Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free (45 page)

Vee pointed to Pete's shirt. “And why does it look like Pete transformed?”

“We, uh, went to the Shadows Archon about stopping an attack on the Elwha steading. There was a little misunderstanding with his brightbloods. But everything is fine now.”

Dawn took a step back. “Define fine.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Vee said to Pete. “Come on. Let's get you cleaned up.”

Pete gave a mournful look at the waffles. “But—”

“You'll get your waffles,” she said. “But first you need to clean up, and give me a few minutes to appreciate you not being hurt.” She took his arm and led him from the room.

Sammy crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “If everything really was fine, you wouldn't have called a family meeting after going to see that vampire. And who's your guest?”

“Vampire!” Dawn said as I looked at Verna, who stood holding a large piece of her portal equipment in the doorway.

“Oh geez. Sorry. Here, I'll take that.” I lifted the portal equipment from Verna's hands and set it in the corner, then quickly introduced her to everyone. “Verna's going to help me with Alynon, hopefully.”

“Hello,” Verna said awkwardly.

Dawn crossed her arms. “Nice to meet you, Verna.” She glared at me. “Now, back to how
you
got in a fight with a vampire?”

Right. “I think we managed to stop the Forest of Shadows and Silver Court from going to war, at least for now. But there's still some tensions between their brightbloods that needed to be worked out, so—”

Dawn sighed. “Why do I feel like you promised to try and fix it all again?”

“Uh—” I said. At the look on Dawn's face, I found I just couldn't tell her the truth about the dance off. If for no other reason than she might cancel her show to be with me, record company reps or not, and that was the last thing I wanted. Bad enough she couldn't play the guitar—
for now,
I willed to the Universe—I wasn't going to risk her dreams any further.

But she could tell I'd gotten involved somehow by my hesitation.

“Damn it, Finn!” she said. “I love you, but let's just recap previous episodes, shall we? You took Sal to meet his true love, and got caught up in Silene's troubles instead. So you just had to go talk to her dead friend real quick, and everything was supposed to get better. But then you got into a fight at the game farm and promised Silene—”

“You were there,” I said. “You agreed I should help them.”

“Help, yes. Use yourself as bait to catch a spider witch, hells no. And once again, that didn't solve the problem, so you decided to go to the Other Realm—”

“It's not like I wanted to!” I said.

“And now, the brightbloods are fighting, and you run off and get in a fight with Count Dracula? I love you and your big ole heart, but I'm beginning to think you really do have a problem here. So, out with it. What did you promise this time?”

I sighed, and looked between Sammy and Mattie. They didn't know Heather had returned yet, and now didn't seem the time to bring it up. “I, uh, promised I'd try to get an alchemist to go to the Elwha steading, to help them out so they can defend themselves properly.”

Dawn looked at me for a second like I was that record company guy who'd passed on signing The Beatles. “I want to talk to you alone for a second,” she said, and grabbed my hand.

“Okay, but—” I began, then was pulled after her.

Dawn led me back to the library. I felt a growing knot of discomfort in my gut as we walked. She'd finally had enough. I had to convince her that I loved her, that I knew she was right, that I wanted to be with her.

And that I still needed to do this one last thing.

“Close the door,” Dawn said as we entered the library. While I closed the door, she went to the bookshelf nearest the door.

“Look, Dawn, I know—”

“Here,” Dawn said, pulling a book off the shelf. “I got you a little present.” She held it out to me.

I blinked at it. “You—oh, um, thanks?” I took the book. A thick, hardbound copy of
The Odyssey
. I quickly ran through possible reasons, including birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays, but I had missed none that I knew of. My relief was short-lived, however, when I considered it might be a fabulous parting gift. “Uh, what's this for?”

“Open it.”

I opened the book. A square hollow had been cut out in the center of the book's pages, and within sat what looked like a
Star Trek: The Next Generation
phaser, and an amulet—a real amulet. I could sense the magical energy in it.

“What—where did you get this?” I lifted out the amulet.

