Through Time-Frankie (10 page)

All at once she felt a shift in the atmosphere and blinked to find Jazz and Trevor standing in front of her.

Looking at them as they approached, she smiled; thinking they looked like avenging Gods, ready to set the world straight.

Jazz was already on her, taking Frankie’s shoulders to say, “Graely sent us a message. He told us Prince Worley tried to spell you to go with him?”

“How did he do that?” Frankie was surprised.

Jazz snorted, “He actually called and left one on my cell phone.”

In spite of the seriousness of the situation, this struck Frankie as funny and she giggled, “Aye, we have all sorts of magic, but he uses the phone.” This sent her off into another peal of laughter.

Jazz and Trevor eyed one another and he said calmly to his mate, “Nerves.”

Jazz ignored this and demanded, “What happened, Frankie?”

“Worley tried to use black magic on me. I think he wanted to stop me from following whatever came out of the portal.”

“Why?” Trevor frowned.

“I don’t know. I thought mayhap Da asked him to look out for me, but I thought better of that. Da would not ask him to use black magic on me, and besides, since when do Daoine princes use black magic?”

“I don’t like this, Jazmine Decker,” Trevor said. “I have never liked Worley, but this is cause for concern.” He turned to Frankie, “You know already that your father is off on a mission. I doubt very much that he would ask anything of Worley if only because he knows you don’t care for him. I also had a talk with him just before he went off and he told me that he has changed his mind and no longer believes that Prince Worley is suitable for his daughter.”

“Really? He never said,” Frankie remarked with keen interest. “Right then, so Worley got me off balance with the black spell of his. Then all at once, Graely was there and the devil pointed his Death Weapon at him—at Graely
who was unarmed,”
Frankie said with feeling.

Trevor said nothing to this and Frankie stomped her foot at him, “Right, Trevor?  It was a despicable thing to do.”

“I do agree, the Daoine should not have pointed a Death Weapon at an unarmed…Fae, even if he is an Unseelie.”

Jazz grimaced at her mate, and he put up his hands, “
What?”

“Never mind all that now, ye must believe me, something is about to happen…I saw the portal, and Graely I think is tracking whatever came out of it. He left me in the library, but Jazz—do ye feel it, just beneath the surface?”

“I do,” she said looking at Trevor. “Do you feel it, Trev? Something is going on just below us.”

Chapter Eleven

“YOU HAVE HANDLED things poorly,” Sventer said, folding his arms across his chest. He wasn’t sure what he thought of this Daoine Fae or the fact that Pestale seemed determined to align himself somehow with him.

Pestale could be up to something. This could be a trick—perhaps the Daoine was in fact, a spy?  After all, thus far, the Daoine Prince had not done anything to aid their efforts really at all.

“She is stubborn, and just when I thought I had her distracted, and out of nowhere, Pestale’s brother, Graely shows up, and gets between us. You better ask Pestale what the hell his brother is doing forever following her about.” Prince Worley ran a hand through his shoulder length blond and windblown hair. “There was nothing
I
could do without tipping my hand, and although I threatened the Dark Prince with my Death Weapon, it wasn’t as though I really thought I could kill him…nor did I want to. I would then have Pestale to deal with, and I am fairly certain that while he might execute his brother himself, he would take umbrage if one of us managed to do such a thing.”

Sventer considered him and this for a moment before saying, “Unfortunate that Prince Graely was on the spot just then. Why do you think that was?”

“I have already told you. It is the ‘Faeling’, Frankie. Graely seemed more than a little interested in her well being.” Worley smirked.

Sventer thought how it marred the prince’s features and remarked, “Ah romance, a warrior’s weakness.”

This seemed to infuriate the prince who retorted angrily, “Romance? I wonder what Deimne would think of such a romance? A Dark Prince and a Daoine…even if she is half human.”

Sventer shrugged, “Not interested in that. We Blue Demons are here for one reason, and we have been quite successful thus far. Your job is to keep any and all Fae diverted elsewhere.”

“Then you are ready?”

“Of course. Everything is set to go forward and my warriors are standing by.”

“When you return to Conglam, you had best advise Pestale that the ‘Faeling’ is still interfering and seems to be a handful more than she was when she was a child.”

“She is but a female,” Sventer pulled a face. “Females are naught and can be easily handled.”

“We Fae are matriarchal and our females are revered. We don’t quite see it that way, and you would do well not to underestimate Frankie of Sluagh,” the Daoine Prince said on a frown.

“Get thee back and steer your Queen away from the truth.
That is your job
, so do it, and let
us
do ours. The rest is up to Pestale,” Sventer said on a hard note.

