by M. D. Massey
Moments later, the car was clean—if still a little smelly. “Disguise yourself,” I muttered under my breath as a car pulled up in the lot. I sensed a spell being cast, and before my eyes the raven transformed himself into a large, plump rooster.
Now I have to explain to everyone why I’m bringing livestock into the yard. Fan-fucking-tastic. I wasn’t about to give Nameless the benefit of knowing he was getting under my skin, so I remained silent as I marched his tattered ass to the druid tree.
Under any other circumstances, the sudden appearance of a thirty-meter-tall oak tree in the middle of a junkyard might have raised a few eyebrows. Apparently, however, when you planted a druid grove it came with its own built-in magical stealth system. Not that the tree was invisible—far from it. Strangely, from the moment it had sprung into existence, everyone who came in viewing range of it simply ignored it, or acted as if it had always been there.
Everyone but me, that is, and a few select confidantes of mine. How the tree knew who was kosher and who wasn’t remained a complete mystery. But that wasn’t the weirdest part about it; the really strange thing about the giant oak tree was what it concealed.
The tree itself was a good ten feet in diameter at the base, with limbs that spread far out from its center and up to the sky above. Where once there had been stacks of cars twelve feet high, the area where I’d planted the Dagda’s acorn was now a grassy open space some fifty feet across. The tree had simply swallowed the cars up as it grew, sucking them into the soil beneath it where its roots could slowly break down the iron and other metals, returning them to the earth.
To access the grove, I walked three circuits of the oak’s trunk, widdershins, with my left hand in constant contact with its rough bark. As soon as I started the ritual required to enter the grove, the raven went batshit crazy. Apparently, shadow creatures wanted nothing to do with druid groves.
“Squawk! Don’t take me in there, jaeger, I beg of you. Better for you to send me back across the Veil. Whatever you ask, I’ll give it to you—just don’t make me go to that place!”
I squeezed his neck until he stilled, then I ignored him. I’d instinctively known how to access the grove from the moment the acorn had sprouted, and just as instinctively I knew that losing my concentration during the ritual could have disastrous consequences. On the third loop, the world around me changed completely as I rounded the trunk a final time.
One moment I was in a junkyard, and the next I stood in a sunny wooded grove. Light shone through the leaves above, dappling the loamy forest floor below, and insects, birds, and small animals frittered, flitted, and fluttered about, oblivious to my presence. The druid tree was at the center of the space, and the whole damned thing looked like a Disney movie. The overall effect kind of creeped me out, because it was too perfect, and it reminded me a bit of Underhill. Pretty, until you looked beneath the surface.
But the worst was yet to come.
“Hi, Colin.”
It was her voice, but it wasn’t, as some quality about it had changed. That voice had never been so mellifluous; she’d always been a bit of a tomboy, with a slightly raspy voice to match. I turned around, suddenly forgetting the night raven that squirmed and flapped in my right hand.
“Hello, Jesse.”
Four
She was leaning out from behind a maple tree, her lower body half-hidden by the trunk. Or at least, a facsimile of her. While the thing in front of me resembled Jesse and spoke like Jesse, I wasn’t convinced that it was Jesse. Not my Jesse, not by a long shot.
Her skin was smooth as silk in some places, rough and bark-like in others—but somehow it worked, making her even more beautiful than she had been in her human life. The flowing mane adorning her head was a living thing made of green, leafy vines and small red leaves that rustled and swayed with every movement and toss of her head. And her eyes—oh, those eyes. Shiny, dark orbs pierced me, each of such a deep hue of green as to be hypnotizing if I stared at them too long.
Jesse’s body was very nearly the same as ever, if of varying colors and textures. Her face, neck, and shoulders were a pale, earthy green, fading to brown and grey over the random, symmetrical patches of bark that covered her skin here and there. Her figure was as lean and athletic as she’d been in life, but she now moved with a playful sinuousness that my Jesse had never possessed. And, in a strange show of modesty for a dryad—because that’s what she was—a thick growth of leaves covered her breasts and pelvic area, in a manner reminiscent of Poison Ivy from the Batman comics.
