I sighed and lowered my head, but Mitch reached out and cupped my jaw, lifting it so that I had no choice but to meet his gaze.
“Do you understand me?” he repeated. The tips of his fingers slid through the hair on the back of my neck, causing a pleasant tingle to travel down my back. “Ashley?” he pressed.
I nodded. “Yeah, Mitch. I understand you,” I whispered.
“Good,” he breathed.
“What happened last night? Did Durin kill all those vampires?”
“No. Do you remember the light?”
I nodded. “It was so bright I had to shut my eyes against it.”
“Me too. The light was Durin opening a portal—a doorway to the sanctuary. He brought us here then sealed the entrance right before he unfroze the vampires so that they couldn’t follow.”
“So they’re still out there?” I asked, aghast. “There were so many of them, the humans, we need to get back out there, we need to hunt them, we…”
Something changed on Mitch’s face then, an angry, fierce emotion that he made no attempt to hide. The expression was so raw, so savage that it frightened me and I found myself leaning back, putting more distance between us.
“The vampires will be dealt with,” he snarled. “I called the Council as soon as we got here, spoke to your handler. They’re gonna send in more hunters to deal with them.” He seemed to battle with something inside himself then said, “We’re just two people, Ash. We can’t do it all alone. Your handler was quick to remind me that the primary concern is retrieving the grimoire.”
I got the impression that there was something he wasn’t telling me, something important, but he didn’t elaborate. I hated that those fiends had been out there all night, likely stalking and killing humans. It went against my very nature to ignore it. I sighed. “Let’s hope we find the book quickly. I hate being stuck in here when there are so many vampires in the city.”
The anger on Mitch’s face dissolved. A softer look took its place—a look which did funny things to my stomach. I ignored it and asked, “What?”
“You were nearly killed last night. That would be enough for a lot of hunters to want to quit and I wouldn’t think any less of you if you decided to hang up your stake. But you can’t wait to get back out there in the field, can you? You’re an incredible woman, Ash. Fearless.”
His gaze slid to my mouth and my breath caught as he slowly leant forward until his lips were inches from mine.
I waited for him to close the distance between us and kiss me, and I realised that I wanted it—I wanted to feel his mouth against mine, to feel his tongue sliding between my lips. Instead, his eyes cleared and he got to his feet.
“Get your shit together, sweet cheeks. I want to get this meeting over with so that we can concentrate on getting the book. Be quick about it.” Mitch turned and strode to the door. He opened it, slipped through and closed it behind him without as much as a backwards glance.
Son of a bitch!
I tugged on my boots then hastily zipped up my backpack. I was annoyed at Mitch. I didn’t know what game he was playing, but I didn’t want any part of it. I couldn’t understand what the hell that near-kiss had been about. Was he trying to prove something to himself or to me? Had he merely been testing me to see if he could’ve had me if he’d wanted me? Damn it. It was too difficult to decipher the workings of a man’s mind—especially a man like Mitch. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to get so lost in the moment. I’d been charmed by his sweet words and flattered by his praise. I needed to remember that we were colleagues, nothing more. We had a job to do. I didn’t have time for complications in my life and Mitch Rakowski was as complicated as it got.
Throwing the backpack over my shoulder, I crossed to the door and pulled it open. Then I stopped dead, staring ahead of me in disbelief.
What I’d first thought to be a log cabin was actually some sort of treehouse and it was situated high up in the treetops. My heart began to race as I stepped out onto the porch and my hands trembled. I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my body back against the wall of the house, concentrating on breathing deeply when I began to hyperventilate. I breathed through the panic attack and worked on lowering my rapid heartbeat. I hadn’t had an attack like that in over fifteen years.
The temperature inside the room had been cool and comfortable, but outside the air was hot and humid. It was like I’d stepped into the middle of a tropical rainforest. Anxiety threatened to overwhelm me as the memory of a time in my life I hadn’t thought about in years began to claw its way to the surface in my mind.
