Seduced by the Fae

by Laxmi Hariharan

  She falls off the stage and I catch her. The fire blinks out, and she shudders. I cradle her close. “I’ve got you, Red. I’ve got you.”

  She screams and cowers.

  “Open your eyes.”

  “N-no,” she stutters. “The fire—”

  “Couldn’t hurt you, Red.”

  "What?”

  “Not a hair on your head is singed.”

  She cracks her eyes open, and those green eyes blaze. “How…?”

  “You’re my mate.” There, I said it. Funny thing? I mean it, too. “My dragon's fire can’t harm you.”

  She reaches up a finger and scoops up the liquid on my cheek, then brings it to her lips and sucks.

  My groin hardens. My balls fucking tingle. We are surrounded by hordes who press up against me, who threaten to rip her away from me, and all I can think is how much I want to throw her down and mount her in front of the entire audience and show them she belongs to me. Mine. She is mine.

  The crowd closes in on me, and I plant my feet into the ground and stay where I am, holding them off.

  She looks up and past me, and her eyes widen.

  The hair on the nape of my neck rises. I glance up in time to see the fire blink off. Boris stands there, unhurt.

  “The fuck?” I bare my teeth, and my canines drop. I hold her close and hunch my body over her.

  “How touching. An alpha-hole Fae laid low by the cunt of a human female.”

  “Shut the fuck up.” Adrenaline spikes my blood.

  He raises his arms, and his fingertips glow blue. A ball of heat churns to life between his palms. He raises his arms and flings it at me. I swerve, and it hits two of the men from the crowd who scream in pain. The sound cuts off, and their bodies disintegrate. The fuck?

  Boris is canny but he's not the strongest when it comes to amplifying his telekinetic energy, which begs the question, who the hell is he working with to get access to that kind of power?

  He drops his chin, raises both of his arms, biceps bulging, fingertips sparking. The oxygen in the space thins and fuck it, I'll come back to resolve that puzzle later. Time is running out. I have to hold back this motherfucker.

  I fall into myself and draw on the telekinetic energy, and whoa, it gushes up to meet me. Gray-blue and spiked with yellow…my dragon energy melds into it. The combined fire-telekinetic power swirls up and boils at my pores. Every part of me braces, and I yank on the energy, letting it flood out of me, covering her, forming an arrowhead of pure light that surges forward and into his chest. His body arches back, and he goes flying through the air and hits the stage.

  “Hold tight, Red.” I bend my knees, then spring up and onto the stage, still holding her. My mate. Mine. Warmth pools in my chest. The ball of heat trembles then unfolds, and a swell of light streams into my blood.

  I bite off a profanity, block out the sight of the crowds.

  I can’t afford to let her get hurt. I am already stretching my power to the full extent, but there’s one thing, just one thing left to do. I prowl forward to where Boris stirs.

  He sits up and shakes his head.

  His gaze widens as, still holding her close, I draw upon the combined Fae-Dragon shifter energy, let it boil right up, collecting every last bit of my anger, my hate, my love for her…yeah, I fucking love her! All those emotions flood into my blood and mix with my power. It flows up my chest, my throat, and stops. The fuck?

  39

  Alice

  Doc starts above me. His shoulders flex, the tendons of his throat move and every muscle in his body goes rigid. He shakes his head, then I sense his eyes snap into focus. He seems to be struggling with something…trying to get in touch with that energy inside that I had sensed, the part that made him so Doc. So unique. Fae and Dragon. Animal and human. A confluence of my worst nightmares and every wet dream come true.

  The cords of his neck twang. “I can’t… I can’t focus my energy long enough to teleport.”

  “You’re burning up.” I huddle closer and place a palm over his chest.

  I sense his heart thudding so fast, hammering against his rib cage. The planes of his chest clench; the tendons of his throat strain. The mating bond coiled in my rib cage throbs in response.

  I reach out to him through the bond, searching for that connection that had always been implied, just there, just out of reach. I had been afraid to reach for it and show him just how close we truly are.