Just as on my previous visits to the druid grove, her presence brought an entire range of emotions with it. Elation, trepidation, guilt, nervousness, impatience, and most of all, a sickening feeling deep in my gut that her presence was just wrong at the most basic level.
“You came back,” she said. The strange, harmonious layers of her voice put me on edge, but I tried not to show it. “Were you gone long?”
Jesse had no way to tell time inside this place, this eldritch pocket dimension created by Tuatha magic. It was convenient for me at least, because it meant I didn’t have to explain my absences.
“Not long,” I lied. “Jesse, I need a favor.”
“Ask, my love,” she said with a toothy, slightly unsettling smile.
“I need somewhere to keep this bird—someplace safe.”
She looked down at the nachtkrapp with a sneer. He was now making a soft crying noise, like the sound of a baby wailing in the distance.
“I could kill it for you—shall I kill it? It doesn’t belong here, you know. This place is life personified.” She gestured lazily at the night raven. “Its kind knows only death.”
That was one of the reasons why I was so concerned about the new incarnation of my ex. From the moment I’d found her wandering the grove, she’d demonstrated a fickle, mercurial side that the real Jesse had never possessed. It was an alien characteristic that reminded me way too much of the fae, and out of all the idiosyncrasies she possessed, it creeped me out the most.
“No, Jess, I can’t kill it, and I can’t let it go. I need a place to keep it, something that will prevent its escape. Can you do that for me?”
Jesse’s eyes sparkled, and a smile played across her smooth brown lips. “Of course I can. As I’ve told you before, I’m your helpmate now, Colin—it’s what I was created for. Or, at least, it’s what this body was meant to do. And as I am bound to it now, I’m bound to you. The master of the grove commands and the spirit obeys, always.”
A small tree sprang from the ground a few feet from me, and its branches wove themselves into the rough approximation of a large bird cage. I didn’t see a door, but one look at Jesse’s face told me I didn’t need one. Experimentally, I extended my hand toward the cage. Its branches spread apart of their own accord, leaving enough space for me to deposit Nameless inside.
The bird remained on his side where I placed him at the bottom of the cage, cradled in the notch made at the point where all the branches split. At first I thought he was dead, but then he lifted his head slightly to speak.
“You’ve doomed me, jaeger,” the bird croaked. Then, he laid his head down and was still.
Jesse whispered in my ear, “It won’t die here, but it won’t live, either.”
I jumped slightly, not expecting her to be standing next to me. Early on, I’d found she could make herself appear and disappear anywhere within the grove. I’d also discovered she had a habit of popping up out of nowhere, right at my elbow in most cases.
“Damn it, I told you to stop doing that!” I said as I took a step away from her.
Jesse looked hurt, but I couldn’t tell if it was a ruse or a real emotion. I had the sneaking suspicion that she didn’t feel emotions the same way I did anymore. Either the time she’d spent as a ghost had changed her, or the process of possessing the dryad had. I couldn’t be certain of the cause, but she was defective, that much was clear.
Jesse hung her head and gave me a wicked look beneath her hooded
eyes. “You’re unhappy that I returned. It’s that other girl, isn’t it? I can make her go away—then we’ll be happy together, you’ll see.”
“No, Jesse. That’s not what I want.”
“You don’t want me?” She moved toward me, hips swaying, eyes hungry. Her scent was intoxicating—a combination of jasmine, forest loam, and musk. I suspected she was releasing pheromones without even realizing it.
I stood there, paralyzed between disgust and desire. Jesse laid her palm on my chest, over my heart, and I felt her skin warm at the contact.
“I… I don’t know what I want, Jesse. Just give me time.”
“Your heart is pounding.” She looked up at me. Those unnatural, deep-green doe eyes were like spring-fed woodland ponds I could fall into, forever. “I told you, we have all the time in the world now. We were meant to be together, silly. And now we can be, for all eternity.”
