by WEST
Cole moved along the line of the house and it didn’t take long to find the tracks, clear footprints showing on the muddy ground. They were large, barefoot prints, seemingly human, but with long claw-like nails curving into the ground. An icy shiver went down Cole’s spine, but he pulled out his cell phone and began snapping pictures.
A voice right behind him made him jump. “It’s a Dark Elf,” said Levi, looking down past Cole to the tracks he’d been photographing. “Actually more than one.”
Cole hadn’t heard the man coming up behind him, and wondered how in the hell he could move so quietly. There was no sign of Fredericks.
“Are you sure? It’s not just some mountain man in serious need of a pedicure?”
Levi slanted him an annoyed glance. “No,” he said shortly. “The investigators said there are teeth marks on the victims. Chew marks on the legs of the children and some of the flesh is missing as well as both the children’s heads. It’s Elf, all right.”
“Oh my God. You don’t think…Why would they take their heads?”
“I don’t know yet for sure, but as I told you, children’s brains are frequently taken by the Elves.” Levi shook his head and nodded toward the house below. “Come on—let’s get back down to our cars. I want to go to the morgue and examine those bodies.”
Cole followed him out of the trees and back down to the yard behind the house. Fredericks and Gonzalez were already there and waiting. “I’ve had a call from Agent Malone,” Gonzalez said, referencing the third member of their team. “He’s at the hospital morgue with the bodies. The coroner is about to begin his initial examinations.”
“Good. Tell him we’re on the way.” Levi led the way back to the vehicles and got behind the wheel. He moved so quickly Cole had to struggle to keep up with him, and he was already inside the SUV, impatiently tapping his fingers on the steering wheel by the time Cole slid in beside him.
“Must you always use your human speed, Elvie?”
“Don’t call me that, I said. And yes, I must use it. What the hell else am I supposed to use? And don’t even bother giving me anymore of that Faery crap. Whatever kind of fool you take me for, forget it. I’m not buying your story, so drop it.”
Levi’s eyes gleamed as he gazed over at him, and a little frown played around his lips. He didn’t say any more about it, though, and simply put the SUV in gear and started driving to Maryville and the Blount Memorial Hospital. The county seat of Blount County was a small city northwest of Townsend. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains and Cole settled back and looked out the window all the way. He had no interest in talking to Levi about all of this—primarily because he didn’t necessarily believe anything he had to say, but also because he was feeling overwhelmed by everything that had happened so far, up to and including Levi’s lovemaking and the way he’d reacted to it. He was beginning to care for this strange half-demon, and that felt like a huge mistake.
Levi had called him sweetheart, but not once had he said he cared for him. Not really. Only that he wanted to keep him safe. Why was that? It was only sex for the demon, and Cole would do well to remember that. He stole a glance at the handsome prince. He was staring straight ahead, intent on the roads. His profile was patrician. Strikingly handsome. And this was only his human form. As a half-demon, he was almost too beautiful to look at. Why was he taking such an interest in Cole? There had to be some hidden agenda that Cole wasn’t aware of—he certainly didn’t buy the Faery thing. Why had he told him all of that anyway? What had he hoped to gain? Cole closed his eyes and laid his head back against the headrest.
“Tired?”
Cole straightened up in the seat and shook his head. “No, just thinking.”
“About?”
Cole bit his bottom lip and gazed out the side window at the trees flashing by. “Nothing in particular. That family’s last moments—they must have been horrible. Awful.”
“Yes,” Levi said, his face grim. “This is exactly why WRAITH was created. To stop this kind of slaughter. Once we catch the ones responsible, they’ll be taken back to our realm and made an example of. An eye for an eye, isn’t that what the humans say?”
“What-what do you mean? What would their punishment be?”
“The heads of the children must have been harvested. Human brains are a delicacy to the Dark Elf. Any Vargr caught cannibalizing humans winds up as the main dish on the Demon King’s table. My father’s cooks have a special recipe for Dark Elf.” Levi said this so matter-of-factly that Cole winced, and he felt the gorge rise in his throat.
“Oh, God,” he whispered and rubbed a hand over his face. “This all seems so unreal.”
“It isn’t. The king’s laws are severe, even harsh, but he’s dealing with powerful beings who have a long history of anarchy. Until King Egill came into power, the Vargr Realm was a place of hellish chaos. The wars among the Vargr Domains were totally out of control until my father took over, and there are still insurgent factions who would like nothing more than to overthrow him. Your own brother, Marek, leads a faction against my father.”
“Damn it, why do you keep saying he’s my brother?”
“Because he is. Half-brother, anyway.”
“Bullshit. I’m sick of this. Tell me what you really want with me. Explain to me why you came to Washington after me. And don’t start with the faery shit, because I’m not buying it.”
Levi had reached Maryville by this time and he said nothing as he pulled into the parking lot of Blount Memorial, not even acknowledging Cole, though Cole could tell he was angry. He drove to a parking spot near the entrance and pulled in. Before Cole could get out of the car, Levi reached over him to open the glove compartment. Taking out a pair of handcuffs, he clipped one end on Cole’s wrist and before Cole could voice his astonishment, he fastened them to his other wrist and sat back to glare at him.
