Darkness & Light (War of the Fae: Book 3) (24 page)

“What
?!
 
Are you
nuts?
 
No way.
 
Just leave me here.”

“In the meadow?
 
Where a groundhog could eat you?
 
No, not a good idea.”

“Better a groundhog than an orc.
 
Do you know what orcs do to pixies?”

“Shove a stick down their throats and out their assholes and hang ‘em over a fire?”
 
I’d actually seen this done to a dwarf by orcs, so I wasn’t being sarcastic for once in my life.

“Yeah, if you’re lucky.
 
Otherwise, they pick your appendages off one at a time and eat them while you watch.”

I shivered in revulsion.
 
Orcs were some
nastyass
shit.

“But I have to get this blood to Goose.
 
Chase is going to be a mental case forever if I don’t.
 
I can’t let that happen.
 
Even if I have to kiss an orc on his
slimey
lips, this needs to get done.”

Tim was silent for a few seconds.
  
I turned to go back as he began speaking again.
 

“Fine.
 
But don’t just go walking in there.
 
Sneak back in.”

“Yeah, okay, sure.
 
But I’m not the best sneaker in the world.”

“Don’t I know it,” said Tim under his
breath
.

“I heard that.
 
Just tell me what to do or shut up.
 
Either one is fine with me.”
 
I picked my way across the meadow.
 
I knew I needed to hurry up but I couldn’t bring myself to run back towards the orcs.
 
It just seemed all kinds of wrong – must have been my natural instincts kicking in.

“Okay, see that tree on the right?
 
Go there and stand behind it and wait a couple seconds ... listen for orc sounds.”

“Or smells.”

“Yeah, that too.”

I did as I was told, hearing and smelling nothing.

“Now go to that one over on the left ... the one with the low branch hanging down.
 
Do the same thing.”

And so we carried on like this for the next fifteen minutes, Tim giving me sneaking instructions and me trying not to sound like an elephant thundering through the trees.
 
I don’t know why I tried so hard – it’s not like the orcs weren’t loud and obvious themselves.
 
The only reason they’d caught me before is because one of them got a whiff of me and got close enough to hear me being stupid.
 
Probably it was Tim they’d smelled.
 
He did have that gas problem after all.

We eventually reached the scene of my orc ass
whoopin
’ but they were gone, just a few puddles of smoking black ooze on the ground marking the scene of the crime.
 

It felt like it had to be closer to lunchtime by now.
 
I looked around nervously for Goose.
 
As if answering my prayers, I heard his voice come out of the Gray.
 

“Hello, Jayne.
 
I’m glad to see you here.
 
You’re early.”

“Yeah, well, not early enough.
 
I got this blood over an hour ago and the guy at the clinic told me it was only good for an hour.”

Goose’s faint image began to appear before me, eventually becoming whole and no longer see-through.
 
“We will do what we can with what you have brought.”
 
He held out his hand.

I reached into my tunic belt and pulled out the box with the pipette of blood in it.
 
“There’s this glass
tubey
thing in here with the pixie’s blood in it.
 
I can’t even see it.
 
I hope you have some of those fish-eye magnifier glasses that our guy had.”

“Do not concern yourself; we have everything we need.
 
I do not know if this will work for our treatment, since as you said the blood is no longer fresh, but we will do what we can.
 
Thank you.
 
I will see you back here in a week then?”

“Yeah.
 
And by the way, if you could
not
send an orc welcoming party next time, that would be great.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, a quizzical look on his face.

“The orcs?
 
The smelly, black, lumpy, evil fuckers?”

“Sorry, I do not follow.”
 
He cocked his head, examining me as if trying to decide if I was nuts.

“You seriously don’t know?”

“No, I am truly sorry.
 
Perhaps it is the stress of your friend being injured that has caused you some ... disorientation.”

“Never mind.
 
Just watch your back.
 
There are orcs in this forest.”

He laughed in a patient way.
 
“That is not possible.”

“Uh, yeah it is.”

“The orc are from the Underworld, not the Here and Now.”

“Underworld,
smunderworld
.
 
They’re here; I burned ‘em, now they’re gone.
 
Look at the blood.”
 
I pointed to the ground where there were now just a few scorched areas.
 
Shit
.
 
I forgot that their blood was like acid and did eventually burn off.

Goose raised an eyebrow at me.
 
“Yes.
 
Well.
 
One week.”
 
And then he faded into nothingness again.
 

Damn Gray walkers.
 
“Come on, Tim.
 
Let’s go eat lunch.”

“I’ve lost my appetite.”

“Well, then, you can just watch me eat.”

“That’ll just make it worse.”

I broke into a jog, just to piss him off.
 
He held onto my hair extra tight, so I wasn’t sure who was torturing
who
at that point, but we got to the compound in record time.
 
We met Becky and Scrum at the lunch buffet as they were lining up to get their food.
 
I noticed Scrum already had a pile of wiggly meat on his plate.
 
It must be a daemon thing to eat that disgusting crap.
 
