“Is he ok?” Izzy asked once she and Bain were on the road back to her home.
“Yeah, he’s got demons, sweet Izzy, but he’ll be fine. And think—now we have the house all to ourselves for the next few hours.” Bain grinned and pulled her hand to his lips to press a gentle kiss to her knuckles.
Izzy suppressed a shiver. Kale had demons and now she couldn’t think of anything but her Immortal naked in bed.
Chapter Three
Kale hit the uneven, cobblestone sidewalk with a hard thump. He’d been following the tingle of charged energy for a few miles now. He’d made his way to a historic, downtown area after following a taxi. It was thankfully quiet with no humans around to see him drop from the sky and follow the woman when she exited the bright yellow car. It was definitely her who had sent that tickle of energy against his skin.
Kale was quiet as he followed her, a good thirty feet from behind. His eyes roved her figure; a slim build was hugged by a pair of distressed jeans, high stiletto heels peeking out from under the designer hem, and a red, shiny halter allowed him to peek at her bare back. Her soft alabaster skin teased him while a high blonde ponytail swayed from side to side as she hurried down the sidewalk.
Kale’s eyes narrowed as she turned down a dark alley and out of his sight.
Feels like a trap, Kale mused. Where was this little vixen leading him? He picked up his pace and opened up to his senses as he rounded the corner of the alley.
“Why are you following me?” The voice drifted from a shadowed corner and set his heart racing.
It wasn’t her. He knew she was dead, but his mind was playing tricks on him. The voice quivered and it sounded like dripping honey. It was sweet just as he remembered hers being. But it wasn’t possible; he had to keep reminding himself of that.
“Step out of the shadows, Succubus,” Kale ordered, his voice coming out angrier than he had intended—but anger was all he could hold on to nowadays
He caught the steady staccato sound of her hard heels hitting the dirty alley before he saw her fleeing.
“Stop!” he roared as he took off after her.
Succubi were no match for an Immortal warrior. They weren’t super strong or super fast, but the life force they fed from gave them a boost in both strength and speed—making them a little above human.
There true strength came in other ways... like in charming their prey. Their skill in the bedroom was something of legend. They were sex personified. Most Succubi found Fae to feed from since Fae life energy was stronger than human; lasting longer and giving them a little more strength then a human’s chi would. And based on the speed in which this female fled from him, she was either digging up the speed from somewhere deep, possibly fueled by fear, or she’d found a Fae to feast from.
So what was she doing in the Human World?
Kale didn’t sense the other Fae. He had been so focused on the fleeing female’s form that he didn’t even know they had company until a tree trunk of an arm close-lined him. Kale flew onto his back; the breath he’d been pumping through his lungs to catch the female forced from body.
“Stay down,” a deep voice growled as the sausages the man called fingers wrapped around Kale’s throat.
Kale scoffed. Right… because the order would make him actually listen to this hulk of a man.
“Fuck you,” Kale spat.
A deep chuckle reverberated through the air around Kale. “Do you know what I am?”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what you are. As far I’m concerned, you’re no more than the shit I flush down the toilet every morning.”
The sausages squeezed tighter against Kale’s neck as they lifted him from the dirty alley floor. “You shouldn’t insult a Trow.”
A Trow? Was he serious? He was the largest fucking Trow he’d ever seen and way too strong.
Trows were cousins of Trolls. They turned to stone in the sunlight and usually they weren’t strong enough to enter the Human World. This guy was big too—nothing was adding up right now and the loss of oxygen was making black stars dance in Kale’s vision.
“Jake, put him down and let’s go.” The female’s voice reached Kale, his eyes shooting towards the sound. The blonde stayed hidden in the shadows, making Kale struggle. He needed to see her face—needed to prove to his grasping mind that the face of the woman did not match the picture in his head.
Jake—quite the name for a three hundred pound, six-foot-six Trow—quirked a smile at Kale that said this was going to hurt. Jake released Kale with a swift toss across the alley into a brick wall. By the time Kale found his bearings again, they were gone.
Kale pulled his phone from his pocket and let a string of curses slip past his lips. The screen was shattered.
****
“Kitty, that was close,” Jake said as they slowed their pace.
She nodded and they melded into the more crowded downtown area that housed the small bars and pubs the college students loved so much. It didn’t matter what time of night or what day of the week it was, there always seemed to be a steady string of humans. It was part of why she had chosen this area in the vast Human World—to try and pick up the pieces that were left of who she was. To try and create a new life where she was nothing more than another nameless face in a sea of people who looked her age. Plus, before Jake had come around, she needed the endless sexual chi the horny college students provided.
“Kitty, you ok?” Jake asked, stopping her with a meaty hand on her shoulder.
She smiled up at him. She loved Jake. She wasn’t in love with him, but he was a good, sweet, protective companion. At times, she felt bad. She knew in the moments when he fed her that it pushed the limitations of their friendship. She had the inkling that while she loved him but wasn’t in love him, he felt both forms for her.
“Yeah, I’m ok. I guess I knew someday I would run into one of Rowan’s Immortal Warriors, but I wasn’t ready for it tonight and certainly not for it to be him.”