My heart was racing, and some survival instinct deep within me set off an alarm in my head. Danger, Will Robinson, danger! I shoved her away from me—not violently, but with enough force to break contact.
“Jesse, stop it! I know what you’re doing to me, and it won’t work. I’ve been on the receiving end of enough glamour and seduction magic to know how to resist it. So please, just stop.”
Her eyes were downcast again, and the guile I’d seen there earlier had been replaced by genuine hurt. On one hand, I felt terrible for rebuffing her advances. Jesse had been my first love, my first kiss, my first everything. Even in death, she’d stuck by me through my darkest times, and in a sense she’d saved me more than once. My heart told me I owed her more than this.
But on the other hand, this was the problem. The whole situation was wrong; I knew it cognitively and intuitively. Jesse had never been meant to inhabit the body she currently possessed. Whether due to the fae magic she’d melded with, or the time she’d spent as a ghost, she’d changed. And, she was dangerous.
“Don’t you love me?” she asked, like a child who’d just been denied a cookie before dinner.
“I…” Shit. How do I respond to that? “Of course I love you—but I’m not digging this version of you, Jesse. You’ve changed, and not for the better.”
She looked up at me, and that same treacherous look was back again. Her face split into a wicked grin. “Perhaps you’d prefer me like this.”
In an instant, Jesse morphed into an exact likeness of Belladonna, nude as the day she was born. The resemblance was perfect, right down to the last beauty mark, curve, and scar. If I hadn’t seen her shift I’d have sworn it was Bells, and not my recently-dead ex.
My voice was low and serious as I replied. “No, Jesse—not at all. Change back, and don’t ever do that again.”
She shifted back into her dryad body with fury in her eyes. Her lips drew into a tight, thin line, her feet spread apart, and her arms were tense and straight at her sides. Jesse’s entire body shook with rage. Her tangled, leafy head of hair danced and swayed in a halo around her head like Medusa’s tresses.
“LIAR!” she screamed, revealing the mercurial side of her I’d come to fear. Her voice echoed all around, and a strong gust of wind whipped at the leaves and branches around us. The forest floor trembled and shook, and for a moment I staggered, finally catching my balance against the night raven’s cage.
She began to close the distance between us, step by perilous step, hatred in her eyes like I’d never seen her display in her previous life.
“Jesse, don’t…” I pleaded.
She ignored me, fully possessed by the rage she directed at me. I suspected if I allowed her to, she’d end me here and now. As dangerous as she was, I hadn’t a clue how to banish her—and even if I did, I had no idea what that might do to the druid grove.
From what I’d gathered thus far, the body she’d inhabited was supposed to be the avatar of the grove, a spirit made manifest that was meant to help me with—well, druid stuff. I worried that if I hurt her or banished her, it would endanger the grove. It being the last of its kind, I couldn’t bear to see that happen. Besides, this place was meant to be a sanctuary for me—a place to recharge my batteries, train my skills in druidry, and retreat when danger was near. I had a feeling I was going to need it for whatever might lie ahead.
So, burning it to the ground wasn’t an option. But then again, neither was being ripped to shreds by my reincarnated ex-girlfriend.
I reached into my Craneskin Bag and pulled out the one thing I knew she feared. The sword burst into flames as soon as I drew it out, and it radiated a heat that I’d never felt before. I extended the sword and pointed the tip at her chest. Jesse immediately shied away from the blaze.
A moment before, she was ready to kill me. Now look at her. Jesse had sunk into a squat, cowering away from the sword—and me. She shielded her face and head with her hands and arms, looking for all the world like an abused child shying away from a beating.
I extinguished the sword, but kept it at hand. “I’m leaving.” I headed for the druid tree, the exit point from the grove.
“No, don’t go! I’m sorry, Colin. I’ll be good, I swear—just don’t leave me. I’ve been alone too long, way too long.”
