Blood of the Exiled (Witch Fairy Book 10) (11 page)

I do, but still.
 
I sit down on the edge of the bed and sigh.
 
“Tana, this is going to be stressful enough without me having to worry about stopping you from committing genocide on the Witches.
 
I need to focus all of my attention on helping them.”
 
Even if they don’t want my help.

“I will take responsibility for her,” a deep voice says from the doorway.
 
It’s my traitor husband.
 

I glower at him.
 
“Eavesdropping is not polite.”

He shrugs.
 
“But sometimes it is wise.”
 
I think he was eavesdropping to make sure I didn’t kill his aunt.
 
I glower at him even harder.

“Nephew,” Tana says softly.
 
“I promise you, I mean no harm in my desire to attend you and your wife.”

Hook, line, sinker.
 
Kallen is under her spell.
 
He believes her.
 
Great.
 
I hang my head and shake it back and forth.
 
“
Your
killing me,” I grumble.
 
“This is going to be such a disaster.”
 
This glass is definitely half empty, not half full.

“Xandra, do you agree to let my aunt accompany us?” Kallen asks and there is no way I can crush the hope in his voice.
 
Why is he so sure this is a good idea?

I look up at him.
 
“Do I have a choice?”

He grins, knowing he has won.
 
“You always have a choice, my love.”

“Yeah, right.”
 
To Tana, I say, “We leave in,” I look at the clock on the wall, “forty-five minutes.
 
Will you be ready?”

She rises from her chair.
 
“I will.”
 
With that, she leaves the room.

I flop back on the bed.
 
“I guess this is the question Raziel said I would need to consider carefully.
 
I hope I made the right choice.”

Kallen comes and leans his tall, muscular body over me, his hands on either side of my head.
 
He closes the bedroom door with his magic.
 
“I think so,” he says and lowers his lips to mine.

“This was not how I wanted to spend our hour,” I grumble.

Kallen responds by nuzzling my neck.
 
“Then we had better make good use of these forty-five minutes.”
 
His lips capture mine and the next forty-five minutes fly by.

“We have to go,” I yawn, my head comfortably lying on Kallen’s bare chest.

He’s tracing circles on my back with his finger.
 
“Mm hmm.”

“Oh, by all means, continue to paw at each other when the fate of the Witches hangs in the balance,” Taz gripes through the door.
 
He doesn’t like it when we lock him out.
 
Too bad.
 
He is not getting a front row view of anything that happens in here between Kallen and me that doesn’t involve sleeping.

“The Witches are fine, quit being so melodramatic,” I tell him through the door.

“We could always tether him to a post and leave him here,” Kallen suggests.
 
Obviously, he heard Taz’s voice, and even if he doesn’t know what my Familiar said, he’s safe in assuming it was something irritating.

“Tell the whacka I will tether him to a post and slather him in eucalyptus for the koalas to gnaw on.”

I roll my eyes.
 
“You cannot possibly tether him to anything.
 
You have no hands,” I point out.
 
Kallen glares at the door.
 

Before he and Taz get into a pissing contest that I will have to translate, at least to Kallen, I stand up and stretch.
 
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Kallen admiring me as I did him earlier.
 
I think he’s forgotten all about Taz now.

Mischievous grin in place, he says, “We still have a few minutes.”

I shake my head as I pull my clothes back on.
 
“Not enough minutes.
 
We need to go.
 
Neither Adriel nor Kegan would hesitate to come in here and drag us out of bed.
 
Especially after what you did to Kegan this morning.”

Kallen grimaces and stands up.
 
“I am not concerned about my cousin, but Adriel can be frightening at times.”
 
I’m pretty sure he’s kidding.
 
Mostly.
 
She can be scary.

When we’re dressed and ready to go, Kallen grabs my suitcase and we make our way downstairs.
 
Out on the terrace, a small crowd has gathered.
 
Half of them are coming with us, and Isla, Tabitha, Raziel and Dagda are here to see us off.
 
None of them look thrilled at the prospect of us leaving on this journey.
 
Dagda keeps sending surreptitious glances Tana’s way and she is studiously ignoring him.

“May I speak with you privately?” Dagda says by way of greeting.
 

