by Angel Lawson
“Slow down. I may puke.” I couldn’t remember how many drinks we had, but it was obviously more than enough. My head spun and my vision was blurry. Grace led me down the back hall, past the bathrooms and out an exit that pushed us into an alley.
“You won’t puke, but we’ve got to get out of here.”
“Why the rush? That was amazing, well, from what I remember. It’s all a little confusing.”
“The bar is closed,” she said, tugging at my hand. The golden light that had followed her all night dimmed until it was barely a faint glimmer. “But you’re right, that was amazing. Best night of my life.”
Three blocks away we rest against a brick wall. “I’ve never felt so good,” I told her. The nausea passed now that we were in the dark, away from the loud thumping music. Euphoria pulsed through my veins. I’d never used drugs or had sex before, but something told me that the feeling of exhilaration coursing through me was similar. And just as addictive. Already I wanted more.
“Never?”
“Well, maybe once or twice before. With Liam. He makes me feel the best.”
“Liam’s the guy?”
“Yes, he can do that to me and more. When we’re together it’s like we become one person. Together anything is possible. Oh crap. Did I kiss someone in there?” I’d never been close to anyone else. Did this feeding thing work on other people? On humans?
She shook her head making the glitter sparkle on her cheeks. “I wish I could tell you what all happened back there but I can’t. I got a little caught up myself.” Her words buzzed in my brain, tickling that part of me that discerned reality. I reached for it, waited for the blast of truth, but nothing came. The strange part was that I was there too—and I should know, but I couldn’t remember either.
“Answer one thing, why the hell are you out with me if you could be at home fucking a guy that made you feel like that that all the time?” she asked.
“Fu—oh no. We’re not doing that. Not yet, at least.”
“So you’re getting all that “connection” stuff from what? Kissing?”
“Yeah, kissing and other stuff.” The foggy mist hovering over my brain lifted a little and I realized I’d probably said too much. “It’s complicated.”
“Complicated? It sounds awesome. If it’s that intense from kissing, I can’t imagine what would happen if you take it further. You need to be careful.”
“It’s not a big deal. I have no plans on getting that involved with him,” I declared with absolute certainty. Of course, Liam clearly had other ambitions. There was little chance I would get away so easily, or when the time came, that I would want to.
“Be careful,” she said, again. “I’ve given everything to a man before and watched others do the same. You have to protect yourself.”
“Thanks, Grace.” I stepped through a puddle on the street and pulled her into a tight hug. “You’re a really good friend.”
***
Someone was following me. I first noticed them after Grace and I separated close to her house. I wanted—no needed—some fresh air to clear my mind. The street was quiet, my house three blocks away. A shadow lurked in the background, ducking behind cars, hiding just out of the reach of light.
My first inclination was to run, but a calm voice whispered in my ear. “Assess the situation. Figure out a plan. Make your first move—even if it isn’t an actual move.” Colleen had said these words to me at each of our lessons. She’d drilled them into me, like a mantra, and I’d expected another test. The timing made sense. Jealous bastard. He’d probably been following me all night.
There was no way he would get the best of me again.
Even on my best night there was no way I could beat him—not fully. I needed to get away. Get to safe ground. That would be my way of winning this round.
My house was two blocks away. If I got inside the wards would keep a real soldier out. All I had to do was get home before he caught me.
Tiny nerves on the back of my neck tingled with anticipation. I walked casually, as though I had no clue I was being tracked. From past experience I knew he’d try to catch me in a weak position. Might as well get this show on the road. I bent down to adjust my shoe.
“Tick tock,” I muttered under my breath when he took too long. Oh well, I had another shoe. Switching over and tugging at the fine leather, I bided my time. I’d about given up, thinking I had made up the entire situation when a dark shadow crossed over the street. I stood and faced a hooded figure. “Took you long enough. I thought you’d given up.”
