by Quinn Loftis
What was going on over there in the Spirit Realm? Had someone opened a doorway between there and her bedroom and put a sign out front saying: This way to Van Helsing’s daughter?
Adrenaline pumped through her veins. The encounter with the two monsters had her body burning extra hot. Too bad she hadn’t been able to fight with at least one of them. A good fight might have helped calm her. Now she was too wound up to sleep so she decided to listen to music for a while.
It took hours for her body to relax enough to fall asleep.
Kasi Blake’s Books:
Order of the Spirit Realm Series: Bait, Hunter, Warrior
Rule Series: Vampires Rule, Werewolves Rule, Shifters Rule, Wizards Rule
Witch-Game Series: Crushed, Witch Hunt
Romantic Suspense: Pandora’s Box
Website: http://kasi-kcblake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @kasiblake
Please Enjoy this Excerpt By Kristin McMichael
The Day Human Prince
By B. Kristin McMichael
CHAPTER 1
Devin Alexander concentrated on the road as he drove and tried not to look across the seat to his passenger. She was clearly uncomfortable in the car. In fifteen minutes she had opened and closed her window over twenty times, rearranged the vents, and changed the temp another fifteen times. Now she was busy wiggling around, trying to find the best way to sit in a car. He had tried to convince her to take a plane, as it would be quicker than driving from the upper Midwest to the Appalachian Mountains on the East Coast, but she refused. Consequently, they were stuck riding across the middle of the US in his 1970s era black Pontiac GTO. Devin would’ve much rather preferred a shorter trip, especially now. It was only just the start, but she was driving him nuts. It was bad enough that he and Vanessa McKinny could barely stand each other, but now there was a whole new tension to deal with because of the car.
“No matter what you say, traveling in a dead metal box is unnatural,” Nessa complained for at least the tenth time in the past five minutes.
Devin concentrated on the road. Over his nineteen years, he had dealt with numerous obstacles more difficult than a seventeen-year-old girl. This should have been easy. He was used to fighting large night human monsters that drank blood to survive. It didn’t matter in the least that the girl he wanted to get back to, Arianna Grace, was one of those monsters. She wasn’t the scary kind. Nessa really wasn’t the scary kind, either; she was the more annoying kind of night human. Devin sighed. Yes, he thought as her window went down another time, she really was the annoying kind.
His current mission was to get Nessa home to her family and break the bond she had placed on him to heal him. Once the bond was broken, he would be free to go back to his normal life. It wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful she saved his life, he just had to get back to where he was needed. He had one goal, and that was to keep Arianna Grace, the girl who saved his life when he was seven, safe. He should have felt that same bond to Nessa after they were connected, as she also saved his life, but he did not. He only wanted to be free of her and her complaining.
“How much longer is this going to take?” Nessa complained. Her window was now down and the cool spring air traveled across the car to Devin. He enjoyed the breeze and wished it came with silence.
“Ten minutes less than the last time you asked,” Devin replied, keeping his eyes on the road. It was going to be a very long trip.
“And that would be?” Nessa asked, tapping her fingers on the dashboard.
“Don’t they teach math where you’re from?” Devin asked in reply, suspiciously eyeing her long fingernails as they tapped. He didn’t need her using any abnormal night human abilities to ruin his car.
Nessa stuck her tongue out at him, and then turned back to the window to watch the passing scenery. It wasn’t a very mature response, but better than the eye roll he’d gotten ten minutes ago when she’d first asked.
As he continued to drive, Devin focused on the afternoon breeze. The sidhe night humans were not as sensitive to sunlight as the dearg-dul, the vampire-like humans, that Devin had been raised with, but they were still sensitive to it. He had planned every detail of the trip, including when they were to leave. It was close to dusk, and the sun would be setting in a few hours. Devin had calculated the trip to allow them to arrive at their destination by the next morning … if he didn’t stop to strangle Nessa first. Now he was regretting his plans, and realized he should have driven during the day when she would’ve been forced to hide, preferably in the trunk.
