Crown of Smoke and Blood

by Sadie Jacks

  Sliding my palm along his, I shivered at the contact. “Vari.”

  The blue of his eyes thinned until his pupil took up most of the space. Right before his eyes bled completely to black—even the whites of his eyes had been consumed. His lips pulled back. “Mine.”

  His hand still around mine, he jerked me forward. Between heartbeats, I was smashed against his chest. My neck wrenched back.

  “Trick, no!” Tavis jumped forward, but he was too late.

  Koehn put his mouth on my flesh, the sharp piercing sting of his fangs a brush of velvet. The stubble on his jaw was the perfect harmony to the sensations of his lips, tongue, and teeth. I shivered as a low groan vibrated against my neck.

  It reverberated all the way through my body. I sucked in a breath as a wave of heat torched me. In some part of myself, I knew this was weird. Really fecking weird. But even so, I threaded my fingers through his short dark hair, cradled him to me.

  Curling my body up, I kept his mouth at my neck and shoved him back on the floor, my body riding him down. With my knees splayed to either side of his hips, I rocked my aching sex against the hard ridge of his cock.

  He threaded his free hand into my short hair as the suction on my neck increased. Releasing my hand, he slid his down my side in a trail of fire and grabbed my hip.

  “Oh, for feck’s sake,” Tavis muttered.

  His voice was nothing but an irritant at the edge of my conscious mind. Everything inside me was focused on the man beneath my body. The heat of him. Unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It radiated and curled around me. Like what I imagined sitting next to a bonfire would feel like.

  Koehn’s hand moved to my butt. A moan purled from between my lips. No one had ever touched me like this. With this amount of care or —

  Icy magic smashed through me. My skin felt like it cracked as the super heat of seconds ago was smothered in a heartbeat. Shivering, I huddled against Koehn. Desperate for the fire that he seemed to generate.

  “Get up. Both of ye,” Tavis demanded. “I’ll ice ye again if I must.”

  Koehn’s mouth fell away from my neck. “What the hell?”

  “I’m getting fecking tired of hearing that damn question. Get up. Let’s get some answers. You know, before you try to bed her.” Tavis grabbed both of my shoulders and tugged.

  Suddenly, I was flying through the air.

  “Shite!” Tavis’s fingers bit into my arms. “Ye’ve nothing to ye, lass.”

  In another breath, I settled onto the floor as if I were made of spun glass. I chuckled. “Well, that was sweet of you to say, Tavis.” My cheeks heated. Most men in the catacombs had complained that I was too heavy. Arseholes.

  Tavis’s ears went pink. “Ye’re less than a mite to begin with, but ye feel lighter than a fecking feather.”

  I smiled up at the giant man. Butterflies dancing in my belly. “Truly?”

  He nodded as he bent down and helped Koehn to his feet.

  Koehn swayed and stumbled when Tavis let him go. He put a hand to his head, winced. “What the –”

  “By the saints, don’t say it again. Let’s all get to the kitchen. Feed Feathers here. Get some answers.” With an arm around his friend’s shoulders, he led the way through their house.

  “Are you lovers, then?” I followed along behind them, my gaze tracking all over the home. The house was amazing. Nothing like the cold, barren chambers I’d escaped from. It was done in dark woods, grays, whites, and with splashes of colors that made it seem homey instead of harsh.

  Up ahead, Koehn spluttered. “No. We both like women.”

  “Oh.” Yay for me then. “Then who is the ‘mine’ you keep referring to?”

  Tavis looked back at me as we entered the kitchen. The room was big enough to fit at least the catacomb security detail—all fifteen of them. And still have room to spread out. The shiny silver of the appliances, the dark blue of the cabinets. The countertops were so polished they reflected the lights. Probably could act as a mirror in a pinch.

  “I’m pretty sure he means ye, lass. Koehn’s never been possessive of me.” He got his friend situated and then sent me a pout. “More’s the pity.” He chuckled and winked.

  Koehn snorted softly.

  I smiled at the Fae. “How long have you been on the outside?”

  His face shuttered immediately. “Long enough.”

  Shit, Vari. Keep your mouth closed. You don’t actually know these men. My cheeks heated. “Sorry.”

