I put my palms on his and waited for him to close his fingers over mine, expecting him to.
But he did nothing. His fingers remained straight and seemingly uninterested in mine.
It made my heart squeeze painfully in my chest. It felt like rejection to be remaining so un-linked when it would have been so easy for him to hold onto me.
"Close your eyes and visualize sending these demons back to where they came from. Use your elements together. Link them with mine. Focus on who to keep with us. We cannot send the wrong ones to the Underworld or they will be left there."
My gaze darted around me, taking in all the figures I saw there, fighting the good fight. Ivar, Dardennes, Tim, Finn, several other green elves I didn"t know by name but did by sight ... and Spike. Demon or not, I wasn"t ready for him to go back to the Underworld if there was a chance the real Spike would end up going too. I nodded my head. "I"m ready."
CHAPTER SIX.
I CLOSED MY EYES AND envisioned the Earth element coming up from below my feet, running through the nearby ley lines to amplify its energy. It filled me completely, making me feel whole in a way I never did without it.
Water was next, weaving in with The Green, bringing a roar of sheer power that filled my ears and made my heart soar along its waves. There was nothing like being caught up in the elements like this; I felt immortal ... invincible.
A jolt came into my hands, bringing with it a swirling heat that crackled and growled with its intensity. Ben was with me, bringing the strength of Fire and Wind to add to what I was already allowing to swirl around us like a tornado. Darkness descended, tempered by the flames that licked at our bodies, casting shadows across my eyelids that looked like dancing phantoms.
I let my elements tangle together with Ben"s, creating a spinning tunnel of earth-shattering forces that made the ground tremble beneath our feet. Everything should have been drowned out, my eardrums overwhelmed by the peaks and waves of sound, but his voice came to me as a whisper, cutting through the angry rumbling growls of our energy-monster, so that eventually it was the only thing I could hear.
"We must send the demons back to where they"ve come from."
"Tell me what to do." I breathed in and out, calming the nerves that were threatening to override my peace. I had to trust Ben to help me, even if I didn"t know if I could trust him otherwise.
"Imagine our friends in your mind," he said. "Keep them grounded. And picture the darkness in those from the Underworld." Ben"s voice was hypnotic, calming me, making me feel as if I were falling into a trance. It continued, almost soothing now. "Send them back to where they belong. They are not of this realm. They have no place here with you and me. Only those who are with us in spirit must be allowed to remain in the Here and Now."
I focused, visualizing my friends and Ben anch.o.r.ed to the ground with tree roots, like Maggie had taught me. Not just the fae here were my mind"s eye, but also those around the compound - elves and succubi and incubi, ogres and dwarves, gray elves and silver elves, witches. And I pictured a dark cloud or aura surrounding all those who would do us harm. They were marked with a darkness that matched the blight on their souls. The elements turned with my visions into a giant hand, grasping the ones cloaked in black and throwing them into the maelstrom.
I was so intent on getting the images just right, I didn"t realize at first when Ben"s hands began to slip from mine. The note of panic in his voice stood in stark contrast to his earlier, calming whispers.
"Jayne!" he yelled sharply, his fingers only barely touching mine now.
I was startled out of my trip into la-la land. "What?!" I yelled, half-panicked and half-p.i.s.sed. How am I supposed to concentrate when he keeps yelling at me?
"You"re getting pulled away! What are you doing?!"
I grabbed for Ben"s hands, only managing to get a hold of his fingertips, his palms having slipped from my grasp. I couldn"t see him anymore, the s.p.a.ce around me just a blur of blues and greens. As our contact lessened, so did the heat and wind from his elements. The roar of Earth and Water once again filled my ears, making it difficult to hear him.
"Take ... hand ... lose ...," he yelled.
I could only catch pieces of what he was saying and it wasn"t making any sense. I let go of his right hand and used my now free hand to grip his other wrist, making it possible for me to more firmly seat my other hand in his left.
"I can"t hear you, Ben! What are you saying?!"
"You ... wrong ... back!"
His hand jerked out of mine with no warning, sending me flying backwards to the ground. My elements cushioned my fall a bit, the shock to my backside not nearly as sharp as it should have been, but I was still stunned, now completely without Ben or his elements. I got up onto my knees, shaking my head to get it cleared. I knew I had to focus or something seriously bad was going to happen. I could feel it in my bones.
Focus, Jayne. Calm yourself. Pull the elements back in. Fight these demons with swords and dragonfire, not elements. It"s too risky.
I called The Green back into me, forcing it to leave through my feet. It didn"t go easily and seemed to almost have a mind of its own, needing to stay and whirl around in the forest. It was like a wild animal that had been let loose and didn"t want to be bound again just yet. I ignored its nature and sent it back, along with Water. Luckily, the ley line I had tapped made the work much easier. It was like a deep chasm in the earth, like the Grand Canyon, only hidden below layers of forest floor. It swallowed the elements back up thirstily, leaving me once again alone. Just Jayne.
When the colors of my surroundings came back into focus and the leaves and branches fell to the ground, I was able to survey my success - or the damage. I wasn"t sure which to call it, since I was alone now and couldn"t tell if I"d sent anyone but myself anywhere. The weather had turned gray, and the forest looked like a disease had moved through it while I was under the influence of the elements.
