by brett hicks
Casey told me as she followed my gawking gaze.
“This is…”
“Crazy?”
Casey finished for me and I shrugged.
“Well, yes, if you’re used to human logic! Look at all of this, how do humans not know all of this exists right on top of their world?”
Pat growled in mild annoyance.
“It’s not their world. Everything belongs to all races, regardless of species or alignment.”
His tone was mild and chiding and Casey fixed him with a stern vampire look.
“Easy, she doesn’t know.”
Patrick flushed a little at the light chastisement and he conceded the point.
“The gods and goddesses see to it that all species have some place to exist. It is their veil that keeps the worlds from spilling into one another. That is why no one, not even the Imperium, tries to dethrone them.”
Gentry told us from the front of the cab.
“Gentry, when we first met, you said your father was Poseidon. Were you just teasing me?”
Gentry let out a rumbling laugh that shook the large cab.
“Of course it’s true! Poseidon is the father to all the Cyclops . We are born demigods of a giantess and the god of the sea.”
My eyes were bug wide.
“Wow, so you are the son of a god…”
He rumbled in laughter again.
“Now you’re wondering why I drive this cab, am I right, daughter of Maris?”
He was looking at me with his one huge eye. Part of me wanted to scream, “Eyes on the road,” but then I realized how ridiculous that would sound.
“So, why do you drive a cab?”
Gentry wiped a bit of drool from his chin.
“I am the local keeper of the veil, my dear girl. My father honored me with the duty of watching over Cambridge’s crossings between dimensions. I found that having a job that allows me to gab to folks and keep me eyes on the city is just right as rain. Back in the day, yer dad and me used to see to the task together. His magic makes for mending rifts into the faerey dimension very handy. Not many of yer kind have that special blend of power and fineness.”
“My dad used to help you protect the boundary?!”
My voice raised a few octaves and he rumbled in laughter.
“Can’t be trustin’ just any Moch Sidhe with such sensitive information. Say what they will about your dad, but know this, he is a hero to most folks, even if they’re too afraid to openly admit it.”
I wanted to ask more, but even with my budding friendships with all the occupants of this cab, I didn’t yet know for certain if I could ask delicate questions. Gentry winked his big eye at me in the rearview mirror, clearly having followed my train of thought.
“We’ll have time to speak again about ancient history, little lass. You go have fun at yer first faerey ball.”
I blinked a few times as we arrived at what I could only describe as a forest party with an endlessly large dance floor and twinkling floating faerey lights. Woodwind and stringed instruments of many varieties tickled my ears.
Wild berries and floral scents greeted my nose. Vanilla and lavender also seemed to coat the air lightly and beneath all of this was the light musk of the wild woods.
Gentry stepped around and opened the double doors on the monstrous cab-limo. He delicately took each girl’s hand and I noticed how unwary my friends were of the massive man’s touch. He was a demigod all right, and they seemed to instinctively feel safe around Gentry. He should be scary, but somehow he was just warm and inviting.
After he lightly pulled me from the cab, he made a sweeping gesture with all the grace of any faerey I had ever met.
“Your ball awaits.”
I squeezed his hand and I said, “You are a very good friend and a real gentleman.”
He beamed at the praise and he winked his one eye one more time playfully.
“Go on before that little wolf decides I’m on the menu tonight.”
His head bobbed in a vague direction to the north-west. My breath hitched at the sight of him in the perfect grey suit and a silky green dress shirt. He was wearing what looked to be platinum cuffs and his seamless tailored suit had an old-school eighteen-hundreds or early nineteen hundreds style to it, complete with a split tail design on the back of the long snug jacket.
“All he’s missing is the cane and he could pass for an old-school English Lord.”
I murmured and Gentry rumbled out a loud belly of laughter.
“Get on then, go have fun my dear. I’m off to find yer dad and have me a good pint.”
“My dad’s here?!”
I looked around as if I was about to be caught and grounded at any moment. Gentry gave me a parting wave of his meaty hand and he walked off trailing booming laughter in his wake.
Jace had not taken his eyes off me since I first stepped out of the cab. His lupine eyes were feral and untamable. He was something that could never be subdued and never be brought to heel. Everyone around him bent away without even meaning to, or often even noticing.
He took long strides towards me and I felt like his gaze was about to swallow my soul. I don’t think I even breathed as he approached me looking like something that GQ would be bankrupted over if faereys and lupines ever opened a magazine.
“Aren’t you looking lovely tonight?”
I felt the spell break and I looked up and over to my right. Dylan was standing in a pristine white-on-white tuxedo suit. He even wore pear-white gloves that gleamed. His frosty silver-blue hair was spiked up in perfect icy looking clumps. His locks almost looked like ice and less like normal hair.
“Dylan, hi…”
I sounded lame and surprised, even to myself. He had totally caught me drooling over the alpha-to-be. I felt a mild blush creeping into my cheeks. Dylan noticed and his bright smile widened. His icy-blue-white eyes danced in amusement. He was something as delicious as Jace in every way, just different. His mystique and charms were in his frosty presence and his deep well of winter magic and glamour.
“You look like a vision in green.”
