In a blink, Dunyasha advanced several feet, her movement so fast it was nearly impossible to comprehend.
“What-what do you want?” Sabrina asked from behind her posturing guards. All the while her wings getting larger and stronger.
Dunyasha pointed at Sabrina and whispered something.
“I don’t understand.” Sabrina began to shake with nervous energy.
“YA tebe nuzhen[2].”
“You know I don’t speak Russian.”
“I am here to help you, young fairy,” Dunyasha said inside Sabrina’s mind. “You need me. You need my help. I will aid you. You will overcome the obstacles facing you, Sabrina London.”
“Why? Why help me? Why now?”
“Simple. After I help you, you will help me.”
Dunyasha had convinced her to proceed with an official coronation the next day. It was the first step of an extensive plan that the two of them—fairy and vampire together—cooked up to save the Water Kingdom’s queen.
Sabrina was confident their plan would work; however, whenever doubt filled her mind, she turned her eyes to the Water Kingdom’s most valuable artifact, the very mantle of their power: the Golden Fleece.
The relic hung on the wall behind the throne, so that all who addressed the ruler of the kingdom would see it. It was a thing of awe. Even Dunyasha admired it, and from the tales she shared with Sabrina, it was obvious the ancient vampire had seen her share of wonders.
When Sabrina was a child and on one of the few trips to the palace she and her parents had taken, she’d marveled at the Golden Fleece’s existence. She’d wanted to touch it so badly then, but her father had scolded her whenever she was within a few feet of it.
Sabrina drew a deep breath and held it. The vampire was inside her head again, reading her thoughts.
“You are the Queen of the Water Kingdom now. You can do whatever you please.”
Sabrina never wanted to rule, and it was that fact foremost, she’d learned, that was the reason behind why her father had abandoned her. Not only was he upset and embarrassed by her scandalous actions, but he was also deeply disappointed that she did not wish to be the heir to his throne. Centuries of rule would end with him.
Sabrina hated the stories her father’s former advisors told her about his dissatisfaction with her so much that, after she was crowned, she’d sent them all away. In some ways, she’d exiled them.
Sabrina shook her head. She knew she had made many mistakes in the past, but the luxury of making mistakes was long passed. Now—with the tutelage of Dunyasha, the support of the Otherworldly Assembly, and the aid of Skipper—she felt like she was well on track.
“Do not question yourself, Sabrina London.” Dunyasha tapped Sabrina’s chest where her heart was.
Sabrina laughed. “I have to.” She motioned at herself. “Look at me. To be my best, I must be sure all my decisions and the decisions made for me are the right ones.”
“Your doppelgänger did exactly as instructed.”
“I know.”
“The plan moves ever forward. Nothing changes.”
Sabrina grumbled. “I know.”
“She will make the difficult decisions as they arise—and will do so with the training and guidance you have given her.”
“I know.”
“And yet you still wish to chide her for burning your former lover’s home.”
“No. Yes. No! I…it’s like I’m yelling at myself. Damn it!” Sabrina pulled one of the pillows out from under her and threw it. “Damn her face…my face. Gah! It’s fucking weird, Duny.”
Sabrina watched Dunyasha walk across the room. Being time fractured as she was, the elder vampire moved like something out of an old Japanese horror flick. Sabrina used to think it was creepy, but she had gotten used to it. She had gotten used to a lot of things.
“You—you’d punish Cade for less.”
Dunyasha stopped. From this angle, her dress, tattered and torn as it was, was nearly see-through as the sun coming in from a skylight shone at her back. It made Sabrina wonder why she did not change.
“It is the role of a leader. We do what we must. Do not mistake my cold words for displeasure, Sabrina.”
“You’re happy I yelled at her and confined her to her quarters?”
Dunyasha nodded in response.
Sabrina smiled for the first time in hours. Perhaps I’m getting good at this.
But it was not always so. Especially those first weeks.
