Chapter 8

“I’ve decided we should use the volcanoes all over the world as lakes of fire and throw all the Alstons, Ludcarabs, and the like into them. Also, I’d like to record their cries as their bodies hit the burning liquid and use them as my ringtone. No, none of this hell has affected me at all. I totally don’t need counseling.”
~Jen

Jen heard a loud thud against the wall she and Costin had been using for morse code to communicate. She glanced at Thia, who, by the grace of the Great Luna, was sound asleep. Jen hurried over to the wall and started knocking on it in a pattern to ask her question. She knew Sally was going to give her a ton of grief later because Jen had learned morse code and neither she nor Jacque knew about it.
“What’s happening over there?” Jen tapped out on the wall. She waited. And waited. Just when she was about to tap again, she got a response.
“They took Sally,” Costin responded.
“Mother of ducks,” Jen growled as she realized that Costin was probably about to completely lose control of his wolf. His only saving grace was Titus. Wait. He still has Titus, right? They might have taken Titus to get Sally to cooperate.
She tapped out her question.
“Titus is safe with me.”
Jen sighed. Then she heard another hard thud against the wall. Her relief was short lived as there was another thud and then another, each one getting harder and harder. It wasn’t morse code. It sounded like he was trying to kick the freaking wall down. Jen had to do something to calm him down. Costin might get to the point that he doesn’t even realize he’s scaring his son, and he’d never forgive himself for that. Maybe if he hadn’t lost Sally for those months while she’d been missing, he could handle this better. But the pain of that experience was much too fresh.
Jen tapped out another message. “What is Titus doing?” she asked, hoping to shift his focus from Sally to his son.
“He’s talking to the angel.”
Jen’s eyes narrowed, and her head tilted as if that would somehow make her able to see through the wall. The Great Luna was there?
“I can’t see her,” Costin tapped out, as if he could read Jen’s mind.
“He’s okay.”
“He’s better than I am.”
“She’s going to be fine,” Jen told him, hoping she wasn’t lying to him.
“She shut down the bond.”
“Shit, damn, shit,” Jen spit out, glancing over at Thia to make sure the girl was still asleep. The last thing she needed was her yelling, “Shit” at Decebel the minute they saw him again. If Sally shut the bond, that meant things were royally fudged up.
“All I can feel is a dull ache,” Costin tapped against the wall. “She’s in pain. They’re hurting her, and I can’t do a damn thing about it. Again.”
Jen’s forehead thudded against the wall as she laid her palm flat against it, wishing she could somehow comfort her friend's mate. The males of their race took the duty to protect their mates to the extreme, and when they felt as though they’d failed, it was soul shattering to them.
“Sally is strong,” Jen tapped out. “She will get through whatever it is that’s happening.” And I will kill those who have harmed her, she thought, but didn’t tap that out.
“Why her, Jen?” Costin asked, his tapping a little softer, as if he was tired. “She’s so good. She’s kind-hearted, gentle, and willing to do anything for anyone. Why the bloody hell does this horrible stuff keep happening to her? She’s good. She doesn’t deserve it.”
Jen’s forehead was still pressed against the wall as she considered how to respond. How many times had she thought that same thing? Why did horrible things happen to good people? She reached out to the Great Luna, asking for the wisdom to know how to help Costin, and then tapped out a response.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with how good she is or what she deserves. I think it has to do with how she handles it and then what she does with the experience when she survives it.” She paused and tried to get her words sorted because she didn’t want to provoke him or make him despair. “Vasile has told us all that fire purifies silver. It’s what makes it shine and turns it beautiful. We have to go through fire, too. Sally has been through a lot of fire. It has refined her and made her strong. She’s not the same person as she was before. She’s better. And she will use all that she has been through to help others.” It took a while for Jen to get all that tapped out. Morse code wasn’t the most efficient way of communicating, but when she was finally finished, she sat and breathed in and out slowly, praying Costin would not give in to his wolf’s need for blood.
