Through Time-Frankie (6 page)

She said nothing to this. It would all be useless.

Suddenly he took her hand and said intensely, “Essie, I’m worried.”

“Why?”

“A portal has been created near our colony.”

“What does it mean?” she asked looking into his eyes and finding a great deal of emotion there.

“Has he asked you to travel in the portal?” He put up his hand before she could answer, “Please, don’t bite my head off. I ask, because my pack…all the packs had a meeting last evening and are concerned. We had promised the Dark King and Crystal that we would report any such occurrence if we became aware of it. I have asked them to hold off trying to contact Crystal, until I spoke with you. I don’t want you caught in the middle of all of this.”

She put up her hand and touched his arm, “Darmon, you are too good to me. But, the Shapeshifters should stay out of this.”

He sighed heavily, “Essie…can’t you see, is it not obvious to you?”

“What?”

“
He is not for you
. He will
use you
for as long as he can, for as long as you are useful and then he will discard you.”

“You are wrong. You don’t know what you are talking about,” she snapped.

“But I do. Looking from the outside in, I see an Unseelie Prince who wants you because of what
you
can do
for him
, and Essie, I only want to do anything and everything
for you.”

There, he had finally said it. This was the moment she had been dreading. The odd thing was when he said these sweet, endearing words, her heart caved in on itself and she heard a word in her mind that insisted on repeating itself—
truth
. Something inside her wanted to move to him, touch him and erase his pain. She told herself she was probably only feeling sympathy for him. “I am committed to Pestale.” It was all she could say as her voice cracked with emotion.

“I know,” he answered softly. “Essie, Essie…he is no hero, he isn’t what you think you see…he will make you promises and break them the very next minute, but I,
I would
die for you.”

She couldn’t be angry with him. How could she be? She was sure he was wrong about Pestale, about the compulsion spell, and, he was so very dear. “I am sorry, Darmon. You are good to me, but…”

He hung his head and said softly, “I will look out for you always. No matter what happens,
I
will be there.” So saying, he shifted into his big silver tinged black wolf and loped away. He stopped to look back at her, put his head to the heavens and howled a mournful cry.

The sound was heard by his pack and each member picked up the howl, long and deeply beautiful because it held their concern for his sorrow.

She turned and shifted into wolf as it would be quicker. She had to get back to her house. She had things to do and needed to leave a note for her parents so they wouldn’t worry. For now Essie had made up her mind.

Chapter Seven

AH TRINITY
, FRANKIE thought with a sigh as she looked around. Am I really here?

She wore her human Glamour like a soft kid glove. It hid her Faeness, and her wings which were tucked in comfortably at her back. She had a sudden urge to spread them and fly over the university.

She stood staring at the historic college with awe, looking much like any of the other students, in blue jeans, a blue tank top and leather sandals.

Comfortable that no one could see either the Fae in her, or her tucked in wings, she was as happy as could be, just to stand and stare as the sun glowed over the campus.

A guy passing by gave her an appreciative look, winked and said “Enjoy it while ye can, who knows when it will be raining again!”

She laughed and nodded but hurried off because he had the ‘look’, as though he was about to approach her. She didn’t have time for that sort of thing—and she wasn’t interested in dating at the moment.

She was in Dublin, at the main entrance of Trinity, and could barely contain her excitement. She had dreamed of coming here and now, here she was, getting ready to set everything in place for her freshman year at college. Frankie wanted to be an archaeologist. 

She couldn’t believe how compact the university felt. As she walked toward the library, past the lovely green lawn of the square, she realized that the entrance to these buildings all looked inward, closeting it off from the hubbub of the city.

Well, she knew what she was going to do before anything else. She was going to head on over to view the Book of Kells.

She smiled as she looked up at the imposing historic building before her. Was she really here? She sighed pleasurably
, yes she was.

She looked around and wondered, as she often did, what Graely might be doing. Just what did he do when he wasn’t with her?

Was he always alone? Or did he have a ‘love interest’? A hunk like that couldn’t be a monk! This notion troubled her to the core, so she shoved it off. She wasn’t going to think about that right now. Right now, she was going to have a look at history.