“Why was he following you? You didn’t do anything, did you?”
She arched a light brow at him. “What do you think, Jake?”
“I think it was a close call. He would have returned you to Darion.”
She shivered at the thought, but he would have to.
She couldn’t go back there. She wouldn’t. No matter the cost, she would never return to Darion. She’d grovel at the feet of the Light Fae leader and her warriors before she would let Darion place another twisted finger on her.
“Sorry,” Jake said as he absentmindedly scrubbed his square jaw; his light gray eyes telling her he really did feel bad for mentioning Darion.
She smiled and linked her arm through his. “No worries, let’s get home.”
“Are you going to tell me what you were doing tonight?” Jake asked as they moved down the littered sidewalks, through plumes of smoke and the smells of over-abused bodies and booze.
“I went and saw Monday Night Raw.”
Jake smiled. He knew most of her story, but he didn’t know all the details. He did however understand this weird obsession of hers... It was the one thing she still held on to. The thing that reminded her to remember what she once had.
And she did remember… He’d been Light Fae and she’d been Dark Fae, hiding from the oppression of their own allegiances. His leader knew of her and she had thought Rowan had accepted that she loved one of her warriors, but she had been so wrong. Rowan and her warriors had sold her out to Darion. It was the final betrayal before everything in her world had truly gone dark.
Chapter Four
Kale was still pulled by that charge in the air. The fleeing female form was familiar, but she was skinnier and her hair was shorter than Katarina’s had been. Kale couldn’t push the thoughts away. Would he have been greeted by the most stunning shade of emerald eyes if the Succubus had just moved out of the shadows?
Memories flooded Kale as he flew through the deep, endless black of the night sky…
“She’s not coming.”
Kale had twirled at the unexpected voice. A small pixie flitted near the edge of the small clearing where Kale had waited for Kat. She was late. Kat was never late.
“Who are you?” Kale asked suspiciously.
“Katarina sent me. She can’t make it to you, but asked that you come to her home.”
They never met on Dark territory; it was safer in his land. “Is she alright?”
“She is not well and asked that I bring you to her.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Kale demanded.
“She needs to feed and is too weak to come to you.”
That wasn’t right; he’d fed Katarina only a week ago. She should have been fine. His chi sustained her for weeks at a time. But it didn’t matter the reasons, he would go to her. He would always go to Katarina—she was what mattered most in his life.
“Take me to her.”
Kale dropped into Izzy’s back yard, shook the memories from his foggy mind and fished the house key out of his pocket as he made his way to the back door. He had to find the Succubus—he needed to see her face. He needed to reassure himself that while he wanted it to be her, it simply wasn’t… The Underworld had a heavy hand and Makyle and his brothers never relinquish souls. Their domain is for forever.
Yet something niggled at Kale’s brain. The voice, the body, and the movements of tonight’s Succubus were all so similar to his Katarina. He had spent those precious months they were together committing everything about her to memory. Her silky golden hair, flawless curves, sinful lips and those emeralds that had looked upon him with such unyielding love—deep, open and even vulnerable when they would lay together. He remembered all the things that had made him love her so deeply. But time warps memories. It takes liberties with the details and while the voice was so familiar, he couldn’t guarantee that it wasn’t simply his desire for her to still be alive that drove him to want to believe.
Kale sighed and let himself into the house.
“You’re back sooner than I expected,” Izzy said from the kitchen counter. Her eyes never left the apple she was slicing.
“And you’re up later than I expected,” Kale said as he reset the alarm.
“I was hungry; have a seat.” She gestured with the knife to the table as she grabbed another apple and began slicing it. She moved to the microwave and pulled out a small, warm bowl.
Izzy smiled wide at Kale as she set a plate with one of the cut-up apples and the small bowl of melted peanut butter in front of him.
“Milk? Or would beer or tequila better suit you?”
Kale raised a brow at her and dipped his apple in the peanut butter. Izzy had some odd choices in food combinations, but he found that the apple and peanut butter one wasn’t so bad.
“Beer sounds about perfect right now.”
“You got it.” Izzy grabbed her plate of apple slices and set a beer in front of him as she sat with a tall glass of milk.
“Thanks,” Kale smiled as he popped the top off the pale ale and took a deep swig.
Izzy eyes were glued to him as he tipped his head back. After he set the beer down, she was up and forcing his head back to look at his neck.
“What the hell happened to you?” She ran her soft finger over what he guessed was the swollen and possibly bruised skin from the Trow’s not-so-gentle touch. Kale pulled his head away from her and instantly felt bad at the look it caused on her pretty face. Izzy was more than Bain’s female. She was part of their family and she was concerned about him.
Kale patted her arm and smiled at her. “It’s nothing. Eat your apple before it turns brown.”
Izzy’s wide blue eyes studied his face as she reluctantly took her seat. “Are you ok?” she asked again, still studying his face.
“I’ll be fine, Iz. I just had a little run in with a Trow.”
“A Trow? In the Human World?” Bain asked as he entered the kitchen, wearing a pair of low-slung pajama pants and nothing else.
