by Anne Manning
"Find him and bring him to us." Eochy rose. "If there is no other matter to be discussed today, I will close this meeting." He looked across the table to Gaelen. "Get him a good advocate, Gaelen. Maybe something can be done to save him. Especially if he cooperates in silencing the human girl."
Wings fluttered as the Council of One Hundred rose and departed.
Gaelen sat alone at the table, only barely aware of how his wings were still twitching. Ordered back to Ireland. Bridget, what a curse.
Not that he didn't like Ireland. He loved Ireland. He traveled there every year to talk to the Old Ones, to get new stories from fairies who'd been spinning tales for millennia. Since the days of Amergin, and the Iberian's Land Swindle, he thought with a grin, and Tir-Nan-Og, the Land of Perpetual Youth, where you could live forever, young and strong and happy. Fairies were allowed to visit and even stay if the place took them, which it did.
At first.
He frowned. Club Med for fairies. A great place to visit, but not a place for a man to live.
And even with wings on his back, Gaelen Riley was still a man, a man with a passion which couldn't be fulfilled in Tir-Nan-Og.
Gaelen Riley's passion was teaching. How could a sprout like himself teach the Old Ones anything? How could he pass on to them the excitement of a tale of war and heroism and love? Fairies are war and heroism and love. But humankind, they need the stories. They need the inspiration. What would they do without us?
In that instant, he understood what he had to do, even if it made him sick. It was Gaelen's responsibility to make sure Lucas and his human didn't rock the boat. The cost-to both human and fairy-would be too great.
Surely the life of one human girl wasn't too much to ask so the magic of fairy and the drive of humankind remained available to each other? For without the magic, humankind would be smothered in the mundane. Without the drive of humankind, Faerie would be rudderless.
Bridget! He'd die of boredom. Better to get it over with quick.
Gaelen folded his wings and picked up his torn shirt and jacket.
Time to find Lucas and his human girl.
Chapter Four
It was the flash of light at the window that awakened her. Annabelle groaned and raised her stiff neck off the back of the chair where she'd fallen asleep. Only after looking around and rubbing her gritty eyes did she remember where she was.
Erin stirred in her sleep and murmured Lucas's name. Annabelle rose and tucked the blankets tighter around her sister, as though she could protect Erin from the heartache Lucas Riley had left behind him.
Ticky-ticky.
Annabelle jerked her head toward the sound. A bright pinpoint flickered, accompanied by a ticky-ticky as it hit the glass. She left the bedside and approached the window.
"Fireflies?" The light continued its ticky-ticky tapping at the window.
"Annabelle?" Erin's sleepy voice carried in the silence of the late hour. "Are you still here?"
Quickly returning to Erin, Annabelle took her hand. "Yes, and I'm going to stay here until you're better."
Erin shook her head. "You don't have to stay. You have your own life. What about your job?"
Annabelle smiled. "Don't worry about that. I have some vacation time, so you'll have me in your hair until you're up and out of here and back to normal."
Erin took Annabelle's hand. "You think I'm crazy, too, don't you?" she asked, pitifully.
"No," Annabelle answered truthfully. "I just think you've had a shock, and you're handling it the best way you can."
A huge sigh shook Erin's body. Annabelle thought she could hear tears hiding behind it.
"He'd be here if he could," Erin whispered.
"Who?"
Erin frowned. "Lucas, of course."
Her mouth opened and closed, but Annabelle couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't irritate her sister.
"Look!" Erin's voice trembled. "They're here to get me, too!" She grabbed Annabelle's sleeve and pulled with one hand as she pointed with the other. "There. By the window! Just like when they took Lucas."
Annabelle followed the guidance of Erin's extended finger. There by the window was the solitary firefly.
"Honey," she said, her voice calm even if her heart was thumping a hundred miles an hour, "it's just a firefly. See?"
"No, Annabelle, it can't be! It's too early for fireflies."
Erin was right. It was March, far too early for fireflies.
But there it was, a flickering point of light dancing at the window, smacking against it, as though asking to come in.
Annabelle shivered.
"It's them! Don't let them get me!"
