The Pure Soul (Book 3)

by Jeff Hale

  “The fae want to protect humans, just from a place of power. Will the humans have a choice if they believe that the fae can protect them better than they can themselves?”

  “I guess not.” I tried to open my eyes again and found that the light didn’t hurt nearly as much now. Lucien was sitting next to my bed in a cushy suede chair. He was wearing a dark red house robe that tied at his waist. The unrelenting blue glow from the clock on my nightstand said that it was two forty-six in the morning.

  “Get some rest, young one. You should feel immensely better in the morning. Tomorrow is going to be a long day for you, but if you can behave this time, I’ll make it worth your while. Trust me.” He stood and left the room.

  I closed my eyes again and drifted off to sleep. Vague, half-formed dreams disturbed my slumber. For once it wasn’t anything I could remember, which troubled me. I had gotten quite adept at remembering what I saw in my dreams. I knew that Serena was in them, but all I saw was grey, and all I felt was intense agony and loneliness, and a longing for someone I knew I would never see again.

  When I woke up, I did feel much better, true to Lucien’s word. I got up and took a long shower, feeling the last of the soreness leave my body. I got dressed in the same clothing I had worn the day before.

  Darien, Alex and Kat were all there this time when I entered the room. All of them gave me a wary look. That wariness turned back into a hostile frown from Kat after a short time.

  I gave her a sad smile in return to let her know that I understood. She hated violence, and she probably hated the fact that someone she cared about so much had let her down so badly. She didn’t understand that I had no choice. At least not yet.

  I sat down and proceeded to fidget as I had the previous day. This time Darien studiously ignored it. Or tried too. I could tell it was getting under his skin. I saw the fae guard in the corner still sporting scars where I had wounded him the day before. The fact that there were still scars was a testament to the injuries I had managed to cause somehow. I openly glared at him, then gave him a smile that said ‘I’m not backing down, fucker, and I know your secret.’

  Seeming to take a cue from me, Darien looked over at the guard as well. I watched Darien as he looked back towards me, and I knew then that he got the picture. I had actually managed to harm a noble fae, dark or not, one of the most powerful beings that any of us knew of. How quickly could I dispatch even the mightiest shifter?

  There was no contest. That’s why they had had to have the fae intervene on their behalf in the first place. Darien wasn’t stupid; he wouldn’t have lived as long as he had if he was. He had no need to continually test me anymore. He knew who would win without a doubt in his mind. He glanced covertly towards Alex, and then Kat, where his gaze lingered a moment before coming back to me, and I saw something in his eyes that shocked me a little, that let me understand something about Darien; he would willingly die to save them, to save anyone he cared about, but not purely for altruistic reasons. There was a sick, desperate, pseudo death-wish mentality about him that I was very intimately familiar with.

  “The defendant has arrived to hear the accusations from those that would attempt to prove his guilt in this case,” Lucien said as I broke my gaze from Darien’s. I was uncomfortable with my new knowledge of him; I had no desire to feel any sort of sympathy for him.

  Darien leaned forward and cleared his throat and all not so hostile thoughts on my part vanished. Gee, I would never have guessed it would be him that’d spew their shit, I thought sarcastically.

  “My pack and I have questioned our shifter brethren, or what remains of them in the area, and collected their statements. All coincide with the initial accusation. Aerick Kerensky will stand trial for first degree and second degree murder, assault with deadly weapons, and assault with deadly Aetheric powers with intent to commit all of the above,” he said slowly.

  “And the accused may now state his innocence or guilt to the charges,” Lucien said, looking to me.

  “Yeah. I killed them. But it was in self-defense,” I admitted, dropping my voice. I was hoping to make them ask what I’d said, but apparently shifters had really good hearing.

  “Then you plead guilty?” Kat asked, sounding shocked despite herself.

  “No, I plead self-defense and the defense of others,” I reiterated, louder this time.

  “What others?” Darien asked.

  “Five humans that were there. Three were female, and they did say that they would rape and kill them.”

