Spring Fever

Chapter 1

"Drop your sword Dani" I say, with only the tip of my spear at her back.

"Yeah, right, like I'm actually fallin for this" she throws over her shoulder mockingly

I can tell she's trying to freeze frame but nothing seems to be happening, I wonder if she has depleted all the candy bars in the area and can't get herself going? But that doesn't matter, we have unfinished business, I've waited too long.

"I said drop your fucking sword!" I've got to be forceful, it's the only language she understands and the only way she'll take me seriously. The last time I saw her, we had both been devastated by my discovery, my sister's killer had finally been revealed, I was ready to kill Dani, and my mind was set. I had to kill her, I had to do it for Alina, for Mom and Dad, for myself, but what Barrons said to me made too much sense "can you live without her. You kill her, you snuff her life forever. Dani will never be again. At fourteen she'll be done. She had her chances, she fucked up, and she lost. Are you ready to be her judge, jury and executioner? Death for Dani is irrevocable." Now I find myself desperate to talk to her.

"watcha got up ya sleeve Mac, dontcha do this, ya know I'm faster." She says with her head turning to the side so she can see me thru her periphery.

"I'm not here to kill you Dani, I just want to talk to you" – what the feck! Just like that, a new, unidentified winged unseelie comes swooping down and knocks us both over, we scramble to our feet and realize there are about twelve more of them, before we know it, I'm nulling and were stabbing them, fighting back to back. As Dani would say "like two peas in a mega pod", it feels so natural, and we picked up right where we left off.

The creatures kept on coming at us, but we managed to get every one of them. They looked almost like the grey woman, with grey skin and puss balls and sores oozing, with thin faces but much shorter and with small wings, like the flying monkeys form the Wizard of Oz, but somehow their faces and mannerisms seemed a bit more…human? Nothing like the ones coming out of that dolman that day at 1247 LaRue. It looks like we made some headway in the killing department, I just wish I know what the hell those things were!

"Ok, Dani, we can either look for some more of those fly guys or get the hell out of here and have that talk, what's it gonna be?"

"Mac, I aint got no intention a dyin tonight, and I don't want to be killin ya either, ya got every right to want my ass on a slab, butcha gotta believe me when I tell ya, Roe had a way of makin –

"- Dani, I know…I know what you did and why you did it, I know you were forced. Don't get me wrong, my first instinct was to immediately come after you and kill you. It was one of the hardest nights of my life, trying to decide what to do, I felt if I didn't kill you it would be a slap in the face to Alina, hell it was my whole reason for coming here in the first place". to find my sister's murderer

"so I recon ya changed your mind?" she says in disbelief

"Yes Dani, somewhere along the way you became like a sister to me, and I won't lose another one! I know this is what Alina would have wanted"

"GAHH, why didja havta get all mushy on me Mac? Geez, I just wanted to make sure I could trust ya dude!"

"Don't dude me Danielle"

"Good to have ya back Mac" just like that

God I missed this kid. It was just like old times; all blood and gut covered as we walked and talked for the next couple of hours and played catch up. I was grateful to find out that all of this god forsaken ice should be melting soon thanks to her and Ryodan, mostly; I'm so ready for spring. I went on to tell her about my Mom's advances on making everything "green" again, we exchanged our thoughts about knowing that Barrons and the nine cant die, with the exception of K'Vruck, but I don't even want to think about that. The crimson hag taking Christian, her budding friendship with Lor, just walking and talking. We found ourselves close to the bookstore where we happened to run into Dancer, it was nice to finally meet him. Pink Mac, raised-in-the-south, is polite of course but, savage Mac is just not all that sure she trusts him.

Chapter 2

"I'm pleased you were finally able to make your peace with the kid, Miss Lane" Barrons says as he suggestively rubs himself against my bear petunia, always hard, always ready. God how did I ever not wake up next to this man, and what's with the Miss-Fecking-Lane again, ugh! He's just trying to get a rise out of me.