Erin's grip tightened, pulling Annabelle onto the bed.
"Erin! Let me go. I'll close the curtains."
"That won't help. They can come through the walls. Don't you watch the Sci-Fi Network?"
"No, I don't," Annabelle replied in a deliberately calm voice, trying to free herself from Erin's grip.
"What about the stories you write for your paper?"
"Erin, you know perfectly well I make those up." Finally loosening Erin's hold on her, Annabelle quickly went to the window, jerking the curtains closed. Now as anxious about the mysterious flickering light as Erin was, she hurried back to Erin's side, tightly taking her sister's hand.
The sisters stared at the closed curtains, waiting, listening. The ticky-ticky stopped.
"Annabelle, what do you think it is?"
"It's nothing. I'll bet it's only leaves falling or maybe even raindrops catching the light from the room." Before Erin could inform her it wasn't raining, she added, "Or maybe your guardian angel looking in on you."
"I think I need one," Erin whispered, still clinging to Annabelle's hand.
"Hey, squirt, loosen up. I gotta go." With a fake grimace, she tipped her head toward the bathroom.
"Sorry," Erin whispered. "Sorry." She released Annabelle's hand, but her grip tightened again and she said in a hoarse whisper, "Hurry, though. I don't want to be here alone when they come."
Was her sister always going to be nuts? It was a struggle to keep her tone easy when she answered. "Sure thing," she said, and escaped with all possible speed into the adjoining bathroom. Annabelle gently closed the door and only then did she permit her body to start shaking and the tears to pool.
"Oh, Erin," she moaned, struggling to keep her voice low.
It was so unfair. Sweet, trusting Erin had given her heart to a rat who'd betrayed her. Now the rodent was gone.
At first Annabelle had been sure Erin had been driven delusional. Not only about the aliens who took Lucas, but about Lucas himself. Even after her visit to his apartment, Annabelle clung to her original theory: Lucas was laughing with his buddies in some bar about how he'd gotten Erin to put out and then left her to face the consequences alone. But she'd gone to every bar on Franklin Street, and a few on the side streets her father had forbidden her to even look at, much less enter.
No Lucas.
Of course, she hadn't told Erin any of this. She was sure her sister would go right off the edge if her fears about Lucas's safety were confirmed.
Still he'd left her alone. No matter what happened later, that much was still true, and it was still enough to earn her big sister's ire. Preferring anger to fear, Annabelle nurtured that emotion.
"The no-good-" She clipped off the rest of the words. He wasn't worth it.
Thank Heaven, she'd listened to her Granny. At least she still had her self-respect, which was more than Erin would have when she finally snapped out of this fantasy.
Meanwhile, she thought, her tears trickling, one by one, down her cheeks, she could forget sharing the burden of their mother's care with her sister. Now Annabelle would have to put her own life on hold to take care of both Erin and their mother.
Leaning over the small sink, she splashed cold water on her face and sniffed her tears to a stop. She dried her face and hands. Lowering the coarse white hospital towel, she stared into h
er own eyes.
"Is this all life is? One disaster after another?" she whispered.
Trying to see some hope in the plain brown eyes staring back at her from her reflection, Annabelle didn't notice the total silence until it was broken.
"Lucas!" Erin's voice echoed clearly through the door. "I knew you'd come."
"Lucas?" She shook her head. No one would be allowed up here except family. Her shoulders drooped as she realized what Erin's words meant. "Oh, no, please. She's talking to herself." It didn't take a medical degree and advanced psychiatric training to see the deterioration of her sister's condition. Would institutionalization be necessary? How in the world would they pay for it?
Thoughts of state-run facilities and the horror of it all played through Annabelle's mind.
"Annabelle," Erin called softly, "Come here, hurry. Lucas is here."
Eyes squeezed shut, Annabelle prayed for guidance. Should she go along with the fantasy and pretend to see Lucas? Or should she confront Erin with her delusion? Gulping a breath of courage, she pulled the door open and stepped into the room.
Erin lay in her bed, face alight with happiness. There was no Lucas standing by the bed.
"See, I told you he'd come," she said.
