Cass is sitting on the bed asking her to please calm down and stop yelling at him. He turns and looks at us with a face that says, 'Do you mind?'
"Sorry we heard her scream. Wanted to make sure we had not had another break-in." John said before ushering me and himself out quickly. We get back up to our room and we ask out loud, "Why did she scream like that?"
"Jinx!" we said again together.
"Double-Jinx!" I get it out quickly.
John sighs, "Okay what do I owe you?" as he rolls his eyes at me with a grin.
"Oh I could think of a thing or two." I smiled mischievously at him as I went to pack the things in our bathroom.
"Seriously though, why did she scream?"
"I don't know, frustration?" I stuck my head out of the bathroom, "Hormones?" I gave him a pointed look.
Once we had finished packing everything up and snapping it to the house we went to Cass's room.
I knocked and Cass opened the door and surprisingly enough... he was alone in the room.
"Hey Cass, we're all finished. Are you ready or do you want to text us later?"
He sighed, "I'll text you later. She went home. Obviously, I screwed up thinking she was alright with the idea from when I mentioned it before. I didn't expect her to act like that though."
I rub his arm. "No worries, just let us know."
...
It's been a month now since we moved in to the country house and Thietian has been sending his people to us for training in espionage tactics and they in return have been training us in different magical uses and how to use it as a weapon.
Watching the martial artists train other members of the Fae was exciting to say the least. The way they were able to spar and take down their opponents was something else. We would spar with them as well and it was never an easy fight. We could hold our own most of the time against them, but there were a few who would just kick us all over the sparring mats or throw us around the yard. We had hundreds of faces come through everyday and we didn't know what was really happening with Thietian.
Turk and some of Lar's brothers were at the place often getting trained and the like. Temple would show up daily with a two cases of bottles to be given to the ones learning and refining magical abilities.
We had Nix's, the shape shifting water spirits, who learned how to multiply and manipulate water from a single drop. Dryads or wood nymph spirits could make vines and trees sprout incredibly fast either trapping or piercing the intended target. The Kitsune Fox spirits were always mischievous and playful trying to trip up their opponents or distract them when sparring.
Me and John went to bed often tired and beat beyond reason, that after a shower we'd often be found sleeping where ever we sat down. Cass had moved in but was frequently busy or in town with Elena trying to make things better for her to move out to the house. He was constantly afraid for her being in town so there were days neither of us would see each other, since he refused to leave her alone and unprotected. We understood completely that feeling and continued to help out in any way we could around at the house getting their room ready for her and the room next to it ready for the baby.
Two weeks later while sparring with our practice daggers and incorporating magic into our fighting techniques, like heating a blade, Prince Thietian finally made an appearance.
Everyone dropped to a knee and greeted him, "Welcome, Prince Thietian." In unison, we all stood up and he nodded humbly.
"Greetings everyone, I would have been here sooner but had issues arise not previously anticipated. I need all of the leaders of your groups present for a meeting in 30 minutes. If they are not here, please go and fetch them. I need a few tables and chairs set up in here." He looked around at everyone and quite a few snapped out of here, others went outside to tell the others who were here.
Me and John started helping set up tables and chairs and were surprised when the prince started moving and setting up chairs as well. We didn't say anything but we were not alone in the shock. Within 15 minutes we had everything set up and Fae and human alike were snapping or being snapped in to the guest house. The living room and dining area were packed with our allies and I realized that this was a bigger operation than what I originally thought it would be.
John whispered into my ear, "Seems like this is bigger than we thought. This looks more like a rebellion than a coup." I could only nod in agreement.
Thietian held his hands up shortly after the room stopped having some one snap or walk in.
"First things first, I want to humbly thank all of you for coming and agreeing to fight with me over the injustice and evil workings of my father and his insidious agenda."
He walked back and forth while speaking, "All of us Fae have seen and experienced my fathers cruelty firsthand and only recently have we been able to break free of the shackles he's placed around us. Since coming to the surface, he's decided to make all humans his slaves, not just the evil ones that we have been ordained to do long ago. We know that his evil knows no limit, has no conscious, even his family means nothing to him unless they follow his every word and whim."
He pauses in the front of the room and scans everyone's face. "If we do not stand against him united then we will lose our friends, our families, our freedoms that we have just recently tasted again. Today I'd like you all to work with me to save our friends, our families, our freedoms, human and Fae alike. I want to have you ask yourselves if you are ready for this. It would be ideal that everyone survives but the reality is no one among us will not suffer at least one loss. If you are not ready to suffer through this, you may leave and I will hold no one back or have hard feelings over this."
He waited and seeing that no one was leaving he smiled warmly, humbled at the sight and clapped his hands together.
"I'm very proud to say I know you all, even more so that all of you are willing to fight with me, now lets get to our first battle plan."
...
We were being divided up into three forces going after three different manufacturing labs that were producing the laced medications. Every force had certain teams that would be working together to create the distractions and pull attention to other areas. During that time, the other teams would be infiltrating the building and snapping the equipment with information that was needed to reveal to the public.
