Chasing Princes

by ERIN BEDFORD

  My legs wrapped around his waist and my mouth sought out his until we were melded together as close as possible with our clothing still on. I slipped my tongue between his lips, sliding it back and forth between his sharpened canines.

  There was a certain way you had to kiss someone who had fangs; otherwise you would cut the crap out of your tongue every time you kissed. My mind might be clouded with lust, my body overtaken by the magic that drew us to each other, but I wasn’t so far gone that I couldn’t remember not to slice myself up. Chess, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care about getting hurt. He attacked my mouth like he was searching for the Holy Grail and the only place he would find it would be in the back of my throat.

  Trying to move things along, I pulled on his shirt until he let go of my mouth long enough to bring me over to the bed. My back hit the mattress, and I had a brief moment where I wondered if Alice and Hatter had done it on here before Chess was back before me sans any clothes. My mind didn’t have a chance to comprehend the gorgeous sight of a naked Chess before he was pulling at my clothing.

  My clothing came off and then it was a sort of blur. Skin pressed against skin, leaving a trail of heat with every touch. Then he was inside me, stretching me, filling me, and a sense of absolute completion overcame me. My gaze locked onto his and I knew I wasn’t the only one feeling it.

  Growls and moans built up as we moved together, so loud that if I had been in my right mind it would have made me worried about Hatter and Alice hearing. But the more we touched each other, the more my magic seemed to come alive, and the glow that had shown up the last time we had been together was almost blinding as we reached our peak.

  Afterward, when we had come back down and we separated the urge to be with him wasn’t so intense. I had time to think about what we had done and what it meant. Panic rose in me. My pulse thudded so hard beneath the surface that it hurt, and I was about to bolt, but Chess’ arm wrapped around me.

  “I can taste your fear, like a heavy bitter tang on my tongue.” His clawed hand stroked my arm in a soothing motion. He let a purr vibrate out of his chest and all the tension in me seemed to relax. “Better?”

  “Yes.” I turned slightly to him until I could see his eyes. A languid, satisfied expression covered his face and I hated to destroy it with what I had to say. “It feels different now, doesn’t it? Like I still want to be near you, but I don’t feel like I’m going to die if I don’t.”

  He leaned up onto his elbow and his hand brushed through my hair along the side of my face, a small smile on his lips. “I know what you mean. Maybe it will always be this way?”

  “Like what?” I pulled back until his hand dropped away. “We stay away from each other for as long as possible until the need to be near each other builds up again, then we fuck like bunnies before going back to our normal lives?”

  His lips curled down and he sighed. The sound of it was irritated even to me. “No, Katherine, we will not just fuck and then go away.” His hand grasped the side of my hip and pulled me to him in almost a violent motion. I put my hands up to keep us from being flush against each other. I needed some distance, even though the pull between us had lessened.

  “Then what do you suggest?” Heat bubbled in my stomach and it had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with rage.

  “You weren’t even listening before, were you?” his anger answered mine but his held such a ferocity that it made my palms sweat and my pulse race. “Must I spell it out for your delicate human ears for you to understand that I love you?”

  I blinked. Once. Twice. Three times before I shook my head and asked, “You love me?”

  His anger seemed to dissipate at my question and his expression softened. “Yes, silly girl. I do.”

  “Then why did you…” I started.

  “Say what I did?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded, my eyes going down to stare at his chest. I didn’t have the courage to look him in the eyes as he answered.

  “The prince.”

  “What about him?” I frowned harder but my gaze finally rose to meet his. “You’re not afraid of him, are you?”

  “Not of him per say, but what he might do to you. On his own our dark prince can be as vicious and as unforgiving as the Bandersnatch, but when he had the chance to get the love of his life back, he had mellowed out some. If I had pronounced anything other than friendship with you, making him believe he didn’t have a chance anymore, there was no telling what he would do.”

  “You mean like join the Shadows?”