She wasn’t supposed to meet up with Fiona O’Doul until later in the day. This would give her time to head on over to the apartment she was interested in leasing for her freshman year. She wanted to have a look at it before dragging Fiona from place to place. She had a feeling, it would be the one.

She had inquired after a roommate at the registrar’s office and left her email. Within hours, Fiona emailed her and they had hit it off online.

She would have to wear human Glamour all the time, but she was already used to doing just that. A voice at her back said with some excitement, “
Frankie?
Bless me, Frankie; ye look jest like yer picture. It is ye—isn’t that right?”

Frankie had turned and also immediately recognized the girl at once from the pictures she had sent. Fiona was a flaming redhead with blue eyes and freckles across her pert nose, “Fiona! Wow…what are the odds of our being here at the same moment?”

“Frankie, I knew ye at once, I did, but I will tell ye, yer picture doesn’t do ye justice…it doesn’t even begin to show all those lovely gold streaks in yer hair. Ooh, but I think I should do that with mine.”

Frankie laughed, “Thank ye, thank ye, but the same here, yer picture told me ye were a pretty thing, but Fiona, ye must have all the boys swooning, and ye don’t need any enhancement.  Yer hair is lovely.” Frankie said and pulled her bag over her shoulder.

Fiona grimaced, “Well, I don’t know about that. I do know the one lad I have given m’heart and soul to just won’t commit. So I’m willing to try anything new.” She laughed and asked, “Are ye going in to see the Kells?”

“Yes…are ye as well?”

“Most certainly, I am,” Fiona linked her arm through Frankie’s and Frankie was well pleased, thinking they were off to a very decent start.

* * *

Graely watched from another realm, and his eyes narrowed as the corner of his upper lip lifted. This flighty girl would be no help keeping his Frankie safe. In fact, he rather thought she might lead Frankie into trouble.

But, sooner or later, he would have to let go.

Frankie was already on her way to starting a new life, and she would forget about him. It was what he knew would always happen.

A sharp pain shot through him and his brows drew together.

Fiona laughed and patted Frankie’s shoulder. He scanned her making certain there was nothing Otherworldly about her—it was what he always did when Frankie met someone new. He found naught. Just an Irish lass, looking for fun. Didn’t he want his Frankie to have fun?

Yes, but…

A heavy sigh drowned out the rest of that thought. He was wicked, and beyond evil, because the truth was, he wanted to be a part of everything Frankie did. If she was going to have fun, he wanted to have fun with her. He had to get over it. He had to wish his Frankie a normal life without him.

It was a good thing that Frankie would have a roommate. At least Frankie would not be alone her first time out in the world.

It was time that he turned to the world around himself and found some genuine entertainment—
perhaps the Riviera?

He was a strong male Fae and needed some relief. Didn’t he?

He couldn’t spend his days and nights thinking of a slip of a female. Could he?

No
. What he needed was a dip in the Ocean, and then some fine beauty to console him, pleasure him, and make him forget what he was not entitled to have.

He could enjoy the company of a human woman without harming her. He had learned how to do that almost the first time he found himself seeking company.

Unlike his brothers, he had no wish to see a woman sexually enslaved. He never allowed his
Lian
to addict a human woman. He never allowed himself to lose control and hurt a frail human female. They were lovely creatures all, soft and willing, gentle of heart. He was proud that when a woman left his bed, she was sweetly pleasured and unharmed.

But when she left his bed, he found he had gotten the relief he needed, but nothing else. He still always felt empty, lost and alone.

These last few months he had been unable to bother with other females. They irritated him. None of them could measure up to what he wanted. None were Frankie.

That nonsense had to stop. Had he not been denying himself long enough? Yet, when he thought of relieving his angst and his sexual need with some stranger, he found his hands tearing through his hair.

This problem was serious. Why was it he could not take any other? He had in the past. Yet each time he looked at another woman lately, he imagined himself with Frankie and that filled him with rage at himself. He was wicked, so wicked to think of Frankie like that.  

