A Date With Faet

"What's the matter?" the older detective asked. "Nothing to say?"

I still had my hand over my eyes, but I wasn't pretending about the headache anymore. My head hurt, and I felt sick to my stomach. After being roughed-up and groped by a bunch of uniformed cops, now I knew the authorities were digging into my affairs and my life on Earth was probably coming to an abrupt end.

My mood was bad to begin with after the way the uniformed guys treated me, now it was positively sour.

I cast another mind-reading spell, this time on the seated cop. I was pretty sure he was human but I needed to be positive. And I was right. Detective Howard Bernier was a fifty-five year old human. I didn't get anything else from him that I hadn't already learned from MacRae.

They were both still talking at me but I ignored them as I used a clairvoyance spell to check behind the two-way mirror.

There was one guy in the darkened room behind the glass. He was some kind of technician and he was panicking about all the dead equipment. He was trying to reboot a laptop, while the camera monitor and recording equipment next to him were also completely dead.

I hit him with a sleep spell and watched him slump back into his chair and start snoring, then I finally let my hand drop down from my face. Now it was just me and these two human cops. Nobody else was watching or listening.

The two men were staring at me, and I finally sighed and shook my head. "I don't know what to do with you two. I know who's pulling your strings, but I really don't know what to do about it."

The men glanced at each other, and MacRae asked "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I replied.

Bernier stated "Try us."

I looked at him, then shrugged "Sure, why not?"

After a deep breath I explained, "I'm Lady Tegan Vale of Clann Brádaigh. I'm fae nobility. Lady Maeve Brádaigh is my mom, she's a fae countess. We're not human. I come from a place known as Otherworld. I live on Earth because I like it here and I have friends here. My money comes from my rich parents, not from any criminal activity. Everything you saw on the body-cam footage of that shooting was real. The cop was under a mind-control spell, he was forced to try and assassinate me."

"Right now the fae king has a problem with me and he wants me to return to Otherworld. One of his knights gave those videos to your bosses, and probably fed them the idea that I'm involved in some kind of crime. The king knows I'll have no choice but to go home if it's impossible for me to live peacefully here on Earth."

The detectives gave each other another look, then MacRae rolled his eyes "Nice try but there's no 'insanity defence' here. Acting like a nut isn't going to help you."

I just shrugged again, "I said you wouldn't believe me."

Bernier started talking at me again but I ignored him and used my ring to contact Kelly and Keira. I sent them a brief warning, "Cops after us. Will explain soon. Stay home, stay safe."

I used a simple spell to unlock the handcuffs and freed my left hand, then rubbed my wrist as I commented "You guys are lucky I'm one of the nice ones. I'm still pretty upset about being roughed-up and groped by your uniformed cops."

The two men stared in surprise as they realized I'd freed myself from the cuffs, but before either could respond I hit them both with paralysis spells. They remained completely still and silent, but both were fully conscious, they could see me and hear me.

I got to my feet and frowned at them. I stepped closer to MacRae and checked his jacket pockets till I found what I was looking for. I pulled out the wallet with his badge and credentials, and stuffed it into my jacket pocket. I figured it would serve as a focus for clairvoyance, so I could keep tabs on him later if necessary.

"You're probably wondering what's going on right now," I said quietly. "It's magic, I cast a paralysis spell on you two. Don't worry, it'll wear off in a little while. I doubt you'll listen but I'm going to say this anyways. Leave me and my friends alone. We haven't done anything wrong, and I don't want to hurt anybody."

I added, "Here's something to think about while you're waiting for the spell to wear off. I could have done this any time. Everything that's happened since your uniformed cops surrounded my car only happened because I allowed it. Because I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

They could both still see me, but of course neither could respond, neither could say anything. I made sure I was in full view of both of them when I teleported away. I wanted them to see it, in hopes between that and the paralysis they'd realize I was telling the truth about magic, and maybe they'd back off.

Rather than head straight home, I teleported to Elise's apartment. I needed to make sure she was ok. I appeared in the middle of her living-room and was immediately greeted by her shouting at me.

"Tegan!"

At the same time, some guy gasped "What the fuck?!"

Elise jumped up off her sofa and wrapped her arms around me, "What happened to you?! I saw the cops drag you out of your car and take you away!"

I gave my cousin a hug and replied, "I'm fine, long story, who's that?"

There was a guy sitting on the sofa, his arm was around Elise when I appeared. He was about the same age as her, he looked tall, slim, and sort of handsome. He had shoulder length dark blond hair, hazel eyes, and an olive complexion.

"That's Ray," she replied. "My new boyfriend."

She glanced back at him, "And Ray, this is my cousin Tegan."

He was staring wide-eyed at me as he replied to Elise, "Yeah you pointed her out to me an hour ago as she was taken down by a dozen cops. How the fuck did she get here?!"

I could feel my headache getting worse, and silently cursed myself for not scrying Elise's place before dropping in on her.

"Elise I don't have a lot of time to talk," I said to her. "Me and the twins might have to disappear over there for a while. Maybe a long while. I'll be in touch when I can."