After what felt like forever, there was tapping in return. “I don’t know how long I can do this.”
Jen’s heart broke. Even though she couldn’t hear his voice, or see his face, she knew how broken he was. She remembered what he’d looked like while Sally had been in Ocean Side. She knew how close Vasile and Decebel had come to having to put him down. “You can do it for as long as you need to,” Jen responded. “Because Sally is going to need you to have your shit together when she comes back to you. And she is coming back. Do you hear me, Costin?” Jen was putting some force behind her taps because she felt as if she was losing him. She might not be an alpha anymore, but she was dominant, and she didn’t give up on those who were hers. Sally was hers, which made Costin hers, too. “You’re not alone,” Jen tapped out. “I’m right here. I’ll sit on this side of the wall, and we can talk this way for as long as you need to about anything that will help keep you sane. We can teach Titus morse code, and probably Thia, too, because she’s a genius.”
A minute later Costin responded. “Thank you, Jennifer.”
Jen shut her eyes as a tear slipped down her cheek. She let out a deep breath. “We’re pack, dimple boy. Pack sticks together no matter what. To hell and back, I’ll burn with you if that’s what it takes to get Sally back.” Jen didn’t think it would take that. Alston would return her to Costin and Titus. If Alston needed her, then he’d want to keep her somewhat happy, and that happiness would revolve solely around those she loved. Titus and Costin being at the top of that list.
“Is Titus still talking to the angel?” Jen tapped out.
“He’s doing sign language.”
Jen snorted. Of course the four-year-old was doing sign language, because why wouldn’t he? She’d have to teach Thia sign language. She couldn’t have Sally’s kid one-upping hers. Damn, her pride had no shame. She had their kids in a mental competition while Sally went through who knew what. “She would expect nothing less,” Jen muttered as she turned and pressed her back to the wall.
“You still with me?” She knocked.
“I’m taking bets on how long it will take you to teach Thia sign language now that you know Titus knows it,” Costin tapped out.
“Butthead.” Jen chuckled and leaned her head back. Even her best friends' mates knew her too well.
“Is Costin okay?” Decebel’s voice filled her head. She’d felt him in her mind and had known he’d been listening in. She was used to it and didn’t blame him. She needed his closeness just as much as he needed hers.
“I think so. That morse code you taught me is coming in handy.”
“I told you it would.” She could hear the smugness in his voice.
She had complained quite a bit when he’d started teaching her because, c’mon, when would she fricking need to know morse code? Apparently, when her enemy captured her and threw her into a room next to her comrades.
“Do I need to remind you of the doghouse or the mailman?” Jen asked, bringing out her two aces. Decebel was still growly about the mailman giving Jen his number, and the fact that she’d kept it.
“You can remind me all day long, as long as it means I can still communicate with you through our bond.”
Jen sighed. And then he went and said stuff like that. “I love you, B.”
“Always, baby,” he said, and she felt his hand run down her hair.
The tapping on the wall started again, and she listened to what Costin was saying.
“How’s Thia?”
“She pulled herself together pretty quick once they gave her back to me. She gave the fae, who wasn’t Alston because he must have known I would have maimed him, a glare as soon as she was in my arms. Now, she's sleeping through this nightmare because she’s got nerves of steel,” Jen replied. “Which of course we all expected because I’m her mom.”
“Naturally,” Costin tapped back.
Jen felt Decebel like a shadow in her mind as she and Costin continued their morse code conversation. At one point, Thia woke up. Jen held her and used the girl’s tiny fist to tap on the wall. Thia must have thought this was fantastic because she giggled like she was high on something other than life. “Whatever you’re smoking, kid, you need to share,” Jen said to her daughter as Thia threw her head back and laughed.
Titus had joined in on the other side, and Costin was teaching him to communicate as well. Jen didn’t care how long she had to do it. She’d stay up twenty-four hours a day if that was what it took to keep Costin from going feral. When she began to get tired, she could feel Decebel sharing his energy with her through their bond.
