Malakai

by Michele Hauf

  Chapter Six

  "That's the only way to break your curse?" Malakai asked.

  Rissa nodded. She shivered, rubbing her arms with her palms and he hugged her against his body, their skin melding warmly. "I can't ask you to do that. You promised the sword to another to break your curse. It's far more important you avoid death."

  "Sugar cube, no matter how I play the cards I'm going to die, one way or another."

  "No. If you get away from me, you'll be safe. You'll have opportunity to regain your strength."

  He crushed her against his chest. "I don't know how you can say that. I love you, Rissa. I don't want to be away from you for one second. If I left you now, my heart would break."

  She beat his chest. "But you would survive!"

  He grabbed her, lifting her to kiss, and silencing her protests. He didn't have to consider the options. Well, yes he did. There was Kambriel to consider. If he could break the curse and save her he must do so. But he'd not handed the sword over to Ooghna yet, so he could still change his mind and fight the Unseelie king.

  Hell, what to do?

  With Rissa's legs wrapped about his hips, he leaned against the table and lifted the sword. The blade gleamed under the light, an unnatural brightness that made it difficult to look at it overlong. Glamoursiege. Yes, the name felt perfect. That he had created it gave him so much wonder.

  "This sword is not mine to wield," he said. "I know that."

  "Because it belongs to Faery."

  "Yes. But why was I the one to forge it? I don't understand."

  "Perhaps I can be of assistance?"

  They turned to find a tall, dark-haired man filling the open doorway.

  Still on the table, Rissa shivered and shrugged out of his grasp, pulling up her legs to her chest. Kai swore that she hissed at the man, and when he saw the wings behind his shoulders, he realized another faery stood before them.

  Not at all ashamed of his nudity, Kai thrust back his shoulders and moved to stand before Rissa, for he sensed her fear and wanted to protect her.

  "She's a sweet treat, yes?" the faery said as he stepped inside the shed.

  Fists clenching, Kai could only assume he was one of many Rissa had slept with to drain their life energy. But he wouldn't allow him to shame her for her curse.

  "She is a queen amongst mortals. Let no man betray her with cruel words."

  "Justly admonished." The faery bowed his head toward Rissa, as a means to an apology. "I am Malrick," he announced to Kai.

  "The Unseelie king." The one who had cursed Rissa the leanan sidhe. The one she wished him to kill in order to break her curse.

  Kai reached back and slid a palm over the table, but didn't connect with Glamoursiege.

  "It's not going to happen that way," Malrick said, strolling before the forge, teasing a finger along the still-hot stones that edged the embers. Upon contact, his skin smoked, but he showed no sign of pain. "Yes, my death would break any and all curses I've cast. But I am immortal."

  "Death finds all immortals eventually," Kai said.

  "If you wish to believe that, I'll not challenge such nonsensical thinking." The Faery king peered over Kai's shoulder, noting the weapon. "You've Glamoursiege."

  Weird how the faeries seemed to know its name and Kai had only just finished it. Truly, an amazing weapon if it had called out to those in another realm.

  "It's been promised to someone else," Kai said.

  "Yes, I know," the king said calmly.

  Malrick's wings unfurled to their full length, which stretched fifteen feet to either side of his shoulders. The long, elegant appendages were as a butterfly's with vibrant violet and emerald scales set in a chrome and black background. Heavy metal meets the rainbow, Kai thought. Yet he could feel the power emanate from those wings. And the tips, while deceptively curled as if antennae, he suspected they could lash out as razor whips.

  "Let me make a piece of your history very clear," Malrick said, pressing his fingers together in a steeple before him, which displayed intricate white markings on the underside of his hands and arms as if tattoos or decorative mehndi.

  Kai shifted on his feet. He was starting to feel uncomfortable, unclothed, facing an actual king of Faery. But he wouldn't move away from Rissa. He would protect her with every bone in his body.

