Faerey Normal

by brett hicks

  Dylan looked like I had slapped him.

  “I just wished to spend an evening with you, with the surety of your company.”

  “A girl is sure to go on a date if she feels like she is being asked out by a gentleman who appreciates her, not her secrets. This girl is not going to be leveraged into anything.”

  Dylan looked at me wide-eyed like he had never been rejected before. That was easy to imagine since he did look like he came off a runway shoot for urban men’s wear.

  The truth was that part of me felt very flattered and even giddy at being asked out. I just couldn’t get past the fact that he was trying to leverage the date. This irked me more than I was flattered by the offer. Besides, I had to meet Jace bright and early for training in the morning. That was his weird idea of repaying my debt to him. I didn’t need to compound my already crazy life!

  “Look I just wanted to get to know you.”

  I narrowed my eyes at Dylan.

  “Then how about you try asking a girl out the old fashioned way?”

  “You’re right and my approach was certainly regrettable.”

  That sounded like the closest thing to “I’m sorry” that a faerey was likely to hand out freely. I sighed and I gave him a thin smile.

  “Let’s just move past it, okay? I’m going to keep looking for history books, so if you’ll excuse me.”

  Dylan nodded and he sighed in his disappointment at the situation.

  “You might try over in the center section facing the spring dorm entrance. That is if you are looking for recent history. I cannot speak to which books might include accurate accounts of Her Majesty’s rise to power.”

  His wording did not escape me, but I pretended not to notice and I nodded one more time and gave him a bright smile.

  “Have a good night, Dylan.”

  He watched me as I walked around him and I still felt his eyes on me as I slowly moved further out of his sight. Most times when I could feel male eyes watching me walk out of a room, or something, it was creepy as hell. This time it actually made me feel desirable and wanted. Maybe it was because I knew that as sketchy as Dylan seemed, he was still an okay guy? Who the hell knows? I certainly will not be mentioning this to Casey. It took me like five seconds to decipher her boy-crazy hormones. Casey seems to think the solution to every problem is resolved with clothing becoming optional. She’s a vampire and she has lived alone in these dorms for over three years. I’m not going to judge the girl for how she chose to pass the time after puberty hit and hormones went haywire!

  After I managed to find the vague spot described by my would-be faerey suitor, I found myself gawking at an entire three-tier shelf of faerey and supernatural history. I noted all the books seemed to be recorded after the Imperium had solidified its rule. Call me paranoid, but I took a few glances at several of these and found the accounts to be biased. They painted history like a beautiful portrait of a selfless queen rising to the occasion to prevent supernatural extinction.

  My father was painted as the Judas of the faerey world. He supposedly stole something from the queen, but there was never any mention in any of the books what exactly he was accused of stealing. If a faerey penned these books, then I was reasonably certain that they couldn’t outright lie, but they could twist the truth.

  The depictions of my father’s character just didn’t line up with the man I knew. True, I hadn’t even known he was a faerey until recently, but he had still been my dad for fifteen-years. He was a single parent who worked hard and never really played, at least in the way most single men would. I had always been under the impression that my father refused to “replace” my mom. I could always see this strange mix of sadness and pride when he looked at me as I grew more into a woman. He clearly saw much of someone he had lost inside me, and he was faithful to a dead woman. How does this fit with the books, or even with his current behavior?

  I had no answers and I walked back to put the books back. I kicked out at the shelf and the crystal at the base of the shelf shattered to reveal a cubby below the bottom shelf. Inside it, several older and much mustier tomes were stored. Being the healthy curious teen I was, I gingerly plucked the books from the cubby and I grabbed a handful of red mists and I ran them over the hole and I began to picture the crystal of the translucent material.

  My glamour illusion held fast and to my supreme shock, looked perfectly uniform with the rest of the shelf. I gingerly touched it with my fingertips and I was shocked to find the surface was cold, smooth and very tangible. My dad had managed to make a few objects I could touch, so I guess my power was like his?