  “Fuck.” His gaze darts forward, and his shoulders tense.

  “I am going to kill the both of you.”

  Boris’ voice slithers over us.

  "Getting tired of that dialogue, asshole," Doc's breathing is labored, "you need a new fucking threat."

  The stench of rotting flesh creeps over me, and I push it away. No, I cannot let this happen. We’ve faced too much, come too far, and I cannot, will not allow Doc to give up. Not now. Not when everything I have always wanted is so close to me. There is only one thing I want in this world. Him.

  “Let me help you, Doc.”

  I sense him start.

  He doesn’t take his gaze off Boris. “I can’t endanger you, Red.”

  “Just once can you listen to me, you stubborn, obstinate alpha-hole?”

  “You turn me on when you are bossy." One side of his lips twists. "Not that I'll ever let you be in control."

  The fetor of rotting flesh intensifies.

  Boris has moved in closer. The heat in the space rolls over me, all the oxygen seems to be sucked up, creating a void around us.

  There’s a hush in the air.

  Something is coming, a storm that is going to wipe us away, push us to the end, make us do something we are going to regret. The thoughts bounce around in my head. “Don’t, Doc… Nolan…don’t do it.”

  I follow his gaze. Boris’ gaze narrows, his lips draw back, and his canines drop. The tips glow with an eerie white spark. His ears extend, and he pulls them back. He swings his arm, and energy crackles from his fingertips. He rolls his telekinetic power into a ball of lethal energy that glows between his palms.

  “I am not going to let you hurt her.” Doc swings around, turning his back on Boris. He hunches over me, pulling me close to his body, so close that my nose is buried in his chest, my arms curled around his massive torso. He’s all around me, enfolding me, shielding me. Then, the energy sweeps over us.

  Red and white. Hot and cold at the same time. It’s Boris, he’s hit us with everything he’s got, and Doc is shielding me with his own body.

  “No.” I strain in his hold but his arms don’t give. His body doesn’t move.

  I look up, and all I can see is the curve of his chin, the fold of his body that shields me from the worst of Boris’ assault.

  The energy dissipates, only he doesn’t move. He stays where he is.

  “Doc.”

  His heartbeat ratchets up, pounding against my skin.

  He doesn’t reply. I peer up and find his jaw tense. A pulse beats at the base of his throat. He’s holding himself so tightly, so silently. Is he hurt? Sweat pours down his shoulders, drenching me, enfolding me in that essence of his that is so Doc. His body quivers, once. He is in more pain than he is letting on.

  “Let me help, Doc.”

  “No.” He coughs, then shakes his head. “Can’t let you risk yourself for me.” His voice is harsh.

  “So you’ll kill yourself?”

  “If that’s what it takes.”

  I set my jaw. Stubborn macho man. “If you die, I die, too. You realize that?”

  “Huh?” He swallows and glances down at me, and I gasp. His irises snap vertically, the blue in them coiling into pools of hope and pain. And something else. A fierce need to protect.

  The air around us thins, and Doc tenses. His shoulders draw up. “What do you mean by that?”

  “You mated me, Doc.”

  “The bond is not consolidated.”

  “You fucked me….a lot.” A chuckle spills from my lips. “I’d say that was
enough to strengthen whatever is between us.”

  “There’s time. You can go on without me, find someone more worthy.” He draws in a breath.

  I reach up and grab his chin, and he lets me coax his head down. “I want only you. If you die, I am going to kill myself, too.’

  “You won’t.” His gaze grows fierce.” You’ll live…”

  “Not.”

  “What am I going to do with you?” One side of his lips curves.

  “You can let me help you.”

  His jaw firms, and he pulls me even closer. A roar rends the air; all of the oxygen is sucked up. I try to breathe, and my lungs burn. He’s going to hit us. Boris won’t stop, not until he’s decimated Doc, and I will not let that happen.

  "Please?" I cup his cheek.

  He grits his teeth, and another ball of fire crashes into him from behind. “No, Red. And that's final."

