Finding Fae

Blaine

My mother agreed that Zane was probably going through a haze. Basically, it was a time when his animal nature was too strong. It was, actually, where the legends of werewolves came from. There were werewolves, of course, but they weren’t like the stories.

No one know what triggers a haze, but it has become increasingly rare in Morphi. Some say it has to do with hormones, others say it’s a breeding thing, and some say it’s triggered by environmental stimuli. Whatever the cause, my brother was becoming increasingly violent and the only real explanation was a haze.

Ben was agile and had fox tricks that would be helpful in trapping my brother, but Zane wasn’t stupid. If Ben provoked him, he would know something was up. Same thing with me. Nando wasn’t a fighter, so there was no way I was going to ask for his help.

Malachi, on the other hand. That was a different story. Zane already hated Mal so if he were to pull the lions tail, so to speak, there would be no suspicion as to why. It was a good idea and I was sort of shocked at Mal’s almost immediate agreement. The entire time he’s been with us, Mal hasn’t tried to provoke Zane on purpose and has made efforts to not fall for my brothers many jabs.

With that taken care of, I drove towards the only place that could contain a Morphi like Zane while hazed. Home.

Mom was a Morphi, so she set things up for us, but she was a cat and a small one at that. She was no match for Zane when things started. Dad was a hellhound, like me. Not having a master was kind of like walking a fine line between sanity and a trip to the nut house. Not even our own offspring were entirely safe if we slipped towards the crazy side. Being brothers meant Zane and I had a bond that was a little closer than parent\child. Being twins made it even better, so it was up to me to lead this parade. Mal was the bait.

“You know, I’m not entirely sure this will work,” Mal said as we walked into the house.

“I’m sure it will,” I said flatly. “Just try not to get bitten. Trust me, it hurts.”

I rubbed my upper arm, remembering the last time Zane and I fought, right after Fae got here. I may be the stronger brother, but Zane had years more experience than I did. I was comfortable as a hound, but it was still awkward, having extra legs and a tail. The perspective was off, too. It made me clumsy sometimes.

I knew Zane was home. He was sulking in his room, no doubt pacing the floor as he growled at the walls occasionally. He’s been doing that a lot as well, like the beast was caged. So I lead the way up the stairs and let Mal take the lead from there while I returned to where I needed to be. The hardly used formal dining room.

The house was built long before my mother had us, but being a Morphi herself, there was a possibility that she could haze as well. The threat of the first one went away around the age of twenty and my parents met when they were eighteen, getting married almost immediately afterwards. Theirs was a love story from a fairy tale. So, to protect her family, which at the time was only my father, she insisted the house have one trap room that could hold a raging rhino, if it called for it.

Mom never hazed, so the room was never used. It was built under the formal dining room. All we had to do was get Zane in here to the right spot and I would activate the mechanism to open the trap, caging him until the haze left him. It was built so one person could do it, but Zane was already getting pretty far gone to the beast, so I decided getting bait would be a good idea. The fact that he could fly was a bonus.

I heard them long before I saw them. The crashing, banging, and sounds of things breaking were signs enough, but the growling and snarling gave it away as well. The house shook as they got closer and when they finally got into the dining room, I almost forgot what was going on.

Zane was his normal rottweiler self, but he looked rabid. Foaming mouth, bloodshot eyes that were all wild and angry, and every detail about him screamed “unhealthy”. He was trying to rip into Mal in such a desperate way, I was actually concerned for the fairy. Zane was vicious on a normal day and this was clearly not normal anymore.

Mal grabbed Zane in a bear hug, getting clawed to ribbons while avoiding the snapping jaws and wicked teeth and threw himself where I told him the trap door was. I quickly activated the door and watched in horror as they both fell into the pit. I heard a yelp then saw Mal dart out of the hole in a blur as I slapped the panel again, snapping the door back into place a second before Zane jumped, making the house shake once again as he collided with the heavy steel.

