Wicked Wonderland

by Lisa Whitefern

  Strangely, he craved human jealousy. He wanted a woman who would care if he made love to other women. He wanted the intense passion and human desire and emotion that caused that kind of jealousy. He knew Lilly had those feelings for him. That she would want him and want no other women to have him. But did she have the same feelings for Kris?

  He was torn in two. He couldn’t give Kris up, and yet the human side of him fiercely demanded a home and family life in the mortal world. He wanted children one day too, and he didn’t want the mother to be a full-fae sylph.

  Something deep within told him it would be impossible to turn his back on Lilly, impossible to give her up if she refused to have a three-way relationship. Something in his blood sang out to her. He was bound to her irrevocably. Hell! Why did it all have to be so complicated?

  One thing he knew. He didn’t want to be an adventurer, always running off seeking the next thrill like his mother, and he certainly didn’t want to be like his deadbeat dad, whoever that asshole was.

  For years, he’d craved something different, a soul connection with a woman he could share with Kris. Was he too temperamental and hardheaded to give Lilly what she needed? Would he be the one to spoil things for the three of them?

  He needed to talk to Kris. Swinging his feet off the daybed, he stood, ready to go join his lover in the kitchen. But as soon as he was on his feet, he could sense something. He froze, reaching out with his empathic connection to Kris, a connection triggered only when one of them was in serious danger.

  A flicker of fear coursed through him. Something was wrong. Something was definitely the hell wrong with his fated mate! He leapt off the couch and ran down the hallway to the kitchen. Breathing heavily, he stood still for a moment, scanning the room, looking for trouble.

  Kris was pouring a cup of hot coffee into a waiting mug. He added a bit of cream from a tiny pitcher. Nick stood there, gaping at him. He shook his head. His sixth sense about Kris had never been wrong before.

  The sunny smile on Kris’s face froze when he looked up at Nick. “What’s the matter?”

  “It must be Lilly. Lilly’s in some kind of trouble.” The flicker of fear he’d sensed transformed into a gut-wrenching scream.

  Chapter Ten

  Lilly awoke to the horrible sound of bird screeching. Hawks? Falcons? She tried to open her eyes but somehow couldn’t find the energy. Her eyelids felt heavy, her body physically drained; her teeth chattered, and the freezing cold seeped into her bones. Her feet were wet, so wet. She tried to raise her hand to her neck where a sore spot stung something fierce but found her wrists were bound to something behind her. Panic welled in her chest as she realized she was bound fast. Although it hurt her head, she forced her eyes open and looked down to see her favorite shoes submerged in icy salt water. Her feet were numb, but the rest of her shuddered as the cold seeped into her bones. The distinctive aroma of the sea acted like smelling salts, finally bringing her fully awake. The rise and fall below her let her know for sure that she was on a ship. Terror surged, closing her throat and making the hairs rise on her nape.

  Twisting her body a little, she was able to make out that she was tied to a wooden railing, and if she turned her head a little more, she could see the silver sea. It churned like the fear bubbling in her gut. The sound of another woman’s cough made her jump.

  “Hello, Lillian. I told you we’d meet again,” the familiar voice mocked. “Really, Rudolph, you are such a lazy trashwhore sleeping in the middle of the day.”

  Lilly blinked and saw Sonya standing before her. Sonya’s smile radiated pure malice. Her amber eyes flashed with triumph, and her high cheekbones flushed with what Lilly could only assume was a sense of power.

  Like a slide show, the events preceding this moment came back to Lilly. The damage to the townhouse, the black flint knife, the jab to her neck. And where was her best flute that she had tried to save from Zenia’s madness by slipping it under her coat? Somehow, that was gone too. Fear gave way to absolute rage.

  “Why?” she croaked. The dryness in her mouth and the weakness in her voice only added to her fury. “Why the fuck are you doing all this to me?”

  “Now, now, now, Lillian, it’s not nice to swear at your sister.”

  “What are you talking about? I don’t have any sisters, you fruitcake!”

  Sonya smiled coyly and trailed her long, metallic-gold fingernails along the edge of the railing. “You have me, honey. You’ve always had me.”