He said it almost poetically. From any other high school aged boy, that would have sounded ridiculous.
“So, I guess you got the memo?”
He spread his hands in a sweeping gesture in all directions.
“The pukas thought that it would be infinitely more entertaining to throw a proper forest ball, rather than to merely infiltrate the human establishments.”
I nodded dumbly, I have met several pukas, they are all unrepentant pranksters and all- around mischief-makers.
“There aren’t any tricks are there? You know how the pukas like their pranks.”
I inquired and Dylan didn’t get to finish, because Jace arrived. He was already growling to the winter Moch Sidhe.
“Little lordling, good evening to you.”
He turned his gaze to me and I felt my oxygen supply flee for the hills, along with my sanity. He looked much better up close and the intricate glamour spun on his suit was finely woven and delicately hand-crafted. I recognized my father’s handy work.
“This suit is a gift from a certain faerey who wishes to remain anonymous. The thought it best that I have a proper suit if I insisted on dancing with certain faerey girls at the ball.”
I blinked in surprise and my lips half-parted. I was struggling for sanity, and for air.
“I was just about to ask the fair lady to dance, Sir Alpha-to-be.”
Jace growled and looked over at Dylan.
“This is still my land, it would be improper for me to refuse this lady the first dance.”
Dylan’s jaw set and his icy gaze looked onto Jace.
“I will not insult the Crown Prince of my home country.”
Jace nodded in a civilized gesture.
“Thankfully young Lord, there are many beautiful young maidens tonight.”
Dylan’s smile was forced.
“Indeed, so there are. They must have been hiding b
ehind Ms. Edwards’ radiance all this time.”
Even Jace managed to snort and brighten slightly at this.
“Perhaps you and I have finally agreed on one thing, Lord Weatherbee.”
Dylan’s eyes danced in amusement at this.
“Just remember, Sir Prince, the home court advantage is not always going to be enough to secure her at your side.”
He bowed in a grand courtly gesture.
“My Prince, My Lady, enjoy the ball.”
What the hell kind of seventeen-year-old and fifteen-year-old talk to each other like this!?
Jace took my hand gently and he led me to the massive dance floor as the song began to change.
Twenty-Five:
Magic was in the air, the light and even in the music. My world had gone from mundane to faerey so fast and furiously that my mind could barely keep up.
I felt the soothing heat of my dance partner’s light touch on my skin and I was almost sure my spirit had fled my feeble body on several occasions. I didn’t understand why two handsome supernatural guys had just politely fought for my hand in a dance. Everything was surreal and the world seemed to lose all meaning.
Thank my faerey maker, for teaching me how to waltz, despite my vehement complaints. Maris Edwards had insisted on me learning to dance and learning how to fight. The latter of those two I never minded, but this was the first time I had ever really been grateful to my ecliptic father for his shrewd teachings.
“You seem to be lost in your own thoughts, is something wrong?”
His deep tone vibrated against my slim body and I looked up into his feral eyes and shook my head.
“Sorry, first time, I’m just taken aback by our world.”
Jace’s eyes shone with deep comprehension.
“Indeed, this world can be very overwhelming to those not accustomed to its glory. There is a good reason why the old lore always claims that mortals lose their minds to the wild magic of faerey lands.”
I nipped at my lip and I studied Jace’s eyes and I felt the low contented growl vibrating through me. The wolf prince was happy and he seemed to be at ease. I was happy, just extremely culture-shocked.
“Why do you give me so much attention, Jace? You know that I am Moch Sidhe.”
My tone was so low it barely made a sound. I knew the wolf heard me, because I felt his hands tighten on my body slightly, and his right hand pressed against my back. It was very possessive, very sexual. I had never let a guy touch me like this before, nor had I ever really danced with a guy besides my own father, or one of his business partners at some ball I was drug to.
“Do I need a reason to spend time with a beautiful girl?”
He asked in a hushed tone and he leaned into my ear and his chest pressed into my front. I leaned my head against his chest. His heartbeat was fast and his body was like a heater in the dead of winter. My primal female mind and body seemed to want to just crumble to a puddle of girl.
“Why me?”
I whispered and Jace growled and he cupped my head between his hands and he leaned down and he pressed his lips feather light to mine. He kissed me softly but his flavor and his warmth lingered.
My heart jackhammered in my chest and the butterflies in my stomach began to wage all-out war on my hormones.
As far as first kisses go, this one was something girls could only conjure in dreams, or on TV. When the music stopped and everyone began to clap, it had all ended too soon. From the yellow intensity of Jace’s eyes, he had not been satisfied to merely taste me. I felt it and I knew it in my body. Part of me was nervous as hell about this and part of me loved it!
Someone caught Jace’s eyes off to the side and he growled in frustration.
“I must attend to something, but I will return to you soon.”
His warmth fled my body and my mind was spinning. I almost felt dizzy from the events of the last minute.
“May I have this dance, My Lady?”
I looked up and Dylan was smiling down at me. His icy gaze was somehow chilly and still scalding at the same time. I bit my lip and I looked at my feet for a moment. He has never been mean to me, so I felt like it was rude to refuse him a dance.
