Darkness & Light (War of the Fae: Book 3) (25 page)

“That would get me all discombobulated, I think,” said Scrum.
 
“Like, how do you know it’s not your feelings you’re feeling, you know?”

“It’s not the same as my own feelings.
 
My feelings are attached to my mind and my heart or something.
 
Everyone’s feelings have their own signature.
 
I can tell Jayne’s from a mile away.”

Spike lifted his chin a little higher, cocking his head to the side and fixing Tony with a red-eyed stare.
 
“What’s she feeling now?”

Tony smiled, his face blushing a rosy pink.
 
“I’ll let you figure that out.”

I smacked Tony on the arm.
 
“That’s enough of that talk.
 
I’m hungry; shut up and eat.”

Spike winked at me before getting up to leave.
 
“See you in your room Jayne.
 
I’m going to go lay down and wait for you.”

I nodded, saying nothing, trying to ignore Becky kicking me under the table and giggling.
 

“Sorry, Becky,” said Spike as he stood.
 
“I’d tell you to come along too, but I wouldn’t want Finn to get jealous.”

She looked up at him and then me, panic in her eyes.
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I started snickering around the forkful of food I’d just stuffed in my mouth.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Oh, nothing,” I said with feigned innocence.
 
She thought she was so cool, but her crush on our green elf friend was totally obvious.
 
I think the only one who didn’t notice it was Finn himself.
 
I put that down not to lack of interest, but to the fact that he was a redneck and Becky probably didn’t know how to perform the redneck mating ritual.
 
I’m pretty sure it was something like taking a sexy swig from a beer bottle or something ... or maybe shooting an animal in the forest with a single shot from a crossbow.

“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.

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 feel 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.