So he can yell at me for agreeing to take Tana with me?
 
I don’t think so.
 
“Nope.”

He likes being told no as much as I do.
 
“I believe you are making an unwise choice,” he says between gritted teeth, angry he has to say this in front of everyone.
 
Isla and Tabitha aren’t happy with the idea either, but they’re willing to trust my decision.
 
Or they think I need to learn the hard way.
 
Either way, they aren’t saying anything.

I sigh.
 
“Maybe, but I said she could come and I’m not going back on that.”
 
Looking at Tana, I say, “I can always send her back if she causes too many problems.”

I can see Tana physically biting her tongue so she doesn’t say whatever is on her mind.
 
She must think I’ll leave her behind if she does.
 
She’s probably right.

I guess he figures he won’t budge me on that topic because Dagda says, “I understand that you may be forced to choose between this realm and the Cowan realm.
 
I assume you will make the correct choice.”

I try not to roll my
eyes,
they seem to be set on automatic whenever I’m around him.
 
I attempt a light-hearted voice as I say, “I suppose you don’t mean staying with the Witches.”
 
I miss it by a mile.

“You were never a member of the Witch community.
 
You have no loyalty owed to them,” Dagda growls.

I scowl.
 
“They are still my responsibility.
 
You’re the one who always wants me to take my role as Princess seriously.”

“You are Princess of
this
realm.
 
The Witches have no desire for you to rule them,” he counters.

I shake my head in disbelief.
 
“You think the Fairies are jumping up and down with joy over me taking the throne here?”

Before Dagda can speak again, Kallen says, “Uncle, I will do everything in my power to bring us back here.”

My biological father lets out a deep breath.
 
“I know you will.”
 
He pulls Kallen into a manly hug and pounds him on the back.
 
“Keep everyone safe,” he says quietly before Kallen steps back from him.

“You had better find a way to come back here,” Tabitha says.
 
She tried to put a threat behind the words but the fact that she’s tearing up a little squashed that idea.

“Guys, come on.
 
I can tear a passage in the realms any time I want.
 
It’s not like you’ll never see us again even if we did move to the Human realm.”
 
Even though this is true, I didn’t manage to make anyone feel any better.
 
Including myself.
 
I wonder if there’s a limit to how many times I can tear the realms apart before a permanent hole is formed.
 
“We should go,” I add, wanting this uncomfortable good bye session to come to an end.

“Yes, we should,” Adriel says briskly, even more uncomfortable than I am.
 
She’s not big on the grand show of emotions.
 
She’d make a lousy Angel of Death if she was.

Smiling weakly at the four who will be staying behind, I walk down the terrace stairs to the sand.
 
Turning back to the group, I say to Raziel, “A little help with location?
 
Oh, and your cryptic clues really do suck.
 
A little better heads up on some topics would be nice.”

Nodding and trying to hide his amusement, he says, “I will do my best.”
 
I don’t believe him.

A picture fills my mind of a grand white house with pillars, surrounded by green rolling lawns and a horse pasture.
 
Raziel is showing me my grandfather’s house in North Carolina.
 
The same house I saw in my dream last night.
 
That’s just great.

Peeling back the fabric of the realms like pages from a book, I am now physically looking at the house my mother grew up in.
 
The house she escaped from.
 
The house she never planned to return to, and she never did.
 
I wish I could be that lucky.
 
I shake my head.
 
Okay, enough whining.
 
This has to be done and it’s probably a coincidence that the house looks
exactly
like the one from my dream.
 
Maybe Mom described it to me at some point and that’s how it popped into my subconscious last night.

I could have called Mom and Dad back to accompany us.
 
I’m sure Mom has lots of useful information which would make this journey easier, but the last time I came up against the Witches, they tried to exercise my parents.
 
I’d rather avoid any more attempts along those lines.
 
Besides, they’re on the honeymoon they never had since Mom was already pregnant with me when they met and married and fled to the mountains.

It’s summertime in North Carolina and I can already feel the sticky, humid heat.
 
Over my shoulder, I say, “Follow me.”
 
I step through the passageway.

Kallen is the first to follow.
 