  He waved it away, but moved to sit on the far side of the giant countertop in the middle of the kitchen.

  My heart dropped. I wasn’t even sure why I cared, but it would have been nice to have some friends. Talking to myself got old after a while. Even if I had Beastie to chat with. I would have liked friends I didn’t host inside my body. They had no choice but to hang around with me.

  Koehn stumbled to the giant silver appliance that sat in the middle of the line of cupboards. As he opened both doors wide, I realized it was a cold storage unit. How strange.

  All the ones they had in the catacombs had clear fronts on them. Because who wouldn’t want to see their organs sitting in jars while they ate dinner? Well, if we got dinner. Either way, I’d had no idea that cold storage units had opaque doors. That would have been a blessing.

  And that’s probably why they never used one, silly girl. I nodded at my own thoughts. True. They’d wanted us scared. Terrified, even. It was easier for them to do whatever they wanted to us if we were scared.

  “Vari?” Tavis asked. The weight of his voice told me he’d probably been talking to me for a bit and I wasn’t paying attention.

  I blinked at him, smiled. “Yes, Tavis?” Did they realize how lucky they were to have real names? Ones they didn’t come up with? Certainly better than a label.

  “Koehn is trying to talk to you.”

  My cheeks heated. I turned to the other man. “Yes, Koehn?”

  His dark hair was backlit by the light in the cold storage unit. “I don’t have any regular food. Would you like some more sugar water?” He turned back to me, a look I couldn’t quite understand on his face.

  The happy spark inside me dimmed a bit. I was imposing. More than imposing, I’d crashed into these men’s lives and was now demanding they serve me.

  My father’s face swam in my thoughts. His dark, cold stare. His demands and orders had made impotent rage burn through me on any given day he deigned to come see us.

  I vowed to never be like him, and here I was, doing it to virtual strangers. Nice strangers, even. I licked my lips. “Sorry. No. I’m fine.”

  You’re not fine, Vari. Take the damn water, Beastie said inside me.

  “I just need to give them some answers, then we can leave. They don’t want me here anyway,” I said.

  “Who says we don’t want you here?” Koehn asked.

  I blinked at him. “Are you telepathic?”

  He nodded, a confused look on his face. “But you were talking to me, weren’t you? With your outside voice.”

  Shite. The bottom of my belly dropped away. Thrusting my hands into the folds of my cloak, I searched out the familiar shape of my short sword, ran my fingers over the pommel. “No. I was talking to B—myself. Sorry.”

  One dark brow rose high. “Right.” Quiet looks passed between the men. “Do you have any answers for us?” Koehn asked when he looked back at me.

  I swallowed, shrugged. “Not really. I was hoping you would have some for me.”

  Tavis’s sigh could have felled a tree in the royal forest. “You’re a Mallacht.”

  I glared at him as my heart started to beat faster. “Be very careful what you say next, Tavis MacDougal.” My body shifted down into an attack pose. He would be so very easy to kill. He might be big, but he was slow.

  Koehn pushed into my personal space. “Don’t threaten him. I’ll rip your heart out an—”

  Reaching out, I grabbed a handful of his shirt and had him flying through the air. He slammed down
onto the middle countertop before the next beat of my heart could finish. “You think to hurt me?” Shoving magic into my nails, I grew them out into claws. Crouching over his prone form, I poised them over his vulnerable chest cavity.

  “He didn’t mean it, Vari,” Tavis’s voice was soft as he moved to the other side of the countertop, his hands outstretched to his sides.

  Koehn rolled his eyes before he glared up at me. “Do you have multiple personalities?”

  Part of me giggled. Yes. But he didn’t need to know that. “Did you mean to threaten me?”

  Koehn gripped my wrist. Tried to push me away. The thrust of his hand against me was nothing more than a cool breeze. His pupils contracted. “No. No, I didn’t mean to threaten you.”

  Smiling, I stepped back, returned my hand to normal. “Good.” I shifted, glared at Tavis. “I’m not a Cursed One. That’s rude.”

  In a move that was probably much faster to other eyes, Koehn righted himself and got off the table. He lifted his shirt.

