by Donna Grant
“You don’t want them.”
She cackled. “Oh, but I do.”
“Well,” Roderick said with a shrug. “You only have me.”
Kaleno smiled. “You’ll do.”
He waited, yet she didn’t attack, didn’t kill him.
“What are you waiting for? Aren’t you going to kill me?”
She ran her hands through her long black hair. “Not yet. Master Alex wants to do the honors himself.”
Roderick seethed. “Did you bring him?”
She snorted. “Of course not. He wouldn’t dream of leaving his new prize.”
“Is that what she is to him? I thought he was supposed to kill her?”
“He will. Eventually. Right now he wants to have a little fun with her first.”
It was all Roderick could do to keep a coherent thought in his brain upon hearing that. “Where is he? I’m just as anxious to fight him.”
She cocked her head to the side, her black mane falling over her right shoulder.
“You won’t win.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to everyone. Why would you fight if you know you will die?”
“I don’t know that,” he said.
She lifted her head, her black eyes intent. “There are some things that are meant to be. You and she shall both die.”
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Roderick refused to let her words deter him. “Everyone dies sometime.”
“True, Thalean. Everyone and everything dies. Including realms. Your realm is on the brink.”
He took a step toward Kaleno. “Where is Elle?”
She blinked once. “In the glen,” she said and then flew away.
“What did she say?” Val asked as he ran up.
“Elle is in the glen.
Hugh rubbed his hands together. “Good. I’ve been itching for a fight.”
Roderick wanted to go alone but knew how foolish that would be. He had no wish to see his friends in danger, but he needed all the help they could give. Though he was immortal, there was a good chance he could die, and he gladly would if it meant the survival of Elle.
He didn’t know who got his stallion for him or who placed the reins in his hand.
He secured his weapons and leapt onto the stallion’s back. With one last look at Stone Crest, Roderick kicked his horse into a gallop.
Elle.
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Chapter Thirty-Two
Elle stared into the fire, remembering her time with Roderick. Her chance of survival was slim to none, yet she clung to that slim chance. She knew Roderick and the rest would come for her. It was their duty, and they held duty above all else. Yet, she didn’t want to see them die, and Alex would make sure they were all dead just for spite.
There were only two choices for her. Submit to Alex and become his sex slave, which appealed to her as much as clawing her own eyeballs out.
Or, get the necklace for herself.
She wasn’t what you would call a seductress, but it was worth a shot. After a glance in his direction near the window, she rose to her feet.
Instantly, his gaze was on her.
She kept eye contact with him, never wavering. She didn’t try to appear sexy, she decided acting herself was the best role she could play. Her feet didn’t stop until she stood in front of him. He came to his feet and looked down at her. His hand reached up and traced her jaw.
“Elle?”
“I’ve thought over your option.”
He smiled. “Ah. You mean become mine so I spare your friends?”
She nodded. “Yeah. That one.”
His hand traced down her shoulder to her breast then to her waist. She repressed a shudder and stood still.
“All right,” he said. “We start now.”
She wanted to scream no, but then she didn’t have any other choice but to do as he said. He pulled her into his arms. When his lips moved to cover hers, she tilted her head so he found her neck instead.
His sloppy kisses made her skin crawl. Yet, she pushed that aside and moved her hands up over his shoulders to his neck. Her fingers brushed the clasp and yearned to grab it, but she held herself back.
It was a good thing too, because Alex straightened and pushed her back onto the table. He ran his hands down the front of her body to her thighs. If she was lucky she would come away without having to experience him taking her fully. As it was, it was everything she could do to keep the grimace from her face.
But luck wasn’t something that was usually on her side.
“Nice. Very nice,” he murmured as his hands kneaded her legs, inching closer and closer to her sex.
She opened her arms, and he eagerly fell on top of her. Her fingers threaded into his hair, keeping careful to scrape her fingernails on his scalp and neck so that when she reached for the clasp he would think nothing of it.
No matter how many times he tried to kiss her, she continued to turn her head A KIND OF MAGIC
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away. She wondered how long he would allow that before he forced a kiss on her. As it was, his lips were at her jaw, working their way toward her mouth once again.
To distract him, she raised her legs and wrapped them around his waist. He groaned and thrust his rod against her. She shuddered in revulsion, but he thought it was in anticipation.
She wasn’t about to tell him differently.
While he continued to grind his pelvis against hers, she wound her fingers around the necklace as she played with his hair. Luck, it seemed, was on her side when she found the clasp at her fingers.