“Well, that went well,” Mal panted as he bled from the multiple scratches all over his arms, legs, and body.

“I have never seen him so angry before,” I shook my head and frowned at the hidden cell below us. “What happened?”

“I may or may not have accused him of setting up Fae to be kidnapped,” He flinched as he sat in a dining chair. “Nothing else was working that well and he was getting suspicious, so I stooped low and kicked him where it hurts the most for all of us.”

“That was a low blow, man,” I shook my head again. “No wonder he looked like he was trying to kill you.”

“Because he was trying to kill me,” Mal chuckled. “I don’t blame him, though. Any of us would react that way if we were accused of having a hand in this.”

“There’s a first aid kit in the kitchen,” I pointed the way for him as I once again looked towards the trap door. “I should let my parents know that Zane is in the cell.”

Fae

I had grown used to whatever hell I was in. It never felt like I rested for long before they came for me again. Not according to my body. My mind swore it had been days between “appointments” as they called it.

I don’t remember ever eating, but I would have a bloody nose or a new needle hole in my arm that had nothing to do with my appointments, so I was guessing I was being kept alive, whether or not I wanted to be.

The only thing keeping me from giving up was Malachi. Twice now I had felt that he was right there with me, taking as much of the pain away as he could bear while he told me he was coming for me. He didn’t know when, but I knew it had to be soon. It needed to be or I was going to die regardless of how hard they tried to keep me alive.

Rex still asked me questions while he worked. He was having to get creative, though, since what he normally did wasn’t getting the reaction he wanted anymore. I had learned that he wasn’t a very imaginative person, which only seemed to frustrate him more.

I screamed as something burned into the skin of my stomach and the familiar smell reached my nose as the smoke rose above me. Another branding that would be healed into oblivion by the next appointment.

“Tell me what I want to know!” Rex screamed at me as he held the iron against me.

His eyes had grown wild and his hair was a mess more often than it was in order lately. I would say that he was almost manic as he pulled the iron away and tossed it back into the fire to heat again.

I laughed at his desperation, for that was exactly what I was seeing as he paced in front of his tools, tensed up like a spring ready to pop.

“What is so amusing?” he snapped.

“Y-you,” I croaked out. I can’t remember the last time I used my voice for anything other than screaming. “What’s the matter, Rex? The master kicked his dog too hard and now you’re sulking like a whipped bitch?”

I laughed again as the rage in his eyes burned hotter than the irons ever would. I found a sore spot.

He grabbed a long, heavy pipe and stalked over to me, about to beat me with it when the door opened, drawing his attention away from me.

“You’re wanted upstairs,” someone said. It was a female. A voice I knew, but I couldn’t place it anywhere.

“I thought I said never to interrupt me,” Rex seethed at the newcomer.

“These orders outrank you by miles,” came the easy reply and Rex growled in annoyance as he tossed the pipe back to the table.

“No one moves her. I’m not finished,” he growled as he stomped away.

I was left alone, tied to the table for some time before I felt the warmth I knew was Mal connecting to me. I smiled in relief as the faint feeling flooded me and I heard him like he was right next to me.

“Fae?”

“I’m okay for now,” I thought to him, not wanting to give anything away, incase someone was watching.

“Thank the gods,” he sounded relieved. “Do you know where you are?”

“No, but you’re never going to believe who has me,” I closed my eyes, basking in the comfort he gave me.

Mal

“That son of a bitch!” I shouted out loud as I shot out of the seat I had been forced into.

Nando’s mother may be small in stature, but she was the scariest person I had ever met. She grabbed my ear so fast, I had no idea how she even reached it, and hauled me through the house to be shoved onto the living room couch. I soon found myself drinking some tea with a blanket over my shoulders and a pillow beside me while she ordered me to get some sleep before I collapsed.

Instead, I tried again to connect with Fae. I managed something small, then it was like the flood gates opened up and I was with her. I could feel her pain, but it was dull and throbbing, like an old wound instead of something actively being done like before. I was afraid that she was blocking me, though I don’t know how she would have learned how to do that.

