Twist of Fae (Vegas Fae Stories Book 3)

by Tom Keller

  "Wait, you talked to the head of EAB?" Jay asked. "The new guy, Samson?"

  "One at a time," I responded. "First, I know O'Malley is not in your chain of command, but he's one of us so he'll deal with it. Second, yes, I met him. That's why I was there. Hell, that's why we were all there. Apparently that's what EAB does. They like to keep tabs on our kind."

  "Jeez, Dad. What have we gotten into?" Jay asked before Nikki jumped in.

  "One of us? O'Malley is one of us?" she asked, incredulously. "I think I need that beer now."

  "It's not as bad as it sounds. I mean the EAB part," I said, grabbing one from the fridge. "And yes, O'Malley is a Fae. A descendant of Irish Gods. But before I get into all that, let me start at the beginning…"

  I began to tell them the story. How I'd gotten into the firefight with the Mages that night I'd saved Milagre and the spell my grandmother had placed on me to protect me from the Fae world when I was a boy was broken. Then I talked about being a High Fae and all the trouble I'd gone through learning how the magic was supposed to work. I went on to briefly cover the fight with the dark Fae and the other battles with her followers before finally getting up to the part about freeing the Lilin. I didn't cover everything. That would have taken days; but at least I gave them a good summary of what had happened up until now. For the most part, I'd gotten through the timeline with only one interruption. That being the return phone call from O'Malley. Nikki spoke to him briefly and then with a promise to tell him all about it later, I got through the chain of events that led up to the here and now and then stopped after telling them about the meeting with Samson.

  "Any questions before I go on?" I asked.

  "Jeez, Dad," Nikki finally said. "Where do I begin? I mean, unless we've all gone crazy. But why is this just happening now? Why not a long time ago?"

  "I don't get that either," Jay agreed. "But maybe the best question is, what now? I mean what does this mean for us? Is what happened to Nikki and me yesterday going to keep happening?"

  "Let me answer Jay's question first. Yeah, it probably will. But now that you know what it is you will be able to control it. But there's still a lot more that I need to show you. I wish I could make it easier, but the reality is your world has changed and there's nothing I can do about it. On the plus side, your jobs, as well as your roles in the human world are secure. But as to the Fae side, the magic is there. We're just gonna have to play it by ear as to what powers manifest themselves. I also have to admit that this has added a whole new level of danger to your lives, and for that I'm truly sorry. My enemies will become your enemies, but that isn't anything new. Both of you live with that every day in your jobs, and we've dealt with that kind of thing as a law enforcement family before. Fortunately, I have a lot of allies, and you can learn how to deal with any threat from the Fae side that may come up. There are a lot of differences between the worlds, but I can teach you those."

  "As to your question Nikki, I just don't know. From everything I can gather, I should have found out about this at least twenty years ago. For whatever reason, things apparently didn't go as planned. And believe me, everything but the timeline was all planned out by Maria and others. I only have theories but nothing really concrete to go on."

  "What kind of theories?" they both asked.

  "Well, I'm somewhat convinced my mother and father's plane crash wasn't an accident, but I have no proof. As to my grandmother, I don’t know. As far as I know she died in her sleep. Hell, she was in her nineties, or at least I thought she was. But that's still pretty old for a human, even if she was once a Fae. All I know is that she died before she was ready to tell me. But I have no clue why. It just doesn't add up. It's a mystery, but maybe we can figure it out together." I slapped my hands on my knees and stood up. "Anyway, it's been a long afternoon and we can't solve all the world's problems in a day. Why don’t we take a break? I'm thinking it's time to grab a bite, and I know a great place in Fae to take you."

  "In Fae?" Nikki asked. "You're serious? We're going there?"

  "We are, and there's no time like the present to do so. Besides, I can answer most of your questions anywhere, so let's do a little sightseeing. "

  "What do we have to do?" asked Jay as they followed me out of the kitchen. "And how do we get there?"

  "Well, as to the what, you might want to change your clothes. You both have jeans upstairs. As for me, I'm tired of this suit, and we might as well get comfortable before we go," I said as I directed them upstairs. "As to the how, well," I said with a laugh. "I don’t want to spoil the surprise."

