Call to Arms (War of the Fae: Book 2) (48 page)

Tony was shaking his head.
 
“Either I just saw a miniature guy with wings flying around my room wearing a fanny pack, or you drugged me and I’m having some seriously strange hallucinations.
 
Is this what using LSD is like?”

“Holy
bat balls
,
Tony, you are like a dog with a bone sometimes.
 
I
wish
I were on drugs and not actually living this shit.
 
Well,
that’s not true ... but please, trust
me.
 
I have never done drugs and I never will.
 
I have no idea what an LSD trip is like.
 
I’m finding life is crazy enough.
 
I don’t need the extra stimulation, believe me.”

“Yeah, well, if your world includes pixies in fanny packs, now I can see why.
 
I can’t believe I’m saying that.
 
Pixies
.
 
As if they’re real.”

I leaned in closer to
Tony,
happy to notice he didn’t back away.
 
“Listen, Tim is tiny, but he has a big ego.
 
He hates it when people act like he doesn’t matter, just because he’s little.
 
So try not to act like he’s a figment of your imagination.
 
He can be a real pain in the ass when he’s not happy.”

“Oh,” said Tony, still pretty stunned.
 
He sat back down on his bed with an empty look on his face.
 

Soon there were noises by the window.
 
I watched as first Jared came in and then Chase, Spike, and finally, Finn arrived.

“Come over here, guys.
 
I broke the news to Tony and he’s finally agreed to try and believe me.”

Jared came over first.
 
“Hey, Tony.
 
Nice to see you again.
 
Do you remember me?”

Tony looked embarrassed.
 
“No, sorry, I don’t.”
 
He stood up from the bed and they shook hands.

Finn was next.
 
“Hey, Tony.
 
Finn.
 
You probably don’t remember me – but I remember you.
 
Even though you don’t recall any of it, you were good out there in the forest, during the test
an’
all.
 
You kicked some serious orc ass.
 
Saw it with my own eyes.”
 
He nodded his head for emphasis.

“I did?”

I nodded my head in confirmation.

Chase came up next.
 
“Chase.”

“Tony.
 
Nice to meet ... see ... you again.”

Last came Spike.
 
He walked up and held out his hand.
 
Tony took it and started to shake it.

“Hey, buddy.
 
I know this is hard for ya.
 
My name’s Spike.” And then Spike gave Tony a huge Spike smile.
 
He started to pull his hand away, but he was stopped by Tony’s grip.

“Your smile ... ”

Spike raised his eyebrow.
 
“My smile?”

“There’s something familiar about your smile ...
”
 
Tony
looked at me.
 
“Jayne, why am I remembering his smile?
 
His ...
teeth?”

I felt the heat rising in my face.
 
I leaned in so I could whisper in his ear.
 
“I’ll tell you later.”

Tony let Spike’s hand go, willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, thank goodness.
 
No way did I want to confess my obsession with Spike’s teeth in front of everyone.
 
At least that obsession had one good outcome; it had rubbed off somehow on Tony – or at least made a hell of an impression.
 
Must be all the times I had vibed him while I was oogling Spike in Miami.

The guys all stood in the middle of the room.
 

“So, what’s next?” asked Finn.

No sooner had he said that then the sound of a loud wind could be heard coming from outside Tony’s window.
 
The blinds that were hanging halfway down started blowing up and banging around, twisting and bending over themselves.
 
We all looked at each other, confused.
 
The night had been so calm.
 
Why would it sound like a storm was coming through now?
 
Unless ...

Before the thought could completely form in my head, it was too late to act.
 
I saw the movement at the window before the words of warning could come out of my mouth.

The wind had delivered the one person I least wanted to see.
 

Ben.

He stood there in all of his Dark Fae glory, dressed all in black, materializing out of the wind that apparently did his bidding, delivering his black hearted, gorgeous self, right into the middle of Tony’s bedroom.

“What happens next, is Tony comes with
me.”

I stepped in front of Tony, pushing him behind me to protect him.
 
“Over my dead body.”

The guys quickly assembled and formed a line in front of me, with Chase standing the closest, effectively blocking most of my view of Ben’s angry face.
 
I was kicking myself for leaving Blackie in the hotel.
 
How could I have been so stupid?

“I would prefer to keep you alive, Jayne.
 
Perhaps with Tony on our side I can persuade you to join us too.”

“Keep dreaming.
 
Tony’s not going with you and neither am I.”

Ben lifted his eyes in Tony’s direction.

“Tony.
 
Do you remember what I said about Jayne?
 
About her friends?”

“Yes,” Tony said weakly.

“Was I right?”

“To some degree, yes.”

I turned.
 
“What did he say Tony?
 
He lies, you know.
 
You can’t trust him.
 
He’s just trying to get you over to the Dark Fae side.”

“He said you would come here and try to persuade me to join your gang.”

“It’s not a
gang
, Tony.
 
We’re a family.
 
