Binds (27 page)

“Well,” I say, feigning disappointment and hurt. Then I smile and look up into his deep blue eyes. I take a minute to remember this moment, the first of many where I’ll hold my own destiny in my hand. “I guess I’ll just have to leave it.” Allie squeezes my hand and I look at her, hoping my last line to Spencer wasn’t for naught. “Gotta place I can stay?” I ask her hopefully.

She squeezes my hand again and looks back at Spencer with a grin, sharing in this moment with me. “Of course, Ophelia. I wouldn’t want you to go anywhere else.”

We turn in unison and start walking down the street where a couple of cars are waiting with the remnants of the SSA that haven’t already made their departure.

“You’re telling me that you’re going to give up fighting with your own people to be with these humans? You want a protector? They can’t protect you. You might have eliminated one obstacle, but Oberon is still out there and there will be others. But, you’re going to chuck away everything we could work together to achieve and become one of these Skulls?”

I stop walking, a little stunned that Spencer doesn’t sound mad and only somewhat surprised. There is a strangely proud current in his voice, as if I’ve surpassed an expectation. He’s almost like a proud father, watching his child leave home for the first time. It pisses me off. Of course he will contribute whatever strength I’ve taken away from the ordeal as his doing. I hate this egotistical, pigheaded man. And yet … why am I finding myself not wanting to walk away from him? Why do I wish so badly that I could just turn around and run back to him and wish even more that he might be willing to open his arms to me if I did? We shared a kiss, the best kiss of my life, but that’s all it was. He said it himself, if I want more, I’m looking at the wrong man.

Before I give him an answer, I look to Allie again to make sure I am giving an appropriate one. She nods at me encouragingly. I stop and turn around to face him. Spencer is still standing in the same spot, fifteen feet away where we left him. “Me, become a Skull? You bet your sweet ass I am,” I exclaim triumphantly, if not a tad bit dramatically. It would feel a lot more satisfying if Spencer didn’t burst out laughing hysterically at that moment, but I take what I can get.

We get into a big luxury car and I give Allie a quizzical look. This isn’t the kind of getaway car I was imagining. I was picturing the SSA riding around in dilapidated kidnapper vans. “Why must you always underestimate me, grasshopper?” Allie asks. “We have a major backer. But more about that later, let’s just get out of here and go home.”

Home. Sounds like heaven to me.

I sit alone at one of the bar stools in the kitchen and I can picture her here. She’d be making pancakes, enormous saucer-like things that she could flip through the air with one quick flick of the wrist. It used to make Samantha squeal with laughter. I always pretended that the squeals annoyed me, while secretly cherishing every one. If I close my eyes, I can make the memory feel so real, smell the batter, hear Melody’s off tune humming of one of her favorite songs as she cooks, and the laughter … it’s an almost palpable thing. In my memory, I can feel it swirling around the room. A tiny bit of life escapes us, taking some of our remaining time on earth with it, but leaving an irremovable impression in our mind. It’s a tradeoff, you know. Every moment you live for every memory you make.

Back then the trade was a great deal. I can’t say the same for today, unfortunately.

An image of Ophelia invades my memory. She’s leaning against the counter, bowl of cereal in her hand and staring out the window with a look of contented freedom in her eyes. I take another glance at the memory before expunging her back to the recesses of my mind where she belongs. The feeling of disloyalty for my family bubbles up in my stomach, like a traitorous cancer that has been spreading too rapidly since I first met the maddening woman.

“Empty chairs at empty tables, Spencer?”

I know that voice and don’t even have to turn my head to acknowledge him.

“I seem to have lost most of my followers of late, Aslem … I mean, Your Majesty.” I put as much sarcastic reverence into the title as I can.

“I can see that, you dickhead,” he replies. “What happened to them all?”

I turn to him. Unsurprisingly, he looks exactly the same as he did the last time I saw him. The only difference is his clothing. He’s wearing a button down plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a pair of carpenter jeans, and boots. He looks better suited as a lumberjack than King of the Fae, but I’d rather be sporting that get up than the hoity-toity robes and crap I’ve seen him wearing at court. Court. I shudder thinking about the place with its backstabbing assholes that get enjoyment from others’ misfortunes. Can’t say I miss it.

I give him a mirthless laugh and nod my head to the bar stool next to me in invitation. He grabs a beer out of the fridge first then sits. We both look forward in silence, but I know that he is still waiting for an explanation.

I open my mouth to give him one but close it before uttering a word. I don’t know how to vocalize the truth without sounding like the dumbass failure that I am. When you leave headquarters with twenty and come back with only eleven, for some reason, people take it as a bad sign and head to higher ground. There used to be eighty-seven people that lived here, eighty-seven who trusted me to do something to help them. Only twenty-two either still have the trust or just feel they have nowhere else to go and so they remain with me.

“Most of them felt they had to go someplace safer. War is coming. They took what they could and left the country. It doesn’t matter, though. I don’t think anyone will be able to outrun this war. Jinx has uncovered some of the Queen’s plans, it’s pretty much the only thing we have going for us. Her new emissary is so used to the old ways of our world; he doesn’t understand how vital it is to protect the flow of electronic information in this one.”

“And what about Phee?” Aslem changes the subject. I can tell that, much like most of our kind, any talk of technology puts him off. The Fae may have their own powers, but they are oblivious to the ones that the humans have invented. Some might argue that invention is where the human’s magic lies. “Your mission hasn’t changed, even though you lost some of your focus when Melody and Samantha came around. I allowed it because you told me you were still doing your job. Now, I find out that my daughter was in the hands of Annora’s lap dog for years and you did nothing about it. Why, Spencer?” His voice has taken on a hard tone, one that another subject would know not to mess around with, but not me.

