by J. C. Diem
“You love him,” she stated. “Love isn’t something you can just switch on and off at will.”
“I wish it was,” I said forlornly. “It would make my life a whole lot easier.”
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-Two
It came as no surprise to me when the faery woke up during my watch. Flynn had stayed with her for several hours before Kala had taken over. Mark had taken the night watch with Reece relieving him halfway through. I’d taken over after breakfast and had only been with her for half an hour before she stirred.
I’d left the door open and shouted for Mark, knowing he was in the coms room. He hurried inside just as the faery opened her eyes. Like her hair and dress, her eyes were silver. They looked beyond me, focused on Mark and she gave him a dreamy smile.
Glancing at my boss, I saw his face turn slightly red. She looked like a teen to him and the smile she’d just given him had been anything but innocent. He cleared his throat before speaking. “I’m Agent Mark Steel and this is Agent Alexis Levine.”
Her gaze sharpened and her smile faded. She switched her attention to me and frowned. “Where am I?” Her accent was foreign, musical and not from this world.
“You’re safe,” Mark replied soothingly. “You’re in our compound in Illinois.”
“Illinois?” She said the word as if she’d never heard it before. “How did I get here?”
“We found you unconscious in a park,” I told her as she sat up. Despite being asleep for an unknown length of time, her hair was perfectly neat.
“Lexi believes you were under some kind of spell,” Mark explained. “We thought it would be best to bring you here rather than to take you to a hospital. It’s doubtful that ordinary doctors would have been able to help you.”
“You willingly brought a faery into your home?” she asked in consternation. He frowned and looked confused.
“Your glamor keeps wiping his memory,” I said. “Only two of us can see through it.”
“Oh.” She concentrated then seemed to shimmer for a second. Mark started back a step when he saw what she really looked like. “I can see that my true form is distressing to you,” she noted. With another frown of concentration, her ears became round and her teeth less sharp. “Is this better?”
“Yes,” he replied and his face went a shade redder. “That’s fine.”
She slid off the bed and lost her balance when she stood. Mark caught her elbow to steady her. “Thank you, Agent Mark Steel. You are very polite, for a human.”
“You can call me Mark,” he offered.
She turned to me and raised her eyebrow. “Lexi is fine,” I told her. It was disconcerting to have her pale silver eyes on me after being bamboozled by Kurt Jorgen several times.
“If you’re up to it, I’d like you to meet the rest of the team,” Mark said. She nodded and placed her tiny hand on his arm. He sent me a startled look when she clearly expected him to escort her from the room. I waved him into motion.
As we reached the stairs, I remembered reading that faeries were hurt by contact with iron. Luckily, the spiral staircase was made of steel. The metal didn’t seem to affect her as she followed Mark downwards. She slipped her arm through his again when they reached the ground floor.
Kala and Flynn were sparring in the boxing ring and Reece was pumping iron. All three ceased what they were doing and joined us in the living room as Mark led our guest over to a couch. She perched on the edge of the seat and surveyed us when we sat on the other two couches.
Mark introduced the others, forgoing their titles this time. “This is Kala Walker, Flynn Bailey and…” He trailed off, unsure what Reece wanted to be called.
“Reece Garrett,” Reece said firmly, earning a pleased smile from our boss.
“That’s Zeus,” I told her when the Rottweiler ambled over to sniff her feet. She was too tiny to be able to reach the ground and her feet dangled over the edge of the couch.
She reached down to pat him. Unlike Kurt, he didn’t seem to be affected by her presence. “This is a very strange mix of species,” she noted. “A human, a werecat, a weresnake and two werewolves who are somehow saturated with death magic, yet are still alive.”
“Mark likes diversity in his team,” Flynn said and Kala sniggered.
Mark sent them both a sharp glance that quelled their humor. “What may we call you?” he said to the faery.
“You may call me Lauryl.”
“You seem different to the other faery I’ve met,” I said.
“You’ve met a faery?” Mark asked.
“Half-faery,” Reece amended.
“You’ve met him, too,” I said to the others. “You just don’t remember it.”
“I can correct that,” Lauryl told us. She waved her hand and Mark, Kala and Flynn all blinked as their memories were restored.
“Kurt Jorgen,” Mark said flatly and his lips thinned. “I remember him now. I’ve actually met him dozens of times since joining the PIA.”
“He’s a creepy little weirdo,” Kala said and flicked an apologetic look at Lauryl. “No offense.”
She didn’t seem to take any. “There are not many fae who are willing to mate with humans,” she said. “It is very rare for them to reproduce. Their offspring are seldom welcome in the fae realms.” She thought hard then turned to Mark. “May I see your memories of him?”
He nodded, but looked uncertain. “What do I need to do?”
“Sit beside me and allow me to look into your eyes.”
Hesitating for a moment, his curiosity outweighed his concern and he did as she asked. He settled on the seat next to her and she put her hand on his cheek. Her eyes changed to a dark gray and spun in a slow circle as she presumably accessed his memories.
Her breath caught and she turned to me when he snapped out of his momentary daze. “I see that this half-blood has made a bargain with you. May I see your memories?”