"Yes, it's a good thing I have a constant jackass in my life that gave me some pretty good advice for once, J-e-r-r-i-c-o" I purr and feel his lips curl up In a half smile against the back of my ear, then he nips me with his teeth. I turn around to face him; I see so much in his ancient eyes, things that I never thought I'd see, things besides lust, arrogance and power. I'm almost afraid to say I see love, gratitude and maybe even forever? Is this gorgeous, powerful, beast, my forever? "If you intend on being able to walk for the next few days, I suggest you stop thinking Mac, must I remind you that you wear your thoughts on your face? I'm all yours, same page, same bloody word"

In one motion, he grabs my hip with one hand and fists the back of my hair with the other, ravages my mouth and forces me on top of him. As I straddle him I take both his hands and raise them above his head and quickly get the leather cuffs secured. I take a long minute to marvel at the sex god I have trapped between my legs.

"Woman, your trying my patience, I –"

I immediately shut him up with my mouth and start sucking on his tongue, back and forth; I hear that rattling deep in his chest, while I'm mimicking the same motions with my hips. I release his mouth and move to his neck, alternating with my lips, tongue and teeth. I make my way down to his chest, then his stomach, oh yes the happy trail, then take him into my mouth, ummm breakfast is served. I love waking up this way; he's the fire to my ice, the ice to my fever.

I can't believe I was afraid and intimidated by this man; it scares me how deeply I care for him, my beast. At this point I can't picture my life without him, or this bookstore for that matter. Life is definitely not what I expected, but I sure as hell wouldn't change it for the world, except for Alina.

Later as were making our way over to Chester's in the Hummer, being there's still too much ice and snow. I remember to tell Barrons "me and Dani fought a new breed of unseelie last night"

"Why does it always take you so long to tell me the important things, describe them to be in detail!"

He listens intently and just as I suspected he's never seen or heard of them before.

"So where do you think these "fly guys" are coming from?" Do you think someone made another dolman, if so who's bringing them through or what if there coming thru the IFP's?"

"Aren't we question girl tonight? I seriously doubt your IFP theory holds water, they are tethered a great distance from here. I and my men made sure of it"

"Ok, so what about my dolman theory?"

"If there were any unseelie left in the prison, I assure you they would have made it here with no bloody difficulty after the walls collapsed, the need for a dolman would be obsolete"

Yeah, that makes sense "so what now?" I ask, no answer, how original.

We enter Chester's and it's the same, humans mingling with the unseelie, treating them as if there gods! What a bunch of fecking morons, and what's even more disturbing is that Ryodan is protecting them. System of the Down is singing about being fed with lies from the tablecloth. "Mac!" I hear Dani from across the room, I turn around and she's right in front of me "we got some talkin to do" she says while making goo goo eyes at Barrons, geez she's got it bad "what's up Dani". "Not here Mac, upstairs". The three of us make our way to the next level up, where we see Ryodan, Lor and two guys I've never seen before, but Barrons addresses them as Clive and Gage. I look at Dani and she knows I'm at a loss, she whispers my unspoken question "two more of the nine that sprung ya from the abbey." I could have guessed it, same builds, same clothes and same thick silver cuffs adorned their wrists. Clive turns to me and says "Mac, what a name for someone like you, I've heard a lot about you".

"Clive, a pleasure to meet you"

"I didn't recognize you with your clothes on, and believe me the pleasure was all mine" I kind of knew that was coming

"watch your fucking mouth Gage" Barrons says in his quietest and in my opinion most threatening voice as he pulls me to his side. I love that he's so protective but after what I've been thru, I don't need protecting, just saving, occasionally. "Me and Dani need to have a chat, I'll be right back" I whisper in his ear.

As we enter the next room she's immediately frantic… Dani doesn't get frantic.

Mac, we gotta problem, I saw more of those fly guys and they were flocking around the grey woman"

"wow, so there are more of them, huh?"

"Mac, pull yer head out, dontcha fecking get it, they belong to her, your deal with the devil…ya broke it! She'll come after ya!"

I'm speechless, after nothing but silence Dani continues.

"Mac, that aint the half of it, I been talkin to Joe, she says there fecking like rabbits on the fourth floor. I even saw a man and woman talkin to each other, minglin, ya know? But when I saw the girl from behind she had a tail and puss balls on the back of her shoulders. I noticed a buncha other stuff too…point is, there breeding Mac!"