"Ben?" I called out softly. "Dardennes? ... Anton? Are you guys here?"
From behind a tree walked a demon, his leather-like hide glistening with black goo I knew to be blood. He was coming towards me, so I grabbed my weapon, holding it out in front of me to discourage any funny business. But he walked right past where I was standing, paying me no mind, disappearing into the trees at my back without a roar or even a growl. I turned to watch him, my blood pressure going down only slightly when the danger had pa.s.sed. Even though there was no b.l.o.o.d.y demon coming after me now, I still felt like something was really, really wrong here.
"I guess I goofed something up," I said out loud to the empty s.p.a.ce around me. I tapped into the Earth element again, pulling some of The Green to me as a security blanket of sorts.
The moment it reached my chest, I flinched, sending it quickly away again. It slithered down into the Earth and left me thankfully alone. My heart was racing now, as my brain tried to compute what was happening. Something was wrong with the energy here. The Green felt like it was polluted.
"Oh, f.u.c.k. What have I done now?"
I heard some sounds and spun around, trying to figure out where they were coming from. A figure clothed in black came out of the trees to my left. I turned to meet him head-on, holding Blackie out as a threat.
"Well, this is a bit of a surprise," he said.
"Spike!" I gasped out, relieved more than I could say to see and hear him in this dark place. "Holy s.h.i.t, what the h.e.l.l is going on?" I asked, running to him and throwing my arms around his neck, careful to keep the dragon fang from touching him.
"That is a question I would like to have answered as well."
My blood froze. I quickly pulled away from him, putting several steps between us. "You"re not Spike. You"re the demon."
"I thought we had already gone over this and come to some conclusions," he said, sighing.
"But ... but ... I thought ..." I shook my head in confusion.
He raised an eyebrow at me. "You thought what? That you"d use your elements to separate the wheat from the chaff? Well, surprise, surprise, my darling," he said bitterly. "I believe you have just come to the realization that you are part of the chaff and not the precious wheat. Welcome to my world."
He turned and began walking away from me.
"But wait!" I yelled desperately after him. "Where am I?" I was afraid I knew the answer to my question, but I needed to hear the words from someone other than my own conscience.
He didn"t even turn to look at me. He just shouted over his shoulder, "You"re in the Underworld. The place where you asked the elements to send all the bad fae ... am I right?"
CHAPTER SEVEN.
HIS WORDs. .h.i.t ME LIKE a ton of bricks, sinking my heart down into the farthest depths of my chest. f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, and double f.u.c.k. Triple f.u.c.k! I"m a bad guy?! I sent myself to the Underworld?!
I fell to the ground, my body suddenly like a limp noodle, going numb at the idea that I"d essentially shot myself with my own gun. "I have to be the dumbest, most inept elemental ever to walk the face of the earth," I said to no one in particular. I sat there for what felt like a long time, unmoving, ruminating on my stupidity and wondering what I was going to do and how I might possibly find a way back. I didn"t even know if I would be allowed back. It was probably fair to say that the elements weren"t going to be all that crazy about resurrecting me. That type of fiddling with the way of things sounded kind of against nature to me. The awfulness of it made me cry. For a while, the only thing I could hear was my own weeping, the pitiful sound waves easily swallowed up by the trees around me.
I don"t know how much later it happened, but a buzzing slowly came to my ears, making me both hopeful and afraid. My crying took a back seat to curiosity, and I turned to face the noise, quickly brushing my tears away.
"Well, that was one h.e.l.l of a road trip, let me tell you," said Tim. He landed on my shoulder. "Good thing I"m awesomely awesome in the aerodynamics department. A lesser pixie would have been squashed like a pancake against a tree for sure." He walked across the back of my neck to reach my other shoulder. "Hey ... where"d everybody go anyway? This place is like a graveyard it"s so quiet." He leaned on the side of my head with his hand. I could hear him biting his nails.
I couldn"t think of what to say. I just kept my head still so I wouldn"t throw him to the ground. The poor guy didn"t even know what he"d really been put through or where he actually was. The least I could do was be gentle right now.
"Hey, Lellamental ... I"m talking to you." He stood back up and stepped over to my ear, grabbing it in his little hands and leaning in towards the opening. "Yo, microphone check! Check one! Check two! Check-a, check-a, boom-boom. Can you hear me in there?"
I reached up to wave him away, forgetting about my plan to be gentle. "I hear you. But I"m afraid to answer your question." The tears were threatening again. I cleared my throat to try and keep it from closing up on me.
"Why? It"s not difficult. Here, I"ll get you started: Tim, everyone is in Spain. I used Ben"s Wind to blow them all out of the country." He snickered. "That would be hilaire, wouldn"t it? Anton having to catch a plane back to France because you screwed up again?" He flew up and hovered in front of my face. "Heh, heh! Can you picture it? Anton trying to get on a plane dressed like a fae? They"d think he was a nutter." He was smiling like a loon, but the longer he looked at my face, the more his expression faded into concern.