I preferred my meat to be good and dead when I ate it.

“So, what happened?
 
Everything go okay?” asked Becky.

“You had trouble, didn’t you?” asked Scrum quietly.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“I
knew
it.
 
I could feel it.
 
I should have gone with you.
 
If something had happened to you when I was supposed to be keeping an eye on you ... I don’t know what they’d do to me.”
 
He was sweating bullets.

“Don’t worry.
 
I’m taking you next time.
 
Trust me ... I don’t want to be orc food.”

Becky’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head.
 
“Orcs?
 
You saw
orcs
out there?”

“
Shhh
!
 
We don’t need the entire council on my ass, Beck.”

“Oh, yeah,” she whispered.
 
“Sorry.”

We went and sat at our table.
 
“So, to answer your question, yes – there were four orcs there.
 
They just stumbled across me.
 
Tim’s gas problems gave us away.”

“Hey!
 
No way are you putting this one on me!” he yelled from my shoulder.

“Tim has gas problems?” asked Scrum, confused.

“Yep.
 
Farts
aaaaall
the time,” I said, smiling.
 

I should have known what Tim’s response was going to be.

“That’s it punk!” I said disgustedly, “You’re on my shoe for the rest of the day.
 
I warned you.”

“What did he do?” asked Becky, innocently.

I just stared at her and then rolled my eyes.

“Oh.
 
Geez.
 
I’m
really
glad I can’t hear him.”

“Tell me about it.”

Tim ignored me, climbing down my arm to get to my plate where a nice, fat grape waited for him.
 
I especially liked it when he ate one of those.
 
He was hilarious, trying to break through the skin while also trying not to get soaked with juice.
 
It was nice, relaxing here like this with my friends and being entertained by a dipshit pixie.
 
Way better than fighting creatures out in our forest
who
belonged in the Underworld.

Tony showed up then, entering the room behind Gregale.
 
He had a huge grin on his face.
 
He nodded at us before grabbing a plate at the end of the buffet line and filling it up.
 
When he was done, he joined us at the table.
 
Spike sauntered through the door that came from the direction of the dorm rooms and joined us too, skipping the buffet entirely.
 
He looked terrible.
 
His face was pale and drawn and he had dark circles under his eyes.

“Spike, you look like shit.”

“Thank
you
, Jayne.”
 
He put his head down in his arms on the table.
 
All we could see was the back of his head.

“What’s wrong you, Spike?” asked Becky, face full of concern.

“Hungry.”

“Go get some food.”

“Not hungry for food,” he mumbled.

Becky looked at me, pulling her lips back in a grimace.
 
Then she looked back at him.
 
“Oh.
 
Sorry.”
 
She put her eyes down and focused on eating her food.

I made my decision and spoke up before I could chicken out and change my mind.
 
“Spike, after lunch, you and me, my room.”
 
I looked over at Scrum.
 
“You too, Scabs.”
 

Scrum smiled.
 
“It’s Scrum, not Scabs.
 
And okay.
 
I can supervise.”

“Sounds kinda kinky,” said Becky, smiling devilishly.

Spike mumbled from his arms.
 
“Never mind, Jayne.
 
I don’t need your pity.”

“It’s not pity.
 
I want to do it.
 
I’m curious, remember?”

Spike lifted his head to look at me.
 
“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

A big grin broke out across his formerly pitiful but now slightly rejuvenated face.
 
“Well,
aaaall
riiiight
.”

Tony ducked his head and smiled.
 

“What’re you
grinnin
’ at?” I asked, nudging him.

“Nothin’.”

“What’d you do today, Tony?” asked Becky.
 
“Did you find out what race you are?”

“Yep.
 
I’m a
wrathe
for sure.”

“That’s cool!” said Scrum enthusiastically.
 
“What can you do?
 
I’ve never heard of a
wrathe
.
 
I mean, not even before becoming a changeling.
 
I’ve heard of elves and pixies and stuff, but
wrathes
?
 
No.
 
Not once.”

“Would you shut up and give him a chance to talk?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah, sorry.”
 
He motioned zipping his lips shut, but I knew it wasn’t going to last.

“Gregale’s cool.
 
Smart too.
 
He showed me how to get into and out of the Gray.
 
We went all over the place.”

“What did he think of your vibing stuff?”

Tony smiled, shrugging his shoulders, “He might have been a little jealous and impressed.”

“
Vibed
his ass, didn’t you?”
 
I was so proud of him, giving old Gregale a run for his money.

“Yep.
 
He was surprised.
 
None of the other fae in the compound
are
empaths
.”

“What’s an
empath
?” asked Becky.

“Someone who can sense other people’s emotions.
 
Kind of like having empathy for them, but at a much deeper level.”

“Wow.
 
So can you feel me now?”

“If I focus on it.
 
I used to be able to do this a little before I was made a changeling.
 
Now I can do it with more people and at longer distances.
 
The trick is going to be learning how to focus in on which person I want to read.
 
Sometimes when I’m in a place with lots of people it gets all jumbled up.”