Ever so deftly, she began to unclasp the necklace when Alex jerked his head up and eyed her.
“Is something wrong?” she asked innocently.
He growled and backed away. Elle didn’t have time to unwind her fingers. His eyes narrowed dangerously as he reached up and jerked her hands from around his neck.
“Bitch,” he roared as he backhanded her.
Even though Elle saw the fist coming, she couldn’t move fast enough to dodge the blow, which sent her tumbling over the table to the floor on the other side. She sat dazed, as little lights flickered around her as she tried to stop the world from spinning. Her body began to shake, and a sheen of sweat covered her body. Her hand covered her cheek in an attempt to stop the pain, but there was no stopping it. It grew worse with each passing second until her stomach rolled violently and she worried that she might vomit.
“You’re pathetic,” Alex said as he yanked her up by her arm.
Elle licked her dry lips and tried to breath through her mouth to calm her racing stomach. It helped a little, but if she didn’t sit soon, nothing would help her.
He shoved her into the door as he pushed her outside. Instantly, the cold slammed against her chilling her instantly without her cloak for warmth. The only good thing about the cold was that it stopped her nausea. It didn’t take long for the chills to wrack her body again. And each time her teeth chattered it felt as if a metal fist was punching her cheek.
Oh, Roderick. I need you.
She quickly blinked away the tears that threatened. She had tried to tell herself to keep her distance, she had known their time together would be short, but it still didn’t lessen the pain.
He would come, and as much as she wanted him with her, she wished he wouldn’t. She wasn’t a fool. Alex had a plan, a plan that included both their deaths.
Alex and his master were taking no chances.
“Here she comes now,” Alex said.
Elle lifted her head to him, then shifted her gaze to where he looked. Just over the rise of the trees, she could make out Kaleno.
The harpy had returned.
* * * *
Roderick stayed close to Hugh as they raced over the snow covered ground.
Thankfully, the snow had stopped falling for the time being,
but it wasn’t likely to last.
His heart pounded in time with his stallion’s hooves on the earth. He couldn’t help but A KIND OF MAGIC
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think that they had wasted too much time waiting instead of searching for Elle.
He lowered himself over the stallion’s neck and urged him on faster. The steed responded immediately and pulled alongside Hugh. There was a rise just up ahead, and Roderick would bet his flail that was where Alex waited for them.
Suddenly, Hugh reached over and pulled back on Roderick’s reins. The stallion slid to a halt and reared on his hind legs as Roderick jerked the reins out of Hugh’s hand.
“What are you doing?” Roderick growled.
“Trying to save your fool hide,” Hugh answered. “You will do her no good to go barreling down there.”
Roderick sighed and glanced away. “I do not wish to waste any more time.”
Val nudged his horse next to Roderick’s. “This isn’t wasting time if it saves Elle’s life. Isn’t that what you want, my friend?”
Of course it was what he wanted, and they knew that. He gave them a nod, more than anxious to get to Elle.
“I don’t think we should go down as one group,” Hugh said.
Roderick scowled. “We’re better in numbers. Any other time I would agree, Hugh, but I’ve seen the harpy fight.”
“You may be right,” Hugh said. “However, Alex and the harpy only think you will come. They will think the rest of us are too scared.”
Roderick smiled as it dawned on him. “I go down alone.”
“Aye,” Val said with a smile just as sinister. “We will come up from behind.
Keep Alex and the harpy occupied so they don’t notice us.”
Roderick jerked his head once in agreement and started to turn his horse around when Val’s hand gripped his arm. He turned back to Val.
“Stay alive,” Val said.
“My life doesn’t matter. Just make sure that Elle lives. Earth and the Fae need her.”
Val sighed and released him.
Roderick then turned to Hugh. “I have one favor to ask.”
“Anything,” Hugh said.
“Once you find the answer ….”
Hugh nodded. “I’ll make sure Thales gets the information. Even if I have to deliver it myself.”
Satisfied
that
everything
would be taken care of, Roderick gave his friends one last look before he turned his stallion toward the glen.
Val stared after Roderick. “I should be with him.”
“Nay,” Hugh said. “You will be better served covering his back.”
Val looked at Hugh. “While you find Elle?”
Hugh nodded. “No matter what, stay with Roderick. Once Elle is away, I will return.”
Val stretched out his hand and fingered the tip of his halberd. “There won’t be anything left by the time you return.”
