Fairly Tainted

Chapter 5

Cleo 

 Xavier took over our trainings with the warriors. He also made sure that anyone who was capable of fighting in a battle was training; even the younger fairies. Three more colonies have arrived today and moved into the cottage that Xavier conjured. The remaining two will be arriving tomorrow. 

 “Cleo?” Xavier called to me. I was sitting in my father’s office trying to work through his computer system. “How are you doing in here?”

 “Just trying to figure out this computer stuff,” I sighed. “I’d thought it would be easier to find information on vampires. I’ve watched my father countless times working in his office on his computer. I wish so badly he was here! He’d know what to do!” 

 I started to cry and covered my face with my hands. I hated feeling weak when I supposed to be strong. I felt Xaviers hand upon my shoulder as he leaned forward to look at the computer screen. 

 “I may know someone who can help,” he said and I peeked at him. “Have you ever met Anthony?” 

 “I don’t think so,” I sniffled. “Let’s go find him,” he said taking my hand in his as he pulled me up from the chair. “You need a break. Anthony is a computer genius. He can help you figure out the system and maybe set it up so it’s easier to use. I know your father didn’t really understand all the high tech stuff so I’m sure it could use an update.” 

 I nodded and looked around the office one last time. It looked exactly the way father had left it. I gently ran my fingers across his name plate on his desk. Xavier gently tugged on my hand and led me out of the room; I closed the door behind us.

 “Anthony should be in training,” Xavier said as we headed down the stairs. 

 Father’s office was in the main hall where we usually hold functions. There were three floors and the top floor was where the offices were for the fae. The second floor were conference rooms. We held conferences every six months. The main floor was the where we held ceremonies and parties. 

 We walked hand in hand to the training grounds. Fairies can feel emotions through touch and can pass their energy through the connection. Xavier was sending me healing energy and I felt the crack in my heart shorten a tiny bit. 

 As we approached a group of trainers, I saw Duncan amongst the warriors. He smiled brightly at me after heaving a hulking elf over his shoulder. I waved at him and he waved back. We continued past his group and Xavier let go of my hand as he approached another. 

 “Anthony!” Xavier called and the tallest of the men in the group turned his attention to us. Xavier motioned for him to come to us and he nodded. I watched him move fluidly through the group; gliding smoothly across the ground as if he were floating. He stood in front of us and bowed his head to me and shook Xavier’s arm like warriors do. 

 “Captain?” Anthony said and glanced at me. “Queen Cleovanna?”

 “The Queen requires your computer skills to help navigate her father’s computer system. You are to be at her service and do as she asks,” Xavier ordered in a kindly way.

 “I’m honored,” Anthony said and bowed to me again. “May I go clean up first? I’ve been training all morning.”

 “We can begin after lunch,” I said. “And please, call me Cleo. It still feels strange to be called Queen and I never liked being called Cleovanna. Usually it meant I was in trouble.”

 “Miss Cleo then,” he offered. “It feels too informal to call you directly by name.” 

 “You’ll warm up to it,” I said with a smile. “You may continue to train and then have lunch. I’ll meet you by the stairs in the main hall directly after.”

 He smiled then bowed to me again before returning to his group. I liked Anthony and felt we’d get along just fine. Xavier smiled at him and we headed back to the main hall. The trainers and warriors often eat their meals here before going back to train more or returning to their rooms to rest. 

 After lunch, I hurried over to the stairs to find Anthony waiting for me. He looked freshly showered and wearing jeans and a T-shirt that fit tightly over his chest and arms. His wild red hair were in long dreads tied neatly together with a leather strap. His warm green eyes found me and he smiled before bowing his head. 

 “Ready Miss Cleo?” He asked.

 I smiled at him and nodded. We headed up to the third floor where the offices were. I showed Anthony the computer and he sat down and immediately began to typing and tapping on the keyboard. In almost no time at all he pulled up a window I hadn’t seen before and realized this was what I was looking for. 

 “Wow you’re good!” I gasped. He chuckled as he went to stand up. I pushed him down by the shoulders. “No no I’m going to need you to do this, I know the second you walk away I’m gonna be calling you back in here.” 

