Bloodlines

by Trisha Lynn

.~.

  .... Loki ....

  His mind was dark from the transgression that had passed between Adeila and the human teenager. He'd had to severely rope in the overwhelming urge to rip the childish boy’s throat out when he'd heard what he had done. A bet? What was wrong with these humans? What a completely cruel and asinine act. He could read that the boy had developed some feelings towards Adeila. Loki could sense it. But who could come back from such a colossal betrayal, even the dim mind of the human boy understood that. He knew Adeila, there was no way she would take the boy back after such an act, and he was thankful in that moment for her stubbornness and strong-will. Not that he would be admitting that to her any time soon.

  Loki's emotions; at least the sinful ones, had been on overdrive. He'd sincerely thought, as had Magistra, that the curse or should he say “curses” as he knew there were numerous ones, would sever when he came through the portal to the human realm; but such was not the case. He did realize that the farther he was from the portal the urges lessened, slightly. At school they were bearable. At Adeila's home, and the house they rented they were barely tolerable and it took much of his control to stamp them down. He felt so weak. He felt like a failure. How did he let himself get cursed? He was a complete fool.

  Shaking off the angry thoughts, he allowed his focus to shift completely to Adeila, which made the curse's effects flare, but he tried his best to force them down as he looked upon her. Her eyes were slightly red and swollen, her hair fell perfectly down her back, her emotions were masquerading across her blue eyes and stunning face.

  He'd been planning a small birthday get together for her since the day after returning to this realm. The Queen had given him some gifts for Adeila just before leaving Fae, which had been brought to the house by some of his agents. The Queen had insisted on the opening of one specific gift first, a gift made specifically for the Princess. Something that could then be used right after it's opening. He knew what the gift was, and knew how much it would mean to Adeila. When Deleana had first given them to him, he'd just assumed he'd have Adeila come over and open them, he'd give her his gift and then be done with it, but it was clear when they had returned to the school Monday, and he saw how obvious it was that her decision to come back to the human realm may not have begun as well as she'd hoped, he'd decided on the small gathering and had called in Kami to ensure that she would be able to make it to the human realm for a short amount of time on Friday. He had a few things he wanted her to work on in Faerie so he made it an excuse to have her come to him.

  The Marla situation had him frazzled and he needed Kami to do some recon for him back in Faerie. So he decided that instead of mirror chatting with her, he would kill two birds with one stone and speak to her while she was here in the mortal realm, and make sure that Adeila would have her here for the gathering. He knew they had hit it off and that Adeila would be happy to see Kami. He wished she could spend this celebration of birth with her real parents but he knew that they would be back to Faerie and to the King and Queen sooner than Adeila anticipated. It was hard to be in the human realm once you'd been to the Fae realm. Kami even said that she could only do a few weeks in the human realm now before her spirit began to wane from being away from Faerie. For him it was only a day or two before he began feeling the homesickness. Although that lessened now with Adeila around. Now he began feeling uncomfortable and strange when he was away from the girl for more than a few hours. He hoped that was some strange effect of the curse that Marla had put on him, or the blood oath he'd taken from her very powerful father, or a combination of the two.

  His thoughts went back to the pull of the rings effects on him. It was instantaneous and he almost panicked thinking she was in trouble. He'd already been in his falcon form watching the house from the driveway.

  When he'd hovered before her window and watched her, his heart clenched as she lay there; sadness, betrayal and confusion coming off of her in waves, but it was what was in her hands that shocked him. She twirled a feather around her fingers. His feather. Did she know it was his?

  Surprise had passed across her beautiful features when he tapped on the window with his beak before she'd hopped up and come to the window.

  When she'd left him briefly to clean herself up a bit, he'd taken the time to look around her room. He assumed it was a pretty average teenager’s room. She had a twin size oak framed bed, night stands, dresser, walk in closet with mirrors, and a round chair next to a bookshelf overflowing with books. She had several framed photos of her and Marissa and one of her and her brother when he was four or five. She had no others of her family at all. That was a shame, he thought. She had some rocks, stones, driftwood and plants scattered throughout the room. He couldn't help but smile. Earth Fae needed to always be in touch with things of nature, even if they aren't aware they were Fae.

  The entire drive to the rented house, he didn't dare say a word. He was afraid he'd mess up the surprise somehow. Let something slip. He'd never before surprised someone like this. Especially not someone who wasn't used to getting surprised. She deserved this. The past few months had to have been torturous to her system; an entire upheaval of everything she'd ever known. It was only right to give something back to her, to let her know that no matter what, there were people that cared. Her real parents would do anything for her now. Anything. It was only right that she learned the depth of that.

  Now seeing Adeila's smile, her face transform from contained anger and betrayal to that of sheer surprise and happiness had his heart skittering out of rhythm. He knew that his decision to put this together, even wrangling Kami and Saibol to help him, had been a good idea. He also loved when she turned to him, touching his arm gently, sending barely contained shivers of excitement and electricity along his every pore. Her eyes were clearer then they had been ten minutes ago, and he was thankful that he was able to be part of what changed them, and what caused her glorious smile to spread across her face. The emotions in her eyes were so shocked, and grateful, he couldn't help but return the smile.