* * * *
Elle’s gaze scanned the snow covered hills in an attempt to find Roderick and the A KIND OF MAGIC
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others. Yet, nothing moved. The wind whistled a deadly tune as it swirled around them; the threat of more snow heavy in the air. And the threat of death nearly choked her.
“Just so as you know,” Alex said as he turned toward her and pulled something out of his trench coat that looked somewhat like a gun. “My offer is rescinded.”
Elle had no wish to speak to the bastard. “What offer?”
“The offer for your friends to live.”
Her blood stopped in her veins. Slowly, she turned toward the devil’s spawn.
“Why? Because I feel nothing when you touch me?” she taunted.
He only laughed and ran a finger over the gun. “It doesn’t matter to me whether you like me or not. I cannot stand weak women. You and Jennifer are the weakest women I have ever met. I need someone much stronger by my side.”
Elle didn’t think beyond hearing Jennifer’s name. She launched herself at Alex, her numb hands clawing at his face as she screamed at him to die.
* * * *
Roderick crested the rise the same time he heard the scream. Instantly, he knew that scream of rage and betrayal was Elle’s. It wasn’t hard to spot her either. He saw her small form propel itself at Alex and began to claw at his face. If the situation wasn’t so dire, Roderick might have even smiled to see his feisty woman unleashed.
While Alex was detained, Roderick rode closer. He thought it rather odd that Kaleno didn’t aid Alex, but then again, he hadn’t asked her to. The harpy eyed him as he rode closer but never moved. Roderick silently urged Elle on as she brought her knee up into Alex’s groin. The man doubled over, and Elle gripped his hair as she brought the same knee up to smash into his face.
This time, Roderick did chuckle. He imagined no one in Elle’s world would have thought the quiet museum worker had this in her. He had known otherwise from the first moment he had seen her. The fire inside her burned just below the surface.
It had just needed to be shown a way out.
He had done that for her. Hopefully she would look back on him favorably for it.
Alex suddenly roared and shoved Elle away from him where she landed on her back in the snow. Blood covered the front of her gown as well as Alex’s clothes from the broken nose she had given him.
“You stupid bitch,” Alex screamed.
In an instant, she was on her feet and charged him again. Roderick called her name the moment he realized she didn’t have a chance. He roared as Alex punched Elle in the face, sending her on her back again. Except this time, she didn’t move.
Roderick seethed with rage, and the desire to exact vengeance ran deep within him. “You will pay for that.”
Alex laughed and wiped at his bloody nose. “I think not.”
With a flick of his wrist, Roderick had the flail in his hand. The twin spiked balls danced at the end of the chain, as if they too itched for blood.
Alex rolled his eyes. “That measly weapon against this?” he asked and pointed to the harpy.
Roderick dismounted without looking at Kaleno. “Why not fight me man to man?”
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“I don’t think so.”
“Why?” Roderick asked as he stepped around his stallion. As if knowing what he wanted, the stallion moved a safe distance away.
“Why?” Alex repeated with a laugh. “I’m no fool.”
“Oh, I disagree. You’re the biggest fool of all to think we wouldn’t find you.”
“Puh-leeze,” Alex said with a roll of his eyes. “My master is always one step ahead of you and will always be one step ahead of you.”
Roderick soaked that news in and hoped that Hugh and Val had also heard it. He continued toward Alex and Elle.
“And your master would be?”
“You must think I’m some kind of idiot,” Alex said, his arms crossed over his chest as if he had nothing to fear.
“I do,” Roderick agreed. He stopped beside Elle and knelt next to her. There was a nasty bruise on her right cheek and another on her left eye.
He raised his head to Alex. “No one touches my woman,” Roderick said as he rose to his feet.
“Yours?” Alex questioned. “I find that hard to believe when she was bargaining her body.”
Roderick didn’t believe a word of it. He knew Elle too well to believe she would easily give her body to the man who had killed her best friend. There had to have been a reason she would have tried to use her body to tempt Alex.
“It was for me, wasn’t it?” Roderick asked. “The only reason she would have thought to bargain her body was to save her friends.”
The shift in Alex’s eyes let Roderick know he had hit upon the truth.
“I don’t know why you want her,” Alex said. “She’s weak. She’ll only weigh you down.”
“
On the contrary,” Roderick said as he took a step closer to Alex, “she’s one of the strongest women I have ever met.”
“I
doubt
that.”
“I don’t care what you think of her, but you will pay for touching her and hitting her.”
Alex threw back his head and laughed. He straightened and eyed Roderick with a cocky smile. “Do your best, Thalean.”
