Finding Fae

Blaine sat with me for a while so he could fill me in on what happened when Brutus came for me. There was no knowing how, but someone found out about where I was hiding. When we were attacked, I was already nearly outside to begin with, so my escape was all but assured. Zane, however, wasn’t quite as lucky.

He fought back, which ended with a few tender ribs, since he had decided to fight back as a dog. By the time the attackers figured out I was gone, Zane was unconscious. He was left behind, which made Jacob confused as well as concerned, saying it wasn’t normal “kidnapper” behavior.

The next morning, Blaine came to get his brother for school and found the mess that was left behind. Much like the house, the club had been destroyed, but not because they were looking for anything. Zane put up a hell of a fight on his own against half a dozen, by his count. He was still down until he could heal up enough to move without flinching.

Nando, the quiet, shy, calm Nando, took over as the unofficial boss and split Ben and Blaine up. Ben, having fox skills and tricks, was sent to track the attackers as much as he could without getting caught, and Blaine, being a hellhound, was sent to find me. He was a better tracker and more formidable in a fight, should I be in trouble.

Jacob rolled his eyes at that and said cats were better, forcing me to step in before those two went at each other’s throats. Nana sent us off with warm clothes and shove out of her door, which, strangely enough, put us right outside the town limits. Of course, I wasn’t given a choice in continuing my “therapy”.

The weeks passed by, falling into another routine that almost felt normal. My fae education was continued as it was, Blaine took over physical training until Zane recovered, Nando went through his Awakening like a champ, I heard, since I wasn’t allowed to leave our new little den. And “den” certainly fit, as it was more of a musty old cellar than any kind of living space. I felt like a refugee.

On Tuesday and Thursday, I was grabbed through a door by a bony old hand only to find myself back at Nana’s for therapy. As much as I despised the entire process, I had to admit, it was helping a little bit. I was finally able to sleep for more than a few hours and, while the cold and empty hole that was shaped like a certain jerk of a fairy was still there, it was easier to get on with my life. I was grouchy and cranky and short tempered still, but the urge to become violent wasn’t as hard to fight off, so I would say that would be progress.

It was now the end of March, meaning my birthday was only a week away. The cold was slowly giving way to rain and the musty cellar became a moldy cellar, not that Nando was going to complain. He turned out to be a gnome, like his mother, but a healer, like his biological father. So, you can imagine how excited he was about the mold on the walls, after making sure it wasn’t harmful, of course.

I had taken to painting the walls, after Nando scraped the mold and mildew off. It occupied my time between studying. At this point, a week of slacking wasn’t going to make much of a difference. While no one spoke about it, the guys were all nervous about what would happen in a week. They were super clingy, insisting they all stay close at night instead of switching out like before. Zane had grown even more protective and was suffocating me and Blaine insisted on a tracking charm. Ben had demanded a tattoo, or at the very least Henna. I shot that down faster than a paper plane in a thunderstorm.

So, here I was, staring at the last bit of white on the walls on the cellar I had been confined to since the club was compromised, fidgeting with the little pendant on a chain around my neck as the four charms on my bracelet clinked together. Five people crammed into a cellar made the already small space tiny, but Zane had taken to sleeping as a dog at the foot of my space with Blaine not far away as the demon dog. Ben even occasionally slept as a fox on Nando’s pillow like an over-sized, orange and white hat.

“It’s not a very big space,” Ben said, noticing my staring.

“In case you didn’t notice,” Blaine said pointing at the rest of the walls around us, “She doesn’t need space to make something incredible.”

Zane just watched me while Nando muttered about some herb or another as he read a little book he had been given for his Awakening nearly three weeks ago. I just ignored everyone.

Therapy with Jacob was helping some, but I still had bad days and today was one of them. Thankfully, after so long, they all knew the signs and left me to my own devices. Painting the walls was one of those distractions I had picked up to get me through. I stared hard, too, like the wall was going to talk to me at any moment. The white primer I had slapped over the nasty wall was making my eyes hurt, I was staring so intently.

I grinned a little as an idea came to me and I grabbed some paint and a few brushes before getting to work. Brutus would look good right there. Nana had told me that, after recovering from his running, the old dragon curled up in her back garden and turned into a stone, falling into what she called Dragon Sleep. He was old and needed more rest than a simple nap could give him at this point.