  They both headed up the stairs, but by the look Nikki was giving Jay, I knew she was still trying to come to grips with it all.

  Before going up to change myself, I told Charlie that they were going to need suitable clothes once we got there and to make the arrangements. It wouldn't do to go tromping around there in jeans and a t-shirt. We'd dealt with this before, the first time I crossed over. Before he left, I also decided to have him get some weapons. A sword for Jay and a bow for Nikki should do it. Things may be quiet at the moment, but it never hurt to be prepared.

  I also asked Alf if he wanted to join us but, once again, he declined. He hadn't given me cause to be concerned but it still paid to be wary. I wasn't really worried about him staying at the house alone. The Garden Faeries would keep an eye on him, and besides, with the wards I had in place he couldn't cause too much trouble.

  By the time I had changed, both kids were back downstairs in the kitchen and when Nikki saw me she gulped and almost spilled her beer. Even Jay seemed speechless.

  "What the …," she exclaimed. "Dad, what kind of costume is that?"

  "What?" I answered, looking down at my Fae clothing. I was wearing a close fitting sea green leather outfit with matching boots. The same clothes that had been given to me by Meredith on our last adventure. "I'll have you know that was given to me by the Queen of the Nereids. That's the ocean Fae, before you ask, and there's a lot more to it than meets the eye."

  "Ok," Jay said, trying to stifle a laugh. "If you say so."

  "Hey, just wait till you see what I get you," I said. "Besides, at least you're gonna be able to cross over wearing clothes. I could make you show up naked."

  "Dad!" Nikki snorted. "That's gross."

  "That wasn't a joke," I explained. "As you may have noticed with Fiora's lack of attire and Sendy's wings, there is no nudity taboo among the Fae and if you show up naked, you probably aren't hiding a weapon. Which reminds me, let's lock yours up in the safe before we go. You won't need them there and besides, they aren't that effective against the kind of bad guys we'd come up against anyway. I'll get you new ones before we're done." I took both their guns and ammo and locked them in the safe before joining them again and having them follow me into the backyard.

  "Ok, lesson one," I said, leading them back to the tree that they had first seen Aeva at. "Dryads, those Fae that we are part of, are the nymphs of trees, specifically, oak trees. Because of that, we can use this oak to travel to Fae."

  "Wait a minute," Jay interrupted. "And I can’t believe I'm saying this, but didn’t you say we were descended from the Greek Goddess, Demeter? And how do we use an oak tree to go anywhere?"

  "I did say that, and I'm about to show you. Look," I implored. "There's plenty of time for a history and genealogical lesson later so let me give you the nickel version. For the most part, Fae magic comes from the element the Fae is part of. We're part of the Dryad realm. Our magic comes from the plant world. If we were water Fae, it'd be water. Sendy, being a sky Fae, gets hers from the air. There are a few caveats to that, but I'm not going to go into them now. Got it?"

  "Not really," Jay admitted, but they both nodded.

  "It's just gonna have to do for now," I replied, realizing that they were probably on information overload. "Now, since this tree has a Hamadryad, we're going to ask her to transport us."

  "What if there wasn't one?" Nikki asked. "A Hamadryad, I mean."

  "If th
ere wasn't one, then you'd need enough magic and the knowledge of how to use it to order the tree to be the gateway. But that's another lesson in itself. Trust me, this way is a lot easier to learn." With that said I summoned Aeva again.

  "My Lord," she said as she appeared.

  "Aeva, we wish to travel to Fae now," I said "Have the preparations been made?"

  "Yes, my Lord. Sophie is on her way and Karalos should return shortly," she replied, using the Greek form of Charlie's name. As to Sophie, she was another hound that lived in Fae. She had been my guide in the past, as well as having been one tasked to protect my Fae lands.

  "Thank you, Aeva." Then I turned back to the kids. "No time like the present," I said with a wink. Then I grabbed a hand from each of them before they could back out. There was a flash and we were somewhere else.