  “And?” Darien asked, his tone indicating that what I had said wasn’t important. He leaned back and watched me closely, almost expectantly.

  “And? That’s all you can say to that? Are you saying that you’re okay with the idea of a human woman being raped and then killed just because she’s human? Let alone three of them? Besides one of them was… important to me,” I said, gauging Kat for a reaction to what he said in response.

  “She’s just one human… not worth you killing sixteen shifters over,” Darien said with a calculating look on his face. He waited to see what my response would be but Kat beat me to it.

  “Darien! That human he’s talking about happens to be my friend, Celeste!” Kat stood and looked down at him, obviously upset at what he had said.

  “I know, Kat. I was just trying to goad him to prove the point of our accusations, that he would kill a shifter if given even the smallest motivation. That all he would need was an excuse, any excuse, to kill one of us.” He sighed. “Anyway my point stands. Hell, one person’s life is not worth sixteen other people’s lives.” Something dark flashed in his eyes so briefly that I wondered if I had imagined it, then he shook his head as though to clear it away. “That’s what you killed, Aerick. People. I know you don’t see them as such, but they are just as much a person with a right to live as you are, or your precious Celeste,” Darien said, not having moved an inch.

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Darien. To me, Serena’s… Celeste’s life is worth all the other lives on this planet, even my best friend’s life. Dave knows that, and he’s perfectly fine with it,” I said as a point of fact.

  “Is that so? So if Kat were to harm Celeste you would kill her over it?” he asked, and I knew he had to be trying to push my buttons at this point. Or her buttons. I wasn’t sure which. Either way I didn’t hesitate on the answer.

  “Yes. Absolutely, if I thought Kat was a threat to Celeste, then yes, I would kill her,” I said evenly. I’d hate myself for doing it, but I would if it was the only choice.

  “What?!” Kat exclaimed, standing again.

  I just looked up at her and shrugged apologetically. “Oh, what? You wouldn’t kill to protect someone you loved?” I asked.

  She hesitated a moment, indecision in her eyes as she chewed on her lip before finally saying, “No! Of course not.”

  “Uh-huh. You go ahead and lie to yourself. If you could hurt, and kill me, and you knew that I would kill Kris given any chance I got, tell me you wouldn’t kill me to end the threat to her,” I pointed out. She sat back down and crossed her arms. “See, humans need to be protected in a more extreme fashion. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass if Henry wanted to attack me once a day every day. I can protect myself from him. I wouldn’t have to kill him because I would know that he couldn’t kill me. But to threaten a human life? Well they can’t protect themselves from our kind. From Aetherics,” I said, getting to my point.

  “Well, a human life isn’t worth as much as a shifter’s. There are thousands of humans for every shifter. Every shifter life is precious. You do know that our birthrate is extremely low, don’t you?” Darien said tightly. I could see that passing hint of darkness to his eyes again, and there was an undercurrent of pain in his voice.

  “Really? You sit there and tell me that shifters are people, but yet you turn around and claim that a shifter’s life is worth more than a human’s? Keep it up, you smug bastard. I’ll turn this whole trial around on you. I’ll have the fae persecuting yo
ur entire worthless species until you’re all extinct. All I have to prove to them is that you are a threat to humans in general, and I guarantee they will wipe you out. By the way, proving to the fae what they already think about your kind won’t be hard,” I said, trying very hard not to put a blade through his head.

  “They wouldn’t do that. They wouldn’t blow their precious neutrality.”

  “Yeah, they would, if they thought you were truly a threat to the humans as a species. Hell, just ask the guard there! He’s already broken his neutrality, and I’ll tell you another thing! I will not sit here and be framed for this horseshit of a trial! Sixteen?! I killed one not counting the ones I killed when they attacked me at the Circus Circus!

  “You are all working for Baba Yaga and I am being taken out of the equation because she knows I’m a threat!” I accused angrily. “You even have an imposter royal fae to corroborate your accusations! What I can’t quite figure is how you got Kat in on this, but I know that that bitch Hag has been after her for a little while now! Now I know why!

