“Don’t worry, I’ll do what I must.”
He narrowed his beady yellow gaze, clasping his leathery hands in front of his mound of a belly.
“You wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t been so besotted with dark elf cock. You wouldn’t need what I give you. Come closer so I can apply the glyph. I assume you want your dose before you leave.”
“Screw you, goblin.” Yet, she stepped toward him, eager for the graying effect that subdued all emotion. He curled his long skeletal fingers around her upper arm, pressing the leathery palm to her skin, and held it there for long seconds. His cold touch made her skin crawl, but she suffered the contact for what it would give her. When he released her, the goblin’s glyph was prominently marked on her skin. Over time it would slowly dissipate as the effect of the dose of drug diminished. She peered at it closer. “It looks different than the usual mark.”
He shrugged. “A few alterations to the potion, nothing more. Your will is mine tonight, Starlight. You give it to me freely when you accept my goods. Don’t forget it. So don’t give me any grousing about doing this deed in repayment. Fair is fair.” Then his gaze traveled up and down her body. “And if you’d like to add screwing to the bargain, feel free. I’ll be glad to oblige anytime you want. I’m sure we can come to some satisfactory arrangement.”
Morganna shuddered at the thought of fucking the little reptile. “In your nightmares, Grimstarker. That wasn’t part of the bargain.”
He shrugged. “Whatever. But don’t say I didn’t offer. Satisfaction comes in a variety of packages. I’ve never had a complaint. If I were you, I’d think about the offer.”
“Kind of you, but I have no wish to be bound to you any closer than what we are.”
Morganna slammed the door of the little hut and stalked off toward the river. She shuddered at the thought of being touched intimately by the lizardy goblin. That was never going to happen, no matter how desperate she got.
It was several hours yet until midnight when she would cross from the faerie realm into the human world to meet this mysterious man who was so important to Syril.
She shrugged. What did it really matter. She found survival much easier when she succumbed to the potion. Gray suited her. Already she was beginning to feel the effects and she embraced the numbing that scoured her emotions. It just never seemed to last quite long enough, and thus she found herself visiting the evil little goblin more frequently as time went on. She had grown so weary of the pain and had sworn never to fall in love again. She hated the yearning left in the wake of a lost love. Desperation had sent her to Syril Grimstarker. Dark potions were his specialty, not hers. In return for her service to him, his magic potion doused all her passions.
Somehow it wasn’t what she had anticipated. She hadn’t expected to feel nothing at all as though she walked in some void, not caring about anything. Morganna had simply wanted the ache for Keelan to be quenched. But Syril’s glyph made her feel as though she entered a dark cloud, fighting for each step. She accepted the consequences, had grown used to the numbing. She had even stopped making her own potions and medicines and now paid others to keep her shelves stocked. She had been destined to be a great faery doctor, but now…she simply didn’t care about anything. That’s what the goblin had given her.
Be careful what you wish for.
She still owed him, and though the payment was steep, he’d given her what she wanted. He used her and her faery beauty to acquire objects he wanted from the humans to add to his collection and to make his black potions. He didn’t care that the humans were never the same after a kiss from her, bewitching them so they wandered aimlessly in their own, human world forevermore. Bargains with the Fae Folk were very dangerous things. Too bad humans always thought they knew better and could surmount the magic.
Her gaze traveled over the fragrant herbs growing near the river bank. There would have been a time when she carried her satchel and gathered the lavender and mint, witch hazel and rue, at midnight and then spent days in her cottage blending and creating the medicines to cure her people. But Syril had dulled her senses as well as her emotions. And her conscience.
In those early years she’d tried to forget Keelan. She’d even gone into the human world to find lovers to dilute his memory. But nothing had worked. And then she’d heard about Syril’s dark potion.
