Elusion (Facets of Feyrie Book 1)

by Zoe Parker

  Strong arms embracing me, the smell of mint and earth wrapping around me.

  Love my little, Dove.

  I jerk to a sitting position. “My dad!”

  Phobe looks at me with a raised eyebrow. He can pretend all day long that he doesn’t know what I’m talking about. He’s been eavesdropping on my internal dialogue this entire time.

  “I expect he will show himself soon enough.” He answers me in that silky-smooth voice that has that makes me think about certain moments that involve lips and such. I give him a look of disgust and flop back onto the bed.

  At that second, I realize something that I should’ve realized the minute I woke up. Phobe is sitting in the bed. Minutes ago, I was snuggled up to his leg clinging to it like it was my favorite teddy bear.

  He patted my head and let me snuggle the teddy bear leg.

  What the hell?

  Phobe fished my soul out of the Well of Souls.

  After a slight pause, he pats me again. Super awkwardly. Poor guy has no idea what to do.

  “I remember everything,” I whisper. It’s all that needs to be said. He’ll be able to look inside and see these fresh memories floating haphazardly around in my fuzzled brain.

  Feeling safe, feeling comforted, I lay there and let them sort themselves out. It needs to be done, and right now I’m in a place I can do that.

  I know what my Magiks are. I know who and what I am. Holy meatballs.

  I am the daughter of Nisha, Black Dragon Queen of the Horde and Sergean, Farrier of the Dead and one of the Eldest, the 2nd born of the One God.

  My mom was a queen.

  A mom who I will never hug again. Who will never wipe away my tears. A mother I cannot see.

  I have no idea how to process this.

  My Dad, at least I have him, right? When his ‘job’ allows it. That was a bone of contention between my parents when I was a child. I’m not entirely sure what to do with that knowledge. It’s not as easy as ‘poof all better’, hugs and picnics and shit.

  Not that I really know him. All my memories are those of a child.

  I’m not the best at…feelings. If anything, I’m overly pragmatic. In my life, I learned the hard way that I don’t think the way most people do. Some things that break others don’t phase me. Horror is a norm in my world.

  I don’t have hang-ups about my looks, or whether someone likes me. I don’t even have hang-ups about most of the things that have been done to me. Those things belong to humans, I’m not human. My moral compass was broken at birth. I am a child of monsters.

  I do have issues working out the heart-feely kind of feelings. And right now, they are pushing at me hard.

  Unrelenting fuckers.

  Against my cheek, my hair moves, distracting me, and I find myself smiling at the realization. My Medusa Strands. A gift from my father. The black, thick hairs on my head are in fact alive. With lots of little teeth and venom in their bite. Their bite can cause instant death if they so choose.

  Sobering, I tilt my head to look up at Phobe.

  “With the memories, how should I be? I don’t know how to deal with this kind of shit.”

  His eyebrow shoots up again.

  “Oh, Right. You don’t either. Well then, aren’t we screwed?”

  “Things will work out,” Phobe reassures me.

  “Is that optimism? Because that sounds like optimism and neither one of us are practitioners of it.”

  The corner of his mouth lifts in what I dubbed his amused smile. Well, I have that going for me at least.

  “It’s fact, Iza. Things will work out.”

  I sigh and close my eyes, thinking about it all. Only to jerk back up to a sitting position. The Fiends! How had I forgotten about them? They were my childhood companions.

  Mom told me they showed up the hour of my birth and remained with me from that point on. Fiends are in-between creatures of shadows and the NetherRealm, they are incorporeal only able to hold physical form for short periods of time. But they feed on the flesh of others, dead or alive.

  I guess, they’re what humans call demons? But I didn’t see them as horrible and scary. I loved them deeply as a child. Receiving nothing but devotion and kindness from them.

  Where are they?

  Something tickles my awareness. Not the awareness of the room around me, the Other awareness. The awareness that is waking up inside of my brain more every second.

