by Conn, Claudy
“Ewwwww…” she gasped as she blinked herself clean and returned her attention to Deimne. She couldn’t allow anything to happen to Frankie’s father and she was worried. He was in such absolute danger.
She witnessed him shift and land on the grotesque Gorka’s long neck. She was sure he was shielded against the poison the creature emitted. For if not, it would get into his skin and it could be fatal.
What was he doing? Did he think he could ride the thing to its death?
The three eyed monstrous dragon bucked as its leathery wings spanned the sky and she saw Deimne struggling to hold tight while he wielded his sword. He was trying to climb onto position and stab the upper eye.
Frankie would be so proud of her father. He was doing all this to distract the beast from the humans.
Their eyes met for a moment as he grinned like a boy on an adventure. She smiled and returned to the job of Slamming group after group of Unseelie, but the grotesque things just kept coming.
They were so totally outnumbered. This was trouble of the worst kind.
She had no choice but to keep taking them down, first twenty, then thirty at a time. She hopped from one still body to the next to finish them off.
Windows to the store fronts were being smashed. The city looked as though a bomb had taken it down. The streets were inundated with Unseelie creatures groping, climbing, crawling and slithering over their fallen brethren.
They came by the hundreds, upon hundreds and they just kept coming.
Jazz looked at Trevor and shouted over the din, “What the hell! We were supposed to surround them Trev, not the other way around.”
“Just keep Slamming, love; just keep Slamming. We’ll do,” he said encouragingly.
No matter how many she took them down, they kept coming.
The Milesians, Daoine, and Seelie Warriors as well as Nuad and his team of Trackers, including herself, Trevor, and all the Royals were being backed into a circle.
They were being surrounded by the monsters. Jazz was concerned about the ramifications.
Jazz didn’t know what made her look up at that moment, but she did. It was just in time to see Deimne being thrown off the Gorka’s neck.
“Trevor!” she shouted and pointed as Deimne plunged unconscious toward the street.
Trevor vanished into his shift and then reappeared holding the still Sluagh and gently laid him on the concrete street.
Breslyn was on the spot telling Trevor, “With me quickly!” He and Trevor waved their hands only inches from Deimne’s torso with the healing power that was theirs.
Jazz felt tears well up as she waited for Deimne to regain consciousness. Over and over again, she kept telling herself they couldn’t let anything happen to Deimne. He just had to be okay.
Things were not going well at all. They were losing this war. The human race could be lost.
~*~
Frankie had been sitting beside Ete and discussing baby names. It had been fun and she had for a moment, forgotten that her da, Jazz, and Trevor were out there, perhaps in a battle. Suddenly, a sure vision swept through her like a hurricane tearing away all other thoughts. Her da!
Her da.
Pain shot through her entire body and then…nothing!
He was hurt. Her father was hurt. She had just discovered her real blood father. He was her connection to herself. She already adored him. The way he spoke and the way he carried himself impressed her. She loved glancing his way to find a look of love in his eyes. He had become all important in her life.
Jazz. Where was Jazz…?
Fear engulfed Frankie as she went within her Daoine Fae and knew exactly where her father and Jazz were. She saw it all.
Frankie shifted.
Frankie arrived to stand on the roof of a three story building. Below her, deformed, raging beasts were ravaging the city, destroying life and feeding with a gluttony she could never have imagined.
Then she saw her fellow Fae. Many of them had formed an enormous circle and were keeping the monsters at bay. Those monsters were on the attack—attacking the Fae, for some of them had Death weapons.
At the center of that circle her father lay unconscious. She cried out. Above her she spotted the Gorka blowing flames of blue, across the street and eating humans in its path!
“Noooo!” Frankie yelled. Suddenly she was infused with her family’s past. Her mind was flooded with ancient memories that were not her own, but those of ancestors long gone. Her fury and desire to get to her father and protect him, built up with her scream. Her body filled with power all at once. It was a power meant to grow with her as she grew into maturity, but it came as a force and it came all at once.
