Deception (Facets of Feyrie Book 3), page 9
Once I free this guy, I plan on making my way home. There are too many things I need to get done and not enough time. Plus, Phobe is mad at me, and well, I’ve got to fix that. It outranks everything but taking a bath, because man, I stink.
Busting open the apartment door I stand there gaping at the man tied upside down in the chair, naked. The blue of his eyes is super bright in the dimly lit room. His other nature peeks out of his human façade. This guy is one-hundred percent Feyrie. Overlaying the average looking human face, I can see the monster he becomes. Michael might be thrilled to know that another of his kind exists here. The biggest question I have right now is, how did they catch such a powerful Feyrie and hold him so easily?
“Are you going to stand there staring like an idiot or are you going to free me?” Well, what a pretentious twat, maybe I should leave him there like that with his man bits just hanging out all over.
“I think I’ll take option three,” I answer.
“What is option three?”
“I could just cut your dick off and shove it in your mouth BEFORE I leave you there to die.” His body tenses, his brain has kicked in now.
“Shit, you’re her.” He sounds so happy about this fact.
“Of course, I’m her. Now, I have some questions for you, Mr. Blood Prince.”
“Can you untie me first?” He sounds much more contrite now, but I’m still tempted to leave him tied to the chair. Instead, I cross to him and grab a handful of the chains holding him. The Light Magiks in them turn my stomach, but it’s not too much for me to deal with. With a final pull, they snap in my hands, and he slumps down over the side with a grunt of pain. Of course, I leave him there in the man puddle on the ground.
Slowly, he climbs to his feet and dusts himself off like he’s wearing a five-piece suit. Pretentious twat was a dead-on observation but… the Dark Magiks say he’s not so bad. He’s loyal, and he cares about his people, our people. Whispering as I walk around him, the Magiks tell me all that they can about the Feyrie who escaped the slaughter of his people by coming here.
The Magiks push at me to tell him where to go, and I do, but I do so reluctantly. People like him and I don’t get along well. The scenarios are already alive in my mind of us butting heads. Dane, yes that’s his name… here anyhow, is an arrogant know-it-all who is used to doing things his way. Well, that’s not going to happen.
“How did you end up naked in a chair?” I ask, snooping through the papers on the desk in the room. There’s nothing but magazines and nudie pictures. No receipts, no detailed directions to Jameson. How annoying.
“I foolishly trusted that bitch that ran away.”
I can hear him behind me, it sounds like he’s putting clothes on.
“Stinky? Yeah, she seems to be in the thick of things. Any idea who’s pulling her strings?” I turn and discover he is dressed, in bright pink sweat pants. It’s a genuine struggle not to laugh because they’re at least three inches too short and skin tight.
“No, my father was a firm believer in the prophecy… are you her?” Walking closer to him I pull the glitter covered strings holding up his pants, tight and tie them. Don’t need his little buddy poking out again.
“You’re going to want to gather anyone that’s loyal to you and take them with you. The Sidhe is one of the few safe places for us, at least for now.” I decide that answering is the question is pointless. He can figure things out on his own.
“There aren’t many, but I have a child.”
“Is she safe?” Because if they have her, I will leave Jameson to rot a little while longer to get her out.
“Yes, for now.”
“Good, do you need money?” He stares at me, weighing me with his gaze, then nods.
“Let me go find my wallet. I’m sure its out there somewhere.” Turning, I go back out to the bloody walkway and dig around in the bodies for my wallet. Eventually, I find it and hand him a wad of money. Without another word, other than the address of the Sidhe, I turn and leave. He can make his way there, I’ve got a pissed off god man to go home to.
P hobe
WHEN THE FORLORN FOUND HER, my annoyance traveled through him. She stood mostly naked and bloody, with a fucking smirk on her face—while a human stood there with a gun pointed at her. There were dozens of vampire’s corpses scattered around, which does not count the ones her fiends devoured. She killed them all, alone, and even though I was momentarily proud of her for that, it pisses me off that she snuck away while I was gone. If there had been someone waiting for her… someone more powerful than her, I would have lost her. All because of her stubbornness.
