Arlan stopped and used the remote for the electric gates, and they drove on down the long driveway lined by purple Jacaranda trees.
When Arlan stopped the car again, Jay went to get August from the backseat.
Now a pang of regret tightened in his chest. Her petite body had felt so soft and warm in his arms. She was so tiny and easy to carry. Her silky skin, even now, was giving him half a hard-on, and he cursed himself.
Arlan got out of the car and strode ahead. Massive pillars playing sentry to elegant gold-inlaid double front doors, which Arlan opened for them.
August had passed out after vomiting and then slept the entire trip home. It enraged Jay that the dark dust had made her so sick. He supposed when she woke up, she was going to get a shock finding herself in the lounge of the Leonard Hunting Lodge instead of in the trailer. They walked through the entrance way and into the one of the large lounge areas, where the entertainment center and bar were.
Arlan seemed equally agitated. He put some Bach on at a very low volume on the stereo so as not to wake up August. Then Arlan paced back and forth in front of the wood-paneled bar, finally stopping to grab himself a Castle from the fridge. “She’s definitely an immortal, Jay. One of the immortal half-fae, or that dark dust would have just killed her. She’s inherited the fae gene for immortality. That means she’s even more valuable as a half-fae who could help us with the sex magic. She’s full of untapped potential.”
Jay’s lips tightened. “You mean full of magical potential.” “Yes.”
Jay said nothing more but laid August down on the white leather couch as gently as possible. Then he shot Arlan a glance he hoped expressed his disgust.
Arlan ran a hand over his face. “Fuck, Jay. I get that you think I’m using her. But this isn’t about me. It’s not about us. It’s for the kids.”
Arlan motioned to the set of photographs sitting on the mantel. Photos of kids he’d managed to save from the witch doctors. There were no photos of the ones who’d been stolen. The ones he hadn’t managed to get back.
“Yeah, I get it, mate. But I don’t want her to feel used. You know?” Arlan’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah I understand.”
August shifted and sighed in her sleep. The summer dress he’d put on her when she was asleep was soft and faded, feminine and alluring in its cut, hugging her body in all the right places.
The faint musky scent of her perfume jump-started several of his nerve endings. He wanted her to wake with lust slick between her thighs, aching for him to make love to her again. He shook his head. “I don’t understand why she was fine for a while when she first woke up from the dark-dust attack.”
More than fine.
“She’s strong but she’s had a number of shocks, Jay. Dark dust is very draining, even for an immortal half-fae. Immortals, it can damage internal organs if it’s inhaled.”
“How do you know all this shit?”
“I read up on it in Dad’s library. If an immortal half-fae inhales dark dust, it can affect them periodically for months, causing sudden sleep attacks. We’re really going to have to protect her and watch her every hour of the day, because she could fall asleep at any time.”
Jay stroked a hand over her braid. Her hair was so shiny and pretty. He didn’t want to think about her being in danger any more than he had to. He glanced back up at Arlan. “Right now, what August needs most is nourishment.”
Jay began to hum, fae humming from the back of his throat. Indigo light rose from the palm of his outstretched hand, and soon a bowl of chicken soup appeared on the table, along with a bottle of some type of liquid
“What’s that?” Arlan pointed to the bottle.
“It’s a drink like an energy drink with a blast of fae magic in it. Should replace electrolytes, help her get her energy back.”
August rolled over on the couch. Her eyes opened.
“Hey, beautiful.” Arlan sounded sincere, Jay couldn’t deny it. He should try to stop judging Arlan so harshly. His friend’s motivations were in truth pure and unselfish. It was just the fact that this situation could end up hurting August that bothered Jay.
Arlan’s touch on August’s shoulder was so gentle. He obviously liked her as much as Jay did. Jay didn’t know whether to be jealous or turned on. His cock did, though, rising a little in his shorts.