"Erin," Annabelle began, "please, honey, can't you see you're just imagining? The lowdown, dirty skunk got what he wanted, and he left you alone in the woods, and you've just got to face facts."
Erin smiled, Cheshire cat-like. "Oh, really?"
The scratching sound of the door and the scuffing of soft-soled shoes made Annabelle turn, expecting to see a night nurse coming with medication. Relieved to have some backup, she opened her mouth to ask for help in convincing Erin of her folly.
A young man in a doctor's green scrubs with shaggy russet hair peered out the door as it eased closed. He was very tall, slender but not slight, with wonderful, broad shoulders. Turning away from the door, he flashed a smile that twinkled in his black eyes and raised a finger against his lips. Annabelle watched him cross the room, pick up a straight-backed chair and take it to the door where he jammed it underneath the handle.
"What are you doing?" she asked, alarmed by his action. "Who are you?"
He came back toward her, his smile broadening as he extended his hand to her.
"I'm the lowdown, dirty skunk, Lucas Riley."
" Squooshed and flying, Gaelen picked up the trail easily enough. The particle residue Lucas had left behind burned bright. Even a human could have seen it.
"Holy Bridget!" he whispered as he followed it eastward out over the ocean. "That must have been one great lay!"
The thought that all this trouble was caused by sex made Gaelen even angrier. It wasn't as though Lucas couldn't have found a fairy woman to dally with. Or even a pixie. There were many right in Chapel Hill, each one of them beautiful and lush and willing.
The coast of northern Africa came into view.
Slowing only a little--too slow and humans could see the pinpoint of light a squooshed fairy appeared to be, and it was better if they saw nothing at all--Gaelen oriented himself along the trail of fairy dust and followed it into the Valley of the Kings. The trail petered out at the Great Pyramid.
At least Lucas had managed to keep himself on this world. Once, Gaelen forgot all his father's wise words and ended up on Jupiter, wing-deep in liquid ammonia and sore as hell. The girl hadn't spoken to him for years.
Of course, she'd eventually come around and Gaelen had redeemed himself.
Settling on the base of the Great Pyramid, Gaelen unsquooshed.
"Whoa!" he put out his hand to steady himself, waiting for the dizziness to pass. He hated squooshing. It was unnatural, smashing your atoms, compressing all the space out of them and reducing yourself to the size of a speck of light. But the lightheadedness of unsquooshing was the worst of it.
"Ah, but that's the fairy way," he repeated his old da's words. And for this particular task, it was the only way. He had to find Lucas, and get him and the girl back to New Jersey.
"Lucas!" His sent his voice out over the countryside. If Lucas were within fifty miles, he'd hear. And if he were hurt, as Gaelen suspected, he'd stay here until he healed.
"Lucas!" He repeated his call and strained to hear a sound.
For the first time since leaving the Council Chamber, Gaelen began to worry. What if Lucas were hurt more severely than Gaelen had thought? When he'd been in contact with Lucas that one time, the injury hadn't seemed too bad, but...
"Lucas, answer me!"
Where was he? Why no answer?
He couldn't have flown back already, could he?
Heart racing, Gaelen glanced around, making sure there were no humans about. Then he took a deep breath and...
Squa-ooosh!
As a pinpoint of light, he flew over the pyramid and picked up Lucas's incoming trail again.
"Ah-hah!" There, nearly parallel to the first, was a lighter trail, heading west. The puppy had covered his tracks going back. Gaelen would've smacked himself in the forehead if his hand had been material at that moment. He should have considered the possibility Lucas had turned around and flown home right away. The trail was clear enough once he looked for it.
The jerk was probably lounging in his apartment, swilling a beer and laughing at how he'd led Gaelen on a merry chase.
Given the alternative possibility--his little brother was really in trouble--Gaelen seized onto the less grave one. Lucas was fine and the girl had seen nothing. Then he allowed himself to get mad.
"All right, Lucas, big brother is coming. You'd better have a good story."
He'd be back in Chapel Hill in less than ten seconds.
* * * *
"You!" Annabelle shouted. "What are you doing here? How did you get in?"
