Painfully Ordinary Special Edition (13 page)

Suddenly there was a
blinding flash of light and the room filled with smoke. The men jumped to their
feet and prepared to attack. When the smoke finally cleared, Gail was the first
one to react.

Chapter 9

The
Assembly

“Caitlin!” my aunt gasped,
running forward to grab me in a bear hug. She then reached for Leah and pulled
her into the circle as well. “How in the world did you get here?”

I shrugged my shoulders
and shook my head in disbelief. “I have absolutely no idea. We were sitting in
my room talking about the last time we came here for a visit and how much we
wanted to see you, and…,” I gestured around me, “…here we are.” I shook my head
trying to clear the fog.

Ho-ly crap!

Leah stared at me
completely bewildered.

I slowly stood up looking
around the room. My eyes locked with Talon’s and I squealed and ran into his
arms. He lifted me off the ground and held me close.

I no longer cared how or
why we were here, only that I was with Talon again.

Leah’s head whipped up and
sought out Jace. He gave her a huge smile, holding his arms open. She
immediately jumped into them and he swung her around the room. She squeaked,
engulfing them both in shimmering air.

Beau stood
up from the couch.
“Caiti-baby!
How have you been?”

I broke away
from Talon’s embrace and examined the room.
“Pops!
Oh my God.
I have missed you so much!” I ran over and gave
him a big hug. I buried my face in his neck and inhaled his familiar scent. He
always smelled earthy, like he had been out in the sun. Absolute security
existed here in my Pops’ arms, surrounded by his brothers and the cousins I had
known my entire life. It brought tears to my eyes.

“Pops?”
Jace raised an eyebrow. “You don’t mean to tell me…”
he let the sentence trail off. He glanced around the room in confusion.

The
Elders
were whooping and bellowing, shoving
each other around to see who could get to me first. “There’s our girl!
Hey Caiti!
Where have you been hiding? We thought you had
forgotten about us.”

I found
myself
being passed
from one uncle to another. The
weight on my shoulders simply melted away and I laughed so hard I was soon
crying.

Wiping the
tears from my eyes, I noticed the room
was now filled
with colorful butterflies. I looked about in amazement and caught Leah’s eye as
she mouthed the word “awesome.” I was utterly content, and the butterflies
swirled around me as I spun around the room.

Finally, I
was able to do something
other
than
blow things
up
.

Talon,
leaning against the far wall, gave a low chuckle. “What are we going to do with
you? You are either blowing things up or covering us in butterflies.”

Obviously,
the irony hadn’t been lost on Talon either.

Happiness
filled the room and everyone’s spirits were high.

Beau signaled
for attention. “Ok, now that we have our little reunion out of the way, we need
to get back to business. Talon, please continue with your report.”

A wide grin took over
Jace’s face.

Bub, the Beta of the pack,
spoke up. “I was beginning to think we would have to marry you and Jace off to
each other.” He nudged Ronnie in the ribs and they both howled with laughter.

I stared around the room
in shock as a realization knocked the wind out of me. I finally understood why
Talon and Jace had come to Pops for help. They were
Lykaois
.

Benson rose from
his chair, walked over to
Talon
and clapped him on the
shoulder. “If this little pixie-girl is the half-
Feydall
you wanted help with, you’ve got it. She has been a
favorite of ours ever since she was a ‘lil thing. I’m willing to protect her
from anything and everything.” His face became very serious and a claw extended
from the tip of his finger as he pressed it into the center of Talon’s chest. “Consider
yourself warned, though, if you hurt her in any way, you will face the fury of
the entire pack. Understood?”

Talon stepped
back, cradled me to his chest, and said, “I would expect nothing less.”

I positively
beamed at my extended family. I absolutely adored them all and they didn’t seem
to have a problem with my budding relationship with Talon. I had forgotten how
happy everyone was here - maybe there was hope after all. I squeezed Talon as
hard as I could, and he placed a kiss on the top of my head.

Burl picked
up a pillow off the couch and hurled it at Jace. “That goes twice for you, you
mischievous pup. We have known Leah since she and Caiti were babies, and I
think you know the consequences of wounding a friend of the pack.”

Jace gave
Leah a bear hug so fierce she squealed. “I’m definitely not as dumb as I may
look. However, I’m trying to figure out how we missed running into these little
pixies before now. Anyway, I’m depending on you all to help us find a way to keep
them.” He gave Scott and Todd a roguish grin and they all doubled over.