“I’m sorry that my life got in the way of babysitting duties. If you knew her like I do, you’d know that Ophelia isn’t in need of a babysitter, although a spanking might do her some good. “

He stands abruptly, towering over my seated frame, and yet, I still feel no fear of him. “Spencer, don’t speak about my daughter that way. I don’t care if your father is my best friend. You’re like family to me, but I won’t allow it.” He runs a hand across his face and breathes a weary sigh as he sits back down.

“Calm down, Aslem,” I say in a more respectful tone. I know that he will let me push him, and I do. I hate that I put most of the blame of my losses on his shoulders. Had he never sent me to earth to look after his daughter, I never would have met Melody and lost her along with my own. As much as it pains me, I know that I would go through the pain a million times just for that one brief life I had with them. The real culprit of all of this is Annora and Oberon for so easily betraying his own kind. I want to crush them both, but with the way things are going, it isn’t looking like revenge is coming any time soon.

“When you came to me four years ago asking for my help to get your daughter back,” Aslem says, “I told you I couldn’t do it. Although motivated by Annora’s jealousy, war on earth had nothing to do with our people. We’ve been out of this world for untold centuries and had no reason to interfere with their politics. I fall for one Mage woman and Annora changed all of that. I have just received word that she plans on using some of her Fae guard to secure this world. Once she has, she plans on continuing with her Mage soldiers along with the Fae of her Kingdom to take over mine as well. She’s gone too far with her revenge this time and I can’t allow it.” He looks at me, his eyes full of solemnity.

“In honesty and because you are like a nephew to me, I can say that I’m relieved that the bitch has forced my hand. It was wrong to deny you that day. You and your family have been in service of me for so long. Your line has kept mine safe, even here on earth, watching over my daughter. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to do the same for yours.”

I try to hide the pain his words stir in me. This is one of those times when I’m thankful that no one but the King’s personal guard and their family have the power to look into a soul. If the King could see into mine, he would see the revenge I took against him when he didn’t help me. He’d see how I allowed his daughter to be mistreated by Elias as a punishment for what happened to mine. My father would cast me out if he knew. It’s a good thing I haven’t been to the Fae world to see him in almost a decade.

“Your Majesty,” this time the word is full of the reverence that it deserves, “I understand why you made the choices you had to make at the time. As to your daughter … I’d be careful about telling her that she needs someone to protect her, it’s kind of a touchy subject. At least keep my name out of it if you do bring it up. I’ve told her that I’m not her bodyguard. It would probably piss her off to learn that a bodyguard is exactly what I am. ”

“She must be like her mother in that way then.” Aslem grins but it doesn’t last. His lips turn down as he says, “Stubborn woman. If only she wasn’t so insistent about protecting herself, she might still be alive now. No,” he shakes his head, “Ophelia needs someone to watch over her. It’s not about whether or not she can take care of herself; it’s about her being my heir. When I finally meet my daughter, I won’t tell her the place you hold in her life, but Spencer, just as your father was before you, you are part of the royal guard. You made the commitment and it’s a lifelong one. She’s going to find out eventually.”

He breathes another heavy sigh and gives me a look of determination. “This war with Annora is just in its planning stages, but with the way she’s moving in this world, I would say that it’s only a matter of months before the full scale movement begins. I need you, Spencer, now more than ever. I’m going to need someone with inside knowledge of this world to help with the planning, and I need you to keep Ophelia protected while I prepare for battle. I don’t know if Annora plans on trying to harm her again, but I can’t take the risk of her using Phee to get to me. I’ll come shortly before to claim her and take her back to our world where she’ll be safe during the conflict.”

I want to tell him that Ophelia wants nothing to do with me, that she walked away from me because I willfully kept the secret of who she is. When I finally tell her the truth, I’m sure the woman will be determined to hate me more. I don’t, however. I just look him in the eye and tell him what he wants to hear. “I can do both of those things for you, Aslem. Tell me what intelligence you need and Jinx will take care of it. As for Ophelia, don’t worry, she’ll be taken care of.”

“Thank you, Spencer,” the king says, placing his worn hand on my shoulder. “As always, any resources you need, just ask. Now, where is my daughter?” He gazes around the room apprehensively, as if she might pop out of a corner unexpectedly and force him to have a conversation he has been avoiding for twenty-seven years. “Is she here?”

“No, not at the moment,” I say airily, in hopes of making him believe that she’ll be back sometime soon. Not happening. The woman hates my guts. “I was just on my way out to collect her.”

Aslem has to go back to begin the preparations for war. I get the feeling that he isn’t prepared to deal with the fallout of meeting his daughter for the first time. Knowing Ophelia, I think he’s underestimating the amount of anxiety he should be having over the event. Ruling a kingdom is nothing compared to being leveled by one of her stares when she is calling you out. I know this, and yet, I get a thrill of excitement at the prospect of seeing her again.

I pull the set of keys from the pegs hanging in the ops room and tell Jinx I’ll be back in a while. I exit the elevator into the garage and jump into the PT Cruiser, her favorite. Willie Nelson sings about Pancho and Lefty as I pull out of the basement parking area. Duty calls. I’ve got a date with a princess and even though she’s not expecting it, I always arrive on time.