"I am going to take Miss Kaylee and her aunt to the clan house for safety. Faith is still unconscious and the situation is concerning. Then, yes. I will meet you in town if you have not already contacted me."
"Great. I can't wait to meet you in person, Miss Kaylee!" Tamika's voice grew warm. "I think we might be best friends and just not know it yet."
Kaylee laughed. "Thank you, Miss Tamika! I hope you find my mom okay."
"Me too, sugar. I'll go start looking right now," she said.
"Thank you, Tamika. I will be there soon," Aldric said. He hit a button on the steering wheel and the call disconnected. Kaylee chatted on for a few minutes about how nice his car was, and how cool the call had been just talking into the air and the whole car heard it like a giant, inside-out telephone or like magic, she said, which Aldric found charming and odd at once.
When he made the last turn and bumped carefully down the road to the clan house, he glanced in the mirror to check on his other passenger. Faith was still unconscious, and he was worried. The mages of his youth found their magic slightly draining, he remembered, but he could not recall any of them simply passing out after a simple shielding spell.
And he wondered what happened to her arm. The one she had held in front of her to direct the flow into the shield was red and had several welts on it. If one of the hounds had caught her bare flesh, she might have lost the arm entirely, rather than being injured. He was glad to see mere bruising and a few scratches rather than a bloody mess, but it was puzzling.
And he wanted her to open her eyes again.
"Wooooooow. Is that your house Mister Aldric?" Kaylee's awe was clear.
Aldric chuckled and looked over at the building. He looked at the building and tried to see it through fresh eyes. It was a large building, big enough to pass for a resort of some kind. It needed to be, to provide space for meetings and other gatherings. Not that the entire clan was likely to gather together as a whole very often, but it happened regularly enough a large percent of them were here for one reason or another.
As a result, the building sprawled a bit. The wide front of the cabin-style building spanned three sections, with the center projecting slightly forward to meet the circular drive. To one side an attached garage had two bay doors painted white with pretty trim around the frame. The other section was more obviously residential, with doors leading out to a deck that wrapped around the side of the building and led to the back.
Lit up in the evenings, it was a warm, welcoming, bright place. Now, in the early afternoon sunshine, it almost glowed like a rustic palace, and Aldric was proud to have had a hand in both the building of it and the business that went on inside.
"You live in a castle? A forest castle?" Kaylee's voice was hushed and when he stopped the car at the front door, he found her staring up the steps looking somewhat awestruck. She turned to stare at him now, with the same expression. "Are you a prince?"
Aldric chuckled. "No, Miss Kaylee, I am not a prince. I am, however, the head of security for this area. I am, I suppose, the chief monster fighter." He said it with such grave seriousness that even Kaylee could tell he was being silly, and she giggled.
"But yes, little one. That is where I live with a few close friends. Welcome to the Frostwalker Clan house."
5
Faith's whole body ached. It was like last year when she had the flu and even her toenails ached in a general, stupid way. She rolled over and snuggled deeper under the cozy blanket as she reluctantly swam back to consciousness.
She ached, and her arm throbbed like it was one big bruise, and man, she was tired, but at least the bedding smelled amazing, unlike when she had the flu. Some scent that made her think of dusk and moonlight and home. The coziness almost made up for feeling so awful.
Why the heck did she feel so bad? She cast her mind back, trying to figure out what happened before bed that would have made sure she didn't get any rest as she slept. And what smelled so damn good? It sure as heck wasn't her laundry soap. She made sure to get the unscented kind because the perfumes made her sneeze and itch.
Faith took a deep breath and considered. Vague memories of catching fireflies on vacation as the lingering sunlight faded to nothing, family barbecues, and backyard camping with Crissy when they were kids floated into her mind, drawn by the scent association.
...Crissy.
Faith surged upright and blinked her eyes open, trying to get her bearings. The room was strange and masculine. Cream walls provided a background to a plain wooden dresser and a bookshelf neatly filled with paperback books. A desk with a closed laptop sitting square to the front edge and a mouse sitting neatly beside it was pushed under one of the two windows, both of which were covered with heavy blue curtains drawn closed. Some dim light still dribbled through the small gaps, letting her know that there was still daylight outside.
The desk chair had been turned around and placed near the bed and on it sat her purse. On the bedside table– which matched the dresser– sat a bottle of water and a bottle of what seemed to be painkillers. As if she was going to take pills left by some unknown person when she was in a strange place like this.
Where the hell was she, and where was
