“Make a fist,” he told me. I did, and he tapped me at the end of my fist and at the corner of my mouth. “That’s your draw length,” he said. “Your arrows need to be roughly four finger lengths longer than that or you risk impaling them into your hand when you draw.”
I didn’t say thanks. That would be pushing it.
“Gimmie,” I said to Falin, unfisting my hand and holding it out for my keys. I just wouldn't touch the bloody charm.
Say please.
“Not likely, I-”
Falin had spoken in my mind. I belatedly realized it, closing my hand on empty air and pulling back.
“I would like to add my blood, too,” Aeric said.
Falin handed over the pin and my keys.
“Is he going to be in my head, too?” I asked, horrified. “I didn’t agree to this.”
Stop whining, Baby.
A moment later I could hear Aeric in my head as well.
It’s the safest way to track you, letting us share knowledge even if we aren’t directly with you.
“Like spying on me?” I irately suggested, thinking of how Eloden found me at the Changs’ apartment.
Go, shop. Your mother is waiting, Baby.
Hurry up, Brat.
I grabbed my keys from Aeric. Just for that last dig, I wasn’t going to put the windows down. It was early morning, but they would still get nice and sweaty before I got back unless they figured out they were manual.
I wouldn’t be the only one getting hot under the collar.
Chapter 11:
SHOPPING WITH THE TWO Fae in my head was a whole new experience. I couldn’t talk back to them, disappointingly. They were able to see, hear and feel what I did, but I didn’t think they had access to my inner thoughts. Good thing, since I was thinking foully of them for their dirty trick.
I grabbed the eggs first, then the ugliest sweats I could find in puke green with plain white t-shirts. The bow and arrows were last and the guy at the counter was helpful, even if Aeric shouting instructions on what to buy and how to test it out in my head made for a strange encounter. I came off as a complete novice and an expert all at once as I talked with the sales guy. Hopefully, he thought I had Googled my information, sounding like one of those people that think they’re experts because they’ve read it, even if they have no practical experience.
Daddy’s credit card got quite the workout. When I was in high school, I used to hate the kids that flaunted spending their parents’ money on stupid stuff but I could claim that all my purchases were practical.
The guys got out of the car to change in the back of the Walmart parking lot. As soon as Aeric stepped out of the car, his glamour snapped back in place, glow fading. The sun shone on him and nothing sparkled, thankfully. I trailed my fingers along his arm and then suddenly grabbed his hand, pulling it over to the open car door and touching his bare wrist above the glove. Instant glow. Off, on. Off, on.
“Stop it,” Falin hissed.
I didn’t know why he was so pissy. It was Aeric I was playing light switch with his powers against the metal door.
“It hurts,” Aeric gruffly admitted. “The metal poisons me, quite literally.”
“Keep it up and he’ll be unable to glamour the rest of the day,” Falin said.
I froze. His wrist looked completely normal where it had touched the door.
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know.”
Don’t look so glum, Brat. I’ll take it out on you later, make you sweat for every drop of iron poisoning.
I turned my back so the guys could change. Falin gave me a play-by-play in my head because he was a perverted jerk. I wonder how he would feel if I shoved his t-shirt up and sucked one of those barbells piercing his nipples into my mouth. Probably would shut him up. I had suppressed my sexuality but that didn’t mean I was prudish and with my shot of protection preventing repercussions?
I turned around and came face-to-face with Falin’s chest. So tempting.
“Let’s go. I’m starving,” I said.
Aeric looked with hate towards the car. “How much longer?”
“Five minutes, tops,” I promised.
The car had a lovely glow inside thanks to Aeric as I got back into the driver’s seat.
I buckled up and ordered Falin to do so as well. Aeric shouldn’t be touching metal buckles.
My mother was waiting outside when we finally got to the house. She was gardening, which was odd. She murdered every plant she had ever been given, not on purpose, just neglectful of feeding and watering the poor things.