She didn’t seem to be as dangerous as Jorgen, but I still didn’t trust her. “This must be Fate’s will,” Reece whispered, reminding me that I didn’t really have a choice.
With a mental shrug, I took Mark’s place. Her hand settled on my face and I became lost in her eyes when they darkened again and began to spin. She rifled through the memories of every encounter I’d had with Kurt. We both relived the moment when he’d bamboozled me. He’d forced me to agree to perform a task for him in exchange for his help questioning Reece’s little brother.
Dropping her hand, her shoulders drooped. “It is as I’d feared. He has used his fae magic to bind you to his agreement.”
“Can it be broken?” Mark asked.
She shook her head in a very human gesture. “No. Only he can release Lexi from their agreement. I fear he has an agenda that I am not aware of.”
“I have a question,” Kala said and drew her attention. “Why were you unconscious in the park and why were we the ones who found you?”
“It is an incredible story and you may not believe me,” Lauryl replied.
“Is Fate responsible?” I asked.
She looked at me in astonishment. “How did you know?”
“She visited me in a dream and told me I was her champion. She apparently wants me to save the world.”
Lauryl nodded slowly as if my words actually made sense to her. “That is a big task for just one person.”
“Tell me about it,” I complained. “What did Fate say to you?”
“She said that I have a choice to make. My decision will affect the fae realms as well as the human world.”
“She told me something like that as well. She said everyone I know and love would die if I made the wrong choices.” I had made the wrong choice, but Natalie Pierce had been sent to intervene before disaster had struck. Fate might not be able to step in directly, but she was adept at sending her soldiers in to perform her tasks.
“I must think on this before I can reach my decision,” Lauryl said.
“You’re welcome to stay with us for
as long as you need,” Mark offered.
“You would offer a fae shelter even though you know our kind are often self-serving and treacherous?”
“Yes,” he said with complete honesty. “Consider this your home for as long as you need it. We’ll offer you any assistance you require, as long as no harm comes to us, of course.”
She gave him a long look and then examined us each in turn. We all nodded our agreement, trusting that Mark knew what he was doing.
“Very well,” she said. “I will accept your hospitality. Not that I have much choice,” she added sourly. “It seems I have been banned from returning to my realm.”
“Can we get you anything?”
“No, thank you. Your food is not suitable for a full blood faery.”
“If there is anything you need, just let me know.”
She gave him another long, assessing look that sent a chill up my spine. She might be far more pleasant than Kurt on the surface, but I sensed that dealing with her could easily turn out to be just as fraught with danger.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-Three
By unspoken agreement, we didn’t leave Lauryl on her own. Kala and Flynn returned to sparring, Reece went back to working out and Mark headed up to the coms room. I stayed on the couch, surreptitiously babysitting our guest. Zeus leaned against my legs, just happy to be near me.
“You do not trust me,” Lauryl said with a hint of amusement.
“Kurt Jorgen has left us wary of the fae,” I said with a shrug.
Drawing her feet up onto the seat, she tucked them beneath her then turned sideways to face me. “Tell me how you came to be so heavily steeped in death magic.”
I summed up the tale as quickly and succinctly as possible. “My mother was turned into a vampire and fed from me when I was a baby. I didn’t die, thanks to a blood transfusion. I ran into her a few months ago during a mission. She fed from me again a couple of times and wiped the memories from me. By this stage, I was heavily infected with vampirism. I tried to hunt her down and kill her a couple of weeks ago, but failed. She bit me a final time and gave me her blood. I was already a shifter before she converted me and now I’m part werewolf and part vampire.”
“I sense there is more to you than that,” she said.
“My father is a necromancer,” I admitted. It still hurt to think that the man who had raised me wasn’t my true parent at all.
“So,” she said softly. “The daughter of a necromancer became a werewolf and was then bitten by her vampire mother and has now become the first true hybrid. This indeed reeks of Fate’s meddling.” Her mouth turned down slightly.
“Have you had many dealings with Fate?”
She shook her head with a small shudder. “Only the once. From what I have gathered so far, once will be enough.”
“How did you end up in the park?”
“That I do not know,” she replied crossly. “I suspect she had one of my kin enchant my sleep then sent me to where you would find me.”
“Can my life get any weirder?” I asked no one in particular.
“With Fate herself guiding you, do you even need to ask?”
I had no answer to that and let the subject drop. Hearing Mark’s phone ring, I turned to look up at him in the coms room. My hearing was now so acute that I could hear the person on the other end.
“Mark, its Basel. A strange report just came in.” His contact spoke in a hushed whisper so his colleagues wouldn’t overhear him. From the background chatter, he worked in a police station.
“What did you hear?” Mark asked.
“A small town was just overrun by feral dogs. They killed everyone and left no survivors.”
“Which town is it?”
“Leeton. It’s in Illinois.”
Mark swiveled his chair around and looked down to meet my eyes through the window. “We just happen to be in the area. We’ll look into it shortly.” They hung up and Mark turned back to the computer to access information on the attack.
“I think Agent Mark Steel has just had some very bad news,” Lauryl observed. Her hearing wasn’t quite good enough to pick up the conversation that had just taken place.