Food was brought to her and Thia, and Costin said they’d also been brought something to eat. There were no windows so they had no sense of time. She couldn’t guess how much time had passed since Sally had been taken. The minutes and hours seemed to run together. Thia toddled around entertaining herself with the rattle a fae had brought when they’d brought the food. A rattle? Did they think her kid was an idiot? She needed something more stimulating than a rattle.
“Dada,” Thia said as she shook the rattle in the air and laughed. Okay so maybe the trauma of the events had stunted her genius and a rattle was suddenly stimulating.
“Dude,” Jen huffed, “how about you say momma once in a while?”
Thia glanced at her and pointed. “Not dada.”
“I love you too, kid,” she sighed as she smiled.
“Hold on,” she told Costin at one point. “I’m going to knock on the other wall and see if Jacque’s over there.” She’d been so focused on keeping Costin sane that she hadn’t even thought to see if Jacque was next to her. She might be on the other side of 
She utilized the same code Sally had used with her, the one they’d used when they’d snuck out as teenagers. That felt like decades ago now. After a minute, there was a response. It was Jacque. Jen smiled but then cursed. “Why the hell don’t you know morse code?” she spat at the wall as if Jacque could hear her.
“Hell, hell, hell,” Thia chattered as she knocked on the wall next to where Jen stood.
Jen looked down at her. “Really? Out of that whole sentence you couldn’t have chosen literally any other word?” The kid was too much like her.
There was no point in just knocking nonsense on the wall. Jen went back over to the wall where Costin was with mini-me following behind her all the while alternating between ‘dada’ and ‘hell’. Dec was going to be so thrilled. She knocked on the wall and told him that Jacque was next to her and at least healthy enough to knock back. She changed Thia’s diaper, fed her, and then rocked her to sleep, all the while responding to Costin or asking her own questions.
Thia seemed to know when to sleep, thanks to her schedule, despite the fact that there were no windows and no way to tell what time of day it was. Jen only knew because Decebel told her. She and Costin occasionally fell asleep, but inevitably one of them would wake up and start the tapping again, waking the other up.
“How long can we do this?” Costin asked her at some point.
“We do it for as long as we have to. We do it until we have calluses on our knuckles and we’re tapping out morse code in our freaking sleep. We do it until our kids know morse code better than they know English. We do it until our hands are so bloody that we have to use our elbows. We don’t stop. We don’t give up. We don’t back down.”
Costin tapped back, his knocks a little firmer. “Okay, Jen. Okay.”

*****

Myanin had figured out that the city where Thadrick’s house was located was called Indianapolis, which she’d immediately decided was a ridiculous name for a city, or anything for that matter. And the city was located in the state of Indiana. The states appeared to be similar to territories in her realm, and the cities were like tribes. Once she’d figured out where she was on the map, and then determined where Arizona was located, it was a breeze to make her way in that direction.
For the most part, she simply walked. Granted, her walking speed was more like running for the humans. And if she ran, well, the humans couldn’t even see her. They’d just feel a breeze as she passed them by. Once she began to see all the colorful, interesting things in the human realm, she decided Ludcarab could wait. She was free. She’d rescued herself, and she wasn’t about to become someone else's slave, especially after discovering this wonderous food called cotton candy. How in holy djinn babies did they not have something as brilliant as cotton candy in their realm? They could keep the entire history of the universe, but they couldn’t make this delicious treat? “That just ain’t right,” she muttered and then grinned at her words. She’d also been picking up on the human dialect, listening to humans talk and sometimes asking them what they meant.
Humans always seemed—she had to search her brain for the right word—freaked out. They always seemed freaked out when she popped up to them and asked what they were saying and what it meant. “They all need to be cold,” she said and then shook her head. That wasn’t right. “They all need to freeze. Dammit,” she huffed because that wasn’t what she’d heard one of them say to her. “Chill,” she practically yelled and ignored the stares. “They all need to chill out,” she said with a grin. She was totally dying it as a human. People probably couldn’t even tell she wasn’t human—that’s how bitchin she was at it.