Not to mention, she got the pleasure of killing things while I was stuck reading dusty old books and dealing with a pissed off records keeper—that I could not kill—all for her. It did not dissuade her from going off like a complete simpleton, half-cocked, all because of an imp that is not worth any of this. I want to bloody strangle her!
The hours I have spent pacing in front of this doorway, waiting for her to come walking through it, only made me think more deeply about the situation. There was no point in my going after her, not when she is coming here, but in hindsight, it might have been better for both of us. All this waiting, pacing, and thinking has made me angrier than I might have otherwise been.
When the door creaks open, echoing with a guilty muttered curse word, I lean against the wall and watch her try to tiptoe inside. Of course, she trips over someone’s shoes, the rug, and manages to somehow knock a picture off the wall. Full on cursing now, she runs a hand through her hair and her eyes land right on me.
“Hi,” she says. Guilt and ire war in her eyes and I watch guilt win. This is interesting, she acted out like a child—and somehow managed to make it home, looking like she does, without ending up in a human jail. Then she holds her arm up, and I see the handcuffs dangling.
“Did you have fun?” I ask, no longer angry, because after searching through her thoughts—I find myself rather amused. Iza exposed our existence to the world, which hiding was a stupid endeavor, to begin with. Nonetheless—she felt the same way and rectified it. The reasoning of it is rather solid. She is preparing them for what is coming.
She came all the way home, bloody, monstrous and proud of it.
“A bit, at least up until the twentieth cop tried to arrest me. He sprayed me in the face with that awful shit and managed to get cuffs on me before I ripped his car door off. Which,” she takes a drink of water that a goblin popped in to hand her, “I left cuffed to the door with those plastic things they carry. They’re much more effective than these metal things,” she says, holding her wrist up and shaking the broken cuffs. She takes another long swallow of water. “Thankfully they have the instructions written on them, or I’d have not been able to do it so effectively.”
The image of the human spread eagle on the car door flits through her head. It is a small battle to keep the smile off my face. Once I start to study her, it is less of a battle because the urge to smile fades away. Her skin is coated in flaky dried blood, some places the blood is darker which tells me it is an injury she was given. The large shirt she is wearing is stiff in places with it, a testament of how much blood her skin was coated in before she put it on. There are bits of guts and flesh in her hair and stuck to her in various places. She has on one shoe, a dirty, bloody sock, and her underwear under the shirt.
“Where are your clothes?”
“The armor tore most of them, the rest I’m not entirely sure. Once I started fighting… I kind of hyper-focused.” Finally, giving in to the creature that wants to assure itself she is safe, I step forward and pull her into my arms. For several seconds she stands there, stiff, but then melts into me, wrapping her arms around my waist and tucking her head under my chin.
“You stink.” I say into her smelly hair, then ask, “How did you acquire transportation?”
“I had a return ticket on the bus. I told them I had slaughtered dozens of vampires and needed to get home to my angry boyfriend,” she leans back and smiles up at me, “I’m not sure they believed me because they let me on the bus after the driver laughed so hard he about wet himself. They thought I was playing some sort of prank.” She sighs and continues, “I will tell you that the lady I sat next to didn’t appreciate my fragrance. She sprayed some awful perfume in the air every ten minutes. It was a long ride.”
“You should have waited for me.” I do not want to word it in a way that I come off as her master, because that is something I will never be, but I want her to understand the chance she took going alone. There is also, the fact that it pissed me off.
“Probably, but I survived so there’s no need to worry.”
“Did you find out anything useful?”