  Confusion swirled through Lilly. Is this woman really somehow related to me? Is that why she’s been so obsessive about me?

  She tugged fruitlessly against her restraints, but the coarse rope bit savagely into her wrists. She gritted her teeth against the stabs of pain, certain she was bleeding.

  Sonya tilted her head to one side, observing Lilly in a mocking way. “You know, it’s so rare that I get a chance to talk to a family member. Most of my family aren’t talkers. That makes me a bit lonely.” Sonya spread her arms wide.

  Lilly decided she could be just as fake and sarcastic as Sonya, if that was the game to be played. She put a smile on her own face, though she ground her molars together. “Okay, Sonya. What do you want to talk about?”

  Sonya swung her arms around in a circle, indicating the whole deck. “Well, look at this ship, Lillian. Isn’t it beautiful?” She paused, her amber eyes flashing fire. “It’s mine now. All mine. My mother is queen of the fire fae, and she has given it all to me. She’s tired of the crown. My time has come! Are you jealous?”

  The vicious, exultant glee in Sonya’s reptilian eyes began to terrify Lilly again. Perhaps it had been a miscalculation, swearing at the evil witch. It seemed certain that Sonya intended to hurt her, maim her, probably kill her, though she had no idea why.

  Nausea welled in her throat and gut, and for a moment, despair overwhelmed her, but she bit it back. She had to find some way to fight. Maybe at some point, she could talk her way out of this.

  Sonya continued to stare at her, as though expecting an answer to her previous question. “Really, Lillian, you suck as a little sister. Aren’t you going to congratulate me and admire my gorgeous ship?” The tall blonde gestured around her. “My mama, Zenobia, the fae queen, gave it to me. It is the fabled ship, Morrigan’s Revenge.”

  Fabled in her world maybe. I’ve never heard of it.

  Lilly sucked in a breath. If this woman was really some kind of fae royalty, she must have incredible power.

  Hang on. Did she say mother?

  “Your mother? And you think you’re my sister? Are you saying you knew my mother?”

  Sonya gave a caustic laugh. “Oh, Rudolph, you really are so very stupid. No wonder you’ve always been unpopular and no one lets you play any of their reindeer games.”

  The words struck Lilly like blows. It was the same kind of thing her stalker wrote in all the notes he left.

  A sick feeling ate at her as she connected the dots. “My stalker… You’re my stalker?”

  A vicious grin spread across Sonya’s face from ear to ear. “Why did you always assume your stalker was male, Rudolph? A little sexist, don’t ya think?”

  Lilly shook her head, dazed. “I…I suppose. I guess people just generally assume if a woman has an anonymous stalker, it’s probably some man.”

  Sonya chuckled and pulled a butterfly knife out of her pocket. There was a click of metal on metal as she flicked it open and waved it before Lilly’s face. “Isn’t this a beautiful knife? It has a titanium blade.” Sonya waved her knife around.

  Lilly’s blood ran cold. She shrank back against the railing as much as she was able.

  “Now, as I was saying, Rudolph, before your stupid, irrelevant commentary, my gorgeous ship is named Morrigan’s Revenge. This ship is a symbol of the triumph we will have over the light fae. Look, Rudolph, look at the color of it! See how it glows and shimmers! See how the dark red blooms like blood.”

  To Lilly’s horror, Sonya used the titanium knife to cut across the
palm of her own hand. Then the dark fae held out her arm and let the blood drip onto the deck. A maniacal smile never left her face.

  Lilly’s body clenched, influenced by a fear so primal it made her numb.

  Sonya’s devilish laughter rang through the air until Lilly found her tongue. “I thought fae were allergic to metals.”

  “Iron, not titanium, you fat moron! And once I have you trapped in a cage, maybe I can extract all that untapped power of yours and make it my own. Dark fae have been known to do that to their weaker siblings, you know.”

  Lilly’s throat tightened. “I really don’t understand much of what you’re talking about, or what you want from me. Why did you kidnap me?” The hoarseness of Lilly’s voice was a shock to her own ears. Her thirst was almost worse than her fear.