She stared at me, "What's going on Tegan? Why'd the cops arrest you?"

"Short version is someone's convinced them I'm involved in organized crime, and I'm not sure I can prove I'm innocent without exposing the real truth. Stay safe ok? And don't come by the house, it's probably not safe for you to come anywhere near us." I glanced at Ray then asked her, "Is he going to cause any trouble?"

She looked back at him and said "Ray you never saw any of this, got it?"

He gulped and nodded "Got it."

Elise looked back at me and said "No trouble. You be careful Tegan!"

"I will," I replied as I stepped back from her.

I used my ring to focus on my girlfriends. Kelly and Keira were at home, which was about eleven leagues from Elise's place. It was pushing things, but the enchantments on our rings made it possible.

The twins were both in the kitchen, Kelly was at the table and Keira was near the fridge. I appeared in between them both, and a moment later I was in the middle of a group hug.

"Tegan what the fuck is going on?!" Keira demanded.

Kelly asked, "Are you ok? What happened to you?"

I sighed, "We may as well break out the sushi and the drinks. It might be our last chance to enjoy this stuff."

The three of us wound up sitting in the living-room. Kelly and I were sipping hard lemonade while Keira had wine, and we were all eating sushi while I filled them in on the situation.

I told them about the cops grabbing me out of the car in front of the college, and I told them about how they roughed me up and groped me. I told them about being taken into the interrogation room at the station, and everything I learned from the two detectives. And I told them how I left the two at the end.

At the end I fished my phone out of my pocket and sighed as I set it on the table, "So my phone's dead, but that's the least of our worries. I lost the car, it might just be impounded but if it was anywhere near the police station it'll be dead too. And I'm sure that despite my little demonstration, the police will be turning up at our doorstep sooner or later. They've been watching us for three months, they know all our financial information. They might have already frozen all our bank accounts and other assets."

The twins both had very dark expressions on their faces.

"So we're probably all wanted criminals now?" Keira asked. "If we try going back to school on Tuesday they may even be waiting for us. Assuming they don't come and storm the property over the weekend."

Kelly sighed deeply, "It sounds like there's no longer any choice. We have to go back to Otherworld and confront the king."

"Yeah," I nodded. "I'm not happy about it, but I don't see any other option. Even if I was prepared to cross all my lines and break all my own rules, it still wouldn't be easy to stay here. It's not just those two detectives, it's their bosses, anyone else who's been involved in the investigation. Making this problem 'go away' might mean practically taking over half the government or something."

"That's probably an exaggeration babe," Kelly pointed out. "But we understand what you're saying."

Keira drained her wineglass and asked, "So what do we do?"

I had a sip of my hard lemonade as I thought it over. Finally I decided, "After I finish this drink, I'm going outside to strengthen all the wards. I won't cover the whole property, just the central bit with the house, the cottage, and my workshop. I'm going to boost the trees too, because it doesn't matter anymore if anyone notices that. Don't eat all the sushi, I'll be hungry when I'm done."

I added, "After that we'll be pretty well secure here. We don't have to flee immediately but we're going to have to think about heading back to Otherworld before the weekend is over."

The twins exchanged a glance, then Kelly said "We'll come out with you, to keep an eye on things while you're working."

Keira added, "It's not just humans after us remember. After Monday, we know there's fae assassins to worry about too."

"Right," I sighed. "Good idea."

Kelly and I finished our drinks, then all three of us had another couple bites of sushi. Finally Keira hurried up the stairs while Kelly disappeared into the storage room.

A moment later Kelly returned with her and Keira's bows, and two quivers of arrows. And Keira came back downstairs carrying all three of our swords.

I sighed as the three of us got ready. Soon we all had our swords at our left hips. Kelly and Keira had quivers at their right hips. They both had bows in hand, and arrows set on the strings. If not for our modern clothes, people might assume we were LARPers.

It all felt wrong, almost like a nightmare. We weren't trying to blend in and live normal quiet human lives anymore. Right now we were three fae on Earth, and we were under threat and seeking to safeguard our home and property.

The three of us emerged out the front door and followed the driveway towards the road. Kelly and Keira were acting like my bodyguards. They were Knights of Cathasaigh and they were ready for trouble.

We began moving clockwise along the property line, with the two of them watching out for any sign of danger while I started casting spell after spell.

Four or five hours later it was dark out as the three of us finally returned to our starting-point. We hadn't covered the entire hundred and twenty acres, just the middle part. It was roughly twenty acres, with our house in the middle, and the cottage and my workshop. The protected area extended back far enough to cover both sides of the ravine, including the glade with the waypoint.

The trees out front were already visibly larger from all the growth magic I'd showered them with. In another day or two none of the buildings would be visible from the road or the neighbouring farms. And now nobody could set foot into the protected area without being invited first.

Happily we hadn't run into any trouble. I had no doubt it was coming, but I figured those two detectives would need time to regroup and rethink their strategy before they'd be willing to confront me again.

"Ok," I sighed when we completed the loop. "Let's go back inside. I'm ready for another drink and some more sushi."