by E E Everly
“Do it, for peace of mind and body,” she says.
I nod. I hold the amulet to Kili’s chest. His eyelids flutter and his legs twitch as the amulet glows. “I’m sorry, boo.”
Then the power transfer’s over. Kili relaxes and purses his lips.
“Now give it to yourself,” Nat says.
“Now?”
“I need peace of mind. If you have vamp powers, then you’ll heal faster. You’ll outrun any vamps chasing you, and you can smell and hear them from a mile away.”
“I could use quite a bit of healing.” Though as a storm sprite I’m “supernatural” according to human lingo, my abilities include controlling the weather and setting up a few measly wards. My body has remarkable, accelerated healing if I consume ambrosia, but not nearly as instantaneous as a vampire’s healing.
I want to be careful to take just the vamp powers. I’ve siphoned about a dozen demons into the amulet as well, and I don’t need their powers. I don’t want to overwhelm my system. “Take the amulet out of my hand after three seconds. That should be enough time to absorb the powers I need.”
Natalia nods. It’s only powered by someone who has my blood, so Natalia can touch it with her bare hand, unless she’s drunk from me recently. But we don’t make that a thing, like ever.
I do not like when vamps drink from me. I mean, who in their right mind does?
I drop the amulet into my ungloved hand. I instantly stiffen and feel a peculiar warmth flush through me. My arms flinch, and a sense of vitality fills me. With a strange clarity, a thump thump enters my hearing. The smell of blood fills my nostrils. Though Kili is nestled between my legs on the bed, all the fine hairs on his shoulders become clear. Even the little pores on his face are in sharp focus.
Natalia scoops the amulet from my palm. “How do you feel?” She checks my neck. “It’s healed.”
I try not to freak out. She’s so loud. I blink my eyes. “Can you whisper?” I touch Kili’s cheek. He’s still real but in high-def. “You’ll have to give me a vamp crash course on how to control these powers.” I squeeze my eyes shut. “I feel dizzy.”
“You’ll get the hang of them,” Dumitru says. “I can’t vait to show you some moves.”
“One thing at a time.” I pick Kili up and prod my nipple. It’s healed. “Let’s try this again. Without the horrifying pain.”
THREE
One year later
I refused to give my son up during the first year of his life and send him to Belyven where he’d be safe with my mom. I also knew holding on to him for so long would make giving him up even harder. The truth is, I can’t keep him safe on Earth. Every supernatural being wants his storm sprite blood.
We’ve had too many close calls.
I was naïve to think that because his father was a vampire that the storm sprite scent on him would be diluted. That was foolish, wishful thinking. A vampire’s human anyway, a trapped, cursed soul in an undead human body. That’s all a vampire is. Their DNA doesn’t change.
Killian assured me that our son would not come out craving blood, that the human part would prevail. He was right. Because Kili was conceived by human sperm, he’s half storm sprite and half human. Well, actually…
I’m half storm sprite and half human, so I guess that makes Kili a quarter storm sprite. That quarter is enough for vampires and seed demons to crave his taste, especially since he’s young and fresh.
So here I am, in Killian’s old flat—with Natalia and Dumitru, my vampire bodyguards—clutching my son as I prepare to make the dangerous trek to my planet.
Dangerous because my planet will kill me. Dangerous because of the stupid curse on my head that says I have to stay exiled to Earth or I die.
Natalia helps me slide on a backpack full of things for Kili. It probably doesn’t matter. They’ll have everything they need to take care of him on my world. Earth is far different from Belyven—what humans would call a type of Middle Earth. We don’t have modern amenities such as cars and electricity.
What we have is magic.
“I vish ve could come,” Natalia says. Though she and Dumitru have an extraordinarily strong constitution, they can’t be trusted on a planet full of storm sprites. The slightest slip, the merest whiff, of say a storm sprite with a paper cut, and they’d massacre everyone in sight. They’ve never tried to drink from me or my son, by sheer luck. They also swore, before Killian died, that they’d protect me, so they didn’t go around looking for opportunities to sink their teeth into Kili or me.