  "Indeed, twenty and some mortal years ago a bargain was made between your parents and Ooghna, my champion," Malrick said. "That warrior is a jealous, selfish bit of wing and bloodthirsty zeal. Normally all bargains, deals, promises, and/or boons are approved through me. I wasn't pleased she had gone behind my back. And I do rather favor your father, Malakai. Credence Eduoard Saint-Pierre is a solid vampire who has marked this realm and endured centuries. I would never place him as my equal, but he is formidable."

  Kai lifted a brow. Sounded like a roundabout diss against his father, but he couldn't be positive.

  "To get to the point…" Malrick spread out his hands in explanation. "When you and your sister Kambriel were born, it was I who ensured your umbilical cords were wrapped round one another's neck, allowing that neither would be born first or second. Thus, negating the bargain made with my champion."

  That the sidhe had been so intertwined in the conception and births of he and his sister gave Kai a shiver now. Truly, had they ever known a day of freedom?

  "So." Malrick folded back his wings and lifted his head regally. "In repayment for that intervention, I will accept you, Malakai Saint-Pierre, as my champion. As well, I will receive Glamoursiege as my champion's favor."

  "You think Ooghna was selfish?" Kai blurted out. "You ask a lot, Malrick."

  "I am owed, am I not?"

  "Yes, but it is the sword or my fealty. You cannot have both."

  "The sword is repayment for my intervention granted at your birth."

  Kai nodded. He could agree to that. But that meant he wouldn't be able to hand it over to Ooghna, and the curse still applied.

  "It wasn't Ooghna who cursed you should you love a faery," Malrick said. "It was me. I am the one who stood at your mother's bedside after your birth and cursed you. I'll toss in dissolving that curse as a bonus for the sword. You may keep your heart should you find love with a sidhe."

  "Deal. I give the sword to you, Malrick, king of the Unseelie."

  The sword behind Rissa suddenly spun on the table and began to gleam an unnatural blue. Its song chimed loudly. Malrick held out a hand and received the weapon, which flew to his grip and landed with a solid slap.

  Kai exhaled. Remarkable to see the sword held by a faery. It spread its glow through the man's body, and filled the white arabesques on his skin with its surreal blue energy.

  "It is powerful," Malrick conceded. "Fine work, swordsmith. My leanan sidhe inspired your greatest achievement."

  And Kai bowed to the faery king, accepting the compliment, for the world was indeed a strange and wondrous place right now, and he was merely a player in this game of two realms.

  "And now you wish to claim Rissa's freedom?"

  "Yes," Kai said on a gasp, lifting his head to meet the Unseelie's steady gaze. "Please."

  "Then you grant me your fealty."

  "I uh…for what reason do you require such devotion?"

  The faery king smirked, and swished Glamoursiege through the air, admiring the blue trail in its wake. "You are a particular sort of wolf who asks too many questions. But very well. I ask you to defeat my fickle champion Ooghna. She needs to be cut down and put in her place."

  "You want me to fight a woman?" Kai snickered. Forgetting the seriousness of the moment, he shook his head. "Sorry. Beating on women is not my thing."

  "Then Rissa shall forever remain leanan sidhe." The Unseelie king swept his wings forward, curling them about his shoulders and the glowing sword, and with a flicker, he was gone.

  Kai's fists tightened as he stared at the empty space where the faery king had just stood. Fine particles of faery dust glittered in the dim morning light. He'd be damned if anyone
would force him to fight a female. No man would be so cruel.

  Yet in those moments when he'd raged at Malrick for suggesting the malicious act, Kai had forgotten the one thing that had become most important in his life.

  He spun and found Rissa sitting on the work table, her legs bent to her chest and her arms clasped about them. Tear-filled violet eyes held his, no judgment or accusation in them. Not a hint of betrayal. Yet the tears betrayed her heart.

  "Hell." Kai dropped to his knees before her and bowed his head. "What have I done?"

  ***

  "You've done what your heart demands," Rissa said softly.

  She'd slid down from the table, the hem of the oversized tee shirt dusting above her knees. The broken pieces of her heart had crumbled upon the Unseelie king's statement that Kai must fight Ooghna to break her curse. Such a noble man as Kai would never lower himself to fight a woman. And he'd gotten what he most desired—Malrick had released him from his curse of loving a faery in exchange for Glamoursiege.