The next words out of my mouth even surprised me "HOLEY FUCKING SHIT! We have to put a stop to this, immediately and there's only one way to dot it"

We look at each other and in unison; we whisper "destroy Chester's".

Chapter 3

The problem with a plan like this is, you can't go around telling just anybody and knowing who to trust in a game like this is a matter of life or death, literally. So it begins, who to trust, my dilemma is, can I tell Barrons, will he try and stop us, would he be able to keep this from Ryodan…NO, none of them can know! Who do we recruit for this plan, maybe Joe will spy, but Dani mentioned that she's in love with Ryodan, so that won't work. How do we take this massive structure down, a bomb, many bombs? According to Dani, Dancer is super smart; maybe he can concoct a bomb or several. She mentioned many floors beneath, this has to happen from the bottom up, the top floors just won't be enough to stop them. How do we get down there is the real question, none of us would be able to go down there undetected, trying to sneak would be idiotic to say the least, with all the cameras in his office, that's a big fat no! Me and Dani will have to brain storm. With no way to contact her, now I just have to wait until she comes by the bookstore.

It didn't take long, seems she was just as eager to get this party started as I am. I told her all the things I was going over and she agreed with most of it, including getting Dancer involved, but we're not telling him all the details. So the only question remains, how do we get down there "Ryodan let me down there when he needed help with the ice situation, we just gotta find other reasons for him to want me down there, aint gonna be easy ya know?"

"Yah, I know Dani, none of this is going to be, but I have a feeling this will be the hardest part"

"too bad I aint older, I coulda made him think I'm takin him down there to have his way with me, like he does with them other fecking skanks, ewww!"

"Dani, I would never let you do such a thing, your way too young and it's impossible."

"Yes, Mac, but what if it were possible, what if I was older, it would be the perfect plan, plus it will work, I think he likes me, he looks at me kinda funny sometimes, make me feel all nasty, like those skanky sheep, feckin BAAAA"

"listen to me, way too dangerous, he is so much stronger and faster than you, you would never get away with it without him actually having his way!"

"Mac, I don't give a shit, and I don't be needin any more convincin, this is the only way I'm getting down there, we just havta find some spell somewhere that'll make this happen"

The moment she said it, I knew it had to be the only way, and the first thing that came to mind was Fairy and all the time that I'd lost, but V'lane is gone, actually he was gone a long time ago, Cruce is frozen beneath the abbey, but he's the book now, and out of commission, or is he? Apparently he's been seducing the women of the abbey in their sleep, do we wake him to find the spell to make Dani older…out of the question, his price will be too high, oh and yeah, there's the whole "releasing the dark book" thing. "Mac?" Dani interrupts my train of thought "…Mac, we gonna do this? Cuz I got an idea" I put my hand up to quite her, I get up from my usual spot on the couch, get the fire going and grab us a couple of blankets, then sit back down. "K, I'm listening"

"Christian took me to the white mansion, I was in the library, I'm thinkin we could find a book that could help us"

"What are you saying, were going into the white mansion and hope that the king isn't there? He's back, remember? Plus I think he'll feel my presence, even if he's preoccupied with his new, found-again concubine"

"I aint sayin it's not risky, but what about this isn't? Maybe you can come with me just till the silvers, then I'll find the library myself, I done it before, I know where it is, plus I'm super-fast, remember?"

"Dani, I saw you other day, I didn't want to say anything but I could tell you were struggling, I know that you weren't able to freeze frame, what if it happens again?... this is a bad idea, we'll think of something else"

"NO MAC, this has to be it, this is the only way and you know it, if I'm gonna be older soon than you better start treatin me like it"

"Dani, if we do this, you will lose those years of your life, are you prepared to just bypass your teens, the experiences you haven't had yet, could you really give that up?" god I sound so much like Barrons, hmmm Barrons, I get delicious tingle just thinking about him…FOCUS MAC!

"I'm so feckin sick of being called "kid", especially by feckin Ryo, I ain't never been more ready…it's like I been made for this, I've always felt beyond my years anyway, Mac, I'm willin to deal with the loss of a few years, this is like savin-the-world shit"

"you need to really think this through, what about Dancer, if there was anything happening between you two, things will be different as well, what about Ryodan, what will be your excuse for all of a sudden being older?"

