by Alisha Basso
The undead hesitated. I felt it in his movement. The blade was so close to my throat, it nicked me and blood seeped over the edge and ran down my neck. I heard Styx moan softly under his breath, and he dragged me against his stiff groin. I recoiled but couldn’t move away from him.
“What is your name, fae?”
“Maeglin Séregon.”
“Sunstrike? That’s a fucking lie. That bloodline is dead,” he shouted.
Goddess, their language was so beautiful, and his true name was like light glowing in dark places, rolling off his tongue in that strong, sexy voice with just a touch of huskiness to it.
His expression changed to surprise at Styx’s strong reaction. “I’m a very distant relative and look at you, all up on the fae bloodlines.” He twirled the sword and it sang again.
“I was a history professor when I was alive,” he spat, grinning. “My specialization was Fae History.”
I seriously couldn’t believe this conversation. I would laugh if I didn’t have six inches of mortal steel against my neck.
I stared at Talon as if to say, could we get on with this?”
His eyes flicked to mine and his mouth tightened, concern broke through for a moment, and my heart stalled in my chest. How he could look so fierce and yielding at the same time was beyond me. He cared about me? Hard to believe after the knee to the groin and my sarcastic mouth. My recklessness was going to get us both killed. Well, me for sure.
“Drop the sword and move away from it.”
Without hesitation, Talon did as Styx asked. He widened his stance, balancing on the balls of his feet. “You’re mistaken if you think you’ve disarmed me, undead.”
Between one second and the next, Talon was just there. His hand was on the blade swinging it away from my neck, and I heard bones crack. Styx cried out as he shoved me face first into the pavement. But Talon was already on him, roaring at me, “Run, Lily! Get the fuck out of here!” Their movements were just too fast for me to see as they grappled. Talon was…magnificent. His glow intensified as his blows hit more often than not.
Before I could even scramble to my feet, Talon streaked to the sword, nothing but a smear of gorgeous color. When he saw I wasn’t moving, he growled low, “Lily…”
The moment’s distraction cost him and I shouted, “Behind you!” But it was too late.
The vamp landed a stunning blow to the back of Talon’s head. It snapped forward and he staggered, barely recovering in time to swing his sword up to ward off the vamp’s next move. When he stumbled it was evident he was disoriented, the blow to his head debilitating. The vamp’s body shifted in a breathless instant, and before Talon could even twitch, the vamp had impaled himself on the sword and jerked it out of Talon’s hand.
He hit Talon a hard blow to the face, and when he fell to his back on the pavement the vamp was on him, sinking his teeth into the fae’s neck, pumping in his saliva. Talon cried out, and then, when Styx sucked, Talon’s groan mixed with the undead’s.
My stomach clenched hard, and I lost it. I ran at the vamp and got him around the neck and tried to jerk him away, but he only pulled harder at Talon’s blood. Talon’s face was rapt from the pleasure of the saliva. At this rate, the vamp would kill my rescuer while I was still struggling to pull him away.
What was I doing? I was a witch, and I had an arsenal in my head. I backed off Styx and gathered my composure, tried to calm my racing heart. Power was in everything, all around me, even in this vamp who was sucking the life out of Talon. My hands shook and my heart raced.
Then I went calm, eerily calm, and sound ceased. My sight shifted to second, and I surveyed the air around me. I absorbed what I needed, the violence a deep red mist, so real in the air I could almost touch it. It added force and mass to the spell I was working in my head. I felt the pressure build in my body, in my chi, in my mind where the cosmos spun.
Styx felt it too. He stopped sucking and lifted his head. His lips pulled away from his teeth, dripping with Talon’s blood, his eyes a deep, dark, angry red, the source of his power another key which fit into my spell. Running was not an option, so I stood my ground. Before he could react, I spoke one word, “Explosia.”
The spell hit the vamp with all the force I could muster in my chi, and sound blasted back into my awareness like a thousand locomotives. I had often heard witches can draw down the moon, and the reality of it settled deep within me when Styx flew away from Talon.