Ah, but he had needs. He was a male with needs, and those needs were not evil, they were natural and it was not evil. He was not promised to Frankie; she was not promised to him and never would be.

Even as he shifted to the lovely French coastline, walked onto the pebbly sand and stood for a moment gazing at the lovely models already glancing his way, he suddenly felt forlorn and empty.

Graely couldn’t get his thoughts off the only female that moved him to feel.
Frankie, Frankie, Frankie
…I am a scoundrel, and you are an angel that will never be mine.

Chapter Eight

FRANKIE DIDN’T KNOW why she turned around, but she did, and just in time to see a movement. She made a face and said, “Worley, why are you following me?” She resituated herself on the cushioned chair and looked to see if a waitress was nearby.

“Well, as to that,” the Daoine Prince said as he sat beside her. “I thought I would surprise you at some point and take you to a human restaurant where we could have a pleasant meal, and talk…”

“Not happening today. Too much to do,” Frankie said.

“I am not going to take no for an answer,” he answered glibly, took her arm, and suddenly she felt herself shift away with him.

All at once, they were in a pub, seated at a table with a checked tablecloth, with two mugs of ale already in place.

Frankie was furious and hissed, “Who the hell do ye think ye are whisking m’off like that?” She wagged her finger at him, “I don’t take kindly to whisking. I was in a coffee shop of my choosing and for a reason.”

“I am a Royal Prince, and you are my subject.  You will go where I please.” he answered not at all perturbed though he frowned at her finger in his face.

“Are ye now? A Royal Prince, ye say? Well then, be that as it may, ye are nothing but someone I don’t wish to see. I’m telling ye roundly, in case ye don’t take hints, I am no subject of yers. In fact, I think Queen Mab would be surprised to hear ye calling any of her subjects, yer own. And in m’case,   I don’t answer to any Daoine other than m’da.”

“That is too bad. I had hoped to get off on a better start with you, because the time is coming when you will answer to me and most directly.”

“Do ye think so?” Frankie was agitated with him and about ready to leave before she did something rash like picking up one of the shepherd pies the waitress had placed before them on the table, and mashing it all over his face.

He tried another tactic saying with his hands open wide, “Why all this heat? Frankie, you must see that I am trying to show you that the future could be grand for the two of us. Changes are coming, and I want you to be with me when they do.”

She stood up, and said, “Enjoy yer ale.”

Suddenly she was hit with a dark blanket of power. It came from him and enveloped her and she knew at once, it wasn’t Daoine power. It felt like sorcery—
black sorcery
. Her eyebrow went up and then he made the mistake of ordering her, “Sit and do try and be polite for one moment.”

Frankie was no one to trifle with and most black magic did not work on her.

She had been trained to take on many types of dark magic and this little show of his was absurd, she thought. A blink and the dark magic he had used to hold her in place was blasted into black ash that fell at his feet. “Ye are looking fer trouble, Prince Worley of Westley, and I’m thinking that is not what ye want.”

A familiar voice screeched at that moment, “Frankie!”

Frankie looked up and waved, “I’ll be joining m’friend now,” she said to the prince and without looking back at him, she got to her feet and walked away. As she approached Fiona and steered her new friend out of the pub she wondered what had possessed a Daoine Prince to use Dark Magic.

It was all absurd and didn’t make any sense.

“Who was that hottie ye were with?” Fiona asked her eyes wide.

“A jerk, that’s who. Ye know Fiona, looks no matter how inviting, don’t replace character.”

“Oh so they tell me—‘tis what’s inside! I know, I know, but I’ll tell ye frankly lass,
his outside
could make me forget the rest.” She laughed brightly and Frankie shook her head but grinned broadly.

“Come on, let’s go somewhere else and get some coffee and then we’ll go together to check out the flat.”

“Are ye sure ye don’t want me to go talk to him fer ye?” Fiona teased.

Frankie laughed, “Ye are an incorrigible, ye are. Come on, we’ll get something to eat down the road.”