"I could tell them both, I got stuck in the silvers runnin away from you, ran in and within them I'd lost years, they do that ya know, sometimes the opposite, but it does happen. As far as Dancer, it aint like that Mac, were just hangin out that's all, no big"

"I don't like this one bit, but for now I guess it will have to do. Our first step is to find the spell, then talk to Dancer and find out how long it will take for him to create the "mega" bombs" Dani's face lights up when she hears the name I've come up with "then we'll turn you, but we'll have to hide you out somewhere for however long it takes for him to finish, so he'll be too busy to notice you were gone"

"K, well, gotta be at Chester's at 8:00. So I reckon tomorrow morning we'll be doin this, we look for the spell!"

And just like that, the decision was made, a really bad one, I'm no stranger to the saying 'hope strengthens, fear kills'.

Chapter 4

I hardly got any sleep, this super-stupid plan is making me crazy and I want to erase everything that was decided yesterday, hopefully Dani will come over and feel the same way, yeah right. I feel nauseous thinking if we don't do something that our world's population will be replenished by new breeds and half breeds of unseelie. Maybe Barrons is right, fuck this world, let just grab the ones we can't live without and start a new life in silver. Very tempting but I don't think so, not without my bookstore!

Barrons is gone for the day, which is unusual, ever since we laid his son to rest, he has barely left my side, I hate it when he's gone but today it comes in handy. Now I just have to wait for Dani and go through with our monstrously stupid plan. Sure enough she shows up and she's actually even more excited than yesterday, god I can't believe were actually going thru with this. We exit the bookstore thru the back way and make the left toward the alley where the entrance to the tabber is, we look around to make sure nobody is watching us and easily push into the brick. Once inside we see the mirrors and I'm about to lead Dani to the fourth one from the left and she's standing in front of a different one. "Dani, what are you doing, that's the wrong one, that won't take you into the mansion!"

"yes it will Mac, this is the mirror I'm sure of it"

"Please listen to me, I was in here with Darroc and again with Barrons and Fiona and this is definitely the one!"

"K, before ya go getting all big sister on me, I was here with Christian, he told me that he switched the mirrors, if it'll make ya feel better than just come in with me for a sec and check it out for yourself"

Well, she was right, we both went in, of course her transition was a lot more graceful than mine, being that they like to spit me out. The mansion is just as I remember it, I wish I could stay, I love the way I feel when I'm here, but the risk is too great now, so I have to let her do her thing.

"K, Dani, are you sure you'll be ok here, do you know exactly where the library is?

"Yeah Mac" she rolls her eyes " butcha gotta give me some time, don't worry about me, I know not to take the book out and I got my camera right here, I'll find the book, take a few pics and I'll be outta there"

And just like that, I was back thru the silver waiting for her, minutes seemed like hours, an hour seemed like days. I knew it would take long but it's been 2 ½ hours? Finally I spot two figures moving thru the silver, one of them is Dani, but the other is a dark figure, the closer it gets the more it looks like an unseelie prince. Christian and Dani walk thru the silver together and she's munching on a snicker bar, where the hell did she get that?

"Dani, what the hell are you doing with"-

-"ah MacKayla, we meet again, dontcha be tellin me ya didn't miss me lass, wuddaya been up to, destroying other peoples live are ya?"

"Why are you here Christian, how did you get away from the Crimson Hag?" I don't trust him because I know he blames me for what happened to him, meanwhile I saved his life, how the hell was I supposed to know this would happen to him?

"Dontcha be worrien bout her, she's taken care of, I been thru hell and back, made the ultimate sacrifice, but it was all worth it, I'm reunited with the love of my life." Dani doesn't seem surprised by his admission "by the way, you' re looking as pretty as ever, wish I could say the same for myself, you see, I've gone thru some changes thanks to you and that ancient asshole your fuckin. Oh lass, you've no idea how badly I want to break every mirror I see, I can't bear to look at myself. The woman I love… she can't bear to look at me either, so she hardly looks at me, and when those beautiful green eyes find mine eventually, she looks with fear and disgust, I'm thinkin I'll ever know what it's like to touch her, taste her lips, to run my fingers thru her beautiful red hair" when the hell did he fall in love with Dani "and all because of you two, how do you propose I be thankin ya?"