It wasn’t the best solution, but at least for now it served to dull the yearning. To end the bargain all she needed to do was walk away and accept the inner pain as part of her life. Was she a coward to continue to wallow in her gray world? At the thought of the return of the unending pain she had suffered, she cringed and retreated from the idea of doing without the potion as much as she detested Grimstarker.
Her family had banished her when she had altered her healing practices. Grimstarker’s potion muddied her abilities, even after the effects wore off, and thus the potency of her healing. Her mother refused to watch her destroy herself. Her sisters had all gone on to accomplish wonderful things, and live happy lives. Several of them now with children of their own.
She’d accepted the banishment, maybe because her emotions were simply no longer engaged, and she just couldn’t summon up the energy to care. Possibly because there had been a time when she had cared too much and she shied away from ever letting that happen again.
Shadows crept up around her and she felt the dawning of midnight. She had a task to complete and she might as well get it over with. Not that it mattered much one way or the other.
Chapter Four
Daffyd’s stride as he entered the sitting room alerted Keelan to a sense of urgency. He had just returned from a meeting of the Vampyre Council.
“Is something wrong?”
Daffyd stopped in the center of the room and stared at Keelan for long moments. He laced his hands behind his back and turned to look out the window. Keelan knew it never got anyone very far by pushing Daffyd for answers. He gave them when he was ready.
Keelan walked over to the other side of the room and poured a glass of cognac and then took it to Daffyd. The vampire accepted it and downed it quickly. Definitely a sign something was wrong. Daffyd usually savored the fine drink slowly, like he did Keelan’s blood. Something must definitely be bothering him.
“A note was delivered to us at the meeting. Apparently, Romulus and his followers are at it again.”
The name of Daffyd’s ancient, sadistic sire had Keelan on alert. Already he could feel the pain of the old scars. It was Romulus and his cult that had put them there. “What did the note say?”
“Your old friend has struck a new deal. This time a faery.” Daffyd finally turned to look at him.
It seemed Keelan felt every single scar on his body burn beneath that searing, angry look. “Who? And when do they plan to take her?”
“Tonight.” Daffyd turned and strode back across the room. He poured himself another drink and downed it as quickly as the first, then whirled around to confront Keelan. “Her name is Morganna Starlight.”
If Keelan had thought his world had been shattered when he’d been kidnapped and imprisoned, it was nothing to the rage he felt now. “I have to go. I can’t let them take her or everything I have sacrificed is for nothing.”
“She’ll know you’re alive. Do you think she will thank you for saving her when she finds out what you’ve become? Let me send someone else.”
That was something Keelan couldn’t do. She was his love and he had to be certain nothing went wrong. He couldn’t leave it to chance. Not with the likes of Romulus. He could not even begin to envision her forced into the same hell he had been subjected to, echoes of which he lived with daily. “No. It has to be me. But then I think you already knew that, which is why you told me.”
Daffyd nodded. “I thought as much. You’ll bring her here.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes. If she goes back to the realm, Romulus will just find another way to settle the bargain. She has to be somewhere safe. This is the only place she’ll be prot
ected.”
“You mean that you’ll protect her. What are you going to tell her?”
“I don’t know. The first thing I’ll need to do is make sure they don’t get her. The rest will come later.”
“Do you really think she’s going to comprehend your special desires? Will she understand what you require of me? What I am to you? I hope she’s worth the chance you’re taking, Keelan. She could turn on you, kill you. That’s what your kind does to ours.”
“She’s worth the risk. And her safety will always be worth any sacrifice.” That’s one thing about which there would never be a question about in his mind.
Chapter Five
The black, limitless sky was littered with stars tonight. She had always been drawn to the night, which was probably why she’d fallen in love with a dark elf in the first place. But now the night held no illumination for her, not as it once had.
She listened intently to the silence. Something wasn’t right. It didn’t feel…balanced. The man she was supposed to meet wasn’t in the clearing. Yet the welcoming fire burned at the center. She could smell the fragrant incense that called to her sensual faery nature. There was no resisting it as it curled around her will.
