by Terry Spear
Terry Spear
Chapter 1
Niall released the door to the Tropics Ice Cream Shop in South Padre Island and headed outside into the humid warm breeze with only one thought: checking out the bathing beauties on the beach.
Until he spied a female winged fae boldly painting graffiti on a concrete block wall across the street. He stopped dead in his tracks.
Feeling a mixture of amusement and annoyance, he hated to admit he was highly intrigued as well. Frowning, he folded his arms and watched the winged fae paint broad, deliberate strokes on the Denkar fae"s wall. Actually the building belonged to humans, but when the fae were at South Padre Island, it— and everything else on the island—belonged to the Denkar.
Fae tended to be extremely territorial. Eons ago, they"d claimed this island way before humans had found it popular—except for maybe a passing pirate or two. The only reason the dark fae had even allowed humans to live here was because they provided an infinite amount of entertainment for the fae. Sun bathing beauties. Sugar white beaches. Clear aquamarine waters.
But the best part? The human women.
Of course, a female human often visited the island hand-in-hand with some guy. The fae took an inordinate amount of pleasure in separating the woman from the man, as was their roguish nature. Sometimes a female fae did the same as she latched onto a human male, creating conflict between the man and his girlfriend. Such was the immortal life of the fae. They had to do something to entertain themselves.
Niall considered the blond winged fae"s clothes: a little black dress, gray-speckled tights and pink ballet slippers completing the impish outfit. She reminded him way more of a pixie or the legendary winged elf than a fae. Her blond hair was pulled back and a droopy pink satin ribbon was tied around her head, droopy because of the heat and humidity late that afternoon on the beachfront property.
So what was a royal winged fae from the house of Mabara doing on South Padre Island, painting graffiti on a Denkar fae"s block wall in broad daylight with her wings exposed?
She was gutsy. He"d give her that. Since his cousin Prince Deveron had slipped away with Alicia to avoid his mother"s royal guard fetching him home, Niall had the day off. No reason to watch Deveron"s back as his companion when Deveron was busy kissing Alicia somewhere else and no doubt wanted privacy.
Niall studied the fae"s wings. As clear as they were, she was close to nineteen years of age. In a few more years, she could make them appear invisible to anyone who chanced to see her, either when she was showing herself off to humans or when she was in the fae realm. But to visit the human world during the late afternoon, wings prominently displayed for any human to see…what was she thinking?
Worse, she was visiting a site her kind hadn’t claimed as their territory. And a royal Mabara fae at that. Rarely if ever did they leave the fae world before they could hide their wings.
Determining which fae house one of their kind came from was problematic at times, but not when they were winged and showed them off. Only four of the forty-two royal houses boasted royal winged fae, this one declaring the large raptor, the osprey, the symbol of their realm. Only the Mabara had wings with black lines crisscrossing it like a windowpane with delicate black edging.
Although she appeared cute and pixie-like, being a member of the Mabara"s house meant she could be extremely dangerous if riled. Not that any fae couldn"t be, and certainly his own kind—the lion fae—had a reputation as hunters, but the royal house of Mabara controlled the element of air.
The joke was that they could control air elementals, but couldn"t use the air to support their wings. Which had a lot to do with their kind having been so enamored with humans, they quit using their wings so they could move about like humans did. After centuries of disuse, their wings were no longer big enough or powerful enough to support them.
Pondering that she could call the wind to protect her or use it as an offensive weapon, Niall rubbed his chin. She didn"t appear to have any real weapons on her, not that he could tell from the skimpy clothing she was wearing. The Mabara specialty was casting windstorms over the sea, creating waves of devastating proportions, or initiating powerful swirling wind funnels on land, even straight-line winds that could take out windows and windshields and walls made of brick.
More subtly, they could create a poisonous dust and blow it into the face of their foe that would kill their enemy. Mabara sometimes employed the use of a less lethal cocktail resulting in a couple of days of paralysis or a sleeping potion, both which contributed to the worst hangover a fae could suffer.
Not that Niall had ever gotten himself into such a bind. But he"d read about a case where a cobra fae had tangled with a Mabara royal fae, who had subsequently grown smitten with him.
The man had dumped her for a fellow female cobra fae, and the Mabara wench had blasted him with the sleeping powder. For weeks, he"d had a devil of a time waking for any length of time.
The royal houses had been at odds with one another ever since. It didn"t take much for the fae kind to become sworn enemies.
Niall tried to figure out what strange symbols the girl was writing on the wall. But he couldn"t determine what she was trying to say. It had to be a message for his kind though. And not a good one.
If he didn"t put a stop to it, he would not be doing his duty to his people. He strode forth to take charge of the situation, and her.
But as soon as he began to move in her direction, he was certain she must have smelled his scent, because she whipped around, her soft pink lips parting and her blond brows raised in surprise—which almost made him smile to see her reaction, particularly knowing he had the upper hand.
“What do you think you"re doing?” Niall asked sharply.
As soon as she turned to fully face him, she whipped a piccolo-looking wooden pipe out of a pocket that had been hidden from his sight. Poisoned fae dust.
He knew if he didn"t make a hasty retreat and vanish in the blink of an eye, he could be one dead dark fae.
***
Coming in September, 2011!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 1
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 1