She shifted to her father and rubbed her fingers along his face. “Da, da.” A growl took over her voice. She rubbed her hands along his Death Sword and whispered an ancient spell she had never heard before, then Frankie stood.
Frankie’s gold lit auburn hair stood out straight all around her face. She felt her body hairs stiffen with electricity. She felt a might take over every magical ability she had to infuse those abilities with a super strength that would not be denied.
Frankie reached out her hand and pointed at the hordes of Unseelie monsters closing ranks on the Fae. A fireball as large as a tank went streaming towards the monstrous crowd. It was as though the fireball seemed to be sentient as it picked out its targets and killed them.
Jazz stared at Frankie for a moment, but stood back and allowed the girl some room. Frankie glanced at her, but knew she couldn’t for long or she would soften and this new power would be lost.
She had the magic of Danu from rubbing her father’s Sword and her own Fios fireball expanded by her Daoine blood. She was going to use that power and end these creatures once and for all.
She sent fireball after fireball at them, cutting them down by the hundreds.
~*~
From her perch on top of the high story building, Aaibhe watched humans shoot iron bullets into the crowd of abominations. She felt such a warm admiration for these brave humans. They were mortal and risked all to stop and take aim.
Then she saw Pestale.
He was holding the Gorka pendant in his hand and directed the Gorka with it.
She put up her hand and chanted, calling for the pendant to come to her. Pestale glanced around as he felt the pendant tug against him and he saw the Queen.
He pointed the pendant at the Gorka and gave it a target. That target being Queen of the Seelie Fae, Aaibhe.
The Gorka stopped in mid-flight and changed its course. With a wild howl of fury it zeroed in on the Queen. Its leathery wings made a swooshing sound in the air as it flew directly towards Aaibhe.
Aaibhe knew she was in danger. The Gorka was a viable threat even to her. She would have to shift off, but the Gorka now had a target and would not easily give up. She needed to keep Pestale in sight, for he was her target.
The Queen looked towards Deimne hoping that the Sluagh had not been poisoned by the Gorka. He should have been revived already. Breslyn and Trevor’s healing powers should have revived him. Then her eyes met with Frankie’s.
All at once Aaibhe realized what was happening to their young Daoine. She watched as Frankie looked past her at the Gorka. She witnessed young Frankie’s contemptuous glare as the child’s hand went up. She felt pride blossom in her as she witnessed the Frankie’s skill.
Frankie shot out a fireball that was larger than the beast. The Gorka tried to outmaneuver the enormous burning ball coming at it, but it made a direct hit. It was full with Danu dust from Deimne’s Death Sword. It exploded all around the Gorka whose agony was quickly over.
All the Fae warriors and Royals went still as the beast made one last bellowing cry and plunged to the city streets; quite dead.
~*~
“Damn,” said Jazz. “That is going to make one big clean up.” She grinned at Frankie and put an arm around her.
Frankie hugged her and turned to her father. “Jazz. M’da…m�
�da. Why won’t he wake up?”
“He’ll be okay hun, honest. Breslyn and Trevor have healed him. It is just that the poison got onto his skin, but I know he will be fine. I can hear him breathing. Can’t you?”
Frankie listened. “Aye!” she said with some excitement. “I can…oh Jazz! I can!”
“If it is okay with you, Frankie, I’m going to shift him to Queen Mab who has just arrived and is atop the building with Queen Aaibhe. That way he can be safe while he fully recovers. What do you think?” Trevor stuck in.
“Aye then, that would be grand, Trevor,” Frankie said. She turned to Jazz and grinned suddenly. “ We best be taking down the rest of these monsters. Do ye not think?” said the grown up child.
Jazz wanted to protect Frankie from all the death and destruction, but she supposed it was too late for that. “Yup, I’ll Slam and I guess you’ll burn,” she said with a wide smile.
Systematically they began this process, moving through the streets, clearing everything in their path. Most of the warriors followed their route, slicing and dicing and finishing off the hordes.