  I tucked the tomes into my bag and I swung it over my shoulder and headed for the autumn exit.

  Eighteen:

  Nothing wakes a girl up faster than a red-eyed vampire. Casey looked positively furious to be amongst the living at the unholy hour of nine-am.

  “Why is that wolf waking me up with his banging?!”

  She asked in a very aggravated tone that suggested she might bite someone, possibly the wolf in question. My sleep-addled mind was sluggish at first, feeling nearly as grumpy as my roommate looked.

  “Tell him to go away…”

  I grumbled out and I heard growls from the other room.

  “You promised to train with me this morning before classes.”

  Oh crap! That wolf and that practice!

  My eyes popped open and I felt as if several funnels of espresso had been poured down my throat. Casey looked bleary-eyed and I pointed to my bed as I vacated it.

  “Just crawl in here and try to get some sleep. My alarm will wake you for class, sorry Casey, I’ll bring you breakfast.”

  She grumped, “You better! I’ve bitten people for less than this!”

  Another growl sounded from outside and I was suddenly very aware that I was now standing in a black tank top and my black panties. I shot to the door and slammed it shut in the next heart-beat. I could still hear the annoyed growls on the other side of the door, but then again I could have heard them from two halls down now.

  Casey complied and climbed into my bed and was already tucking herself in tightly. I fished out a pair of yoga pants and I opted to keep the tank-top. I was not a very broad-chested girl, so I was not in risk of flashing something, but I still slid a sports bra on under my tank top and then I opened the door to find my older sneakers.

  Jace’s lupine eyes were drilling into me with of unrecognizable male emotions. He also looked a little put off that I had slammed the door on him. He could just choke on his damn pride because he didn’t have any right to get a free peepshow at my expense! Hell, I have punched my daddy for trying to walk in when I’m waking up! A girl needs her privacy until she is ready to be seen, even a tomboy like me!

  “Well, where are we going?”

  Jace’s lips quirked into a sardonic smirk and he waved me forward.

  “It’s a surprise, one I will ask you not to share with any non-lupine.”

  With that ominous proclamation, we were off to an unknown destination of mysterious origins. I bit back the snark that was bubbling up in my throat begging to be launched like grumpy arrows at my lupine escort.

  “Why do I feel like a prisoner being escorted to her one hour of exercise?”

  Jace snorted in amusement at this statement.

  “You’re not a prisoner, but you are very keen to feel the watchfulness of the lupines on you. You are the only of your kind I have permitted to enter our autumn halls since before I was even declared alpha-to-be.”

  I frowned and we walked through the narrow polished wooden halls. We came to a spiral staircase and Jace led me up the stairs and after several curving floors worth of ascent, Jace halted us seemingly in the middle of nowhere and he stroked a random stone of no unusual design. It was just a pale slightly translucent stone that nearly blended in with the grey-white stones of the massive walls.

  “A moonstone, ironic, this is a passage that was left to us by one whom my grandfather respected greatly.�
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  I blinked a few times and nodded despite my confusion.

  “Have you ever heard the name Raven?”

  I frowned and shook my head. Jace seemed to study my every nuance and every tick as if to ascertain honesty. I opted to be clearer, just for his paranoia’s sake.

  “No, I have not heard that name in any faerey or supernatural reference. It is just a common and cliché character name in fantasy for heroines to me.”

  Jace snorted in amusement and a slight smile broke out on his face.

  “Well, this Raven is a hero to the lupines, but a villain to the Empress, the Blood Queen.”

  I nodded and Jace seemed to start walking right into the wall, but instead of smacking against it, he slipped through. His hand reached back and he tugged my arm to get me to follow him.

  We were suddenly standing outside the castle in a massive open clearing. Brown, yellow, red, and orange leaves dotted the trees and some leaves fell like snow. The scene was astonishing.

  “This is the autumn field? I thought that we were heading for some super-secret place?”

