by Tom Keller
"While I do not consider them a threat at this time due to their low numbers, that is not to say that your actions in freeing them will not create a problem in the future," he explained. "Therefore, I must insist that you be responsible for them."
"In what way?"
"Very simply, Mr. Hoskins. If an issue arises, we expect you to deal with it just as you would if your own Fae where involved. Is that agreeable?"
"Agreed," I answered. Not that it would have been my first choice, and I wasn't sure what kind of mess I was getting myself into, but since I'd brought it upon myself by freeing them, it didn’t appear to be something I could say no to.
"Then I am satisfied that we have come to terms. Unfortunately, I have other duties to attend to this trip so I will have Theron take you to where your family is," he said as he stood and walked around the desk. He offered his hand and I shook it. "I look forward to an interesting alliance. Perhaps next time we meet we can do so without the theatrics."
"Perhaps," I replied.
Chapter 7
ROBERT
As I was led into another conference room, this one larger than the last, I saw that the meeting was already breaking up. Several agents in suits were milling about, and both Jay and Nikki looked up and saw me as I entered the room with Agent Theron.
"How was the briefing?" I asked as they both walked over.
"Different," Nikki replied. "What are you doing here?" she asked with a quick raised eyebrow look that I knew meant she had no idea what was going on.
"I will leave you to your family," Theron answered before I could reply. "Agent Browne is on his way and will drive you back when you are ready."
"Thank you," I said.
As he walked away Nikki leaned over.
"Alright, Daddio, what the hell is going on?" she whispered in my ear.
"Not now," I whispered back. "I'll explain it all when we get to the house."
"The house?" she repeated. "I've still got things to do at the office and besides, my car is still there."
"I'll get you back to it," I replied. "There are some things we need to talk about first so bear with me for now." I could see she wanted to ask more, but Jay grabbed her arm.
"Relax, Nikki," he said, giving her a guarded look. "I think we're gonna want to hear what Dad has to say about all this. But this isn’t the place for a… family discussion."
"Ok," she said, still sounding confused, but I could see she had caught the warning in his expression.
We met up with Agent Browne, and after stopping to retrieve our cell phones, walked out to his SUV. I had a brief moment before getting in to let Sendy know to meet at the house before we were on our way. The ride back was quiet but both of them gave me quite the look when we arrived and Browne returned my seax and the kid's guns. Nikki just gaped at the blade and even Jay gave me a WTF look as I slid it back into its shoulder rig.
"You're carrying a sword? I knew that there was more going on here!" Nikki exclaimed as the black SUV drove away. "What are you expecting, Zombies?"
"It's not a sword," I said and shot her a grin. "It's a seax, and as to Zombies, well, not at the moment. But the day is young."
She shared a glance with Jay as I opened the gate and they followed me into the yard. Charlie, was of course, already waiting and I looked in his direction and shook my head. He must have figured it out as he just ran up to them and acted like a regular dog as they petted and pushed him down.
"Your children cannot see me?" I heard Sendy ask as she settled on my shoulder. She was in her diminutive form and still invisible to others.
"Not yet. Go wait for us in the back," I said softly, and she was gone.
"What was that, Dad?" Nikki asked as we walked through the doorway into the house.
"Just thinking out loud," I responded.
"Dad, what the hell is going on," Jay finally asked as he followed us into the kitchen. "And what was all that crap Guerrier was talking about? Something's not right about all of this."
"It's a long story, son," I replied. "Give me a second then we'll talk."
"What's a long story?" Nikki asked.
"Go ahead and tell her what you heard," I said. "But first, give me your phones."
"Our phones?" Jay asked, as he handed his over. I took Nikki's as well and placed them in a drawer.
"Just in case," I said.
Nikki just shook her head and turned to Jay, who began telling her what had transpired before he'd met up with her this morning.