It was only two hours later, when they signed the papers leasing the flat they had decided to share for the next semester.

Fiona said it was cause for celebration and celebrating meant shopping. They spent a laughter filled afternoon doing just that, before they went to off Harcourt Street and enjoyed a leisurely dinner at a lively pub.

The sun was down and the evening had begun. Music on the street drew them outdoors as soon as they had paid the bill and it wasn’t long before they were strolling leisurely into a nightclub to enjoy ‘all the crac’.

Frankie wasn’t much on alcohol, but she put down a couple of light beers, danced with Fiona, and with a couple of nice guys that cut in on them.

It was getting late, and Frankie turned to tell Fiona that she was off for her hotel. She looked around the crowded nightclub which was difficult as she could scarcely move. Fiona was nowhere to be seen. She peeked in at the ladies room and frowned to find still no sign of her. As Frankie turned, a large, very drunk fellow pushed her against the wall and grinned idiotically.

Two of his friends joined him, and stretched out their arms, placing their palms on the wall on either side of her head, effectively closeting her.

If she were a human, she would have been nervous. As it was, she was mildly annoyed.

They weren’t pleasant, and in fact, Frankie took exception to their manhandling with some of her own.

She stomped on the booted foot of the initial aggressor so that he whelped with pain and jumped in place on one foot while holding the other and nearly fell into the crowd at his back. Frankie laughed and then shoved the first guy on her right into the crowd and would have done the same to the guy on the left if the first one hadn’t come back at her, grabbed the top of her tank top and slammed her into the wall.

She could not see past them and knew no one could really see her with these tall sturdy jerks around her. With a blink she could make them drop and no one would be the wiser. The crowd would just think they had passed out.

The husky leering one leaned in closer to her and slurred, “Well lass, I see ye aren’t looking fer company, are ye?” He shrugged. “But, ye are going to have it whether ye want it or not.”

“Really?
I’ll give ye just one warning and tell ye it would be best if ye stand aside and let me pass,” Frankie said on a hard note. She didn’t want to make a scene. She wasn’t seriously concerned about this situation. They were drunk. She could fell them with a flick of her wrist, and shift out. When they came  to, they could think whatever they wanted to think. However, she wasn’t ready to leave the club yet--she was worried about Fiona, who had seemed more than a little tipsy when they had gotten separated. She just couldn’t leave without knowing her friend was okay.

“Kiss her,” taunted the blond drunk on her right, “Go on, Josh, and kiss her. She says she doesn’t want us, but kiss her and see if she means it.”

“Right then, pretty lass, be nice and give us a kiss,” Josh said as he swayed, while his friends pushed at him. He fell onto Frankie and with a slight blink he found himself falling backward and into a crush of people. He looked shocked as he stumbled and accused, “The little bitch pushed me—nearly knocked me over!”

“I’ll be doing more than pushing ye, if ye don’t stand aside,” Frankie threatened, seriously irritated now.

The guy on her left grabbed her arm, “Will ye now, think on it before ye try…”

This was upsetting. She could easily get away, but what about some poor young woman that couldn’t?  These guys needed a lesson.

She liked teaching lessons.

She was supposed to keep a low profile, but the crowd was too busy dancing, and drinking to notice one little lass, doing just a bit of magic now, right?

She could hear Jazz in her head saying, just shift out. No one would notice if she just vanished and if they did, they would put it to a ‘trick of the eye’.

But why should she have to leave and cut her evening short?

Aye, then, she did not. Although she did not want to stand out too much, become a subject of conversation, have anyone look too closely too long, she wasn’t going to run and let these hooligans win. She had to do something to make these awful men think twice before they chose to accost a woman again.

Her mind was all jumbled up with doubt and irritation and concern for Fiona as she came to a decision and stared hard at the creeps surrounding her. 

And then…

She felt the air shift.

How had he known? Had he sensed she was in a bind?

Had she called out to him without realizing it? Had he felt a disturbance in her psyche? She
had
been really annoyed, quite thoroughly upset and she knew because he had once explained that sometimes he could
feel
her moods.

