Cry Me a River

by Livia Quinn

  The volcanic Tempe sizzled across the floor, leaving a burning path on the old cypress planks. She stood next to Dutch, her gaze only once going to the crumpled form of Paige, the edges of her charcoal nimbus burning brighter with rage. Dutch spoke again, grabbed a handful of her Vulcan heated cloud form and pulled her down toward River.

  "He needs your fire now, Tempest."

  The hulking volcano woman knelt by her brother's side. As Dutch pressed on River's diaphragm and released, the maw of the fire creature opened and spewed a straight stream of fire directly into the younger man's mouth.

  What the hell? Djinni mouth to mouth? "Don't try that at home."

  Father and daughter turned their heads toward me, the copper colored Djinni and the fiery thunder maiden, their pupils both vertical golden flames.

  "Good," Dutch rumbled. "That will hold him until I can get him to a healer."

  The creature nodded over River and turned to "look" at me. I assumed that's what was going on. It—she still didn't have what I called eyes but I got the sense she could see and understand.

  Dutch laid his massive paw on her… smoke. "Do you need help getting back to your human form, Sweetie?"

  There were a lot of things I hadn't considered funny about this whole fiasco as bizarre as it had been, but this just took the cake, calling a ten foot tall volcanic creature of thunder clouds and fire—sweetie. The sheer relief from the enormity of recent weeks' revelations erupted out of me in a paroxysm of laughter.

  I tried to get a grip but I didn't seem to be able to latch onto anything of any urgency. No outstanding life or death issues, nothing needing my immediate attention, so I gave into my weak knees and sagged against the wall, uncharacteristic breathy puffs continuing to bleed out.

  Until I heard a heavy, stern voice say, "Sorry to interrupt your breakdown, Sheriff, but would you please call Dylan and tell him to collect these two?" I looked up to see Tempe and Dutch bending over me, heads together, similar frowns on their faces.

  "Sorry," I said, wiping tears from my eyes and feeling another minor surge of hysteria. Dutch gave me a hand up and nearly sent me through the far wall.

  "At least you're laughing," muttered Tempe, who was back to my gorgeous flame-haired lady.

  Jack

  10:12 pm I'm missing something…

  * * *

  I let myself into the house. Beffie met me at the door, and then loped back to Jordie's room. I checked on her and headed for the shower. Tempe had been sad and completely exhausted when I'd dropped her off at Harmony. Montana and Katerina had met me there, so I left her in their hands. They assured me she'd be okay after they plied her with "a glass" of wine. Talk about zero tolerance.

  I'd reminded her about the Grand Ball and given her a chance to back out but she looked at me and said, "You're not getting out of it, Jack Lang. It's been the bright spot in my week. The anticipation helped give me hope that things were going to turn out okay with River. After everything that's happened, I'd think you'd be looking forward to a regular old costume party, even if it is the weirdest one of the year. The Mardi Gras Ball serves up some surprises but they aren't usually life-changing."

  "I certainly hope not," I said. I'd had enough surprises to last a lifetime.

  Tempe said she planned to go for her dress fitting as soon as Aurora opened Saturday morning. Anticipation lanced like a laser to my groin when I thought about stripping her out of that dress after the ball. I couldn't deny I'd had that thought many times since meeting my sexy mail lady.

  Scrubbing my skin with the washcloth I ran back over the last two weeks. Jack "Laser" Lang was a completely different man than when he'd arrived in Destiny. I was still a sheriff, still a father, my military career and everything in my life was still the same and yet, it was all new. It would take some time for it to sink in but I was no longer thinking of leaving Destiny just because it was… unique. So the people around me, even my prospective girlfriend were more than human—that's how I preferred to look at it. They weren't criminals. They were good people. Some of them could just do stuff. I figured I could live with that. And hadn't I just decided this morning that security for Jordie and a bit of excitement for me weren't mutually exclusive?