“Careful Blue Demon. I do not take orders, not from you, not from Pestale. I have my reasons for aligning myself on your side, and I consider my reasons good and pure.”

“As do we all,” Sventer said as he watched the Daoine Prince shift away, and repeated, “As do we all.”

* * *

Trevor said, “I’ll tell you what Jazmine Decker, I don’t like this. Something feels wrong. The scent that keeps coming at me is wrong…it isn’t Unseelie and it isn’t something I am familiar with at all.”

“I agree baby, but what can it be?” Jazz answered. “I don’t recognize the scent either. You know, Aaibhe once told me that Conglam is inhabited by Otherworldly beings of intelligence. Do you think he has recruited some of them?”

“Yes. I have no doubt of it,” he answered, “Right then. I’m going to do a quick sweep. You and Frankie stay here and wait for me. Can you do that, my love?” He didn’t wait for an answer but turned to Frankie, “Can I trust you two not to get each other into trouble while I’m gone?”

Jazz got on her tippy toes, turned his face to hers and kissed his lips, “No,” she answered and laughed at the face he made. “Go on,” she said smacking his butt. “Do what you gotta do, and we’ll stay in place as long as nothing makes us move.”

He groaned, but shifted off.

Frankie looked at Jazz and said, “Time, Jazz,
we don’t have any.”

“Have you had another vision?”

“Not really. Tis m’gut. I think we are standing on something, right here, right under us. I can feel them… something sizzling just beneath m’feet. And Jazz, I see
blue
…blue everywhere. Am I going mad?”

“Blue? Huh,” Jazz bit her bottom lip and looked around and then looked at her feet and gasped, “Yes, beneath us…I see blue. 
Good Golly Sweet Molly
.”

“Ye see it too, don’t ye? I’m right,” Frankie said.

“Yes, I see blue moving, busy at something…and I feel a pulse just below, no, not a pulse, a beat, a ticking…” Jazz’s voice was up a notch.

Dread flowed through Frankie as she said, “Not Unseelie, but Otherworldly, Jazz, oh,  Jazz, I can feel their excitement. They have done something that has them excited.”

“Demons!” said Trevor as he returned. “Blue Demons. I have never encountered one, and we Fae can’t see past their Glamour, or invisibility, but Danté and Breslyn have encountered them, and what is more, Breslyn says a large colony of them happen to inhabit Conglam where Pestale is imprisoned.

“They have done something right below us, Trevor,” Frankie said, “But I can nea figure jest what it is, oh but,” Her Irish accent was heavy now, thick with brogue. “We must act now.”

He frowned, “Right then, so we shall. Going to see if I can ferret them out,” he said and immediately shifted off.

Jazz reached out her slender hand to stop him, and called out worriedly, “But…?” She pulled a face as he was already gone but she still asked, “How can you ferret them out if you can’t see them?”

“He’ll be fine,” Frankie reassured her. “They are already gone, I know that for certain, though don’t be asking me how I know, I just do, but Jazz…whatever it is that I have been afraid of is about to happen.” She began traversing the grassy square in front of the ancient library, studying the ground with desperate intensity.

“Frankie, I can hear something ticking right below us,” Jazz said doubtfully.

“The tunnels! Of course,” said Frankie remembering the legends told when she was a child. “I know all about them. Da took me through them in m’mind when he knew I had decided to go to Trinity.
Bless ye, Da.”

Trevor returned in time to hear this and asked, “Yes, but Frankie, why would Blue Demons even come here? The atmosphere isn’t even suitable for them—it depletes their magic. And besides that, they have lived peacefully in Conglam for centuries.” Trevor took Jazz into an embrace and kissed her forehead, “Don’t go anywhere. I mean to try and overcome the block they put on their scent and track them and maybe get a fix on what they have done below.”

Again, he was off, with Jazz pulling a face and turning to Frankie who had gasped and grabbed her leather sleeve.

“Jazz, ye said something is ticking before. I hear it as well…and I know where it is.”

Dawning lit up Jazz’s face as she groaned, “Frankie…
it is a detonator.
I can see it in my mind.” She looked at all the young people walking to and fro and boomed out as hard and as loud as she could, “
BOMB
…get out of here,
there is a BOMB!”

Panic ensued and people began running in every direction. Frankie looked around and said, her voice filled with concern, “There is more than one, Jazz. They have set two, and she knew one of them was set to take out the Ancient Library!

With that, she shifted off, leaving Jazz trying to direct as many people away from the immediate area as she could.

* * *

Graely had hung back and watched Frankie and Jazz worriedly. He didn’t want to approach with Trevor coming and going. It would only upset the balance.