  “Exactly.” He tapped my nose with his finger and I wrinkled it at the touch. “But dear Alice has brought me up to speed, and it seems like my charade was all for not.” He sat up in the bed with a distraught sigh.

  I grabbed his arm and pressed my naked flesh against him. “It wasn’t for nothing, we’re together now. So, no more secrets, right?” My hand slid beneath the covers and played along the inside of his thigh.

  Chess took me in his arms with a playful grin. “No more secrets.”

  He captured my mouth in his as he eased us back down to the bed. Desire curled in me as he slithered between my thighs and brought my legs up around his waist. But before he could slide home, a knock on the door followed by Hatter’s voice interrupted us, “If you two are quite finished, I would like my bedroom back now.”

  Chapter 14

  Searching

  MY FACE COULDN’T get any redder as I stood before Hatter and Alice with Chess at my side. If he was fazed it didn’t show, but the knowing smile on Alice’s face was unsettling, and I knew I would be hearing it from her for weeks to come.

  “Now that we are all here, back on our feet, and back to the right size.” Alice gave me a sly grin before continuing, “We need to discuss what we are going to do next. Hatter here has kindly offered us his home as a base of operations.” She clasped hands with the serious Fae, and they exchanged a look that made me wonder what they had been doing while Chess and I were busy. We would definitely be having a talk before all this was over. If I was still here that is.

  “Well, we need to find the Shadows for one,” Chess said, his tail wrapping around my leg. The urge to touch each other was still there and having that small connection was enough to calm it.

  I shook my head at him, my want to be near him not overshadowing my own good sense. “There is no point in finding them if we don’t know the ritual to get rid of them. And we left my mother’s before we had a chance to ask her.”

  “We had a good reason, though,” Alice argued, gracing Chess with a pointed look. “We couldn’t have asked her while Cheshire was in such a vulnerable state. Who knows what the queen might have asked for in return?”

  “She won’t be getting anything in return.” I shifted my weight to one side, cocking my hip out, my hands becoming aggressive as I spoke, “She made this mess and I’m cleaning it up. The least she could do is not be a pain in the ass while I save her sorry hide.” I swore if my mother even thought about trying to make a deal with me to get the words to the ritual all bets were off. There wouldn’t be enough of her left to rule the Seelie Court let alone survive.

  “Now, pet.” Chess placed a hand on my arm, his hand on my skin calming some of my anger. “We can’t just kill the queen because she is being nasty. No matter how warranted.”

  I frowned at him. I didn’t want to be calm, I wanted to be angry, and his touch was projecting his emotions onto me. I could tell this whole feeling what I’m feeling thing was going to get annoying fast.

  “Plus you promised not to, remember?” I turned my frown toward Alice. I had promised that, hadn’t I? Damn it all to hell and back.

  “Fine. No maiming of the queen. Happy?” I glanced around the room and then sighed. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we still need the words to the ritual to get rid of them, and we aren’t going to get those here.” I paused for a moment and then remembered the compact Pat had given me. I would think that some
one who was used to using a cell phone would remember something so similar in their pocket. My hand reached into my pocket only to come up empty.

  I looked to Alice, confusion on my face. “What happened to the mirror Pat gave me?”

  This time it was Alice’s turn to frown. Sadness filled her eyes as she held out her hand to show me the compact and all of its pieces in her hand. The mirror had been smashed, the hinge that combined the top and bottom pulled apart.

  “It fell out of your pocket when you collapsed. We tried to magic it back together, but it seems to need a different sort of touch.” She glanced at Hatter for support. “Maybe Pat could still fix it? Or make a new one?”

  “We don’t have time to go all the way back to Pat’s, we need to contact my mother now.” I turned to Hatter, impatience starting to color my words. “Don’t you have a mirror here?”

  He shook his head, his silver hair shaking back and forth. “Not one that can be used as a portal, or even as a communication device. I do not wish to deal with the Higher Fae any more than I have to.” His mouth twisted into a grimace.