I asked
Talon shyly. “What are you doing at my Aunt Gail’s? I never expected to see you
here. Then again, I really didn’t expect to be here myself, for that matter.”

He tucked
the usual piece of hair behind my ear. “I’m so glad you are here - no matter
how you got here. Clearly, you do have some more hidden talents. I wonder what
else you might have up your tiny sleeve.” He winked at me, and then his face
suddenly became serious. “Wait, did you just say
your
Aunt Gail? Do you mean that as in a friend of the family or an actual relative?”

His question
caught me off guard. “Why do you ask? She is my mom’s aunt. Leah and I used to
spend a lot of time out here when we were younger, and we have a lot of great
memories of this place. I always begged my mom to move out here, but she would
always look sad and say that it just wasn’t possible. You know, I always
wondered why, but I never really pressed her on it.”

Talon glanced
over at Beau, beaming. “So, you have
arranged ‘marriages between
Feydall
and
Lykaios
before’, huh?” He snuck a
look over at Sonny and Gail. “Anyone we might know? What are the chances it
could happen between a
Varyo
and a
half-
Feydall
who might be
a
Lumina
?”

Sonny pulled Gail into his
lap, cradling her head on his shoulder and wrapping his arms around her
securely.

“Who knows?” Beau said. “Stay
close and you will learn that within this family, anything is possible.” He
reached out one hand stroking my long hair as he had done when I was little. “What
has you so troubled, my Caiti-baby?”

I shifted my weight from
one foot to another. “Well, it’s complicated.” I hesitated.

Pops gave me a wry smile. “Seems
like I heard that somewhere before.”

I decided to lay it out
all on the table for him.

“Uncle Johr is pissed, to
put it very mildly. People started throwing around the term ‘
Lumina
’, and he became completely
overprotective and unreasonable.” I got really wound up as the memories came
flooding back and started pacing. “He wouldn’t even let us out of the car until
he had checked out the entire house. Can you believe that? Ugh!” I clenched my
fists at my sides and the lights in the house flickered wildly.

Talon
reached over and placed his hand on the small of my back. As always, there was
an initial shock, and then calming warmth spread throughout my body. I gave his
other hand a squeeze.

Pops studied
me with bright eyes and threw us what my mom would have called a “shit eating
grin”. It usually meant he was up to something.

Uncle Shine
thumped Talon on the back and walked into the kitchen, chuckling to himself. Uncle
Bunk walked over and threw his arms around our shoulders. “Talon, my boy I
think we might be able to help you out after all.”

We watched
as the men went out the back door to the porch for one of their infamous smoke
breaks. Scott stuck his head back in the door and motioned for Talon and Jace
to join them. Aunt Gail crooked her finger at us, beckoning us into the
kitchen. I always loved her kitchen. It was a warm, cheery place full of
wonderful smells.

We plopped
down on a couple of worn wooden stools at the breakfast counter. She pushed a
bowl of green beans toward us and motioned for us to start snapping them. She watched
me out of the corner of her eye. “I guess it’s pretty safe to assume that your
momma doesn’t know you are here?” she asked.

I barked
with laughter. “Yeah, prolly… especially since I wasn’t really planning on
visiting, myself. I’m still not sure how the hell we got here anyway. Man, is
Johr going to be mad. I can just hear it all now. Mom will probably just kind
of shrug her shoulder. She’s pretty easygoing most of the time, and it doesn’t
hurt that you are her favorite aunt, either.” I gave her a wide grin.

Leah’s head
jerked up from the bowl in alarm. “Surely they can’t blame us for this? I mean,
how were we supposed to know we could do that…whatever
that
was?” She stared off into space. “You know, I wonder if that
will work with other places too.” She wagged her eyebrows at me. “Think about
it.
What if we could go anywhere we want, just by imagining
it together?
Woo hoo! Hawaii, here we come!”

“If you girls
figure out how to do that – I’m all in.” Gail joked.

Ronnie stuck
his head in the back door. His hair
was almost completely
covered
in brightly colored butterflies. He winked at me. “Okay, what
did we miss? What’s so funny?”

We had to hold on to each other for support. I
could hear Pops from the back porch as he shouted, “Okay, you two. Knock it off
before you completely cover the backyard.”

We could
hear the rest of the men laughing along with him. We peeked out the kitchen
window and watched them waving their hands in the air trying to clear away the
butterflies.