“Well, I found the perfumed vampire, but she ran away like a fucking coward. There were so many of her lackeys that I couldn’t bust through to get to her. I did manage to rescue the prince twit though, so he should be coming along soon. He had to go fetch his daughter in his pink sweat pants.” Her face lights up, and she steps back, out of my embrace. “I found him tied upside down, naked, in a hotel chair. Then when he started running his yap, I considered leaving him there, but these stupid Magiks wouldn’t let me.”
“He sounds like a winner.” She laughs at my sarcasm and then without another word turns and walks away. I know where she is going, the bathing pools are a beacon in her mind. She cannot stand the smell of herself anymore. Several minutes pass, while I wait for her to slide into the hot water. My mind conjures images of her lathering soap over her pale skin. The water is running red around her as she stands to rinse and wash a second time… I am walking before I complete the thought, and when I get there, I am not disappointed. She is the most stunning creation in existence. Standing, the water sleuthing off her muscular body, her hands run slowly up and down her sides, then her stomach and my eyes follow them like a starving man.
“I’m going to tell them tonight that I’m sending the Sidhe and everyone in it, away.” The seriousness of her voice pulls me out of the more lascivious thoughts I am having about her. If I pursue them, while she is having such a highly emotional moment, it will make her angry with me.
“Most of them will not react well.” Mainly her circle of children.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s happening whether they like it or not.” I want to argue with her again, I want to beat it into her thick head that she is putting herself in danger, but I do not. It is a pointless argument and will only put us on the outs again. We need to be a unit, not divided by this kind of stupid shit because I will not allow it.
“You still don’t agree, do you?” she asks quietly.
“No, but I do not think that will stop you either.” She shrugs and starts to wash again. Iza is simple about some things when her mind is made up, and there is no changing it, not even by the sweet face of Knox.
I study her a moment, her sweet scent pulling on me, all of me. As the water touches my bare feet, then climbs farther up my calves, I move closer to her. Her breath hitches and I hear her heartbeat increase, smell the pheromones filter into the air. This will ease her heat; it is what her body is demanding… what mine is demanding.
Her smile, slow and full of fire is all the invitation I need.
P hobe
AFTER OUR BATH, which left her much calmer and her heat temporarily sated, she calls everyone into the dining area of the Sidhe. A hum of tension projects from the Sidhe and fills the air. Boomeranging into the inhabitants and returning in full. It is so thick that if I wanted to, I could reach out and cut it with my claws. They know something bad is coming, something I still cannot agree with her on.
The research I left to do was not as helpful as I hoped, either. No matter how far back I went in the history books, the spell books, even the storybooks, I found no answers. The Sidhe is too unknown, by everyone. It was not created by any of the ‘gods,’ because it existed before they did. When my “awakening” happened, there were already other lifeforms on the many, many worlds. The Sidhe was one of them. Floating around, from place to place looking for its anchor.
Back then I did not have thoughts as I do now. Everything was instinctual and almost preprogrammed. There were intentions… but not actual words. One thing I knew then that I still believe now… there was something before Life and me, and Light. Before the three of us were. The Sidhe also came. First, I remember that it was old when I was still young but not as it is now. I did not know what it was then; I do not know what it is now.
It simply is.
There is nothing other than vague references and useless folklore about it. I dislike being uninformed, but this time there is no choice. We have a small chance that she will suffer no ill effects, but I am not holding out for anything to go in the right direction. Things never work out that simple in our lives. There are endless complications and plans going wrong at every corner we turn. Fate is against us, and that is fact.
One day I will hunt down those old bitches and eat them.
The room falls silent as Iza straightens from where she leans against the wall, moving to stand in front of the confused mass of people. Slowly, she looks around at the faces of those gathered, keeping her own carefully blank. I can see the truth of it, those sparkling eyes of hers are brimming with emotion. Her thoughts are dark, and angry, and even a little sad. She hates this but truly feels like it is the best way to protect them.
“Two Feyrie have died senseless deaths, deaths that I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t fight what killed them, because I’m failing as your Shepherd. I don’t know who our enemy is. I don’t know if I can defend you against them. But… I do know that there are a few things I can do to delay—to hide you, from them. Tomorrow morning, I’m sending the Sidhe and all of its occupants away.”