  “They will probably pop in soon. I can feel them coming,” I say, trying to calm the excitement in my voice.

  My stomach chooses that moment to growl loudly. Unable to help myself I giggle.

  “I will get you food from this place that Jameson calls a Diner.”

  My stomach growls again in agreement.

  “While you bathe.” My smile turns into a frown.

  “Are you saying I stink?” I barely stop myself from doing the sniff test.

  Grabbing my hand, he pulls me to my feet. I look around realizing that the house looks different. Duh, Iza, this isn’t the same house.

  “Where in the hell are we?” Really on my game today. How long have I been in the bed and am just now noticing I was in a real bed that doesn’t smell like pee?

  ‘Nika’s home.’ Oh. Well.

  “There is a bathing room through that door. Everything you need is in there,” he answers switching to out loud.

  “Are you serious? Hot water?”

  He nods looking at me like I grew a second head. Squealing in delight I run into the bathroom like the mature adult I am.

  After uselessly swiping at the wall a few times for the light switch, I give up and chuck off the stiff dirty shirt and short things I have on. Lights are overrated when I can see in the dark anyhow. I’m too excited about the freaking water to fool with it.

  Twisting and turning the fancy faucets, twenty different directions finally results in hot water pouring out. Hurriedly, I slip inside to stand directly in the spray of the steamy, gloriously hot water. Ignoring the burn of it, I sigh in happiness, content to have it melt my skin right off. It feels too good to move. The water beats against my skin in a song of pure bliss.

  It’s been so fucking long since I felt hot water.

  Relaxing, however, comes at a price.

  Leaning my head against the wall to let the hot water run down my back I sigh this time in defeat. Everything hits me like a massive brick. My real mother is dead. My father still plays escort for a god I’m not sure I have any faith in anymore. I was kidnapped and held hostage, tortured for years…had my childhood—my life—taken away all because of some stupid prophecy that I really don’t believe, at all.

  A prophecy spoke before my ancient ass parents were born.

  Oh, yeah. Then prison. Can’t forget that.

  Jaw clenching, I fight the burning, unshed tears in my eyes. Fight them for all that I’m worth until I lose, and they fall. As they fall and take with them all the useless anger about things that have already happened and can’t be changed. For the things, I forgot. For the things, I missed. For the things that I’ll never have because of it.

  How can I believe in a god that supported that fucking prophecy, the one I was being groomed to live? My parents believed in it and it cost us all everything.

  Where does this leave me?

  ‘Alive.’ The quiet unassuming word spoken in my mind by the man who wraps himself around me in the darkness of a shower is enough. It’s enough to allow me to grieve for my mother. Allows me to grieve for the life I could’ve had. Allows me to conquer the turbulence inside of me and just get all the shit out.

  When the tide eases, and I feel better than I have in a very long time, the cool air from the open shower door kisses the skin where a warm wet body pressed against me moments before. For an instant, I ache for that heat to return.

  Quickly, my brain kicks in and I grab the bottle of shampoo and began the arduous process of washing temperamental hair that hasn’t seen soap in a very long time.

  Thirty-Five />
  Phobe

  By the time I move out of the doorway where I stood staring at her, for several minutes after I got out of the shower, I’ve left a puddle of now cold water on the floor from my dripping clothing. I still don’t understand what made me go to her and hold her. Tears shouldn’t have called me. There is discomfort in seeing them but that was not why I went to her.

  No, it was the pain I could only feel the echo of. The grief I could feel coming off her in waves, saturating the bond with a such a rush of feelings that I wanted them to stop.

  Some of it…some was simply because I wanted to.

  That is what kept me standing there, holding her. And when the tide that drew me to her eased enough, I ran away like a coward. But the feelings she incites in me, remain.

  A while ago, I discovered that they do not go away, either. I accept that. Knowing this does not mean I can deal with them all at once, or even rationally. But I will deal with them as I can. For her, I will do more for than any other.