Devin’s thoughts drifted as she continued to wiggle uncomfortably. His life had changed too much in the past year. He was happy the way it had been when Lord Randolph, the man who took him in and raised him, was alive. Randolph was a scary night human with a skewed sense of right and wrong, where there was no middle ground, but he was always fair. Devin knew what to expect. Insubordination wasn’t acceptable, and Devin had been the perfect child. When Randolph died, Devin’s world changed. Everything he thought was constant was no longer. He hated to be in a state of flux. He needed stability, and it wasn’t there anymore. The last stable thing in his life was no longer his. Arianna wasn’t there anymore. She was given a choice between Devin and someone else, and she had chosen someone else.
Devin had been a child the day he first met Arianna, but his life changed forever. Arianna found him. She rescued him from the nightmare that was his life after his parents were murdered. Arianna, with her bright blonde hair, was the one light in the world of darkness he’d entered. He had been kicking himself for over a month now that he so easily gave Arianna to Andrew. He had to make a choice: either choose to love her as she needed, or choose to protect her. Devin couldn’t do both. He didn’t have it in him to do both, and Andrew did. Andrew was different from Devin. Even though Andrew was raised in the harsh night human world, where death was always around the corner, he was still able to love and protect. Devin knew that Andrew was the better choice for Arianna, but that didn’t mean he was happy about stepping down and giving her away. The only thing that made it worthwhile was that Devin knew she was happy.
“Are you thinking about her?” Nessa asked. She had been watching him for over an hour.
Devin didn’t respond, choosing instead to continue concentrating on the road. Reaching over, he turned on the radio for a bit of distraction. Just mentioning Arianna made Devin’s mind wander more.
Arianna Grace had turned into a night human just over a year ago, but Devin had been following her, and protecting her, most of his life. He attended her high school, watching her in the hallways and in a few classes. He kept his eyes on the other night humans in her school, and made sure she was safe. He rode the same city buses she did, and hid in the shadows to watch over her. His job was to keep her safe, but he found himself falling for her instead. When she turned into a night human on her birthday, Devin was the one holding her, and he was the one willing to give his life for her need for day human blood. When she was forced into a competition for her hand in marriage, Devin entered the competition against thirteen night humans. There was nothing Devin would not do for Arianna. The petite, golden-haired girl was everything he ever wanted, and he owed his life to her. It was Arianna who saved him mentally after his life as a day human was destroyed. Arianna was his light, but now she belonged to someone else. Devin always knew it couldn’t be him. She had made her choice. He could never be what she needed, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
Nessa looked through the clear window in the black box in front of her. She recognized some of the food, but it was still strange to see it all packaged up in a machine. Shaking the coins in her hand, she counted out the correct change. Devin had given her enough to get several items from the vending machine, but she didn’t find much that seemed appetizing. Packaged food wasn’t the most enticing when you were used to everything being fresh. Nessa came from a world that was much less complicated than the one she was standing in now. She couldn’t wait to get bac
k to what was familiar, even though she dreaded returning home to the possible exile she faced for her brother’s death.
She pressed the letter B and the number 7, and some sort of candy bar fell out of the machine. The picture had nuts on it, and Nessa knew that at least no one could screw up nuts. She had discovered at the last stop that just because the picture had berries on it, it didn’t mean the food that came out had real berries in it.
Nessa didn’t spend too much time in the day human world, and it was all new and exciting for the first five minutes. After that, she kind of wanted to go home. She wasn’t looking forward to what was left there for her—she had just killed her brother and king—but she was glad to be going back to the familiar, less complicated, sidhe world. All she ever wanted to do was get out, and now that she’d experienced the outside world, she was even more confused as to where she belonged. She didn’t like the sidhe ways and traditions that had dictated everything in her life thus far, but she didn’t like the outside world too much either. All of the metal and manmade objects were scary, and the lack of nature was unnerving.
Nessa sat on the picnic table in the dark wayside as she waited for Devin to return. It was nighttime and the wind whistled through the trees, but to Nessa it wasn’t scary, as most people found it. Nessa loved the trees at night. All of the day creatures were asleep, and a whole new world opened up. Nessa listened to the crickets and lay back to see the stars. The wayside stops were the most relaxing part of the stressful trip. This was where she could sense nature again and feel like a real sidhe.
