by Elle Casey
“If you’re suggesting that I ... and that Finn ... well, you’re crazy,” she pooh-poohed, overly so. “It’s not like that at all. I mean, he’s cute and nice, but we’re just friends.”
“Yep. Whatever you say, Becks. We all believe you.”
She sighed heavily at me, trying not to smile. She was attempting to be all firm about it but her carefree attitude made it impossible.
“You water sprites are not tough, like at all, did you know that?”
She stuck her chin out. “We can be tough when we want to be.”
I scoffed. Right. None of them were more then four foot ten. I think Becky was the biggest one in the whole compound.
Without any warning at all she smacked me on the arm. Before I even had a chance to react, she disappeared, only to reappear on my other side and smack me on the other arm. I turned to grab her, but she disappeared again, appearing on the other side to smack me on the head. I whipped around to grab her but she slipped out of the air once more. I turned immediately, guessing her plan to keep going back and forth, but she was one up on me, appearing again where she just had been, smacking me on the side of the head – this time pretty hard.
I yelled in frustration. “Fine! Uncle! Water sprites can kick ass whenever they want!” I was ducking under my arms, trying to protect myself from her next onslaught.
She appeared again to sit in her chair and calmly said, “I’m glad we got that little racial profiling issue straightened out.”
Scrum, who had been watching us with a stunned expression on his face, started giggling, and was soon joined by Tony. I scowled at them but that only made them laugh harder. Tim joined in until he swallowed a piece of grape wrong and started choking. I tried to help him by thumping him on the back with a flick of my finger, but it sent him across the table, which made Scrum and Tony nearly screech with laughter. Scrum pushed himself back from the table and his chair caught in the floor, sending him over backwards to land on the ground – and that was the end of it for Tony and Becky. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had peed their pants.
“Come on, Tim. This place is full of juveniles. Let’s go.”
He crawled across the table on his hands and knees to climb up into my hand and lie on his back, gasping for air. I’m not sure if it was from the laughing or the failed pixie Heimlich I had given him. Either way, he was getting no pity from me.
“I’ll see you dipshits at dinner.” Tony and Becky continued to laugh as they watched Scrum climb up from the floor and follow me out, holding his sides as if he was in pain. The other changelings in the room watched us go out, confusion on their faces. I ignored all of them, refusing to let the grin that was nearly bursting me apart come to the surface. I had an incubus to satisfy and I had a feeling I was going to need all my strength for this little exercise.
Chapter 17
I opened the door of my room to find Spike lying on my bed, his hands laced behind his head. His shirt was already off, in a heap on my floor. Damn, he looked good. I’m normally not that much of a tattoo lover – I like one here or there on an arm or a back, but usually not the ones that were all over; Spike was the exception to that rule. His went from wrist to neck to waist and they suited him perfectly. As I got closer I saw that one of them was a dragon, and that the dragon’s mouth was open. It had black teeth.
“Spike, when did you get that tattoo?” I walked closer and pointed to the dragon that wrapped around his arm and across his shoulder, its head ending up on his right chest muscle.
He looked down, raising his eyebrow as he focused in on it. “Few years ago.” He took my hand, the one that was pointing to the tattoo, and laced our fingers loosely together. “Why do you ask?”
I reached down and pulled Blackie from its sheath, holding it up for him to see. “Because this is a dragon fang, and it’s the only black one around – or it’s one of a pair that is the only black pair around. It’s just kinda funny that your dragon has black teeth too.”
Spike shrugged, not seeming to think much of it. “What other color would they be?”
“Good question.”
An awkward silence settled over the room, the only sound the one made by Blackie sliding back into its holder. I wasn’t sure what the proper etiquette was for an incubus feeding or if there even was any. Last time I saw one take place was when Chase got attacked in the forest during our changeling test, and the guy had bitten him on the neck kinda like a vampire but without the actual sucking or drinking of the blood. I wasn’t sure I was on board for the biting part.
Scrum cleared his throat and then Tim started to giggle on my shoulder.
“Alright, first thing’s first. Tim, you’re going to your room.”
I released Spike’s hand and walked over, putting my arm on the dresser so Tim could walk down and go to his bed. He had some tiny books he could read while we were doing this incubus thing, sitting on his side table that Netter, our brownie, had procured for him. I didn’t bother to speculate about how he had found them or how anyone could make a book that tiny. I couldn’t even see the words.
I heard the door open behind me and someone entering the room. “I’ll just take a seat on the floor over here,” said Scrum. “I promise I won’t interfere, so long as you don’t hurt her,”
I saw the red glow in Spike’s eyes flare up. “Don’t worry. I have no intention of hurting her.”
“Yeah, well, even so. I’m not so sure that you can control yourself very well yet, so be aware that if you go too far, I’m going to crash your little party and break your will again.”
Spike rolled his eyes. “I hear you loud and clear, don’t worry.”
“Scrum, turn so you’re facing the wall,” I said. Even though Spike and I weren’t having sex, the idea of someone else watching him feed on me was just a little too kinky for my taste. “Tim, you too. Turn the other way.”