She sounded tired and the pain was obvious, but I was relieved that she at least wasn’t being hurt right now. It gave us a bit more time together, even though we were so far apart.

What she told me made my blood boil. Rex. Of all people in the world to have a hand in this, Rex should have been at the top of the list, only because I knew who his parents were. Sick and twisted, both of them. But he hadn’t once popped onto my radar since Fae left school. Hell, he barely registered before.

Now I knew better and there was very little that was going to stop me now that I knew who to go after. But, Fae, being Fae, knew what I was thinking before I even finished thinking it. There were others. A boss. Someone giving orders for this to be done to her. Rex was just the middle man, or one of many. She didn’t know who, but someone was calling the shots. She hurriedly told me everything she knew, which she said wasn’t much, but it was more than what we had so far.

Then, the pain returned and forced me out of the connection before I could tell her we hadn’t stopped looking for her.

I could feel my wings vibrating together as I walked to the workroom Nando had been holed up in. I threw open the door and saw him slumped on the floor looking like a shell of himself while Blaine and Ben tried to help him stand up again.

“I talked to Fae,” I said. “We have work to do.”

-----

It was no surprise that once I told them everything Fae had told me, that they all went into action. Blaine left to try and track down Rex, Ben instantly got on the phone and started calling his shady contacts, and Nando...

He looked gray and his skin was loose, like he had lost a lot of weight in the last five days. Nearly six. He didn’t look like he’s slept in days and I’m pretty sure he hadn’t taken the time to shower properly. Plus, his constant use of his brand new abilities was taking a huge toll on him.

I wasn’t going to lecture him though. No one was. We all looked pretty rough. Blaine was constantly running around getting more supplies for Nando or sniffing down a track, now that he could smell properly again. Ben was always on the phone or in seedy bars meeting contacts with the darker side of the fae. I was flying all over the state, it felt like. The only one not pulling his weight was Zane, but he was indisposed until further notice with the haze. Nando was looking every bit as exhausted as we all felt. Out of all of us, he looked the worst. Even with his mother to keep an eye on him closer than the rest of us, he was wasting away.

The question of why I didn’t get a feel for her location was asked and, honestly, I had no answer for it. It made no sense to me at all. I was connected to her. It was solid and not overpowered by pain. I should have felt where she was. But I didn’t. Not even an inkling of an idea.

I paced around, trying to think about why that was while everyone else dealt with whatever they needed to in order to find Rex. Then, it came to me. I smacked the heel of my hand to my forehead as I pulled out my phone and dialed the number for the only other Bonded pair I could find.

“You better be calling to say you’ve gone back and started begging for your Bonded’s forgiveness or so help me, I will castrate you, put it back, then do it again,” was how I was greeted by Mary.

“That was the intention,” I sighed. “I was right in front of her and was about to start my life of groveling at her feet, but...”

“Honey! Pack the bags. We’re going to beat some sense into this idiot fairy,” she yelled.

“Hold on a second! It’s not like that!” I said quickly trying to save my family jewels. “We were attacked and she was taken.”

“Gods have mercy,” she muttered after I explained it better. “Why are you calling us then? Go get her back!”

“I’m trying to, believe me, but... I think there’s something wrong with the Bond,” I breathed out. “I can’t find her. I connected with her. It was a solid connection and I should have gotten at least a direction, right?”

“Not if she’s not on Earth,” I heard her husband, Quniton, say. “If she was taken to the Sidhe, you wouldn’t feel anything and connecting with her would be very difficult.”

“Even with an incomplete Bond, you shouldn’t be having such a hard time reaching her, so it’s likely she’s there and not here,” Mary agreed.

I hung up with them, thanking them immensely as I rushed to find Ben, who was just ending a call of his own.

“You wouldn’t happen to be able to get us all to the Sidhe in the next two hours, would you?” I asked him.