The Seven (Fist of Light Series) (18 page)

I decided that Jeeves had been ignored long enough and deigned to answer his jibe. “
Women just love a man with battle scars
.” I smiled widely.

He appeared instantly at the foot of the bed, hands upon hips. “Let me see this battle scar, as you call it.”

We studiously took notice of each other. He seemed in much better shape since the last time I’d laid eyes upon him. His features were no longer weighed down by the intensity of his weariness, and his characteristic manner was once again restored. A trace of pain remained in his eyes, however. It seemed Jeeves took much longer to recover from his injuries, as he was no paradigm of healing prowess like me. Although, since he was a mental construct rather than a physical being, it seemed appropriate that he would be suffer more from the effects of the holding cell.

“This pinprick? You call that a battle scar?” He snorted indignantly. “Men have become fragile in their age of wisdom and technology.” Jeeves pondered this revelation thoughtfully.

At the moment, there were more important things to talk about than battle scars across the ages. It was some time before he broached the subject, so I studied my accommodations thoroughly. The bed I currently occupied was of the finest make, no doubt, although it was stained in places with bits of my blood.
Whoops
. Simple carpet adorned the floor of the room, and it took me a further moment to realize what felt off about it. The ceiling was a painted, white metal and domed like an arch throughout the spacious room, which widened considerably as it neared the door set into a wall ten feet away from the foot of the bed.

I tilted my head inquisitively, but it was Jeeves that answered the unspoken question rather than my own deducing of the situation. “Don’t strain your developing mind. It’s a Boeing 727. Cruise speed 450 knots at 35,000 feet. The moment a private physician stitched you up, we were airborne.”

“Ah,” I replied tersely and lapsed back into quiet.

A few more minutes passed in silence until Jeeves could help himself no longer. “The woman-child that you
saved
in the alley. What did she look like?”

I sulked some before responding. “I didn’t get a very good look at her. She definitely wasn’t a child, that’s for sure. I did a double take after taking my friend Brute out of commission and instead of a teenage girl there’s a drop-dead diva that disappears in a flash of blinding light.
Poof
. Gone.” I emphasized my point with two clenched fists unfolding quickly. “What was she?”

“This raises many suspicions,” Jeeves replied, stone-faced.

I waited for ten seconds or so before coughing suggestively into a hand. Instead of its intended purpose, however, a coughing fit overtook me for a few agonizing minutes. The pain was excruciating, to say the least. This time, Jeeves was still present when the pain subsided.

“And…” I held my breath over the urge to cough. “Would you care to share those suspicions or are you just going to sit there and brood over them?”

He looked like he was going to do the latter, for he seemed to have no interest in sharing his knowledge. “I believe the Fae are intervening in the world of Man. And they have sought you out and tested your mettle. I cannot tell you what will come of this.” I didn’t test him any further, although I knew he was obscuring the fundamentals of the situation.

I changed tacks abruptly, knowing no more headway would be made on this particular subject. “What do you think about the bond?”

“That boy has had you pinned ever since he met you. You would do well to agree to that proposition. Much good could develop from it.” With that, he flashed out of sight and into my mind, no doubt to stroll in his forest and brood on what might be.

I woke up disoriented and in pain. That seemed to have become a disturbing trend. Light invaded and pervaded my sensitive eyes until a vague image was garnered of what should be the airplane. Bolts of molten fire speared into me as Jas shook me awake from my awkward sleeping position. I felt a deep ache in my back and neck, but the lava that had taken up residence in my body drowned out such trivial discomforts.

“Ouch, I’m awake, damn it! Turn off the massage switch for the bed already!” Then I filled him in on my rendition of the story as well as what Jeeves had told me about the situation.

“Crap,” he said.

“Yep.”

Jas appeared flabbergasted, completely out of his depth. “What would the Fae want with
you
? They have lived in isolation from our world since time immemorial.”

“Don’t know, just seems everyone wants a piece of the pie. Maybe it’s just because I’m so
damn
good-looking.”

Jas attempted a laugh for my sake, but even in my pain-stricken state the falsetto tone didn’t pass unnoticed. “There’s something you need to know.”

I managed a smile. “Yeah? Well, get on with it then. No need to get all emotional. Next thing you know, we’ll be taking tea together with Mrs. Bear.”

“I couldn’t survive without my Earl Gray in the morning.” Jas put a hand over his heart and sighed dramatically.

“Out with it, Jas. What happened?”

“The man in the alley. He was dead when he hit the ground. Your lightning strike…” He paused at the unintentional pun, for clearly this was no joke. By this time he had my full attention. “It killed him instantly, seized all his muscles, stopped his heart from beating.”

The dreadful scene repeated in my head, over and over again, with the addition of the deadly aftereffect. A simple punch to the floating ribs, but it was charged with lightning. It hadn’t been intentional, but I had killed a man. According to my perceptions at the time, he had been about to do some very nasty things to a child, but that didn’t change the fact that a man was dead because of my actions.

Would I do the same thing if the situation presented itself?
Yes
. Did I do the right thing?
Yes
. Should I have sat by and done nothing?
No
.

“I killed a man,” became my desolate echo, which was abruptly cut short before I started feeling sorry for myself. Jas was still there when I came to terms with what had been wrought by my own hand. He had sat himself on the edge of the bed, careful not to jostle it, and therefore me. It was a new sensation, this friendship where someone genuinely cared for my well-being. I decided it was a good one.

I nodded solemnly to myself and brought some of my consciousness back to the table. The rest remained secluded until further notice. “So, I lost all that blood, and you didn’t form the bond you were pushing for? Come on, what evil scheme to bring me more pain is this?”