  Bronze abs. His skin was lickable. And I wanted to taste it. A slight trail of dark hair ran from his belly button and disappeared beneath his pants. The tips of my fingers itched.

  “Vari!” Tavis yelled.

  I looked at him. “What?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Are you listening?”

  I shook my head. “No.” I flicked my gaze up to Koehn’s for a brief second. The delectable flesh drew my eyes again.

  Strong arms came around me from behind. My feet left the floor. “Hey!” I wiggled and kicked at about half strength. I really didn’t want to hurt him. “Put me down.”

  “Not until ye actually listen. Look at the mark on Koehn’s belly.”

  I was looking at Koehn’s belly. Honestly, how many abdominal muscles did vampires have? Because his looked like a ladder that I wanted to climb with my teeth. Soft. Bronze.

  My mouth watered. “Can I taste it?”

  “If you answer my questions, I’ll let you taste anything you like.” His voice was dark and smokey. I could feel his voice inside me, rubbing against the sensitive parts. As he walked over, he lifted his shirt and tossed it away.

  I sucked in a gasp. “Your pecs.” Heat rushed through my body once more. My breasts felt heavy as my nipples peaked against Tavis’s arm. My fingers itched to run them over Koehn’s flesh. To explore every inch of him. Right then, the only thing I wanted to do was catalog our differences.

  The binds around my arms tightened. “Vari, by the saints, please listen.” Tavis’s voice was nothing but a whisper.

  Koehn moved forward. His eyes flickered between normal and vampire. “We’ve got to hurry. I can feel it. She’s calling me. She’s…” A groan filtered through his lips.

  I pushed my butt into Tavis’s body. But it didn’t do anything to assuage the ache that consumed me. It was like touching a wooden board. “Tavis, please. I need him. I need to touch him.”

  “No. Not until we figure this out.” His hands loosened all of a sudden. “I’m sorry.”

  As my feet slapped back onto the floor, I took a step forward. My head was wrenched to the side as a sharp crack sounded in my skull. Then everything went dark.

  Chapter 10 – Koehn

  The deep yearning of her call cut off like a knife across the throat. A low rumbling growl fell from my lips as Vari slumped to the floor between T’s legs. “What the feck did you do to her?” I jumped forward.

  He stopped my forward progress with a giant foot to my chest. I landed across the room in my own slumped pile of bones.

  “Don’t make me take ye down as well, Trick. I will. And I’ll keep ye both down until we figure this out.” He stood ready. His arms relaxed at his sides, his feet slightly spread as he lowered his body just a touch.

  I shook my head at his words. “I was just going to check on her. Did you kill her?” I got to my feet. My world shifted to the side briefly.

  “No. Get some blood in ye. You're looking terrible.” Tavis bent down and hooked Vari over his arms. “I’m putting her in the sitting room. Ye stay here.” He shook his head as he straightened and walked out of the room.

  The hollow ache in my gums told me I needed to feed. But the taste of lemon and berries on my tongue told me I’d had enough to have lasted me at least three days. Something was very wrong.

  With Vari, too. I didn’t know many Fae. Tavis being the single one I had regular contact with. But none of them acted like she did. As I got another bag of blood from the fridge, I wondered if she had some kind of mental instability.

  And if she did, then we needed to get her some help. And fast. Her fluctuations were like being stuck in the eye of a hurricane. Happy and sweet to quietly murderous in the blink of an eye wasn’t exactly a steady boat to row.

  Tavis came back, his brow furrowed. “We need help.”

  I almost dropped the cup of blood as he startled me. Shite. And I needed to get my head out of my arse before someone staked me.

  Righting the cup at the last second, I slid the microwave door shut and hit the buttons. “We don’t know anything. What kind of help are we supposed to ask for?” I turned to face him.

  He rubbed a giant hand over his face. Sighed heavily. “I don’t know. But something’s wrong with her.”

  The micro dinged. I retrieved my cup, blew over the top of it. “What do you know of the Mallacht?”

  He pulled out a stool. Settled his large frame. “Just that they are the bogies of Faery. If we were bad, then they would come and gobble us up. They’re favorites were misbehaving boys and girls who didn’t pay attention to their mums or das.”

  “That’s decidedly unhelpful.”

  He nodded. “Hence my statement.”

