by Kimbra Swain
I honestly had no idea how I was going to manage it. My stomach was twisted in knots. I felt sick. I hated myself. Of All the things I’d done in my life, this one repulsed me the most. He got in my face and locked eyes with me.
“Dylan, if you truly love her, you have to do it. More will come for her. Keeping her in one place will attract more fairies. If the Greeks knew she was here, and I suspect that’s from the law firm in Tuscaloosa, then more will know. I’ll need you to keep her safe, but also those who come looking to hide as well. We will take as many as we can here. The bad ones will stay away knowing her father’s reputation, but the worst, well, the worst ones will hunt her,” he said, rubbing his hand through his hair. “I know you don’t approve of my ways, but I don’t want anything to happen to her. I care about her. I’ve known her for forty years almost. There isn’t another one like her.”
“I’m not leaving. I just have to adjust, but it won't happen overnight,” I muttered. The idea of more fairies frightened me. Too many in one place could turn into chaos. There was one thing I was sure about. They could hunt her, but I would obliterate them. I’d done it once now for her. I’d do it a thousand times without hesitation. Perhaps that story needed to float around the fairy channels as well. “Is there any way you can float the rumor of a phoenix, an ifrit, the Krampus and a Sanhedrin taking out a den of vamps? It might help keep things away if they knew what was here protecting her.”
“No, I don’t want them to have any preparation to fight us. Rumors will spread, but I’m hoping we can keep our activities silent. I’m going back in there with her. Don’t stay away from her for too long,” he said.
“I won’t. Tell her I’m sorry I had to rush off,” I said.
He laughed. “You know that won’t help.”
“Yes, it will. For someone who has known her for forty years, it seems like you would know her better,” I said.
“I don’t look at her with the same eyes,” he replied.
“No. I suppose you don’t,” I said, climbing in my red Camaro.
Weariness took over, and I barely made it home before I passed out. I stumbled into the back door through the garage. Leaning on the kitchen counter, my body sagged with exhaustion. Stephanie waved at me from the couch where she sat on Joey Blankenship’s lap. She rode him enthusiastically.
“Hey Dylan, I’ll be done in a minute, then you will get your turn,” she smiled. I walked over to the sink and hurled until I dry heaved.
“Who is that?” Joey asked. His voice sounded lost. She had a spell on him.
“Get out,” I muttered.
Her cries of passion increased, echoing through the house like a pulsing wave of glee. Her body convulsed with an orgasm. When she finished riding the high, she continued to grind against him. He grunted multiple times, then vocalized his release. I had my guns with me from the fight. I pulled one, pointed it at the ceiling and fired. She screamed, jumped off of him, and ran across the room. He laid in a daze on the couch, mumbling.
“I said, get the fuck out!”
“You will pay for this, Dylan Riggs!” she screamed. She went to go up the stairs but I twirled the gun to her. She froze in place. “I’m going to get clothes.”
“You didn’t need them to fuck him in my house on my couch. You don’t need them to leave,” I said. “Out the front door. Go!”
She stomped her foot like a child. I stuck the gun in my pants as I marched across the room to her. She stumbled backward, but I caught her by the arm. “Let go!” she squealed.
I dragged her kicking and screaming to the front door. I’d never hurt her before despite all of her nonsense, but I was at the end of my rope. She was leaving this house. Slinging the front door open, I tossed her on the front porch. She started to get up to come back in, but I slammed the door in her face. She screamed while beating on the front door with her fists. She tried opening it, but the door didn’t budge. Pulling out my phone, I dialed Troy.
“Hey, man,” he said.
“Stephanie is on my front porch, naked, trying to beat the door down. Could you send a car out to collect her? Oh, and Joey Blankenship is naked on my couch under some sort of spell,” I said.
“Call Jeremiah,” he said.
“No, he’s with Grace,” I growled. My head throbbed.
“I’ll call him,” he said.