A feeling of extreme weakness and lethargy came over Cole, so profound that he immediately wilted against the seat and looked up at Levi with astonishment. The cuffs began to burn his wrists, and he cried out in pain, staring down at them. Quickly, Levi was there, bending over him and turning the key in the cuffs. Once they were unlocked, he flung the cuffs away and began chafing Cole’s wrists between his hands.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. You’re okay now.” He pulled Cole’s wrists up to kiss them tenderly before glancing back into Cole’s eyes from under his lashes. “I didn’t know you’d be so sensitive to it—maybe it’s because you’re highborn. I’ve never seen them burn like that before. If I’d known…”
“Wh-what was that? It felt like I was dying.”
“I’m sorry. The cuffs were made of iron—iron is like poison to a faery. They’re specially made for WRAITH to use against faery prisoners. I was trying to prove a point to you, Cole. To show you who you are. You can’t keep denying it, and it can’t continue, for your own safety. If your brother’s agents find you, they’ll clap iron manacles on you and take you back to the Faery Domain to face your brother. You’re Vargr, Cole, not human, and I came here not only to track down the Dark Elves who were killing humans, but also to keep you with me and protect you from the assassins sent by your brother to kill you. I’m telling you the truth. Tell me you believe me.”
“I-I don’t know…” Cole looked up at Levi wonderingly. Levi’s beautiful face leaned over his intently, his mouth only inches away from Cole’s. He brushed his lips against Cole’s and enchanted blue sparks flew from their mouths and danced between them.
“Trust me, Cole. I only want what’s best for you.” His breath was intoxicating and for a moment Cole allowed him to lean his forehead against his.
Then angrily, Cole pushed against his chest. “What’s best for me as you see it? If this, if any of this, is true, then my life was stolen from me! Others decided long ago what would be best for me, and they’re still doing it.” He turned and wrenched open the car door and stepped out. The sun had broken through the clouds, and i
t had become so muggy and humid he felt like a wet woolen blanket had been thrown over his head. Dragging in a deep breath, he moved to stand behind the SUV and waited for Gonzalez, whose car was coming down the aisle, to pull into the parking spot beside them. He didn’t even glance up when Levi came to stand beside him.
Levi made no move to touch him again, just stood silently next to him as Gonzalez and Fredericks got out of their vehicle and joined them. Cole fell in behind Levi as before as they made their way inside the hospital. He was still feeling the effects of the burning iron handcuffs Levi had used on him. They had felt like nothing he’d ever experienced before. They burned him like a branding iron, but made no mark on his skin. And despite the heat on his wrists, a chill as cold as a demon’s heart had seeped from them into his bones, and he couldn’t seem to shake it.
If your brother’s agents find you, they’ll clap iron manacles on you and take you back to the Faery Domain to face your brother. That’s what Levi had said. Cole shuddered at the idea of that burning coldness wrapped around him, sucking at his life force and draining it away.
When they reached the elevator inside the hospital, Levi stepped to the back of the elevator, staring straight ahead. Cole stood in front of him, the warmth from Levi’s body radiating into his. Cole swayed slightly backward into Levi, and he felt Levi’s hand touch his waist to steady him. Since the other men were staring straight ahead, Cole allowed himself a moment to lean farther back into Levi. The sense of comfort was undeniable as Levi took a step forward, fitting his lean, hard body into his.
Then the door was opening and Cole straightened up and stepped from the elevator. He stood aside to let the others go ahead of him and then followed them to the coroner’s office. Agent Malone, a tall, willowy man with very pale skin, greeted them and spoke to Levi for a few moments. The whispered words sounded like another language and Cole let his mind drift. He’d been to autopsies before, of course, but this one involved small children, and he hoped he wouldn’t be asked to witness any of them.
Levi finished his hushed conversation with the WRAITH agent and turned back to Cole and the others. “The coroner has finished with the father. Malone is taking us to him now. Cole, you’re with me.”
He turned abruptly and went through a door marked No Admittance. Nervously, Cole followed him. He found himself in a room with a wall of metal drawers indicating where bodies were being stored, each one neatly tagged with the name and numbers assigned to the deceased. A young woman in a lab coat was bent over a microscope and looked up irritably when they entered, but nodded and slipped off her stool to leave the room when Levi flashed his badge at her. The room smelled of antiseptic, formaldehyde and other smells Cole didn’t want to dwell on too closely.
Levi went over to one of the drawers and pulled it out. A sheet-covered body lying on its back was on the shelf that slid out noiselessly. Levi gave Cole a quick glance and then pulled back the sheet covering the victim. The victim was a man somewhere in his mid-thirties. His features were rugged and not particularly handsome, though it was hard to judge what he might have looked like in life. The back of his head had been caved in, collapsing the frontal lobe around the man’s right ear. His eye on that side bulged out from the pressure.
His skin was paper white, his genitals purple and nearly buried under a thick black bush of pubic hair. Cole looked up questioningly at Levi, wondering what he was looking for. Levi pulled a small receptacle, hardly bigger than a cigarette lighter from his pocket and nodded toward Cole. “Give me your hand.”