“I told you,
remember
? It’s all about intent. The bond wouldn’t cement in a situation where you’re incoherent and bleeding out in an alley.” He rolled his eyes. “
Don’t
do that again, by the way.” He threw his arms up in the air, clearly exasperated. “Wait for me next time before you do something stupid, you idiot.”

I tried to hide how grateful I felt at that statement, but it seemed my façade cracked at the inopportune moment, or Jas had come to know me much more thoroughly than previously expected.

“Lightning isn’t one of the five elements,” Jas stated abruptly.

I nodded in agreement. “Nope. But I’m no expert here, remember?”

“So, what does it mean?” he splayed his arms wide questioningly.

“It means there’s a lot of junk that I don’t understand. And since Jeeves is a locked vault upon touchy subjects like these, it seems we’ll have to learn by doing.” I drummed my fingers on my leg, a nervous gesture that was bursting with the uncertainty of my present predicament.

Jas remained silent and I directed us to the next important subject. “Where the hell are we going, by the way? And where’d you get a 727 with a
bed
in it?”

“We’re on our way to Six Rivers National Forest. It’s a very closely held, very isolated gathering point for the Clan. My Father has called a Meeting, and in three weeks the place will be swarming with representatives of the Were.” He glanced apologetically at me before continuing. “They will all have heard of you and will want to survey you personally, possibly trade ultimatums, and the like.”

“Why would your father decide it was necessary to do such a thing?” I laced my words with steel.

Jas sensed my anger and attempted to defuse it before any damage could be done. “He decided that it was high time the Clan got together in order to take a stance on the coming battle. For instance, where we will stand when the bomb drops, or what needs to be done to stop it from causing irrevocable destruction. Anyway, the 727 was bought by my father and subsequently renovated to his liking.”

“And would you happen to be in the know about how we’re going to land this big boy in a densely forested area?”

Just as my question was completed, we started our initial descent toward the waiting forest below. Jitters took hold and the tapping upon my leg increased in frequency for every second that Jas delayed in telling me exactly how we would land in one piece. Jas paced nonchalantly along the end of the bed while allowing me to stew. I growled at him, and he sniggered.

“There’s nothing to worry about. There’s a nice long private runway and lots of open space
just
in case we miss.” He reveled in the reaction the last part of his statement had on me.

Truth be told, I hadn’t been in an airplane since I was much younger and remembered little of the adventure through the sky. Thus, there was adequate cause to be somewhat nervous regarding the situation, though I felt that Jas could readily perceive my anxiousness. I grabbed at my remaining macho points and didn’t respond to his barbed statement. That in itself probably emphasized my discomfort with the flight, but it allowed me to distance myself from the loss of face. I grimaced as a bout of turbulence hit the plane and traversed its length, my stomach dropping accordingly. I glanced longingly at the morphine as it tumbled from its perch on the dresser to the cabin floor.

“It’s all about intent, right?” I thought furiously through my distress and called the physical representation of Jeeves into being with a force of my strained will.

It came unwillingly at first, for no doubt Jeeves had better things to do then come to my beck and call whenever I felt like making a katana appear as a fancy schmancy parlor trick. The blade’s unearthly metal warped the light around it, refracting it around the interior of the cabin. If I wasn’t mistaken, the guard had tinged a bluish color, where previously it had been plain metallic unobtainium. With exquisite slowness I drew the blade across my palm, and it bit greedily into the skin without any apparent effort. Blood welled up from the wound and I offered the sword to Jas with expedient movements. The pain was a welcome distraction from our imminent arrival upon the ground. Jas reached tentatively for the katana and recoiled with a howl when he got the equivalent of a Taser pressed to his hand.

“Oops.” I smiled mischievously. I’d suspected something like that might occur. Jeeves’ laughter emanated from within my mind.

“You knew that would happen!” Jas accused.

“Now, would I ever
intentionally
cause you harm?” I inquired innocently then focused his attention on more pressing matters. “And on a side note, I’m bleeding all over your Dad’s expensive furnishings.”

He provided me with a glare that promised retribution before offering his hand once more. This time, I drew the blade across his palm and Jeeves didn’t give him the electroshock treatment. Jas regained some of his lost points when he didn’t make any untoward reaction to the blade parting his skin like a hot knife through frozen butter.

“Intent,” I repeated. “Not constipation, right? You seem a tad queasy over there.”

“Don’t worry about me, sunshine. Just put your hand out and think happy thoughts. Do
not
think about the plane crashing headlong into the forest. There is no smoke plume, or wildfire. You aren’t horribly maimed. Oh wait, scratch that last bit. Just…”

I tuned him out and focused upon bringing my bleeding hand into contact with his own similarly outstretched hand. Vague contemplations of satanic rituals surfaced in mind before they were dispersed. Our blood mingled, and I felt the skin of my palm stretching from the strain of holding my fingers apart.

I raised my eyebrows. “So that’s it? Isn’t something—”

White brilliance shone forth from our two joined hands, and my eyes closed against it. When there wasn’t any risk of burning my eyes out, I squinted slightly and grunted at the afterimage of light seared into my eyes. Eventually, however, my vision returned normal. Jeeves had taken it upon himself to high-tail it out of existence and back into his cubbyhole. When I gazed down inquisitively at my hand, only smooth, unblemished skin remained where there once was an open wound.
Nifty
.

I spoke into the oppressive silence that followed. “You know, now that I think about it, that wasn’t really satanic in the slightest. There’d have to be a lot more maniacal laughter, sacrificing virgins and the like.”