“Sammy helped me get that. The Taser, I bought in Sequim.”

“Wow. I don't know what to say.” I held up the amulet and examined the wizard symbols engraved on its silver surface. Something to do with alchemy and balance.

Dawn stepped closer, looked at the symbols with me. “It's supposed to make it so people, or creatures, they can't mess with your body chemistry. You know, put you to sleep, or use love potions on you, that kind of thing. Sammy said it would need to be recharged after you use it. Like the Taser, I guess.”

I lowered the amulet and looked at her. “I thought you were bringing me back here to yell at me. Which I totally deserve.”

Dawn put her hands on her hips. “Damn straight you do. But I'm just too sweet to yell.”

“Uh huh. And?”

“
And
, you may be risking your life more than I like, and getting into all kinds of trouble, but you're not doing it to hurt or disrespect me, I see that. You're doing it to help your family, and help others, and because you feel you have to.”

“I really am,” I said.

“I get that, Finn.” Her hands dropped, and she looked less confident now. “As for you and me, well, I also get that it's only been three months for you, and you've had a lot to deal with. I still think it was pretty sucky of you to let that anubis spirit take your memories of me—”

“I didn't know he would do that. I thought—”

“—he was going to take your Talker gift, I know. Still hurts though. And whatever you say, I think this magic stuff is going to keep putting you in danger.”

“I don't plan—” I began, then stopped. I didn't plan to keep getting involved in these battles and conspiracies. Hell, I still dreamed, in my private quiet hours, of somehow leaving the necromancy behind entirely. But the Arcanites were still out there pursuing my grandfather's vision of arcana supremacy, and still using Grayson's drug. Hell, my grandfather might still be out there, alive. And if Pete or Vee, or even Mort, really needed my help, I'd give it, even if it was dangerous. “You're right. It's not what I want, but I have no idea what might happen in the future.”

“Exactly. So, I can either decide it's too much for me and walk away. Or I can choose to look at this like I've learned my boyfriend's a spy, or better yet, Doctor Strange, and decide whether I want to go all in despite his need to keep running into danger.”

“And which did you choose?” I asked, not daring to hope too much.

“Until you give me a real reason to think otherwise, I think you're worth going all in.”

I felt as though the entire room, entire house, hell, the entire world had been holding its breath, and now let out a long sigh. I set the book and Taser onto the nearby table, grabbed Dawn around the waist with one hand, buried my other hand in the soft violet curls covering the nape of her neck, and pulled her into a kiss.

It was a long kiss, a perfect kiss, a homecoming.

When our lips parted, we stood a second with our lips barely touching, our eyes closed and warm breath mingling. I felt her lips curve into a smile.

I opened my eyes, and looked into hers. “I'm dang lucky.”

“You're dang straight,” Dawn replied. We stepped apart. I picked the amulet back up, slipped it over my head, then examined the Taser.

“These are great. Thank you.”

“I expect you to gear me up, too, you know,” Dawn said. “And I want us to take some classes together. Martial arts. And sword fighting. Or do they teach sword fighting in martial arts?”

*At last!* Alynon said.

“I don't know,” I replied. “Maybe. I thought you wanted me to take that massage class with you.”

“That too,” Dawn said. “Like I said, I expect you to do your half here, dude. That move with the muse got you some major boyfriend points, but don't think you can coast on that forever.”

“I won't,” I said, grinning.

“Good. And you can start by not missing my show tonight. I'll need all the support I can get.”

Crap. “Shouldn't be a problem,” I said, and prayed to all the gods and goddesses that was true.

“Good. So,” Dawn said. “I assume this alchemist you promised to bring to Elwha is Heather?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” I said, setting the Taser back inside the book.

“I don't suppose they have a sarlacc pit they plan to throw her into?”

I raised my hands. “I'm not her biggest fan either. But if she can undo some of the damage she caused, and help keep our family safe in the process, I'm willing to give her the chance.”

“I guess,” Dawn said in an unconvinced tone.