  First, I must feed her.

  Almost smiling, so tempted by it I bite my lip to stop it, I yank the wet shirt over my head and turn towards the door when I feel a presence moving towards me. Nika.

  She makes a sound of surprise and turns her back to me when I tug the wet jeans off. Modesty is a strange thing that I will never understand. Why is it shameful to be naked? They are born that way.

  “So sorry, Phobe. I just wanted to come and check on our girl.”

  My girl, I correct in my head. Despite the puzzlement of the emotions entangled with her, Iza is mine. These mortals will realize it soon enough. I saved her, that made her mine.

  Just like she saved me.

  “I figured there might be something I could do,” Nika says. “I went ahead and made a map of the way there like you asked. I don’t understand why she can’t just ride with us—"

  “Because I’m not going there.” Iza walks into the room, nude. At least she does not act weird about nudity. Although she does look at me a little longer than usual. Which oddly pleases me. Appreciation brightens her gaze making her swirling eyes flash black for a moment.

  Iza is coming into herself. I thoroughly check her from head to toe. Some of it because I want to check her wounds some of it because I am a male who is apparently letting his dick lead him. I jerk my gaze off her.

  “What do you mean you’re not going there? It’s fate, my dear. No matter how much we want to fight it, fate always gets her way.” Nika turns to face us and immediately turns back around.

  Iza gives her a strange look. This time I do not need to read her mind to know her thoughts. She is as puzzled by the prudishness of it as I am. Nika is hundreds of years old.

  Hastily, I dress in dry dark blue jeans and a plain black tee shirt, out of the corner of my eyes, watch Iza wander around the room looking at the clothing choices I had Nika provide for her. A pair of blue jeans, identical to mine and a plain black tee shirt. The smile on her face says she is happy with them. Why I care about something so trivial I am not sure. But it is, what it is.

  “Please tell me that you two have clothes on,” Nika says after a few moments of silence.

  The first Fiend, a black mass of shadows and glowing red eyes, possessing a slightly feminine form, pops into existence right in front of Nika’s face. With a small scream, she falls backward and almost hits the floor. “What in the hell?” Nika exclaims, putting distance between it and herself. “They still like to scare people like that?!”

  I look at Iza who is staring at the Fiend circling her with joy.

  “It is their job,” I answer Nika. “Leave the things I asked for and go. Lecturing her about fate and destiny isn’t going to accomplish anything.” It’s probably the most I’ve said to her at once, and the look of shock on her face reinforces that thought.

  Mortals.

  She looks at Iza who is now surrounded by a multitude of Fiends and nods. It is going to be interesting to watch how these people adapt to Iza. Because that is how it will happen. Not the other way around.

  I am slowly learning that her presence can change the world, no matter how great or small. She changed mine. Drastically. Continues to daily.

  Knowing it is going to be a little while, I go and get her a cheeseburger from the diner, something I know she will love. I have learned to glamour myself to look like a human, otherwise, people are too afraid to speak with me. While that is fine other times when I am trying to purchase food from them it is not. When I return I will start the arduous task of telling her about this realm.

  She needs to know. Now. Time is growing short.

  Thirty-Six

  Iza

  Since I woke up in this quaint little cottage of Nika’s, Phobe has been at me like a rash with facts and such about the Earth Realm.

  ‘Are you paying attention?’ This is the fifth time he’s asked me.

  “Uh, yeah. It’s a commercial break.’ He doesn’t need to know I’m not paying attention to the TV, I’m genuinely listening to Mr. Encyclopedia give me all the ins and outs of the Earth realm.

  ‘What are three of the most important rules?’

  ‘Don’t kill anyone, in sight. Don’t steal food, pay. Don’t let anyone see what I really am unless the first rule is happening.’

  ‘Iza.’ He chastises.

  ‘What? I’m allowed to put my own spin on it so I can remember it.’

  ’What else?’