And Ben may try to deny it, but he’s part of a fae family too, only they’re the bad guys and we’re the good guys.”
 
I grabbed Tony’s hands in mine.
 
“You have to pick a side or Ben is going to pick one for you!”
 
I was desperate and I know right then I looked like a crazy person, but I couldn’t help it.
 
I just couldn’t lose Tony to this guy.
 
I could feel his dark presence in the room near me.
 
It burned.

“If I was going to force Tony to do anything, wouldn’t I have done it already?
 
You’re the only one forcing him.
 
Hey, Tony ... did I ever ask you to join a gang?
 
Leave your family?
 
Do anything you didn’t want to do?”

Tony shook his head no.

I felt him slipping away.
 
I had to show him Ben wasn’t for real.
 
That Ben was going to force him – if not today, then some day soon.
 
But how?

I didn’t think; I just acted.
 
I let go of Tony’s hand and reached out in desperation for a connection to The Green.
 
I realized as soon as I started that Tony’s house had to be either directly over or very near a ley line, just
like
the library.
 
The conduit was here, empty and unused, waiting for a fae like me to awaken its true potential.
 

I called on all of the trees and the bushes and the flowers making their home in the soil.
 
I called to the creatures of the night
who
roamed the Earth away from the human eyes around them.
 
I reached as far as my heart could go, through the oceans and waters that I had an affinity to, the places that connected us to the Green Forest and beyond.
 
I called it all to me in my one bid for Tony’s life.

The hum filled my ears and the power crackled in my fingertips.
 
The roar of the world’s life energy rose up all around us.
 
Even Tony, who was not yet fae, could feel something happening.
 
The air was filled with it.
 
The floor and walls vibrated with its immensity.

“You!”
yelled Ben.
 
“It’s
you!”

And then he let out a growl.
 
His mouth opened and a fiery redness burned within, black smoke seeping out and running down his chin.
 
It looked like black blood moving in slow motion down his body.

Jared took one step back so he was in line with Chase.
 
They moved tighter together, blocking my view even more.
 
Finn and Spike fanned out so they were diagonal to them, forming a semi circle with Ben near the middle.

“Tell us what you want us to do!” yelled Jared, waiting on my signal.
 
None of them had their weapons either.
 
I was the only one who could do anything against Ben right now.

I felt a pull from the other side of the room ... a heat that was building, coming from Ben.
 
I looked between Chase’s and Jared’s shoulders, and I could see a red glow coming up behind Ben’s back, surrounding him, boiling up over him,
taking
over him completely.
 
He was turning into a flaming red demon fae.

“Tony!” I yelled.
 
“Can you see that
?!
”

“Yes!” he yelled.

“Him or me, Tony!
 
Choose now!”

Tony grabbed my arm, completely freaking out.
 
“I don’t know what to do, Jayne!
 
I don’t know what to say!”

“Time to get off the goddamn fence, Tony!”
 
I was yelling to be heard over the dull but ominous roar coming from Ben’s flaming body.
 
“Are you with me or not
?!
 
Because if you say ‘not’ right now, you’re going to lose me forever.
 
There will be nothing I can do for you after that.
 
You will belong to Ben and his Dark Fae forever.
 
And when I say forever, I mean it.
 
Fae live for thousands of years and then ... well ...
”
 
I
looked deeply into his eyes and spoke to his heart from mine,
 
“... let’s just say forever is a long time.”

Tony looked over at the flaming red angry fae that was Ben.
 
The fae creature still looked like Ben, but he was practically on fire, seething with his Dark Fae power.
 
He wasn’t burning, but I knew if he wanted us to burn, we would be aflame in seconds.
 
I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t just throw a fireball at us and kill us right then.
 
Probably because then Tony would be gone and he wanted him pretty badly for some reason.

“Tony!”
roared Ben, “Come to me now!”
 
He sounded like Ben, with a touch of orc roar added, giving him a scary, commanding gravelly voice.
 
I tried not to be scared but it was impossible.

Tony’s face filled with fear.
 
He looked at me, grabbing me by the arms.
 
“I don’t want to go with him, Jayne.”

Now Tony was making me cranky.
 
“So, does that mean you want to go with me?”

“I care about you, Jayne, you know that, but can’t I just stay here?
 
Can’t you come back home and stay here too?
 
Why can’t we just go back to life the way it was ... without all this ... crazy fae stuff?”

Right at that moment, Tim decided to get a little feisty.
 
I’ll never understand what got into him, because everyone else in the room saw a flaming badass Dark Fae demon looking thing, and stayed way the hell back.
 
But not Tim.
 
No ... he was more like a moth to a flame.

“I’ll take care of this!” yelled Tim in his wee voice.

“Tim!
 
No!!”
I yelled; but he didn’t listen, as usual.

He launched himself off my shoulder and started flying towards Ben, his body stretched out in a miniature Superman pose, his wings beating furiously.

I shrugged Tony off of me and shoved between Jared and Chase.
 
“Tim!
 
Don’t!”