  So he could love her now.

  And her love would kill him.

  "I have to leave," she said suddenly, and skirted around the kneeling wolf to rush into his house to claim her clothes. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and she cursed her silly heart.

  She felt him fast on her heels, but she didn't want the confrontation, the obvious argument. They could discuss the rights and wrongs all day. All that mattered was she was deadly to him, and if she did not leave, she would never leave. And with that selfish choice she would bury him faster than any battle with a faery champion might.

  Pulling her dress over her head, she tugged out her hair and glanced around for her shoes. Kai gripped her by the arm and turned her to face him.

  "No." He clasped the skirt and pulled it up, pressing his fist softly against her thigh, claiming her. "You're not going anywhere."

  She struggled as, with one hand, he pulled off her dress and left her bared to him. Both of them were bared, yet she felt more naked, stripped to his delving gaze.

  "It's not your soul who wants me, but the curse of the leanan sidhe," she said as he kissed her breast and traveled her skin up her neck and to her mouth. "Kai, stop!" She forced herself to hit him against the shoulder but it was as if a bug beating its wings against a steel girder.

  "I know what I want," he insisted, "and it is not because some curse has weakened me, it is because I love you." He pushed her against the wall and pinned her wrists near her head. "Let me love you, Rissa."

  It could never be true love. He didn't understand that the leanan sidhe, while drawing out the life energy from her lover, infused him with a need for more. More of her. More of the muse she had become to him.

  "The sword is complete," she argued, as he bruised hard, delicious kisses along her shoulder and down her arm. "You don't need me anymore, Kai. I've served my purpose as your muse."

  "That's not the way of it. I don't give a damn about the muse stuff." "It is the way of it!" She gripped hanks of his hair and held him away from giving her skin devastatingly punishing kisses. He wanted only to touch and taste her, to please her, but she had to make him stop. "See me," she said. "Look at me. Look at us, Kai. It is unnatural."

  "Never. Werewolves and faeries can love. They can bond. I love you, Rissa."

  His hand slid between her legs, and she pressed her thighs together. He growled. The wolf wanted a treat. He wanted to bond, to feel her against him, within him, surrounding him.

  As did she feel those same longings. So desperately.

  She loved him. It had not been long since she had picked him out at the reenactment festival as a potential source to feed her unending need for life, yet in that short time she had seen inside this man, learned him, and yes, given all that she was for him.

  She could not fathom living without Malakai Saint-Pierre. And yet, to remain…

  "I'm going!" She pushed him hard, and he landed on the bed. Naked, his erection sprang up, fierce and wanting. "I have to." She shivered, afraid her feet would not move her the short distance to the stairs.

  And so she did what she rarely did on this mortal plane.

  As Kai lunged toward her, Rissa slipped into glamour and her body instantly shifted to bird-size, her wings flapping and a trail of dust spilling in her wake. She flew downstairs and toward the open back door. She hadn't shifted like this in years, and could not sustain the glamour overlong.

  A wolf's howl alerted her. Had Kai shifted? She paused mid-air above the work shed and spied the wolf prancing out the open back door. A huge black wolf that scented the ground, searching. The wolf lifted its head. Could he track her by air?

  Rissa's heartbeats stuttered. She couldn't hold the glamour much longer. Years spent in the mortal realm tended to drain that skill.

  The wolf wandered around the perimeter of the work shed. Immediately above him, Rissa struggled with the decision to dart away into the thick forest or to remain and face the man she loved as bravely as she could.

  Too late, she realized her dust shimmered down, sparkling in the air as it landed the wolf's fur. The wolf jumped up, its front paws clawing the air. Kai put forth a long and challenging howl. Or was it a cry for her return?

  She loved him. That big, burly Casanova of a wolf. They were perfect together, in and out of bed. And now that the curse had been lifted… Could she possibly exist in his life, while taking other men to sustain the vampiric needs of her curse? She'd have to have sex with others—no, it was unthinkable.

  Rissa's wings stopped beating. Exhaustion curled about her shoulders. She began to plummet. When she felt the summer breeze whisper through her wings, and her heartbeats stutter, she dropped the glamour.