“It’s my room too you know!”
“Tim!”
“Fine.” I watched him lie down on his bed, his back facing us. I noticed that his wing nub was still black, but maybe just a little less so, which made me smile.
Spike looked at me, amusement and hunger in his eyes. “Are you happy now?”
“Yes. For now.”
“Come on over here and lay next to me on the bed.”
I looked at him suspiciously. “I didn’t sign up for anything but a feeding, you know.”
Spike rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s just more comfortable if you relax. Don’t worry – you have your pit bull over there to make sure I don’t go too far.”
“And no biting.”
“Deal. No biting, I promise.”
I stood there, not sure what to do until he looked up at me with his pleading eyes and earnest, pale face. “Please?”
“Okaaay.” I laid down on the bed, stretching out next to him so we were face to face, each of us on our sides.
“What do I need to do?” I asked quietly. I was really wishing Tim and Scrum weren’t in the room. This seemed like it should be done in private – like really private, not semi-private.
“Just relax and look into my eyes.”
That wasn’t a hard instruction to follow. The amber and red colors swirling around were drawing me in, and my gaze locked on without me even thinking about resisting. My mind started to slip away a little as I watched the amber and red change to red and black, the black wisps of smoke tangling around the waves of red. It was almost as if the colors were ghosts or spirits, dancing around in his eyes, beckoning me to join them. I couldn’t tell if they were flaming spirits dancing in black smoke or black spirits dancing in flames. My body began to get warm all over, especially in certain places that started to make this seem like more than just a basic feeding.
“Spike?” I asked, breathlessly.
“Shhh, it’s fine. I’m going to start now. Just relax.”
The last letter of that word ‘relax’ dragged out in my mind as a silky, slithering sssssssss that made me f
eel like I was both falling asleep and falling from a great height at the same time. I couldn’t feel my physical body anymore. The colors in his eyes grew larger, encompassing my entire visual field, so that now I was inside this red and black world, floating, feeling nothing but warmth and an electric edge of sexual energy. I closed my eyes and we began to kiss. Tentatively at first and then more deeply. The visions I had been seeing in his eyes stayed alive in my mind.
I soon became aware of another sensation, coming from the core of my body. A gentle tugging that felt neither uncomfortable nor particularly pleasant. It was just a pulling of sorts. The swirling reds and blacks held my entire attention, tricking me with their forms converging and then disappearing to turn into something else an instant later. I found myself mesmerized by the visuals and ignoring the sensation of something leaving me. The kissing was effortless and consuming, enhancing the strange feelings that were threatening to take me over. Whatever they were, I didn’t care. I just wanted to figure out what these beings in the swirls were. Why were they trying to hide from me? Who or what were they? The heat generated from kissing Spike’s lips and his tongue that danced with mine began to overtake me.
I became distantly aware of a hand touching my waist, stroking up my back. It blazed a trail of heat that seeped into my bones. I moved languidly in response. I couldn’t control that anymore than I could stop the moan from coming out of my mouth.
The next thing I felt was my body being jerked backwards and Spike’s mouth leaving mine. The connection to that swirling red and blackness was severed in an instant. I could feel the cold stone of the floor on my back and cool air brushing over the overheated skin of my face and arms. My lips felt swollen and used. I kept my eyes closed, not yet ready to come back completely to reality.
I could sense there was a struggle going on nearby, but I figured it was probably Scrum and Spike duking it out – something I didn’t need to worry about. Clearly the feeding had turned into something more erotic than Scrum could stomach. As good as it had started to feel, I was glad he had been there to break it up. The last thing I wanted was to know that I’d gone all the way with an incubus in front of my friends. And I might even have done it too – I had been that far gone.
“Is Jayne okay?” asked a worried-sounding Tim from across the room.
Of course no one could hear him, so I answered, “I’m fine. Just relaxing.”
“Well, you might want to get out of the way.”
I cracked my eyes open to see what he was talking about and rolled over towards my bed just in time to avoid being stepped on. Scrum had Spike in a total body lockdown again, but this time, Spike didn’t seem as pissed about it. His face was flushed a healthy looking pink and he was smiling devilishly. His eyes were bright red. I looked away so I didn’t fall into them again – there was a danger in doing that, I knew it for sure now. Unfortunately, it was one of those dangers that a girl couldn’t help ignoring since it felt so good and came in such a pretty package. Now Spike didn’t just look like a bad boy – he was a bad boy, in the truest sense of the word.
I realized how tired I was when I tried to get up off the floor and into bed. I didn’t have the energy for it, so I just laid back down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.
Scrum came back inside the room a few seconds later.
“How’s Spike?” I asked, not moving my eyes from the ceiling.
“He’s fine. I let him go. He’s going out to the forest to work off some excess energy, I think.”
“Good for him.”
“Not so good for you though,” said Scrum, worry in his voice. “Do you need help getting onto the bed?”
“Maybe.” I wasn’t ready to admit how weak I felt.
