The Aetherfae (10 page)

I wrote,
She’s not. She was just at the tollbooth. She’s searching now. We need to get moving.

As we crossed the parking lot, an enormous silver and maroon motorhome pulled between us and the Lincoln. A small bald man flung open a door and smiled at us. “You ready?”

Doug and I exchanged looks.

“Come on, we don’t have all night. Your friends are waiting inside,” he said.

“Maggie, it’s okay, get in,”
Gavin silently reassured.

And the little man?
I wrote.

“
Compelled. Sorry, I know you hate it, but I’m not calling the shots.”

I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t going to argue about it, either. I turned to Doug. “It’s for us.”

We loaded the motorhome and the little man drove us south. Wrapped in Clóca and safe for the time being, I drifted to sleep wrapped in Gavin’s arms.

TEN

CASTLING

“M
aggie, we’re here,” Gavin whispered, his voice just louder than the sound of the rain outside.

Reluctantly, I forced my eyes open. “Where is here?”

“We’re in Arlington, Virginia. Just across the river from Washington, D.C.”

I noticed it was light outside, but not bright. “What time is it?”

“Eight.”

“Eight? How long have we been here?”

He tenderly caressed the side of my face, igniting the nerves throughout my body. “All night. You needed the sleep.”

He was right, of course—I had been exhausted. I rubbed my eyes and looked up at him, drawn in by the devilish smile on his face. “What?” Despite trying to subdue it, I felt a big, goofy grin form on my face.

His voice was barely a whisper in my head. “
You’re beautiful when you sleep
.”

I wondered why he said it silently until I realized that there were eyes on us. Doug, Mom, Mitch, all of them were watching me. A little embarrassed, but happy that Gavin showed discretion, I sat up and smiled. Doug exhaled. He clearly wasn’t happy. Mom, however, seemed at peace for the first time since before Dad died. There was a slight smile on her face, and her beautiful features were soft this morning.

“Morning,” she said.

“Morning. Did you sleep?” I asked.

“I’ve been awake for a couple of hours, but yes, I did sleep.”

“What have you been doing for two hours?” I asked.

The corners of her mouth turned up and she blinked slowly, her brown eyes settling on mine. “Billy and I talked.”

“About?” I asked playfully.

“You, of course.”

It felt good to have Mom smiling at me. I wanted nothing more than to talk, really talk, but that would have to wait. Without being told, I knew I needed to track Mara.

She waited and watched fifty feet above a rain soaked parking lot. At some distance I felt another Fae I didn’t recognize. Beyond it, still another. Before I let my tether draw me back to the RV, I’d counted fifteen of them. All were converging near the buffet we had visited the night before.

* * *

In slickers and ponchos, we slogged through puddles past the Lincoln Memorial. Gavin walked beside me with a backpack slung over his shoulder, drops of rain rolling down his long, straight nose and over the exposed portions of his angular cheekbones. He looked beautiful wet, catching the attention of nearly everyone we passed—I wondered whether that was part of the Fae plan, since nobody paid a bit of attention to me.

There were thousands of people between us and the Capital building in the distance. Gavin explained that there was a rally planned. He expected a crowd of a hundred thousand by one o’clock.
The more, the merrier.

Past the World War Two Memorial and the Washington Monument, we headed straight to the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian. It was my first trip to Washington, so like my brother, I found myself gawking at the architecture despite that I was fully in flight mode. At the dark glass entry to the Air and Space Museum, Gavin took Justice’s leash, transforming it into the leather harness of a service dog. I laughed as they walked up to the doors. The considerable line that had formed there parted as we neared—Gavin compelled them. I felt him disable the metal detectors and tried to remember how he did it. We walked right through security, meeting nothing but smiling faces.

The remaining Fae, except Wakinyan, entered the building above us but remained in Naeshura. Wakinyan would meet us later if this worked.

“Give me a few minutes to clear them, then go to the restrooms.” Gavin and Justice walked ahead.

Much to Mitch’s dismay, mom clutched his hand like he was four and in danger of getting lost.

“Mom, are you scared?” I asked.

“Uneasy. I’m not sure I like the idea of being changed into someone else.”

Mitch exhaled loudly, seemingly excited to get a new look. “Gavin said it won’t hurt, Mom.”