My parents had been killed in a place just like this. They’d been hunting a pack of werewolves who’d been causing problems for the Council all over the States. The pack had slipped over the border into Mexico and my parents had tracked them through the country to a rainforest in the south. The last time they’d checked in with the Council, they’d been heading into the forest with two other hunters. None of them had made it out alive. All four bodies had been discovered by a guide three days later. The newspaper report said their throats had been ripped out by wild animals, likely jaguars, but of course, we knew differently.
I’d been just six years old when my parents had been killed. They’d left me with my godparents in Austin, who had been hunters once too, but had retired when they’d had their daughter—my sister Mia. My godparents had raised me as if I was their own child and they’d been wonderful parents. They’d showered me with the same love and affection that they’d lavished on Mia, but they’d never forgiven my parents for choosing the job over me.
I’d forgiven them a long time ago. Probably because I could relate. I had the same drive, the same burning desire to wipe out vampires and other supernatural species who preyed on those weaker than them.
A team had been sent into the rainforest on a search-and-destroy mission and they’d killed every last shifter, avenging my parents’ deaths. I’d made peace with what had happened, but being in this place brought back the memory of my loss. It was as if it had only been yesterday when I’d been given the news that I would never see my parents again.
Even though the temperature was high and sweat beaded on my forehead, cold shivers rolled over my body and I had to rub my hands up and down my arms to rid myself of the goose bumps which had formed there. The longer I stared out into the rainforest, the more oppressive it became. I had to find Mitch and get the meeting over with so that we could get the hell out of the sanctuary.
A set of stairs wound their way through the trees and I followed them cautiously as I made my way down to the forest bed, dread settling into the pit of my stomach. I didn’t know if the rainforest was an elaborate illusion or if the entrance to the sanctuary was a portal to another realm or dimension. With the Fae, it could be either. Whatever it was, I desperately wanted out.
It was dark at the base of the tree trunk—dark and depressing. The trees loomed over me, casting ominous shadows all around. A narrow path led through the forest. It only went in one direction so I followed it until it widened and a clearing appeared in the distance. When I arrived at it, I was relieved to see several small lumber buildings on stilts. The door of the first building was ajar so I climbed the steps to the porch and knocked lightly before pushing it wider.
The room inside was larger than I’d expected it to be. A wooden table with eight chairs arranged around it was positioned in the very centre of the room. A wrinkly-faced, black-haired dwarf was seated at the head of the table. Durin, the dwarf who had helped us the previous evening, sat on his right and Mitch was in the chair on his left. They all looked up as I entered the room.
“Ah, Miss Monroe.” Durin slid out of his chair and walked around the table. He was so short that only the very top of his head was visible until he’d cleared the last chair and approached me. The dwarf bowed low, keeping his beady eyes on me as he croaked, “You made it. We were about to send out a search party.”
I shrugged my backpack off my shoulder and placed it near
the door. I nodded my greeting. “The forest path was quite easy to follow.”
“Forest,” Mitch said, drawing my attention. His brow knitted. “There’s nothing out there but desert.”
The dwarf who was still seated at the head of the table chuckled, but there was no humour in the sound. “The sanctuaries are all safe havens for Fae in the human world,” he explained. “They were designed to be unwelcoming to humans and they are different things to different people. For some, they appear as vast, turbulent oceans as far as the eye can see. For others, they are nothing but wastelands. Whatever they are to the individual has to do with the subconscious, a memory perhaps? Something you would prefer to forget?”
The news surprised me, but it explained why the memory of what had happened to my parents had been so vivid. It would have been difficult to miss the way Mitch’s entire body stilled and I was curious to know what memory had evoked the desert for him. It was far from pleasant if the stricken look on his face was anything to go by. Had something bad happened to him in such a place? Maybe that was why Mitch had been in no hurry to leave my room when I’d asked him to leave so that I could get dressed.