Talon rose to his knees, clenched his fist, and drove it forward. As soon as his arm was extended, green fire burst from his hand and he hammered the undead in the back. Styx was lifted off his feet and hurled even further away from us. I ran to Talon, who had dropped to his hands and was panting, his chest heaving. Blood from two puncture wounds, a ruby red, slid down his neck and he looked…dazed.
“I told you to fucking run, Lily!” he said hoarsely, a frightening savagery in his eyes.
“I couldn’t leave you.”
He laughed like I was crazy.
“Where’s your bike?”
“Down the street.” I helped him up from his knees, his skin warm, his body solid against me as we started forward, then broke into a slow run. Even as we ran, he got more and more wobbly.
“Come on! We really need to hurry!” The vamp was down, but he wasn’t out, and as we ran, I wondered if we were just prolonging the inevitable.
Before we had gone ten feet, something grabbed my collar and pulled me away from Talon. The force flung me away like I was nothing. I hit the pavement, and my momentum kept my body in motion. I slid and hit the light post with my head.
Everything went blurry and it took me a moment to get my bearings. When I sat up, the vamp was on Talon again and I knew he was going to drain him. The vamp saliva might not turn Talon, but it immobilized him just like it did a human.
Two bites. I felt sick. I knew what Talon would face if he survived.
Desperation swamped me, and at first my mind refused to work. Frantic to save him, I reached out and found the dragon currents. Recklessly, I pulled more energy than I could hold in my haste. It poured into me, scoring my very cells, imbuing me with scalding power. I screamed with the fullness of the raw energy of the Torrent. Ignoring the excruciating pain, I threw a barrier over Talon like I had been doing this all my life. With another cry of anguish, desperation fueled by fear, I released the energy and it poured into the vamp, turning him incandescent blue. I maintained the energy blast until he released Talon, and then I pulled in yet more energy, so sure I was going to die as it consumed me up that I shrieked from the pressure.
The energy crashed into the vamp, hurled him far away from Talon, who was helpless now, writhing on the street, his red hair spread out around him.
I sobbed as the power drained out of me, sliding on the pavement with twisting, arcs of blue light. I took a gulping breath, my body prickled, my fingertips snapping with the aftermath of the Torrent. In a lurching run, I stumbled to him.
Just then Nock materialized.
“Nock!”
His fists clenched as he took an angry step toward me. “Lily, where have you been?”
Frantically, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I grabbed Nock and pushed him towards Talon. “Take him. Quick! Use the dirt elevator and get him to my apartment.”
Nock looked down at Talon and then back at me like I’d lost what was left of my witchy mind. “What? A fae! The FDA?”
“Don’t argue with me.” I sobbed out a breath, my whole body on alert. “Do it! I’ll be there as soon as I…”
The vamp’s eyes gleamed in the night and Nock let out a small squeak.
“Hurry. He’ll kill Talon. And he saved my life just now!”
Nock transformed into the cool teenager and lifted Talon, who groaned. “Lily,” he said.
“Go!” I screamed.
Talon reached out to me and shouted brokenly, “No!” But Nock disappeared into the earth. Turning, I raced for his gleaming sword, grabbing it up, I was
shocked at how heavy it was. I turned to face the oncoming vamp. He shimmered here, then there, his feral eyes hungry for more of Talon’s blood, and high off the magic and the heady taste.
He laughed as he morphed two feet in front of me. “Ah, little witch, this isn’t your night. You took away my dinner, but I have a feeling your blood is going to taste even sweeter.” He grabbed his crotch and said with a sultry hunger, “Want me to fuck you while I feed? One last time before you die? It’ll feel so good. You’ll be dying for it.”
My stomach clenched as a rush of his vamp-induced desire flared through me and was gone. Its punch took my breath away, and I found myself trying to hold on to it. “Bastard,” I said, wide-eyed as my blood pounded in me. I brought up the sword.
“Flattery will get you everywhere, pretty little witch.” He laughed. With the coiled tension of a predator, he lunged at me.
The shock of a man dropping like a stone out of the sky and landing in a crouch totally distracted me from my impending death. I was so surprised I looked away from the oncoming vamp, forgetting for an instant I was about to be bitten and probably didn’t have to worry about turning, because the undead Styx was going to eat me for lunch.