  Landing beside the stream on a bed of fallen leaves, Rissa returned to full height and size. A slip of Faery glamour remained as a fabric about her breasts and torso. The usual covering she wore when once in Faery.

  An angry growl cut the air and Rissa's thick hair was gripped from behind. She felt the sharp edge of a blade dig up under her jaw. She lost her footing and faltered, landing her body against the solid yet lithe form of the woman who held her captive.

  "You've convinced Malrick to drop the curse against the werewolf, thus stealing his heart from me. So now I will take your heart, leanan sidhe."

  The wolf's howl echoed through the treetops—and was abruptly cut off.

  The blade left Rissa's throat. Crystal flashed as the warrior Ooghna slashed her arm through the air and plunged the weapon toward Rissa's chest.

  Chapter Seven

  The wolf charged the two figures by the stream. Its paws left the ground and it soared through the air, landing the shoulder of the dark-haired faery. The wicked one that had intended harm toward the paler figure. The wolf only knew the pale one meant something to him. She was family. And he would defend her.

  The crystal weapon clanged across the stones staged before the snaking stream. The wolf bit into the warrior's arm, and her ichor came up and spilled down the wolf's throat. Acid in taste, the wolf released the faery, snapping its maw at the horrid substance, yet would not back down. It growled and barked at the enemy.

  When she made to grab the weapon, he leaped onto it, standing over it defiantly.

  "Bedamned shifter!" The warrior rose, defying the wolf by standing taller and daring to meet its gaze. "Assume your were form and fight me like a man." Human words were sometimes intelligible in the wolf's brain, but it need not know the meaning. The intention and tone of the warrior's voice issued challenge. And the wolf could not battle the thing with its teeth and talons if the insides of such a creature tasted so fowl.

  Shifting to were form, Kai came upright from four legs, the lush brown fur receding into his skin and his maw and teeth shortening. His spine cracked and with a twist of his shoulders, he stood—again, naked—before the one he knew as Ooghna.

  Behind him Rissa crouched on the stone. He could feel her fear permeate his skin, and it felt as awful as the warrior's ichor had tasted. He put
back his hand, staying the one he loved.

  "How dare you hurt her?" he defied the faery warrior. "Your quarrel is with me, Ooghna."

  "Malrick has taken the curse from you," she hissed. "Now I have nothing, so I will take away the one you love."

  "You'll do no such thing. She is mine."

  "Her love will kill you," the faery taunted. "I should be content to watch you wallow in a slow death. But. I want what is due me. Now. A heart, if you please." She had the audacity to thrust out her hand, in wait.

  "Foul faery." Kai gestured that Rissa stand, which she did. She stepped up behind him, and her trembling fingers touched his back. If he could take away her fear, he would. And he knew exactly what was required to do that. "I will fight you for her heart," he declared.

  The warrior lifted a gleaming sneer and looked down her nose. Her eyes traveled down Kai's chest and lingered at his waist and lower, where he was not aroused. The preening look only angered him.

  "Now." He growled and stepped forward. "Right here."

  "Will you fight as the Picts did so many centuries ago?" Ooghna teased at his nakedness. "Where are your woad markings, such as mine?"

  "I will not give you the pleasure," he said, guessing his nudity did little to appeal to the wicked faery, but finding the tease an easy reply. "I've clothes in the shed. And a weapon. Stay right here, Ooghna."

  "I wouldn't leave if Great Herne commanded me to his side. Hurry along, wolf. I've not all day. I cannot wait to taste her heart!"

  Kai gripped Rissa's hand and strode toward the shed. She shuffled alongside him, and when she started with a, "But—" he quickly cut her off.

  "You've no say about who I fight, or for what reason." They entered the cool shed and Kai tugged on a pair of work overalls, tucking the upper straps in at the waistband as he so often did. A shirt would only get in the way and impede his swing. "And you will stay out of harm's way while I fight Ooghna."

  She shook her head. "I don't want to watch you die."

  "You have so much faith in me then?" Kai sighed.

  "She is a faery champion, Kai."