I paused to look back at her. “Jesse, you’ve become dangerous and unpredictable, and I don’t care to be around you when you’re like this. Look, I want to help you—”
“Then stay,” she begged in a whisper.
“—but I don’t know how.” My hand gripped the handle of the sword, squeezing it so hard my knuckles cracked. “Just—just give me some time to figure things out. Alright?”
“I love you, Colin. I hope you know that.”
“The problem is, Jesse, I don’t even know if you’re capable of love anymore.”
Her only reply was an angry screech. I ran to the tree, touching the bark and willing it to lead me back to the mortal realm. I did a quick circuit around the trunk, thankful that it was easier to return from the grove than it was to get there—a single walk around the tree was enough. Once I’d rounded it completely, I was back in the junkyard.
I hung my head and leaned against the tree, exhausted by the brief encounter and despondent about what had happened to the love of my life. I heard someone approach, so I hid the sword behind my leg and looked up to greet them.
“Hey there, loverboy! Maureen said I’d find you back here—”
She stopped mid-sentence, her face blanched and her eyes wide as she stared at something over my shoulder.
“Colin Edward McCool… what in the actual fuck is that?”
I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist as cool, soft lips laid a kiss on my cheek. I quickly snapped my head around, knowing what I’d see. Jesse was already ducking behind the tree and out of sight, the damage she’d intended to do already done.
Shit, I had no idea she could leave the grove. This could pose a serious problem.
I turned back around to explain myself, but Belladonna was already stomping her way toward the parking lot.
“Bells, wait!” I shouted, tossing the sword into my Bag as I jogged to catch up to her.
She raised a hand over her shoulder, not even looking at me as I dogged her steps. “I don’t want to hear it. Whatever that thing is—and if it’s a golem, you should know that you’re one sick fuck—you should have told me about it the moment it happened.”
“Belladonna, it’s not—” I laid a hand on her arm as I spoke. Big mistake. Next thing I knew, Bells grabbed my hand, locked my wrist, and threw me into a nearby truck with a textbook kotegaeshi. I had my bell rung as I collided with the truck’s door, and took a few seconds to recover. By the time I gathered my senses enough to stand, she was exiting the front gate.
I sprinted after her, only weaving slightly despite the mild concussion I’d sustained. It only took me a few seconds to reach the parking lot, but I arrived just in time to watch Belladonna’s Harley drive off into the distance.
Shit! I stood there for a moment with my hands on my hips, unsure of h
ow to proceed.
“Smooth move, Ex-Lax. What’d you do to piss her off?”
As I spun around I saw a whip-thin thirteen-year-old boy leaning against the fence—feet propped, arms crossed, and collar popped on his surplus Army jacket like a modern James Dean. He had braces, a mild case of acne, and wore a t-shirt that said, “Make Love, Not Horcruxes.” He kicked off the fence and whistled.
“Looks like she kicked your ass, too.” He pointed at my face. “You’re going to have a shiner for sure. Remind me to never go to you for dating advice.”
“Hello, Kenny,” I replied, probing the rapidly swelling area around my eye. “Shouldn’t you be in school right now? And how’d you get here, anyway?”
“Duh, public transportation. And don’t worry, I’m home-schooled now. Mom got tired of me getting into fights, so no more public school for me. I do this online thing—takes me about an hour a day to get through my lessons. After that, I usually take the bus to the comic store and hang out until the fat-ass behind the counter makes me leave.”
“An hour a day? Is that because you’re that smart, or because it’s that easy?” I asked, genuinely intrigued.
He smirked. “What do you think? Now, as much as I’d love to chat with you about the wonders of modern education, I came here because I need your help.”
“Kenny, I already told you that you’re not old enough to start training yet.”
He pointed a finger at me. “First off, you said one year, and that year is almost up. Second, I didn’t come here for that.”
“You better not be messing with the fae again. I already told you, they’re dangerous. That stunt you pulled on Rocko’s boys could’ve got you killed, you know.”
“They were leaning on Mr. Paljor! That old man never hurt no one, and they were extorting him for protection money.”