The Hailey Holloway Complete Series

by K. C. Stewart

  He stopped, glancing back to the trio; all but one was looking at the car, those pubescent eyes were locked on him. Silas turned back and decided to give a little helpful shove along.

  He met the boys' eyes with a smirk. "Like what you see?" he asked scaring the crap out of all of them.

  "What gives? We're just lookin'," one of them said.

  "Hmmm looking leads to touching," Silas took a few lazy steps forward letting his fingers glide across the glossy finish of the car. "Touching leads to fucking. As in, you touch her and I'll fuck you over so bad that you'll never handle anything again but your own undersized dicks."

  Two of the three had gotten the message. The one fucker left merely shrugged his shoulders. "You're just some suit on an ego trip because of some fancy ride."

  Silas really shouldn't kill this close to Christmas. It was tacky. So instead of choking the life out of him, he laughed.

  "Someone has some big balls." The laughter faded as he took a few steps into the kid's face. Silas had almost a full foot on him. "I may just be a suit on an ego trip but if you touch my fancy ride I will skin those big balls of yours one thin layer at a time while you beg for my mercy." His eyes had changed. Long thin pupils now looked down upon the kid. “And I’m not know for my merciful side.”

  He blinked. Swallowed hard and blinked again.

  "Dude, let's just go." Someone began tugging on the kid's sleeve but he didn't look away. Whether it was out of fear or stupidity, Silas didn't know nor did he care for that matter. He was having fun.

  Finally the two weaker of the three had tugged enough to break the contact. Silas freed him of the stare and stepped back a respectable distance. The boys were already off running. "Did you see his eyes?" the one asked as they turned the corner.

  "That was fun," he said to himself with a smile. When he looked up he caught sight of a few people who had stopped to enjoy the show. One of which was Charlotte. She stood nestled amongst of group who had gathered across the street. Hers was the only face void of any emotion. He watched her and she him, each trying to figure the other out. As the crowd began to dissipate, she broke the connection. In the last second before she walked away he had seen pure, undiluted hatred.

  Who was this woman? he wondered.

  Chapter Nine

  Once more Hailey found herself in Silas's possession. She may not have been a prisoner, per say, but she felt trapped in his house, in her room. Two days had passed without any interaction with Dak. It was surprising and slightly disturbing. Hailey had time to think, to breathe and now to worry. His radio silence was beginning to gnaw at her. But she wasn't ready to forgive him until they talked. He had to have been there for a good reason and what she heard had to have some more context behind it.

  There just had to be explanations because if there wasn't...well, she didn't want to think about that possibility just yet.

  However, he wasn't talking to her and she was too much of a coward to call him. That left her with Silas until one of them budged. If his stubbornness ran as deep as hers did, it could take a while before there was some reconciliation. This was however, the longest either of them had willingly not seen or talked to each other. She knew in her gut that something was very wrong between them. Alarms had been firing in her head all day.

  Hailey couldn't complain about her accommodations this time around. Her suite, as she began to call it, was extravagant. Not in a tacky nineteenth century gaudy kind of way, but she was pretty sure Silas's towels cost more than her computer. Silas liked quality. Over the past couple days she took notice of how his house was run. Every decision was made by him. It didn't matter how small and insignificant, his approval was needed.

  That fact had her inspecting the room more closely. He had brought up the green chair that had been in her cell those weeks ago. It was nice to have a little familiarity in a new place. There were also two book shelves stocked with many of her favorites and some new titles.

  Over all the colors were muted, but not dark and the lines were simple. It was clean and unfussy and she loved it. She just wished she could enjoy the things he had done for her. He anticipated her wants and needs even before she could think of wanting or needing them. But Hailey was in a funk and wouldn't be able to shake it on her own.

  A knock sounded at her door. She took a glance at the clock. "Right on time," she muttered with some annoyance. Silas had a few irritating qualities. For instance, he ate dinner at exactly 6:30 every evening. She was sent for by one of his minions at 6:20 whether she was hungry or not.

  "Francis," she said dramatically when she opened the door, "we have to stop meeting like this." The man stationed outside of her door was different every time but she called them all Francis. After asking each of the men what their names were and never getting a response, she made up her own name for them. This was her fourth Francis.

  "Ma'am, please don't call me that," he said with a blush. This Francis was a young one. Probably close to her age. Light brown hair was just long enough to curl at the ends and it gave him a look of innocence. He had an accent that she had trouble placing. Midwest maybe? Add a cowboy hat and she could see it.

  "You speak! I had begun to think Silas only hired mutes for guard dog duty."

  Francis didn't say anything else but looked anxiously down the hall with his defining green eyes. Yes, her brother was waiting and would probably take the opportunity to rip out Francis's tongue making him truly mute if they were late. "Let's go before his crabbiness gets that stick shoved further up his green ass." Her dragon escort twitched with a smile. "So Francis, ever seen Stripes?"

  Silas was at his usual position at the head of the table. A place was set for her to his left. He was dressing down one of his minions with his angry Overlord tone. It could scare the devil even out of a demon. With a hand on his arm she made Francis stop right outside of the dining room and take a few steps backward giving Silas time to finish undisturbed.