I heard a low rumble in his chest. The silver of his blade flashed in the streetlight. “Don’t cut me up this time, okay? That hurt like a mother,” I said, shifting to one side. I didn’t have a blade of my own. Maybe I should get one? I was confident in my increased speed and my ability pack a pretty hard punch.
Tired of waiting, he lunged at me and I moved away fast, jabbing him twice in the side. His claws scared me, exact replicas from the battle at the airport. I kicked him in the knee, hard enough that he stumbled, his razor sharp fingers scraping the ground. I took the time to inch backward. Closer to safe ground. He leaped from his spot, faster than I’d ever seen him, and tackled me. My head smacked hard against the pavement and both my arms were pinned to the ground.
“Dammit Liam, if you want to get me in your bed, buy me dinner and some freaking flowers first.”
That made him stop briefly, and in a swift move, he tugged the hood back. My attacker revealed a shaved head and dark, almost black eyes. A red line scarred his cheek and a dark tattoo covered his temple. With his sharp claw he drew a painful line across my throat. “You’ve got the wrong fighter, little girl.”
No, no, no…I shivered. Adrenaline kicked in and kneed him square between the legs.
“Gods,” he cried, but I used the diversion to shift and kicked him in the chest using the spike of my heel. I made a break for it—scrambling on the pavement, I ran. Fast and hard, down my street, past my neighbor’s houses. One more. One more house and up the stairs, through the door and I’d be safe behind the wards.
Pain flared up my legs from the stupid boots, but I kept going, ignoring the footsteps pounding on the street behind me. Legs pumping, I got to the curb, jumped over the sidewalk and made the final dash to the door. The soldier was behind me, so close I felt his breath on my neck, smelled the sweat coming off his body. I had to get inside but there was no way, with the door being locked. He was too close. I ran past the front door, arching past my father’s car, pushing though the back gate. A faint glow filtered through the back door window, and with heightened senses I reached for the wooden handle I knew from memory hung there and ducked behind the tool shed.
I only had seconds, but I used them to wait for the soldier, my back pressed against the scratchy siding. “You can run…” he mocked. Why did he talk so much trash? Who am I to him?
That was what I planned to find out.
He stepped into view and I swung the heavy pitchfork across his stomach and again against the back of his head. He fell to the ground gasping for breath. But I was done with this bullshit. I shoved the long, hard, metal tines into his stomach, all the way through, and pinned him to the ground. He struggled, baring his teeth in a snarl.
“Shut up,” I said, standing above him. I positioned my tired, worn out foot on his crotch, heel strategically placed. “What do you want with me?”
“Kill me if you want, I’m not at liberty to discuss my mission.”
I leaned on the pole, twisting the tines. The soldier grimaced and fought back a cry. “I can do this all night,” I lied, feeling my body wearing down. How long ago was it that I was at the bar with Grace? What had actually happened there? “Who sent you here? What is this all about?”
He refused to speak and I bent over, pressing my hand to his chest. The vision rolled over me like a freight train. The same throne as before, ruffled dark robes and blue-black hair, dark as a raven. She sat behind a long table filled with the re
mains of a feast, servants hovered around the edges. I heard my name, spoken with a vengeful whisper. “Nadya,” she said. “Bring the girl to me. Alive.” The soldier bowed, clawed hand at his side.
My mind cleared and I looked down at the soldier. “Who is that?”
“Eleanor. Our Queen.”
Ah, the same that attacked the portal. “What does she want with me?”
He made a feeble attempt to struggle. A trickle of blood fell from his mouth. “I don’t question her demands. Neither should you.”
“I don’t have a queen, asshat,” I said, knowing I had no idea if this was true or not. If I did, and she wanted me brought to her using this type of force, it wasn’t good. Not good at all.
“You do, and she’s requested your presence. You have little choice.” He exhaled a shaky final breath and his eyes glazed over. I watched his head fall lifeless to the side.
I kicked his hip but he didn’t move. I reached for my phone and dialed.
“There’s a soldier in my yard. I killed him.”