He’s done it enough times that he isn’t worried anything bad will happen.
 
As soon as he steps through, he is hyper-vigilant.
 
His eyes scan the house and acreage for any sign of trouble.
 
So far, it seems no one has noticed the huge tear in the realms.
 
I’m pretty sure they’ll let us know when they do.
 
I expect panic and mayhem will ensue.

Adriel, Alita and then Kegan come through.
 
Adriel turns and blows a kiss to Raziel and he smiles in return, his eyes full of love.
 
Then, she becomes as vigilant as Kallen.
 
I can’t see Nixie come through, but I can feel her energy.
 
Tana steps through cautiously, half expecting to burst into flames or something from the look on her face.
 
Taz comes through last.

Assessing Tana, I note that she’s the only one who looks like she is part of a royal entourage.
 
The rest of us are in jeans, even Adriel who I never imagined in them, and tees.
 
Tana is wearing a long black skirt that hugs her hips but in a way that looks elegant, not trashy.
 
She has on a green, silk tunic style shirt the color of a perfect emerald.
 
I’m told her eyes were once the same color.
 
Considering how much brighter and greener they are than when I first met her, they may eventually be that color again.
 
Her hair is done up in braids perfectly positioned to hide the remaining areas that need to fill in yet on her head.
  
A shawl with a black and green pattern drapes from her shoulders.
 
She stands tall and straight with her shoulders set back and head high.
 
She walks with the air of a queen.
 
I’m not sure how much of it is put on for appearance and how much she is starting to feel like her old self again.

To the four who are not coming with us, I say, “We’ll see you guys soon.”
 
With a final wave, I close the passageway.
 
Just in time for all hell to break loose.
 
The Witches know we’re here.

Witches are running towards us from several different directions.
 
Most of them are big and brawny, the females included, but some must be magically strong vs. physically because they’re pretty scrawny.
 
None of them are happy to see us.
 
Shocker.

“I can sense a protection spell and Fairy trap around the perimeter, which I am sure has been heavily guarded,” Kallen says quietly.
 
“They have not planned for our sudden arrival inside of their wards and spells.”

I grin in satisfaction.
 
“Good.”

“Who are you and where did you come from?” a mammoth of a man shouts.
 

He runs fast for a man of his size.
 
The guy has to be at least seven feet tall and almost as wide.
 
He’s solid muscle and angry enough to use it.
 
I bet it’s his job to keep intruders from getting on the property.
 
Poor guy.
 
I hope he wasn’t expecting a raise anytime soon.

“I am Xandra and I am Princess of the Witches,” I say in my most pompous voice even though it sounds like I just read a line out of a comic book or something.
 
I feel kind of silly making such a declaration, but it brings several of the Witches scrambling to a stop.
 
Not Mammoth Guy, though.
 
He’s still coming and he’s angrier than he was a minute ago.
 
I’m so good at making new friends.

“No one here recognizes you as Princess,” Mammoth growls.
 
Another shocker.

I shrug.
 
I know my entourage has moved into defensive positions around me.
 
Even if I wasn’t as powerful as I am, the Witches wouldn’t get anywhere near me.
 
“I really don’t care what you recognize.”

He turns his head and spits a glob of goo out of his mouth and then turns back to me.
 
“Then I’ll make you care.”

I can’t help it, really, I can’t.
 
I have to laugh.
 
Guffaw even.
 
Mammoth guy is nonplussed by my reaction.
 
When I finally get my laughing under control, and wipe my amused, watering eyes, I say, “Okay, first, eww.
 
Didn’t your mother ever tell you spitting is disgusting?
 
Nobody wants to see, or step in, your phlegm grenades.
 
And second, you are not in a bad action movie where lines like ‘Then I’ll make you care’
belong
.
 
Unless you can back up something like that, you just seem stupid saying it.”
 
Kallen stiffens next to me.
 
I’m sure he’s silently berating me for antagonizing my enemy, but he has to know by now that I will every single time.
 
Maybe a faulty brain wave somewhere inside my head is the problem.
 

In my peripheral vision, I see Adriel shake her head slightly and roll her eyes.
 
“Stop toying with the fool,” she says, not caring that Mammoth Guy can hear her.

