Read Online Time Slipping by Elle Casey - Free Book Online Page A

her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Sam. I’ll straighten this out.”
    “Don’t touch me!” she screamed, grabbing my hand.
    Lucky for me, my latest training had included a little commando dwarf martial arts action. “Hands off the merchandise, bitch!” I part yelled and part grunted. I was no ninja, but I could fend off the attack of someone trying to mug me. Niles had been convinced I’d be an easy target for a pickpocket out in the real world, so he showed me all his best moves and made me practice them until I could do them in my sleep. I grabbed Samantha’s hand, shoved it off me, bent it backwards and twisted it around her back. Sam was no slouch with at least two inches and ten pounds on me, but I had her powerless now, in both magic and physical strength. Booyah! I am so totally a ninja right now.
    She was grunting with her attempts to get away and with the pain she had to be suffering. “Get off me! I’ll kill you, Jayne! I’ll kill you!”
    I grabbed her in a bear hug from behind. “Not tonight, my little witchy poo, and not in my dream. This is my world, baby!” I was laughing and grunting at this point, trying like hell to keep a hold on her. Her arms and legs were flailing all over the place, reminding me of Spike when he got a hug from one of the daemons. It hadn’t happened in a long time, but it was always impressive when it did. I tried to remember how Scrum did that daemon thing he did, wrangling inccubi and succubi and showing them who’s boss. It was like he squeezed their air off or something. Sam was gasping for breath, so I figured I was doing okay.
    “You give up yet?” I asked.
    “Never!”
    Something Scrum said flitted through my memory bank. He told me once that his will was stronger than Spike’s. That was how he was able to overcome a man who should have been able to beat him in a bear hugging contest.
    I closed my eyes and imagined my own will — my will to keep my friends alive and safe, my will to do my job as the Mother to the fae and the companion to Biad the dragon in the Underworld. I could not screw this up, no matter what, no matter what kind of crazy black magic was trying to keep me from being who I had to be.
    “Sam, you have to submit to me. Give it up. My will is stronger than that witch’s will. Do not let yourself be held by her.”
    I started to feel a little desperate when she continued to fight me. Something was telling me that Sam was my last hope. My voice got a little weepy. “You are my cousin and my friend, Sam. We are together. No one can break up the Blackthorn line. No one. We’re family.”
    As the last words washed over us, her struggles lessened and then soon ceased altogether. Her entire body slumped down and carried me with it. Together we collapsed on the floor in my dream room. My elbow hit the ground hard and instantly started to ache. Dammit. Should have imagined a wrestling mat beneath me.
    “Why do I feel so weak?” she whispered.
    “Because some witch bitch sucked the life out of you.” I stared up into the blank space above me and then imagined some stars being there, just to make it interesting. Suddenly my dream room looked like the night sky over the Infinity Meadow back home in the Green Forest.
    “That’s nice,” Sam said, a smile in her voice.
    “Glad you like it. Can we talk about you being a prisoner with all our friends now?”
    “If you want. You know I have no idea what you’re talking about, though, right?”
    “I figured. You’re being held captive by a witch and an ogre, maybe other fae I didn’t see too, in a B&B on the Isle of Skye.”
    “Why are we on the Isle of Skye?”
    “We’re on our field trip to go be with Biad in the Underworld.”
    “When did we leave?”
    “I don’t know. Yesterday? Today? About eighteen hours ago. And Tim and I are outside the house because he got blocked by some sort of anti-pixie spell. I’m sleeping in the car.”
    “Aren’t you worried they’ll come out to get