Slamming (Through Time 3)

Jazz without thinking did as Ete asked, but before the ward was fully formed, a few of the clicking, drooling insect type creatures got through. They made their way to the avenue leaving a slimy residue in their wake, much like a slug does when it is on the move.

Some of the humans who were out doing their daily exercises and errands, stopped to do a double-take.

Jazz could see that some were smiling, and knew that they didn’t believe it was real. No doubt they thought they had stumbled upon a movie set. Those people never stood a chance. They were the first to be plowed down in a gory and bloody hunt.

Before Ete and the warriors were able to circle the first troop of monsters; a few more of the many limbed creatures got through. Jazz helplessly watched as the next set of humans fell in a splatter of blood.

Panic took over. People driving by in cars witnessed this with growing horror. In a flood of fear they drove recklessly and began colliding into one another.

For a moment Jazz felt overwhelmed by fury as she thought of the innocents who never stood a chance against the onslaught.

She raised her sword high. She wasn’t a trained warrior. She was a Seelie. And as Seelie all instincts came into play.

It occurred to her that it was odd to think what one could do when backed into that proverbial corner.

She smiled to think she held one of Trevor’s Lugh Death Swords in her hands, and jumped into the fray.

Slicing and dicing, blood and grueling guts flying as she emitted sounds without thinking, Ugh, ewe, ah, oh no, aah. She felt invincible as she took down spider after spider, roach after roach and then she saw it; a huge multi-colored beetle standing on two limbs while the others made thrashing movements in the air. The pinchers near what must be its face were working furiously as it had discovered a human woman holding an infant wrapped in a blanket, frozen with the look of horror on her face. The ugly Unseelie was closer to them than Jazz. Even if she shifted it would reach them before she could stop it, but she had to try.

Sword held ready, she shifted, and then stopped with utter amazement as she watched with disbelief. Dark Prince Graely, Pestale’s second brother, had been nearby. He could have hindered her movements but instead he jumped in to help. He swooped mother and babe into his arms and sat them down a distance away and commanded, “Run!”

His black eyes found hers and as his lids lowered, he was gone.

Jazz shook her head and said out loud, “What the hell?”

Before she knew it the infuriated beetle had noticed it’s meal was gone, and it had decided that she would now be its main course. He reached for her and his pinchers closed around her middle. She drove her sword into it and it fell over quite dead, but her blood was flowing freely. She backed up against the brick wall of the nearest building and collected herself.

She was Fae, she told herself. She would heal immediately if only her human would accept that.

The blood still flowed and she closed her eyes and repeated, “I am Seelie Fae, and will heal.” A moment later, she found that this worked.

The bleeding stopped. The poison the monster had sent coursing through her was immediately struck with a Seelie Fae antidote and she grinned, “That’s more like it.”

Ete called out to her and she returned to the battle.

~*~

Trevor and his warriors were surprised to find the portal quiet at Edinburgh Castle.

It was an easy task for him to spell the dolmens, which effectually closed them down before he sent them to the Wasteland Dimension the Queens had prepared for their ‘resting place.’

As he turned and readied his warriors to return to Tir, he was hit with a wave of repulsion.

Unseelie, in Edinburgh.

They had not come through the portal.

Pestale meant to keep them guessing. He had sent in a small troop of twenty higher caste monsters who had the ability to shift.

This group

had several castes of different shapes, and sizes. Each caste had its own distinct way of feeding and they were already doing so at a speed that suggested their orders were to get in and get out.

Trevor and his Seelie fighters could hear the people screaming, horns honking and cars crashing. They looked at one another grimly before they shifted onto the scene.

What met their eyes was horrific.

Five Unseelie who appeared wraithlike, with skeletal features, had circled a number of women and were sucking the life out of them. They could see the light from their lives leave their bodies as the boney beasts absorbed their energy.