“You’re going to ruin everything!” Sabrina shouted as she entered the small storage room at the farthest end of the Water Kingdom’s Palace that acted as Skipper’s quarters.
“What? I’m fine.” She adjusted the bandage that covered her nostrils. “It’s just…this thing keeps slipping off. I really don’t need it. I’d rather hold a towel to my nose or bleed down the front of this ugly pink shirt than keep fixing this—”
“Damn it, Skipper!” Sabrina shouted.
“Wait. Are you still mad about Gossip Girl…?” Skipper shrugged. “I swear, I just finished watching all of season five. I just need to finish season six,” she said, pointing to the iPad laying on her cot. “Then I’ll start—”
“Shut it.” Sabrina turned and addressed her elemental guards. “Wait outside.”
“Oh great, what now?”
“What now? ” Sabrina sneered. “You-you had surgery not even three days ago!”
“Yeah so?”
“So, there are dozens of reports that you…me…you—” Sabrina fumed. “Fuck! You were seen—spotted jogging around the island early this morning.”
“I just went for a walk. Recharge. Fresh air. Go watch the waves—”
“Don’t lie to me, Skipper.”
“Fine.” Skipper shifted her weight and rolled her eyes. “I wanted to feed the mermaids. You know they get lonely. That’s why they used to cause all those shipwrecks. If you’d just go out there to the cove and talk to them for a few—”
“You’re going to fuck up this whole plan. I need you to look and act just like me. I need you to be perfect.” Sabrina stepped closer to Skipper as she spoke. She was slightly taller than her clone, and her heeled boots added an extra inch or two.
“I—” Skipper began.
“Nose, chin, breasts, and let’s not forget about all those scars. These operations were done by the best of the best—two men we paid lots of money to, not only to work their magic, but also to keep our secret. We can’t risk you going back out in public right now and pulling a stitch…or ending up in a hospital because of an infection or something stupid. You need to rest and heal.”
“I am healing. You know how quick we fairies heal.”
“Yes, and you know that we can’t use our healing powers when foreign objects are involved. You heal too deeply and your body will reject those implants.”
Skipper gently cupped her breasts. “Dr. Dubrow did a great job, didn’t he? But I really don’t need these tits.”
“Yeah, you do.” Sabrina pointed at them. “Those tits have power.”
“Power?” Skipper frowned. “I used to have power. Now I’m not allowed to exercise. Now I can’t bathe in flames. Now I’m on this weird diet. You…you actually want me to gain a few—”
“You need to look…”
“Softer?”
Sabrina hated it, but she was right. “Yeah, softer. No more lean and mean. You need to look less like a fighter and more like a—”
“Fucker?”
Sabrina wanted to slap the girl, but the bandages reminded her that such an action would ruin everything. She crossed her arms and breathed deeply. It had only been three weeks since they’d met. In some ways, Sabrina hated Skipper; in other ways, she was jealous of her. In this moment, she realized just how much potential Skipper had. “Fucking fearless.”
“What?”
“Look at you. Broken into a hundred pieces, rearranged, and in the process of being put back together. But not back together as you remember—as somethi
ng new. And still…” Sabrina gazed a moment at the girl’s bandages. She must have been in some measure of pain. “Still fucking fearless.”
Skipper’s defensiveness waned some. Sabrina could see she was finally reaching her.
“So, you wanna yell at me some more? Wait, shouldn’t you be resting today too?”
“Not today.”
“Then should we go practice some more of that fancy human etiquette?” Skipper held her hand up as if she were drinking tea. “Pinkies out, ma’am.”
“No.” She shook her head. “What would the old Sabrina London do right now, Skipper?”
“She’d be bored. She’d want to go shopping. At the very least, she’d want to have a glass of wine and listen to some music. Maybe masturbate.”
Sabrina laughed. “Then that’s what you should do.”
“But I already masturbated twice this morning.”