“I’m not worried about it hurting. I’m just not ready to look in the mirror and see someone else looking back,” she said.

“Mom, it’s just hair and eye color—like contacts and a dye job. It’s not permanent,” I tried to reassure her.

“I know.”

Gavin’s voice rang in my ears., “Now.”

“Okay, let’s go. See you in a few,” I said, as Grandpa and Mitch turned and followed Ronnie and Doug.

Tadewi waited in the restroom with Sinopa, Faye, and an Ohanzee I didn’t know. Mom stopped when she saw them and tried not to look nervous.

“This is Aiyana,” Tadewi said, nodding to the bewitchingly attractive brunette standing next her. Aiyana nodded slightly, lowering her doll-like brown eyes for a moment. “She will take Sophie’s place.”

“Thank you,” Grandma said, wrapping her arm around Mom’s.

Grandma’s eyes were big, but she didn’t seem nearly as nervous as Mom, who had wrapped her arms around her stomach again in a protective gesture.

“The baby will be fine, I promise.” Tadewi said, smiling warmly.

Candace walked forward, giving Faye a hug. “Mrs. O’Shea, I’ll go first. Ladies, make me a blonde and beautiful.”

I laughed at her confidence, hoping it would rub off on Mom. From the roots, Candace’s hair color changed from dark auburn to medium blonde in a cascade, pulling up in loose curls. Faye’s transformation occurred simultaneously, taking on Candace’s features exactly. Candace looked back, her warm hazel eyes turning blue, and smiled. Even though the oval shape of her face and her straight nose were familiar, I had to admit that if I saw her on the street I wouldn’t have recognized her.

Grandma’s transformation was more dramatic. She appeared thirty years younger, thirty pounds lighter, and brunette with nearly flawless skin. She tentatively glanced at the mirror. Her smile was the same.

Grandma ran young hands down her cheeks. “Oh my lord…talk about your face lifts.”

“Mom, are you okay?” Mom’s eyes watered a little.

“I’m fine. I’ll admit that it’s a bit of a shock, but it didn’t hurt. In fact…” She bent her knees, squatted, and then popped back up with a spring, “…I haven’t felt this strong since you were a baby.”

When I looked in the mirror I could still see my face, despite the pale skin, the green eyes, and the tawny hair. Mom looked like a slightly older version of me—more like an older sister than my mother. She seemed relieved to see the resemblance in our faces. It was a nice touch, one I’m sure Tadewi considered given Mom’s reservations. We all changed clothes as quickly as we could, giving the one’s we’d worn, scent and all, to the four women standing across from us—our old selves. The Fae had recreated us in such perfect detail I felt disoriented. Tadewi, Faye, Aiyana, and Sinopa said goodbye and left us in the rest room, telling us to wait ten minutes before coming out. They would be gone.

As the door closed, women began filtering in as if nothing had happened, mothers chatting with daughters, and to my relief, none seemed to pay any attention to us. I grabbed Mom’s hand and felt relieved when she smiled broadly and squeezed it back.

The only person I recognized in the lobby was Gavin. He stood next to a red Doberman Pinscher, three muscular men, and a blonde boy with icy-gray eyes. “
Follow us outside and take a cab to Franklin Park, 13
^th
and K Street.”

* * *

I recognized Doug immediately. His hair and eyes were both brown, but he’d changed the least—his face and body looked precisely the same. The expression on his face was easy to read—he wasn’t happy. Ronnie, however, was a different story. He looked like Candace’s brother: blond, blue-eyed, and gorgeous, now sporting a cleft chin. I laughed when he ran his thick fingers over his defined chest.

“What? It’s a makeover, right?”

“And you took full advantage of it, didn’t you?” Candace said, rolling her eyes.

“You’re one to talk, Rhonda.”

Candace arched her eyebrows and pursed her lips—her patented look, regardless of the face—and sent Ronnie into spasms of laugher.

The cab ride was swift.

Gavin crossed over 13
^th
Street to the Park where we waited. He handed me a large backpack. “Inside, you’ll find new identification, money, bank cards, everything you’ll need. Meet me at this address,” he said, slipping me a piece of paper. “We’ve secured a place for you in Kalorama. Wakinyan says Dersha and her forces are headed this way, so I have to disappear. See you at the house.”