I slid open the back door and walked onto the patio. I was trying to decide the best way to explain everything and finally decided I'd just have to show them. When I'd first travelled to Fae, I'd been told that whatever magic flowed through me would eventually become known to my offspring. I'd also been told that, as it had with me, it would take time to make itself known. It had taken quite a bit to fully awaken the magic within me, but I hoped I could jump start whatever was in them by trying something that the Dwarves had done to me.
"Alright, Dad," Nikki asked as she and Jay walked up behind me. "That bullshit meeting, Jay's trip here, and now the phones. What the hell is going on?"
"Do you remember me talking about your grandmother and her mother, Maria?"
"Of course," she replied. "What does that have to do with all this?"
As she asked, I walked between them and held out my hand.
"There's no easy way to do this so I'm just gonna show you," I answered, holding my left arm out between them. "Both of you, put a hand on mine."
"What?" they asked in unison.
"Just humor me," I responded. Jay looked at me hesitantly but did as I asked, Nikki eventually following suit but not before, once again, looking at him as if I'd gone crazy.
Jay's palm touched mine, and as soon as Nikki placed her hand on his, I grasped it tightly and willed every ounce of magic within me to flow into them and make them aware. Without my being aware of it, my sword appeared in my right hand and blue electricity arced up and down the blade. I saw Nikki's eyes go wide just before it expanded and enveloped us.
There was a burst of blue flame, and tendrils of electrified magic formed and began to circle around us. Faster and faster they spun until they were just a blur. As had happened to me before, images appeared as if I was watching a movie at high speed. This time it started with what seemed to be a replay of their lives.
The day they were born, their first Christmas. Here, one of them on a bicycle. There, the other graduating. Then my grandmother and mother, and before I knew it, my life was on the screen as well. In an instant we'd caught up to today and I felt an intense pressure as the magic built up. Without warning it burst forth, out of me and into them. There was a sound like thunder and suddenly it was over. I felt like I was going to faint but it soon passed, although I did feel weaker than I had before. Whatever had happened had drained a lot of power from me, but I tried not to show it. When I opened my eyes a moment later, they were both staring at me in disbelief.
"What the hell was that?" I heard Jay say before Nikki jumped in.
"What just happened? Was that a sword…? Oh my freakin…! What the hell is that?" she yelled and then reached for her gun.
I turned and saw Alf, the Imp behind me.
"Whoa, whoa!" I said as I put up my hands to stop her from shooting him. "It's just an Imp. He's not dangerous!"
"A what?" she asked, lowering but not putting her gun away.
"Holy shit!" Jay said, pointing over my shoulder at the yard. "What are those?"
"What? The hummingbirds?" Nikki asked as she looked to where he was pointing.
"Those aren’t hummingbirds," he replied. "… and, are they naked?"
"Ok, this is gonna take some explaining. Those are Garden Faeries," I said, waving the Faeries back. I stepped between the kids and took them each by an arm. "Why don’t we sit down and I'll tell you all about it."
"Get out, Dad!" Nikki said, in an excited voice as she slowly put away her gun. "What the hell is a
Garden Faerie?"
"First I'm seeing visions, then the plane ride with Guerrier," Jay exclaimed before focusing on Alf. "This can't be happening! What is that thing?"
"Ah, allow me to introduce myself," Alf said, bowing. "I am Ataulf, but you can call me Alf, and may I say that it is a pleasure to…"
"Okay…," I interrupted. "Let's leave the introductions for another time." I led them both to the patio table and sat them down. As I moved to sit down myself, Charlie trotted up and stopped next to me.
"Sorry, I told him to be quiet," he said as he sat beside my chair.
"Did Charlie just talk?" Nikki asked skeptically before looking at Jay. "Did you hear him? Did the dog just talk?"
"It appears so," Jay replied and then looked at me. "I think you'd better tell us what's happening."
I was about to answer when Nikki burst out laughing.
"What the hell is so funny?" Jay asked.
"What's so funny?" she replied, sputtering between laughs. "Yesterday and now this. This is freaking unbelievable."
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"I thought I might have been hallucinating!"
"You had one, too?" Jay asked. "Yesterday? I had a vision of something that was going to happen before it did."