 “Anything you need Miss Cleo,” he replied and turned back to the computer. “What shall we search for?”

 “Victor,” I replied. “I don’t know his last name or where he’s from, but he’s a vampire.” 

 “I know where we can search for vampires,” Anthony said and started tapping on the keyboard.

 A new website popped up and it seemed to be a directory. Anthony entered in his name into the search bar. Thousands of names popped up. We needed to find a way to narrow down that list.

 “When you saw Victor,” Anthony said. “Did he have an accent?”

 “No,” I answered. “Not that I could tell. He seemed incredibly strong, so he could be old. Plus he had some strange invisible shield around him. Pluto tried to blast him with an energy orb and it shattered before it even touched him. But when he was close to my father, the force of father’s light blast knocked him off his feet but it didn’t leave a mark.”

 “That’s strange,” Anthony said with a furrowed brow. “Vampires don’t have those abilities. Their gifts are more on the offensive side than defensive.”

 “How could he do that then?” I asked. “Fairy magic,” he replied. “A fairy gave him a protection spell. And since you’re father was able to have an effect, it leads me to believe that it was a light fairy.”

 “What?” I gasped. “But how? Who?”

 “A fairy has to bless the vampire,” Anthony answered. “As for who, it had to be someone who did it with love. That’s why your fathers light blasts didn’t hurt Victor, just knocked him back.”

 “But how could a fairy love a vampire?” I asked and my stomach knotted in my stomach. “A vampire will feed off a fairy until their dead. They’re pure darkness and we’re nothing but light. Even the dark fae are made of light!” 

 “It’s completely unheard of,” Anthony said. “But not exactly impossible.”

 “What do you mean?” I asked.

 “If the bond is strong enough and the vampire is controlled enough,” he said. “If they’ve shared blood then they’d be blood tied. And if their protection spell was that strong to absorb direct light blasts, then I’m almost certain they are blood tied.” 

 “Okay,” I said and tried to swallow the disgust at the thought blood sharing with a vampire. “I can’t think of a single fairy that would ever be near a vampire. Would you mind helping me update my father’s systems? I doubt he’s done any kind of computer maintenance in the last decade.” 

 “Certainly Miss Cleo,” he said.

 “Will you be okay on your own?” I asked. “I need to step out and discuss what you told me about Victor being blood tied to a fairy with the other captains. Maybe Pluto can have some insight.” 

 “How has Pluto been doing?” Anthony asked as he tapped on the keyboard bringing up multiple windows with bunch of letters and numbers. 

 “Better,” I replied watching his fingers fly. “I think having so many fae around is helping him heal faster. It took a lot out of him to hit Victor with that energy orb and then having to crawl while cloaked all the way to the escape house.” 

 “I’ll find you when I’m done,” he said. “It may take a couple hours, this system is basically obsolete. I’m shocked it hasn’t crashed yet. I’ll need to update it through everything before I can do the most recent.”

 “There’s coffee in the kitchenette down the hall,” I sighed. “There’s a bathroom over there so you won’t have to go wandering around.” 

 “Thank you Miss Cleo,” he replied with a smile. 

 “Good luck!” I called to him as I headed out of the office.

 I decided that Pluto would be the best bet to discuss this new development with. Everyone was still in afternoon training and I didn’t want to bother them. Besides, if anyone knew anything about vampires, Pluto was the eldest fae in North America. I hurried out of the main hall to the cottage that we had settled Pluto into. I hadn’t seen him since we arrived, but I had spoken to the other survivors who live with him and gotten updates.

 I knocked briskly on the cottage door, but I didn’t receive any kind of response. I gently opened the door and it swung open. I peeked inside and saw there was no one in the living room or kitchen. I felt awkward walking in, but I wanted to tell someone about a fairy being blood tied to a vampire. 

 “Pluto?” I called out loudly from the front door. “It’s Cleo, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

 “Cleo?” I heard Pluto’s voice. “Come on in, I’ll be out in a minute.”

 I closed the door behind me and sat at the kitchen table. Shortly after, I saw Pluto’s tall form slowly walk in. He smiled at me as he took a seat beside me at the table. He looked better than that last I had seen him, but he still seemed a bit sore and slow moving.