Several days had passed since she’d arrived in the human realm. She imagined the elders were up in arms because they would have discovered Lyra’s body a couple days ago. The thought made her smile. She smiled as she skipped, walked, and ran across the human realm called the United States. Perhaps Thadrick had done her a favor in some way. She had been ignorant of how amazing the human realm was, but now she was free. She could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.
At one point, she’d been running and crossed what she’d learned was a state line, which meant she was going from one territory to another. The sign had read “Welcome to Iowa.” She had no clue who was naming their stuff, but they needed to remove them from their position and appoint someone who understood that some words were just dumb. She looked around and thought, instead of Iowa, this land should be called Land of the Golden Corn. That had a much better ring to it.
Later, Myanin had come to a mountain that was carved with the giant faces of four men. “Why are those faces in the mountain?” she asked a woman who had been taking a picture with what Myanin thought was called a cell phone.
“It’s Mount Rushmore,” the woman said, as if that should mean something to the djinn.
“Okay,” Myanin drew out. “But why did they mount their heads up there? Did they do something great? Did they slay many enemies? Did they build civilizations that ruled over all?”
The woman look confused and then shrugged. “I guess. They’re founding fathers.”
Myanin nodded. “Ah, so they’re the creators of your race. Your fathers. I understand.”
The woman’s eyes grew wide, and she practically ran away from Myanin mumbling to herself.
Myanin watched the female’s back as she skittered away and hopped into one of the large steel transportation devices. “It’s official,” she said. “Humans are the dumbest beings ever.” She paused and then corrected. “Except for the one who made cotton candy. That human has some level of intelligence that is acceptable.”
She continued her walk/run across the states, stopping occasionally when she found something interesting. It was on day four that she ended up in a city lit up with so many lights that she wondered how anyone knew when to go to sleep. The sign read “Welcome to Las Vegas.” “Why are they always welcoming everyone?” she asked out loud. Myanin found that since she had no one to speak to, she did a lot of talking to herself. “Don’t they realize they could be inviting an enemy into their territory?” There was a person standing in front of the sign, taking a picture on their phone. Myanin walked over to the human male and tapped him on the back. She’d found through trial and error that it was better to make herself known instead of just appearing in front of them. They seemed less frightened that way.
He turned to look at her, and his eyes widened a bit. Though they didn’t know she wasn’t human, the prey in them knew that she was a predator. “Can I help you?” he asked.
“Probably not. Your kind never seems very helpful, though I don’t think that’s totally your fault. You’re just inferior to other species. But I’m going to ask you anyway because I enjoy disappointment.” She pointed to the sign. “You humans welcome everyone into your states and cities.”
“H-h-humans?”
“Yes, humans. That’s not what’s important. You welcome everyone into your territories. Don’t you realize how foolish that is?”
“Foolish?” the man said, his words once again coming out wobbly.
“You should have sentries placed at all of your points of entries. Anyone seeking entrance into your territory should be questioned and searched.”
“Sentries?”
Myanin’s head tilted as she narrowed her eyes on the male. “Are you monosyllabic?”
“I… I’m not sure what that means.”
“So, now I need to give you a lesson on your own language as well as on how to protect your territory?” Myanin sighed. One minute the humans seemed ingenious, and the next they were like flies that ate dung. “Can you at least tell me where I can get some cotton candy?”
He frowned and looked even more confused. “Cotton candy?”
“Damn the hell of shit,” Myanin cursed. “Be gone.” She pushed him away from her. “I’m afraid your lack of sense might be contagious.”
She glanced up at the bright sign that was screaming at everyone, whether their intentions be ill or not, to come and do something with squares that had dots on them. “Why can’t all of their inventions be as awesome as cotton candy?” She shook her head and then started walking toward the bright lights of a street lined with tall buildings. The lights seemed to draw people in like moths to a flame. The humans almost appeared mindless as they walked with open mouths and bright eyes, hypnotized by whatever it was that the city offered. Perhaps the square with the dots was some kind of drug? They had drugs in the djinn realm that were coveted because of the effect they had on the mind. Some of their kind were known to go a little crazy from all the information they kept in their minds, and they gave into the draw of the mindless drug.