I had a green thumb, which was inexplicable, but I didn’t have room for many plants in the apartment. Seeing her looking like a normal mom on a Sunday morning sucked the last of my pitiful depression out. I had overreacted. My mom was tougher than she looked.
Let me get out first, Baby. I’ll glamour Aeric until he can do it himself.
I grabbed the eggs and opened Aeric’s door once Falin was out. The glamour was seamless.
Introduce us, Brat. Don’t just stand there.
“Where’s the walker?” I yelled over to my mom in lieu of a greeting. I kicked Aeric’s foot. He could just shut up because my mother would know something was up if I started acting weird. The introductions he was expecting were going to be brief.
“I couldn’t get the walker down the front steps,” my mother said, putting down her spade. “All this dirt is plenty soft if I fell, anyway.”
“Let me assist you,” Aeric said, rushing to my mother’s side.
He picked her up.
I don’t know who was more shocked, my mother or myself.
“Do you want to go inside?” Aeric asked. “We brought eggs and Eve is starving. She gave most of her apple to the rat this morning.”
My mother was speechless, another rarity. I didn’t need her figuring out that Aeric had just admitted to being inside my apartment very early this morning.
“Put my mother down,” I ordered.
“I will carry her to the walker,” Aeric said, giving me a dirty look.
Falin pulled open the front door. “Eve, are you coming?”
I carried the eggs, giving Falin a dirty look as well.
“Mom, the giant carrying you is Aeric and the one holding the door is Falin,” I said to complete the introductions, walking inside.
Aeric deposited my mother back onto her feet next to the walker. He was careful not to let any part of his body brush against the metal frame. Falin closed the door and quickly grabbed hold of the walker and positioned it in front of her like you would for an elderly relative with a weak grip and unsteady feet.
“Thank you,” my mother said, a bit of edge to her tone. Yep, she hated the walker.
“I hear these are more fun if you sit on the seat and I wheel you,” Falin said.
“Like a wheelchair?” my mother asked.
I had to save Falin before he totally alienated my mother.
“No, like riding a shopping cart. I’ll take a running start and we’ll fly down the hallway. Look at the size of these wheels, I bet we can really get up to speed if we go down a hill outside. I saw this youtube video where-”
“Falin, my mother is not supposed to be doing wheelies in her walker. It would defeat the purpose.” I didn’t even want to know what he had been doing watching stunts on youtube. How would the Fae know much about technology? Wasn’t that anti-magic and most of it involved metal mechanics?
My mother turned around and sat on the walker. “Try not to hit the side table with the vase when you turn the corner. It’s Richard’s favourite.”
“Keep your hands and feet tucked in,” Falin said.
That bastard did pop the walker onto one wheel as he took the corner and my mother giggled. I would have to forgive Falin now.
Hurry up, Brat. We’re going to miss all the fun.
I’m sure Aeric meant all the food. He had mentioned feeding apple to Lady Antebellum like it had been sacrilege.
It wasn’t quite
the mother-daughter time I had planned, but the guys made my mother so happy that I was glad they had come. Falin convinced my mother to sit on the walker with the brakes engaged, while he tossed ingredients in the air towards her bowl. She had to catch them. Invariably, there was a mess. It was the most fun I had making pancakes since I was a kid. Aeric helped with the cooking, pouring the batter from the ladle onto the griddle in various patterns suggested by my mother, including some rather naughty ones for the boys. We all wondered if they would guess what designs their pancakes really represented.
My stepfather showed up half-way through the pancake making to put on coffee and water for tea, as well as the juicer to make some beet juice concoction that he drank every morning. He grew the vegetables in his own garden during the season.
“Charlene tells me that you will be teaching Eve some archery after breakfast,” my stepfather said.
“How is she with weapons?” Aeric asked, pouring out another pancake.
“Words? Exquisitely deadly. Swords? Not enough upper arm strength.”
Aeric sighed. “Her puny arms are going to struggle to pull the bow.”