  His voice was calm and steady as he explained the various knots he would tie the poor man's dick into. Hailey couldn't help but mentally praise him on the picture he painted. Not many could arrange words in such a way that even Hailey, with her nonexistent penis, felt the pain the minion would feel.

  Francis had paled beside her. "You ok?" she asked.

  He didn't have a chance to respond; Silas was apparently done with pretzel dick and was ready for her. "Be brave," she told Francis with a pat on the arm.

  "Hailey," Silas called.

  "Hold your horses, Auntie Anne," Hailey muttered and much to her delight, Francis laughed. They entered the dining room and she took her place at the table. He was watching her, judging her mood. She flipped up her middle finger to give him a little hint.

  "How was your day?" he asked as two plates of salad were brought out to them.

  "The usual, stared at the wall until it was time to eat."

  "Sounds riveting," he exclaimed while drizzling his salad with oil.

  That was another annoying thing about Silas; he only had oil and vinegar on his salad. The chef had paled the first time she asked for Caesar dressing.

  "What did the minion do to upset his Royal Highness today?" The unamused look he sent her way was becoming a common thing.

  "There was a mishap with a Council member."

  She had forgotten that the world continued to turn even though hers had ceased to move. Guilt? Yes it was guilt that mixed with the simmering anger and sickening depression in the frozen cocktail named Hailey. "Everyone ok?"

  "Everyone but my minion as you so graciously named him." His smiled was nauseating. Silas truly enjoyed making everyone else's life hell, especially if they worked for him.

  "Christ Silas, whatever he did couldn't be so bad that you had to hurt him. Why can't you show some compassion for once instead of jumping right to violence?" She put her fork down. The leafy greens had lost whatever of the little appeal they had.

  "You don't think I know compassion?" he asked incredulously. "What about Alex?
"

  "Alex? You want to bring Alex into this? You locked him away and forgot about him."

  "Yeah, and I could have killed him. Compassion," he stated like it was obvious.

  "He had a Mate at home waiting for him!" Sometimes she forgot her brother was also an egotistical bastard.

  "Oh don't you talk to me about Mates. You just walked out on Dacea, remember?"

  She wanted to point out that she didn't walk, she ran. And that it wasn't away from him, it was to get her head on straight before she gutted him like a fish. Instead she asked, "why do you care?"

  Silas picked up the napkin from his lap and gracefully wiped his mouth. "As much as it pains me to say this, he is your Mate and that's a forever thing, Hailey. You can't run away when something doesn't go your way." Their plates were removed and replaced with a plate of roast beef with new potatoes and asparagus. It smelled about as good as glue and tasted much the same.

  "He has a Mate," she told the table.

  "Lie to yourself all you want, but don't fucking lie to me." Hailey sneered at him. "This is what you wanted remember?" he said pointing to himself. "You wanted family. Well, you got one sweetheart."

  The soft sounds of silverware clinking against the plate filled the otherwise silent room. He was right, she did want family. As usual, Silas picked the perfect moment to remind her what a horrible choice that had been.

  Hailey was tired of being lectured and pushed back from the table. Silas didn't comment on her early departure from dinner, or the fact she didn't eat anything. In fact, he didn't even look at her as she left the room.

  Francis was waiting just outside the door for her. They walked up to her room in silence. When they reached her door he gave her a small smile and wished her goodnight.

  Once again, she found herself back in the cell disguised as a bedroom. What the hell was wrong with her? She was twisted up over Dak and now picking fights with Silas? Hailey felt lost in her own mind. She was pushing away everyone in her life, running away from everything and had no idea why.

  It made her want to lay in bed and weep. And she hated that. She hated this scared little girl who had taken up residence in her body. Dacea had turned her into this. And she was beginning to hate him for it.

  *****

  Dacea was once again lying in his bed alone. He was brooding. Then again the Irish were a brooding sort. Hailey's scent still lingered on her pillow. It tore him up inside to have her partially there, but then again wasn't she always only partially there? He had thrown the pillow off the bed 15 minutes ago hoping that would remove her memory as well. It didn't, all it did was make him toss and turn less frequently. She was everywhere in the room with him, in the house with him. He had half a mind to go crash in a guest room to get some much needed sleep.

  A month prior he had promised Hailey after she had run from his house over of a misunderstanding about sex that he would never chase after her again. He didn't chase, it was a game he had no desire to partake in. Dacea meant every word. She had stopped running from him. Hiding in herself was still a work in progress, but he had thought they were past the running.

  She had fled from him on the street after yet another misunderstanding and after two days, still had not returned. Not even bothered to call, text, email, or send a carrier pigeon. Silas was the one giving him updates. Not his own Mate, but the fucking Green dragon.

  Life had been so much simpler when he didn't have a Mate and Silas was trying to kill him. Simpler? Yes. Fulfilling? No. Hailey had brought him life. She livened up the world around him. But with all of the joy that came with her, one thought was never far in his mind. When would she take off? Was it now? Tonight? Tomorrow? Next week? A month from now? Two? Three? When?