  Chapter 8

  JAY

  Visions, and now Faeries. What the hell had I stepped into? I'm not sure if I would have believed anything my dad said if I hadn’t gone through what I did yesterday and this morning. Today had turned into a surreal version of the Twilight Zone. Then again, maybe I was dreaming. Maybe I didn’t save someone yesterday. Maybe I was the one that got shot. Maybe I'm in a coma. Like that British TV show I used to watch on BBC America. That get up that Dad's wearing. He loves a joke, but there's something about it that's too weird to not be real. No, I don’t think so. I'm not in a coma, I'm here and I think this is really happening.

  I'm not sure what Nikki went through, but yesterday's vision had been different. More like an out of body experience… but I still knew I'd been in the car when it was happening. And this morning with the EAB. They knew I was something else. Guerrier out and out said so. He was stunned when I told him he was crazy. I knew there was more going on with those guys than met the eye!

  Dad's explanations and then the Faerie's with the wings… and that Imp, what was his name? Alf or something? There's no way I could have dreamt them up. But this Faerie, this Hamadryad… There's something about her… I don’t know… but whatever it is, it's almost like I'm supposed to know her. Maybe that's what he meant when he said the magic was part of me. It's like I already do know her.

  I was still lost in thought when Dad grabbed my hand. There was a strange feeling like goosebumps over my entire body, and then we were somewhere else.

  "Whoa," was all I could think to say as I stepped into what Dad called Fae. "That was different. Are we in a forest?" I had to blink my eyes a few times to get everything to come into focus.

  "Looks like," Nikki agreed. I saw her turn towards Dad, and her expression turned from amazement into shock. "What the hell? Dad, is that you?"

  I looked to see what she was talking about and instead of my dad there was someone else standing there. No, holy shit… that was Dad.

  "Oops, forgot to mention that part," he said.

  Nikki was going on about him looking like he did in old pictures, and I'll be damned if he didn't. He looked like he did back when he'd first become a cop. Or maybe like when he and Mom had first been married. Then she walked up to him and put her hands on his face and head. I heard an ouch as she pulled his hair, and then he laughed.

  "I guess I forgot lesson number two," he said. "Things aren't always what they seem."

  "But how," I asked. "Or maybe I should ask why. Why do you look different here? Wait a minute. Something's not right… I feel different too!" I put my hands on my face before reaching down to check the rest of my body. It was different, but for some reason it was ok.

  "It's kind of hard to grasp at first," Dad began. "But like I said, you can’t think of yourself as human anymore. The Fae side is the magic part and this is its home. Here, you'll appear in what I call your Fae persona. You guys aren’t that old, so the difference isn’t that great, but you'll feel stronger and more in tune with the world here, and your senses will be sharper. It'll take a while to sort it all out. For now just try and get used to it."

  This was crazy. But he was right, I did feel more in tune with the world. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think I've ever felt this good. Not just physically, but mentally as well. I felt almost like…almost like I was home.

  Chapter 9

  ROBERT

  We had come into Fae just inside the forest, not far from the path of worlds. That was the path that skirted the border and allowed movement between this land and others. We had a brief moment, as I had neglected to mention the part about our Fae persona.

  "Oh my God!" Nikki said a minute later as she took a deep breath. "The air is incredible."

  "You're right, it's so… fresh," Jay said, taking a deep breath. He turned suddenly, as something came to his attention. "Wait, what's that? I think someone's coming. It smells like, like, like a dog," he said with a surprised look as he turned to see an animal approaching through the trees. It was a medium sized Border Collie. Jet black, except for a small patch of pure white at the chest and on the tips of the hind paws.

  "Oh yeah," I replied. "That's Sophie."

  "Welcome back, my Lord," she barked, as she dropped a pack on the ground at my feet. "Suitable clothing as requested."

  "Thanks girl," I said. I picked it up and opened it to find two sets of leather clothing. They were similar to what I was wearing, only in forest color hues. I held the smaller set up in front of Nikki. "Here, try this on for size."

  "Do all the animals here talk?" Jay asked, as I tossed the other set to him.

  "Many are sentient," I replied. "Don't worry though. You'll be able to tell the difference. Trust me, we wouldn’t want to hunt sentient beings for food."

