Chapter 17
785 Words
I GOT IN the shower for the second time that day and quickly rinsed off. Spike and Tony, just hang in there; I'm coming to get you. I imagined they could hear me, but then I felt a spark of panic. What if they were beyond hearing me? Would I be too late? I just took a six hour nap for chrisssakes. What was I thinking?
I reached up to rinse my head and felt a lump on the back of my skull that was painful to the touch. Oh. That's right. I knocked myself out. It's not like I chose to take a six hour nap. My guilt lessened by a tiny fraction. Once finished, I stepped out of the shower and toweled off, dressing in record time. I was gazing around my bedroom when Tim came over and landed on my chest of drawers.
"What're you looking for?" he asked.
"Backpack."
"What do you need a backpack for?"
"I don't know. We're going on a quest or whatever…" The dragon's words were floating through my head. Then I remembered how cranky she seemed. "Maybe I should pack some dragon snacks or something."
"You don't need a backpack, and you don't need dragon snacks, either. Come on." Tim flew over to the garden area and shouted. "Abby! We're leaving. Are you ready?"
I was surprised to see Tim's wife fly around the corner with traveling gear on that included a sword strapped to her hip.
"Are you serious?" I asked. I wasn't sure who I was addressing, Tim or Abby. I put my own weapons back on my body—a dragon fang and a knife that turns into a sword, yeah baby.
She ignored me. "Yes, I'm ready. Willy is going to meet us out in the meadow."
I shook my head at them. Either they were totally delusional or I had been gone a lot longer than I realized. How was it possible that Willy was out on his own like that…in public, where innocent fae might be wandering around?
Tim and Abby flew over to the door and hovered, waiting for me to open it.
I decided to occupy my mind with things other than their questionable parenting decisions. There was defi
nitely no lack of things for me to think about that were more important. First, I had to get the lowdown from Goose about what was going on in the Gray and how I could locate my friends in there. Then I had to actually go in and rescue their butts without getting maimed in the process. Yeah…there were just a few things on my mind more critical than a wayward pixie kid.
Halfway down the hallway, we were joined by Scrum who came jogging up from behind.
"Hey, man, what're you doing?" I asked.
"I think a better question would be what are you doing?" he said breathlessly.
"I'm going to go get Tony and Spike." I grinned big, hoping he'd buy the idea that it was no big deal. Yep…just going to saunter into the Gray, grab a couple dudes, and saunter out…as easy as falling asleep.
"That's what I thought. And that's what I'm doing too."
"I don't know if that's a good idea, Scrum." He could seriously complicate things by telling me I shouldn't do what I wanted to do because it was too dangerous. He was really good at that; he smelled danger like I smelled pixie toots—way too easily and way too frequently.
"Wherever you go, I go." He faced me, walking sideways rapidly to keep up with my hurried pace. "Jayne, please…I'm tired of being left in the background. I'm tired of running to catch up. I don't care what you say, I'm doing this with you, and I don't want to debate it with you anymore. Being a daemon is more than my job; it's my life, and my place is with you."
Maybe I should have argued with him a little harder, but it felt good to have that strong daemon by my side. His heart was pure, and so were his intentions. I just didn't want him to get hurt. "It's going to be dangerous, though."
"Danger is my middle name." He almost tripped as he went from side jogging to facing forward again. He caught himself with a hand on the wall and bounced back into position, swinging his arms as he walked fast next to me.
I burst out laughing at his lack of coordination and his bravado. It was so unlike him to brag like that. "Scrum Dangerous Daemon. I like it."
- Writer
