Some Enchanted Dream: A Time Travel Adventure (Seasons of Enchantment Book 2) (33 page)

"The element used must be pure, not combined with other materials, like iron mixed with carbon to create steel. A steel blade thrust in the heart would not kill a dark fey as it's diluted, corrupted. And it must pierce the heart of the fey to be effective. Furthermore, the element must be in a substantial amount, such as three or more lead balls from a pistol. A pure silver dagger or a golden spear would do the deed," Riley added, and was given a dark look from his brother.

"Aye, just give them the tools to destroy us," Mick sneered and glared at them all.

Adrian studied his lifetime guardian and friend for a long moment. Mick's wings had disappeared, and he looked perfectly human. The wings were a surprise today, but in the heat of battle, Adrian could not allow his astonishment to surface, as he was in a fight to protect his most precious possession, his wife.

"So . . ." Dan stood up and ran his fingers through his hair. "Let me get this straight. Silver bullets kill werewolves, wooden stakes kill vampires and iron or lead kills fairies?"

"No." Mick whirled about so quickly to confront Dan, Adrian felt his breath catch.

"One of the seven metal elements of alchemy," Dan continued, unruffled by Mick's aggressive stance nearby. "Let me guess, different elements affect different kinds of fey?"

"Yes," Riley answered Dan's query. "It is said that the Far Eastern fey clans tend to be sensitive to tin, whilst those of European descent are--"

"Shut up." Mick glared at his sibling. "You freely give information that can harm us to human men, are you daft or suicidal?"

"Neither." Riley chose that moment to stalk up to his elder and confront him by standing toe to toe and eye to eye. "I am trying to help these two men figure out how to destroy our enemy. And since we know from your recent encounter that these dark ones are killed by iron, we can make use of that information to bring them down. We are making a battle plan with merely ourselves and two human men against an unknown number of Darkling Fey. Tara could help us, as well."

"No. She must not fight. She is the last of our mound, a queen in our mother's stead." Mick was adamant. "We must come up with a plan that does not involve dragging our baby sister into a war with us."

The door opened. Tara entered with the satchel in hand. She glanced at the bed, saw that Bellows was asleep, and then slowly looked about the room to each man before finally resting her gaze on Mick. "I brought the bottle so Riley can examine the contents. What's the plan?"

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Tara felt as if she'd entered a male only club. They all just looked at her, as if her presence was completely unexpected.

"Seriously? You're planning on forging ahead without me?"

"That is correct." The words came from an unexpected source. From Dan.

She set the satchel on the chair next to the table where Riley had laid out his science kit. She pulled the bottle out and set it on the table as she struggled to pull up her courage and face them after her cowardly behavior a few hours ago.

Yeah, they probably decided she was useless to them after she simply shrank into the corner like that. It wasn't her best moment.

"Look, guys . . . Mick, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't shoot lightning from my hands to stop the gothic fey creep. I'll practice, ok? I'll try really hard to create blue energy bombs with my bare hands so next time I'm not a useless trinket to be kept on a high shelf."  She kept her head low, her eyes focused on Riley's glass menagerie of antique chemist's equipment.

Several voices rose at once in protest, creating an unintelligible noise that couldn't be discerned into actual words. They were patronizing her, like one would a child talking about going off to fight the North Koreans after watching a newscast in the living room. It made her feel even lower.

Mick was suddenly beside her. He lifted her chin and forced her to look up at him. "What happened earlier is a good thing, sister."

"How's that?" Tara's voice warbled as she looked up into his pale blue eyes and fought the tears of shame rising in her own. "How is cowering in the corner, doing nothing, a good thing?"

Mick's lips curved into a smile. He stared down at her for a moment and then kissed her brow. "Because, sweet sister, they will not know of your powers until it's too late. They won't know what's coming."

The men spent the next hour discussing the next action. They agreed on two things. First, someone unknown to the dark ones had to go to the Exposition booth to get a sample of the stuff they were handing out to patrons so Riley could compare it to the poisoned formula. And second, they had to determine where the still was so they could destroy it.