Sabrina looked long and hard at Skipper. Is she teasing? Taunting me? Or is she already playing her part? Perhaps she’s been playing her part since I first knocked on the door…maybe longer…
“Be sure to say all that in my voice. You need to practice it all in my voice. It has to be perfect.”
“Your voice.”
“Keep up the good work and you’ll be ready soon.”
In her best Sabrina voice, Skipper replied, “I was born ready.”
“Yes, you were. Don’t fuck it up.”
Sunbathing in Paradise
“U m…you’re in my light.” Skipper fanned her hand to the side in obvious attempt to shoo off whoever had created the shadow. “If you want to stare at my tits, fine. Just move over there.”
“I thought I told you to go to your room?” Sabrina inquired.
Skipper laughed. “No one sends the Queen of the Water Kingdom to her room.”
“The Queen of the Water Kingdom doesn’t sunbathe topless either.”
Skipper met Sabrina’s eyes. “Maybe not here.”
Sabrina fought off a smile and then tossed Skipper her tank top. “Definitely not here.”
“Nice sunhat and glasses.” Skipper nodded in Sabrina’s direction.
Sabrina sat in the sand beside Skipper. “You think Jackson survived the fire?”
“Yeah. I mean he had plenty of time to get out. And it’s not like I told my elementals to kill anymore. I just told them to burn it all down.”
Sabrina slid her glasses down her nose a bit and gave her lookalike a glare. She had excused serious things like that before. But this bothered her. Was Skipper really this complacent about what she had done?
Sabrina poked Skipper in the side, which made her jump. “We both know what fire elementals are capable of.”
“Yeah…”
“So…he questioned your wings but completely believed you when you said they were going to shed?”
“Yep.” Skipper smirked. “He must’ve thought I was all dusty lusty.”
“Well, I did hit him with some pre-molting fairy dust that one time.”
“I know. I remember.”
Sabrina gazed out at the ocean. It was a beautiful day on the island. “I sent someone to see if he’s okay.”
“Who?”
“Lara.”
“Lara Leeds?”
“Yeah.”
Skipper sat up some. “Did Dunyasha take her?”
“No. Duny only transports us. No one else.”
“Been meaning to ask you this a while now—how do you water fairies come and go from this place? It’s not like you can fly back…it’s too far. Swimming would be way too dangerous and too far. And it’s not like Dunyasha’s been transporting you guys for the past decades.”
Sabrina nodded. “Few of us come and go. Few even have the desire to leave. Most water fairies came here after they escaped persecution and enslavement in the United Kingdom a long time ago. Now there are generations who were born on this island and have never left.”
“I get that. I mean, there is a small number of fire fairy who never leave the warmth of the volcano.”
“My father always said that it’s best that only a few come and go, so as not to draw attention to our home. I understand that now.”
“I thought he lived in the States.”
“He did. They did. But they visited this place several times a month.”
“Kinda going against his own rules, huh?” Skipper pointed out.
“What ruler doesn’t break their own rules?”
“Good point.”
“So, yeah, to get from here to there, my father had a cargo ship and a helicopter. He would fly the helicopter halfway, land on the cargo ship, refuel, and then fly the rest of the way in. Took a day or two, but it was a good solution. He enjoyed the trip, always said that it gave him time to think and prepare.”
“So, someone is flying Lara out to your dad’s cargo ship and then to Los Angeles?” Skipper asked.
“Exactly. I sent two water spirits with her. Both can mimic. One of them is a pretty damn good pilot.”
Skipper nodded. “Water spirits are so capable. I mean, you have them doing all sorts of human jobs. Fire sprits just want to burn and”—she shivered—“yeah…”
“Which is why I’m afraid they killed everyone in Jackson’s apartment building.”
“You’re right to be worried. I’m sorry.” Skipper picked up a tiny shell that was next to her and gazed at it a moment. “And I’m sorry about Weston.”
“Don’t be.” Sabrina thought about her conversation with Dunyasha. There was no use in riding Skipper anymore. “You did the right thing.”