To distract himself, he glanced over at the pictures of the children Arlan had saved. Even as a policeman, he’d had no luck saving any of those kids. Only Arlan’s lion-shifting magic had saved them. While Arlan might have only a quarter fae blood, his friend was a true Warrior of the Light. Powerful light-fae magic guided Arlan in his were form. The curse that Arlan hated so much seemed to Jay to have a positive side, to be almost preordained, although he’d never said that to Arlan. Not worth pissing him off.
August sat up and glanced around the room. Jay stifled a laugh when her mouth dropped open. Whatever she’d been expecting to see, it wasn’t zebra heads on the walls.
Arlan’s face crinkled in disgust and embarrassment. “Yeah we’ll be getting rid of those soon.”
“Where the hell am I?” She didn’t sound amused. Realizing the sight of the zebra heads probably wasn’t the least bit funny to an animal-loving zoologist, Jay stopped grinning.
He opened his mouth to explain, but Arlan spoke before he did. “August you remember Kruger told you I didn’t like my father’s business? Well, that’s because my father and Jay’s father became extremely wealthy running a string of hunting lodges across southern Africa. We’ve recently inherited all of them. I’m sorry you had to see this.” He waved a hand at the zebra heads.
“Inherited? Oh. I’m sorry for your loss. The loss of your father, I mean.”
Arlan nodded. “Jay’s father was taken to prison for political reasons and lost his life in a fight.” “I’m so sorry.”
Jay guessed Arlan didn’t want to explain the complicated circumstances of his mother’s coma and that she wasn’t strictly dead. “Don’t be sorry. It was a longtime ago.”
“A long time ago? But, how old are you, Jay?”
“I’m twenty-one. Yeah, I was six when I lost them both, so yeah it was a long time ago. My parents had a third, their fated mate. I called him uncle. He looked after me. He’s still alive. Anyway, Arlan lost his parents fairly recently, and it just didn’t feel right to take all his father’s stuff down.”
“Oh, I see. Of course. I’m sorry Arlan.”
Jay saw kindness and compassion in her gray-blue eyes. Despite the mistakes he and Arlan had made with her since she’d arrived, and despite getting over the attack, she still cared that they’d lost their parents. She was a good person.
Arlan sat down. “Anyway, yeah, my parents drove down to Johannesburg to visit relatives a couple of months ago. They were both shot at a traffic light. Carjacking.”
August’s hand flew to her mouth.
Arlan shrugged. “Truthfully, I very rarely saw them when they were alive. I was usually at boarding school or with a nanny, and then I was working and living elsewhere.”
“Still, that’s awful.”
“Well, anyway, Jay and I moved in here right after they died. It just felt wrong to take Dad’s things down immediately, as much as I hate those damn zebra heads.”
“I get it.”
“Stupid, really. I’ll have them taken down tomorrow.”
The kind concern in August’s gaze touched Jay’s soul. “You two have been through so much.”
“Yeah, we’re big guys. Stop worrying about us. How are you feeling?”
August rubbed her temples. “Well, I guess I passed out again, huh? I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“It’s the dark dust.” Jay motioned to the soup and drink. “Eat, drink, sweetness. Get your strength backup.”
August stared at the soup, then shrugged and pulled the bowl across the table and started eating. “That email I showed you, it’s not an insult to you, August. It’s just that we need help. If you don’t
He watched a blush creep up her cheeks, just as it had when he’d first shown her Kruger’s email. Even though he’d made love to her already, Jay felt his own cheeks heat at what they were asking her to do.
She stopped spooning soup into her mouth and picked up the bottle. She drank and pulled a face at the taste. “For some prisoners in a tower? For some children.”
Arlan walked over to the mantelpiece. “Yes. Here are pictures of some children we managed to rescue.” There was a kind of raw desperation in Arlan’s voice whenever he spoke of the children he’d saved and those he hadn’t.