“Okay, but just a dance.”
Dylan’s smile was suddenly so bright you might have thought a pixie flew into his face.
“Of course, you’re here with the Alpha-to-be tonight. He has made that perfectly clear to me and any gentleman with eyesight wishing to dance with you.”
His lips twisted into an amused smile.
“I will satisfy myself with but a single moment of your radiance and beauty, Amelia.”
Everything he said should have been stupid and cheesy, but hewas a Faerey Lord and he is from this world. I was not stupid, so I knew that I could not expect him to speak like an American teen. My gut knotted at his light touch. Dylan was careful not to touch to low on my waist and he held my left hand gently and he stroked his gloved fingers over the back of my palm.
The music playing sounded familiar, something classical and very much a human piece.
“Yes, we do appreciate the artists of the mortal world. This is Chopin’s “Nocturne” in C-sharp.”
Dylan stated matter-of-factly and I felt my eyes widen a bit.
“You listen to modern music at school, how do you know all of this?”
His smile widened like I had just praised him.
“My lady mother has been educating me since birth. She is, after all, the last great-granddaughter of the once great Winter King.”
My breath hitched and I almost faltered in my step in surprise.
“You’re a prince, too?”
His grin was radiant now and he nodded slightly.
“This is not my land, but I am of an equal station to your wolf suitor.”
That should have bothered me! I am not a prize heifer being led to market, so I did not have suitors. However, the way Dylan said this, it sounded less a sexist insult and more a matter-of-fact.
The Chopin piece was delicate, beautiful and filled with light but emotional piano-driven melody. The changes were flawless and the accompanying instruments were all subdued and they allowed the light keystrokes of the pianist to fill the night’s air with radiant bliss.
“I find myself drawn to the delicate things of this world.”
Dylan said it quietly and he leaned down and pressed a kiss to my cheek. He bowed in a grand gesture of perfect gentlemanly posture and grace.
“I will take my leave My Lady, but I have not yet given up the fight.”
He winked and spun on his heels. I was left in a near stupor for a moment at the events of the past few minutes.
Jace was behind me when I turned and his jaw was tight and his yellow eyes were glowing. He wasn’t happy.
“He kissed you.”
I blinked a few times to clear my head.
“On the cheek.”
I said it lightly enough, but I was uncomfortable with the possessiveness in his eyes.
“You shouldn’t have let him kiss you.”
I blinked again and my mouth opened of its own accord.
“Excuse me? Did you just tell me what to do with my own body?!”
His eyes widened and he must have spotted the snare of words as it closed around him. Jace sighed and he handed me a wine glass filled with deep-red liquid.
“It’s mild faerey wine, it’s not strong and no funny magic.”
I took a sip and Jace cleared his throat. The beverage was fruity and tangy with just a little bit of the bitter fermentation of alcohol. I had barely ever drunk anything before, so I didn’t much care for the taste.
“I’m lupine and I am alpha, so I make no apologies for my passion. We are not known to tolerate other men sniffing around the female we desire.”
I frowned slightly.
“If he had done something you could hit him for, then you already would have, right?”
Jace sighed and he shook his head slowly.
“You are f
ar too perceptive to have been in this world for less than a week and to have come to that conclusion. I wouldn’t have hit him; I would have ripped out his heart.”
He said it so calmly and matter-of-fact. I sighed and I shivered slightly. I wasn’t scared of him, but his promise of violence was unnerving. I pointed with my glass in a vague direction of the forest off to the side.
“I’m going to get some air—alone.”
Jace sighed and nodded his comprehension.
“I will be here waiting for you, little faerey.”
He sounded slightly regretful of his statements and his behavior. Even now, I knew this was just his nature, but my still freshly human-mind was wrestling with my budding faerey logic.
***
Casey was twirling on the dance floor and giggling like a lunatic, so I didn’t want to bother her. Naomi had even found a nice young wolf to dance with, which was on his very best behavior with the watchful gaze of Patrick Vaughn nearby.
Centaurs and men with half-goat bodies danced merrily. Nixies floated in rhythm to the music and pixies were sneaking off with bits of food from the massive buffet tables. I even spotted several bipedal cat-men dancing and jumping about, these were likely the Cait Sidhe.
The world was naked and thread-bare of the nearly human visage of which I was accustomed. I wandered off deeper into the woods and the music grew lower as I fled. I took a few gulps of the delicious liquid in my wine glass.
I just needed some time to myself to think and let the world settle around me. What I needed most was my daddy, but I didn’t dare try to go back and find him. I would not look like a sniveling little princess hiding in her father’s wings every time the world became scary! Time and distance from my new reality would help.
I was lost in thought, so I didn’t even notice the buzzing as I stepped across a patch of mushrooms growing in the dense grassy forest. After my second foot stepped squarely inside the patch, I felt my body suddenly halt. Everything was just suddenly unresponsive and I could see the world around me moving still. I could hear music off into the distance and then I heard cackling laughter as someone approached me.
“See, I knew the little bitch would be too thick to notice!”
Francesca’s voice was crystal-clear and grating on what remained of my nerves. I tried to move but nothing would so much as budge an inch.