  “Well, there goes that idea,” I groaned.

  “We could just go to my house.” Chess stepped forward. His tail released my leg and I instantly missed the touch. He glanced back at me with a knowing smile that made me blush before he flicked his hair over his shoulder and shrugged. “If it’s still there, that is. I haven’t been there in a while, who knows what has happened since I’ve been gone.”

  “It’s worth a shot either way. We don’t have anywhere else to go, and your place is closer than Seer’s.” I gave a half shrug, not really happy with the plan, but there wasn’t much else we could do. We couldn’t run back and forth between the realms, not without eventually running into the Shadows, and talking to my mother via mirror was safer than seeing her in person. Either way, we weren’t going to get anywhere hanging around Hatter’s house.

  * * *

  THE TRIP FROM Hatter’s to Chess’ was a lot less scary with another Fae besides Mop and Trip by my side. We had decided it was best for Alice to stay with Hatter. Well, I decided that, because she seemed to want to so badly, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her no. Besides, what could she do anyways? Glamour the Shadows to death?

  The walk was quiet and peaceful. If we hadn’t been in the middle of a war, I’d have said it was almost like a date. Two people strolling through the woods, their hands brushing every once in a while as they snuck secret looks at each other. It was kind of fun, that was until we reached the Willow Tree.

  I could tell right away something was wrong. The leaves of the tree were dried up, and most of them had fallen to the ground. There was no movement in the tree when we approached. The vines stayed where they were instead of sweeping open like a curtain to welcome us in, and the inside wasn’t any better.

  The green grass that almost glowed with different colored mushrooms was brown and patchy, with no fungi in sight. The trail that led up to Chess’ throne was all but nonexistent, and what was worse than the decay around us, was the figure sitting in Chess’ spot.

  “What do we have here?” Dorian sat on the throne, one leg thrown over the side almost exactly the same way Chess’ had been the first time we met. Except, Chess didn’t have a grin on his face so malevolent that it sent chills down my spine.

  He still looked like Dorian, black clothing on top of black boots. His dark hair braided in small areas. Even the blue of his eyes was the same. To any onlooker, they would think there was nothing wrong with him, but it was his aura. His very presence was different.

  The further he came into the light, the more I felt it press down on me. He wasn’t even trying, and the darkness in him was leaking all over the place. How had he gotten so much power so fast? Surely the Shadows couldn’t be powerful enough to make him feel this way. That’s when I realized it.

  They didn’t give him anything. He hadn’t joined their side; he had become their side. That grin on his face wasn’t one that Dorian would have ever worn, but the Shadow man would. That sort of ‘I’m thinking about what you look like on the side’ kind of gaze that made my skin buzz with energy.

  Chess’ need to protect me billowed up inside me, and it almost made me smile, but I held it back not wanting to give Dorian any ammunition to use against us.

  “What do you want?” I stepped forward, not giving Chess the chance to stand between us, one more moment and he would have done just that.

  The laugh that came out of Dorian was not his laugh. It burned along my skin like an icy chill. There was so much power; so much evil in that laugh, it made my determination die a little bit. How was I supposed to win? I wasn’t strong enough.

  A warm hand slipped into mine and my head cleared. The hopelessness I was feeling disappeared, and I gave Chess a thankful smile. That had been the wrong thing to do, because not soon after, Dorian let out a roar that shook the ground.

  “No!” he yelled, gripping his hair in his hands. “You promised me they wouldn’t be together. That she would be mine!” His face jerked to the side and then the other like he was fighting some kind of internal battle before all of a sudden he stopped, and his wicked grin fell back into place.

  “Tell me, my love.” The endearment on his lips was like a worm crawling along my skin, and I fought not to rub my arms to be rid of it. “Has our dear Cheshire told you why he has been beaten and offered up to Fae of all kinds for his playmates?”

  My brow scrunched down, what was he getting at? “Because he’s a half-breed and the moderator.”