 “I’m not as young as I used to be,” he chuckled when he saw the concern on my face. “But I’ll be alright. To what do I owe this visit from the Queen?”

 “I have something I need to talk about,” I replied. “While Anthony was helping me with my father’s computer, we started talking about Victor. Anthony has some very interesting theories; like a light fairy being blood tied to Victor and blessing him with a protection spell that would protect him against your energy orb and father’s light blasts.”

 Pluto gasped and his eyes widened. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!” 

 “You’ve been healing,” I reminded him. “I didn’t know what it meant either. But now we need to find out who the fairy is.”

 “That’s not the only way a fairy could bless a vampire,” he replied as he thought about it. “Vampires have gifts that help them be the conniving, underhanded, gap-fanged bastards they are. All they need to do is look you in the eye and they can have you under their command. Victor could have commanded a fairy to bless him.”

 “Anthony said that the spell was strong so that it meant that they are blood tied,” I said. “Could he have commanded the fairy to share blood?” 

 “It’s possible,” he sighed.

 “Do you think Victor could have used his power on Chloe to make her surrender?” I asked. “That would explain why she would do such a thing!” 

 “Yet another possibility,” Pluto nodded his head sadly. “I couldn’t see them well enough. I was trying to get out of the way so nobody stepped on me.”

 “I understand,” I said. “Victor had to have used his powers on a fairy to bless him. I couldn’t think of anyone who would willingly blood tie with a vampire let alone love one.”

 “I’d say a dark fae possibly,” he chuckled. “I know a few who have been tempted by fangs. It didn’t end well for them though. But Anthony is right about the fairy being of Light. My orb would have connected like your fathers light blasts if it was.” 

 I shuddered in my chair at the thought. A light fairy would never willingly drink vampire blood or let a vampire drink theirs. But how could it be possible? Is their powers that strong it would overcome our fairy senses? 

 “Pluto?” I asked after we had sat quietly in our own thoughts for several minutes. “How come the vampires could be out in the daylight?” 

 “Now that, I have no clue about,” he sighed. “I’ve never heard of vampires being able to wake during the day let alone walk in sunlight. But now that I think about it, the sky was overcast when I was crawling to the escape house.”

 “But it was sunny when I arrived and the vampires attacked shortly after that,” I replied. “How’s that possible?”

 “I’m afraid I don’t know that either,” he replied. “Usually when I’m confronted with more questions than answers, I go to the council library and do research. Would you happen to have a library here?”

 “We do,” I said. “But I don’t know if there’s much on vampire lore.”

 “I’ll make do with what you have,” he said. “Where’s it located?” 

 “It’s in the main hall on the third floor with the offices,” I replied. “I can take you there if you’d like.” 

 Pluto stood up stiffly and he stretched his back. His limbs sounded like tree branches creaking and groaning. He peered out the window at the sunny sky and the green grass. He slid his sandals off his feet and picked them up in his hand.

 “I’m going to go bare foot,” he said. “My toes are itching for some sun kissed grass.” 

 I chuckled and slid my feet out of my flip flops. I usually dressed casually around the grounds. I held my shoes in my hand and offered my arm to Pluto. He smiled as he took it and we stepped out into the sunlight. We walked quietly through the grass. I soaked in the sunlight and felt my energy recharge.

 We entered the main hall and approached the stairs. Pluto didn’t look like he’d be able to last long going up three flights of stairs. I reached over and took his hand. I held him tightly as I began to levitate off the floor. Pluto looked over at me and then at our hands as he began to lift up off the ground. We smiled at each other and began to float up the stairs effortlessly. 

 “That was delightful,” he chuckled when we were safely on the third floor. “I can only float if I conjure a strong wind which is not conducive for being inside.”

 “It took me forever to learn levitation,” I chuckled. “Chloe always managed to master our abilities first. She’d make me so jealous floating around the room while I could barely get my toes off the floor.”

 I led Pluto down the hall to the huge grand doors half way down the hall. I gently pushed the doors open and entered the large library. We walked to the desk and I looked around for librarian.

