[Through Time 02.0] Whiplash

by Claudy Conn

  Pestale had been a worthy opponent, but he had weaknesses that Hordly did not. Pestale killed for an end game. Hordly was just happy to kill. Hordly didn’t care about the long-term results. He enjoyed the moment. He enjoyed the chaos, but his brother, Pestale planned the chaos as a means to an end, he took no pleasure in it.

  Jazmine Decker squirmed in the Dark Prince’s hold. Trevor’s fists clenched as he watched Hordly bend and put his lips to her throat.

  And then Trevor was momentarily shocked.

  This Dark Prince had fangs!

  Another of the Dark King’s experiments gone more than wrong. Did the Dark Prince also have vampire tendencies?

  Hordly nipped her, and Trevor winced to see her blood flow freely down her neck. Hordly then sneered and said, “You can’t be so stupid as to think I was doing more than playing with you, Seelie Prince.” Hordly licked her blood and then made a sound of pleasure before he bit again and made another wound.

  Trevor watched her blood ooze out from four small wounds and then took a hasty step forward as Hordly continued to lick at the blood. He tried to maintain his composure and said, “Think what you will, jump shift as much as you have to, but know that in the end I will have your head severed from your body, Dark King be damned. Let her go, and we will talk, perhaps more reasonably.” Trevor put his hand up for his Death Sword, thankful once again that it automatically stayed within his sphere, going where he went.

  “No, I think I will keep this one as hostage. I like the taste of her blood, so different than what I had in the Dark Realm, so different than the humans I have tasted thus far.” He ran a hand down her arm. “I want to study her and discover what it is that makes her immune to my Lianhan. Perhaps I will remove her brain for dissection. But first, I think I will use her pretty body … over and over, and when I am tired of her, I will drink her blood until she expires.” He sneered at Trevor. “Tell me, Seelie Prince—is she immune to you as well, or have you already bedded her?”

  Trevor’s sword hand twitched, but if he shifted in while Hordly still held her, the Unseelie would shift off with her and perhaps do her harm before he could find them again. He had to find a way of getting her free of the Dark One for just a moment … just a moment, so he could move in.

  All at once, and surprising both the Dark Prince and Trevor at the same time, the little Fios decided to demonstrate the consequences of making the mistake of underestimating her!

  * * *

  Jazz had been waiting for the right time; now that Trevor was near and would have her back, the time had come.

  The two were obviously locked in a testosterone battle, and she could use that to her advantage. Neither one was aware of all the powers she possessed.

  She was a Fios with ‘slamming’ power. She could take a Fae’s magic and redirect it back so it affected the Fae. She had been waiting for the best possible position and timing, and here it was. Trevor had his sword in hand, so all she had to do was utilize her own very special gift.

  She closed her eyes and concentrated. She felt the Dark Prince pulsating with power, and she took that vibrating energy and created an electric current that pulsed with his dark magic. It turned into a ball of electricity—white hot and loaded with evil, his evil—at his back. She waited for just the right moment and slammed him from behind. She knew he would never see it coming.

  He was lifted off the ground, and as she ducked he was sent crashing into a huge oak tree more than thirty feet away.

  She stood for a moment, amazed it had actually worked. She had never used this magic before. Her mother had of course told her that she was a ‘slammer’ and had told her how to use it, but she had never tried it on a Fae for the fear of giving herself away. As she had never been in danger from a Fae, she had never had to. Well, now, she thought, silently patting herself on the back, not bad. This in turn made her grin as she said brightly, “Well, hot dayam!”

  Trevor, with his Death Sword in hand, moved into action, but just as he spanned the distance, with his weapon pointed at the Dark Prince’s chest, Hordly was able to summon enough strength to jump shift away.

  “Damn his soul to bloody damn hell!” Trevor shouted as he lost the prince to the winds.

  “Let’s follow him,” suggested Jazz.

  “So we shall, for he can’t get far, but we need a plan. Can’t just rush after him willy nilly. We have to put some cunning into this and out-think him.” He gazed at her, and their eyes met.