"Christian please, you know that was not my intention, I was trying to save your life, when I went thru that silver and saw you in that condition, I just couldn't bare it, feeding you that flesh was the only way I knew to keep you alive, can't you understand that I was just trying to help? What do you want from me, I tried, I really did, I even got you out of that hell of the icy prison and the kings silver, all my intentions were good, can't you hear the truth in that?"

"Oh yes lass, loud n clear, don't change a thing tho, I'm still this…FUCKIN MONSTER!" all the mirrors shook when he bellowed "you haven't seen the last o me, I'll by on my way ladies." Then he grabs Dani's hand and gives it a gentle kiss on the top of her knuckles and hands her a box of snickers, then he's gone.

"Dani…explain, what happened in there, is that why you took so long?" I sound more frantic than I want to let on.

"Everything is fine Mac, I just happened to run into him in the library, he was there lookin for some book, don't worry tho, I didn't tell him what we were up to. Man, he's got it out for ya, ya pissed him off something awful"

"K, enough about that, did you get the information we came for?"

"Yep, it's all right her" she pulls out the camera

Back in the bookstore were reading all the information she was able to capture on the camera, it all seems pretty easy, a little too easy, something this life changing should be a lot more difficult. Now, where are we going to hide her, maybe I could sneak her into the bookstore, my old room? No bad idea, Barrons will smell her, he's not stupid, she said she has some hideouts. She'll have to stay at one of them until we can figure this out.

After looting for the implements needed to carry out the spell, it was time to talk to Dancer. It took us three tries to find out which "hidey hole" he was hanging out at. This one was a few blocks north of the river Lafey. I still don't know if I trust him, but it has to be him, it has to be now. We enlighten him about the situation and he was on board with our plan to set off a series of explosions, starting from the ground up. We told him that access to the sub floors would not be easy so the bombs would have to be easily concealed, easily planted and near impossible to detect.

"I think it should be a powder form, something that resembles dust or dirt." Dancer sais after taking a long moment without saying a word "in that form, you'll be able to apply it to any surface, with merely a touch of your hand. I'll have to make it fine enough where it can't be detected but large enough they won't leave prints"

"That's a brilliant idea Dancer, how long do you think it will take for you to put this together?" wow, he really is super smart.

"Well, I'll need a few days to "shop" for ingredients, then start building and I'll require a period of testing, away from the city as not to attract attention, I'm thinking three weeks should do it" he pulls off his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose, anticipating the stress of the days to come.

"Are you sure you want to be doing this, ya don't have to ya know?" Its touching to hear the concern in Dani's voice.

"Don't be silly Mega, I know you'd do the same for me, don't start getting all mushy on me, now lemme get to work."

Just like that, we were out of there. Now it was time to get Dani transformed, we had three weeks to change her physically and mentally. Who knew if Ryodan would take the bait? What if he saw right through the plan, how stupid of us to assume "assume' makes an 'ass out of 'u' and 'me'". The more time I'm given to think about this, the more it scared the shit out of me. But the wheels are already in motion now, Dancer knows and is starting to work as we speak…it's time!

Chapter 5

We returned to the bookstore to collect everything for the ritual. We couldn't do it at the bookstore, Barrons would know, he would sense it somehow, I couldn't risk it. We went to one of Dani's hidey holes and got started.

"Dani, I need to ask you one last time, are. You. Sure. You want to do this?" I took a deep breath for each word to emphasize my reluctance.

"never been more ready, Mac." She rolls her eyes and lets out a groan of exasperation "born for this, remember? Now, enough with the fecking bullshit!" hum, the extreme willingness to seduce Ryodan has me worried, could she possibly have a thing for him? ugh, I don't even want to think about it.

We mixed the ingredients, she recited the passages, and drank the potion, she didn't even hesitate. It took just a few minutes for her to start reacting, for a second we started second guessing ourselves when we thought nothing was happening.

"Mac! My head…its hurtin something awful" she's got both her hands on either side of her skull and her face is scrunched up in agony. It reminds me of the days as an OOP detector, chasing the Sinsar Dubh, how badly it battered me, I thought being stabbed in the head would be less painful, I only hope what she's feeling isn't half as bad as that.

