I am than you that you’d just leave me alone and live out the rest of your life in this realm but I think he’s wrong. I think you’d just be coming back over and over and over again until just the sight of you would make me want to forget that I don’t have a taste for killing Fairies. I didn’t even like to eat the animal that Kallen killed for us to eat because I had to see it with its head on. Isn’t that gross? It would be much grosser if it was a person.” Maurelle nods her head dumbly as if she doesn’t know what else to do as she holds her middle and fights th
e pain.

  “You know what seems like the best solution?” I ask and I wait politely until she shakes her head no. This is a two-sided conversation after all.

  “I think I should just send you home.” Her eyes get huge as she looks up at me.

  “Xandra, you can’t do that!” Kallen says loudly as he picks himself up and starts walking towards me. He seems a little unsteady. Maybe I didn’t get all of the poison out.

  I smile at him. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to let the other Fae out, I’m just going to send them back in.”

  His eyebrows slam together and he shakes his head adamantly. “Xandra, it doesn’t work that way. If you open the realm to send them back then it stays open. And remember,” he says much more gently as if he’s talking to a child. I really, really hate it when he does that. “You would have to die for that to happen.”

  I turn to face him fully. “Wow, you have no faith in me whatsoever, do you? Just because you’re three hundred and fifty years older than me, you think you know everything, don’t you?” He’s close enough now that I can poke him hard in the chest. “You promised me that you wouldn’t underestimate me anymore.”

  He’s searching my face now and I have no idea what he’s looking for. Finally, he asks, “Are you feeling alright? You are not sounding or acting like yourself.”

  “Well, no,” I say because he’s an idiot for not figuring that out sooner. “Those two,” I say pointing a blaming finger at both Maurelle and Olwyn, “they got me drunk! Can you believe that?”

  Kallen looks really confused. “What do you mean they got you drunk?”

  “They shot me with those little darty things and now I’m all discombobulated.” I giggle. “Isn’t that a funny world?”

  Ignoring my question, he asks, “How many of the darty things did they shoot at you?”

  I hold up four fingers so I have to push one down with my other hand so there’s only three. “This many,” I say proudly since I got the whole finger thing right.

  “Xandra, I think we should go back into the cabin so you can lie down. I can handle these two from here,” he says slowly as if I’m not going to understand him if he speaks any faster.

  I shake my head even though lying down sounds really good now because things are starting to spin around me a little bit. “I can’t yet. I have to send them home. They’re too dangerous to have here.”

  “Xandra, please, please don’t do this,” Kallen pleads. Do I really want a boyfriend who doesn’t believe in my magic? I’m going to have to really think about that after I take a nap.

  I remember a trick that he used when he didn’t like what I was saying. I pull on his shirt until he bends down far enough so I can kiss him which takes him completely by surprise like it had when he did it to me. “Now, you have to be quiet so I can concentrate,” I say and my magic flows towards him and he’s trying to say something but he can’t make any sounds come out of his throat. I’m really going to like that perk of my magic. I’ll win all of our arguments now.

  Turning again towards Maurelle, I say, “I want you to tell my father that he should do his own dirty work. If he wants to try to force me to open up the Fae realm then he should at least have enough respect for me to come himself instead of sending weak little Cowan Fairies after me. Okay?” She nods her head yes and the confidence seems to be returning to her eyes as she figures out that I really am going to send her home. Silly Fairy, it’s only going to be a one way trip.

  Closing my eyes, I imagine the sky splitting open like it’s been torn. Peeling back the sides of it, I imagine my father. I know he has black hair and green eyes like mine. I imagine him at home in the Fae realm waiting for Maurelle and Olwyn to bring me back so he can spill my blood on the passageway between realms to take revenge on this realm because a Witch king who is long dead embarrassed him. I imagine this man who I hate all the way down to the marrow of my bones and when I open my eyes, there he is staring at me through the hole I have just ripped through the realms.