He heard their conversation and realization dawned on him. This was the first of Pestale’s steps. But why? And yes, the why of it mattered as it would lead to an answer to the question, to what end?

He leaned hard against the limestone building he had been propped up against, well out of Trevor’s view.

Then Jazz shouted
Bomb.

Of course, create a diversion, with total disregard for those that would be maimed and killed. He had not thought the Blue Demons were that sort, but evidently he had been wrong. They had justified the means in the pursuit of the end. Just what end had Pestale promised them?

He knew where Frankie had shifted and shifted there as well, reached out and grabbed hold of her arm, “
Frankie
,” he said softly.

“I can see it in my mind,” she said without preamble. “I can see it, help me find it Graely.”

“You could be killed. If the bomb severs your head from your body, you could be killed,” was all he could think and all he could say.

“Eweee, Graely!” she grinned at him.

“Frankie, why can’t you be serious? You are always throwing yourself headlong into everything without thinking!” he countered.

“Well, what are the odds of my head being blown off?” She laughed and added before he could answer, “No, don’t answer that…” she yanked on his hand, “Just help me find the bombs, Graely because there are two, and I have a notion one of them is set to blow up the Ancient Library.”

He scanned their damp dark surroundings. Torches had been left lit by the Blue Demons and he followed the scent to where it was strongest.

Frankie saw him and then suddenly rushed past him. He couldn’t see past the demon magic, but he realized that she could.

He watched as she bit her lip and pointed, saying, “There, Graely…right under the library.  It will blow it to pieces, it will.”

He jumped between her and the ticking bomb as he used his powers and peeled away the layers of magic that hid it from his immediate view. Demon magic was no match for his own.

Hurriedly he shoved her out of the way and ignored her when she chastised him. Standing straight and tall, he knew he had to act quickly because the bomb was about to go off.

In arcane Danu words, he recited the spell he had learned so many thousands of years ago when the Dark King had still taken an interest in him.

He knew he couldn’t diffuse it in time, but he could and did send it off far above and where it would do no harm.

“Graely,” Frankie breathed as she flung herself at him and wrapped her arms as best she could around him and rested her face against his middle. “Ye be brilliant, do ye know how brilliant?”

He couldn’t stop himself as he held her close, for a moment he told himself, just for a moment, to let her delicious scent waft through his senses, to feel her precious body close to his.

He gently held her shoulders and made himself stand apart and thought it was one of the hardest things he would ever do, he would keep himself apart from her.

“We aren’t done, Frankie,” his voice was low and husky in spite of the gravity of the situation, in spite of the determination to keep her at arms’ length. “As you believe, there is another one we have to find.”

She stood silent for a moment, “Aye, I know, Graely…but the other bomb…it isn’t active yet. We might yet be in time.”

“Do you know where it is?”

“No, but I know, it isn’t down here. Everything went quiet. I don’t hear any ticking in the tunnels.”

“Frankie, I don’t know what to do with you. If I hadn’t been here, you would have thrown yourself on that bomb, I know it. You would have died,” he said in a voice fraught with frustration and horror.

“I’m not a fool, Graely. I wouldn’t die for nothing. I would have thought of sending it off…” she grinned sheepishly. “Eventually.”

“Not in time,” he answered roughly. “You don’t know how to save the day without throwing yourself into every danger!”

“Eh then, Graely, my Dark Prince, what I need is you to watch over me,” Frankie pursed her lips and wrinkled her nose at him, “Don’t ye think?”

He wanted to hug her. He wanted to kiss her luscious lips but he sucked in a long hard breath instead, “I know you, I know you would have thought of something but not without getting hurt.”

She batted her lashes at him, “Well then, thank goodness ye were with me. Never go off and leave me to m’own devices, and we shall do fine, won’t we?”

His dark eyes narrowed. She was a minx, she was stubborn, she was impulsive and brave beyond measure and he would pine for her through all eternity because she would never be his, and he would always be hers.

He dropped his hold of her, and stepped back. She stepped forward, put her hands on his bare, muscular, tattooed chest and got on her tippy toes to kiss the hallow in his neck as she obviously couldn’t reach his lips.

“
Well
,
I don’t have time to take up this issue with ye now, Dark Prince of mine, and I am yers, and ye are mine, don’t be thinking otherwise and make a mess of this.” She sighed dramatically, “But I have to go and find the other bomb. Are ye coming?”

His voice was a strangled sound, “To the ends of the earth…”

Frankie arched a brow and shifted off. She shifted directly to Jazz.

Graely hung back, and she turned and made a motion for him to come closer but he stood his ground.

He watched Jazz direct everyone away from the common areas of the campus and he saw as Frankie scanned the immediate area. He could see she felt or heard something and he stood ready.