Last but not least, they had to take out the dark ones so they didn't start over once the stills were destroyed. The hard part was trying to figure out how many they were up against.

Adrian mentioned having arrow tips made of iron. Dan pointed out that they wouldn't fly very well due to their weight. The two men discussed the virtues of an iron tip arrow versus using good old fashioned stakes made of iron as a hand weapon.  Adrian didn't like that idea, as he cautioned that it would require getting to close to the creatures, and as human beings, they had little strength against the enchanted ones.

Tara listened to them for a few moments, and then moved to the table to listen to her brothers argue.

"We cannot trust her," Mick countered when Riley suggested freeing Artemisia to add to their numbers. "She betrayed our kind by giving the magic elixir to man in the first place, and she betrayed man by playing the succubus and drinking in their adoration in exchange."

"Yes, but she was betrayed herself by a man, by her own husband.  He used magic to trap her in the garden. The dark ones came, hearing her plea for aid, and took the recipe from her in exchange for securing her freedom and then stranded her there. She's held in by powerful human magic. If we free her she might--"

"Take out her fury on man, us, possibly both. She is treacherous, I say. She may be working with the dark ones," Mick insisted. "We will free her when the danger is past, that way, we've no need to worry about her turning on us during the battle."

"So, there are the three of us, Adrian and Dan." Tara pointed out. "What weapons do we have against them?"

The brothers looked at her warily. Neither spoke for too long.

Finally, Mick took the lead, "we have various powers, little one. Riley has the gift of healing, and of poisons. If your husband has stakes or arrows made up, we can dip them in poison that can add an extra edge to the iron tips. I have the gift of glamoury, and I am a seasoned warrior among our kind. I wish Kerry were with us. Three fey males can form a strong defense. Like three pillars to buttress a bridge. Together we are stronger. Never forget that, dear one."

Tara's heart was melting at his endearments. Mick was no longer angry at her for her fear at Bellow's apartment, it seemed. His arm slipped about her as she sidled closer to him, needing the comfort of an older brother. "And where is Kerry? Can we not call out to him and tell him where we are in time?"

"I know not how to do such a thing," Mick replied sadly. "He left us centuries ago, in search for you. Like you, he can traverse time and translocate from one place to another."

Odd man out, that was how she felt among the men and their planning. Odd
woman
out. They were still all stuck in that male-centric frame of mind that believed women should stay home and nurse the babies while they marched out to make war. 

"I could trans-locate them, send them to another place. Or summon lightning, as you said I can do."

Mick nodded, but didn't comment further. He resumed his conversation with Riley, ignoring her as she stood listening to them.

After a while Tara grew tired of the testosterone gang and decided to leave them to their discussions. So much for being able to help. Why the hell were they so bent about keeping her out of the battle?

She returned to her apartment. Gisele was sitting in her night-robe on the sofa.

"Gisele," Tara began, thinking of a plan as she sat down beside her friend. "We need your help with a little problem. My father and my husband are spies. Adrian works for Queen Victoria, and my father, well, he's working for the United States government. We need to find a certain absinthe distillery, a new one. Do you have any admirers at your cabaret who are involved in government permits and business licenses?"

Gisele seemed startled by Tara's quick lie. She also was taking the bait as excitement played over her features. "Yes, there is Etienne Marceau, but . . . I cannot go to the club now. That terrible Mr. Dupres will be there, the one who arranged my dismissal. He'll be waiting for me, I fear. And he's already sent his man around this morning to make me an official offer of his protection."

"What a total prick he turned out to be. It's a shame he's probably some little kid's grandpa." The words flew from Tara's lips before she could stop them. She sometimes forgot herself and spoke a profanity among the locals. In the future where she grew up men and women used swear words often in their speech. Not so here in the past. Well bred ladies were not supposed to talk like sailors. She'd taken some pretty hard looks of disgust in Adrian's time due to her reckless speech. "I'm sorry."

Gisele giggled. "No, you speak the truth. He is a bastard, as you say. A dirty cock."