Gail was
able to pull herself together long before us. She leaned on the counter and put
her chin in her hands.

“Sweet-pea,
you know we are going to have to call your mom before she realizes you are gone
and they mount a full-scale search for the two of you. The last thing you want
is for Johr to call in unnecessary reinforcements.”

I crossed my
arms on the counter and laid my head down.
“Reinforcements?
What kind of reinforcements?” I sat up and waved my hand in front of my face. “Ugh.
Never mind, I don’t want to know but I also don’t want to leave. I haven’t been
this happy in a very long time. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off
my shoulders, and I don’t have to hide who I am here. Uncle Johr and Breeg will
come
flying in here, guns blazing --like the cavalry… well,
so to speak. Please say we don’t have to go.”

The back
door shut with a bang.

“Who said
anything about you having to leave?” demanded Pops. “Surely you don’t think we
can’t protect you? We have the strongest pack anyone
’s seen
in generations. No one is going to mess with you while you’re here. Anyway, I’m
not ready to let you go just yet. I don’t get to see you often enough,” he said,
with a sparkle in his eye. He nodded at Gail. “Give her momma a call, and we’ll
sort this out. Put the phone on speaker so we can all hear.”

Gail toddled
across the kitchen and began dialing.

Chapter 10

Emory

“Hello?”

“Hi, sweet baby.
How are you?” Gail crooned.

“Gail! Oh
my gosh
. How are you?” Mom said excitedly. “I have been
thinking about you a lot lately. You wouldn’t believe the things that have been
going on around here. I need to come out there and fill you in on everything. I’m
afraid our worst fears are coming true.”

Aunt Gail hesitated.
“Sweetie, you should know you can always talk to me. However, I called you for
a reason. I just had some company pop in for a little visit. I thought you
might be interested.”

“
Gail,
did Talon and Jace make it there okay?
Did anything happen to anyone from the pack?
Who arrived for
the assembly?” Mom sounded worried.

Gail gave a
small chuckle. “Yes, the boys are fine. I’m glad they are here. It’s been too
long since the last time they visited. As far as the assembly goes, we have Beau,
Bunk, Shine, Benson, Burl, Sonny, Bub, Ronnie, Scott, Todd and a couple of surprise
guests. Everyone is all safe and accounted for.”

Leah I
covered our mouths to stifle any noise. The anticipation was making us a little
slap-happy
. I knew how mad Johr was going to be, but I
didn’t want to leave.

“Surprise
guests?” Mom sounded confused.

“Well, you
know, that is the interesting part. I don’t really think they were planning on
coming either,” Gail said gently. “Talon was in the middle of explaining things
to Beau when there was a blinding light and the entire room filled with smoke.”

“A portal?”
she yelped.

I heard
scuffling and Johr’s voice, his tone demanding.
“Where?”

“Gail, who managed to portal into the
assembly
?”
Mom asked.

“Your
daughter and Leah,” Gail said proudly.

“They…did…what?”

Johr took
over the call. “Gail! What happened?
Who portaled into the assembly?”
His voice was all business.

“Caitlin and
Leah,” Aunt Gail said.

“
What?”
he roared. “Gail, I want to talk
to Caitlin immediately!”
Gail’s shoulders
slumped. “Baby, he wants to talk to you.”

I shrugged
my shoulders and sighed. “I knew this would happen.” I said sadly.

Pops patted
me on the back and gave me an encouraging smile.

“Hello Johr,”
I said quietly.

“Caitlin! Have
the two of you lost your minds? What the hell were you thinking, portaling into
the middle of the assembly? The pack could have attacked you both, thinking you
were with the
Accendersi
! Speaking of
the
Accendersi
–you have very likely
gotten their attention with that little stunt. They are no doubt monitoring the
ley lines for portals as we speak. Get your asses back here
right now
!”

My anger
roared to the surface. “Hold it just a minute!
First of all
,
we had no intention of creating a portal in the first place—especially since we
didn’t even know they
existed!
Quite
frankly, I don’t remember ever taking
Portaling
101
in school!”

Pops stifled
a laugh as I continued my rampage.

“Furthermore,
I have
no
idea how to recreate what
we did even if I wanted to… so stop yelling at me!”

Johr took a
deep breath, obviously trying to regain control of
himself
.
“We are on our way to Emory to pick you up. Be ready to leave as soon as we get
there.”