I laid her down on the couch to try and make the transition more comfortable, but no matter what I did, it wasn't going to be. "Dani, just try and take deep breaths, try and concentrate on something else" not knowing what to say.

"Ya mean concentrate on something other than the million bombs goin off in my head and body all at once, good plan ya fecking dumb ass!"

"Just hang in there, it will be over soon" truth was, I had no idea how long it would take, I only hope that the torture wouldn't last too long, I can't bear to see her this way, she's always so strong.

As I'm watching her I can see her stretch and grow, skin ripping then regenerating, it's really, truly, working. Finally, it looks as though the pain is leaving her face and she sits up, I'm faced with a breathtakingly gorgeous woman, she looks about twenty three. All her tom-boyish attributes, gone, her facial features more striking and defined, freckles less prominent, piercing green eyes accentuated by a long flowing mane of red hair. She tries to stand up but stumbles a little, she succeeds the second time. She's about my height but thinner and less curvy, she is a total knock out. Ryodan is going to bust his zipper when he sees her!

"Well, wuddya lookin at? Cat gotcha fecking tongue, did it happen or what?

"Oh, it happened all right, let's get you to a mirror" I finally say, after closing my mouth and blinking for the first time in minutes.

She stares at herself, dumbfounded, touching her face, looking at her hands in awe. If I'm not mistaken she looks completely happy.

"Holy shit Mac, I'm not a kid anymore, this is the most amazin thing that's ever happened to me. I'm FINALLLY not a kid anymore, nobody will ever call me kid again!"

"you know I 've always thought you were pretty, but now, you'll have to beat them away with a stick!" we burst into a fit of giggles, which is so not like Dani. I feel a twinge of pain as I remember me and Alina used to giggle together all the time. "time to get you some clothes, you'll have to stay here, your officially in hiding for the next three weeks"

In that time, I'll try and spend as much time with Dani as possible. What's hard is keeping it from Barrons, trying to evade his questions is one thing, if I had to lie, I'm just not sure I could pull it off.

Sitting on the kitchen island, he comes towards me, parts my knees so he's standing between them with his hands on my waist, I can feel tension radiating from him.

"Any idea where that kid is? Ryodan's been searching for her like a mad man, she never showed up tonight and he's driving me bugfuck!"

"I saw her earlier today, sure" god, don't blow it Mac!.

"well could you tell her, her presence is…demanded at Chester's, apparently she is in breach of a contract, he doesn't take too kindly to being given the shaft, I won't be able to protect her or Joe if he decides to enforce it"

"k, I'll tell her, if I see her" try to sound breezy Mac

"Is there something your failing to tell me, Mac? Before you answer, need I remind you I rarely sense things that aren't there." How did I think I could get away with this, did I forget how attuned we are to each other?

"nothing important, after what you told me, I guess I'm just worried about Dani"

"well perhaps you can talk some sense into her"

"I'll do my best, but she's a very stubborn kid, what makes you think she'll listen to me?"

"you'd have to be blind not to see she looks up to you, as she should. You have quite the influence on her, I have no doubt you could persuade her to honor her contact." I didn't even notice that as we've been talking he was inching his face toward mine, now our lips barely touching.

"well then, does that mean I have influence over you as well?" he looks at me questioningly "could I persuade you to shut up and kiss me"

"no persuasion necessary, Mac, when you want something from me, just take it, especially when you're looking at me like that, have you learned nothing?"

Just like that, our conversation is over. Today has been the longest that we've been apart since the book was captured. When he does go out, I'm assuming that he goes out to "eat". I think before his son was K'vruked it was to find his son some sustenance , now I guess he only needs to feed himself. I stopped asking him and myself where he goes and what he is, that no longer matters to me I only care that he is. To think that I could have had this a long time ago, makes me laugh at myself, all that pride all the resistance and denial, what was it all for? The whole time I was fighting myself, he knew I wanted him, he could smell it on me he said, jeez how embarrassing. It's not until that night "you're on your last chance with me", my god how those seven words devastated me, I would have thrown myself at him that night, but he was gone before and had the balls to react. That's when I knew, I loved him.

11