Kale took a second to look at Izzy. How had he not noticed she was in a short white robe and, he guessed, little underneath? Kale shook his head, glad he hadn’t come back in time to interrupt anything. Bain grabbed a beer, flipped one of the honey-oak chairs around to straddle it, and then let his eyes fall on Kale’s neck.
“A Trow did that?” Bain asked as he tipped back his bottle of beer.
“Caught me off guard—I didn’t even know he was in the alley.”
“What were you doing in an alley?” Bain asked, no judgment or mention of the fact that Kale had let a lesser Fae sneak up on him.
“Following a Succubus,” Kale said, popping another apple slice in his mouth.
“Was he with her?” Bain asked, a little surprise tainting his features.
“Yep, she told him to let me go and the hulk of a Fae threw me across the alley. Never met a Trow that strong.”
Bain nodded, “And you shouldn’t have, not here anyways. There are too many lesser Fae flooding the Human World.”
“Lesser?” Izzy asked. There were all kinds of accusations in her voice. She didn’t like them treating other species as less than them. It made them sound like bigots and she would never admit it, but it hurt her too. She wasn’t Fae but she wasn’t human anymore—so part of her wondered if they considered her lesser.
“It’s not derogatory, sweetheart. It refers to the amount of power they wield. They are not strong enough to pass through the same portals we use.”
Izzy nodded in understanding. “So how did the Trow get here then?”
“The Drifters. Maybe?” Kale shrugged.
Kale wasn’t so much thinking about the Trow but the Succubus. He took another bite of apple; he’d lost the bowl of melted peanut butter to Izzy. When he raised a brow and smirked at her, she smiled wryly and set the bowl back in front of him. Kale chuckled and turned back to Bain.
“Probably,” Bain nodded and grabbed a slice of apple off Izzy’s plate while she playfully swatted his hand away.
They bordered on nauseatingly sweet together but still they gave Kale hope. If an ass like Bain could score a female like Izzy, there was hope for the rest of them.
Chapter Five
Kitty tossed her keys in a crystal bowl on a table just inside their little apartment’s door. Jake locked it behind them as she moved to the curtains.
“Katarina, talk to me.”
She knew Jake was serious. She was Kitty to him… not Katarina, not Kat. And he was almost always Jakey to her. He was among the few she allowed to call her Kitty and she never heard a single person attempt to call him Jakey. But pet name or nicknames or whatever didn’t matter right now—nothing did. She needed to keep busy and if she was honest she didn’t know what to say…
She’d seen Kale. After all this time she’d seen him, and while her heart thumped at the sound of his voice, her brain told her to run—fast and far away. The heart was a messy muscle that had gotten her into a world of trouble all because it had loved a Light Fae. It was a plain and very real illustration of ‘from the wrong side of the tracks’.
Only it wasn’t tracks; it was an invisible line that separated the Middle World and the lives of all the Dark and Light Fae. But that hadn’t stopped her. She loved him and he’d used her, and then thrown her to a fate worse than she had ever imagined.
Katarina pulled the thick, cream-colored, blackout curtains across the large, picture window that made up nearly one side of their home.
“Kitty, stop and look at me. Please.”
Katarina couldn’t ignore the pleading of Jake’s voice. He was worried about her weirdness, but she didn’t want to talk to him about Kale.
Jake had found her in Darion’s dungeon and had taken an immediate protectiveness towards her. There had only been so much he could do to help her, but he kept the other guards away. Even when Darion had decided to move her from the dungeon to one of the rooms in his castle—that was no less a prison for its opulence—he had still checked in on her. Still treated her like a friend. He was what
kept her from ending her own miserable existence in that horrid castle.
And she still hadn’t been able to tell him her whole story. The story of a girl loving the wrong boy.
“Dawn’s breaking,” Katarina said absently. The glow of a new day was chasing away the night’s darkness. “We need to cover the windows.”
Jake nodded and helped close all the spots in which daylight could find him. After the night they’d had, he couldn’t afford to turn to stone. Kitty needed him. That was the bad thing about having a Trow for protection—if he was kissed by the sun he would become stone until night found him again.
With one final scan, Katarina was assured that the house was light tight. She smiled at Jake as he stared at her.
“I need to get some sleep. Thanks for the rescue, Jakey.” She lifted up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I know you want explanations, but I can’t give them right now. I’m too tired.”
Jake nodded. “Ok, Kitty... whenever you’re ready.”
The weight of the evening’s events crashed down on Katarina as soon as she shut herself in her bedroom. She stripped off her clothes, replaced them with a pair of sleep shorts and a tank top, then climbed under her thick comforter.
“Kale,” she whispered his name in the dark. How was it possible that her heart and body still longed for him? How come her brain couldn’t overpower those primal feelings? She deserved better than to love a man who had betrayed her…
“You’re nearly too pretty to be in a dungeon.”
Katarina lifted her head from the dank, hay-strewn ground that was the floor of the cell she’d found herself in for the past week, to the sound of her leaders’ voice. Its condescension pulled at her.
“Why are you keeping me here?” she asked through the scratch of her throat.
“You’re aligned to the Dark. You’re one of my subjects, are you not?”
Immortal Craving: Immortal Heart Page 2