“Why make us take two cabs?” I asked.

He grinned at me like he always did when I said something silly. “Is there a better place than a cab to mix your scent with other people’s? They’re filthy, and exactly what we need—full of smells.”

I frowned and he laughed.

“There’s hand sanitizer in the bag.” With that, Gavin walked behind a tree and popped out. I felt him move a short distance and then disappear completely.
Clóca. Tse-xo-be is close.
That made me feel only slightly better. Feeling naked and exposed standing in the middle of a small park, we wasted no time hailing two more cabs.

I expected to make a mad dash out of the city immediately. But apparently we were going to stay in Washington and that made my stomach queasy. After twenty agonizing minutes, we pulled up to a beautiful, historic three-story brick mansion on a tree-lined street. We were inside for just two hours when I felt the first of many Fae enter the city.

ELEVEN

INCOGNITO

B
y midnight, Washington was the most frightening place I’d ever been, more frightening even than facing Chalen on the island or Cassandra at the farm. Like Aunt May used to say, “As the crow flies,” we were about two miles from the White House. The mall was at the limit of my sensory range. With heavy rain and occasional lightning as a backdrop, more than thirty Fae had popped in and out of my senses. Each of them, I assumed, was tracing our movement through the mall. Thirty minutes earlier, they had set up a perimeter around the outside of the city—the part I could sense—and began moving slowly toward the center, like a hangman tightening a noose. I tried to carry on conversations with Candace and Mitch, but the patrolling Fae made my skin crawl. Worse, my reaction affected everyone around me.

Gavin was with us, but he stayed hidden with Tse-xo-be and Wakinyan under a layer of Clóca. The rest of us remained exposed—Tse-xo-be wanted it that way. The enemy, he reasoned, would expect to sense humans inside. Outnumbered as badly as we were, if a patrolling Fae discovered us, I wasn’t sure what would happen. I had no choice, however. One didn’t refuse Tse-xo-be.

Gavin told me that Enapay, Nodin, Drevek, Billy, all of them, had taken our places and split into two groups. The changelings for Mom, Mitch, my Grandparents, and Justice, went south and boarded a private plane, heading west to Dallas. The rest of the Fae, taking my place, as well as Candace, Ronnie, and Doug, went north by car to New Jersey, where they boarded a commercial flight to Toronto. From there, they were supposed to leave faint trials and then disappear into hiding. We would rendezvous with them in the Weald in two weeks at precisely three in the afternoon.

The thought of going home was exciting, but I didn’t know how smart it was, despite the reassurances. Three hundred strong, the bulk of the Ohanzee Clan would be meeting us there. As another patrolling Fae passed within a hundred feet of our hiding place, I wished the Ohanzee were with us in Washington.

I woke several times during the night, each time a Fae came near our hiding place. At two o’clock in the morning, a Fae slowly moved over the rooftop of the house. When I was little, I frequently faked being asleep. It always seemed to fool my parents, but then again, Mom and Dad couldn’t read my heart rate from a quarter-mile away. I put all that childhood practice to work keeping my eyes closed and my breathing regular.

An hour later, the rogues converged at the Air and Space Museum. I projected in, but a minute too late. I didn’t hear a syllable of conversation. The moment I arrived, a dozen streaked south. Dersha led a party of sixteen to the north, presumably to follow what she thought was me. Several more headed directly west. Three remained in the city, including Mara. She led the other two east and then south to a part of the city with old row houses and apartments in various states of disrepair. That area of the city seemed especially dreary in the rain. All three took physical form atop a tall brick building, squatting on a parapet like leather-clad gargoyles. Each resembled Naji. They were Arustari—blood drinkers from Europe. Bare, clawed feet wrapped unnaturally around the concrete coping, and long, thin arms dangled between their boney knees.

Finally, an unobstructed view of Mara—the pounding rain made her gray skin look reptilian, and that was her most attractive feature. She twisted her head at an awkward angle, studying something I couldn’t see, small red eyes focused in the darkness like a hawk. A streetlight below illuminated her thinning, mouse-gray hair and the awkward bony angles of her hunched body. She was so hideous that I wondered for a time whether she was a Pyskie. She couldn’t be, I decided. Her skin was smooth and wrapped tightly against her bulbous forehead—she bore no telltale pockmarks. I guessed that the Arustari chose the appearance. She threw her head back spreading wide the vertical slits at the base of her upturned nose, and drew a long breath.