  She felt a bolt of sensation sweep through her and tried to make light of what she was feeling by saying, “What?”

  “You have power, little Fios,” he said with a touch of admiration. “That Fios I mentioned earlier—BJ, who is married to the Druid Daremont—she, too, is a slammer.”

  “Yeah, well, there you go. Told ya I had power,” she said with a short laugh. “Now what?”

  “You are always asking that, and I have told you, some matters must be worked out … played by your ear, as you humans say.”

  She laughed. “Not by your ear, just by ear.”

  “Just so.” He put up his chin.

  “You are a Royal Seelie, and according to you, you have just gone through a war with the Dark Fae and then tracked Pestale and could have put him to death, so, yeah, you may not realize it yet, but you’ve got the answers,” Jazz said, partially because she believed this and partially because she knew he needed to be reminded of it. He might be a Fae, but he was also a male.

  He eyed her for a long moment and said, “What we really need is Nuad and his Golden Net.”

  “Who is that, and what is a Golden Net?”

  “Nuad is our Chief Tracker, and the Golden Net is a netting made of enchanted gold thread. No Fae, Seelie or Unseelie, can escape it. They can’t shift out of it. It is how we transport an unruly Fae who has broken the law—not that we actually have any unruly Fae, if you don’t count the traitor Gaiscioch,” he mused out loud.

  “Trevor,” Jazz said, surprising herself, for his name came easily, “if the Orb allowed him to escape the Dark Realm, why then did the Orb bring him here? Why can he only shift in spurts? Why can’t he go back to the Dark Realm and start over?”

  “It is called ‘jump shifting’, and I can only speculate that the Orb is not responding to him accurately, either of its own free will—”

  “Its own free will?” she cut in, her brows arched. “We are talking about an object, an artifact—how can it have free will?”

  “Seelie Fae Relics and Hallows take on a life of their own through time. They evolve because they are infused with powerful magic. Magic begets more magic, and they get stronger, they initiate their own divine purpose, they often take sides, and they have preferences.” He shrugged. “A human would say, it is what it is—at least I was told that humans often say that.”

  She laughed. “You were told?”

  “Again, my friend Red—Princess Royce. Besides, you have said it, and it made sense to me … sort of. Red has often tried to make me see there is more to your race than I have observed. I am beginning to agree that some of you … can be endearing.”

  Jazz grinned. “Some of us, eh?”

  He ignored this and said grimly, “What I have to do now is find a way to call to the Orb with the hope that it will be able to link to me and perhaps use it to return him to the Dark Realm and then us to our time period,” he answered.

  “I might be able to help you with that,” Jazz said.

  He snorted. “You—help? You are not even Fae. Why would it respond in any manner to you?”

  “Hey, who just sent that Dark Prince flying?” she countered.

  He considered this. “Indeed, little Fios, you have a formidable power, but you have no connection to our Relics. I, on the other hand, have the ability to locate Seelie Fae Relics.”

  “I can locate them when they are near because they in turn respond to me.” She eyed him and said, “We Fae seers have lots of abilities. Not all of us have the same ones. I have three very import
ant ones. Speed—I can be very fast. I am a slammer, and I’m also a sounder.” She gave him a superior smile.

  He laughed right out loud and patted her head as though she were a favorite pet. “Well, then, this grows interesting. Shee Willow, who is Fae on her father’s side and Fios on her mother’s side, is a sounder as well. Right, then, sweet Fios, sound away!”

  She shoved his hand off her head and pulled a face at him. “Don’t do that. I am not your kitty cat.”

  “No, and you are not immortal, so try and remember that and stay close to me so the Unseelie Royal can’t take you hostage again,” he said irritably.

  “Hey, you told me to stay where I was, and against my better judgment, that is what I did.” Jazz gave it right back.

  “Even so, be more careful,” he answered obstinately.