“It’s form that matters anyway,” I said. “It just has to look good with the fake weapons later on,” I said, reminding Aeric of our cover story.
I had expanded on my lie and told my mother the guys like to meet up with larger cosplay groups to do re-enactments of game sequences and stuff. I made it sound incredibly geeky and boring despite the weapons. I had hoped it would make Falin seem less dangerous if I made him into a geek. It had been a minor miscalculation to forget that my stepfather loved geeky, just like his sons.
“Can you show me how to use a bow?” my stepfather asked. He sounded as eager as when he talked about variable interest rate mortgages. He might have even danced a little from foot-to-foot, although, he was also flipping a hot pancake.
“You could practice with my bow, but it is better to have one made specifically for you, matched to your draw length and weight,” Aeric said, sounding competent. He finished pouring the last pancake. There was no mistaking that this one was a dick. He even added a set of balls and used the fork we had beat the eggs with to draw a little line in the center of the scrotum.
“Is draw length important?” my father asked.
“Draw weight is the most important, but you will have more power with my bow if you can draw it,” Aeric explained.
“Why don’t you go with your brothers back to Walmart and get bows and arrows for us all,” my mother suggested. She eyed the last pancake with a half-smile.
Stuck in the car with my brothers and the Fae. A better hell could not be invented. I would have to pull over and spank everybody or turn the car around, but no way we were going to get to Walmart without an argument.
I can sit beside Aeric and extend my glamour over him in the car.
Glowbear smiled at my mother, oblivious. I had forgotten that Aeric’s unglamoured state was so bright. How did Falin have enough magic to cover them both in the car when even Eloden struggled with so much metal, ears showing pointy? I wished this telepathy was a two-way street.
“If you procure me some string, I should be able to measure you both after breakfast,” Aeric said.
“I have a measuring tape,” my stepfather offered.
He made it sound like an accomplishment, which wasn’t that far from the truth for him. Jackson may be handy with cars, but none of them could fix a leaky tap as I had at the Changs’ apartment. If my stepfather had tools around the house apart from what Jackson used on the cars, I bet they were still wrapped in plastic.
“Are we building something?” Matthew asked, first in the kitchen. He stopped and stared at Falin and then Aeric. I guess my mother hadn’t warned them.
Jackson pushed Matthew, blocking the kitchen entrance. “You can’t have all the pancakes to yourself,” he grumbled, still sounding sleepy. The boys liked to sleep in on weekends, still shaking off the last of their adolescence, but homemade breakfast was a strong incentive to get up early.
“Morning, Evie-baby,” said Matthew. “Falin, I remember, but I didn’t catch your name last week,” he said, levelling a frosty look at Aeric.
“This is Aeric,” my mother introduced, completely missing the ice Matthew was throwing. “Take plates and silverware out to the dining room table,” she told Matthew. “Jackson, if you want coffee, get a mug now.”
My stepfather took the stack of pancakes and maple syrup out to the dining room. My mother handed butter and a bowl of freshly cut strawberries to Aeric. Thank goodness the bowls were plastic. She gave Falin a sly look and asked, “Are you ready to mow down the slowpokes?”
Falin barely waited for her to take her seat again before he did as she asked and wheeled her at breakneck speed to the dining room. I debated on rushing out there without my own coffee but decided for this breakfast I was going to need it. Nobody was slaughtered in the minute it took me to make it with three sugars and cream. My first sip was bitter-sweet and hot and fortifying.
I marched down the hall with my caffeine carefully guarded in two hands.
“You want to show Evie-baby archery?” Jackson asked. His incredulous tone was insulting.
“We’re cosplaying,” I said, looking over to where Falin and Aeric were seated. My parents were at the head and foot of the table, naturally, and both the twins and the Fae had taken two of three seats at the sides of the table, leaving the middle chairs free on either side for me.
“Sit here,” Jackson told me, not waiting for me to decide otherwise.
It was a bit awkward. I really should sit with the guests.