The Queens took to the business of relegating the bodies that did not disintegrate into the wasteland dimension.
An hour of this went by and Jazz paused a moment to scan the streets ahead for any stragglers. She worried where Pestale and Hordly were and then realized that Trevor wasn’t around either.
Jazz pulled up short.
She knew. All at once she knew. She held Frankie’s shoulders “Frankie, I have to find Trevor. Will you stay with the Queens…and your da?” she pointed with her chin, “Up there…please, so I can have peace of mind while I look for him?”
“Aye, but don’t ye want me to come with ye?”
“Not this time, they might need you here,” Jazz said.
“Aye then,” said the child proudly. “Find him Jazz.”
Jazz went into her mind and once again her mate had blocked her out. That told her exactly where he was.
She shifted to Pestale’s castle.
She stood in the grand sparsely furnished hallway and did a quick search with her Fae senses. She stomped across the wide hall and pulled open the large oak door to the huge chamber Pestale had been using as his war room.
Hordly was wrapped in gold netting from head to toe and was lying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. He met her gaze and she laughed. She couldn’t help it.
He spat a string of both human and Gaelic curses at her.
Hordly was trapped. She didn’t have to worry about him.
Jazz grinned in spite of the fact that she was annoyed with Trev for going off on his own. He had evidently done very well.
Then she heard their voices in the small anteroom at the far corner of the war room.
“Did you really think you could outwit and destroy the combined power of the Seelie, Daoine and Milesians? What kind of an ego do you have?” Trevor said contemptuously.
“Get it over with. If you have come to kill us, then do so. I don’t want to have to listen to your dribble.”
Jazz saw that Trevor had trapped Pestale with the Tracker’s spell; a nearly invisible wall of white magic surrounded the Dark One.
Pestale was frozen in place.
She frowned and wondered if Trevor would allow his emotion to overrule his good sense. The Queen had expressly forbidden anyone from killing Pestale if it could be helped.
Jazz’s brow went up as she watched Trevor start to plunge his Death Sword into Pestale without hesitation.
Well, that answered that question. As she was about to try and stop him something else occurred and intervened.
The room was filled with a white light.
A scent of roses filled the air and a holograph of a woman appeared. She was lovely. Jazz knew just who it was. Crystal, the Dark King’s consort.
She stopped Trevor’s Death Sword inches away from Pestale’s body and clicked her tongue. “I have been watching and hoping it would not have to come to this. I dislike playing with the fates, but perhaps it is destiny. Perhaps I am meant to stop you, Trevor of Lugh, from this unwise act.”
Trevor bowed his head respectfully. Here was the reason his beloved Jazmine Decker was alive. Crystal had showed him what to do. Crystal had advised him regarding the Twalla. He answered, “Pestale must pay for the atrocities he has committed.”
“I agree. Ordinarily one should be punished when one commits evil. However, my lord, my King does not quite see it that way. If you kill the Dark King’s first son, the consequences would be horrendous. He has evolved, but many things about him are the same. His attachment to his creations--what he calls his sons, is in spite of his neglect unusually deep.” She paused and put up a hand. “I understand your concerns and shall address them. Pestale and Hordly will be taken to a dimension that has been renewed and adapted to hold them for eternity. It is a lovely world unlike the Dark Realm which helped to instill the evil that is in them. The Dark King recognizes his fault in their characters and wishes to make amends for them. This place will allow them to live peacefully and keep the World safe from their wicked intentions.”
“And Morrigu?” Jazz asked curiously.
“She too, with her human lover will be transported to this special dimension from which there is no escape.”
There was yet another, Crystal had not mentioned. She raised her brow and asked, “And Graely?”
“Ah, Graely is another matter, as you, my dear, already suspect.”
So saying, Crystal and the two Dark Princes vanished.
Jazz was pretty sure that when they looked for Queen Morrigu in the castle she too would be gone.
