Page 61 of Jared

He turned his head towards the door as he heard the sound of hurried footsteps. The door flung open, “Thank goodness you're awake!” Alice exclaimed. “Dr. Schaeffer said you were all right, but you had that lump on your head and we were all so worried!”

“Now, Alice, don't smother him,” Alan said from the doorway as Alice enveloped Jared in a hug. She released him and turned to give Alan a stern look. “I'm not smothering him. A mother is allowed to hug her child and since he's Steve's, he's mine too.”

“Can't win an argument with her, Dad,” Steve said, also entering the room.

Alan sighed. “She does have her way of winning.”

Alice smiled in triumph. “I certainly do.” She fussed with Jared's covers. “Did Steve tell you the men are in prison? Their trial is set two days from now. No one wanted to delay it much, and the doctor said you should be able to attend in two days, so that's when it's been set for.”

Jared swallowed and looked over towards Alan. “Do...do I have to see them?”

“Only to point them out,” he reassured him. “Same as Silas. “

“Silas will be helping shuttle those agents back and forth so they aren't missed. The men are being held at the Seelie Court, but the trial will be here.”

“No time distortion for them then,” Steve said.

“That'd be awkward,” Jared agreed.

“We should let Jared rest,” Alan said.

Alice looked disappointed, but nodded. She dropped a kiss on Jared's cheek. “I'm sorry our trip was spoiled,” she whispered.

“Not your fault,” he whispered back.

Alice looked into his eyes searchingly for a moment, then nodded. “Try to get some sleep. Once the baby's here, that'll be in short supply. Steve used to sleep in half hour bursts, I'm telling you. And Dale, Dale was a real night owl.”

“You can tell him all about it another time,” Alan said.

“I'm coming, don't nag,” she said in a clearly exaggerated tone of exasperation.

“Who, me?” Alan quipped, widening his eyes in innocence.

“See what I had to put up with growing up?” Steve said as his parents left.

“Mm hmm. And you love it,” Jared replied.

“Yeah, now you get some sleep,” Steve said as he maneuvered himself on top of the covers on the other side of the bed. “I'll be right here.

Jared closed his eyes, convinced he wouldn't be able to sleep. Despite the low, persistent throb of his head, it didn't take him long to prove himself wrong.

R.W. had to hand it to them, the wheels of justice certainly moved a lot swifter in their world than it did in the human one. Once Jared had been found and the two men caught, things moved very fast. The two men were kept locked up by the Fae court while the case was prepared. He'd checked out some of the physical evidence, including the shirt the men's one dead victim had been wearing. Less than a week after the Jared's rescue, here they all stood, in what appeared to be a remote corner of garden on one side of the pack's headquarters. The trial was over- he'd been asked to let various wolves, vampires, and Fae to sniff the shirt of the one dead victim while Jared, Steve, and Silas all had been asked to verify that these two men were the same men who had committed the various offenses. The two men had been questioned by the Fae court's interrogators after he and James had shared all they'd learned during their investigation. The two men seemed to think they were invincible. They not only had readily confessed to everything when asked, though insisted they had not intended to kill anyone. Given the severity of their crimes, that doesn't mitigate things much though. A guy still died and they hurt so many people who will have to live with what they did for the rest of their lives. One of their victims is the son of the king too, and another the mate of the next Alpha. They'll be lucky to keep their heads, I reckon.

The two men, now known to be New Jersey residents Robert James and Rayvon Trice , stood before the Seelie King, Laurie, and Alan Chang. Robert had a smirk on his face while Rayvon looked towards Jared and gave him a half lidded look before blowing him a kiss. It didn't go unnoticed and Steve was not the only wolf in attendance to growl in anger. Rayvon merely cocked his head to one side and gave a mocking salute.

Very lucky indeed, RW. amended.

Laurie stepped forward. “We are all gathered here today to render the punishment earned by Robert James and Rayvon Price. Having been found guilty of serious crimes both in the human world and here in ours, it has been determined that the punishment should not only be swift, but made to fit the crime. Having deprived one man of his life, it is the decision of the court that they be deprived of theirs. And just as each of their other victims will go through life imprisoned by the memories of what was done to them, so they also must be.” Laurie stepped back.

Alan Chang stepped forward. “The decision was therefore made to not allow them release through death, but rather an eternity spent having to reflect on their deeds. Some of their victims may never be able to move past the emotional and physical damage these men inflicted upon them, and so these men will be unable to escape the consequences.” He then also stepped back.

The Seelie King stepped forward. “Dungeons and barred cells are not escape proof and rely on unsympathetic guards. While we would hope that no one would be sympathetic, nor would anyone be bribable, we could never be one hundred percent sure that it could never, ever happen. We owe it to their victims to make sure they serve their full sentence, and so we find ourselves here, in this garden. We call upon the magic of the Veil itself to administer the punishment, and to ensure they never escape.” King Ashwood raised his scepter and tapped the ground.

The Fae guards let go of their prisoners' arms and stepped well back. The air about the two men became hazy. Soon they were enshrouded in an impenetrable mist. At the same moment, a mist arose encircling the area of garden in which the assemblage was gathered. A silence fell, so final that it was a true absence of all sound. Slowly, the mist began to clear, first along the edges of the garden, revealing tall hedges and a tall double garden gate made of wood. Sounds began to trickle back into their awareness, first the sound of their own breathing, then the rustling of the blades of grass and leaves of nearby trees in a softly blowing breeze, then the startled call of a bird. Last to clear was the mist about the two prisoners.

A collective gasp went up from several throats. R.W. was unsure if his voice had uttered one of them as his whole body felt momentarily paralyzed by what was revealed. Jared was the first to actually speak.

“They're...they're statues!”