Chapter 23
Liam
“She really did a number on him,” Brayden said, struggling with the dead body. He pulled the pitch fork out with a sticky jerk. “When did she get so strong?”
I had the same question, leaning against the doorframe, waiting for Nadya to come down. I’d knocked ten minutes ago. She had two more before I broke our agreement and went inside.
“Get rid of him,” I said. Brayden opened a pouch and sprinkled it over the body. The soldier’s flesh turned gray and disintegrated. “I’ll deal with the fallout tomorrow.”
“Why don’t you just go inside—make sure she’s okay?”
“Because we have an agreement and I’m trying to respect that. She’s not making it easy.” I sighed. “And she’s okay—physically at least. I can sense it through our bond.”
“This one—she’s got you by the balls? Never thought I’d see it happen.”
I shot him a look, a hard one, and he gathered up his tools. I was contemplating the way to break in with the least damage to the door when Nadya appeared, hair wet, smelling of soap and shampoo. Her thin frame was wrapped in a blue robe. Her pupils pulsed in the dark—dilated. A thin, bloody line ran the length of her neck. I reached for her. She flinched and backed away into her kitchen. “Let me see,” I said.
“It’s fine.”
“He cut you.” Rage boiled beneath my skin and if he wasn’t already dead and destroyed, I’d have found him and ripped his head off. “She’ll pay for this.”
“Who, the Queen?”
“Yes.”
“He told me she wanted me. Alive. They aren’t going to kill me. They just want to take me to her. Maybe I should just go?”
I ran a hand through my hair. Gods, she was so infuriating. “You aren’t going.”
“Why not? It’s my decision.”
“No, it’s not.” A flash under her ear caught my eye and I brushed a finger across the skin. Glitter. “Where were you before you ran into this guy?”
“Don’t change the subject, Liam. I want to know more about Eleanor.”
I took a step forward, assessing her flushed cheeks, her strung out eyes. “Tell me where you were.”
“It’s none of your fucking business. I didn’t ask you to come over here for an inquisition about my evening.”
“No!” I shouted. “You asked me over here to take care of a dead body. A Sidhe solider, Nadya. That death will not come without consequence. I need you to be honest with me, so I can help you.” She crossed her arms over her chest and set her jaw, like a petulant child. “How did you get the strength to kill him? How did you fight him off?”
“You trained me. I did what you told me to.”
“It’s more than that. You’ve fed. Recently.” She shook her head but her eyes stayed down. I stepped closer and lifted her chin. Her lips were puffy, and swollen. I ran my thumb over her bottom lip and lifted it to my mouth, tasting it with my tongue. I shook my head. “Dammit Nadya.”
“What?”
“You taste like honey.”
“So?”
“So that means we’ve got a problem. A big one. Bigger than one Queen.”
“What? Is there a King after me too?”
I threw my hands up in exasperation. “The King is your least concern. There isn’t just one queen, Nadya. There isn’t just one land in Otherworld. There are many, each ruled by their own royalty. You’ve got one queen that wants your head and another…”
“What does the other one want?” Her eyes were wide with curiosity. They should be. I’d just dropped a bomb on her.
“I’m not sure what she wants. Not yet. Even if I did, it’s not my place to tell you.” I nodded toward the house. “Get dressed. You’re coming home with me.”
Colleen sat in the chair opposite mine. Her chin jutted defensively. She knew why I called her here, but I asked anyway. “Want to explain what happened while I was gone?”
“Last night?”
“From the beginning.”
“Nothing eventful happened until you came back—that scene at the bar.”
I shook my head. “Nadya has been unaccounted for two nights in a row. Why is that?”
“Two?”
“I’m aware you left her alone at the gym.”
Recognition lit up her eyes. “Daniel called me because there had been a disturbance in the portal.”
“What sort of disturbance?”
“The same blips as before.”
“And he felt it was necessary to take you off the training schedule with Nadya?”
She shifted an inch to the left. “Yes.”