The other two, both bald males with the same features, swayed over the edge of the building, scanning the street below. They reminded me of crows on a fence. With a sharp twist, Mara fixed her eyes on two men walking toward them a few blocks away. As the men entered a darkened area between two dim streetlights, the Arustari slipped off the building and silently moved with tremendous speed, slithering from shadow to shadow.
What do I do?

Before an answer came to me, the question became moot. The predators were on top of the two men before either knew what had happened. Compelling fear and silence, Mara forced her human prey to focus on her face as she opened her mouth twice as far as should be possible, hissing and snarling through long yellow canines.
Oh god, no,
my inner voice screamed.

Mara froze for an instant, a faint smile twisting her dark lips. Both men shook violently, frozen, as the Arustari dragged them several blocks into a wooded area at the end of the street. I pursued them, fear bubbling in my chest several miles away. Mara sliced their necks open with an invisible strike, starting an even flow of blood. Like vultures over carrion, the Arustari hunched over the bodies, bobbing up and down, gorging themselves by the mouthful.

A violent surge from my tether pulled me away. I sat up in my bed hyperventilating. A split second later, Gavin appeared and pulled me to him.

“What is it?” he whispered, embracing me in his powerful arms.

“The Arustari. They just murdered two people.”

“Where?”

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the vision. “I don’t know exactly. They’re in the city, but southeast…several miles from here.”

“You said, Arustari? As in more than Mara? How many?”

I took a deep breath to calm my convulsing stomach and slow my heart. “Three. Mara and two males. They’re hideous, terrifying…those poor men.”

Tse-xo-be’s voice startled me. “I did not realize there were three left. The Seelie believed all of them to be dead, except Mara and Naji. The Seelie could not find either of them.”

“Well, they missed a few.” I said.

Against my ear, Gavin’s soothing voice rumbled out of his chest. “Where are the rest of the rogues?”

“They left the city an hour ago. Dersha and sixteen others went north. Twelve went south, and ten or eleven went west.”

“Good, they’ve taken the bait. But why has Mara stayed?” Gavin asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t get to them in time to hear what they said. Maybe they know we’re hiding here. Could they?”

“Mara is quite skillful as a tracker. But it is more probable she stayed behind to…” Wakinyan studied my face. “…to terrorize.” Wakinyan chose the last word carefully.

“Do they need blood?”

The bluish glow of a street lamp outlined Wakinyan’s square features as he shook his head in the darkened room. “Absolutely not. Like all of us, they draw energy from time to time, but none of us needs to consume physical matter for sustenance.“

“Gavin, when you led my grandfather and the rest of us out of the museum, did you alter the surveillance systems? You were in physical…”

“Yes,” he cut me off. “We took no chances.”

“Can she track you?” I asked.

“Fae can track Fae, but to my knowledge, not when we are cloaked,” Tse-xo-be said. I felt a little better until he said, “Mara can create Clóca, however, so she may have found a way.”

“Then we need to eliminate her, now,” I whispered.

Tse-xo-be moved to the window and pushed the sheer curtain over a few inches to study the dark street below. With his muscular silhouette outlined against the rainy night, he nodded.

“We will eliminate Mara and the rest of her clan before we leave in ten days. To do so now would bring attention to this place.”

“What if she kills again?” I asked.

He turned his head halfway, his powerful profile outlined in the faint light. “She will, undoubtedly. Prepare yourself for it.”

My stomach knotted with fear for her victims. It seemed wrong to conceal ourselves at the expense of others. “I don’t like that.”

“Would you risk discovery—the death of your mother, your brother, your friends, and potentially the future of your species?” he asked.

Tears of anger welled up in my eyes, but I said nothing. I wouldn’t risk my family or my friends, but I felt dirty. I felt like a coward. Tse-xo-be placed value on me, because of my role in all of this, but I feared he didn’t place much value on humans.