  “You sound terrible, Lilly.” Sonya smirked. “I thought you were supposed to be one of those fae with an angel’s voice.”

  Lilly heard footsteps and looked around. A terrifying creature with the body of a man and the head, wings and talons of a bird approached her. In its huge talons was a mug full of some kind of liquid. The birdman pressed the glass against Lilly’s lips. She shrank from him, from it. “This is some kind of poison, right?”

  Sonya gave a snort. “Now why would I want to poison my own sister? Seriously, why would I drug you and put you on a boat just to poison you. You’re so naïve! If I wanted to poison you, I could have slipped into your home anytime and tainted your food, and you’d never have known. That’s what I did with your…but never mind that for now. I’m not poisoning you, you dumb slut. Poisons don’t work well on people with any fae blood.”

  The birdman tried gently to open her mouth. “The mug contains a simple herbal tea to quench your thirst so you can talk with the mistress.”

  Lilly gave a start at hearing the birdman speak.

  “Mistress doesn’t wish you to dehydrate. She has important business to discuss with you. “

  Bending her head to the cup, she sniffed the tea, which smelled just like chamomile. It tasted like chamomile as well. Desperate with thirst, she stopped resisting and opened her mouth so the birdman could pour a little of the liquid into her mouth.

  “Now, where was I?” Sonya smiled, then cocked her head and looked Lilly over. “My slave Rurik is right, you know. I do have much to tell you. To begin with, you are half fae. I believe you’ve finally learned that, thanks to the meddling of those two sexy air sprites, Nick Frost and Kris Noelle, am I right?”

  Lilly nodded slightly, unsure where the hell this was going.

  “Well, you are my half sister, Lilly, and I’ve had a tremendous influence on your life so far.”

  My half sister? Lilly could only gape at Sonya, taking in her flawless complexion. Sonya’s red dress was the color of flame, nipped in tightly at the waist and flowing from Sonya’s trim, muscular figure. The dress had no sleeves, and a lizard tattoo was clearly visible on Sonya’s right shoulder. Sonya noticed Lilly assessing her and ran a hand through her straight blonde hair, a conceited expression on her face. Lilly couldn’t really see any resemblance between herself and the ferocious fae.

  “Oh, you don’t think we look alike?” Sonya asked, seeming to read her mind. “Well, we do have some things in common. Both of us have unusual fae-colored eyes, and believe me, I can sing and play an instrument as well as you can if I choose.”

  Sonya’s eyes. That unusual amber color. Who else did they remind her of?

  Sonya looked Lilly over with a sneer. “Your mother, your real mortal mother, that is, was beautiful in her way. Kind of fat like you, all curvy tits and ass. No doubt that’s what attracted our father. Perhaps he just needed a brief change from slender sylphs and willowy fire fae. Men are like that, aren’t they? Always needing some new sexual challenge. We can talk about these things together now. Us girls. Sisters.”

  The mention of her birth mother was like a punch to the gut. Hot resentment bristled up inside her, mixing with pain and hope. Hope. Sonya knew her mother. Her real mother! “You know my birth mother?”

  “Knew, dear. Past tense. She’s dead.”

  Lilly bit down on her lip. Of course. Of course. I knew that. Tears came unbidden to her eyes nonetheless.

  “She’s dead. As would you be, if you were mortal. I would have killed you long ago. But you can’t die. Your three near-death experiences? I set them all up. You should have died in the Dumpster; you should have drowned in the lake when you were seven. You should have died in that bus accident.”

  Lilly’s eyes widened, and a cold rage welled up in her heart. She struggled against her ropes, desperate to attack.

  Sonya threw back her head with a cruel, mocking laugh. “Oh, I remember trying to drown you. That was fun! Picture, if you will, the shining lake of your childhood summer home, before your adoptive parents divorced, and your stupid mother gambled away all your family’s money. Imagine the twitter of little birds, the smell of perfume from the dark earth, the slivers of sunlight shimmering through the branches that sheltered your swimming place from any adult’s vision.