“Whatever,” I said, pulling a bottle of whiskey out of the bottom of my pantry. I rarely drank hard liquor, but today was a hard liquor kind of day. I threw Joey’s pants from the floor over his limp dick. Slumping down in my recliner, I sat and drank to tune out everything.
I had more than half the bottle finished when Jeremiah arrived. Stephanie sat on the front porch crying. Joey snored. He walked in the back door. I never heard a car. Stephanie didn’t notice him either. Her sobs continued. Jeremiah looked at Joey, then at me. I lifted my bottle to toast him.
“Welcome. For the record, I didn’t call you,” I said.
“You kicked her out?” he asked.
“She was fucking him on my couch. She asked me to give her a minute while she finished him, then I could have my turn. So, after I threw up in my kitchen sink, blew a hole in the ceiling with my pistol, and dragged her ass out of here, I decided to have a drink. I’d offer you a glass, but I’m gonna need the rest of this,” I explained.
He waved his hand over Joey who stirred as Jeremiah’s magic swirled around him. Jeremiah snarled. “He’s spelled,” he said.
“Yep,” I said, knowing full well the consequences of spelling a human for sex. Sanhedrin laws were strict on human/fairy interactions even if you didn’t have a contract. Everything had to be consensual.
He waved his hand over the boy again, and he vanished. “I sent him to my house. I’ll have to release the spell once he’s awake. May I bring her in here to speak to her? Or do you want me to do this business on your porch?”
“I want to lay down and pass out for a year. As long as you don’t hinder that, I don’t give a shit. But I’m going to finish my bottle first. Bring her in. It will be amusing,” I said. I hoped to see her beg for her life. Cower to a man. She certainly wouldn’t cower to me.
Jeremiah walked to the front door, but before he opened it, I asked, “How’s Grace?”
“Sleeping. Betty is sitting with her until I return,” he said. When he opened the door, Stephanie fell backward into the house. She had been sitting with her back to the door. She laid on the floor looking up at Jeremiah. Before she could scramble away from him, he laid a very strong order. “Stand up. Go sit on the couch and don’t open your fucking mouth.”
She stood, then slowly walked to the couch. She looked down at it, then at me. Anger, rage, hatred, and a whole plethora of nasty emotions poured out of her eyes at me. She plopped down on the couch.
“Stephanie Davis, did you place a spell on Joey Blankenship? You may answer this question only,” he said.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Do you know what the penalty for spelling a human is?” he asked. “You may answer this question.”
“Death,” she replied.
Jeremiah paced back and forth. I wondered how he would do it. Normally, I wasn’t so heartless, but my heart wasn’t just broken, it was splintered. The shards of the hope I had for a future here floated around in nothingness. Jeremiah would never allow me to have Grace. Stephanie would continue to plague me.
“What should I do with you? Answer as you wish,” he said.
“Please, Jeremiah. On behalf of my mother, I beg you. Don’t extinguish me. I will do whatever you ask. If you want me to continue to spy on Sergio, I will, but please don’t kill me. What will my mother think?”
I knew in that diatribe there were questions that I needed to pay attention to, but none of them seemed to register in my haze.
“Are you fucking Sergio Krykos?” he asked. “Answer this one question.”
“Yes,” she said.
“Did he send the vrykolakas to take Grace?” he asked. �
�Answer!” His patience thinned.
“I don’t know,” she said, shivering. He picked up a blanket off the floor, throwing it at her. It occurred to me then, that he had no intention to kill her. I pushed up off the chair, heading for my bedroom. Alone.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To bed. I’m exhausted. It’s clear you have no intention to kill her. I’m going to rest because I know my curse. You will leave her here with me. I’ll need rest to deal with her,” I said.
“I haven’t decided,” he smirked at her.
“Yes, you have. You know I’m not leaving now. You have me better than she ever did. If she stays, I have terms. We will discuss them when I’m sober,” I said, trudging up the stairs.
Stephanie started giggling. “Shut-up, whore,” Jeremiah seethed. He didn’t have the control over either one of us that he wanted. He certainly didn’t have control over Grace. “What do you want, Dylan?”
“Grace,” I said.