“Who are you to be calling me a fool?”
Mammoth growls.

With a smile, I say, “Oh, I’m being rude.
 
Let me introduce you to my friend Adriel.
 
She’s an Angel of Death.”
 
I don’t feel the need to explain she’s a Fallen Angel and Adriel doesn’t, either.
 
Glad we’re on the same page.

Mammoth’s eyes grow big and round.
 
His voice is nervous as he says, “Why is she here?”
 
Huh, I guess Angel of Death trumps Witch Fairy on the fear inducing scale.
 

I’m tempted to tell him something that will really scare him, but Kallen’s raised brows and grim lips tell me this isn’t the time for that.
 
Fine.
 
“Where is my grandfather,” I ask in lieu of answering Mammoth’s question.

Mammoth gets ready to spit in disgust again, but then his eyes travel to Adriel and he swallows the glob of saliva back.
 
Okay, that’s just as gross as spitting.
 
“Our King does not recognize you as his granddaughter.”

Well, that’s news to me.
 
But I’m not going to act like it bothers me.
 
Once a relative tries to kill you a couple of times, the family bond gets stretched a bit thin.
 
“That’s okay, he’s not much of a grandfather anyway,” I say with a smile.
 
“Where is he?”

“Safe from you,” a redheaded Witch says.
 
He’s not as big as Mammoth but he still looks mean.
 
Even with the generous sprinkling of freckles on his pale skin.
 
Some of them are kind of dark and should probably be looked at.
 
He is in serious danger of getting skin cancer.

“Let me have a go at the wanker,” Taz says, coming forward and positioning
himself
in front of me.
 
“A few good bites and scratches to his face and lips ought to loosen up his tongue.”

Several of the Witches take a step back.
 
To them, Taz’s words sound like growling and gnashing of his teeth.
 
“What is that thing?” a blonde female Witch asks.
 
There aren’t any Tasmanian devils in this part of the realm, so I’m not surprised by her ignorance.

“He’s my Familiar,” I say and watch as more of the Witches step back.
 
I guess they know Familiars aren’t made from good magic.
 
“Right now he wants to chew this guy’s lips off so his tongue has more room to work.”
 
I jab my thumb in Mammoth’s direction.

Meanwhile, Mammoth’s mouth is moving, forming a spell.
 
Suddenly, a Witch bottle buried nearby explodes from the ground in front of us.
 
Kallen and I throw up a wall of magic, preventing the projectiles it was filled with from harming us.
 
I silently berate myself for not paying better attention.
 

The bottle appears to have been filled with iron nails so they were definitely expecting us.
 
The nails wouldn’t hurt me like the others, except that piercing my skin with any kind of nails would be painful, but Kallen, Alita, Tana and Kegan would be poisoned by the iron.
 
Now, I’m annoyed, bordering on angry.

I shake my head.
 
“Why?
 
Why do people like you always have to push my buttons?”

Before Mammoth can respond with something that would probably annoy me even more, I take away his voice.
 
Then, I steal a move from a rodeo I watched once.
 
I circle his ankles and wrists with magical rope and pull them tightly together, hog-tying him.
 
He falls to the ground with a dull thump, speechless even though his lips are moving.
 
I drop the wall of magic surrounding our group and say to Taz, “Why don’t you go say hi.”

“I suppose you won’t really let me eat the wanker’s lips,” he says.
 
I give him a look that says no.
 
Still, he
waddles
his little body over to mammoth and a collective breath is taken in by the Witches as they wait for the damage his pointy little teeth will wrought.
 
They are in such shock at what happened to Mammoth, they don’t even try to stop him.

Instead of biting him, Taz sniffs the fallen Witch’s face.
 
He pulls his nose back and hacks like he’s trying to cough up a hair ball.
 
“What has he been eating?
 
He smells like rotten gator covered in spoiled eggs.
 
I eat dead things and wouldn’t lower myself to take a bite from him.”

“It’s probably steroids
you’re smelling
,” I reply and Mammoth’s eyes shoot to me regardless of his fear of Taz.
 
Meeting his gaze, I say, “Taz thinks you stink too badly to eat.”