After all this time, they’ve kept their word.
But I can’t have Kili around as a temptation for them and other supernaturals.
“I wish you could come too,” I say. “I just don’t think you’ll be able to withstand the alluring aroma of thousands upon thousands of storm sprites on my world. Not to mention the other magical fae. Since the magnetic field is different, you might find your tastes altered. You might want to kill me once we cross over.”
I adjust my sleeping bundle in my infant carrier. At one, my son is big, but I have stolen vamp strength to support him. He’s just awkward in my arms. I have to hold him while I teleport between worlds because the stolen demon power inside me works by contact to bring someone along.
I know. I said I wouldn’t take any other powers from the amulet, but I caved. Even though I initially started with vampire power, demon power has this whole teleportation thing, and I need the demon power of teleportation to travel between worlds since my mother won’t open a portal to Earth without just cause.
“Be careful, okay,” Natalia says. “You teleport back if you feel the least bit sick.”
“I will.” I have no idea how long it’ll take for my curse to take effect once I teleport off Earth, but I’m willing to do anything for my son. I’ll appear outside the city since I can’t teleport past the wards around the city. Then it should take only a few minutes to fly to my mother’s palace and another few minutes to deliver Kili into her arms. And one last horrible moment for me to say goodbye.
I can do it.
What could possibly go wrong?
I’ve practiced teleporting across the world. Just not between worlds. It takes a bit of mind control and nothing more. Demons do it all the time.
I close my eyes and focus on my destination. The forest edge outside the fae city. The trees there have bright orange blossoms at the height of summer. I can picture the exact stream flowing around a mound of purple-tinged grasses.
As if I’m being drawn forward, as if space and time folds and contracts, I move past the boundaries of this world. The trees fly past and the sky grows dark as we leave Earth’s atmosphere. Past sun and stars. Past rocks and ice blasting through space.
I must be moving at the speed of light—faster than the speed of light—the universe flies past in a blur like in sci-fi movies.
Weightlessness gives me the sensation of soaring. The feeling is gone so quickly and is replaced by heaviness that I know I’ve moved.
The sweet aroma of the crysalant trees send peace through me. My eyes blink in astonishment. “Kili, we made it!”
My heart is so full it could burst. I haven’t been on Belyven for over two years, not since my eighteenth birthday when the curse went into effect. A look at the sprawling city sprouting up between the trees and craggy rocks tells me nothing has changed. A waterfall gushes over a cliff along the far edge of the city. Its river winds through and spins past me, heading into the forest beyond.
The small stone homes are narrow and pointy so they can fit between the trees that are everywhere. A low wall circles the city. That doesn’t mean it isn’t well protected. Storm sprites and their kin—other pixies, faeries, elves, nixies, various other sprites, and so on—don’t have many predators on our planet. The danger comes from other worlds, from predators who sneak on-world and kidnap or murder our inhabitants for their blood and magic.
Our city has magical protection keeping those foul beasts from coming in.
I take my first step toward the city. Mother probably knows I’m on my way. I haven’t talked to her in months. It took me a long time to forgive her for betraying Killian and his sister. She tried to make amends in her own way. By sending Killian to haunt me.
“Killian? Are you here?” I rub Kili’s belly through the carrier. He’s wide awake and taking in everything. “Can you sense your daddy?” I always have the strange sense that he can.
Kili blows raspberries. “Da. Ba ba.”
“Right. You’re so helpful.” A funny twinge hits my belly, and not in a good way. “Ugh.” An urge to vomit swims through me. “We better hurry.” The city gate is only thirty yards away, but it’s farther to the palace. Maybe a guard can send for Mother.
“I’ll fly,” I say to Kili. I snap my wings into existence. They shimmer behind my shoulders, a glorious span of energy that lifts me off my feet.
A dizziness spins my head, and my wings fall limp as I drop to my knees. It takes too much energy to sustain my wings. After blinking them out, I clutch Kili to myself and shrug off my backpack. Its weight feels as if it’s crushing me. “I’m not going to make it.” This truth slams into me, and tears bead in my eyes.