Jay’s heart swelled with love and admiration for his friend. Arlan picked up one of the photographs brought it back to the coffee table and set it down beside her. It was the photo of a laughing five-year-old. Jay had peeked at it many times, knowing Arlan had saved this adorable child from evil.
“That’s Mukuru of the BaTonga tribe,” Arlan whispered. “He’s one of the lucky ones. But we’re racing against the clock to find the others. They’re losing their childhood. We don’t know what horrors they have to endure.”
August picked up the photograph. The little boy had been caught in the middle of a full-belly laugh. “He’s adorable.”
“That’s one of the children I was able to save. There are dozens more I wasn’t.” “I suppose the woman standing behind him is his mother?”
Arlan took the photo from her. “Yes, that’s Nhamo.” He set the photo backdown. “Why is it called the storm-tower?”
Jay shrugged. “Named after some dark-fae, an air fae, no doubt.” “What’s it made out of?”
“Magic stones,” Arlan said.
Jay put his hands in his pockets. “It’s a gray tower too. Gray as a stormy sky.”
“Wow! What an odd thing. You know you probably saved my life, from flying bullets, from the dark-dust that day.”
“August…”
“You saved me. I mean, even if I have the immortal gene, you saved me from—”
Arlan shook his head. “Listen, that has nothing to do with any of this. You don’t owe us anything. You have to make this decision on your own.”
Arlan nodded at Jay’s words. “And I acted like a jerk before any of them started shooting at us anyway.”
“You did, actually.” The words were spoken with no wrath.
Soft blue-gray eyes locked with his. Arlan brushed a lock of hair back from her face. “I’m sorry, sweetness. The thing is, I’d heard your mother was a dark-fae. I have a lot of issues with them.”
“So, Jay told me. He said you dated one of them, and she cursed you?”
“It was a very brief relationship I had with a woman. But, yeah, she was dark fae, and she put the were-lion curse on me.”
August shrugged. “Well, I forgive you. And as I said, you saved my life, so of course, I’ll help you.”
Arlan stilled and shook his head. “Like I said, you owe me nothing. Please don’t base this decision on that.”
Pride in his friend made Jay smile, and he gave Arlan’s shoulder a squeeze. Jay’s cock twitched as she scrutinized them both. She gave an adorable little shrug that stiffened his cock to a full erection, then she said, “I kind of doubt having sex with either of you will be a hardship.”
Arlan’s heart did a little flip. The blue-gray eyes of the child she’d been were the same. Occasionally, he saw the glitter in them that gave away her fae blood, but it didn’t appear often.
Guilt as fresh as it had been fourteen years ago welled up in him. He mourned the life she might have had, an attractive, intelligent woman like that. No wonder she came across as somewhat uptight.
And now that he remembered, he had to wonder… He’d seen dark dust on her mother’s shelves. He’d wondered if it had had anything to do with… But no, he couldn’t think about that.
He’d tried to help her, he’d tried to stop them, but none of the adults had listened to the thirteen-year-old boy he’d been. The bizarre things that had happened might have gone even beyond a parent abusing her child. She’d said her father had shot himself.
She turned around to face them, her expression steely now. “I suppose these children are beaten? Starved? Do they practice magic on them? Do they punish them using magic?” August’s voice was as cool as ice clinking in a glass.
A hard lump formed in Arlan’s throat, making it difficult to speak. “We don’t know what’s happening in that tower. No one does. We know they train some of these children to kill, to be assassins for them. Those are the only ones we’ve seen since they’ve been abducted.” August bit her lip. “And the government and police do nothing?”
“The government doesn’t believe in magic. They don’t have an understanding of what’s going on at all.”
Jay leaned forward. “When a child is stolen we, the police launch a search party. But, to be honest, we’ve never found a single child. Only magic can combat magic. And I’m the only half-fae policeman I know of around here.”
“Can’t you use your fae powers to do something?”
Jay gave a cynical snort. He gestured to her soup and drink. “Eat your soup and drink up. Culinary magic is about the best anyone will get from me.” He looked down at his shoes for a second, then looked up at her again. “The gifts I have aren’t the kind that could help those kids anyway.”