Once the hard drives and several key employees were removed from the areas, then we would send everything sky high. A few of the people asked about the people that didn't know anything and Thietian nodded pulling out some paper work that was really just a list of names.
These were the names of people that under no circumstance were allowed to live. So anyone caught as long as their name was not on the list would be sent to an undisclosed location that only a handful of people were allowed to know about. They would be held there humanely until no longer necessary.
It was not a heavily detailed plan and was not set up on time constrictions and allowed for there to be room for as needed adjustments. Some of the people afterwards stepped forward and were asking some more questions as we helped put chairs back up with the others.
Our first attack would be in just a few days and I had to admit my adrenaline was starting to flow. After the ones who had questions finished with Thietian we joined him to talk.
"Greeting Prince Thietian." John held his hand out for him to shake and Thietian shook it happily.
"Just Thietian is fine. I guess I should inform you, I had everyone who's fighting with us to swear a blood oath. If anyone tries to defect to tell the king about what we are doing and where this place is, their name will change colors on the parchment and they will not be able to talk or write it either. The spell will make them mute and if they were to try and write it down their hands will not work."
"Wow! You know magic like that?" I sounded like a kid exclaiming my awe.
Thietian smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. "Well, it's ancient magic, I found the spell in some of the books I was able to get out of the royal library. It was not easy trying to figure it out since no one seems to remember how certain things were done."
Seeing our confused expressions he explained some more.
"My father did away with so many of the ancient Fae court members a thousand years ago that I was on my own. When I figured it out a few months ago I immediately started having my recruits sign it before I'd give them any information. Every single one of their men must sign it too. I don't want to take any chances of this leaking out at any time."
"We appreciate that since we will be having family hopefully coming soon to stay with us. He's expecting his own child too. That's their first priority is keeping her and the babe safe." I inform Thietian feeling very at ease with him since we were able to drop the formalities.
Thietian giving us a warm smile and a nod, " Yes, I would not want anyone to concern themselves about the safety of their families."
He said his goodbyes talking about getting back to his own expectant lady waiting on him and snapped himself away.
A few hours had passed and everyone had left the grounds for the day except for a few who would be sleeping out back. I was making dinner for me and John laughing about some of the sparring matches we had seen and discussing the mission coming up. Suddenly we heard noise in the next room and jumped up to see Cass walking out of his room.
"Hey." He said before walking to the fridge and grabbing a cold drink, chugging the bottle of water down.
"That's all we get is a hey?" I ask hands on my hips, "You sound like a sullen teenager.... 'hey' .... So what's going on? Are you finally going to move in?"
Cass gave me a look that said things were not great right now.
John gave me a look and followed Cass to his room leaving me to finish up dinner. I knocked on the door when dinner was done and got no response. I knocked again and not hearing anything opened the door to find it empty and a note on the bed.
...
-Be back soon, went to talk to Elena with Cass. I'll try to bring her back for dinner. Always Mother Hen 5:24-
........
I look at the clock and its 5:35 so they had left only minutes ago. I sigh and go out to set the table for four instead of three and make a salad to go with the rest of the food.
Looking up at the clock I see it's 5:50 and put the hot food in the oven to keep warm.
It's 6:30 as more ice chinks into my glass over my second glass of whiskey.
I'm getting a plate ready at 6:45 when John, Elena and Cass finally snap here.
"Oh good, I was about to start with out you guys." I say moving the food to the table this time.
John gave me an apologetic look and took his seat gesturing for Cass and Elena to sit as well.
John and I help pass things around the table as Elena and Cass are unusually quiet, that includes John too. In fact no one has said a thing except me.
"OKAY ENOUGH ALREADY THE SILENCE IS MAKING ME ANXIOUS." I forced the words out emphasizing the enunciation.
Elena looked at Cass, then to John, before grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the kitchen.
"Sin...." She whispered, "I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Help me, I will not talk to that liar in there anymore."
My eyebrows raised at this choice of words. I held up my finger for her to give me a minute. I poked my head around the corner telling them, "We are going to go talk. No eaves dropping, either of you." I pointed at both of them.
I took Elena to the garage where my Aston Martin was. It had the least amount of cameras around it and audio was only located outside. I had her climb in the car and after that I climbed in.
"Okay Elena, what the hell is going on? What did Cass do or say that he's a liar? He's the father of your child. Why would you not want to speak with him?"
.................................
Sin just took Elena out of the house and Cass is playing with his food, not eating, sullen like a child still getting over a tantrum. I ran my hand over my face and sighed.
"You know, if I was Elena, I'd be just as upset as she is with you. I mean I can understand why you made the choice that you did, but that's a pretty big secret to keep from the woman who's about to be the mother of your child."
I received an annoyed side eye, before he looked away and down at his plate. He shoved it away cupped his head in the palm of his interlocked hands. Evidently dismayed by Elena's reaction to him telling her his secret. He had hoped for her immediate acceptance and approval, but unfortunately not everyone in this world is like that.
Even I was trying to wrap my head around it. I even felt betrayed by the fact of the matter, I could not see Sin handling it much better then Elena did.
I sighed in exasperation..... Well she was about to find out...... I thought it was going to be a peaceful evening for the two of us....