Someone knew her weakness and it couldn’t be human. Trying to fight the call, she fought each step that drew her closer, pulling her from the realm of safety.
Within seconds she was totally vulnerable, and no matter what she did, she couldn’t fight the tendrils of smoke that pulled her and anchored her here.
“What have you done, Syril?” She’d walked into a trap of some sort, and it could only have been the demented goblin who could have revealed her vulnerability.
From behind something cold and hard wrapped around her neck. A rough hand yanked her arm up.
“Yeah, she’s the one. She’s got the mark.” Quickly, the iron collar snapped into place circling her neck, sapping any remaining power she might have in the human world, imprisoning her. The strong smell of the mineral was overpowering. Energy bled from her as she dropped to her knees, strength oozing away, leaving her weakened and helpless.
This shouldn’t be happening. It was supposed to be a simple extraction from human hands. Just like all the rest. No more, no less. She clawed at the collar as she wheezed.
Cold, ruthless hands yanked her arms behind her and more iron was clamped around her wrists. They shoved her onto her back and quickly shackled her ankles.
“We have her,” she heard a deep, raspy voice say above her head.
Morganna tried to open her eyes and found it almost too difficult, but she had to know who had done this. If the iron was left on too long, she would die. It was the one metal completely toxic to her. Unlike some who were simply weakened by its presence, Morganna was allergic to the metal. The reaction to the lethal metal was already beginning to close her windpipe and constrict her lungs. She could easily suffocate. It’s one of the reasons she stayed out of the cities unless absolutely necessary. She fought the constriction, her lungs lead weight in her chest.
Fear enveloped her when she saw the two creatures who had restrained her. Pale and bloodless, human, yet not. Her skin crawled when she realized they were servants of the blood-hunting vampires. She couldn’t believe Syril would have betrayed her so completely. She should have realized the mark on her arm wasn’t right and that it meant something dangerous. Syril had so deadened her instincts and emotions she had walked into the trap like a newborn fawn innocent to the ways of the world. Totally unprepared. Completely vulnerable.
Suddenly, from the right, a tall, dark figure burst upon them from the shadows of the forest. Morganna rolled away as he shot past her, a blur of momentum boldly confronting the two attackers. Screams of rage rent the air as he cast some sort of net over the first who had surged toward him. The white, wispy material bound the creature almost like a cocoon, until both her attacker and the web completely disintegrated right before her eyes. She’d never seen such magic used before.
The second creature flew at the solidly built man, but he spun around to meet him. A weapon shaped like a cross, the end long and deadly sharp was gripped in his hand. He confronted the oncoming assailant, his hands a blur as he defended and attacked, swiftly burying the sharp instrument into the heart of his foe.
Whirling around, he crouched low and brought his hand up at a diagonal, reaching past the faint defense. Morganna’s eyes widened as the man’s fist punched deeply into the chest cavity of the creature. A quick twist and his hand came away clutching her assailant’s beating heart, which he crushed and tossed into the fire.
The creature gaped down at the hole in his chest and then crumpled to the ground, a corpse before his last breath.
Morganna couldn’t move as the tall, ghostly pale man turned away from the carnage and his smoldering gaze landed on her. Her heart stilled as he strode toward her with a familiar gait.
With his bare hands he crushed the locks on the iron restraints and flung them away.
He couldn’t be who she thought he was. It simply wasn’t possible. The dark elf Morganna had known did not possess such power. She still had problems breathing, which might have accounted for the fog to her brain, and her obvious imaginings. Perhaps she just wanted this man to be Keelan so badly, the lack of oxygen is what made him so. He lifted her to her feet.
“You must come with me, Morganna. It’s no longer safe for you here. Now that Romulus has marked you as his property, they won’t let you escape so easily.”
“W-who are you?” She was afraid to hear his answer. She drew fresh air into her lungs, tried to clear her head.