Cole held out his hand toward Levi and watched while he took another small implement from his pocket, opening up a tiny blade. He pricked Cole’s finger with it before he could pull his hand away and grabbed his wrist to hold the dripping finger over the tiny bowl and squeezed out a few drops of Cole’s blood from his finger. After a moment he released his hand and pricked his own finger, adding his blood to the mix. He whispered a few words over the blood, blew on it and a thin, wispy smoke arose and hung in the air between them.
“What are you doing?” Cole whispered, and Levi glanced up at him.
“Sending a message to my father’s wizards in the Vargr Realm.”
The blood in the receptacle suddenly burst into an orange flame, burning away with an acrid smell. It went out almost as soon as it began, and Levi set it down on the shelf beside the man’s head and bent to pry open one of his eyelids. Levi stared intently into one of his eyes for a moment and then nodded at Cole. “Look into his eye. The spell allows us to see the last image recorded on his retinas. It will tell us who did this. Look and tell me what you see.”
Disbelievingly, Cole obeyed, not expecting anything to happen. The man’s eyes were fixed and set, cloudy with death. What did Levi think he could see in them? But he touched the man’s eye anyway, gently pulling the eyelid back. He peered down into the wide, dilated eye and jumped as he saw an image swimming deep in its depths. It was of two figures—one was a monster, incredibly tall and thin, with flowing white hair and long arms that ended in claw-like hands reaching forward. Paper thin, translucent skin stretched over a skull-like face. It had a gaping mouth filled with long, sharpened fangs, and eyes that were lidless and empty. It was truly a creature from a nightmare.
Behind the hideous creature, however, stood a figure of incredible beauty, slim and graceful, with curly, auburn hair and softly shining green eyes. He stood a little aloof from the ugly creature beside him, and held a rich looking vermillion cape around his body, as if to shield his clothing from something, perhaps the blood from the victims that Cole remembered splattered around the room. His beautiful face was calm and untouched as he serenely watched the slaughter around him.
The image dissipated as Cole watched and he looked up at Levi. “Who-who was that? The one standing against the wall with the long red cape?”
“Lariol,” Levi said softly. “Your brother Marek’s consort and your uncle. He is the last surviving brother of Queen Lilliane. Your mother.”
Chapter Five
What is that mountain yonder there
Where evil winds do blow?”
“Yonder's the mountain of hell,” he cried,
“Where you and I must go.”
—The Demon Lover
“I still don’t understand,” Cole said when they got back in the big SUV and were headed back towards the mountains. “What do my brother and my uncle have to do with these murders? And with the Dark Elves?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I mean to find out,” Levi said and stole a quick glance at Cole. He was pale but seemed to be holding up well enough. The day had been filled with shocks for him and what was to come would be even worse. Levi hoped he could continue to be strong.
Levi had read his file from the FBI a dozen times before he ever met Cole. He’d seen that Cole had received the Army Commendation Medal for “valorous actions in direct contact with an enemy” while serving in Afghanistan. Despite how young he was in faery terms, Levi knew Cole was brave and wouldn’t flinch from a fight. But even though he was born in the Faery Domain, he had no idea what that domain or any other domain was like. His one and only visit to the Vargr Realm had taken him no farther than a small chamber in the king’s fortress.
“It’s time to go back home, Cole. I need to speak to my father to see what Marek’s involvement might mean.”
Cole glanced over at him and nodded. “How long will you be gone?”
“Not just me, Cole. You’re going with me. We’ll close the gate behind us and Gonzalez and the others will stay here and monitor this situation.”
“Me? But why me? I don’t have enough experience—I haven’t even been through proper training yet.”
“I’ve already explained that I need to keep you safe. I can’t do that from another realm. From this point on, you’ll go where I do. I don’t want you out of my sight.”
“But why?” Levi could feel Cole’s gaze burning into the side of his face and he turned
to glance at him. God, he was gorgeous. Even in the last day or so, the long-ago glamour put on him to make him look ordinary had worn almost completely away. His true beauty was shining through so much that it was beginning to be obvious even to humans. Levi had noticed several people staring at Cole curiously as they left the hospital. He had to be taken back to the Vargr Realm right away or a new glamour would have to be used on him. Faery beauty was too bright for this world, and Prince Elvie had more than his share.
“To keep you alive, Cole. I’ve explained that Marek wants you dead, and he’ll go to any lengths to accomplish that goal. You’re not leaving my side until that threat is neutralized.”
“I can take care of myself,” Cole murmured, turning his head to stare out the side window.
“Not against what Marek has coming for you, even if you used your natural abilities, which you still stubbornly refuse to do.”
Cole blew out a frustrated breath and turned an angry face toward Levi. “You keep saying that, but I’m not doing anything. Maybe I don’t have these ‘natural abilities.’ Did that ever occur to you?”
“No. You’re the son of a powerful faery king and his royal consort. Your uncle is a powerful wizard, like his father before him. You must have noticed a few of your abilities before this, at some time in your life. Think about it, Cole. Concentrate. They’re inside you and all you have to do is reach for them.”
