Six Guardians of the Underworld

Chapter 7

Well, as you know, we were fighting Godless evil in the Overworld, all of our crew who were unfortunate enough to be born without wings riding dragons and being awesome. Although we held our own for a while there, the tide started to turn on us when we were suddenly outnumbered. Not to be an alarmist, but things were not looking good for us. Those demons were pretty stabby." He paused, and I glanced down to see him frowning in contemplation. "…And very good at being stabby, now that I think about it," he continued. "I mean, props for that. If you're going to be all about jabbing people with pointy objects as a career choice, you should be good at it. And they were, for sure."

I sighed. He wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know.

He glared at me. "Listen, lady, I can read your thoughts like they're happening in my own head. Don't rush me. This is a process."

I went back to staring at the mirror, preparing myself for his grand finale that was hopefully going to be delivered sometime this week.

"So…then…just when everything was looking pretty hopeless…I mean, even I, despite being the superhero that I am, was starting to wonder if we had a snowball's chance in hell of surviving that nightmare, when—Whammo!—Jayne Sparks Blackthorn, our Mother and elemental extraordinaire, along with her badass dragon companion Biad, swooped in and saved the day."

He sighed. I couldn't tell if it was happiness or just reliving the experience that had him pausing to think about it for a moment before he continued. "For a while there, I didn't know where I was. After the mighty explosion, we were surrounded by a green light, fire, possibly some brimstone, water, air, and then something else. General consensus is that it was Spirit that entered the mix at the end, coming in there like a giant broom to sweep everything out." He sighed again, this time sadly. "A lot of us were unceremoniously dumped outside the compound—a fine load of thanks we got for killing off all those demons—and the others…well…they didn't show up for a while."

He stopped talking and I waited for him to continue, but he didn't. I finally looked down at him, finding it hard to see; the tears that had filled my eyes were getting in the way. "Just tell me the rest of it."

"I am. Don't rush me." He looked frustrated. "I've sat with the Council for days now, and we spent the majority of that time trying to piece things together, but it's not all there yet. There are big holes in the story."

"Just tell me what you know. Maybe I can fill in some of those blanks."

He nodded. "Okay, so where was I? Oh, yeah…getting dumped outside the compound like unwanted trash. Anyway, Tony and Spike were not in the group that was dumped outside the compound like leftover cafeteria waste." Clearly, he was miffed about being in that category, but from where I was standing, it seemed to be the better of the two options: dropped off outside the compound doors or missing in action…

I gripped the edge of the sink waiting for the rest of the bad news to hit me.

"Of course we launched an investigation immediately. I mean, as soon as we were able to get on our feet, which only took about two days."

"They're dead, aren't they?" A sob burst out of me and my hand flew up to slap itself over my mouth. I was either trying to hold in the sound or keep the vomit down in my stomach where it belonged. Maybe both. I'd never felt so sad and so sick in my life. I bent over, resting my forehead on the sink's edge. My ears were hot and my heart was pounding painfully in my chest.

"No! They're not dead!" He started waving his hands all around, flying down near my face so I could see him. "Don't even say that. Talk about bad juju."

I wasn't brave enough to pull my hand away from my mouth, but I was able to stop crying long enough to turn my head and look at my roommate. "Explain yourself," I whispered, slowly lifting my body to stand nearly straight. I left my fingertips on my lips, just in case.

He held his hands out slightly to the side, like he was about to start tap dancing. "Okay, so we're not exactly sure what's going on, but we're fairly certain they're not dead. I mean, not dead dead like they were killed or anything, at least."

Yeah—he was definitely tap dancing. "That was about as clear as mud, Tim. Try again." I dropped my hand to the edge of the sink and held on tightly.

"I know. Don't rush me, I said. Geez." He ran his fingers through his hair several times until it was sticking out all over the place. "I still have to sort it out in my head. The Council members did a lot of talking, and some of their theories were complicated, so my memories are jumbled together—what actually happened, what might have happened—argh." He started pacing back and forth on the edge of the sink. A couple times his fluttering wings pulled him up into the air and then set him down gently onto his tiptoes as they slowed. I don't think he was even aware it was happening because his feet kept moving the entire time.

Tim looked up at me. "You know we have another wrathe with us now, right?"

"The only other wrathes I know of besides Tony are Leck and Goose," I said pulling my hand away from my mouth.

"No, not Goose. I'm not talking about him. Goose is missing in action. Or he spends a lot of time out in the woods and he's hard to contact. Whatever. Not him."