  “Oh, of all the arrogant—”

  “As soon as we can get our hands on the Orb, Jazmine Decker, you will be able to go home. Isn’t that what you want?” he asked.

  His gold eyes seemed to look through her. She knew he had used Glamour to mitigate the Faeness of his ancient brilliant eyes, but even so, as a seer she could see the ‘alien’ in him. It was, she reminded herself, what all Fae really were—aliens. Her mother had taught her that. They were another race from a place called Danu. But she still felt something for him growing inside her. She had to wrap it up in ice and throw it out; she simply had to.

  “Yes, it is what I want.” Silently, however, she asked herself, Right? Isn’t that what I want? A part of her whispered, No, you want to stay and help fight against the Dark Fae. It is in your blood.

  “Then I suggest, little Fios, you get to work and find the Orb with your ‘sounder’ ability,” he said authoritatively.

  She pushed at him with all her might, but he didn’t budge, standing there like a huge, sculptured boulder, and she said agitatedly, “Oohh!”

  “I have annoyed you. Why?” he asked on a frown.

  “You can’t help it—you are what you are,” she said on a heavy sigh.

  “Well, of course I am. You have a knack for stating the obvious, Jazmine Decker.”

  She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. She wouldn’t think of him. Instead, she would do what her instincts told her she could do. Only once had she been put to the test. Her mother had a small pendent, handed down from mother to daughter for centuries. Oddly enough, the story went that it had been a gift from the Queen of the Seelie Fae, Aaibhe, for a service her ancestor had done.

  Her mother had hidden it, and Jazz had located it with her ‘sounder’ talent, over and over again. She touched the locket now, but before she could proceed, Trevor moved in so fast the air rushed around her like a small wind. He took the locket in his hand and held it. “This … belongs to my queen. It is not only a Fae artifact, it is the queen’s loicéad. It holds very unique magical properties. What are you doing with it?”

  She slapped his hand away. “It was given to one of our ancestors by your queen!”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t like your tone,” she answered, glaring at him. Didn’t he believe her? Did he think it had been stolen? Like anyone could steal something from the queen! Ha.

  “You don’t like my tone?” he returned, looking both annoyed and perplexed. He shook his very handsome head while she studied him, but finally he grimaced and asked, “Very well, then, do you know how to use it, Fios? Because I do.”

  “Well, not sure. The family story was that we could call on the queen if an injustice against one of us was being committed. That is all I know.” She shrugged. “I just wear it because it’s pretty, and I used to think maybe it would bring me good luck.” She looked around. “Not so sure about that anymore.”

  “Why did you think it would bring you good luck?” he asked, looking at her with obvious curiosity.

  She thought for a moment. Her mother had given it to her the day of the accident, telling her to always wear it, as though she knew something was coming …

  She had been thrown clear and lived. Luck was a double-edged sword. She lived, but she lost them. She returned her gaze to his golden eyes. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Well, then, what does this tell you, Jazmine Decker?” Trevor asked with a growing smile.

  “I don’t know, but I am certain from the look on your face that you mean to tell me.”

  “It tells you, little Fios, that we have found our way home—I think.”

  ~ Five ~

  HORDLY STOOD AT the edge of the monoliths that hovered over the Middle Lake of Killarney. He was confused and looking for answers. What had gone wrong? Why had the dolmens been sucked into the past with him? Why had he been sucked into the past? And why the year 1816? Was it significant or just an accident of fate?

  Dark Fae could not touch Seelie Fae relics. Nor could they successfully command them, but he and his brothers were not just Dark Fae. They had their father’s Seelie essence. They each represented a different Royal House, and each had precious gifts. However, because the Dark King had used dark magic and the preserved genes of beings extinct in the Seelie’s beloved Danu when creating his sons, they were neither all Unseelie nor all Seelie. Thus, Seelie artifacts never reacted quite as they were supposed to when he or his brothers tried to use them. Was that the reason he had been sent back to this time period?