He grunted, finally letting me leave. I heard him speaking to her. He told her to put on clothes and get out of the house.
Silence.
Grace
For the next few weeks, I felt like I was in a haze. Jeremiah convinced me it was the taint still lingering in my body. I decided the best thing I could do was draw power from my well. Even though Jeremiah told me to stay close to home, I knew if I went out there, I would feel better drawing power from not just the trees around my home, but from the Otherworld. The well had a solid tether that I built to keep it flowing one way. I supposed if my father ever chose to use it, he could, but no one else would be able to get through. I hadn’t seen my father in an age, so I doubted that he cared.
The drive out was peaceful. Town seemed to be quiet. It went by in a blink. The diner had a few customers, and I saw a car outside Nestor’s bar. I went to see him a few days ago before he opened up. He promised me that he was fine and that if it ever happened again, he would give up his life for me. A very gentlemanly thing to say. I liked Nestor, but I couldn’t go back to his bar. This town was too small.
Mable told me at the Food Mart yesterday that Joey Blankenship had become terribly ill. They were searching for clues as to what happened to him. I worried that maybe something I did caused him to be sick, but I couldn’t think of what it might be.
Eight miles off the main road, the gravel road came to a dead stop. I climbed out of the truck with a light jacket, jeans, and a long-sleeved shirt. It was a brisk day in winter. The jacket was for show because the cold didn’t bother me. The stone circle waited for me. I felt the stored power of the well calling to me. When I reached the center stone, I lay down on it, curling into a ball. The power released and flowed into me. I started to feel alive again. I remembered my plan to get the truth from Dylan about something, but I couldn’t quite remember what it was. Before I knew it, I’d fallen asleep on the stone.
When I awoke, darkness surrounded me. The stars twinkled brightly above my head, and the night was quiet. I rolled off the stone, stiff, but recharged. When I started walking back to the truck, the howl of a wolf split the air. Immediately, the power in my tattoo flared for a defense. I carefully watched the tree line for any sign of danger, but the forest remained silent. Slowly I walked to the truck looking all around me.
Hearing voices, I slowed my approach. Flashlights waved around in the darkness.
“Grace!” a voice called out. “Grace, are you out there?”
I didn’t recognize the voice so I stepped behind a tree. The howl of the wolf shattered the air again. There were at least five people with flashlights.
“Hold up,” a familiar voice said. “Stay here.”
I heard the crunching of footsteps. Calming my breath, I stopped breathing. It took the effort to allow the fairy in me to take control if only for a moment.
“Grace, it’s Dylan. You can come out,” he said.
“What do you want?” I asked quietly.
“You’ve been missing. We were worried,” he said.
“We?”
“Yeah, Luther and Betty are here. Troy, too,” he said. “Will you come out and look at me?”
I peeked around the tree. His hand hovered over his gun. Oh shit! They had sent him to kill me. “Step back, Sheriff. Don’t make me hurt you.”
He threw his hands up in the air. The flashlight he held illuminated the trees above us. “Grace, I promise. We are just worried.”
Stepping out into the light of two flashlights behind him, he sighed. His shoulders slumped. He looked ill. Slowly, I walked toward him. The others stayed back. “Are you sick, Dylan?”
“No, Grace. Just tired. We’ve been looking for you for two days,” he said.
“Two days,” I muttered. “No, I came out here earlier today for a walk. I own this land.”
“You own this, but you live in a trailer?”
“Don’t make fun of me,” I said, walking past him. His hand touched my arm as I passed. The warmth passed from him to me in an instant.
He walked slowly behind me without saying a word. Luther and Betty watched me walk past them as well. Troy emerged from behind Dylan’s cruiser as I reached my truck.
“Grace, you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m fine,” I said. “Sorry to cause all the problems.”
“It’s our job,” he said smiling.
Dylan had come around the front side of the truck and stood holding my door open for me. He watched me closely. When I got to the point where I had to use the step bar to get in, he leaned closer to me. I turned to face him.
“You came to kill me?” I asked.