  His big body goes rock-hard, then sways.

  He drops to his knees, taking me down with him, still hunched over me, sheltering me. My heartbeat mirrors his. My throat goes dry. Goosebumps crawl over my skin. It’s now or never. I drop into myself, reaching for the ball of fire in my chest. I follow the trail of blue light leading to Doc, flooding the bond with everything I want for him, for us.

  Let me in, Doc.

  I pulse the thought at him, then chuckle.

  He’d said the same thing to me once. When he’d tried to fuck me in places I’d never been taken before. When he’d trod virgin ground—literally. I snicker under my breath. He had been hellbent on filling me up, on causing me the kind of pain that pushed me over the edge into a whole new kind of pleasure, and now…this…will he let me in?

  Please. My heart races. Let me help you, Doc. Let me help us. It’s okay to lean on someone else on occasion. It’s fine to allow your mate to share the pain.

  He groans and his eyelids crack open to fix on mine. “What are you doing to me, Red?”

  “Just showing you how it can be between us. Will you let me do that much? Just this once? Will you trust me as much as I do you?”

  40

  Doc

  Her question hits me with the force of a storm.

  Can I trust her?

  Do I allow her to look into the shadow of my mind where I have never dared venture myself?

  I am so afraid of what she’ll find there, of what I’d find there.

  The edge of my perversions. The reason for what makes me what I am. The fact that it’s more than the brave façade that I put up. I don't make excuses for how I turned out. I am a result of the choices I made. But hell no one wants to be deviant. No one wants to spend their life in pursuit of pain. That’s all it had been…a way to forget…until her. And now she’s asking me the one question that lays me bare. That exposes the kind of weakling I am. It’s now or never.

  Can I finally give in to that last barrier between us?

  The one that had insisted I let go of her? Can I give her what she wants? Yes. Yes. I can’t deny her. Even if it means stripping myself completely so she can see exactly what I am.

  I bow my head. My shoulders bunch.

  I lower the barriers between us, and the mating bond expands.

  The blue-green energy swoops down on me, spinning through the parts of me inside that I have never wanted to face, lighting up the dark corners of my mind. My heart. My soul.

  I allow her energy to sweep through me, sink into my blood, flow down my spine then whoosh back up.

  It surges forward to twine with the ball of energy in my heart. My heart stutters. My breath comes in gasps. I draw upon our combined energies.

  It swells my chest, my throat. I raise my chin, open my mouth, and the energy spirals forward. I rise up, widening my stance as I lock my muscles to hold myself in place; then propel the energy the rest of the way toward Boris.

  The vortex spins over Boris, whirling faster and faster; then it blows out. The blue-green energy swoops up. Sparks of gold fountain from it, lighting up the entire stage, almost blinding me; then it winks out. A few dust motes flutter in the air, then those too drift away. He's dead, and this time the motherfucker is gonna stay that way.

  I stand there, legs trembling, my thighs refusing to support me anymore.

  “We did it.” Her voice flows over me.

  I look down at her. “You did it. You made me see how wrong I was.”

  She frowns. “About what?”

  “Everything.”

  “You are scaring me, Doc.”

  “You showed me the error of my ways. That everything I had thought was right so far is not. That what I have become is a mistake. What I subjected you to is wrong, so wrong.”

  “It wasn’t.” She shakes her head, raises her palm, and places it on my face.

  Her touch is so gentle, so soft, I wince. “I don’t deserve your love.”

  Did I just say that?

  Me, confessing to not being good enough? And last I checked, I still have my balls. I toss my head. Why am I having these thoughts in the middle of dangerous territory and surrounded by a crowd of marauding men, all of whom have their eyes set on her?

  “Let’s get out of here.”

  A scream lashes through the space, and I look back over my shoulder. The crowd flows forward, people pressed into the stage. Two men clamber onto the platform and come toward us. Followed by another and another.

  I turn around to face them, then take a step back, and another. The energy inside me sparks, then fizzles out.