Scrum bent down to help me up. “I’ve seen this before. Usually when they do it to a fae the fae passes out. I think you’re lucky to still be conscious. But it’s weird, because I think he might have overdosed a little.”
“Is that why his face was so pink?” asked Tim.
“Tim wants to know if that’s why his face was so pink,” I said wearily.
“Maybe.”
Come to think of it, Spike’s face was usually pretty pale when he was feeling normal.
Scrum helped me up so I could lay down on the bed. “Better?” he asked.
“Yeah. Thanks ... for your help today. With Spike and stuff.”
Scrum smiled. “No problem. Just doing my job. Being a daemon is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
It was hard not to smile back at his enthusiasm for fae life. I think being drained of all my energy made it easier for me not to be annoyed by his eager puppy personality.
“Where are you from?”
“I’m from California. East Bay. A little town named Tracy.”
“Did you like it there?”
He shrugged. “It was okay. My mom died though, so I kinda stopped liking everything for a while.”
“Oh. Well, that sucks.” My mom was a pain in the ass, but at least she was still alive.
“Yeah. But now my life is much better.” He smiled at me, making me feel like a total dirtbag for being so mean to him before. He was so easy to pick on, though, it totally wasn’t all my fault.
“Listen, I’m sorry if I gave you a hard time before.”
“You didn’t give me a hard time. Really. Don’t feel bad.”
Boy, this kid must have been treated like shit before, if he thought what I said was fine. I vowed then to try harder to have patience with him. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too difficult.
He turned to leave but somehow his foot caught the edge of my side table, causing him to trip and take my furniture down with him. The lamp that was on top shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor, and the tampons that I had in the drawer spilled out everywhere. Scrum looked up, surrounded by glass and feminine products, and said, “What happened?”
Tim started laughing his stupid, wingless pixie butt off and I just sighed. The universe sure did delight in giving me nearly impossible tasks. “Just clean it up, klutz. I’m going to take a nap. Tell whoever’s in charge for me, will ya?” I fell asleep before I heard his answer, and I didn’t hear another noise for hours. I dreamed from lunchtime to dinnertime about red demons and black smoky ghosts, reaching out to stroke me and pull me into their world.
Chapter 18
The first one to sit down with me at the dinner table was Tony. It was the first time we’d been alone since what seemed like forever. Well, kind of alone, since Tim was now stomping around on the table being goofy. I ignored him.
“You look happy. Tell me what you’ve been doing,” I said. The sense of relief I felt at realizing how content he was nearly overwhelmed me. I hadn’t appreciated how much I was worrying about his integration here until I had just said this.
“I am happy. I’m not sure I’ve thanked you enough for doing this for me – for convincing me to come here. So, thanks.”
“You’re very welcome,” I responded, nudging him with my shoulder. “It was entirely selfish though. You’re my best friend and I needed you with me.”
“You can say that, but I know the truth.”
I ignored him. I’m no saint, that was for sure; but if he wanted to think my motives were unselfish, I wasn’t going to argue. “So, what did you learn this afternoon?”
Tony worked to swallow the huge bite of food he’d just taken. If I weren’t so sure he was a wrathe, I’d wonder about the amount of food he was eating. He ate like a daemon, minus the squiggly meat.
“More stuff in the Gray. Plus Gregale invited me to a meeting of the gray elves. We have a lot of common traits, wrathes and gray elves. They let me participate in one of their war strategy meetings.”
“Really? That sounds cool. What did you guys talk about?”
“Stuff like numbers of Dark Fae, what they’re doing out in the human world, powers their fae have, our training.”
“Training. That’s interesting.”
“How so?”
We were joined at the table by Becky and Scrum who listened in to what we were saying.
“I know there’s a war coming and all, but it seems like our training has kinda been disorganized. They don’t even realize when I don’t show up half the time.”
“You’re right,” agreed Tony, enthusiastically. “I’ve only been here a day and I can already see that. We talked about it today and I gave them some ideas.”
“You did? To who? The council?” asked Becky.
“No, the gray elves.”
She nodded her head in admiration. “Good for you, Tony. You’re smart. They should listen to you.”
“Thanks,” he said, shyly, blushing a little.
“Our training’s not bad,” said Scrum, stabbing some wormy thing on his plate and shoving it into his mouth.
“No, the daemon training is in the best shape,” agreed Tony. “That’s because Jared is directly involved. He’s the one who’s in charge of organizing the training of all the fae changelings – but he’s also in charge of recruiting, so I suggested that he’s probably spread too thin. They need someone else to take charge of the training programs.”
“Who’s it going to be? Niles?” The dwarf seemed to be the most logical choice, if only because he was the most belligerent of all the fae I knew at the compound.
“No, he manages the dwarves only. He’s kinda ... short-tempered with other fae.”
“Pfff. You can say that again.” I liked him, though, even if he is a cranky little bastard.
“They’re going to talk to the council and come up with someone. You guys will probably notice a difference in your daily routines after that happens.”
“You’ve really jumped right in, haven’t you, Tony?” asked Becky.