"I've news for you. You can go to the club. You don't work there anymore. It's not like they can throw you out if you go to be entertained."

"No, but they could refuse me entrance." Her lips smashed together and her dark brows lowered into tight squiggles. "Lady Dillon, I don't think you should go there without your husband. Women of the lower ranks go to the clubs unescorted, but a woman such as you . . . it just would not be proper."

"It'll be fine. I promise. No one will bother you, because you will be with me." Tara stood up and offered Gisele her hand to pull her up from the couch. "First, let's get you dressed, and then we will find Marceau or some other government official to enchant so he will tell us where to find the dangerous distillery that is handing out poisoned absinthe."

"Poison?"  Gisele looked frightened by her words. "Lady Dillon, surely you do not mean to say that the exhibit at the exposition is selling poison?"

"Yes, just that. Come, Gisele. You can borrow one of my dresses. The men are concocting a scheme, and while they make plans to avert disaster, we will use our own secret weapons to gather information."

*  *  *  * 

"Our strength is that the dark ones do not know where we are lodging. That will protect us for now. I cannot promise how long hiding will be affective as a strategy." Mick was addressing the group as the self-appointed leader.  "We should go out with caution, and we must be very careful not to lead the dark ones here when we return. Tara should stay inside, hidden from their detection at all times. She is a valuable asset, as many clans have decreased their numbers and would take a fey female for breeding purposes."

Adrian listened patiently. He was not so conceited that he felt he must be the one in charge. After all, he was out of his depth when it came to fighting fey warriors, and clearly Mick was not.

"They will have already discerned that we are in the area after they find their dead watcher. Our sigils on all the doors and windows should make our lair invisible to our adversaries, for the time being."

Dan looked uncomfortable. He glanced at Adrian, and then cleared his throat. "Um, I forgot to mention something the other day. I was set upon when coming home from a friend's house just before daybreak, and the young thugs who attacked me weren't like human teenagers. They were . . . stronger. I don't know how else to put it. They were different. Adrian chased them off, and then we walked home together."

"Young darklings?" Riley murmured. "Why are they lurking in the neighborhood?"

"To create mischief, to prey upon the weak, that is their way," Mick answered. "They have no respect for humanity. To them, humans are playthings. Their young are taught to taunt and bedevil humans from infancy. Perhaps an elder was training them in their sick sport.

"Yeah . . ." Dan started, and paused. He looked truly stricken.

Adrian didn't understand his misgivings. The young thugs, be they human or fey, were easily spooked and ran off once he arrived on the scene to help Dan.

"When Adrian and I reached our door, I turned and I swear to you I saw some dark creature lurking in the stone entry of the house across the street. It had . . . a creepy pallor, like a corpse. And it was wearing a dark outfit, except for the vibrant green vest and glowing green eyes. It wasn't human, I knew that. When I turned back to look at it again, it was gone."

Mick's countenance changed. "And you did not see fit to inform us of this?"

"He was injured." Adrian put in, determined to defend Dan to the last. "He'd been hit on the head by a rock."

"Yeah and the skinny little shit who I caught had a skeletal wrist. And long fingernails, like claws," Dan added. "I forgot about the thing hiding in the stoop, what with everything else going on around here."

"Then they know where we are," Riley's calm voice startled them all. "Think about it, they recognized Tara as fey when she stumbled into their little cafe', and must have followed her here. And they noted Dan and Adrian coming home. Today, their watchman was attacked two blocks away, felled by a fey and a human. They will detect your essence and Tara's, in the apartment today. The only one of us they do not know about yet is me."

"That could be a mistaken assumption on our part," Adrian pointed out. "We need to find a new home. We need to pack, now."

"Wait, do not descend into panic." Mick caught his wrist and prevented Adrian from leaving. "We have sigils everywhere to make us invisible."

"So . . . you mean when Dan and I entered the building, they couldn't see us?"

"The building is surrounded by shields. They know you are in the vicinity, but not where. The building will fade from their perceptions when they fly past, and it will seem that only humans reside here."