“And in the spirit of Finn Fantastic and Awesome Girl, I thought we could talk to her together.”

Dawn frowned. “I'm not sure anything I'd say to her would be very helpful.”

“You don't have to say anything,” I replied. “I'll need to convince her to go with me to Elwha. But she was … not happy with me the last time I saw her.”

“So?”

“So, you can be there to keep her from freezing me again, or talking me into doing some other crazy thing to win her help. I do seem to have a problem just saying no.”

“Oh.” Dawn went over to the fireplace, and pulled down the silver sword. “I can do that.”

“I don't think you'll need—” I began, but stopped at the look she gave me. “Right. So, should we go have some breakfast? And I need to finish explaining the situation to my family.”

“Right after you give me another kiss.”

The kiss lasted several delicious minutes, and I felt a bit lightheaded when Dawn finally opened the library doors and we walked back to the dining room.

Pete had returned cleaned up and clothed, and he and Vee were making serious inroads into the waffles. Sammy and Mort were focused on their work, and Mattie chatted with Vera about one of the many crazy experiments she'd helped Father with.

Sammy looked up when we entered the room and noted the amulet hanging around my neck. “I see she gave it to you. She's better than you deserve, you know.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I know. Hey, Pete, I'll need your help with that exorcism spell if you think you're ready.”

“I've been practicing and practicing,” Pete said earnestly around a mouthful of waffle.

“I know you have. And I know you'll do awesome.”

Sammy closed her laptop. “So, you going to tell us what's going on? Or do we get to wait for a phone call in the middle of the night announcing you've gotten our family in a clan war with leprechauns?”

“Well, you
are
always after their Lucky Charms,” I replied. Dawn and I started dishing up waffles.

“Funny. But speaking as your sister and Mattie's aunt, it would be nice if you stopped doing things that put a target on your entire family.”

“Hear, hear,” Mort muttered.

“I didn't—” I began, and paused with a waffle dangling from my fork. I sighed. “I'm sorry. That's the opposite of what I'm trying to do, I swear.”

“I know,” Sammy replied. “You were just trying to do the right thing. Which is why I'm here at all, and not heading home to prep for our
Game of Thrones
viewing party. But maybe next time try and ‘do the right thing' a little smarter?”

“Gee, well, we can't all be as smart as you, sis.”

Sammy shrugged. “Sad but true. So, give us the deets on your rollicking adventures.”

We ate while I shared what I had learned in the Other Realm, and of the need to stop the fighting between the brightbloods before it escalated.

Mort exhaled sharply through his nose. “Yeah, well, good luck with that.” He stood up, grabbing his ledgers. “I told you going into the Other Realm wasn't worth the risk. You need to cut your losses now. Let the feybloods have their little gang fight, and then they'll go away to lick their wounds.”

“And if their fight escalates to all-out war?” I asked. “If Pete and Vee get pulled in? And little Miss Jorōgumo decides to come after my family for revenge?”

“Then it will be on your head, not mine,” Mort said. “We'll fortify here until the danger passes. Meanwhile, I have to reschedule the wake for that fairy you left half prepped in the necrotorium.” He left the room.

“Well, that was helpful,” I said.

“He's an ass,” Sammy said. “Though I hate that he's right about the fairy. You did have a job to do here.”

“I know that!” I said. “I'm doing the best I can, but I'm only one person.”

“Don't get your Underoos in a wad,” Sammy said. “Just tell us, what do you need?”

“Mostly? I just wanted to make sure you were all together, and safe today. And of course, that you cheer extra loud at Dawn's show.”

“Aw, thanks, honey,” Dawn said. “My biggest fan.”

“Naw, I'm just hoping you hit it big so you can introduce me to Susanna Hoffs.”

“I catch you with Susanna, and she really will be walkin' like an Egyptian.”

Pete swallowed a mouthful of waffle with a gulp, and said, “I can finish prepping the fairy.”

“Thanks, Brother.”

We finished making our plans for the evening, then I turned to Verna. “If you're ready, I'll introduce you to my father.”