I was putting on the last touches when four phones went off at once, making me tilt my head a bit, but not break away from what I was doing. At least, that was the intention. Two growls, the sound of shattering plastic, and a new swear word accompanied Nando’s characteristic sigh when it came to bad news and I paused for a moment to ready myself for what was coming.

“It’s Malachi,” Blaine growled again.

I went back to painting as a bolt of pain shot through me at his name.

“Should one of us answer him?” Nando asked, obviously to Zane.

“If you want,” I replied before Zane’s temper got the better of him. “Leave me out of it, though.”

“Well, he’s asking about you,” Ben said.

“Tell him to go fuck off a cliff, then,” I replied casually, like we were talking about the weather. “If he wanted to know so badly, he shouldn’t have left.”

I finished the likeness of the big dragon and went to the criminally small sink to rinse brushes off and try to get the paint out from under my nails. The cellar was full of silent tension so thick, not even a diamond knife could cut through it. The guys were trying not to let it show, but they were all struggling with their opinions on the subject almost as much as I was. We all let him in and trusted him. Even Zane, a little bit, or he would never have left me alone with him. We were all dealing with it in our own ways but then this jerk had to go and try to get in touch again.

I couldn’t even begin to guess what would happen if that moron had found us. If we had stayed at the club and it was never attacked, he probably would have waltzed right in like nothing had happened. That would have been a disaster. I hated him so much, but I knew that as soon as I saw him again, it would be impossible for me to hold on to that.

Nando’s phone started ringing and he sighed again before answering it.

“What do you want?” he said. “We were attacked at the club... I know there’s blood there. We didn’t exactly feel like cleaning was a priority at the time... You tell me. You’re Bonded to her...Whose fault is that, asshole?”

He hung up and tapped a few times on his phone, his face red with anger.

“I thought I would be able to handle that better,” he said after he slammed his phone down on the small table.

“You did better than any of us would have,” Ben muttered as he tapped a few times on his phone as well, no doubt blocking Mal’s number so they didn’t have to be bothered.

“I’m shocked it’s taken us this long to boot him out of our phones,” Blaine shook his head.

“He’s the only one of us that could help Fae if something happened,” Zane shrugged. “If Blaine hadn’t been able to find her after the club...”

“Malachi would have been able,” Ben sighed with a nod.

“Lucky for me, I had a dragon take me away,” I said. “For a moment, I almost felt like a princess, taked from her bed chambers by a ferocious dragon and taken far, far away.”

“You’ve been reading too much fantasy again,” Zane snorted.

“Up until a few months ago, all of this was fantasy to me,” I pointed out and grabbed what was left of his sandwich from his hand and finished it off in three bites. “All those stories failed me, though. It never said anything about the boredom and the retch-worthy stink that I’m no longer smelling, I’ve been down here for so long. I was already pale enough. Now I look like a sick albino.”

“That’s in better shape than I am,” Ben laughed and lifted my arm. “Look at those guns!”

“Watch it, fox. I’ll smack the orange right off you,” I said with a smile, making everyone laugh.

-----

The next morning, everyone went to school and I laid out, staring at the ceiling. Now that the walls were all painted, I had nothing else to do. I was actually debating on painting the ceiling just to have something, anything, to do. Six days until my birthday, but according to the guys, I could begin my Awakening at any time between now and then.

I didn’t sleep much last night because of that group message from Mal. Like the others, I was angry about all of it. Jacob and Nana were completely right in saying that it was a betrayal. Not just to me, but to all of us. Judging from the reactions the message received, I would say there was little chance Mal would be welcome within a hundred miles of them, let alone me, or this place.

On the other hand, I knew I needed him near me. Maybe not right now, but on my birthday, I was going to need him. I couldn’t say how or why I thought that, but the more I tried to push it away, the more uncomfortable it made me feel. So, I did something dumb.

I had learned that those that are Bonded together can find each other, but only when Awakened. Since I was still short a few days, I did the one thing I could think of. I bit the unholy mess out of my arm. Hard enough to draw blood, though it wasn’t much. Hopefully, he would be close enough to feel the pain I felt and be able to come find me. We were long overdue for a conversation.

Sure enough, not even Five minutes later, Mal comes bursting into the cellar like a madman, with a knife in each hand.

“Dramatic entrance,” I said as I taped the gauze around my arm. “Hand me one of those. We need to talk.”