I caught a glimpse of intense, ochre colored eyes, a shock of soot-black hair and a face of aching beauty. Then the vamp was on me. I tried to fend him off, but he was much too strong. His mouth clamped to my neck and I braced for the jab of his fangs, but suddenly he wasn’t there. The intense man held Styx up by the back of his coat and his voice vibrated through me, making me tremble.
“What do you think you are doing?” he said, very low. The calmness and power in his soft voice vibrated in the night. “You imbecile! I don’t pay you to attack people in Haven’s End. I pay you to distribute dust.”
I thought the vamp had gone white when he’d seen Olivia’s picture, but he went even whiter now.
“Sir. She was asking questions about…”
“Shut up.” He threw the vamp from him. “Get the hell out of here before I change my mind about our bargain, you sorry piece of shit.”
I got up from the ground, not sure who this guy was or what he was doing here. Without a word, he turned to me, and those intense eyes captured mine…and I was lost in the sea of red-brown, sucked down as though I was drowning in a vast ocean.
When I came to, I was lying on a leather couch in a very beautiful office.
Chapter Eleven
I bolted up and looked around. I had no idea where I was or even if I was still in Haven’s End. My hand went to my neck, frantically feeling for bite marks, then, with a sigh I relaxed. I hadn’t been bitten. My immediate concern, now that I was safe, was for Talon. I needed to get back to my apartment. Fast.
Talon’s beautiful, deadly sword lay across the desk in the room. But it wasn’t much help right now. I reached for the Torrent even as the residue swirled through me, still throbbing potently. But I hit a barrier, dark and devoid of anything. I had tapped the currents out of desperation, and I still felt the glow of the power which had thundered through me during the attack on Styx. I wasn’t sure using the leftover was smart, but I might not have a choice. The adrenaline was fading and I was cold and jittery. My head hurt like a migraine, but as I rested back, panting, its pounding diminished to a more manageable level.
“You can’t tap the dragon currents in here, little witch.” His voice was deep, seductive, and intimidating.
I swallowed hard.
Was he a fae? Was he trying to enrap me?
The office was dim, and he was no more than a hulking shadow near the open door.
“Who are you and what do you want?” I asked, hearing my voice tremble.
“I could ask you the same question. When Styx went berserk I sensed it. I keep really close tabs on my undead. Especially in Haven’s End.” His voice carried the strength of wind and eternity.
“Really?” I scoffed. “He needs a leash.” I rubbed at my temple.
He chuckled without mirth. “I have control of my animals.”
“Apparently not. He fed on a fae. One of the FDA agents.” I also couldn’t keep the worry out of my voice.
“He what!” He stood there for a moment, then his eyes went sly. “You didn’t take him to the OS, and if a fae was there, he was in Haven’s End without backup. Styx wouldn’t have attacked him if there were other fae around. Hmmm, puts you in a bad position. What were you doing in Haven’s End tussling with an undead vamp? You’re either defective or just stupid.”
I stiffened at his matter-of-fact tone. Even if I was stupid, which I couldn’t quite disagree with at this point, I wasn’t going to take any disrespect. “I’m neither. I was looking for information.” What the hell was he?
As if he’d stepped out of an old fashioned painting, he wore a starkly white shirt with frilly lace cuffs which cascaded over his beautiful hands. He was wearing leather pants in a myriad of patches and red colors with a whole Jim Morrison vibe. They clung to his muscular thighs and outlined his tight ass to perfection. It was a tossup who had a finer ass, this guy or Talon.
Right, Lily. That’s what is important now. The appealing ass of a guy who holds your life in his hands.
He walked to the open window as a strong breeze blew the scent of water into the room. I was near the river? Still in Haven’s End? His scent reached me and he smelled good…like…even as I thought it, the word eluded me. I wondered if he did that. As he passed a mirror, I saw something, but it was too fast and dim in that section of the room for me to see exactly what.
