CHAPTER EIGHT
Zak
Ryker had been of no help, except to tell me that I should find whatever is doing this as soon as possible, and the fae that lived in our valley didn't know anything either. The only thing I really had to go on was the grimoire I'd used for Tori's fae possession. So now I was going back to the guild to talk to the little brother, Sam, the guy who'd given me an awkward death-grip of a handshake while telling me how amazing he thought Druids were. This wasn't going be awkward at all…
I pushed the door to the library / work room open, and immediately, the smell of hamburger hit me. I stepped in to see Sam, head on the table, completely passed out, surrounded by piles of books, an open laptop and a half eaten cobb salad.
Holding the grimoire in one hand, I walked to the head of the table and dropped it on top.
"Shit, what?" Sam's head shot up and I noticed his right hand reached back for the non-existent gun. "Oh, good. It's just you." He blinked sleepily and wiped the corner of his mouth to check for drool.
"Yep, just me." I pulled the chair out and sat down.
"Um, I'm sorry about the mess." He stood up, seeming embarrassed and started gathering up his notes.
"It's not a problem, you're not gonna jump me though, are you?"
He took a deep breath and jutted his chin out in annoyance, "Hmmph. No, I am not going to jump you." He said in a sing-song voice, slapping the papers down, then sat down again.
He grinned, and tapped the laptop awake, "Sorry about that by the way."
"Let's not talk about it. Isn't your brother supposed to be here?"
"Hmph, Dean? He has the attention span of a five year old. He started getting annoying so I told him to go find Aaron or something."
"Ah. I understand."
"Yeah, I think they went kick boxing or something," he waved his hand dismissively, cleared his throat and straightened in his chair, "so, uh, did you find out anything?"
"Nothing useful, you?"
"No," he sighed and took a bite of the wilted salad, "your lore is different than ours, magic too."
I arched an eyebrow at that. How different could it be?
"So, I've spent most of the morning," he took a drink of his soda, "learning about mythics and Fae." He gestured to the stacks of books surrounding him.
"How far did you get?" I asked, leaning back and taking in the table that appeared to have half a library on it.
"Uhh," he pushed his hair out of his face, "far enough to be very appreciative that you're here," he grabbed a book from one of the piles, "You'll speed things up, like, a lot."
"You're very calm about this whole situation."
He paused, his mouth turning down in a kind of scowl, "I guess… I mean, it's my job." He shrugged and went back to his book
"Hmm." I nodded. Conversation obviously over, I pulled my sleeves up a little and opened the grimoire.
"So, working theories?"
"Well, it's old—"
"What are those?" He asked, cocking his head to look at my tattoos.
"The benefits of being a Druid and consort." I answered casually, and pulled my sleeves back down.
"What does that even mean?" his face scrunched in either disgust or confusion.
I looked up again from the sentence that I had now read three times, and took a deep breath, "It means, as a consort, I let a Fae share my body so they can consume some of my magic, in exchange, they protect me from other Fae and gift me spells, the tattoos."
"Huh." His eyes widened for a second, "No way that could backfire." Then shook his head and went back to typing.
The corner of my mouth twitched up in smile, "You have no idea."
--
Two hours, a cup of coffee and a quick demo of my 'magic' tattoos later, and we still hadn't found anything very useful.
"Alright… I know you don't wanna hear this," Sam started, sounding hesitant "but, the only Fae that really matches what we saw and has a harp, is this guy, 'The Lord of Great Knowledge'." He turned the laptop to me,
showing an old encyclopedia entry which had a description of said fae and a listing of his powers.
I leaned in to get a better look, "Impossible. The Dagda has been dead for over a millennia. Also, he's Fae Royalty, one of the first, there is absolutely no way his presence wouldn't be noticed." I shook my head and leaned back against my chair.
"Maybe he wasn't dead, just trapped in our world." He suggested, turning the laptop back to him. "And maybe… he's weak?" He said, sounding unsure of his own theory.
"You told me that he was only wearing a harp though. No staff, no cauldron." I ticked the items off on my fingers. "A Fae wouldn't give those artifacts away."