  Would it always be like this? Would her first instinct always be to put on her Nikes and take off in the other direction? If she just stayed long enough to talk it out, there would be no problem. But in her mind the problem was either an easy fix or worth running from. No in between. It was exhausting and it wasn't fair to him.

  Dacea laughed darkly into the night. He could only give so much without getting anything in return. She loved him, he truly believed that, but he didn't believe she was ready for their Mating or any kind of commitment. Part of him wondered if she would ever be ready. Sometimes first instincts were the truest ones. Maybe he should have just hidden her away after his curse was broken. She would be alive somewhere else while Silas and him fought over something equally as stupid. At least Silas would meet him head on and not run away.

  Clarity came in many forms. His was a delusional rambling at 3am. Sleep hadn't come since she left. It never found him when she wasn't near. His mind had been a battlefield of emotions except for a single moment in the early morning. It was a solution, albeit a hard one. He would be miserable for the foreseeable future but it was nothing he couldn't get through.

  No mating ceremony had been performed so her life was still her own. She was 100 percent human at this point. If he walked away now, she could go back to her life without any supernatural influence. This was her way out of the life that she so obviously wanted to get away from. His sleep deprived mind was convinced this was the only solution that would prevent anything like this happening again. Soon enough she would die of old age. 70 years, after all, was nothing to his kind.

  A pang stabbed at his chest. It was such a common feeling lately that Dacea barely took any notice to the pain. He absently rubbed the palm of his hand hard over the aching spot where his heart was. The thought of her dying was overwhelming. Knowing she was alive, even if it wasn't with him, was one thing. But knowing that one day she would die...

  "Fuck Hailey, you're going to kill me."

  Literally, she was going to kill him. He knew how deep the bond was rooted in him. Without that mate bond she wouldn't take on his life span. Her senses would forever be average. Hailey would be a human, vulnerable to disease, rapidly growing old and fragile in so many ways.

  The intense glow of his bedside clock informed him that an hour had passed. His body was weak with fatigue but his mind had the stamina of a bull and was nowhere near exhaustion. The anger he had been feeding on had slowly morphed into something else. He found his mind to be calm, resolved. Dacea knew what came next but still he hoped that she would reach out to him. He needed her to make that first move to prove she was in this and not about to sprint away at every downfall.

  Tomorrow, he'd go see his Mate. And tomorrow he would tell her he was done.

  Chapter Ten

  Hailey went exploring. She was done being a prisoner to her own emotions. In her mind she associated that with her room. No one had locked her in there. That had been her own doing. If she ever wanted to sleep again, Hailey had to figure out how to fix the rift between her and Dak. Every moment that passed she felt it growing larger as their bond grew more strained. The thick, smooth rope that had once bound them together was now frayed to only a few brittle, thin strings.

  The step she took from her room was the first one closer to Dak. Francis #2 was back, he was the Asian Francis and not her cowboy cutie from the night before. Hailey was pretty sure that this Francis didn't speak at all.

  He followed exactly five steps behind her. If she slowed down, he slowed down. When she sprinted down the hallway, he was right on her tail. The novelty wore off after a few minutes. All attempts at conversing with her shadow ended in failure. So Hailey tried to ignore him the best she could, which was as effective as ignoring a giant red zit on her chin.

  Silas's house wasn't as large as his Finger Lakes vineyard compound, nor his Harrisburg river house. It was a little bit more than comfortably sized which matched the Chestnut Hill neighborhood. Two story colonial style white house with blue shutters. His lawn was pristine even in the dull of winter, she couldn't wait to see what it looked like when spring hit. There was a pool out back that she could see from her bedroom window and a small pool house adjacent to it.

  The inside was like Silas himself, sharp, clean,
modern. Every room reminded her of a different suit he had worn. Since the beginning of her stay, she had not seen him in anything other than a suit. The most casual she'd witnessed him was a loosened tie and no jacket. Hailey found it strange that he didn't have casual home clothes. Did he even own a pair of sweatpants?

  "Oooh Christmas idea!" She looked over her shoulder at Francis #2. "Do you think Silas is more of a fleece or cotton kind of guy?" He didn't even look at her. "So that's a no I take it? Ok then." Awkward.

  She had explored all of the bedrooms on the second floor, which consisted of hers, Silas's and two spare bedrooms. She found a small back stairwell that led directly to the kitchen. It was the most excited she had felt in days because now she could ninja her way to the kitchen for a midnight ice cream run.

  In the hallway to the living room she heard Silas yelling. His office door was open and on the way into the living room. Hailey had to pass by it to get to the rest of the house but really didn't want to get caught up in more minion drama.

  "I will see her!" a shockingly familiar voiced boomed down the hall. Dak was here! Her immediate elation was quickly surpassed with horror. Crap, what was she going to say to him?

  "Dacea, you can...you will, I promise. But only when you have calmed down." When did Silas become the voice of reason?

  "I've had three bloody days to calm down." Hailey seized at his tone. Clearly, her Mate was not here to talk, he was here to argue. Making up was a fleeting idea at this point. But still, she held on to the hope that they could reconcile. "You love him. You miss him," she whispered the mantra as the yelling continued. "You love him. You miss him. Sometimes you want to strangle him."

  "Hailey, I know you're lurking. Come, now."