  He had been careful not to touch the Orb when he used the incantation, hoping it would not feel or sense the Unseelie in him. He had been specific in the use of that incantation, limiting it only to the opening of the portal, a portal that Gais had used to travel to Killarney. Gais had been a Seelie Fae, and it had worked for him, but it had also worked for his brother Pestale.

  Why then not for him? Was he darker—less Seelie than Pestale? Was he readily recognizable as Unseelie by the Orb?

  Without the Wheel of Being, the Dark King had needed more than his own and Morrigu’s essence to create true Fae, so he had implemented the use of the darkest magic he could find and combined it with the science he had perfected. Thus, the first of his sons, Pestale, had been created. Later, with the others, he had altered the method so that none were exactly alike.

  Hordly knew Pestale had been favored in his father’s eyes. He had stopped caring about that centuries ago. However, now it seemed it was Graely that held the Dark King’s true affection. This was unacceptable. How could his father hold Graely in greater affection? Graely was a stupid, soft-natured dolt!

  The Dark King had made small alterations when he had finally created Hordly, Graely, and then Donwith, now dead by a Milesian’s hands. For Hordly, that alteration had given him fangs, but he liked that. He liked the feel of ripping something apart …

  But all that didn’t matter. Soon, they would take over the universe. Their father didn’t care. He was off with his whore … his Crystal … evolving into pure energy.

  He and his brothers had a secret they could use as a weapon against the Seelie Fae: the fact that they had Seelie inside them waiting to be utilized.

  The Seelie Royal had looked at him as though he were nothing more than an evil being, and that angered him.

  He was more. Yes, he had wicked desires, but he also had the ability to feel affection. He had affection for his brothers and for Queen Morrigu, whose essence had been used to help create them. He had a sense of loss for the brother killed by the Milesian Lana. He was more than the Seelie Royal saw. But, he also knew, he had a strange desire, the need to feed on blood from time to time. It was because of the genes the Dark King has used when creating him.

  He sighed over it. Soon, however, he would find a way out of the past, and then he and his brothers would enter the Human Realm and rule the whole damn universe, Faery included!

  Freeing his brothers would be difficult because of his present predicament, but he would find a way. After all, it was he who had planned to keep Pestale from losing his memory. Pestale was whole because of him.

  Because the Dark King had evolved beyond understanding, he had only
been mildly interested in watching Pestale drink from the Cauldron. He had not really seen. He had not expected his third son to outsmart him.

  Hordly smiled as he thought of the tray of water he had installed in the Cauldron. That tray held plain water from their Realm’s Dark streams that had been only mildly contaminated by the Cauldron’s magical libation. Pestale’s memories had been affected but not removed, and when the Dark King had withdrawn, as he always did, to his universe with his evolving human consort, he—not Graely, but he—had begun Pestale’s reeducation!

  Now, he had to find a way to free him and Graely.

  He’d also free Morrigu, who was quite mad, but was lover, mother, friend, and the only female being they had been able to enjoy for eons. She would finally have an outlet for her cravings, perhaps find peace once she was free of the Dark Realm. Pestale thought he was the only one who had affection for Morrigu, but that wasn’t so; Hordly also had some caring for her.

  He had many purposes now, and one of them was to avenge his youngest brother’s death. Lana, the Milesian, had killed him. True, Pestale had killed Lana, but for Hordly it did not end there. He wanted to destroy every Milesian that existed. He could not rest until he, with their Dark Army, charged into their little Milesian world and took them down to the last child.

  His youngest brother, Donwith, who had always made him laugh but would never make him smile again, had to be avenged.

  Pestale had been with Hordly when he’d told the Orb to open the portal to Killarney and had followed him in, but it must have sent Pestale back to the Dark Realm, for Hordly had found himself alone when he was spit out of the portal. He’d stood at its mouth and known something had gone wrong.

  What he didn’t want to do was return to the Dark Realm. He had to find a way of getting his brothers and Morrigu out from this side of the portal.

  Ruefully, he thought it was better to be in the past than in the Dark Realm.