If Tim tried to tell me that Leck had suddenly turned into a good fae and was helping everybody out, I wasn't going to believe it for a second, and furthermore, that crazyass pixie would be done as my roommate. And if he even suggested or hinted at the idea that Leck was the reason why Tony hadn't been waiting for me at the compound when I finally showed up a half hour ago or whatever, I was definitely going on a murderous rampage, and that wrathe asshole Leck was going to be right in the center of my crosshairs.

Tim frowned at me. "No, it's not Leck. Are you crazy? Don't even say his name in my presence or I'm liable to dust somebody. It's Brad. Brad Powers was his human name, which surprises me because when I heard that, I thought for sure he was going to end up being a witch or an ogre maybe, but whatever…the changeling amulet spoke, and now he's definitely a wrathe. I think he's a friend of yours, right?"

"Brad?" I leaned in closer to Tim, almost afraid to believe what I was hearing. "My enemy…errr…friend from school? The guy who saved me from the mental hospital? That Brad Powers?" I was ninety-nine percent sure there weren't two former humans named Brad Powers running around the compound, but I had to verify. Too many crazy things had happened in my life lately to take anything for granted.

"The v

ery same one, yes. Anyway, as you could probably guess, he's a total amateur, and he doesn't really know what the hell he's doing, but he sure is trying."

I had to smile at that, even though there were still tears running down my face. I let out a choked laugh. "He does give it his all, that's for sure. He sure rescued my sorry a*s. I have to tell you, that was one of the biggest shocks I have ever gotten in my life…the day he showed up in my past and told me he was there to break me out of that prison."

"So I gathered. He spent a lot of time confessing his sins when he got through the forest." Tim shook his head as he rolled his eyes. "Seriously. I felt like we should bring him to a church with a team of Catholic priests inside so he could hang out in a confession booth for about a week and let it all out with someone more qualified. It got awkward at the last Waypoint, trust me. I mean, yeah, you're supposed to speak your truth there, but not that much truth. Be glad you weren't there to hear it."

"They made him go through the obstacle course?"

"No. That's another crazy thing about your friend; he volunteered. They were going to waive the requirement, seeing as how he'd already learned all about the fae from Ben and had kind of been given the all-clear by you when you waved your elements all over the place in his presence and all…but when he heard that it was something you had gone through, he wasn't having it. He wanted to prove himself worthy. I'm not exactly sure who he was trying to prove it to, whether it was all of us or just you, but whatever. He made it through and all's well that ends well."

"And he's okay?"

"Yeah, he's okay. Kind of."

"What do you mean 'kind of'?" My hands went up to my mouth again. It seemed like I was living in a constant state of near nausea.

"His job, as soon as he got confirmed as a wrathe, has been to rescue people from the Gray."

"Rescue people?"

"Rescue fae, you know what I mean. The ones who got flung in there when Spirit swept up the joint. He's been going in and out ever since he made his change."

Exactly. And you know what happens to changelings when they go in and out of the Gray too much, right?"

"They get a taint on their souls." I remembered very clearly how sick Tony got. He’d needed double succubus sexy love to get healed. It was what had started his relationship with Felicia. It had also started a lot of arguments between her and her twin sister Theresa, but apparently they'd made up enough to work together with Brad. It probably had something to do with those muscles of his. They could be pretty convincing.

"Exactly. A taint that doesn't want to go away." Tim narrowed his eyes at me. "I can see the hamster running on that exercise wheel that powers your brain…and he looks like he's getting tired. Try to keep up, though, because there's more to this story."

"Shut up." I turned the water off and went back to looking at my reflection in the mirror. Nothing had improved on that score; I still looked way too old for my age. "I don't have a hamster powering my brain. I have a supercomputer in there, and it's running at full capacity." I figured maybe if I said it, it would be true. In actuality, it felt like I was two steps away from falling flat on my face with fatigue.

"Yeah. Okay. Anywho…as you saw outside your bedroom door, those succubi twins have been working overtime to keep Brad going."

I snorted. I couldn't help myself; Tim said it like they were all hating life when what they were actually doing was getting it on like Donkey Kong. It was a Barbie on Ken free-for-all. "I'm sure he's been tortured by the entire process. All that twin succubi love giving him nightmares? Please. I doubt it."

"You think you're joking, but you're not. I mean, not that I've been a beneficiary of the twins' healing powers before, but I've seen the end result, and let me tell you, it's not for the faint of heart."

That sobered me up a little. "So, is he okay or not?"

"I think he's going to be okay. He's really tough. And, boy, is he determined. I don't think I've ever met somebody who wanted to be fae more than he does."

"Not even Scrum?"