“
No!
I screamed. Thunder rattled the
windows of the house and Talon burst into the house with Jace right on his heels.
Talon wrapped his arms around me and rocked me like a small child.

Beau took over
the call.
“Johr.”

“Beau?” he
asked. “I apologize for all the drama. She should have known better.”

“How could
she know better? Did anyone ever teach her about the existence of our world? To
quote Natsias, ‘
Kon mangel te kerel
tumendar r oburen
'
ci
'
soxa phenela
tumen o
'
ca
'
cuimos pa tumare perin tonde
.’”

I leaned
over and whispered to Talon. “What does that mean?

He
responded, “He who wants to enslave you will never tell you the truth about
your forefathers.”

“Ouch,” I
said.

Beau
continued, “You cannot blame her for what happened. No need to apologize to me–we
couldn’t be happier our two favorite little pixies have dropped in for an
unscheduled visit. I have missed them.”

Johr paused.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can to pick them up. Breeg and I can be there
within a couple of hours.”

Beau shook
his head at the phone. “No need. Why don’t you let them stay here a day or two?
I think it would be good for the girls.”

Johr was adamant.
“No, it’s my duty to see that they are safe.”

“Are you
suggesting these girls are not safe when they would be protected by the entire
pack?” Beau questioned menacingly.

Hope
blossomed in my chest. Maybe Johr would listen to Pops, ‘
cause
he sure as hell didn’t listen to anyone else.

Johr
yielded. “No. You are right. They should be quite safe with you. I will be
there Monday night, as they have to be back at Champion in Southlake for cheer
practice no later than Tuesday. Marne is adamant about them continuing with
their regular routine so as not to draw any unnecessary attention to them.”

“Understood,”
he agreed. “We will see you Monday night. Goodbye.”

He placed
the phone gently back in the cradle, spun around slowly to face us, jumped into
the air, and whooped for joy.

“Stubborn
old fool. He thought he could strong-arm me into making you go home.
No way!
We are keeping you. I think a couple of days in the
country are exactly what you need. There’s nothing that some fishing and good
food can’t fix.” He squeezed my shoulders as he headed for the back porch to
share the good news. Moments later the air was filled with hoots and yelling.

“All right!”

“That’s
right, Beau. You tell him!”

“Suggesting
that she is not safe with us?
How ridiculous!”

“This calls
for a party!”

“Gail! Let’s
barbecue!”

Gail shook
her head. “I guess we better start pulling things together. Caiti, can you
please grab the veggies from the ‘fridge? Leah, see if you can find some
potatoes and onions in the pantry. We will have to come up with quite a spread
for this crew. Whew, they can eat!”

Leah and I made
eye contact and grinned as the air in the kitchen sparkled around us. At the
same time, a cry went up outside.

Finally,
something was going our way. It was about damn time.

“Hey!
Enough with the butterflies!
Can’t you girls conjure
anything else?”

I couldn’t
remember the last time I was so happy.

We sat in
the kitchen, peeling potatoes and chopping veggies while Gail prepared the meat
for the grill. We didn’t have to talk–we were perfectly content in each other’s
company. The back door opened and the smell of smoke from the burning hickory poured
into the kitchen. Jace poked his head in the door. He had pulled his glossy
chestnut-colored hair into a ponytail at the base of his neck.

“The grill is
ready anytime you are, Gail.” He flashed a wide grin and winked at us.

Gail walked
over to the door with a large platter full of various cuts of meat. “Here is
the first of them. Take that one out and come back for the other pan.”

Leah seemed
surprised.
“The other pan?
Are you expecting more
people to show up?”

How quickly
Leah had forgotten about Jace’s true nature.

Gail and I snickered. “I know it’s been a long
time since you were here with Caiti. I guess you were too young the last time
to notice.” She continued, “No, we aren’t expecting anyone else. These boys
will devour everything I set out for them.”

Leah stared
at me and I gave her a mischievous grin. “What else would you expect from a
bunch of animals?”

After a
minute, she grimaced and gave a nervous twitter.
“Oh, yeah.
I kind of forgot about all that.”

The screen
door opened with a bang and Leah squealed, jumping off her barstool. Jace wore
a strange expression.

“What’s
wrong? Did something happen?”

Leah shook
her head at him embarrassed, while I giggled. Jace was obviously bewildered. Talon
came in the back door shaking butterflies out of his hair.