  Something kept niggling at me… I wracked my brain but just couldn't dredge it out of the tired muck. I lay down on the bed. As my mind slowed nearing sleep, I remembered—it was what Aurora had said, about the Para-moon and loss of power. I reminded myself to ask them about it tomorrow. Hadn't Aurora said the big day would be Monday or Tuesday? I drifted off. I had to get some sleep even if the world blew up tomorrow. Which wasn't likely.

  * * *

  Tempe

  8:21 pm Love of a lifetime

  * * *

  Jack walked out with Dylan and the still unconscious Paige to give Dutch and me a few minutes alone.

  "Dutch—"

  He let out an exasperated sigh, looking pained. "What?"

  "I wish you'd stop calling me that."

  My father, the self-proclaimed Greatest Djinn alive, was pouting. I said, "Maybe someday. How about for right now I just don't call you anything." I turned away to leave him to his funk. I was not feeling terribly sympathetic right now.

  I made an about face, though, when I thought of all the years of misunderstanding, stubbornness, misinformation, and where that had gotten us. "I'm glad you came back. Dylan was right. I never believed you were dead, which just made it worse because it felt like a betrayal. Like you didn't care." He sighed, the bushy red eyebrows crashing in a fierce frown, his mouth set in a grimace. "You meant well, you and Phoebe both." He glared.

  "Mother," I corrected. "My boots…that day—was that really her I trudged around on all over school and the playground?"

  "Yes, Tempest, but you remember it incorrectly. It was not your first day of school. It was the first day… your mother wasn't supposed to be around you, after our—"

  "Diversion?"

  He nodded and his expression was lit with tenderness… for me, and I realized, for my mother. "You still love her." I couldn't help it. My surprise was genuine.

  A shocked look met mine as his head came up and his voice bounced off the walls. "Of course I love her. She's been my mate for a very, very, very long time. I'm sorry this was so hard on you, my sweet girl, but you and River will live to see that nineteen years is but a wisp in the life of Paramortals like us." His expression held so much love as he stood there that the years between us fell away.

  Closing my eyes I reached for the same man who'd played with me and River and mother on the lawn that day when I was seven. I sighed as his mighty arms embraced me. "I love you, Du—I love you, papa."

  I felt the rate of his heart increase when he sighed and held me for the briefest of moments. He cleared his throat and held me at arms length. "Tempest. Please understand. I would stay if I could. Everything I've done, everything your mother and Dylan and the rest of our people did, was to keep you safe until you traveled the path to change."

  I was seeing him differently, and already feeling the loss. My throat clogged. When he wiped my cheeks with his thumbs, they came away with the residue of sooty tears. I'd just been reunited with him after most of my life without him. "Why must you go?"

  "I have to take River away to heal. If he stays here the damage that witch started will continue. And we can't afford to be vulnerable during the Chaos." He hugged me tighter and leaned down to rub his cheek across my hair. "Have I told you what a spectacular molten storm you were today?"

  I pushed back from him, eyes wide. "Where did that come from? That wasn't just air and water."

  "No," his big grin was full of pride. "I believe you got a bit of your ol' man's Djinni genes, baby. You smoked it."

  I stepped back as I heard Dylan's SUV drive away. "Can I contact you?"

  "If you absolutely must, but it has to be a matter of dire need. The Aretuu will still be looking for us all. When your mother returns… tell her I love her." His eyes narrowed with pain
, and I knew it was because he wouldn't be here to tell her himself after so long. "We'll be back."

  Jack entered as Dutch turned away.

  "Papa—"

  My father cradled my unconscious brother in his arms like a baby. "We're out of time, Tempest. Take care of her, Lang," his voice boomed. Jack took my hand and pulled me away as mist filled the room and Dutch's body expanded, muscles bulging, his entire form becoming transparent. I saw the night sky through the walls. He was really leaving.

  "But when—" I called out to him.

  My father's form had begun to fade, but the deep echo of his words hung in the room long after he and my brother disappeared into the fog-like air. "When you need us the most." To anyone else's ears it would have sounded like the barest hint of a breeze.

  "But you just came back," I sighed.

  Chapter 19

  Tempe

  Sat 7am Danger in Paradise?