  “You are all pathetic pawns, and what’s more, if you think I’m going to fucking sit here and not eradicate you all, and Henry’s entire pack at this point, you’re wrong! Well, let’s just see how powerful your little fae bitch is!” I yelled, standing and igniting my blades. All three of the Adjudicators stood and backed away. I pointed to the guard in the corner and motioned for him to attack me, taunting him. He didn’t.

  I glanced over to Kat, and noticed that while all three of them were giving me a wary look, ready to act if I did anything rash, Kat was giving me a look that said she pitied me. Like something was wrong with me.

  “Wait. Aerick. What makes you think that this trial has anything to do with Baba Yaga trying to get you out of the way?” Lucien asked in a soothing tone from behind me.

  “I saw him!” I shook my hand violently in the guard’s direction. “Check his Aetheric Visage, Luce. He’s one of Baba Yaga’s servants! Obviously, Darien and his pack are in on this whole thing with Henry!” I pointed one of my blades at them and they all took another careful step back.

  Lucien’s form flared for a second, the outline of the Phoenix around him as he turned to look at the guard. Suddenly a blast of white-hot flame shot from Lucien’s hand and struck the guard, incinerating him and leaving nothing behind but a shadowy outline against the wall. I resolved to never piss Lucien off.

  “You were right, Aerick. I saw his true visage, and he was a fae of the Twilight Court. I also saw the Iron Hag’s connection to him, but Darien’s pack has no such ties. You can relax, they are really only here to see to this trial. And the fact remains that you did kill several shifters, so this trial must happen,” he said, motioning calmly for me to sit.

  I looked cautiously at Kat and she just nodded her head and motioned with her hands for me to sit as well. I grudgingly extinguished my blades and sat back down, giving them all a distrustful look. They in turn sat back down as well.

  “Let’s get to the matter at hand. Are you pleading innocent or guilty?” Kat asked, as though nothing had happened.

  “He pleads neither at this point,” Lucien said on my behalf. “We must get to the bottom of this infiltration of the trial proceedings. If we do not, the entire thing could be thrown out by the local fae court.”

  “And how do you propose we do that, Lucien? There’s no way my pack can stand up to the fae,” Darien wanted to know.

  “Well, I have a contact among the fae. I could get her and see what she knows, or if she has a way to contact the fae court here,” I offered up.

  “Oh great. Raven,” Kat said, rolling her eyes.

  “Yes. Raven. What’s wrong with Raven?” I asked.

  “How she treats… people in general. Like we’re, I don’t know, objects for her amusement and nothing more.”

  “Well that’s how the fae can be, they have alien minds, we can’t even begin to fathom why they do what they do,” I pointed out. “We’re lucky they don’t just turn us all into pets, but for some reason, they like humans and are trying to protect them. For the most part.”

  “No. Absolutely not. Aerick needs to remain incarcerated. He’s dangerous, and he’s a flight risk,” Darien said to Lucien.

  Lucien gave Darien a dark look and motioned for the Adjudicators to follow him outside of the room. I sat and waited for about five minutes before they came back in.

  “You can go. But if you try to leave the city, Lucien will know and he will notify us, and we will track you down with his help,” Darien informed me.

  I just nodded and stood. “Thanks, Luce. I’ll get Raven and come right back,” I said as I left the room. I teleported to the location of Raven’s apartment. She had moved there a few months back and I had only been there once, but there was no way in hell that I was prepared to see what I was about to see.

  FOURTEEN

  I arrived at Raven’s apartment, a new edition that was just built in the last year near the western outskirts of the city, and walked up the stairs that led to the landing outside her front door. I knocked twice, hard, and waited impatiently.

  “Just a sec!” I heard a familiar male voice call out. More waiting, and then the door opened and I about lost it.