I should probably teleport back, but I have to take Kili somewhere safe. I will not let this trip be for nothing.
This is the first time trying my curse out. I knew I wouldn’t die instantly, but the speed of the weakness and the sick feeling that spreads through me I did not know. Perhaps my vampire healing is slowing the curse—just not fast enough. “Mom!” She’ll hear me. She has some sort of telepathic connection to me, because I’m her daughter.
“I have you,” a man says. His voice is throaty, heavy.
“Who—?” I look up through fuzzy vision. The first thing I see is a thin silver circle through his left nostril. He grins, and I have a weird urge to flick his nose ring.
“Don’t worry, Sasha. I’ll take you to the palace.” He stoops over and holds his arms out. A brown leather cuff covers his right wrist. Three silver circles set in the leather gleam in my eyes and make me squint.
I don’t recognize him. He’s not a guard in uniform. His hair is auburn and sticking up straight. The brown in his eyes almost looks orange. He wears simple clothes, a green top and brown pants. His jacket is elenat leather, smooth and brown, stippled with black.
“Who?” I repeat.
“Thandoran. I’m from Haventon. Traveling here for the day to see family. I know who you are. Everyone knows who you are, princess. Let me help you.”
I fall forward onto my hands. Kili’s weight makes me front heavy. He coos as if he’s on a merry-go-round. “All right.” What choice do I have?
Thandoran hoists me around, with Kili still as goofy and happy as can be in his carrier, and lifts me into his arms. His wings snap out, and we’re off.
“Don’t let me drop him.” I clutch Kili to me with all the strength that’s left in my arms.
“Don’t worry, princess. He’s fine. That thing you have him in looks secure.”
“I’m only saying it because everything’s going black.” My arms fall slack, and my head flops back. For one second, I see the sky above me in the center of my vision and then nothing more.
FOUR
“Kili!” I bolt upright, and bright flashes in my vision blind me. “Kili?” He’s not strapped to me anymore. I paw the wide bed I’m on and squint at the covers. It’s so hard to keep my eyes open; pain stabs my temples.
I’m craving ambrosia, but that’s ridiculous. A storm sprite doesn’t need ambrosia on Belyven, only on Earth. Somehow our bodies need a vitality booster to sustain us on that non-magical planet, so my current craving must be because of the curse. It’s draining me. My vamp powers aren’t doing a good job.
“Kili?” My voice squeaks, and I rub my hands over my throat. It’s raw and burning.
Where the hellfire is everyone?
“Mother?” I’m in my old room in the palace. Mom’s kept it the same for me, as if I’ve never left. I throw aside my covers and slide onto unsteady feet. I’m surprised that I’ve come back to consciousness or that I’m not dead.
I wobble out to the hallway. Panic fills my chest. Why didn’t they leave Kili with me? I shouldn’t have trusted that man. What if he dropped me here and kidnapped Kili?
I stumble and fall against a table. A vase on it rolls to the floor with a crash. “Mom!”
Then I see him, the man who “rescued” me. What’s his name? Thanda something? He saunters around the corner, coming toward me. The grin on his face fills me with rage. Deep inside, my vamp powers surge, and I blur down the hall and shove Thandy against the wall.
He gasps as his head cracks on the carved wood. I snarl, feeling as feral as a vampire slicked with bloodlust. “Where’s my son? What have you done with him?” I press my arm to his throat. “Give him to me!”
“He’s safe.” Thandy gargles his words, and his nostrils flare, but he doesn’t fight me.
I push into him, ready to tear his head off, but the sickness returns. The surge from my vamp powers leaves.
Mother comes around the corner. “Sasha! Let him go.”
I don’t have a choice. My legs give out. Thanda-something catches me and holds me to his chest.
“Let me go.” I punch a weak fist into his bicep, but my hand feels broken and useless.
“Thank you, Thandoran,” Mother says. “Bring her with you. I must open a portal immediately. She’s fading quickly.”
“Kili?” I mumble.