  * * *

  The crisis was over and I could relax. Exhaustion weighed my limbs down as I drooped bonelessly across the lounge chair. I'd barely had time to sleep the last two weeks. Last night all I'd done was rerun my meager time with Dutch, imprinting it on my memory in case it was another twenty years before I saw him again. Zeus, I hoped not.

  Today was a new day. I didn't have to work, and I had a date to the Grand Ball! My squeal of happiness briefly shut off the sounds of the morning. It was like a real fairytale, as in make-believe, not like the faerie sitting next to me. At dawn I'd found Arabella on my windowsill, tapping against it to wake me up.

  Armed with two cups of coffee, I walked with her toward the Forge, her long legs keeping pace with mine with halting heron-like grace—pause, glide… pause, glide…

  Now, her feathers caught the sunrise, brightening into corals and reds as she flew over the water, extending her wings toward me and making a graceful two-footed landing. During our morning "talks" Bella often didn't change out of her stunning feathered plumage, choosing instead to simply absorb the idyllic beauty of my bayou.

  That's an exaggeration. The Forge belonged to no one. The fact that Harmony was bordered on two sides by the power laden swamp and on another by the fairgrounds was just luck. Or fate. It was beautiful though, and practically speaking, it was all mine to enjoy… paradise, except when there were activities on the fairgrounds.

  So, on Saturday mornings, Bella would visit and clear her head from the pressures of running the Faerie Inn; and with Petre, the vast Bright Fae empire.

  I leaned back in one of the plastic Adirondack chairs I'd picked up at Wal-Mart. They lasted longer than cypress in our humid environment. "Are you sure you don't want to sit?"

  Standing in the low chair Bella's bird face was level with mine. She blinked and looked back at the water. I took that as a no. "I'm sorry about all the damage I did to the Inn the other day. I hope you were able to fix it fairly easily."

  Another blink.

  "Good."

  She nipped at mosquitoes buzzing around my head while I watched the bayou come to life, the sounds and sights of serenity. A turtle popped his head up for air and shad shimmered along the top of the water sparkling white in the sun-risen light. A single mourning dove called from a tall cypress.

  Gradually, as the light of the sun brightened the sally grass and reeds along the edge of the bayou and life awakened below, the surface rippled, the rising mist revealing a perfect Monet reproduction in sunrise golds, pinks, and blues. If only I could have captured the sounds, the sharp throaty chatter of the squirrel, the answering cry of the mother sparrow protecting her nest.

  I enjoyed watching tiny water bugs as they made elegant trails on the surface of the water, the infrequent attack of a small fish disrupting their patterns. As the sun lifted over the tree branches, the breeze moved patches of mist along the surface. Spanish moss waved its ancient lace and cypress fronds drifted down from above.

  At the edge of my peripheral vision a snake slid silently by the line of cypress knees that looked like a band of druids in the dim light. Near there, a minnow jumped creating a flurry of overlapping concentric circles.

  Bella strode stealthily through the shallow water toward the minnows in search of her morning meal. She jumped at a sudden caw and the distant cacophony, spreading her wings and lifting into the air to survey the threat.

  All sound ceased but resumed its delicate song within seconds. Bella swooped down quickly taking advantage of the brief lull to snatch her breakfast from the water, and then landed by my chair once again.

  "I couldn't sleep," I said. "I keep wondering where Phoebe is, and if River's okay, and wishing I'd had a little more time with Dutch. I know. It's selfish." I'd walked the large high-ceilinged rooms of my house, the lonely silence driving me outside as soon as my eyes opened.

  Bella extended her glorious wings resting one tip lightly on my shoulder for comfort. I smiled into her steady lavender gaze. "Thanks."

  Thirty yards from the large cypress an alligator slid quietly into the water after its prey, sinking just below the surface, her tiny offspring clinging to her back. I smiled at the familiar sight, scratching Bella's downy crown.

  In the space of a heartbeat, as if some ecological breaker box controlled the swamp, a switch flipped and all sound and movement ceased, the air becoming thick and dank.

  Staring into the mist, every nerve and feather rigid, Bella studied the threat with her more powerful fae senses and shivered, her feathers fluttering like a wave from head to tail.