When she reached the first illuminated building, she saw lights moving in a running motion, up and down the height of the structure. Loud laughter and carousing spilled out from within. Okay, now she just had to see what had the humans in such spirits. She walked through the open doors, and her senses were assaulted with more lights, a cacophony of sounds, and a smell that shouldn’t exist. It was musty with a burnt undertone. She saw a burning white stick hanging out of a woman’s mouth. The end of it emitted a trail of white smoke that rose and hovered in the air. Myanin rushed over and grabbed it from the woman’s mouth, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it with her boot.
The woman gasped and then shouted, “What the hell, bitch?”
Myanin looked up from the burning stick. “I just saved your life, female. You would be wise not to refer to me as a female dog.”
“I can smoke if I want to. They’re my lungs,” the woman bit out.
“I care not for your lungs. That stick was on fire and would have lit up your face as bright as the lights in this place once it reached your skin,” Myanin said. Did she really have to explain this to this woman? “Human flesh is flammable. That means you burn up,” she added, because the woman probably didn’t know what the word flammable meant.
“It wasn’t on fire, you tall-ass freak,” the woman screeched. “Don’t you know what a cigarette is?”
Myanin frowned. “This word cigarette is unfamiliar. Are you saying you were holding the burning stick in your mouth on purpose?”
The woman raised her brow and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “It didn’t just jump into my mouth all by itself.”
“My apologies.” Myanin realized she’d just stomped on the woman’s property. “Regardless of the fact that I’ve never seen something so utterly dim-witted in my existence as putting a burning object in one's mouth, I should not have damaged your property.”
The woman looked taken aback and dropped her arms. “Uh, um, okay, well, whatever. It’s fine.”
Myanin watched as the female stomped off in shoes with a heel on them so thin and high that she wondered how on earth the woman was able to walk. She definitely wouldn’t be able to fight in them, unless she took them off and used the long part as a dagger of sorts. Perhaps that is why she wore them.
Myanin shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Burning sticks,” she huffed. “Stupid.”
She continued walking deeper into the raucous swarm of humanity. People were laughing, drinking odd-colored drinks, and more of them had the burning sticks, the cigarettes, in their mouths. They obviously weren’t concerned about burning to ash. Strange, these humans and their complete lack of concern for self-preservation.
As she got deeper in, she saw people clustered around colorful high tables. There were stacks of flat, circular disks, and a woman was tossing square cubes decorated with small dots. It appeared the humans were using the disks to wager on the results of the cubes. Curiosity piqued, she walked over and watched as the cubes were tossed. The woman must have thrown the dice well, as everyone standing at the table erupted in cheers.
At another table, small, rectangular pieces of paper with pictures on them were passed out to several of the players. One male pushed his stack of circular objects in and said, “All in.”
The other people around the table shot him glances and then looked at the rectangles in their hands. Myanin could feel the tension around the table increase. She watched as one by one they said, “Fold,” and then laid down their rectangles until there was only one person left, a female. She sat tall, her shoulders pulled back and her chin raised, as she looked at the man and then down at the cards in her hands.
The man narrowed his eyes, waiting. He had a smug grin on his face, and Myanin immediately wanted to slap it off. Apparently, that was going to be her new reaction to men. Slapping them. Maybe if she’d started out that way in the first place, she never would have fallen for Thadrick and gotten herself in the mess she was in.
The woman shook her head and clucked her tongue. “You celebrate too soon, cowboy. I call.” Her voice had an odd, slow drawl to it that Myanin hadn’t yet heard in the human realm. Then the woman laid her rectangles with the pictures up, just like the man had done. They showed numbers in order, and all of the accompanying symbols—hearts—were the same.
The man gaped for a second, then swore. She winked at him and gathered up all the circular objects. The man cursed under his breath and then lumbered off.