"Shhh!" Erin hissed. "They'll hear you."
Ignoring Erin's admonition and Lucas's offered handshake, Annabelle headed for the door, fully intending to pull the chair away and call a guard.
"Oh, no, Annabelle," Lucas said, his large fingers encircling her wrist. "I can't let you do that." He pulled her away from the door and dragged her back to the bed.
"Let me go!" Annabelle struggled, but he was stronger than he looked. In fact, she didn't see any strain on his face as he picked her up and dumped her onto Erin's bed. "Hey!" she huffed in indignation.
Erin giggled. "Isn't he wonderful?"
Lucas stood by the bed and took Erin's hand. Their fingers laced together instantly, as though by long practice, and Erin gazed at him with naked adoration.
Annabelle felt her heart begin to melt and hastened to freeze it again.
"Now, first of all," Lucas said, his voice tinged by a hint of an accent, exotic and familiar all at the same time, "I'm very pleased to meet you at last. Erin has told me so much about her big sister I feel I know you already."
Annabelle glared at him, refusing to be taken in by his charm.
He went on. "Second, I'm very sorry about leaving Erin alone like I did." He turned to face Erin. "I am, you know. I would never have left you, but..." A scowl twisted his handsome features. "Well, I can't explain now. Soon, but not yet. It's safer if you don't know anything."
"Aw, puh-leeeez!" Annabelle scoffed, "What are you, a secret agent?" She moved to get up and open the door and call--no, scream-for the guards.
"Annabelle," Lucas whispered after her. "Please listen. I swear I'm telling the truth."
It was his voice, not any force--because he didn't lay a finger on her--that kept Annabelle in place. And the unreasonable urge she felt to believe.
Lucas took a deep breath. "I would tell you now, but I can't."
"Why not, darling?" Erin asked, her voice gentle, totally lacking in anger.
Annabelle decided to be angry for her little sister.
"Yes, Lucas, why not? Why can't you explain to my sister how you used her then ran off to...what? Laugh it up with your buddies at how she put out for you?"
"No! That's not it at all!"
/> "Lucas." Erin reached for his arm, her voice soothing in contrast to the edge in Lucas's. "She's just worried about me. She doesn't believe what I told her, about the aliens."
"Aliens?" His brow wrinkled in confusion.
"I saw them take you. Are you all right?" She ran her hand up and down Lucas's arm, as though searching for wounds. "Did they stick things up your nose? Did they put anything inside your head?"
Incredibly, as he stared into Erin's face, his own lightened and an angelic smile spread. His eyes crinkled and Annabelle's animosity melted under the sunshine of his expression.
"It wasn't aliens, Erin. It was me."
"What?"
"Can you trust me for a while?"
"Of course."
"I'll tell you everything very soon." He laughed out loud. "Though I'll not promise it makes any more sense than aliens." Turning to Annabelle, he asked, "Will you trust me, Annabelle?"
In spite of her determination to treat him like the skunk he was, as she looked into his black, sparkling eyes, Annabelle found herself wanting to say the words, "I believe."
Still, her silent thoughts denied it. "You haven't told me anything I can believe," she replied.
Lucas squinted at her, as though studying a bug under a microscope. His eyes fluttered shut, and he leaned against the bed.
"Lucas!" Erin was on her knees in the middle of the bed, her small hands on either side of Lucas's head. "Lucas," she whispered, her voice small and afraid. "What's wrong?"
A small laugh puffed from his mouth. "Nothing. I'm just tired, is all." He opened his eyes and pinned Annabelle. "You do know, don't you, lack of faith is fatal?"
His words, though they made little sense, sent a shaft of guilt spearing through her heart.
He gasped a deep breath and sat heavily in the chair by Erin's bed.
"Oh, Bridget, I'm tired." Lucas leaned back, his long frame draped on the chair like a piece of clothing. His breathing evened and Annabelle thought he must be asleep. She eased off the bed and toward the door.
"No! You heard him." Erin still knelt in the middle of the bed.
"Honey, please be reasonable," Annabelle whispered, not anxious to lose this chance to have this rat snagged once and for all. "He's not supposed to be up here."