  “I can't... I … Wow, Loki. Thank you so much! This is-”

  “You deserve it, Adi. Enjoy.” He could see the shock register further in her eyes at the use of her nickname, and then her eyes filled with a glimmer of emotion he couldn't quite read, but before he could decipher it, the masses had descended on them. A.K.A. Kami. So he gave up her attention for that of his friends and team. Now her friends.

  .~.

  .... Adeila ....

  She was completely stolen for breath. She'd had no idea how he'd orchestrated this but from what Kami said, it was entirely his idea. She, Saibol and Sorryn had just helped set up. Adelia stole glances at him briefly as she mingled with his team.

  Loki calling for Kami to come here to be with her for her birthday was the single sweetest thing he could have ever done. She'd missed the girl more then she'd even realized, until she'd seen her beautiful face, set with the loveliest gray blue eyes and short blonde hair. They'd hugged, hard and long. Adeila was just lost for words. Her parent's - adopted parents - had stopped doing birthday parties for her when she turned six and she hadn't realized she'd missed them until this moment. Even though she'd only known all of these people a short time they felt like hers. Her family. People that truly cared for her well-being. It may have mostly been about kingdom loyalty but it was a start, it was more than she could say for some.

  There were a few presents on the table from her parents, but Loki said she had to save them for later. Just seeing her mother's handwriting across the tags had her missing them. Her father's booming laugh, her mother’s smell of fresh lavender and vanilla. Having known them such a short time, she now felt a hole in her heart from being away from them. She realized then that what she was feeling was like homesickness, and that thought surprised and humbled her. She knew where she needed to be; now it was figuring out when it was a good time to go back. The revelation hit her like a ton of bricks, and took her aback. Sighing, she put that thought in the back of he
r mind, along with Erik, and Marissa and her adopted parent issues and enjoyed the moment. Enjoyed her little birthday party and the people here and now.

  Kami had bought her a beautiful, baby blue cashmere-like material sweater, but far softer. The Fae just made things better, apparently. It was gorgeous, and Adeila had never received a gift so perfect for her. Well, other than the ring that Loki had given her. She twirled it around her fingers. That however, hadn't been a gift more as it was means of communication. At least that's what she told herself whenever her heart skipped a beat when she looked at it, and how she now twirled it along her finger as a nervous or bored habit. How just the touch of it, or seeing it, brought about the image of a ruggedly handsome face set by golden eyes, and framed by hair so dark brown it edged on black.

  Saibol and Sorryn followed the same suit as Kami and had gotten her a gorgeous scarf of the same super soft Faerie material, but with swirls of white and dark blue woven in with the light blue. She surprised herself by tearing up just a little, and hugging all three of them twice. The final gift, aside from her parent’s handful of gifts, was from Loki.

  She felt herself tense just a bit when she saw the very simple burgundy wrapping paper and rectangular shaped box. Her eyes found his and were enraptured in their golden depths; if she'd thought that would help she was extremely misguided. It made the entire thing even more unnerving.

  Finally, after a gulp, she pulled her eyes from his and back to the gift. She picked up the box, finding it fairly light and resisted the urge to shake it. Its contents for some reason made her excited beyond words, even having no idea what this gift could be, but it also completely unnerved her because of the giver. She licked her lips and looked around. Sorryn smiled and nodded to her. He clearly knew what this was. His nod made her feel somewhat better.

  Finally, she set the seemingly innocent box on top her thighs, after swallowing again; she began unwrapping the gift with nervous gentleness. When finally the wrapping paper fell away she was left with leather bound book and several birch pencils. It was devoid of any words on the front or spine, so she opened up the cover to find absolutely nothing written inside. It was evidently a journal.

  Just as her eyes lifted to reach Loki's, Saibol's lilted voice pulled her eyes to her direction instead.

  “Isn't that one of Mom's magical top secret journals?”

  Adeila's eyes went to Loki, for confirmation. He nodded and then stepped closer to her; she looked at both of them in confusion.

  He looked down at her, a gentle look of what she may have mistaken for fondness passed across his face. “This journal has magic infused within it. It is an item invented, or at least infused and exploited by Magistra. Not many people can infuse items with magic; it is not something that can easily be done. You must have a special affinity for it. Magistra happens to be the only person within Oakend that can do such things. So she is able to make a decent amount of “magical” items.”

  Adeila nodded, retaining that information as he continued, “Everything you write inside this journal is invisible to everyone but you, or someone you choose to be a confidant. It is a tool we've used many times for sensitive team operation plans that we don't want others to discover. In fact it is a useful tool for anything you do not want anyone to discover. Your father has several of these style products with battle tactics, political information and things of that nature written on them. It is only visible to those that spill blood on the cover page and infuse it with a secret word. So you must combine the blood and word the first time you write something upon it. After that you must write the secret word on the cover page to access the words.”

  He paused and licked his lips. “Since in the mortal human realm you can't really document anything about the Fae world, this gives you an outlet, since I am quite sure at some point it will get a bit stifling; so I got this so you can write things down. Your reflections, questions or notes. So we can perform the simple magical ritual whenever you wish it.”

  Adeila was shocked; what a thoughtful gift. She felt the urge to hug him but knew both of them would likely be uncomfortable with such a display, so she just sat there staring at the beautiful deep red leather cover. Finally getting up the nerve she met his eyes, and half whispered, half breathed, “Thank you.”

  He flashed a brief smile and nodded.