Well, that was interesting. She stepped closer to the table and looked at the woman. “What is this game called?”
The woman looked up from where she was gathering her winnings, which looked useless to Myanin. The disks were nothing like the human money she’d seen at Walmart.
“It’s poker,” the woman said. “You’re in a casino and you’ve never heard of poker? Darlin’, you’d best just turn on around and march right back out of here. These people will chew you up and spit you out.”
Myanin couldn’t help but smile. “None of these people could take me on. Not even all of them at one time. I am superior in every way.”
The woman froze and then laughed. Myanin didn’t know what was funny. She simply spoke the truth.
“I’m just gonna take a gander and say you aren’t from around here,” the woman said after she’d stopped laughing.
Myanin shook her head. “I would never choose to be from a place like this.” She motioned to the chaos around her.
“Well, most of us don’t get a choice in where we come from. But we can choose where we go.”
“And you came here?” Myanin didn’t disguise her disgust.
The woman finished gathering the disks and placed them into a plastic tray. She looked back at Myanin. “Can I buy you a drink, and then I’ll tell you why I chose to come here?”
Myanin swallowed and nodded. “I am parched. I have traveled far on foot. A drink would be good.”
The woman laughed again. Either something was messed up in her human brain, or she just thought everything was funny.
“You’re a riot. Come on then.” She motioned for Myanin to follow.
Twenty minutes later, they were sitting in a much quieter room. Hanging lamps cast a muted, blue glow throughout the room. They sat at a round table across from one another. Myanin was much taller than the woman, even sitting she looked down at her.
“My name is Wendy Rhodes,” the woman said as she held her hand out across the table.
Myanin stared at it and then looked back at Wendy’s face.
“Wow, you really aren’t from around here. You shake it. It’s a greeting of sorts.”
Myanin took Wendy’s hand and then began shaking it.
Wendy’s eyes widened as her head started to bobble about. “Alrighty,” she said as her teeth chattered together. “That’s enough greetin’ one another.”
Myanin immediately let go of her hand. Humans were so strange.
“Now you tell me your name,” Wendy prompted.
“I am Myanin,” she said.
“Myanin,” Wendy said slowly. “That’s unusual. What’s your last name?”
Myanin frowned. “I have had no previous names. I have always been Myanin.” Did humans have multiple names in their life span? That seemed silly considering they lived less than a century. Why would they need more than one name?
Wendy laughed again. The sound was getting annoying. “You are a hoot. So, where you come from, which I’m assuming must be another country, far from North America, you don’t have a surname. Like mine is Rhodes. But my first name is Wendy,” she explained.
“We have the one name given to us by the elders,” Myanin told her.
“Okay then,” Wendy said as a woman walked up to them.
“What can I get you to drink?” she asked. She was the serving wench, Myanin realized.
Wendy rattled off something called a martini neat. Why she needed to specify that she didn’t want her drink to be messy was another odd custom Myanin didn’t understand.
The woman looked at Myanin expectantly. “I will simply have water and make it neat as well,” she added, not wanting to have a glass covered and overflowing in the liquid. The server frowned as her mouth opened and then closed. Was she confused? Or maybe she needed to be dismissed. “You may go do your task now.”
Wendy laughed again.
“Wendy Rhodes,” Myanin said, her voice sharp, “why must you laugh so much?”
The female sighed. “Life is just too darn serious. You can either laugh or cry, you know?”
“No.” Myanin said. “There are many more options than simply laughing or crying. For instance, you could simply sit quietly.” Which Myanin felt she would greatly appreciate in that moment.
A few minutes later, the serving wench returned and placed their glasses in front of them. Myanin hadn’t realized how thirsty she’d been and immediately picked hers up and drained it before the server walked off.
“Another?” the wench asked.
Myanin nodded. “Please.”
“Alright,” Wendy said after taking a sip of her drink. “You’re too interesting to not have some sort of story. Tell me about yourself.”