A smile stretched his blood-red lips, not reaching his moonless dark gaze, and revealing the sharp, white teeth of a vampire. “Has it been so long, my love, that you no longer recognize me?”
She stumbled back. “No. You are not him. Some shade some evil thing using his form to trick me. I don’t believe you!” She lifted her head and stared him straight in the eyes. “You can’t have my blood, vampire. I will not consent. I don’t care what form you take to entice me.”
No vampire could take Fae blood without consent. It was one of the unwritten laws of her kind. It would turn to molten acid in their veins without consent, offering them an eternity of hellish pain. Yet, looking at him, she realized he was more than vampire, his pointed ears proclaimed him one from her realm. Which was probably why he could take on the appearance of her lost lover. He probably had reached into her memories. She’d been too weakened by the iron to prevent it.
Morganna shied away as he stretched a blood-drenched hand out to touch her face. A blank expression crossed his features as he allowed it to fall away.
He straightened. “He sold you, Morganna. Bartered you away as easily as any of his possessions. Just as he did to me.”
“No,” she gasped. “Not even Syril would do that to his own kind.” But she knew that’s exactly what had occurred. It really wasn’t uncommon and it’s probably what she deserved for consorting with his unscrupulous kind.
“How wrong you are. They’ll send more. If you don’t come with me now, you’ll end up food for the blood-thirsty coven that makes dark deals with your goblin. Is that what you want? And they won’t wait for your consent. They’ll take and take until you become like them. And you’ll live in eternal pain at the mercy of a sadistic vampire who cares little for humanity. He will feast on your pain and turn it into something…inhuman.”
She shuddered at his words. “Why now? Why me?”
“There’s no time.” He grabbed her hand and yanked her after him as he ran for the forest. She struggled, but couldn’t break his hold. Once the trees enfolded them he lifted her effortlessly and slung her over his shoulder.
“What are you doing?”
“You don’t have the strength or the speed to keep up with me. This will be faster. Your life depends on it, Morganna. Don’t fight me. It’s too dense to take flight from here.”
Then they were racing through the forest, leav
es and branches speeding by her faster than viewing a trolling gargoyle in sight of his prey. Even his speed on foot was preternatural.
She still couldn’t grasp that any of this was happening. Nor that the dark elf she had loved and who had left her, now held her in his arms. But this man wasn’t Keelan. He couldn’t be.
He was vampire. Her lover would never have consented to being turned by a vampire. It simply wasn’t possible. So where could he possibly be taking her that he considered safe? And what would she discover when she got there?
Chapter Six
“What is this place?” Morganna looked around the vaulted gallery housed within a web of intersecting tunnels and chambers inside a huge cavern. It was an underground city with individual apartments scattered throughout. The atmosphere was subdued, similar to the whispers of a monastery, shrouded individuals silently traversing its darkened, torch-lit corridors. In the few days she had been here, none of the inhabitants had ever ventured to speak with her. This particular gallery was hung with large, heavy tapestries of a bygone era, in rich colors of gold and maroon, depicting gothic darkness throughout, images of sacrifice and redemption.
Keelan handed her an etched glass goblet. His fingers brushed against hers and sparks of contact rushed through her hand and up her arm. “Drink this. I think you’ll like it. The wine is made from grapes and honey produced here in the Falls.”
Morganna took the glass. In the time she’d been here, the time they had been together, she’d studied him trying to find something of her lost lover. The mannerisms and personality of the man she’s once known barely resembled this Keelan standing in front of her. She had finally accepted the fact that he was indeed Keelan, the elf she’d once loved. His skin was shimmery and pale as pearl, his eyes deep, dark pools of some emotion she couldn’t quite name. She wanted to take him in her arms, to soothe him, to press her body to his and touch him, to share what they once had together. Even more, she wanted to heal him. But there was an invisible barrier that locked her out, kept her at a distance.
Morganna's Sacrifice (Vampyre Falls: Blended Species Book 1) Page 2
