I spin in a circle and am ready and waiting. Cole rushes to catch up and soon we are all crammed into two limos on the way to the airport. Everybody, except me, is looking rather nervous about getting on this flight and I don’t blame them after what happened last time we were all assembled here.
“Relax, everybody. I have a fairly good handle on the jumping. We should be fine,” I say as we all tentatively sit down and stare at each other.
“Don’t pick a fight with me,” CK says, sitting down opposite me.
“Don’t test my patience then,” I say, avoiding Sebastian’s gaze as he sits next to CK. Devon chooses to sit with Jess behind us on the sofa seats, which makes me flick my gaze over to Sebastian. He is frowning at them but adjusts his features when he senses my eyes on him.
“I think I do that unintentionally,” CK says dryly. “Christ knows, I don’t do it on purpose.” Everyone chuckles and relaxes a bit. Except me. I am still reeling over the news from last night’s visit, along with the disturbing dream I had. I peer at CK closely now for any signs of subterfuge and he looks back at me questioningly. I smile at him as I see nothing but then I wouldn’t, of course, as he invented the poker face and, flicking my gaze back to Sebastian, he wasn’t far behind in picking it up.
“Paranoid!” my brain suddenly yells at me and I actually jump a bit to Cole’s surprise.
“You okay?”
“Err, yes, fine,” I mutter. “Tired. Would you mind if I went to sleep for an hour?”
“No, of course not, my love,” he says and gives me a gigantic kiss before he lets me go.
“Wake me in a bit?” I say and he nods.
I get up and go to the bedroom, vaguely remembering that, despite Ramon being at my beck and call, I didn’t call.
“Xane? Can I have you a minute?” I murmur as I walk past him.
“Yeah, want to suck on my energy?” he says with a cheeky grin.
I laugh. “If you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t mind you feeding THE DRAGON WAY!” he says at the top of his voice and I shake my head at him.
“You are all a bunch of fools,” I say as I see CK’s face fall.
I close the door behind us, and he says, “So when are we going to make love again? I can’t hold out much longer. I need you.”
I take his hands in mine. “Xane. I love having you around, but we can’t be together like that. I’ve told you.”
“And I have told you, I love you. But I like that you love having me around.”
I close my eyes and pull on his energy. I feel it enter me and I relax. Things don’t seem so bad now. “Can I ask you something? Something that you will keep between just us?”
“Of course,” he says stepping closer. “I love having secrets with you.”
“What can you tell me about the Faerie?”
“Faerie? Why do you want to know? They don’t fall under your rule,” he says with a slight furrow to his brow.
“I know. That’s why I am curious,” I lie.
“Oh, well I don’t know much,” he says, sitting on the bed a
nd pulling me down with him. “I know they are split into two ‘groups’, I suppose is the word. Light and Dark. Each has their own King.”
“What does that mean, Light and Dark? Are they separate species?”
“Yes. Same race, Separate species. All I can tell you is that they choose to use their powers in different ways, for different gain. Both equally powerful but as the names suggest…” He holds his hands up.
“Oh. They are not fond of Dragons?”
“No.” He squints at me and asks, “Where is all this coming from?”