“My oaths are true, Grace,” he muttered. The smell of leather, peppermint and musk wafted from him. The fairy inside me tapped me to remind me that she needed attention.
“Why was your hand over your gun?”
“I wanted to make sure it was you, and not something that looked like you,” he said.
“A doppelganger?” I asked.
“Maybe,” he said. “I’ve seen them before.”
“Not around here,” I said.
“What were you really doing out here?” he asked.
I lowered my head. “I went for a walk, sat down on a flat stone, and fell asleep. I didn’t know I was gone that long.”
He sighed deeply. “You scared the shit out of me,” he mumbled.
“I’m sure the Sanhedrin will forgive you for losing me,” I said.
“No. It’s not that. Just please be careful. I thought after the vrykolakas you wouldn’t go out alone like that,” he said. I knew there was more to that tale that Jeremiah had forbidden him to talk about with me. I saw it in his eyes. His deep cobalt eyes. I could drown in them. “I’ll follow you back.”
It wasn’t a suggestion. He was going to do it. I decided not to protest. Perhaps I wasn’t feeling like myself at all. He looked sad. I didn’t like the way it made me feel. Part of me wanted to make him tell me why he suddenly looked at me differently. The other toyed with the idea that perhaps Dylan Riggs cared more about me than he admitted.
“Dylan, you can’t just order me around. I’m not your servant,” I said.
He pursed his lips, reaching for my hand. He brought it to his mouth, gently kissing it. “Go home, Grace,” he said, then shut the door on me.
I sat in stunned silence for a minute. What the hell was going on? One minute he’s arresting me to take me home, now he’s kissing my hand. I had to admit the hand kiss was a better tactic. That’s what he was doing. Trying something new to manipulate me. That was fine. I had plans for the lying Dylan Riggs.
Dylan
When I got home, Stephanie was waiting for me on the couch. She jumped up when I entered the kitchen. “Did you find her?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, taking a beer from the fridge.
“Is she okay?” she asked.
“Yeah. She fell asleep in the forest. She is home now,” I said. I couldn’t get used to this new Stephanie. I hated the bitch, but
this concerned and loving girlfriend seemed so much like a lie. I wasn’t sure exactly what Jeremiah did to her, but she had been home every night, except occasionally. She cooked dinner. We went out on dates. It was like a normal relationship, only my heart wasn’t in it anymore. I played along as I was told. It was hard. Part of me even hated it for Stephanie, because she was doing things she had never done before. I had to assume she was being forced. I had confronted Jeremiah about it, but he told me that she agreed to all of my terms. He said she wanted it this way.
“Are you coming to bed?” she asked.
“In a little bit. I need to clear my head,” I said. The last two days looking for Grace had been a nightmare. She simply disappeared without a trace. We couldn’t even use a location spell for her. Once we found her I figured it had to do with her stone circle protecting her.
Stephanie kissed me on the cheek. “Try to rest. Everything is fine now,” she said.
“Thanks, Steph,” I said. She squeezed my bicep then climbed the stairs to our bedroom. The bedroom I never slept in anymore. I slept on the couch, or in the recliner. I had even slept in my cruiser a couple of times. It just didn’t feel right. Stephanie never questioned it. She would ask if I was coming to bed, but never mentioned that I didn’t. She didn’t work late in Tuscaloosa, and she never mentioned her boss or the people at the law firm. I had only asked that Jeremiah make her promise not to fuck anyone in my house or in town. Outside of that, I didn’t care. But, it seems as though he went to the extreme.
It defeated the purpose of spying on her. She never talked about the things he wanted me to find out. I resolved that he decided he didn’t want me with Grace and would do whatever it took to keep us apart.
I drank half a dozen beers, then passed out in the recliner.
The dream started almost immediately. The sun shined brightly on a warm day. Our friends were all gathered around us in a field full of flowers. Matthew Rayburn in his full druid regalia stood before us. Grace stood next to a beautiful little girl with brown hair just like hers. Behind her, a woman stood holding a baby in a blue blanket. My son.