Leaving Lauryl to watch TV, I ambled into the kitchen to make coffee. Watch her, I said to Zeus before he could follow me. He settled back on the floor near her.
“I’ll have one!” Kala said to me, taking a break from sparring. She leaped over the ropes and landed lightly on her feet. Reece took her place in the ring and started sparring with Flynn. “When are you going to spar with us?” she asked when I returned to the living room carrying two mugs.
“It wouldn’t really be fair now,” I responded.
“Why not?”
“I’m much stronger and faster now,” I reminded her. “I could tie both you and Flynn in knots with one hand.” I nodded at the boys and she turned to see Reece easily dodging Flynn’s all-out attack.
She scowled at me when I handed her a mug. “That sucks.”
“Think of it is a gift that was bestowed upon your friends by Fate,” Lauryl said.
“She apparently needs me to be a warrior,” I told Kala with a shrug.
“She sent you to the right place. We did a pretty good job of teaching you how to fight.”
They’d also taught me how to control my wolf, to some extent, but extreme emotions could still unleash her.
Giving up on sparring after a few minutes of getting his butt kicked, Flynn headed upstairs to shower. Reece hadn’t even broken a sweat. Mark had finished his research by the time Flynn returned to the living room. We gathered on the couches while our boss descended the stairs.
“You heard what we’re facing this time?” he asked.
Kala nodded and cut a glance at Reece and me. “Feral dogs.”
He nodded and picked up the cup of coffee that I’d just made for him. “A town not far away from here was attacked by a large pack of canines a couple of hours ago.”
“What sort of dogs exactly?” Flynn queried.
“That isn’t yet known as there were no survivors.”
“How many people did they kill?”
“That also isn’t yet clear. The Sheriff from a neighboring town was notified by a passing motorist that Leeton seemed to have suffered an attack. She tried to contact the local law and couldn’t raise anyone. She and her deputies drove there to find the place full of corpses. Paw prints and fur indicate that dogs were behind the attack.”
“Does this mean we’ll be facing a dog golem this time?” I asked.
Lauryl looked at me in shocked surprise. “You have seen a golem? Describe it for me.”
“It was in the shape of a five headed hydra,” Mark replied. “It was the size of an armored truck and was made of stone.”
“You must have bested it or you would not be here now.”
“It wasn’t easy, but we defeated it. It had the characteristics of a true hydra,” he explained. “Lexi and Kala managed to cut off the main head and we imprisoned it in a box. The body turned to stone and was destroyed with an explosive device.”
Hearing about our battle with the golem clearly disturbed her. “This is very grave news,” she said. Reece was hearing this story for the first time and was intrigued.
“Why?” Kala demanded. “What do you know about golems?”
“Few are willing to wield the type of elemental magic that is needed to raise a golem,” Lauryl replied. “The spell requires the caster to give up part of their soul. Each time they create a servant, they lose more of themselves. Eventually, they become an empty shell and are incapable of feeling mercy, compassion or any true emotion.”
I shared an uneasy glance with Reece. She’d just described what I’d very nearly become when I’d been turned into a half-vampire. I’d retained my ability to know right from wrong, but not much more than that.
Mark finished off his coffee and we all followed suit. Kala gathered our mugs and placed them in the dishwasher. We’d been well-trained t
o keep our bases tidy. “Will you be accompanying us to Leeton?” Mark asked Lauryl.
“It seems I have little choice,” she said heavily and stood. Stepping daintily, she linked her arm through his. She seemed to have recovered from her earlier weakness and could have walked without assistance, but maybe she was used to having an escort.
Kala raised her eyebrows speculatively, but refrained from making a comment. It showed she had a capacity for restraint that she didn’t exercise very often.
With too many people to fit into the SUV, we instead piled into the van. Lauryl and I sat in the first row of seats and Kala and Flynn took the seats behind us. Reece drove as always and Mark was the navigator. Zeus was happy to have more room in the cargo area in the back.
It took an hour for us to reach Leeton. The small town had been cordoned off by the neighboring sheriff and her deputies. We pulled over behind a short line of cars. Most of the occupants were either townsfolk, relatives or gawkers.
Mark turned around to address Lauryl. “Is there any way you can disguise your appearance?”
“Do not fear,” she said with a smile, “no one will remember seeing me. Only you five, and your dog, will be aware that I am here.”
He accepted her at her word and we climbed out. I wore my red leather jacket to cover my gun. The others had also worn clothing to hide the fact that we were armed. Mark was the only one who actually looked like a federal agent. His dark suit, neat hair and general demeanor were a dead giveaway of his occupation.
A harried deputy heaved a sigh when we approached him. “I’m afraid you’ll have to leave,” he said snippily. “No one is allowed inside Leeton until we’ve determined that the threat is gone.”
Mark took his ID out and showed it to the man. “We’ve been sent to investigate the attack. Who is in charge here?”
“Sheriff Novac is in the center of Leeton,” the deputy said and pointed over his shoulder. He swept his gaze over us and came to a stop on Zeus. “Is the Rottweiler an agent, too?” he asked sarcastically. I couldn’t blame him for his wariness after the entire town had been mauled to death by dogs.