Matthew stood up and pulled my chair out for me. As I sat down he pushed me in and bent down to whisper, “I thought this was supposed to be our breakfast.”
Of course, the Fae could hear everything through their charm that I still had stuffed in my jeans pocket.
Jealousy? And we’ve hardly touched you, Baby.
Falin’s foot followed his words, touching me under the table as he trailed it up towards my knees. I shifted in my seat, pretending to be reaching for the syrup as I dislodged his limb from my personal space.
Stop playing with Falin and pay attention, Brat. Are the utensils real silver?
I glanced over to Aeric, then picked up my fork to hook a pancake to my plate. “Eat up,” I said.
Everyone stuffed their mouths for a few moments. The pancakes were perfect, soft in the middle, a little crispy on the outside, hot enough to melt butter at a touch and the perfect base for a handful of sliced strawberries and maple syrup, the most fabulous taste combination in the world. I moaned a little as I took another appreciative bite. This was better than chocolate.
We’re buying strawberries to take home, Brat.
I licked syrup from my lips and looked over to where Aeric was staring at me. I don’t think I had ever seen him look at me like that, ready to eat me up. He was prickly and picky, not that I didn’t find that fun because it gave me an excuse to be completely myself around him, but this hungry stare put a new spin on things. Next time I pushed him would he retaliate more like Falin, using his body against me?
His lips were incredibly kissable. They were firm enough to take a good nibble or two.
“Do you want to take the jeep?” Matthew asked, pulling my attention back to breakfast.
“Uh, sure,” I said.
“Did you buy targets?” Jackson asked.
“No,” I answered, stuffing more pancake in my mouth. Too full to talk. I knew the twins were working up to what they really wanted to ask. They were just waiting for our parents to distract the Fae before they attacked me.
“Eve, how did things go at the lab yesterday?” my stepfather asked.
Whoa, broadsided by the inquiry, I stuttered a little. I had been prepared for the twins, not a parental concern.
“I-I slept in,” I said.
“Did you get fired?” Jackson asked, sounding hopeful.
“No,” I denied.
“I did the plate counts, but I was too late for the new study.”
“It’s a sign,” said my stepfather, the most practical person in the world. He didn’t believe in signs any more than I did that life was fair.
“Dr. Johnston mentioned a new study, but it’s not ready yet. They’re working on stem cell research.”
Matthew finished chewing a piece of pancake and turned to me. “You do know where they get stem cells from, right, Evie-baby?”
“I may not have graduated, genius, but I know what stem cells are and you can stuff your ethical debates,” I said, smarting from the disapproval coming from him. I had felt uneasy the whole time Dr. Johnston had talked to me about the new research, especially when he talked about cord blood and innocent babies.
“What did he want from you?” Jackson asked.
“He was just being polite,” I said, cutting up the last of my pancake. “I missed the trial and he just wanted me to know what the latest upcoming research was at the lab. He wasn’t asking me to have babies for his research.”
Deep down, I wondered about that last bit. Maybe that was what made me so uneasy. Especially with six Fae guys with a fertility problem they wanted me to fix.
At the mention of babies, my mother got involved. “Dr. Jansen mentioned that you were overdue for your check-up last time I saw him.”
“Mom!” I said, embarrassed. I shoved pancake in my mouth and chewed.
“It’s important to take care of your health,” Falin said, supporting my mom.
I glared at him across the table. “Finish your pancakes,” I ordered him, speaking with my mouth full.
Eat another pancake, Baby. You’ve been skipping too many meals.
Falin wasn’t appalled by my lack of manners. I forked another pancake onto my plate, knowing he was right. The twins both took another couple pancakes each and Aeric was finishing his last, dainty bite. It was his fifth pancake. Aeric might eat neatly but he was a packing machine.
“So Aeric, what can you tell us about archery?” my stepfather prompted, finally distracting the Fae.
No Faerie Tale Love (Faerie Series Book 1) Page 16