It was the adventure of a lifetime to be out of her village, and maybe the only adventure she would ever get to take. Most of the sidhe never left the mountains. The real world wasn’t that inviting when you were connected to nature. Devin’s first stop for gas was far enough into the city that she couldn’t wait to get home. All of the dead cement and metal was sad for her to see. The world, at one time, was filled with living things everywhere, but now it wasn’t. Day humans had come and destroyed it. She had been taught from when she was little about the evils of man and their ways, but now Nessa saw firsthand that it was true. Day humans didn’t respect nature; therefore, the sidhe justification for drinking the blood of day humans was actually more valid than Nessa ever knew before her trip.
“Need more time?” Devin asked as he sat beside her on the table. His hands were empty of food.
“Yes,” Nessa replied, finishing the chocolate bar that thankfully had actual peanuts in it. “Doesn’t it ever bother you to be around so much dead stuff?” Nessa pointed to the sidewalks and the shelter he had just returned from.
“Well, that’s quite the misconception,” Devin replied. “Calling all of the night humans around the Randolph estate dead isn’t very nice.” Devin was referring to the common misconception everyone had about the blood-sucking night humans. None of the night humans were actually dead, and Devin had to know that. He didn’t even crack a smile, but Nessa knew he was teasing her.
She reached over and swatted at him. “I wasn’t taking about me or night humans. We’re very much alive, thank you. I was talking about the roads, the buildings, the cities, and cars. It’s all dead. There’s no living spirit in any of it.”
“That was what the freak-out at the gas station was about?” Devin replied, as if he’d just gotten the clue into what was on her mind.
“Freak-out?” Nessa asked, sitting up now. It was a bit insulting when Devin said it like that. “Not really a freak-out. I just said I didn’t want to go inside.”
“Really?” Devin raised his eyebrows. “Then what was all of that ranting and squealing about? Get us away from here. What are you doing? If you don’t show me how this thing works, I’ll curse you and all of your children,” Devin said in a fake raised voice. “Kind of like a banshee. Oh I get it now. Ban-sidhe. Guess it comes with the family line.”
“I wasn’t ranting,” she snapped, now getting a little upset with his description. “And I’m not a banshee.” Nessa remembered seeing the banshee cult of her tribe once as a child, and she didn’t want to be compared to those women. They found great pleasure in terrifying and dismembering the people they wanted to eat … something about terror making the blood so much sweeter. Nessa liked to think of herself as better than that. Plus, there was no way Nessa would be caught dying her naturally dark hair the white-blonde color that was part of their initiation into their group.
“If you have such a problem with cars and buildings, tell me what you do. What do you live in? How do you travel?” Devin countered, challenging her.
“We live in houses, just natural ones,” Nessa replied. Everything in her world was living. It was nothing like the cement world of the day humans. It wasn’t that much different, but just created differently. There was no way to make a day human understand that. They were all about cutting down trees and making things dead.
“Sure, natural,” Devin replied, standing up. It was obvious that he didn’t believe her. “And how do you travel if not for a vehicle? By horse I’m guessing.”
“If it’s a short distance, then yes, by horse,” Nessa answered. Devin was mocking her, but she didn’t want to give in. No matter what she said, he wouldn’t understand.
“And long distances, or do the sidhe never leave home?” Devin was correct in that most sidhe never left the villages, but Nessa wasn’t about to tell him he was right. He was quite keen for a day human, but she would never admit that, either.
Nessa controlled her anger as she looked at Devin. He was just as she was told growing up; day humans were frivolously ignorant beings that really didn’t deserve to be alive. Any regret she may have had for feeding on day humans was quickly vanishing. The way Devin talked like she was the crazy one, but wasn’t he crazy for living in a dead box, along with getting from place to place in another dead box on dead pathways?
“We obviously leave home. I’m here now, aren’t I?” Nessa asked. Devin just shrugged.