Myanin tilted her head sideways and narrowed her eyes on the woman. Wendy seemed calm and not at all put off by Myanin’s abrupt nature that seemed to frighten other humans. She was curious to know how the woman would handle the truth.
Myanin downed her second glass of water in two quick gulps then leaned back and began her tale. “It started with a man.”
“Doesn’t it always.” Wendy huffed and rolled her eyes. “Go on, let’s hear what the jackass did.”
And so Myanin did. She left nothing out, nor omitted the fact that she was from another realm or that she was a supernatural being. She didn’t filter the fact that she’d murdered her captor or that she had plans to kill the jackass who’d gotten her held captive to begin with.
“And I’ve been making my way across the United States since I escaped four days ago,” she said. “I discovered many things. Like your cities have stupid names. There is absolutely no security in any of the territories. Oh, and cotton candy. I like that best. Then I ended up here in Las Vegas, again, stupid name. I was curious about the bright lights and what was drawing so many humans toward them. Then I saw you, and here we are. I must be going soon, though. I still have things to do before Ludcarab decides to come looking for me.”
“Lud-crab,” Wendy said slowly, her eyes looking a little odd. “That’s the elf king?”
“Correct.” Myanin leaned forward. “Are you alright?”
“I’m trying to decide if you’re actually describing a book you read, if you’re on drugs, or if you’re crazy.”
Myanin sighed. Of course the human would not believe her. Humans resisted things that didn’t make sense to them. She’d learned that from Thadrick, the jackass. She smiled. She couldn’t wait to call him a jackass to his face. If nothing else, Wendy gave her that.
“I’m none of those things,” Myanin said as she stood up and pushed the chair under the table. “I am, however, grateful for the drink. Even if your company was slightly less than ideal, and I wouldn’t choose to do this again with you.”
Wendy stood quickly and held out her hands. “Wait. Are you going to be okay? I mean, no offense Myanin, but you are a few heifers shy of a herd. I mean, at first I was shocked, but now I realize you probably need some help.”
“The only help I need is to find the jackass, Thadrick, so I can put my blade through his heart.” Myanin started for the door, but the small female moved in front of her as if she could somehow stop her.
“Maybe we should call someone—a family member, maybe the hospital you escaped from?”
Myanin kept walking forward, causing Wendy to back up or get run over.
“Wendy Rhodes, I sort of liked you, a little, for a brief moment of time, but now you are becoming one of those humans that I want to squash like a bug.”
Wendy’s eyes widened, and she immediately stepped aside. “Yep, gotcha. You go, do your thing. I’ll just get out of your way. Don’t worry, I won’t call the police or anything. I mean, it’s not like you’re dangerous. Just a little crazy, and let’s be honest, who isn’t a little crazy these days?”
“Have a nice life, Wendy Rhodes.” Myanin pushed the door of the building open. “And maybe, in the future, be more careful about the purchase of drinks for strangers.”
“Damn right, I will.” She heard the woman say just before the door shut behind her.
Myanin took a deep breath and then started in the direction of the bright “Welcome” sign. That was the direction she’d been going when she’d stopped in this horrible city. When she made it out far enough from the lights that they were no longer giving her a headache, she pulled the phone from her pocket and clicked on the square that would pull up the map. She found Las Vegas then ran her finger across until she saw a state called California. It was the final state before the ocean. She had a feeling that it was going to be the last place she’d see before the elf king lost his patience with her.
She tucked the phone away and took off at a run. She’d be there in less than half an hour. Perhaps this California would have cotton candy. If they didn’t, she was tempted to start a war with the humans simply because of their lack of supply of the delicious food.
The djinn ran past the welcome sign and kept going. She decided she wanted to see the ocean. When she finally stopped, she was standing on ground that was covered in sand. Myanin had heard of sand. Thadrick had described it to her. She reached down and picked up a handful of it and let it run through her fingers. The grains were warm, even though the sky was dark, and the sun was no longer shining. She stood and looked around. Some people staring at her. Myanin noticed they were adorned in very small garments, very different from her own leathers. She must have stood out like a draheim in the mer-realm.