  "What is it, Bella?" I whispered.

  The entire natural realm sensed a hostile disquiet like a ghost walking over its grave but with the flip of that astral switch, the primitive system reset and the threat moved on. I read Bella's silent message, for now. She transformed and plopped down in the other chair, sighing. "Tempe, these are the most uncomfortable chairs. I'm going to send over a couple made by one of our guests. They never rot."

  I chuckled, but she wasn't finished. "Why don't you get Dylan to check that out?" She pointed a long gold fingernail toward the water. "It's something that doesn't belong here."

  We sat watching for another twenty minutes but when nothing happened, she flew off to the Inn, and I went inside to get dressed and go to town.

  * * *

  Jack

  8am "A tattoo doesn't belong on that body, young lady."

  * * *

  Ryan called to ask me how to fill out the final paperwork on the Nuck—Meeker's murder and River's disappearance. There wasn't much fudging to do since we could easily blame the murder, theft and kidnapping all on Will Crain, who wasn't around to dispute the charges. Jordie fed a leak to Melissa about River taking his mother on a cruise to Alaska. Melissa faithfully reported it to her mother and surprise! It made the morning Tribune.

  "So are you going to tell me what really went on in that camp?" Ryan asked.

  "If I told you—"

  "Yeah, I've heard that one—"

  "You'd probably run screaming into the night, never to return."

  There was silence on the other end for several seconds. "Considering the source, maybe I should leave now."

  I took a deep breath and rubbed my eyes, which seemed to have a pound of grit between them. I didn't want to lose Ryan, but if he was inclined to leave, now would be better while his view of the world only included terrorists and serial killer bad guys. "You know I wouldn't try to stop you if you wanted to leave."

  "You're serious." After a pause, Ryan spoke. "Sorry, Jack. You're not getting rid of me that easily. I've been your wingman for nearly half my life. If I wanted predictable, I would have been a grocery store manager like my dad."

  He heard my relieved sigh through the phone and chuckled. "Was that a test, Laser?" he asked.

  "No, Ryan, that was for real," I said, all humor erased from my voice. "Just… don't wait forever to change your mind. You may find yourself enlightened about things you'd be healthier and happier not knowing."

  "That was cryptic."

 
"Just remember what I said, and Ryan… I'm glad you have my six."

  "Roger that."

  I hung up and went looking for Jordie. "Jordie, if you have to work today, you'd better get a move on," I yelled down the hallway.

  She made a dash from the bathroom to her bedroom and something caught my eye. I stalked down the hall and pounded on her door.

  "What have you done?" I called through the closed door, my voice sharp.

  "Wha—" Jordie opened the door in her underwear and sleep tunic.

  I pushed into her bedroom. "Let me see your hip, Jordie."

  "What is it?"

  I pointed at her thigh, "That. What is that?" I asked in a strangled voice.

  Jordie looked down at her leg and blanched. "I… Daddy?" Her expression was all innocence and confusion but I wasn't buying it. I saw guilt and pleading. "When did you get a tattoo?" I stood in the open door with my arms crossed. "A tattoo doesn't belong on that body, young lady."

  "I-I didn't." Tears filled her voice and her eyes were wide, "Daddy, I didn't."

  "Well, then what the f…" I closed my eyes willing myself to chill, and that chilly expression was what she saw when I looked at her again. "Explain that thing on your thigh that looks very much like a tattoo."

  She blinked and tears streamed down her cheeks. Looking at it again she gasped, "I c-can't. It wasn't there last night."

  That stopped me. I thought about the last few days, the many surprises. I couldn't vouch for whether the mark—it wasn't as distinct as a tattoo—had been there the day before or not.

  "Please, Daddy, believe me." She wrapped her arms around my stiff torso, her words muffled into my shirt, "I don't even like tattoos."

  My arms encircled her automatically. It was true. The musicians and actors displayed on her walls sported more blank skin than most. She'd always been against "inking up" as she called it. I set my chin on top of her head, relief and concern, weighing in proportionately. "Okay, baby, we're okay. We'll figure it out later. Go get ready for work; it's late."