“Let’s get started,” I said, for Mitch’s benefit as much as my own. I stepped around Durin and took a seat next to Mitch. “I’d imagine you gentlemen are busy. We don’t want to take up any more of your time. I’m sure it’s valuable.”
Mitch’s face was expressionless, his emotions locked up tight. “Ashley, you remember Durin from last night,” he introduced tersely as the dwarf climbed back up onto the chair opposite him. “And this is Brokk, one of the Fae elders. Durin, Brokk, my partner, Ash.”
I nodded to each of the dwarves and offered them a tight-lipped smile, but just as Mitch had warned me, I was careful not to meet their eyes.
“You look much better than you did when we last met,” Durin remarked. “I’m so glad I was able to offer you…assistance.”
I ground my teeth together in an effort not to make a sarcastic retort. Fortunately Mitch spoke up before I had the chance to reply. “How did you know that my partner and I were in trouble last night?” he asked.
Brokk’s eyes widened with excitement and he leant forward in his seat as if he had a great secret to share. “We have magical enchantments in place within a hundred-mile radius of the sanctuary,” he explained. “They were designed to alert us to the presence of the Fae from the Unseelie Court, but they also detect any large amounts of paranormal activity in the area. The local werewolf pack has learned to inform us of any pack meetings they hold. There has never been a vampire nest in the city and as you know, vampires usually hunt alone or at the very most in pairs. Last night the alarm was tripped so I sent Durin to investigate.”
“If there is no nest here in the city, how come there were so many vampires together in one place last night?” I asked.
Brokk grinned and the action exposed his stubby, sharp-looking teeth. “That is what we wish to discuss with you. We have a problem we think you will be able to help us with and we believe the two matters to be related.”
That sparked my interest. I glanced at Mitch before returning my attention to the dwarf, but his expression was still impassive. “We’re listening.”
“I don’t know if you are aware,” Brokk continued. “But recently our queen banished her son, Prince Avery, from the Seelie Court.”
When Mitch stayed silent I knew it was time to test out my acting skills. I feigned surprise. “Really? Why would she banish her own son?”
Brokk’s expression turned to one of distaste. “Avery is a troublemaker. I don’t know what he did to displease the queen on this occasion and I don’t care. We don’t want him here in the sanctuary and we would like you get rid of him for us.”
“Get rid of him?” I gawped at Brokk. “Surely you don’t mean…”
Durin raised his hand to get my attention. “We’re not asking you to kill the prince. We only want him out of the sanctuary. We’ve asked him to go, several times, but he refuses to even consider leaving. Either you convince the queen to accept him back into the Seelie Court or you convince Avery to leave this place for good. Do this for us,” he said, turning his gaze on Mitch, “and I will consider your debt to be repaid.”
“What is the connection between Avery and the increased number of vampires in the city?” Mitch asked.
Durin turned to Brokk and only answered the question after the Fae elder had nodded imperceptibly. “When Avery was banished from the Seelie Court, he brought something with him, a book. A very important book.”
“A book,” I repeated, keeping my expression to one of mild curiosity. “I don’t see the connection.”
“The book is a grimoire,” Brokk explained. “It contains some very dark magic. Vampires, as I’m sure you are aware, are evil, soulless creatures. They are attracted to the dark magic which the book contains. I believe they all sense that magic and are congregating in the city, drawn to its power. For as long as Avery and the book remain here, I am sure we will see an increase in, shall we say, undesirables? It is one of the reasons that we want Avery removed.”
I couldn’t believe our luck. Essentially, the Fae had an almost identical agenda to ours. They wanted the grimoire out of their city. That was certainly something we could help them with, but I doubted the task would be as easy as it appeared. Not only did we have to talk Avery into giving us the book, but we had to convince him to leave the sanctuary. Just how we were going to do that when the Fae themselves couldn’t get Avery to leave was yet to be determined.