As she let her gaze wander down past the people, she saw a sign that read Venice Beach Boardwalk. She started walking toward the sign and past it, seeing small merchant stalls squashed in close to one another. Jewelry, food, and clothing that would not cover very much of her body was being sold everywhere. Myanin couldn’t imagine going into battle in such garments. She was nearing the end of the boardwalk when her eyes saw it. A large white cone with a pink cloud-like substance sitting on top of it. It wasn’t the actual cotton candy but a sign declaring what the shop sold.
“Venice Beach, you are my new favorite territory.” She headed for the small cart.
Right before she reached it, three men appeared in front of her. One was the man who had given her the card for Ludcarab four days prior. The other two were fae.
“You’ve had quite a little vacation,” the vampire said. “Have you enjoyed your time in the human realm?”
Myanin looked past him to the cotton candy cart and then back at him. “I was,” she emphasized the word, “until you and your pet fairies got in my way.”
“Now, now,” the vampire chided. “There’s no need for name calling.”
“There’s going to be a whole lot more than name calling if you three jackasses”—thank you Wendy for that insult—“don’t move out of my way and let me get my cotton candy.”
The vampire glanced over his shoulder and then back to her. “Found out you have a sweet tooth? Well, come with us and we will make sure you have all the cotton candy you want.”
Myanin was tired of talking. Before they’d even realized it, she’d shoved past them and was at the cart. “Four cotton candies please,” she told the human male who was staring wide-eyed at the three men she’d just knocked over. “Not on the sticks. Just in the bags.” She removed some of the human money she’d taken from a man who seemed very eager to give it to her and paid the man. He was moving like a robot as he prepared her order and handed her the bags one at a time. Myanin pushed down the cotton candy so that she had enough length at the top of the bag to tie it around the belt at her waist.
Once the three were tied on, she opened the forth bag and dug into the sticky, sweet goodness. As she smacked and licked her fingers, she turned back to the vampire and pissed-off fae. “Now, what was it you wanted to discuss?”
The vampire crossed his arms in front of him and stared at her as if she were an errant child. “Ludcarab wants to see you. Now.”
Myanin hummed as she swallowed another mouth full of cotton candy. “Does he?” She tore off more of her candy. “The elf king has been around for a long time. Surely he has learned that we don’t always get what we want.”
“He does,” the vampire said. “We both know you want to speak with him. I can see it in your eyes. You have the same greed lurking in them that he does.”
She shot him a look, her cotton-candy-covered finger halfway to her mouth. “Careful, bloodsucker. I could rip your head off from one breath to the next.”
The vampire didn’t seem impressed. He either didn’t care if he lived, or he was actually tired of living and hoped someone would kill him. It happened to some supernaturals who’d been around for a while. They just got tired of existing.
They watched her. The fae seemed leery with their raised chins, and bodies tilted sideways as if to pull a blade on her at any moment, while the vamp just seemed bored, his stance relaxed, and a slight smirk on his face. When she’d finished her first bag, she tossed it on the ground, licked her fingers clean, and then straightened her pants to ensure the bags of cotton candy weren’t going anywhere. “Let’s do this.” She waited for the fae to walk over to her. They were brought so they could simply flash them to Ludcarab, not because they had a chance in seven hells of defeating her in a battle.
They moved cautiously, as if approaching a wild animal, while the vampire sauntered. “Don’t touch me,” she told the one who reached out his hand. “I will place my hand on your arm.” The fae nodded, and she gripped his arm, probably a little harder than necessary.
One instant they were on the Venice Boardwalk, and the next she was standing at the top of a mountain looking down over a valley and a city. Ludcarab was there gazing out over the land as if it were his kingdom.
“Myanin of the djinns,” the elf king said as he slowly turned to look at her.
She folded her arms across her chest, but kept her legs slightly bent, ready for anything. “Ludcarab, traitorous king of the elves.”