  He stares at me with his mouth agape. I don’t know where he is, maybe his banquet room or something because he’s at a huge table full of food and the furnishings are gold and tacky and everything I would have expected from an egomaniac. When he finds he is able to speak again he says in a voice that sounds like liquid velvet which helps me understand how he tricked my mother, “You did it. You’ve set us free.”

  As I stare at this man who rises from his chair, this man who has made my mother’s life hell and in turn mine, the only thing I can think to say is, “I thought you’d be taller.”

  Confusion washes over his face as he walks towards me. “How is this possible? It is supposed to be your blood that opens the realm.” When he’s close enough to the tear, he reaches out his hand to touch it. It shimmers like water and his hand blisters as soon as he makes contact with it and he snatches it back. “What have you done?” he asks with accusation, anger and disappointment all rolled up nicely in that smooth voice of his.

  Everything about him makes me laugh which I do. He looks so betrayed that I wasn’t willing to die for him. Seriously, I have this man’s DNA inside of me? “What’s the matter, Dad? Not happy with the way I opened up your realm? Oh well, you’ve been a real disappointment to me, too, and I just found out about you a few days ago. But I have something for you.” Without closing my eyes, I lift Maurelle and Olwyn from the ground with my magic and I shove them through the tear. Maurelle screams as she feels the burn of the passage but Olwyn is still asleep so he doesn’t feel a thing. He’ll probably be pretty sore when he wakes up again.

  The world is starting to spin around me and I know my strength is failing but I have one more thing to say to my biological father who’s face is contorted in anger and I’m pretty sure some fear, too. “If you push me, if you send more after me, if you do anything I don’t like, I will become the prophecy. I will rip your realm apart and this one too if that’s what it takes to stop you. You don’t get to decide if I live or die but I get to decide if you do.” Turning to Kallen, I say, “This is your chance to go home if that’s what you want. My biological father won’t hurt you and I can protect you from the pain of passing through the torn realms if that’s what you choose to do.”

  He looks at me for a long moment. “Is there another option?” he asks.

  “Yes, you can stay here with me.”

  With the happiest smile I’ve ever seen on his face, he says, “I choose to stay.”

  “Okay, then.” With that, I slam the folds back in place and the tear becomes nothing but sky again. That’s the last thing I remember before everything goes black.

  Chapter 21

  “Xandra, please wake up,” a voice is saying in my ear. I remember that voice, I wanted to wrap myself up in it before. I like that voice a lot. “Please, you have to wake up.”

  It’s a struggle to open my eyes and even more of a struggle to focus them but eventually, Kallen’s face becomes clear. “You didn’t go home,” is the first thing I think to say. I’m in the cabin again lying on the cot and he’s kneeling next to me. He must have carried me in here after I passed out.

  He smiles. “No, I did not. I chose to stay.”

  “But you could have gone home and lived with the other Fairies. My father wouldn’t have dared to hurt you.”

  “No, after your little conversation with him, he probably would not have.”

  “Then why didn’t you go?”

  “Why would I go back to the Fae realm when the Witch Fairy I want to be with is in this one?”

  “What about your grandmother?”

  Kallen smiles again but maybe a little sadder this time. “Somehow, I suspect my grandmother knew I wouldn’t want to go back. I think she may have changed some of the details of her divination to get me to come here knowing what I would actually find. I believe she knew why you opened the realm and that it was only one way. I feel foolish for ever suspecting you would do it any other way. And I’m sorry I did not trust your judgment
earlier.”

  “Huh. The people who raised us kept a lot of secrets from us, didn’t they? Did you really stay here for me?” I ask and I try to sit up but a jackhammer starts up in my brain and I have to lie back down. “Wow, my head hurts.”

  “Yes, I really did. And I believe your headache can be attributed to a hang over.”

  “A hangover?” No way. “But I didn’t drink anything.”

  He chuckles. “No, but you absorbed an awful lot of Fairy poison into your bloodstream which you seem to metabolize as others would alcohol. I should have suspected that you were not affected by things the same way as others of the Fae because you were able to wear your amulet without harm.”