Chapter Five
After our meeting ended, Durin opened another portal so that Mitch and I could get out of the sanctuary quickly. We got on the Harley, which Mitch had parked near the entrance after retrieving our belongings the night before, and rode to a small motel nearby. We hardly spoke to each other as we checked in and made our way to our rooms. It was uncomfortable and disconcerting. Mitch was like a different person to the one I’d come to know. He let himself into his room and closed the door without looking at me or uttering a single word.
Overnight, Mitch had gone from flirting excessively to barely being able to meet my gaze. He was a mystery. We’d talked a fair bit during our pit stops on the ride up to Fort Worth, but I didn’t know much more about him than I had before we’d met. I hadn’t asked him why he didn’t hunt anymore and he hadn’t volunteered the information. As I took a long, hot shower, I pondered the likely scenarios, but didn’t come up with anything useful. The only thing I was certain about was that the sanctuary ‘desert’ had spooked Mitch. The rainforest illusion had been difficult for me, but I figured I’d handled it better than Mitch because I’d let go of the anger which had consumed me after my parents’ deaths a long time ago. It was obvious that something bad had happened to Mitch in his past, something which still haunted him. I was certain that the only way to find out what made him tick was to find out what that something was.
After I’d put on clean clothes—another denim mini-skirt, a baby-pink T-shirt and my cowboy boots—I towel-dried my hair, grabbed my cell phone, which I’d left on charge, and stuffed it into the pocket of my skirt. I’d called Roland when I arrived in the motel room to give him a status update, but it had gone straight to voicemail so I’d left him a message. He’d yet to call me back. I picked up the key to the room then went in search of Mitch.
I knew logically that whatever Mitch was holding onto was none of my business, but we had to work together. That meant my life could very well be in his hands, just as it had been the night before. I trusted Mitch, but I needed to know that he was able to make rational decisions at all times. If whatever was bothering him prevented him from doing his job properly then that could affect me too.
I paused outside Mitch’s door and pulled a deep breath into my lungs before knocking. When the door opened, I sucked in another breath—this one not so much to calm my nerves, but to control my errant libido.
Mitch stood in the doorway wearing nothing but a
crooked smile and a white towel wrapped low on his hips. The tattoo I’d seen on his arm was now on full display and it was by no means the only tattoo on his body. An array of beautiful designs covered his arms and chest. They were all black, mostly tribal markings, but they were interspersed with the most amazing pieces of artwork I’d ever seen. I couldn’t take my eyes off them. A set of dragon wings covered most of his chest, the body of which sat on his sternum and the tail wound down over his sculpted abs, ending on his hip. When Mitch cleared his throat, I remembered myself and looked up at his face. He was still grinning, but now he had one eyebrow cocked.
“Miss me already, huh?”
I’d been all set for silence. I’d even prepared myself for moodiness. What I hadn’t expected to be greeted by was the old Mitch—the smart-mouthed, wisecracking, flirtatious Mitch who annoyed the hell out of me, but whom I’d actually started to like. It threw me.
“We need to talk,” I informed him, ignoring the quip.
Mitch pushed the door wider, but he only stepped aside a fraction of an inch so that when I entered the room, our bodies brushed together. The heat which radiated from his bare chest hit me like a freight train. I forced it out of my mind and strode inside. Mitch closed the door then crossed to the bed. He stacked a couple of pillows against the headboard before sitting down and leaning his body back against them, the towel barely covering his modesty.
He looked up and his lips quirked. “Care to join me?”
“Mitch, I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours, but I didn’t come here for this,” I said, motioning to the bed.
“Take a load off, babe,” he shot back. “You wanna talk, we’ll talk. No sense in you being uncomfortable when we do it.”
I counted to ten.
Then I took a load off.
“We need to discuss the plan for tonight,” I informed him. That might not have been what I wanted to talk about most, but if I just stormed in there and started asking him personal questions, it wouldn’t get me anywhere. During our meeting with Durin and Brokk, they’d told us where Avery spent most of his nights—a bar which was frequented mostly by Fae. Mitch said he knew the place and he’d chosen our motel because it was the closest to where the bar was located.
A Fae in Fort Worth Page 5