  I need time to recharge.

  I just depleted a big burst of my power to get rid of that bastard Boris. I need to recuperate for a few seconds before I am ready to teleport.

  The crowd closes in on us. She trembles in my arms, and I hold her closer.

  “I won’t let anything happen to you.” I don’t take my eyes off of the stranger who approaches us.

  “I know.” She loops her arm around my waist. Her hair falls over her shoulders.

  The new arrival’s gaze swivels to her.

  His gaze rakes over her body, and I snarl.

  “Back the fuck off.”

  He takes another step forward, his gaze sliding back to my woman. Fuck, fuck, fuck. A few more seconds, that’s all I need for my energy to rekindle. Even alpha Fae warriors who are highly trained soldiers have their limitations when it comes to teleoperations. A shudder grips my body. Damn, the antidote’s effect is fading away.

  My knees buckle.

  “Doc, you okay?” Her worried voice cuts through the thoughts crowding in my head.

  “Fine.”

  Another man jumps onto the stage, and a third and a fourth. Motherfucker. The crowd is closing in on us. The stench of their unwashed bodies presses down, along with the intent to harm, to do much worse to her. I bare my lips, and my canines drop.

  Sweat slides down my temples. I cannot fail her. I will keep her safe at any cost. I bring her close. She shudders and presses her face into my chest.

  “They have to get through me to get to you.” I am saying it aloud more to calm her, to keep her from realizing the hopelessness of our situation—the fact that we are cornered, cut off, and facing a pack of feral men who wouldn't hesitate to rip us apart.

  She leans up and places her lips near my ears. “I trust you.”

  Three simple words.

  They shouldn’t mean so much. They shouldn’t lay me low. But they do. My heart squeezes, and a pressure pushes down on the backs of my eyes.

  The throng on stage sidles in slowly, slowly. Their gaze fixed on the woman in my arms.

  Alice chokes and burrows in further. Her shoulders shudder and I tighten my hold on her.

  "They are going to kill us." Her voice trembles.

  I hate the fear I hear in her tone, the fact that her body is shaking, that I scent her nervousness.

  And I am helpless, fucking helpless to do anything.

  I hunch over her, making sure to keep as much of her covered as I can.

  My back grazes th
e wall at the back of the platform. Only then do I realize that I have backed up all the way to the far end.

  White pain screeches over my nerve endings, reminding me that I am hurt.

  The telekinetic energy inside me rolls. I am so close to being restored.

  Just a few more seconds, that’s all I need.

  I’ll do anything to get that time.

  To turn back the clock to when I was with her in the safe house. I had a chance to love her the way she deserved, and I failed. If I get out of here…I will put her needs before mine. I will care for her, cherish her, tell her that…"I love you."

  She trembles, then turns to me. She flings her arms around my neck, literally climbs up my body and presses her lips into my cheek. “I love you Nolan.”

  The words flow over my skin, and a calmness enfolds me. If I die now…it will have been worth it.

  She makes everything right.

  Why didn’t I see that before? Why had I turned her away? Never again. I wrap my arms around her, trying to cover as much of her body as I can with my own.

  Silence sweeps over the space. The crowd breathes as one, then they break rank and hurtle at us.

  Fuck this. It's now or never. I draw on the telekinetic power inside of me. It sparks then falls back. I draw on it again, and this time it ignites.

  All of the faces of the throng meld into one.

  I brace myself for impact, don’t take my gaze off of them. I will not cower, not even in the face of death. The telekinetic power inside of me flickers to life. I draw up the thin tendril, shove it over her, loop it around her body.

  Her muscles tense, and I know the exact moment she realizes my intention for she screams, “No!”

  “You have to get out of here.”

  “Not without you.” She reaches out to me through the mating bond, and her emerald-green energy latches on to mine, twines with mine.

  “Let go,” I growl.

  Fear pulses in my veins. I don't have enough energy to teleport both of us, and no way will I risk her life. I am going to get her out of here if it's the last thing I do.