"Maybe… He lost them?" Sam shrugged again. "Or, maybe he had to trade them."
"Shit." He had a point. I pinched my eyebrows together with my fingers and closed my eyes.
"What?"
"You might be right…" I let out a long breath, "And if you are, we are talking about summoning and killing Ancient Fae Royalty." I braced my elbows on the table and rubbed my hands over my face.
"Meh," Sam smiled, "It can't be--"
"Hey there nerds!" Dean burst through the door, with a big smile on his face, followed by Aaron, both of them sporting some brand new bruises.
"How's the research goin'?" he crossed the room and gave Sam a slap on the back so hard he coughed, then stood between the two of us, "Did Sammy keep his hands to himself?" He asked me in mock seriousness, all while gripping my shoulder.
"Dean, c'mon. Don't be a dick." Sam chided.
"What?" Dean huffed, putting his hand dramatically on his chest, and looked to Aaron for support, "Am I being a dick?"
"No, not at all." Aaron replied jovially.
I rolled my eyes, and pushed Dean's hand off my shoulder. "Sam managed to keep his hands to himself,"
"Dude! Whose side are you on?" Sam gave me a disappointed look and threw his hands up in frustration.
"Though obviously the same can't be said of you two idiots." I tapped my jaw, where Aaron had a bruise forming. "Maybe we should get you a room?"
"Hah! Nice." Sam laughed.
Aaron came round to stand next to me, "So, is it actually a Fae?", his voice taking on a more serious tone.
"Well, we think--" Sam started.
"And hope that it's not." I sighed.
"Yeah, and hope that it's not," he paused, sighing, "a Fae royal called 'The Lord of Great Knowledge'."
"My, someone's full of themselves." Dean laughed, and picked some of Sam's notes off the table. Sam's lips thinned and he snatched his notes out of Dean's hands.
Dean put his hands up, while shaking his head side to side teasingly and stepped back to lean against the wall
"Don't touch those." Sam growled, glaring at his brother.
Aaron, forehead creased with worry, turned his attention from the brothers, back to me. "Fae royalty? Really?"
"Unfortunately, most likely." I raked my hair, feeling anxious. Tangling with extremely powerful Fae was not something I'd wanted to do again anytime soon.
"Great!" Dean clapped his hands, "How do we kill the son of a bitch?" He looked cheerfully from me to Sam.
"We, uh, we don't know yet." Sam grimaced apologetically.
"For real?" Dean uncrossed his arms and pushed off the wall to stand next to Sam again, "You two have been up here all day!"
Aaron looked at me like, 'well you have', but was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. Sam's lips thinned and he looked up at his brother in a 'you're lucky we're related' sort of way.
"That's not the problem right now, Dean." Sam stated, clearly annoyed.
"So, what is the problem?" Aaron asked us, cautiously.
"The problem is finding it." I glanced to my left where Aaron was standing, "Ancient Fae have almost god-like powers, and they really don't like to be bothered."
"So?" Dean shrugged, "It's a fae. That's kind of like a demon, just summon it."
I matched Sam's annoyed scowl, "It's not that easy to 'just summon it'," I glared at Dean, this guy was wearing on my patience, "It's never been done before."
"Exactly." Sam nodded toward me.
"Well, you helped save Ezra," Aaron said cheerfully, "I'm sure you can do this." He grinned and clapped me on the back.
"I didn't write that spell, Aaron, you know that."
"Oh, I know, but now you have Sam here to help you." He gave me a cocky grin, to which I replied with a dirty look.
"There see? Problem solved!" Dean smiled and headed towards the door.
"You're not even gonna help?" Sam sputtered, spinning his chair to face the door.
Dean held the door open, "Nah. You and your boyfriend got it under control. "C'mon Aaron, paintball time!" and waved Aaron over.
I flashed Aaron a death glare, but he was already too busy telling Dean to 'get ready for a serious ass kicking' to notice.
"Great. Now there's two of them."
I shook my head, "Let's just hope Kit doesn't join the party."