  Dorian shook a finger at us, making a tut-tutting noise with his tongue. “Someone’s been telling tall tales. Get it?” his eyes lit up with laughter. “Tails? Because he’s a cat!”

  “Get to the fucking point, Dorian.” I snarled, not liking where he was going with this conversation, I could already feel the unease in Chess, and it didn’t sit well.

  His laughter didn’t die off; it just stopped, all at once. In the place of laughter was a nasty grin. “Let me tell you a story, shall I?” he didn’t wait for anyone to answer. He crossed one leg over the other he floated in the air before us. “Once upon a time, a scared queen wanted to get rid of all the bad little Fae who were terrorizing her kingdom. So, instead of doing the civil thing and putting them out of their misery, she decided to put them in a place no one would miss them. The Shadow Realm.”

  “We know all this already, you are trying my patience,” I said through clenched teeth, my hand tightening around Chess’.

  “Now, now do not get so huffy.” He waved me off as if I were a fly buzzing around his head, and then his lip poked out in a pout. “We are just now getting to the best part.”

  “You aren’t telling us anything new.” Chess growled his apprehension to leave making me sick to my stomach.

  “No.” my voice made Chess quickly look to me. “I want to know what he has to say.”

  “Why? He’s just going to lie and twist things to how he wants them.” He gestured toward Dorian, who was sitting patiently in midair, happy as a peach to see us fight.

  I didn’t tell him I could feel his terror, he knew I could. But I also wanted to know what he had been so desperate to keep from me after we had promised no more secrets. I wasn’t sure Chess would tell me the truth if I asked now.

  “Go on, then.” I gestured my head toward Dorian, urging him to continue. “Tell me what you want me to hear, so you can get out of my face.”

  “Very well, I will get it over with.” Suddenly, his glee was replaced with anger. “The reason your dear ol’ Cheshire was tortured and pimped out was because your mother was trying to get the last ingredient for her little spell.”

  “Ingredient?” I asked the question, though I knew what he was talking about. She had told me before I wasn’t ready to do the spell, and when she took Chess, she had left a note telling me now I was ready, but then I didn’t know what she meant. The combination of Chess’ mumbled words about
hearts and ploy to marry me off to Dorian to produce a half-breed led to only one conclusion. Standing in front of Dorian with an apprehensive Chess at my side, I knew all too well what that last ingredient was.

  “Love,” I said quietly, I dropped Chess’ hand at the realization. “The last ingredient is love.”

  “Correct!” Dorian clapped his hands together sharply. “And who do you think was in charge of getting that last ingredient once the queen found out who you were?”

  I stared at the ground hard not wanting to look to the side and see the guilt on Chess’ face. I could feel it well enough, like a sickness building in my soul. It had been a game all along. I had been a fool to believe him after he had denied me the first time. Why did I think a little magical exchange mixed with some mind-blowing sex would make him love me?

  “No more secrets, huh?” I scoffed and jerked away when he reached out to touch me. I didn’t want to calm down. I didn’t want him anywhere near me.

  “You have to understand. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to hurt you,” Chess pleaded with me, his eyes large and full of sorrow.

  “But he did hurt you, didn’t he?” Dorian pranced between us, a smile lighting up his face. He was delighted to have caused our pain and was trying his best to rub our faces in it. I was about ready to rub his face in something else.

  “I don’t know if I can do this anymore.” I shook my head, ignoring the overwhelming need to punch Dorian in the face. My heart was breaking all over again and I was tired. Tired of fighting, tired of being the one in charge, and most of all, I was tired of feeling.

  I could feel Chess’ anguish and regret. It was under my skin, and I felt myself choking on it. His was overriding my own feelings of hurt and betrayal. It should have made me see reason. It should have made me realize how sorry he was, but all it did was infuriate me.

  The angrier I became, the more distraught his feelings were, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t even feel what I wanted to feel without him raining all over me. I needed a break. I needed to breathe. So I did the only thing I could do. I ran.