  “Is your gran still alive? Could you ask her for some stories?”

  Tavis winced. “She’s alive, but she’s back in Faery right now. Some kind of to-do for the Autumn Court.”

  My brow furrowed. “But you’re Winter Court.”

  He just stared at me. Said nothing.

  I took a sip of my blood. Coughed as it felt like liquid ash in my mouth. What the hell? Putting the glass down, I went back to the fridge. Took the bag out. Examined it.

  “What?” Tavis asked.

  I told him the problem. “I’m checking to make sure it’s still within its use by date.”

  “Ye had some not even an hour ago. It couldn’t have gone bad in that short a time.”

  I knew that, but I wanted to double check. Throwing the bag back into the fridge, I turned back to my cup.

  My hands went cold at what I saw. “Tavis.” My voice was a whisper. I waved him over, pointed at the cup. What I saw in it had to be wrong. “What do you see?”

  “A cup of blood. What do ye see?”

  I looked up at him. Searched his face. “You’re serious.”

  He nodded, one blonde brow arched high. “What do ye see?”

  Turning back to the cup, I picked it up. “It’s not blood. It’s…” I leaned forward, sniffed delicately, “it’s ashes.” With a quick flick of my wrist, I upended the cup.

  Tavis jumped back. “Trick. What the hell!”

  Particles of ash drifted into the air. Filled it like a thunderstorm had gathered over the kitchen island.

  Tavis continued to gape at the kitchen counter. “Well, get a towel, then.” He rushed around me. Picked up a roll of paper towels. “It’s going to drip everywhere. Hurry the feck up.” He tossed the roll to me.

  “It’s in the air. Not on the counter.” I pointed up to it, just in case he’d forgotten where the air was.

  Heat erupted across my face as I was spun in a tight circle from the fist he slammed into my jaw. “It’s blood. On the counter. Get yer head back on straight. Or so help me, saints, I’ll put ye down as well and figure this out on my own.”

  Lifting a hand, I touched my jaw. “You broke my jaw.” And damn, that hurt. My eyes watered as everything moved that shouldn’t have been moving.

  “Ye’ll fix it with some blo
od.” He darted around the kitchen island. Moving paper towels over nothing.

  Yeah, I would. But it was the fear on his face that told me I might be wrong about what was actually happening. But I also wasn’t drinking any more of the blood I had in the fridge. Not if it was ashes or had gone bad.

  There was only one place for me to get some.

  I moved through the kitchen.

  “Don’t ye even fecking try it, mate,” he snarled at me.

  “You yourself said I need blood. I’m not drinking that.” I pointed to the ceiling where the cloud of ashes still floated on the air currents.

  “There’re no ashes, and it's good blood, Trick!” he screamed at me.

  I shook my head, unwilling to take the chance. Using my vamp speed, I rushed into the sitting room. She was there. Lying peacefully while her body worked to fix the broken neck Tavis had given her. Not even her chest rose.

  My heart pinched at the idea of feeding from her without her consent. But we were out of options and I wasn’t going to poison myself with bad blood. Especially when her blood would do just as well.

  Taking her arm gently in my hands, I pulled her hand up. Lifted it to my face and inhaled. She was divine. The scent of her. The feel of her. Everything. Like every single fantasy I’d ever had come to life.

  Well, almost life. She was currently in a recovery state, but it wouldn’t last too long. Hopefully.

  Turning my head slightly, I slid my fangs down and punctured the thin flesh of her inner wrist. Ambrosia and nectar filled my mouth. Clouded my brain. She was perfect. And she was mine.

  Careful not to take too much, I took one hard pull and then removed my fangs. Licked over the wounds. I watched them seal up as if I’d never touched her.

  Mark her. She’s yours. Mark her. Warn everyone away. You’ve never shared and you’ll sure as saints never share her.

  I hesitated over her wrist. Knew the magic of her was still influencing my mind. My ability to think clearly.

  “Don’t do it, Trick. Not while she’s out. She has to accept it,” my best friend warned from across the room.

  My fangs descended again. “Get out, Tavis. She’s mine.” I laid her arm down, back over her belly. Spinning, I readied myself to attack him if he moved any closer.