“What type of information?” He toyed with one of his decorative cuffs, his dark hair caressing a dark, stubbled cheek. I had the urge to go over there and…I didn’t know. It wasn’t exactly a compulsion, more like a starving curiosity. Could he be a vamp? But even as I thought that, I knew it didn’t fit. He didn’t have that vibe about him. He moved normally, while a vamp couldn’t help but display their speed and grace in every muscle. Definitely not a fae. He didn’t have pointed ears or tri-colored eyes. Shifter…maybe? He was definitely not human.
I couldn’t see the harm in answering him. “About Olivia Vesta. She was my business partner, and she was murdered.”
It felt as though he was standing close to me, so real I backed up, the couch butting up against the back of my legs. “And she was dealing in illegal dust?” He pushed the window wider and the wind rushed over him, plastering the shirt against his chest, fluttering like sheets snapping on the line.
Oh, no, not that subject! “I’m not discussing it with a stranger who is keeping me prisoner. It’s none of your damn business. I just got a tip that Styx might have information. He recognized her, then told me to get lost.”
I eyed the sword and calculated my chances. “You won’t make it, witchipoo.” He said, not even looking at me.
My tense muscles only went tenser. Witchipoo? Seriously? This guy was pissing me off.
He turned and pinned me with a powerful look as he came further into the room, the dim light finding him in the gloom like a lover. His face flashed briefly and I was again struck by his astonishing beauty.
He passed the desk, trailing his hand over the wood and Talon’s sword lovingly. “As much as I would love to cross swords with you...” He raised his hand and a glowing sword that burned with a white hot flame appeared, the handgrip snug in his grasp. He tilted his head, his rich, shaggy mess of black curls slid against his skin. “I know you’re a witch. One who stirs spells. That’s old magic, isn’t it?”
“It’s Earth magic. Stirring is the proper way to do it. You going to criticize me and my craft now? You asshole.”
He chuckled and the sword disappeared as he came around the desk, folding his arms against his wide chest, leaning back against it. “What’s your name?”
“Lily Starbuck.”
“Ah, the other half of Kitchen Witches.”
My breath came in a quick sound. Heart pounding. “You know the name of the business.”
“Best cre
am puffs I’ve ever tasted,” his pleasure palpable.
I plopped down on the couch, exhausted.
He crouched down. I held my breath as he engulfed my hands in his with a gentleman’s grace. He lifted my fingers and brought them close to his lips. His cobalt blue eyes captured mine. I boldly returned his gaze, intrigued by the hints beyond their depths. My pulse slammed hard through me, but it felt as if my heart was somewhere else. With a quick press of his soft, warm mouth, he released me, my fingers tingling. “You looking to avenge her murder?”
He was from a different time, I was sure of it. Ancient, it seemed. Even as I thought to ask who he was, it slipped from my mind and disappeared. “I plan to get justice.”
“Hmmm. I know about vengeance and justice,” he said softly. “Best left alone.” His voice seemed to scour my soul, and as quickly as that, I was close to tears. It was as if he had reached into me and now knew my pain. It was laced in his words, my love for Olivia in the sound of his voice, my betrayal an inflection. All of it twisted hard in my chest.
I dropped my head forward, and he slipped his fingers under my chin to lift my eyes to his. His touch was so soothing and calming. I met those deep russet eyes, but this time there was no ocean to drown me, just a considering look full of compassion. His fingers were strong, warm.
I floated in the soothing bubble for a moment, his charm washing over me in a way I had never experienced before. Then I did sink into those cinnamon eyes as if into a warm and consoling brown, backwashing into a gentle wave that soaked into me like umber-hued liquid through sand.
My eyes widened in surprise. A whisper of his thoughts trailed through the very fabric of me, as if he knew every cell, every pore. His thoughts touched the depth of my soul and kicked back as he whispered something unheard.
Longing for solace twisted in me, but I didn’t know how to achieve it. I didn’t know where to find it. A tear slipped down my cheek. Fear streaked through me, breaking the bubble and terrifying me.
I jerked away from him and brought my boot up and shoved him square in the chest. As soon as he was flat out, I leapt for the door, fumbling with the knob. Before I could get the door open, he grabbed me around the middle and lifted me right off my feet.