  Jacob had gotten an allover tan; I could tell because despite being darker complexioned, he was even darker now. He wasn’t wearing more than a pair of tight, purple leather hotpants, a matching short leather vest, and a wide leather collar around his neck with a metal ring on the back. His head had been shaven bald, and his brown eyes registered me dully. I pushed him aside in anger and stormed into the apartment, remembering why I was here in the first place.

  “Hey!” he called out, but he made no effort to stop me. I turned to regard him, hoping maybe he had snapped out of it. He blinked at me, confusion in his eyes before suddenly smiling wide. “You’re here to join me and the mistress! Well, the more the merrier!” He didn’t even recognize me.

  “Jacob, dear, what are you doing? You weren’t finished,” Raven’s voice called from the living room.

  Jacob looked over his shoulder, his mouth forming a puppy-dog smile. “Be right there, mistress!” he called. He turned back to me. “Come on in.” He turned his back and hurried off, leaving me to follow him inside. I really didn’t want to know. I sighed and followed into the living room.

  The apartment was expensively furnished, oil paintings and watercolors from famous painters on the walls, the furniture all supple leather and wood, a huge entertainment center with cutting edge everything on one wall.

  The coffee table was polished cherry wood, with thick inlaid glass, and that’s where I found Raven, lying on top of the table. She was pale, almost looking like she had been carved from white marble, her figure still feminine perfection, with long hair the color of her namesake fanned out under her head. She lay on her back, naked, her legs spread, feet on the floor to either side of the table, feathery black wings draped over the edges. She was eating a grape from a small crystal bowl that rested on her athletically toned stomach.

  She gave me an amused smile when she saw me, her dark eyes meeting mine for just a moment. “You’ve kept me waiting, Jacob I might have to punish you later for that,” she purred as he dropped to his knees at the end of the table.

  “Yes, mistress,” he whispered, before leaning forward and burying his face between her thighs.

  A moan broke from her lips as she lifted her hips against him, but her eyes were still on me, wanting to make sure that I witnessed what was happening.

  “Want to join in?” she asked, as though talking to someone while a man was between her legs was an everyday thing. She grabbed Jacob by the hair, dragging him up her body and pressing his face to her left breast. He immediately began giving her breasts the same attention he’d been giving her other parts. “I promise to do whatever you want me to do, and you can do whatever you want to me,” she vowed, one eyebrow arched, a taunting smile playing at her lips.

  I knew what she was
offering. Paradise. But paradise with strings attached. I looked at Jacob in order to shake myself from the fact that I did want to join, badly. That was my future if I did so. So despite my anatomy making me very uncomfortable, I knew that I couldn’t give in.

  “You’re needed,” was all I said.

  “Well, then, get over here,” she replied, licking her lips. Jacob started to move away, but she caught his chin, lifted his head to look at her and he made a sound of disappointment. “You can go when you’ve finished, dear.”

  “When will I be finished, mistress?” he asked breathlessly.

  She laughed, a throaty chuckle that made me want to lean down and kiss her. All over. “When you’ve made me scream, my sweet boy.” She slapped him on the ass. “Now, back down you go.”

  He squirmed back down her body, went back to what he was doing between her thighs and she smiled at me again. “Now what was it I was needed for, because I don’t see you joining us.”

  “You’re needed so we can contact the local fae court,” I said evenly, trying to keep my composure, even though a lower part of my body had already made it apparent that that ship had sailed.

  Raven’s reaction was sudden and quick. She pushed Jacob away with one foot, sprang to her feet and had her body pressed up against me, her face inches away from mine. Her wings wrapped around me and she hooked one hand around the back of my neck, forcing me to look at her. I tried to pull away, but found I couldn’t.

  “You can’t do anything unless I agree to it,” I warned her, fighting back the part of me that wanted to agree.

  “Oh. You will! You want me to go see that fucking twat, then you will do what I want you to do. That’s the deal,” she told me harshly.

  “And why do you want me all of a sudden? Your new toy not good enough anymore?” I asked, gesturing to Jacob, who was standing perfectly still, head down, hands clasped in front of him, waiting for his next command. “No. I’m obviously important to you, and I want to know why,” I said forcefully.