Trevor raised his Death Sword into the air with frustration. “Not acceptable!”
Jazz stroked his chest. “Pestale, Hordly, and Morrigu are gone and I am certain we will never be bothered by them again.”
“They need to be dead! I wanted to be the one to send them to hell. That is the only way we won’t be bothered by them again,” Trevor spat. “Leave your enemies alive and they will return. Mark my words on this, my love.”
“I happen to agree with you, but there is nothing we can do about it Trev. Come on, we have a city to clean up,” Jazz said.
Suddenly he grabbed hold of her and held her to him. “Jazmine Decker, I need you to know that we Fae don’t have the equivalent of a heart, but I have grown one for thee. It beats steadily in my chest pounding out your name until it is all that I hear. My essence, what humans call a soul, cries for you, reaches for you, begs for your touch. As do my hands…as do my eyes to see only you…”
He was so intense. The moment was so intense.
Jazz put a finger to his sensuous mouth. “And this…” she said unbuttoning his pants as she slid her hand in to find and hold his shaft, “…does this long for my touch?” A tease lit in her eyes for she wanted to lighten the moment.
He threw back his head and roared with laughter releasing all his pent up frustration. He then said as he bent to take her mouth with his, “Ah yes, it is ever longing for you. Jazmine Decker, you are my love and my everything.”
Epilogue
The two Queens spent a long time cleaning up the city of Inverness. Shop windows were repaired as though never broken.
Street signs that had been overturned were righted. Cars that had been pounded and jumped on were set to their original status.
The memory of this day was rearranged from the minds of the survivors. Instead of Unseelie, they remembered only some unknown terrorists with some kind of toxin and a brave army coming in to save the day. It was a huge task and both Prince Breslyn and Danté were enlisted to help in this job.
Aaibhe and Mab both wanted to engage Crystal in a conversation regarding the future. They needed to discuss matters with her, because speaking with the Dark King had become impossible. Crystal was nowhere to be found.
They would have to trust that the Dark King and his consort would contain the Dark Princes forever in the world they had made for
them.
Jazz asked Aaibhe about Graely, because his name had not come earlier and Graely was of interest to her, though she couldn’t say why.
Aaibhe gazed at her intently as though trying to read her thoughts and then said softly that it was her belief that the Dark King and Crystal had decided to leave this Dark Prince to his own devices. She seemed confident that he was not interested in taking over the World, but that they should remain watchful in his regard.
Banzar was sentenced to many centuries of censure. The best of his magic had been removed from him. He was left with only the simplest forms of Fae magic and confined to Tir. He was still able to conjure food and maintain his grounds, but not much else.
Most of the Fae gave him a wide berth and he took on the life of a hermit.
After a time, the war was set aside as a bad memory which was best left in the past. Everyone got back to the real business of living as Fae were all about living. Living was all about music, arts, and sports.
Breslyn could not stop talking about his expected baby and Ete, but he took some time to help Trevor as he was good at many human jobs. Trevor needed him for the surprise he had planned for Jazmine Decker.
One of those jobs was hacking into a computer system which would allow Trevor to set up a history and a future for both himself and Frankie.
Together with Breslyn, they installed birth records, credit lines, a bank account, and a school record for Frankie.
They created a drivers license, a passport, and all documents either he or Frankie might need. Trevor was well pleased with the results when Breslyn slapped him on the back and told him to go for it.
Trevor felt a swelling of pride when he thought of what he had done for his beloved and for Frankie—his immediate family.
This was his gift to them. This was what he knew. They both needed a life in the human world.
He wanted that for Jazz and Frankie. He knew Jazz wanted her lost time back. He knew she wanted to work as a Marine Biologist and she wanted Frankie to experience life as a human child.
He was very proud of his efforts.
Again, with Breslyn’s help they traveled to Charleston, South Carolina and purchased a beautiful home and even constructed elaborate guest quarters for Deimne who had agreed to this scheme with the stipulation that he could come and go as he pleased.