  Jace’s lips twitched in amusement.

  “This is super-secret and you are the first autumn Moch Sidhe to step foot inside these woods in over a century. You are standing in the Raven’s Harvest Moon Forest.”

  I looked around and I noticed not only were the trees very real, but there were birds and even larger game animals visible through the edge of the forest.

  “Why did the Raven leave this for you? I assume this Raven was a Moch Sidhe, most likely one of autumn birth?”

  Jace nodded in acknowledgment and he held a very tight poker-face.

  “I was planning to throw you out of autumn like I have any other faerey noble who has ever tried to penetrate my halls. However, you are not only unaligned, but you also display the beginnings of autumn’s glamour. And, you reek of power, the kind of power the others will hate you for possessing. I had two choices when you were injured, leave you to your fate or risk helping you.”

  I blinked and I felt my gut churn in my deep and unfathomable surprise. Jace might as well have punched me, I was reeling so hard.

  “Well, not that I am going to tell anyone, but why bring me here? You still barely know me, Jace.”

  His lips twitched again.

  “You are a very cautious girl; I admire this trait in you.”

  That shouldn’t have made my belly do a summersault worthy of the Olympics, but it did!

  “You know most girls would rather you praise their hair or their clothes.”

  Jace looked me over from head to toe and his lips did that little amused twitch again.

  “Your jogging trousers are quite fetching, as are your little lacy knickers.”

  I felt my cheeks heat up and I punched out at him and he caught my fist while roaring with laughter. His eyes held a deep amusement at my heated embarrassment.

  “Bastard!”

  I snarled at him in embarrassment and he let go of my hand and quickly said, “Catch me if you can, little faerey.”

  I didn’t have time to ask another question before he released my hand and shot off like a bat out of hell. My apex-predatory genes caused my instincts to kick in and I shot off at speeds I didn’t think about, or less I might not believe them possible.

  I raced into the orange, yellow, red, brown colored woods and the rich smells of earthy decay tickled my nose. The rich mixture of the changing seasons and the heady odors of the many creatures and wild things surrounding me filled my nose and lungs.

  This place was home more than any other place on earth before now! This was where I belonged, where my weary soul could find its rest. This was autumn and I knew now that I was indeed autumn Moch Sidhe. I was that rare type of faerey and yet I was not exactly my father’s child, because I knew he was a summer Moch Sidhe. If not for the exhilaration of the chase, I might have tripped over this new realization.

  As it was, I was chasing a damn wolf through the forest. Jace had seamlessly shifted to his rich grey-white wolf form. He had black socks on his paws and he stood almost six-feet tall on all fours. He was a vicious and enormous alpha lupine. His magic was vibrant and tangible like the warmth of the sun’s rays on my skin.

  This world of magic and multiple dimensions was still so new to me. I relished this latest little dimension Jace had chosen to share with me. This place seemed to exist right over top of the normal autumn fields that were visible from the castle. Yet, something felt different here, like someone very powerful had taken a magical paintbrush to this whole area and custom tailored it to the autumn races—and to the shifters.

  Juking around trees and leaping over bushes, I raced through the deep forests in my chase. I had already forgotten Jace’s mention of my panties, but I promised myself to get angry later! That boy would hurt for reminding me of that! Even if he was about the most smoldering sight a girl could lay her eyes on!

  Jace kept looking back every so often, checking my progress. Even in his wolf form, I could tell the liquid grace and deep intellect of the boy was still present. At least this meant that wolf-Jace was unlikely to kill me in a fit of rage unless human-Jace decided to kill me too. That was some cold comfort, I guess?

  I laughed as I began to pick up my pace and I slowly gained ground. I could almost swear I saw his lupine eyes bulge slightly at my progress on his trail. Every cell in my body vibrated with warmth and radiated a sort of power I had never really experienced before now. I had felt slightly invigorated when I was tired last night at my soccer tryouts, but this was different. This power seemed to infuse every cell of my body with pure lightning.