"Yeah, sooooo ... Jayne. What"s the scoop, p.o.o.p? I mean, what"d you do with everyone, seriously?" He studied my face. "They"re not in Spain, are they?"
I shook my head, my eyes filling with tears threatening to spill over. I"d taken one of my best friends, a husband and father, and brought him with me into h.e.l.l. I had to be the worst roommate of all time.
"Uh ... okaaaay ... so what ... are they, like, in Ireland? Because you know, that"s not so bad. At least they speak English there. And they dress funny too sometimes. I"ve got a friend there named Mandy. Cute witch, actually."
I shook my head again, my voice coming out strained and weak. "They"re in the Green Forest."
Tim turned in a full circle, stopping when he was facing me again. "Ummm, Jayne ... I"m not sure if your eyesight is failing you again, but newsflash, there"s no one here but us." He crossed his arms sa.s.sily, waiting for me to explain myself.
I added to his list of occupants. "And Spike. And a demon. At least, that"s all I"ve seen so far," I added.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. I just saw them."
Tim put his hands on his hips. "I thought you sent all those bad boys back to the Underworld."
"I did."
Tim frowned.
I continued, cringing at little in antic.i.p.ation of his response. "I sent all the people who belonged in the Underworld to the Underworld."
Tim cleared his throat and then craned his neck out in a couple different directions, as if his collar was suddenly too tight. He lost about a foot of alt.i.tude before he spoke again.
"Uhhh, come again, please? Because I"m afraid my son"s ear ca.n.a.l polly b.a.l.l.s are causing me some hearing problems. I could have sworn you just said something about sending all those who belonged in the Underworld to the Underworld!" He finished with a screech, reaching up to tug the hair on both sides of his head. When he pulled his hands away, his hair was sticking straight out. I didn"t have the heart to tell him he"d ruined his hairdo.
"Yeah, I"m sorry to tell you that the polly b.a.l.l.s aren"t interfering in anything. I"m not kidding. I think we"re both in the Underworld right now."
Tim plummeted to the ground, and I was barely able to catch him before he landed on the hard earth. I picked him up to my face, panicked because his eyes were closed, and I couldn"t tell if he was breathing or not.
"Tim! Are you dead? Talk to me!"
His eyes stayed shut, but he answered me, saying, "I"m not dead yet ... but if you keep breathing on me like that, I can"t make any promises that I won"t be soon."
I leaned in closer and breathed out extra as I talked. "Ssssooorrry about tttthhhhaaaaat, pixie maaaa-haaaa-haaa-haaaannnn."
He sat up quickly and pinched his nose closed. "Isn"t it enough that you"ve sent me into a thousand years of agony and pain? Do I also need to suffer your halitosis?"
I smiled, feeling happy for the first time since arriving here. "Maybe this is part of your penance."
Tim stood up and brushed himself off, smoothing down his hair as best he could. "No one, and I mean no one, would be forced to do that penance. No matter what their crimes were in the Here and Now. A soul can only take so much before it"s extinguished."
I frowned, putting my palm up to my face and blowing in it, trying to catch a whiff of what he was talking about. Soul extinguishing? That"s some serious stank-breath. I didn"t smell anything, though, so I turned my other hand upside down, forcing him to take flight or risk falling again.
Tim flew up and zipped around the area, making zig-zags across the s.p.a.ce within a fifty-foot radius of where I was sitting before coming back to join me again.
"Well, the place looks exactly like the Here and Now, but there"s something off here for sure."
"Tell me about it. I touched The Green earlier, and it was yucky."
"Yucky. Okay. I can see that. This whole place has a yuckiness about it." He came to my shoulder again. "What we need is a plan."
"A plan for what? For shelter? Food? Protection?"
"No, don"t be ridiculous. I don"t plan on being here long enough to need that stuff. We need our plan for getting out of this joint and back to the Here and Now."
I laughed bitterly. "Good luck with that. The elements are nasty, and all I have to protect us is this fang." I held Blackie up, not even sure it would function as anything but a stick right now.
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself and use that giant head of yours for thinking for a change. The demons are getting from here into our realm. If they can do it with their walnut-sized brains, we can do it. Especially since you have me with you."
"Why you?"
"Because of my superior intellect, of course. I"m surprised you have to ask."
"Oh. I thought it was a pixie thing."
Tim shuddered. "Heck no. You don"t want to meet the pixies who belong down here. Nasty creatures."
I didn"t say anything for a little, too busy considering what he said. But eventually I had to speak because it was eating away at me that it was just him and me here with a couple demons.
"Tim, you do realize that we"re here because we belong here, right? I mean, that"s what I asked for. When I was talking to and working with the elements."
"Shut up."
"No, seriously. I mean, we"re bad people. We"re bad fae. Isn"t that what this means?" I could feel the tears welling up again and the sadness threatening to take hold. What have I done to deserve going to h.e.l.l for a thousand years? Was it just one thing or a group of things?
"Apparently there was a big screw-up in the calculations. I mean, please, let"s get real. Do you have any idea how many fae Niles has killed? He"s a ma.s.s murderer. If anyone should be here, it"s him, not us."
"Seriously?"
"Well, you know, it was all during battles and stuff, but whatever. The body count is high."