  "What, no Fairy Princess dress?" Nikki teased as she looked over the clothing before going behind a tree to change. Less than a minute later she stepped out and did a twirl. "Ahem. Not quite as sexy as Jay's videogame characters, but it'll do!"

  She was decked out in leather boots, tight pants and corset, and a jacket that added sleeves. Jay came out similarly dressed, with a long sleeve leather shirt that hung below his waist. The colors were forest green and brown, and the patterns shifted as they moved. There were pockets and loops for various implements that could be added, and both had leather belts that could handle a sword or other weapons.

  "The material is stronger than it looks," Sophie said.

  "Sophie, let me introduce you to my children, Jay and Nikki."

  "An honor," Sophie replied, bowing her head.

  I almost laughed as she took on that Border Collie stare as her head lowered before raising it again. They both nodded in return.

  "A moment, my Lord," she said.

  "Sure," I replied and knelt down to be closer to her level. "Is there a problem?"

  "Not yet," she replied. "But Cacilia has asked me to let you know that strange Dwarves have been observed at the borderlands, and neither Bernd nor Valen have been seen in many weeks." Cacilia was my Aunt and, in my absence, ruled the land.

  "Strange Dwarves?" I repeated, thinking of what Alf had told me. "Have any crossed our borders?"

  "Not yet," she answered. "But the Naiad say they have crossed their waters in other lands, so it is only a question of when." The Naiad were the Fae of fresh water. There were several of them here and some of the rivers and streams that flowed through Fae crossed the borders of the different Fae lands.

  "Any idea what they are doing?"

  "It is rumored that they seek out Valen. It is said they carry a message for him from their King."

  "I bet they do," I said aloud. "Ok, Get back to Cacilia and tell her I'll be around later today, unless she needs to see me sooner. In the meantime, I'm taking the kids to the Wayward Elf to meet Handion. Better yet, ask her if she can meet us there as well. Any word on when Charlie will get here with the weapons I asked for?"

  "Dad, is everything ok?" I heard Nikki ask from behind me. "I mean, not that anything's really ok… Oh hell, you know what I mean!"

  "I think so," I replied. Before I could continue my conversation a black blur passed through the trees and
I saw Charlie land next to me.

  "He has arrived," Sophie said.

  "In a hurry?" I asked as he dropped a large, wrapped pouch from his mouth.

  "Hah," he barked. "It is good to run free in the woods again."

  "I'm sure it is," I agreed. "What did you bring me?" I unwrapped the leather cord and opened the bundle. Inside was a sword and bow with a quiver of Fae arrows, as well as two short swords similar to the seax I carried. The metal gleamed as the sunlight hit it and I knew instantly that these were no ordinary weapons.

  "Courtesy of Silvana. These are from Demeter's armory and should serve the children well."

  "We have an armory?" I asked.

  "Of course," Charlie retorted.

  "Later on we're going to have a discussion about what else you haven’t told me," I said as I picked up the sword and scabbard and handed it to Jay. "Here, try this on for size." Then I grabbed the bow and gave it to Nikki. "I hope you've kept up with your archery practice."

  "Every other week," she said as she bent it around her leg to set it. She raised it up with her left hand and pulled on the bowstring, testing its draw. "This is so cool. Arrows?"

  I handed her the quiver and then looked over at Jay. He was testing the sword and I watched as he practiced a few moves.

  "Damn, this thing is balanced well," he remarked before placing it into the scabbard and attaching it to his side. "Are we really going to need these here?"

  "I doubt it," I replied. "But better safe than sorry. Besides, Nikki is going to have to hunt us up something before we get to the Wayward Elf. It's not polite to show up empty handed." I handed them each a short sword and then rewrapped the cover and placed it at the foot of the tree we had come in from.

  "I'm going hunting? You're kidding, right?" Nikki asked as Charlie walked up to her and nudged her side. I'd taken both the kids on hunting and fishing trips as they were growing up, so Nikki was no stranger to the idea. Even if it had been a while. "Ok, you're not kidding, and who is this wayward Elf, anyway?"