"A vision? No. But yesterday I was on this call," she began to explain. "Forty-four shots fired and the rounds had gone in every direction. It was Retta's caper but I was helping out. I was looking everywhere, but I was still having trouble finding the last of the impacts and rounds." She paused as she caught her breath. "First I hear this bird yelling and swooping. Then it shows me where a bullet hole is. Then when I'm on the ladder, this other big black bird lands on the roof in front to me. A crow, I guess it was, and it just stares at me. Then the damn thing starts cawing and I swear it tells me where to find an injured vic! I thought I was going nuts. But sure as shit, there was another victim, and he was just an innocent bystander. Now this. WTF!" She leaned back in her chair. "What the hell is this, Dad?"
"This is… something wonderful," I said, taking a cue from an old sci-fi film. "There's no easy way to explain. It appears you've both had glimpses. But what I just did was to try and open up your senses a lot more. To a new world. A world of magic. Because, the truth is, we're not exactly human."
"Not human?" Jay asked skeptically. "Then what does that make us?"
"About Maria, my grandmother, as it turns out, she was a Faerie. But more importantly, she was descended from the Greek Goddess Demeter," I replied. "Which makes me, and I'm not kidding here, King of the Faeries, or at least some of them."
"King of the Faeries!" Nikki said, bursting out laughing. "What, so that makes me some Faerie Princess? Get the hell out of here!"
"And we're just finding this out now?" Jay said. "Not that it makes any sense, but still, you've been telling us stories about this stuff since we were kids. And what about Mom? Is she part of this?"
"I don’t know," I replied. "About Mom, I mean. As to the stories, hell, I didn't know they were real. There's been so much crazy shit happening that I still don’t really know everything. As to why now?" I stood up and began to pace, something I was known to do when I was trying to figure out the right way to say something. "Believe it or not, I just found this out myself not too long ago. And trust me, I know how weird this all sounds. I've been trying to figure out a way to tell you since it all started."
"But why now?" Jay asked. "And why the EAB? I gotta tell you, I was nervous as all hell when I got ordered to go to the airport this morning. And then all that crazy talk on the plane. For what? To wind up in some bullshit dog and pony show that made no sense. What was that all about, anyway?"
I started to answer but was interrupted by Charlie pushing his head into my lap.
"What?" I asked, looking down at his big head.
"Sendy," he said.
"Oh, yeah," I replied. "Look, before we get into everything, I need take care of a few things."
"No way, Dad," Jay said. "We need to know what the hell is going on."
"I agree. But this is all part of it. Let me introduce you to a few folks and make a few calls and then we can get into a full discussion," I said as I turned and called out to Sendy. She appeared immediately, full size and dressed only in a pair of capris.
"My Lord," she said.
Nikki's eyes widened as she watched Sendy's wings fold into her back.
"Wings!" she said in amazement. "She has wings?" She stood and looked around at her back. "Do we have wings, too?"
"No, we don’t have wings," I said with a laugh. "Sendy is an Aurae. What you might call a sky Fae. A totally different kind of Faerie. Sendy, this is my daughter, Nikki, and my son, Jay."
"Do you always fly topless?" Nikki asked as Jay just stared.
"My apologies, my Lady," Sendy said as she pulled her shirt from a pack around her waist. "Your father has already introduced me to your customs. I regret that I cannot fly fully clothed, yet I came prepared." She held up her shirt and then slipped it on and bowed. "A pleasure to meet you both."
"This is insane. But where'd they go," she asked as she walked up to her. "Your wings I mean."
"Excuse me, but I have wings, too," I heard Alf say.
"Indeed you do," I said in agreement as both the kids watched him flap them a few times. I started to get up to go into the house to get my phone since Nikki was talking to Sendy and Jay was watching Alf's antics, but a sudden increase in volume from the Garden Faeries made me stop. "Oh, yeah. Come on Fiora." The swarm of Garden Faeries flew up to us and Fiora stopped just inches from Jay, causing him to throw his head back.