  My muscles seemed to tighten further and my every stride became more powerful. I felt the ground impacting lightly on my feet even more frequently as the tempo of my flat run seemed to build to a new frantic pace.

  I felt as if something erupted inside my gut and the power surged free around me. I shot into the wolf and I tripped and tumbled ass-over-elbow past Jace and I braced myself as I saw a quickly approaching tree.

  “Shit!”

  I swore loudly and suddenly I felt hot hands pull me to a scalding thick chest. A few moments later I landed softly and I was straddling a fully clothed Jace back in his massive muscular human form. His lupine eyes were unreadable, but his low vibrations told me that his male body had not been oblivious to the soft female body pressing into him.

  “Whops?”

  I managed to give him a shy smile as I bolted off of his comfortable heat. Trust me, I really didn’t want to move, but if I stayed any longer, then I might have forgotten that he was the next ruler of a pack of lupine—werewolves. I might be autumn aligned, but I was still a Moch Sidhe and Jace’s sworn enemies were Moch Sidhe.

  “You’re much more powerful than either of us realized.”

  He said with just a slight undercurrent of awe and surprise. It seemed to take a lot to shock a werewolf of Jace’s powers, so I wasn’t sure how that made me feel, or what any of this meant. Jace seemed to read my distress and he cleared his throat casually.

  “As your new combat trainer, I give you my word that what we discuss here in training and what we learn, shall stay with me. I will keep your secrets if you will swear to keep mine. This place is the only haven the pack has from the full moon.”

  I nodded dumbly and I cleared my throat, realizing this required more than a dumb nod.

  “I swear to keep your secrets, as long as you keep mine.”

  This satisfied Jace and he stalked over with a predatory glint in his eyes.

  “Let us begin, little faerey.”

  He somehow made “faerey” sound sexy, or I had just hit my head very hard on his enormous pec muscle!

  Nineteen:

  Jace started off with stretches like any sane person beginning a workout. He also showed me several warm-up exercises I hadn’t ever been exposed to before now. Jace was the very pentacle of his pack of lupines for a very good reason. The boy clearly knew his way around training
a body.

  “Now that you’re unlikely to strain a muscle, why don’t you start by showing me what you already know. I caught just enough of that fight to see you redirect the ice blade while wounded yourself, so clearly, your father taught you something.”

  I nodded and I moved into a balanced ready-stance and I held my hands centered just above my waist, ready to move high or low. Jace seemed to absorb every nuance of my posture and nodded in approval.

  “That looks like a form of ready commonly practiced in the Faerey version of jujitsu. Let’s start with human speed, I will attack and you will attempt to deflect or counter. I will not use any flashy moves right now so I can gauge your progress level.”

  I nodded and I waited and I cleared my mind like dad had taught me since I was little. I focused on his flexing muscles and my eyes were intent on his shoulders, since reading the body of an opponent is most accurate if one focuses on the shoulder posture. This is yet another thing my dad had drilled into me.

  Jace came without warning and I saw his left shoulder drop and his right elevate. This meant he was going to move low with his left and strike higher with his right. I stepped into him to the right and blocked his arm and my right hand slapped his left away quickly and I landed a knee to his lower gut and he made a small “uff” sound from the impact on his steel-like abs.

  I caught a flicker of pride and admiration rush through his yellow lupine eyes. I stepped back and he missed with a grappling hook and I spun to the left and around him as he tried to sweep my legs with his right leg.

  Jace rushed forward and I jumped on instinct and rolled over his back like a trained stuntwoman would on a martial-arts movie set. I kicked the sensitive joint of his left leg which was his current grounding limb. I pushed forward and tipped him down with his re-directed center of gravity. Jace caught himself and his legs lashed out suddenly and they wrapped around my neck and he flipped me over and I felt my wind rush out of my lungs as I thudded to the grassy field on my back.