  “You were laughing, swimming around in circles, kicking around like a little idiot. There were other children around swimming with you. But I’m a master of disguise. I’d disguised myself as an older child. I pushed one hand down on your face, the other on your stomach. I remember it so well. You jerked in shock and pushed upward. I pushed down harder. Your eyes sprang open, and you began to writhe, your arms and legs slapping around with such futility. Again and again, I pushed you down, and you continued to flail violently, but you didn’t die. You didn’t even pass out!”

  Sonya’s words struck her as a blow to the heart, a powerful wrongness. Against her will, tears filled Lilly’s eyes. “I was seven. How could you even do that to a seven-year-old?” Biting back a sob, not wanting to give Sonya any more satisfaction, she continued. “I remember the other children said it was a teenager who assaulted me at the lake. But the reports were all confused. Some of the children said you were a teenage girl; others said a ten-year-old boy. Why?”

  A smug smile passed across Sonya’s face. “As I said, I am absolutely the best there is when it comes to the magic of disguise. Ask anyone who knows me.”

  Keep her talking. Keep her talking.

  “So I guess it was you who stole the strippers’ tips from their lockers back at Venus Girls too, right? Hoping to blame it on me?”

  “No, actually, that wasn’t me at all. I just used that opportunity to my advantage.”

  “What? So who was it? Do you know?”

  Sonya laughed. “It was Kandy Kane. She has a big mortgage.”

  Lilly shook her head in disgust. The dark fae began playing with her knife again. Lilly tried to swallow the horror that threatened her sanity, tried to think of more questions to keep Sonya occupied so she wouldn’t use that knife on her. “Why did you choose Christmas to make your attacks on me?”

  Sonya shrugged. “You were born on Christmas Eve. I figured you should die on Christmas Eve. And I’ll tell you something else; the day your mother told my father she was pregnant. I swear he lost interest in everything around him. He certainly lost interest in me.” Sonya’s eyes narrowed with a chilling rage.

  Those burning amber eyes with the pupils that are too thin. Snake’s eyes. Reptile eyes. The same eyes as Mrs. Barrie, my mother’s friend, the goddamn gambling freak!

  She gazed up at Sonya, struggling to stay calm, while inside she was a riot of hate, grief, fear. She had to ask. “Are you related to Doreen Barrie?”

  “Am I related to Mrs. Barrie? By the Dark Path, you really are stupid, aren’t you? I am Mrs. Barrie. I took that form and enticed your adoptive mother into getting out of the house and having some fun, enjoying herself at the casino.” Sonya’s lips twisted cruelly. “We had some fun times together out on the town, Marion and I. It was fun to play a badass sixty-year-old with a little bit of glamourie. Of course, it wouldn’t have worked if she hadn’t been ripe for corruption.” Her eye
s glittered with malice. “She really wasn’t happy in her marriage to your adoptive father. I gave her some excitement in her life. You should thank me.

  “And as I was saying before, I dealt to your birth mother too. I made her ill. I tried to terminate you before you were born, but despite your mother’s illness, you would not die. It did end my father’s interest in her, though.”

  Lilly clenched her fists until her nails cut into her palms. Wave after wave of nauseating emotion washed through her. Rage. Grief. Panic. Rage. It was all so difficult to believe. “You went after both my mothers, Sonya?”

  “Time you learned my real name, little sister. Sonya, Mrs. Barrie—these are just different personas I took on in the mortal world to screw with your life. My name is Zenia.”

  Lilly closed her eyes, trying to take in this new information.

  When she opened them again, another birdman stood behind Zenia, a different birdman, one Lilly hadn’t seen before. The look in his eyes seemed almost kindly. He opened his beak and closed it again. She gathered he wanted to tell her something but was too afraid to speak.

  Zenia noticed that Lilly was looking at someone behind her. Despair rose up in Lilly again. Zenia was too arrogant and crazy. Trying to reason with her was never going to work.

  Where are Kris and Nick? What are they doing right now? They have to find me. They must!

  Lilly glanced up at the sky, hoping against hope that she might see their sleigh flying toward the ship.