“You and your brother are the first sidhe I’ve ever seen. And, trust me, I’ve seen a lot of night humans. Randolph made sure of that,” Devin answered. That had to be the truth. Devin was far more trained than even men twice his age. Nessa got the feeling that Lord Randolph was very thorough in teaching Devin. She had seen some of the scars peeking out from his white T-shirt sleeve.
Nessa hated Devin being right, and hated that he knew he was. She guessed that Devin had never seen a sidhe night human before. They never fed too far from home, and most found it better to lure day humans to the mountains than to go outside the tribe’s territory. Regardless, why did he have to be right about everything? Why did he have to be so perfect? Nessa glared at Devin. And why did he have to be cute while being right?
“We travel via butterflies,” Nessa spat out, causing Devin to laugh. She calmly whistled three tones and waited as Devin’s laugher slowed. Soon, fifteen butterflies landed on Nessa. It was spring, and there shouldn’t have been butterflies, let alone fifteen of them to land on her. Devin’s laughter abruptly stopped as he stared at her in awe. Nessa smiled before the giggles got to her. Standing, she brushed the butterflies off her gently, unable to hold the farce much longer.
“You really believed me?” Nessa asked. “You think it’s possible to travel with these? They can barely lift themselves, let alone another being. Sometimes day humans are so gullible.”
Devin stood and began to walk away once he realized she had been teasing. He didn’t like to be made fun of. Nessa ran to catch up with him, but Devin didn’t bother to slow his pace as he went back to the vending machines.
“Sorry. Really, we travel through the trees,” Nessa offered before Devin decided to leave her behind. He paused only momentarily, and she seized the opportunity to jump out ahead of him. He obviously didn’t believe her. “I’m serious. I’ll show you.”
She pointed to the nearest tree. Devin waited, but didn’t turn to look until she moved. Nessa hurried over and put her hand on the tree, turning to make sure
he was watching her.
“All of the trees are connected. We just tell the tree where we want to go, and we end up there,” Nessa pointed to the next tree about three feet away. Whispering words under her breath, her hand slid into the tree a few inches before she just vanished, only to reappear at the other tree. Apparently unimpressed with her show, Devin nodded and continued to walk away. Nessa ran and stopped in front of him again. When Devin finally looked at her, his gray-blue eyes were more closed off than ever.
“Then why are we traveling by car?” he asked, which was a good question.
“Because I’m not sure what it would do to you. Normal day humans, or even other night humans, can’t use the trees to travel. I know my blood flows in you now, but I’m not sure you’d be safe. I didn’t want to chance killing you when we could just travel otherwise.” Nessa watched his face for a response. She could tell Devin was weighing her words, so Nessa waited a second more before adding, “And this might be my last trip out of the mountains ever. I wanted to see more of the world.”
Devin paused and stared into her eyes like he was assessing what she said. Nessa stood still and stared back at him, unafraid of what he would find in her eyes. Devin was the only person in the world that knew what it felt like to belong, yet not belong. He was the only day human in the night human world around him. He was exactly like she was. Part of it, yet not. Devin reached to touch her face, and she waited for him to say something more. It looked like he wanted to, but instead he dropped his hand, nodded, and walked around her, back toward his original destination.
He’d shut down the moment she began connecting with him. Nessa hated when he was closed off. She had seen him do it many times over the past month and a half, mostly around Arianna. He seemed to have a way to not let anything out. Nessa didn’t want to be included in the ones he wasn’t real to.
Nessa walked back to the table and sat down to wait for him. She didn’t want to be near him, or be back in the car any longer then she needed to be. Devin would never be able to understand how depressing the car was to her. He may have called it his baby, and treated it like it was alive, but it wasn’t. It was a metal box on wheels that smelled funny—all cars did, Nessa had discovered after being outside of the sidhe villages—and she swore that it actually disliked her as well. At times the car doors locked themselves to keep her out, or other times the doors unexpectedly opened, almost spilling her to the ground when they arrived at rest stops. The car seemed to hate her as much as she hated it, but all of that had to be in her head. It was a dead metal box.
