Whiplash (Through Time 2)

The answer came all at once and as a sure conclusion: the Dark Prince was hampered by some unknown. Hordly couldn’t do more than jump shift. Something had gone wrong with his skills in the transition from the Dark Realm into this past.

What held the Dark Prince lassoed and limited like that? When the Dark Prince used the Orb, a Relic Trevor was certain was a Seelie artifact, had something gone wrong?

Did the Orb not work quite the same for an Unseelie?

As these thoughts presented themselves in logical formation, he continued to follow and track. Suddenly, unexpectedly, he found that Hordly had decided to take a stand.

They were in an open field with a dark pine forest at Hordly’s back, and it was in this moment that Trevor decided this one was nothing like his brother Pestale, who was cunning and careful and who enlisted his black magic with purpose.

This one, this Dark Prince, vibrated with pure evil—enjoyed being evil, or so it appeared to Trevor as he looked into black, cold eyes. This one would make mistakes.

Hordly was an iceberg of unemotional purpose. He radiated disinterest towards all other beings, but what was worse, Trevor realized, what distinguished Hordly from Pestale, was this one, Hordly, enjoyed torturing and killing his victims.

Pestale had been a worthy opponent, but he had weaknesses that Hordly did not. Pestale killed for an end game. Hordly was just happy to kill. Hordly didn’t care about the long-term results. He enjoyed the moment. He enjoyed the chaos, but his brother, Pestale planned the chaos as a means to an end, he took no pleasure in it.

Jazmine Decker squirmed in the Dark Prince’s hold. Trevor’s fists clenched as he watched Hordly bend and put his lips to her throat.

And then Trevor was momentarily shocked.

This Dark Prince had fangs!

Another of the Dark King’s experiments gone more than wrong. Did the Dark Prince also have vampire tendencies?

Hordly nipped her, and Trevor winced to see her blood flow freely down her neck. Hordly then sneered and said, “You can’t be so stupid as to think I was doing more than playing with you, Seelie Prince.” Hordly licked her blood and then made a sound of pleasure before he bit again and made another wound.

Trevor watched her blood ooze out from four small wounds and then took a hasty step forward as Hordly continued to lick at the blood. He tried to maintain his composure and said, “Think what you will, jump shift as much as you have to, but know that in the end I will have your head severed from your body, Dark King be damned. Let her go, and we will talk, perhaps more reasonably.” Trevor put his hand up for his Death Sword, thankful once again that it automatically stayed within his sphere, going where he went.

“No, I think I will keep this one as hostage. I like the taste of her blood, so different than what I had in the Dark Realm, so different than the humans I have tasted thus far.” He ran a hand down her arm. “I want to study her and discover what it is that makes her immune to my Lianhan. Perhaps I will remove her brain for dissection. But first, I think I will use her pretty body … over and over, and when I am tired of her, I will drink her blood until she expires.” He sneered at Trevor. “Tell me, Seelie Prince—is she immune to you as well, or have you already bedded her?”

Trevor’s sword hand twitched, but if he shifted in while Hordly still held her, the Unseelie would shift off with her and perhaps do her harm before he could find them again. He had to find a way of getting her free of the Dark One for just a moment … just a moment, so he could move in.

All at once, and surprising both the Dark Prince and Trevor at the same time, the little Fios decided to demonstrate the consequences of making the mistake of underestimating her!

* * *

Jazz had been waiting for the right time; now that Trevor was near and would have her back, the time had come.

The two were obviously locked in a testosterone battle, and she could use that to her advantage. Neither one was aware of all the powers she possessed.

She was a Fios with ‘slamming’ power. She could take a Fae’s magic and redirect it back so it affected the Fae. She had been waiting for the best possible position and timing, and here it was. Trevor had his sword in hand, so all she had to do was utilize her own very special gift.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. She felt the Dark Prince pulsating with power, and she took that vibrating energy and created an electric current that pulsed with his dark magic. It turned into a ball of electricity—white hot and loaded with evil, his evil—at his back. She waited for just the right moment and slammed him from behind. She knew he would never see it coming.

He was lifted off the ground, and as she ducked he was sent crashing into a huge oak tree more than thirty feet away.

She stood for a moment, amazed it had actually worked. She had never used this magic before. Her mother had of course told her that she was a ‘slammer’ and had told her how to use it, but she had never tried it on a Fae for the fear of giving herself away. As she had never been in danger from a Fae, she had never had to. Well, now, she thought, silently patting herself on the back, not bad. This in turn made her grin as she said brightly, “Well, hot dayam!”

Trevor, with his Death Sword in hand, moved into action, but just as he spanned the distance, with his weapon pointed at the Dark Prince’s chest, Hordly was able to summon enough strength to jump shift away.

“Damn his soul to bloody damn hell!” Trevor shouted as he lost the prince to the winds.

“Let’s follow him,” suggested Jazz.

“So we shall, for he can’t get far, but we need a plan. Can’t just rush after him willy nilly. We have to put some cunning into this and out-think him.” He gazed at her, and their eyes met.

She felt a bolt of sensation sweep through her and tried to make light of what she was feeling by saying, “What?”

“You have power, little Fios,” he said with a touch of admiration. “That Fios I mentioned earlier—BJ, who is married to the Druid Daremont—she, too, is a slammer.”