He shook his head, reading the emotions I let slip through. “Maggie O’Shea, do not misinterpret my motives. I do value your species—that is why I have pledged my help to you. I will not allow you to sacrifice yourself to save a few lives when so many more are at stake. There is a powerful reality that all people in your position have come to understand—a general afraid to lose a man in battle is destined to lose them all. Conversely, your history is replete with leaders who have foolishly rushed onto the field of war only to secure nothing but defeat. In Gettysburg, you ate dinner less than a mile from such a place. Are you familiar with your own history?” When I nodded angrily, he said, “The situation call for patience and careful planning.”

His words made sense in my head, but my heart was torn apart. Was it ever appropriate to sacrifice people you didn’t know to save those you did?
The big picture, stupid, focus on the big picture. I can’t save everyone.
My inner voice was right, like normal, but it didn’t make it any easier to live with the decision.

Tse-xo-be was right. The gruesome slaughter repeated several times a day for the next week. My mood took a dramatic turn as I plunged into the dark depths of hatred—I wanted to kill Mara myself. I studied her attacks to learn as much as I could. The Arustari never picked their victims the same way twice, nor did they choose the same type of victims twice, but they always killed the same way. Mara froze each one to prevent them from screaming, but from what I could tell, each victim, whether a child or an old woman, was fully aware of what was happening to them. Mara seemed to derive as much pleasure from their fear as she did from the taste of their blood. With each kill, the three creatures lingered for half an hour savoring the spoils, mutilating the corpses.

Three days after the carnage began, the media started reporting the deaths, calling them the work of a suspected serial killer. Seven days in, Gavin said he could feel fear in the city. He said the Arustari had built a
nead
—a nest—for themselves. I learned it was common practice among Fae who relished human suffering and fear. It allowed them to savor the emotion twenty-four hours a day, like a kind of sadistic incense.

* * *

The night before we left Washington, Mara and her companions disappeared. I couldn’t find her when I concentrated. Instead my mind raced into darkness, settling in a solid expanse of stone that triggered my claustrophobia. Three different times I attempted to find the surface, only to snap back to my body in a struggle to breathe.

“Still no luck?” Gavin asked after my last search.

“No…” I gasped for air. “She’s gone…free to kill again.”

“Maggie, we will find her. She has gone into the ground. Fae do it when we hide. If we get close enough to the earth’s mantle we cannot be traced. Eventually, we all come up. Can you find the other Arustari?”

“Sure,” I said. “Give me a second.”

I closed my eyes and projected, focusing on one of them. I pictured his bony cheeks and narrow jaw, the ridges above his small sunken eyes. My mind moved a short distance, just a block or two. He was cloaked, drifting slowly through the damp night. Passing several older homes, he finally turned and moved toward the second story window of a stately house. I saw my mother through the window. My tether nearly yanked me back, but I focused on the second one, the taller one with thin lips and wide-set eyes. I saw a third story window and through it my body lying alone in the bedroom. My body shuddered, stopping his progress. Maintaining the tenuous grip I had on sanity, I calmed my mind and watched him watching me. My skin crawled, but relaxing became easier when I realized he couldn’t detect Gavin or the Ohanzee. They were hidden.
He doesn’t know they’re here, does he?

Taking a chance, I concentrated on the words, “
Here and Mom’s room,
” as I slipped back into my body, passing through Tse-xo-be’s Clóca barrier.

I rolled over on the bed, my back to the window, and pulled the covers around my neck.
The Arustari always do one part of their attack the same way
, I reminded myself.
They freeze their victims with fear first.
I forced myself to relax even further, knowing the predator was keyed to every muscle in my body, every emotion leaking out of my brain. Tick, tick, tick, the clock on the nightstand clicked off the seconds.

When I felt nothing change, I considered projecting again, wondering if they’d moved away, but my gut told me to stay put. The hair on my neck began to stand up on end, warning me that I was being stalked. The first wave of fear washed over my body, ratcheting my eyes wide open. I could have cut it off, but he might have bolted. A foot from me, red eyes with cat-like pupils glared at me from a gray face. I shuddered, allowing him to compel me, until I felt the second one take physical form on the floor below. Then I smiled. A bewildered frown formed on his face, followed by shock and pain as Wakinyan materialized with his fist gripping the Arustari’s spine between the shoulder blades. It struggled, trying to twist around swinging wildly at Wakinyan, its clawed feet splintering the hardwood floors. Then it sliced at me, claws bouncing off my Air barrier.