“Jace, I
thought you might need some help.” He winked at me. “So, I figured I’d come in
and see what was so funny.”

Leah jerked
her thumb in my direction. “Ask Caiti. She’s being quite the comedian today.”

I covered my
mouth with my hand and tried to stifle my amusement. It didn’t work very well,
since Leah made eye contact with me, started sputtering herself, and proceeded into
full-blown laughter. Jace growled at both of us, but it only made it worse.

Talon sauntered
over to me. He had that predatory look again. Instinct took over and I squirmed
on the barstool, looking for escape.

“Making
trouble again?” He murmured. “You really have quite the talent for starting
trouble don’t you? Perhaps we need to find a way to curb this impish nature of
yours.” He shot me a menacing grin. I yelped and leapt off the barstool, bolting
out the back door. I shot through Beau and the rest of the pack.

As I darted past,
Bub hollered “Caiti, where’s the fire?”

I heard the
screen door slam shut behind me and Talon was right on my heels. I squealed and
scurried through the trees in the backyard.

Ronnie laughed
and pointed in the direction Talon had run. “I think we know where the fire is.”
He nodded approvingly at Talon. “I think he may be the one person in the world
who could truly make her happy without trying to hold her down.” The pack
nodded in agreement.

Talon had
gotten close enough that I could hear his steady breathing. Here I was panting
like some sort of animal, and he probably hadn’t even broken a sweat. By the
time I circled back through the trees toward the rear of the house, I stopped
dead in my tracks.

There was
the hammock, which
had, in a roundabout way, brought
us here. Talon didn’t see me stop fast enough and crashed into me sending us flying
headlong onto the hammock. It swung wildly from side to side as our weight hit
the canvas.

Talon held
me to his chest with a vise-like grip to keep the hammock from flinging me to
the ground. Finally, it slowed to a gentle rocking, which
was
sustained
by the breeze that blew through the yard. He shifted me to my
side, so we were lying face to face, as we swung gently back and forth.

He kissed me
on the tip of my nose and rolled to his back. I rested my head on his shoulder
and wrapped one arm around his chest. My breathing finally returned to normal.
Well, as normal as my breathing ever got around Talon.
I glanced
across his chest and noticed there was another hammock just a few feet away.

Wait until
Leah saw this. I gave a satisfied sigh as Talon reached up his right hand and stroked
my hair.

“
Ves’tacha
.” He sighed. “I don’t know how
much longer this can go on. You are so much more than I ever hoped
for
. I keep waiting for someone to come and whisk you away
and tell me I am not fit to be with you. You realize it is bound to happen
sooner or later.” He tipped my chin with one finger so he could see into my
eyes. “I wonder if it would be better to distance myself now, to reduce the
amount of heartache we will undoubtedly have later. I just can’t seem to walk
away.” He gave me a small squeeze. “My world is so much brighter with you in
it.”

Tears gathered
in the corners of my eyes. I wiped at them with the back of my hand and pushed
away from him slightly so I could see his full face.

Talon appeared,
horrified. “Please don’t cry. What is wrong? Why are you sad? Do you wish me to
go now?”

Why didn’t
he understand? I shook my head fiercely.

“No, that’s
just it—can’t you see it? I am happier than I have ever been and it’s because
of
you
. You make me comfortable being
myself. You have seen my weaknesses and faults and for some reason,” my voice
dropped to almost a whisper, “you seem to want to be with me anyway. I never
really felt like I fit in anywhere. I was always on the edge of everything, and
now I understand why. How is anyone else ever going to understand me and why I
am the way I am? The rest of the world is lost to me without you. I would
always have to pretend to be something I’m not.” To my absolute horror, I
collapsed against him and sobbed.

Why couldn’t
I ever talk to him without completely soaking the front of his shirt?

Talon gently
pulled me back and cupped my face in his hands.

“Caitlin,
stop. It hurts me when you are upset. I know you are unfamiliar with the
Varyo
. I want you to understand I am
keenly sensitive to your emotions. We
are very closely tied
already and I feel your distress as unmistakably as you do. It causes me
physical pain when you are upset.”

I
immediately jumped up. “I’m sorry–I had no idea. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I
promise to try to get a better grip on myself. It’s not fair for you to be in
pain when I fall apart.” I continued, mumbling to myself, “Considering it seems
to happen way too often these days.”

Talon
grabbed me by the shoulders and gently shook me. He had his teeth clenched and
his eyes were flashing a dark blue.