He must have felt something rise up in her, that dark glitter forever at the surface, beating time.

All at once,
Graely stood not twenty feet away looking like a superstar.

His black hair fell in layered waves around his too beautiful face. He wore a black silk shirt, opened just enough to show part of his tattoo. He wore black silk pants, with a leather belt sporting a silver buckle, and silver tipped Gucci boots. To say that he stood out in this crowd would be like saying the Wolverine looked like pussy cat. Graely had everyone’s attention, even the band’s playing slowed to the hum of the amplifiers.

All eyes were on him because he stood out and above them all. Graely was magnificent. She could feel the electricity in the air. She could see that no one doubted that he was beyond capable, beyond hot,
beyond angry.

His eyes burned with fury and Frankie saw the flames reaching in his coal dark eyes—reaching out, ready to strike.

People fell over themselves to get out of his way, sure that Frankie must be his ‘girl’ and that the blokes bothering her were blithering idiots that were about to be destroyed.

He strode purposely, he moved with grace and emitted an unmistakable scent—one that spelled out ‘you are dead’ to the young men surrounding her.

All three had a sudden revelation as they stared with shock and frightened expressions.  They weren’t leering any longer.

Graely took the two guys who had stood on either side of her and held them up in the air by their shirt collars. Frankie called out, “Graely—don’t kill them…don’t…”

She watched and knew his body trembled with the effort to restrain himself as he knocked their heads one against the other, and allowed them to slither to the well worn and dirty wooden floor.

The remaining fellow named Josh stared with abject fear and misery before he actually made an attempt to escape. Graely growled as he picked him up by his neck, just under his chin, and pointed him toward the middle of the room, where a great number of people scampered to get out of the way, sure of what was coming.

Again Frankie, touched his arm, and seemed to assuage him and the force he was about to unleash on the hapless man. He threw him, he threw him hard, but she saw that he had managed to restrain the force he used.  

They watched Josh land with a thump, a very hard thump on the hardwood floor. Frankie knew the guy would be bruised, really bruised, but at least not dead from his hard landing.

An uproar broke out before laughter and cheering resounded in the huge room and all around the bar. Clapping started and Graely frowned as he turned to Frankie and said, “Humans are mad, you know. Completely and utterly mad.”

She laughed and as the band grinned at them and then at each other before resuming, she called out the name of a Lady Antebellum ballad. They nodded, looked well pleased and began pelting out the words to, “Need You Now.”

Graely however, had made up his mind, picked Frankie up as though she were a child, cradle-like and began walking toward the exit.

“No, Graely, I can’t go. I have to wait for m’new friend, Fiona.” She didn’t mind his man-handling, and in fact, found that she enjoyed being in his arms so much, she wasn’t sure she wanted him to set her on her feet.

He, however, did just that and said, “You are a sore trial, Frankie,” he looked around, “Find her then, because I am taking you back to the Highlands, to Jazmine Decker. This place is
not for you
.”

“Well, she must be here somewhere, but while I wait for her, Graely, would ye dance with me? Would ye then? Would ye make this night better for me? If I have to go home, would ye not, give me a dance, and
not
let those curs ruin m’night?” Frankie said as she swayed to the soft music, singing the words to the inviting music, and telling him, again,  “Dance with me, Graely.”

“No, Frankie.” He frowned and she could see he was torn. He wanted to say yes.

She beat a path to that yes hanging at the tip of his tongue, determined to pull it out. “Ah but do ye mean to disappoint me, Graely?” She looked up into his eyes and saw the moment he caved and took advantage of it. Shoving herself against him and putting her hands up his chest close to his shoulders. “Just this
one
dance.”

“Right, just one dance,” he said low and sweetly, but she heard the huskiness in his voice and smiled to herself.

She knew what she was doing as she pressed herself against him. She knew that his body was responding to hers against his will. Why did he fight this? Why couldn’t he see that they were meant to be? She looked up to find his eyes burning with hunger, and her heart began to flutter.