Changelings: The Novelization (Book 1)

Chapter Nine, "Scepter"

Chapter Nine

“Scepter”

There were tensions in the air, as the humans realized that more than half of their rescuers were Fae.

          Emerson offered them food. Though most of them were emaciated, they turned up their noses or even spat in contempt. One of them was a police officer, wearing the tactical gear that he had worn during the invasion – stolen back from the Fae as he fled the mines.

          “We’re surrounded,” he muttered to a nearby family, which consisted of a father, two teenage girls, and a mother. The family had retrieved various items as well – the father wore his trusty baseball cap, the girls clutched the rackets that had failed to serve as weapons during the invasion, and the mother was busy redoing their ponytails. They had been captured together at tennis practice.

          “You got a play we can follow?” the father asked of the police officer. He was the local highschool football coach, and never failed to talk like one. He believed sports contained everything one needed to know about life, and thus continually mined it for inspirational metaphors.

Emerson passed by him, offering a food bowl. “Coach?”

The coach recognized the kids from school, but it was only Emerson he knew by name, since he was on the football team. Emerson had a strong arm, he remembered – strong as an ox. He could have been one of their star players, if only he hadn’t been so timid about tackling other players. The coach shook his head at Emerson, who passed on with a disheartened look. It was damn shame, how Emerson had gotten himself body-snatched by faeries. But the coach wouldn’t let himself be tricked into eating their food, and turning him into one of those things, no sir.

          The police waited to respond until Emerson was out of earshot. “Always,” the police officer whispered, confidently.

“Then how is it you got captured?” asked the mother, who could best be described as a soccer-mom even though her girls quit soccer before age ten. She licked her thumb to go after a smudge of dirt on her daughter's face, producing a squeak of complaint. Her daughters were always immaculately coiffed before the invasion, and the soccer-mom’s habits had not yet had time to die. She seem to understand the futility of erasing a single mark, when her daughter’s overall state could only be noticeably improved by a bath and a change of clothes.

“I didn't know what I was up against,” excused the police officer. “Now that I've had time to observe the enemy’s behavior-” he stopped short when Gordi and Darcy sat down with them to eat.

“It wouldn’t kill you guys to relax,” said Darcy.

“You'd like that, wouldn't you Fae?” the police officer growled.

Darcy put her bowl down, jumping up and brandishing her dagger and batwing weapon. “I. AM NOT. A FAE.”

“Whoa hold on, time out! We get it, now put the weapons down!” yelled the coach, in his usual authoritative tone.

Gordi put a hand on Darcy’s arm. She sheathed her weapons. “We are humans, like you,” assured Gordi.

The soccer-mom looked Gordi up and down. “I doubt that,” she quipped.

Gordi did not respond. He watched, forlorn, as the mother drew her daughters in close to her. Behind them, Miranda sat talking with Roxie in her lap. His heart felt like it was being strangled.

Then he felt hands slide onto his shoulders. Clair leaned in close to his ear.

“I require your undivided attention for a moment, Gordi,” she purred.