Thandoran further humiliates me by lifting me into his arms. I can’t stand him and his rich leather scent.
“Kili is with the nanny,” Mother says. “He was hungry, so she’s feeding him.”
“I need to say goodbye.”
“There’s no time.” She leads us into my room and shoves the window to the balcony open. “We have to move you to a portal.” She’ll open a portal for me? Her wings fan out. “How fast can you fly, Thandoran?”
“Mommy?” My heart throbs with anxiety. My stomach is sick with worry. She won’t let me say goodbye.
“It’ll be all right, Sasha. I’ll keep Kili safe and will get you home.”
Thandoran steps beside her onto the balcony and unfurls his wings. So pretty. Blue with orange flecks. I poke the energy, and it shimmers.
Thandoran clears his throat and shifts me in his arms. Something in my head reminds me that a girl isn’t supposed to touch a guy’s wings. It’s too personal.
But I might be dying, and they’re so delicious.
Saucy Sasha. I do what I want.
Mother bends to kiss my forehead, and then they lift off.
Thandoran’s luscious waving wings are the last thing I see.
FIVE
My body feels cold and stiff. I’m lying on something moist and… leafy?
I sit up abruptly, lancing pain through my skull. “Kili?” I can’t focus on anything except endless smudges of green and brown in the dim light. The light is dim, as if dusk is upon us. A trickle of water gives me the impression that I’m near a stream.
“Here, drink this.” Whoever that is crouches beside me. I blink until my eyes focus. Unfortunately for me, Thandoran’s slender form takes shape and his glistening, amazingly hot wings. “Kili’s with your mother.”
I shiver from the cold before I snatch the water pouch from his hand and gulp it down, hoping to hide the tears that quickly form.
I regained consciousness, again. Outside. Crisp, cold air. Winter time. That means I’m on Earth. That means I didn’t say goodbye to Kili. And now he’s gone. Who knows how long it’ll be until I see him. I screw the lid onto the water pouch and throw it to the ground.
Thandoran paces a few feet away. His wings are bright and drape to the ground in such a majestic fashion that I ache to unfurl mine. But I don’t want to show them to Thandoran. It’s been too long since anyone saw my wings besides Killian. They represent something so private and intimate that I just don’t go f
lashing them around to any old acquaintance. Yet Thandoran’s wings remind me exactly how alluring a storm sprite with his wings open are.
Undulating unicorns! It’s been a long time since I’ve been home among other sprites. Male sprites. Those who are sculpted and winged and magical and everything my body aches for.
He’s so different from Killian.
Killian. I will not feel guilty. You’ve been gone from my life for a year, eight months, and two weeks, to be precise. Well, physically gone from my life. He’s dead. I know that, but he still astral projects his butt into my life occasionally to haunt me. And I’m always aware of his spiritual presence.
Kind of not fair when I should be moving on and finding someone to make myself happy.
Though droolworthy, Thandoran’s bright wings split pain into my head.
Sasha, focus. Get back to your situation.
“What are you doing here?” I hold my hand up to block the light from his wings. “Put those things away. Are you nuts? If anyone sees those, you’re dead.”
As soon as supernaturals know he’s a storm sprite, Thandoran’s on the menu.
“No one’ll see me.” He turns to me with smug satisfaction written all over his face. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
I continue blocking him with my hand, without hearing his answer. “Do you know how many predators on this planet like to drink storm sprite blood? You have to keep a low profile, so no flashy wings and no conjuring weather.”
“I’m not afraid of your demons.”
“And vampires. You will be afraid of vampires. How I moved on Belyven—that was vamp speed. You weren’t prepared.”
His wings still wave behind him.
“Put those away!” I exclaim.
“I can handle a few vampires.”
“No, you can’t. Besides, we haven’t figured out your ambrosia. With your wings unfurled, your power will drain fast.”
“Fine.” He snaps his wings out of reality. “What do we do now, princess?”
With reluctance, I grab his hand, ready to teleport. As I think of my warm flat, I choke and puke all over the dead leaves. “No!” My body shakes, and I dry heave while leaning on trembling arms.