The room erupts in noise and shouts, several louder than others. Knox among them. He is standing now, in the front, yelling at Iza for all he is worth. Her shoulders stiffen, but she does not look at him. Her thoughts tell me why. If she looks at him, she will give in to the guilt that is threatening to overwhelm her. It will eat her up, make her doubt herself—cause her pain.
“Enough!” My shout instantly silences the room. In a more normal voice, I continue, “It does not matter if you agree with her decision, because it is still her decision to make. Now, shut up and allow her to explain what will happen next.”
Iza does not even hesitate,. She jumps right in. “You will all be leaving in the morning. Once the danger has passed, then I shall either join you where you are or recall the Sidhe here. It will be up to the circumstances.” Other than the ones she is leaving to be safely separated from the others. Unfortunately, her Knox is among them.
“I hate you!” Knox yells and runs from the room. Pain flashes in her eyes but is quickly hidden.
“I’m not going, so don’t try to leave me. I’ll just follow you wherever you go,” Michael says, sounding much more mature than he did when she first found him. He too then turns and leaves the room. Ruthie looks at Iza with bright eyes and then follows suit without saying a word.
“My lady, we cannot allow you to go on this journey alone, it is our—”
“Auryn, I appreciate it, I do, but that little bundle in your arms is way more important than I am, and I need you to keep them all safe. You and Licar will be doing something super important for me.” Her eyes steadily hold Auryn’s who after a few seconds, nods.
“Take Adriem, at least,” I say quietly into the room. If I told her through our minds, she would have ignored me. This way calls her out, and the dirty look she shoots at me clarifies that fact.
I know she wants to argue, and even if I could not read her mind, the intent of her thoughts is clearly on her face. Her quick agreement makes me instantly suspicious. Her mind was full of arguments before I found myself blocked off from some by that obnoxious blue wall of singing creatures. It makes me want to hunt down whoever created them and rip their fingers off one at a time.
‘Temper. Temper, Phobe,’ she teases, instantly calming my brewing irritation.
‘Why do you insist on always hiding things from me? It fucking annoys me.’
Of course, she does not reply, instead of continuing to answer the questions of the Feyrie. Most of which revolve around their welfare, which I find rather unsurprising. Those are not thinking about the sacrifices she is making, they are thinking of the ones they need to make. Which are few and far between since they came here.
The silent ones are the ones whose thoughts are concerned for Iza, worried about what she is taking upon herself. Those are the people she is doing this for, putting herself in danger—hurting herself, it is all for them. As I skim their thoughts, I find them all centered on how they are going to sneak and help her anyhow. Some are planning on gathering others to provide support in any way they can while still seeming to obey her commands because they are loyal.
Subconsciously, her gaze skims over some of those silent people, and I watch the resolve harden in her eyes. Yes, these are the people she does this for. The ones she gets stupidly emotional for. That is why I hold my silence. I cannot fault her having honor. It is not something I practice but it means a lot to her, and I shall respect her beliefs.
This time.
“For those of you that think you’re going to ignore my orders and remain, your loyalty is appreciated, but I can’t allow it. The Sidhe will make sure you go.” Her words start up a clamor of denials and arguments.
“Does this mean you’re going to leave Jameson to rot because you selfishly want to run away?” The voice cuts through the murmur of voices like a knife. Iza’s head snaps up and focuses with steady ire on the tall form of Nika.
Why is that dragon so determined to piss her off? I try to skim her thoughts and find nothing but anger over the lack of Jameson’s presence. Nika is a rather shallow creature who, for the most part, is good and capable of great compassion. There are times when her thoughts are full of nothing but her desires, ones that Jameson does not share for the woman. Her desires are unhealthy and moments like this demonstrate it. She does not love the imp. She obsesses over him.