“For the mission.”
“The mission.”
Sabrina gazed over at Skipper, who had gone back to rest on her elbows, boobs out.
“Not gonna put your top on, are you?”
“Would you?”
Sabrina looked up into the bright sky, the sun shining down on her; it felt warm and comforting. “No, probably not.”
“Then free those nipples!” Skipper’s cheers caught the attention of two nearby fairy fisherman.
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?”
“You know I would.” Skipper smiled slyly. “You know, if I were queen, I’d have one of my moths bring us some drinks. We’d hang out until sunset, braid each other’s hair…” Skipper ran a sandy finger across Sabrina’s exposed thigh. “And if the mood was right…”
“Skipper.” Sabrina shook her head.
Skipper laughed. “Fine.”
“I could use a drink.” Sabrina called to one of her guards, a water spirit by the name of Crystal, who had taken human form. “Could you have someone bring us some wine, Crystal?”
“Absolutely, my queen,” he said.
“Oh, and tell Desani to clear the beach. I’d like some privacy.”
“Will do.”
“Oh, I like the sound of that,” Skipper said.
“Yeah, well you might not like the sound of this.” Sabrina straightened herself. “I want you to go see Peter next.”
“Cade’s next.”
“That was the plan originally, but I want you to do me a favor and go see Peter first.”
Skipper did not answer. Sabrina could see she was mulling it over.
“That’s dangerous to say the least.”
“Just in and out.”
“In and out?” Skipper smirked. “Him too?”
“What?” Sabrina scrunched her nose. “No. I just want you to go visit him. I haven’t seen him since that night.”
“It’s been months—”
“Exactly.”
“You said he was sick.”
“He could be dying for all I know. He’s kept a low profile. Not even the paparazzi have seen him.”
“So you’d risk being seen yourself to see him?”
“Well, I don’t want him to think I don’t care.”
“Care?” Skipper’s eyebrows raised. “Do you?”
“I just want to make sure he’s there in the future, you know. My future.
”
Radiation Sickness
Dunyasha opened her portal at the edge of the cliff on Peter’s property—the exact spot where Sabrina had been attacked by the Tainted months ago.
“Hey, Duny, we’re way too close to this guy’s house,” Skipper said, adjusting the top of the pink string bikini she wore. “You heard her…Sabrina’s one hundred percent sure the Tainted are watching this place. I was supposed to sneak into here, remember? Not just show up front and center with a neon sign pointing at my sweet ass.”
Dunyasha looked away. “The sun will rise soon.”
“Did you hear me? Dunyasha?” Skipper snapped her fingers at the elder vampire. “This Richie Rich guy and those disgusting trash monsters no doubt just watched us arrive. We kinda blew the element of surprise here.” She paused as a wicked thought crossed her mind. “Unless that’s what you wanted…”
“Look around you, fire-ling.”
Skipper gazed out over the horizon at the waves. It seemed like she could not escape it; water was everywhere.
“Beautiful…if you’re into that kinda thing.”
“Sabrina was attacked in this very spot.”
“Exactly. I know.” Skipper braced herself against a gust of wind. “I remember.”
“You don’t remember.” Dunyasha’s voice rose. “You only know what she told you.”
“Yeah, and she’s told me about it like twenty times.” Skipper picked at her wedgie. “Giant bat monsters. Trust me. It’s like I was there-here.”
“But did you feel her fear when she recounted the tale?” Dunyasha fully faced Skipper, but her eyes flicked to the side as she spoke.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t feel fear. Especially not other people’s—not like that.”
“I feel it. I sense it. I taste it—tangy, like body odor and sweat.”
“Sucks to be you.”
Dunyasha whispered, “What I am. Not what I was…”
Skipper stared deep into Dunyasha’s dead eyes and dropped her Sabrina impersonation for a moment. “You feel more than just fear, don’t you? You feel lust and joy and—”
Three Burning Red Runaway Brides Page 4