"Whoa," he exclaimed.
"Jay, Nikki," I said. "This is Fiora and these are the Faeries that tend my yard." They all bowed in unison, and I have to give Jay credit for not flinching because at that moment Fiora landed on his arm and began chattering away.
"Thank you. I'm glad to meet you, too," he said aloud and then turned to me. "Dad, I don’t know what language she's speaking. How can I understand her?"
"It's the magic," I replied. "You're part of this world now so it only makes sense that you can understand them."
"If you say so," he said. "So that's why Nikki could understand the bird. But you still haven’t told us why all this is happening now."
"And I will. But you gotta admit," I added, sweeping my arms across the backyard. "It's pretty cool."
"I guess," he replied with the hint of a smile as the Faeries moved on to Nikki. "It's just… It's a lot to take in."
"It is a lot to take in. Believe me, I know. When all this first started, I thought I was going nuts. But then… Well, let me just get my new phone and we'll talk," I said as I walked back into the house to get the Sonim. I called O'Malley from the kitchen so I could verify that Nikki would be freed up. When he didn't answer, I left a voice message with my new number. When I came back outside, both Jay and Nikki were in the yard studying the oak tree. I let Sendy know she could go back to what she had been doing and then walked over to them.
"Dad, what the hell is causing this?" Nikki asked.
"Yeah, it looks like the tree is glowing," added Jay. "There's something there, I can feel it."
"You can see it and feel it?" I asked. "That's good! That means the magic really is part of you. What about you, Nikki?"
"Yeah, I feel it, too!" she said. "What does it mean?"
"Watch," I said as I put my hand on the tree. "Aeva, come forth."
The glow from the tree intensified as the Hamadryad within made her presence known. As before, a small figure began to materialize in front of us. She was dressed in white and tendrils of magic floated between her and the tree. When she was fully formed she turned to me and smiled.
"Yes, my Lord?" she said.
"Aeva, I'd like to introduce you to my children. This is my son, Jay, and my daughter, Nikki."
"My Lord and Lady," she replied, walking up to each of them in turn and bowing before them. "Long have we awaited your ar
rival."
"You've been waiting for us?" Jay asked, studying her as if he was trying to decide if she was real.
"Of course," she replied. "You are our future, especially you, my Lady."
"Me?" Nikki asked.
Aeva looked over to me as if waiting for approval to say something.
"Yeah, about that. That's part of what we haven't gotten into yet. But remember that Faerie Princess comment? You're not too far off. I'll explain later. Aeva," I continued. "Tell my Aunt to expect a visit and we'll continue introductions later."
"As you command, my Lord. But may I ask a question?"
"Of course," I replied.
"May I spread the word to the others that our Lady is coming?"
"Of course," I said.
"Thank you my Lord," she said before disappearing back into the tree.
"What does she mean, Dad," Nikki asked. "And what was that wisp of smoke that led back to the tree from her?"
"That was what magic looks like," I said. Ignoring her other question, I began to walk back towards the house. "Aeva is a Hamadryad and unlike us, she's bound to her tree. What you saw was the magic that linked her to it. Like everything else, the rest is kind of complicated. Come on, let's go inside and I'll try and explain things."
"Finally," Jay said as he and Nikki followed. Charlie came in as well, with the Imp trailing behind them.
"Have a seat," I offered as we came into the kitchen. I walked over to the cabinet and grabbed a Tardis mug before filling my cup. "Anyone else?"
Alf looked at me and gestured with his fingers. What the hell, I thought, so I poured him a tumbler.
"I think I need a beer," Nikki replied. "But I'm supposedly still working."
"Yeah, that should be taken care of. Jay, too."
"What do you mean?" he asked. "And I'll take a cup."
"I talked to the head honcho over at the EAB. As far as anyone is concerned, you're both tied up with them on a project there for the next day or so," I said as I put a cup down in front of Jay. "Nikki, I'm waiting for a call back from O'Malley to confirm."
"O'Malley? Why O'Malley?" she asked. "He is not in my chain of command."