  ‘Read warning signs and labels so I don’t kill myself with something stupid.’ I roll my eyes as I repeat it. I can tie my own shoes and everything, the ass.

  ‘Stay off planes. You will just freak out and end up dying in a fiery crash.’

  ‘But it would be a blazing, glorious fiery crash, right?’

  ‘Are you a child?’ He sounds so irritated with me. It’s kinda funny.

  ‘Do you really need to ask that question, Phobe?’ So, I poke at him.

  ‘Fair enough.’ Inside of me, I touch the new bond with him. It was there when I woke up. A chord attaching us metaphysically together. Just to be a brat I pluck it like a guitar string. His reaction surprises me. Before I can blink he’s standing in front of me. Staring down at me all glowering like.

  ‘What?’ I ask him.

  ‘Exercise your Magiks. You cannot afford to be weak.’

  ‘Phobe, what’s up with you? I mean you’re an intense guy and all but you seem…more so than normal.’

  ‘Do you ever take anything seriously?’ I just looked at him. He knows this answer. ‘You remember about using credit cards and their paper currency, correct?’

  I nod.

  ‘There are Others strung all over this world. Not many compared to the humans but more than you are accustomed to seeing. Let your Magiks guide you with them.’

  ‘How about I just avoid them? That sounds like the easiest option.’ Kneeling he grabs my chin forcing me to hold his gaze. Intense is an understatement.

  ‘I will not tell you that you have to obey fate and all of that bullshit, Iza. I will tell you that Magiks can and will make you do things you do not wish to do. At least at first.’ I try to turn my head away. Lectures aren’t something I feel like listening to right now. ‘Iza, you need to be strong enough to have some control over it. I know you, you are going to fight it until the bitter end. Fight it until something or someone makes you change your mind. I want you to have the strength to do this.’

  Frowning I shake my head, at least as much as I can with my chin being held with steel fingers.

  ‘Why do you want me to be able to fight it?’ He is the only one not saying fate blah, blah, blah.

  ‘If you don’t fight it you won’t fully commit to it when the time comes.’

  Okay, so he knows me well. Although I don’t like him thinking I’m already lined up to give in.

  Right?

  ‘Now, grocery stores are not the same as the diner. You cannot just eat things off the shelf.’

  Just that fast we’re onto something else.
/>
  ‘Yes, I get it. Phobe I did listen, I’m not going to forget.’ Searching my face, he stares at me until he seems satisfied then he lets go of my chin and stands.

  ‘Your father asked me to tell you to prepare you for him to show up. That is something that will happen.’

  Yeah, I’m aware. And I’m looking forward to it and absolutely terrified at the same time.

  ‘Yeah, I’ll deal with that when it happens.’ Go me, the procrastinator.

  ‘Iza—’

  ‘Yes, yes, I know, don’t eat people’s pets.’

  ‘That is true. But also, do not forget how strong you. Ever.’ I look over to where he is standing, was standing. He’s gone.

  Well, that is rather endearing of him. And suspicious.

  ‘You realize you cannot avoid the Sidhe forever, I know it calls to you, Iza.’ That’s why he ran away, saying some shit like that.

  Yeah, so it calls to me. Has been since I opened my eyes. That fated Sidhe where the prophecy tells me I will have a seat of power.

  Fate’s a load of bullshit.

  **

  An hour later, right in the middle of a show about how maxi pads are made, another greasy brown bag drops onto my lap. Oh, oh, I know what’s in there this time. Cheeseburgers. Digging in the bag, I yank one out remembering to unwrap it before biting into it this time. So good. Just so good.

  I smile up at Phobe, mouth full of food. His lips slightly lift, yeah, an almost smile. When his warm body settles down close to mine on the couch I make myself act like nothing is amiss. If I react, he’ll move. So, I stay relaxed and keep eating.

  Happily, I keep chewing—mostly. Some of it doesn’t make it that far in the process. My stomach rumbles wanting more. The greasy bag delivers.