 “Oh oh Queen Cleovanna!” Squeaked a tiny little man as he scurried over to us. I stood over the Brownie and he smiled up at me and then his eyes widened when he took in Pluto.

 “Hello Absidy!” I said with a smile. “This is Pluto.” 

 “Yes,” the little man squeaked. “I see, Hello there.”

 Pluto bowed to the brownie then knelt down slowly to shake his hand with a finger. Absidy smiled at him. 

 “How can I help you today?” Absidy asked.

 “Do we have any books on vampires?” I asked.

 “Fiction or non fiction?” He replied. 

 “Nonfiction of course,” I replied and he chuckled. 

 “We don’t have many options for nonfiction vampire,” Absidy said. “Mostly texts used for the young fledglings. But your father should have some in his study. Any time I’d come across a book about other supernatural creatures he’d put it in there to study and learn.” 

 “Thank you!” I said. “I’ll bring Pluto to the study instead.” 

 “If there’s anything else you need, don’t hesitate to ask Queen Cleo,” Absidy said with a smile. 

He put his little hand up and I pressed the tip of my finger to it. Pluto and I turned around and left the library. I had completely forgot about fathers study. I never knew the books on his shelves were about different creatures. But I knew he’s spend hours in his study reading. 

 “Let’s check on Anthony while we’re up here,” I said and wandered down the hall to the door at the end. 

Pluto followed slowly behind me. The door was slightly ajar so I knocked lightly before peeking my head in. Anthony was bent over the screen and grumbling to himself as he pressed keys on the keyboard.

 “How’s it going?” I asked. Anthony looked up at me and smiled. 

 “Slow,” he chuckled. “I need to completely restore everything. It may be a good time to update to a new machine Miss Cleo.”

 “I have a laptop in my room,” I suggested. “Could you transfer everything onto that?” 

 “Yes!” He said. “That would be a lot easier!”

 “I’m headed to the house now,” I replied. “Pluto is going to find some vampire books on my fathers study. I’ll grab it and bring it back.”

 “I’ll go with you,” he replied standing up. “You’ve already done enough going back and forth.” 

 “I don’t mind,” I said. “But if you want to take a fresh air break I’m not going to stop you. Pluto’s right out here with me.” 

 Anthony followed me out to the hall and smiled cheerfully at Pluto then bowed his head low before giving a strange little salute. Pluto bowed his head in return and saluted him the same way. 

 “Anthony,” Pluto smiled and shook his hand. “It’s been awhile how’s the light fairies treating you?”

 “Very well,” he replied and smiled. “I find it much more to my liking.”

 “How do you know each other?” I asked. 

 “Anthony is a nymph,” Pluto replied. “He was born to one of my fledglings. But he seemed to have a very caring disposition which isn’t typical for dark fae. I could see that the dark was too much for him so I suggested her try a light colony.” 

 “Pluto introduced me to Captain Xavier and I moved there shortly after,” Anthony added. 

 “I didn’t know you were a dark fae,” I said surprised. 

 “It’s not something I talk about often,” he replied. “Most fae assume I’m dark because I’m a nymph.” 

 “I wondered what race you were,” I said softly. “I had never seen anyone as tall as Pluto before.”

 “Wood nymphs are known for their stature,” he chuckled. “But I get mistaken for elf more often than not since I’m light.” 

 “Anthony is going to accompany us to the house,” I said to Pluto and he nodded approvingly. 

 The three of us walked back to my house. It didn’t take long as our house was the closest to the hall. I took Pluto to the study first. He was mesmerized by the amount of books in fathers study and smiled like a little boy in a toy store. 

 “Oh I’m going to be spending some time in here Queen Cleo,” he said. “Is that alright?”

 “Absolutely,” I replied with a smile. “The house is really quiet without father and Chloe. I would love some company. Duncan’s been here with me.” 

 “He’s a good warrior,” Anthony said. “I’m not surprised he immediately alleged himself to you. You’ll have a life long body guard with Duncan. Very loyal and protective.”

 “Yes,” I said with a smile. “Duncan’s been a huge comfort since this whole thing began. He’s quickly become a confidant.”