“And you felt it was necessary to disobey a direct order from me to go check on a “blip?”
“I report to him.”
“No,” I said, in a steady voice. “You report to me.”
“Nadya is very capable. I don’t think you give her enough credit—“
I held up my hand. “Nadya was attacked tonight by a solider. You’re correct. She is capable of handling herself. Unfortunately, she’s unpredictable and unknown. Dangerous. Because of her we’ve sent another dead soldier back to Eleanor.”
“She killed him? By herself?” A small grin tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Go Nadya.”
A similar sense of pride filled my chest, but fear and anger surpassed that emotion. “Please understand that this will not happen again. You are to stick to her like glue, if she knows it or not. Do not leave her side.”
“Where is she now?”
“Down the hall. She didn’t want her father to see her injuries.” Injuries that had already healed—and not with my assistance. A result, I imagined, from binge feeding on a room full of unsuspecting humans. “I’ve reactivated the locator charm on her necklace and reestablished the wards; we can’t risk another situation like this. Things are already too tense with the Otherworld.”
“You had deactivated the charm? When?”
“When she asked me to give her some space.” I leaned back in my seat. “It was a bad idea. She’s a wild card in a very precarious situation. Neither Eleanor nor Fiona will rest until one of them gets her hands on Nadya. It’s my job to make sure this doesn’t happen.”
“Why not just take her? Let Fiona get a look for herself? Maybe she can tell Eleanor that Nadya isn’t the threat she thinks she is?”
I drummed my fingers on the desk. “Because I’m not convinced that Eleanor is wrong. Nadya may be the biggest threat yet. To all of us.”
Chapter 24
Nadya
Leaning over the sink, I inspected my neck. Smooth, pale flesh reflected back from the massive guest room mirror. How, I wondered, because I only agreed to come back to Liam’s house to keep my father from seeing the injuries from the fight. When we left I looked like hell. Now? I ran my fingers over the nonexistent line. The wounds were almost gone and I hadn’t even let Liam touch me. The nervous feeling in my stomach that I’d had since I parted from Grace
continued to grow. Something happened in that bar. Something I didn’t exactly remember or fully understand. Unfortunately, the frown on Liam’s face when he tasted the honey on my lips made me even more concerned.
And scared.
As soon as we arrived at Liam’s home he retreated through the adjoining door to his office. I couldn’t hear much through the thick wood—just muffled voices—but I did know Colleen had been summoned to a meeting. We hadn’t really spoken since my workout at the gym two nights ago. It felt like much longer than that. I barely recalled being at Grace’s house the night before.
I left the bathroom and pressed my ear to the door, trying to catch a word here or there from Liam’s study. Whatever Colleen had been called in for, I had no doubt I was somehow involved. Liam shifted easily between his positon with the Guard and my—whatever he was to me. Protector? Hookup? I didn’t allow myself to dwell long on the word that wanted to trump the others. Mate.
His roles were so different that sometimes I had to remind myself that he wasn’t a normal man, that his concerns were more than just for my health and safety. They reflected something greater to our world. One I knew little about.
I knew I should have felt trapped as a prisoner to all of these things. Tucked away in Liam’s massive home, wasting time in the luxury of this room, but something had changed in the last couple of days. Something reached beyond the chains of my regular life and the complexity of the new, Sidhe, one. I didn’t feel trapped. I felt empowered. Grace had shown me I could have more. I felt it in my nerves and on my lips. It trembled in my stomach and down my limbs, lurking in the back of my shadowy memory. Everything changed when I killed that soldier on my own. I could take care of myself.
Whatever these two royal Sidhe had planned for me wasn’t good enough. I needed my own plan. I wanted to control my life. Not some fairy queen in Otherworld. Not Liam.
Retreating from the door, I pulled out my phone and found Grace’s number. I sat on the bed to plot my next move. I came to Liam’s home to protect my father. I would leave to protect myself. All I needed was the right moment, and when I found it, I would take it.