“You don’t think you’re powerful enough?” “I know I’m not.”
August spooned up some more soup.
Arlan touched her lightly on the shoulder. “These are the reasons why I believe the only way we can find the witch doctors’ storm tower is to try Kruger’s suggestions. If we find the tower, we find the children.”
“I might help you, Arlan, for the sake of those children.” She lifted her chin and shot Jay an angry stare. “But you could have told me about all this before we… You should have just told me. Now I feel you used me. You tried to manipulate me. I don’t appreciate that.”
Jay grabbed her arm, his eyes flashing dark. “What are you talking about? I didn’t use you. Why would you even think that?”
August set the bottle down on the table with a firm thwack. “I found out the first lover I ever had used me for a bet, for a dare, a joke.” Her anxious chuckle was completely without mirth, her expression defensive, as though she feared they might laugh with her.
Arlan couldn’t comprehend what she was saying. “A joke?”
“Ryan Garrison told me he and his friends remembered me from elementary and middle school, and he knew I’d be an easy mark. He and his friends thought the whole thing about being half-fae was funny, some crazy nonsense. They paid him a hundred dollars for seducing the midget freak whose mother thought she was magic.”
Arlan inhaled, struggling to keep his claws from snapping out. Red rage tinged his vision. “That’s crazy. Tell me where he lives. I’ll rip my claws into him.”
August flinched. Then a small smile quirked her lips. “He lives in New York, Arlan, a little far away for you to pay him a visit. But thanks.”
Jay seemed calm, but from his brooding expression, Arlan knew a storm was just below the surface. “Fucking idiot bullies. They called you a midget? You’re what, five foot?”
She gave a faint rueful smile. “Not quite. Almost. I’m almost five foot. My mother, she was…” August stopped and gulped.
“Crazy.” Jay shook his head.
A vision of Duvessa filled Arlan’s mind. He’d almost forgotten what she looked like, but it came back to him. A tall, terrifying creature. Even when August was eleven, she’d been very small for her age. And her mother had made fun of her height.
Arlan had wondered how a mother could be so cruel, could treat her own flesh and blood that way. Of course, she’d never done it when other adults were around. But Duvessa did like to babysit all the kids of the other half-fae during the conference period.
“Well, anyway, that was my freshman experience. I transferred campus and�
��well, whatever, there’s no reason you should care about any of this. I don’t know why I’m even telling you.” Her cheeks brightened to pink.
Arlan wondered what exactly she’d been about to say about her mother. God knew he’d had enough nightmares about that woman. He wanted to tell August that she would never be with another man like Ryan again. The part of his mind that cried out that she was his fated mate, that she was their third, wanted to tell her she’d never be with anyone but him and Jay again.
But what right did he have to claim her when he hadn’t saved her all those years ago? And what if his instincts about her being his fated mate were completely wrong? He leaned against the wall, pressed his wrists against his eye sockets. “August tell me what you were going to say, just now about your mother. Just spit it out.”
August chewed on the nail of her little finger and shrugged. “I think she might have put Ryan and those boys up to the whole thing.”
Jay’s face dulled with shock. “What? What the fuck? Why on earth would a mother do that?” August shook her hair back from her face. “She’s dark fae. We don’t get along. You know what, guys? This is not something I ever wanted to discuss with you. I only told you so you’ll understand why I was so pissed off you didn’t tell me right away about the whole sex-magic thing. Call me an idiot, but I was really starting to trust the two of you.”
Crap. She seemed ready to cry.
Jay didn’t hesitate. He sat down on the couch next to her and took her in his arms. At first, she stiffened and resisted. But then she relaxed and allowed him to pull her close.
Jay cradled her in his strong embrace. “I made love to you because you’re beautiful. That’s all.” Buried in Jay’s chest, she let out a ragged sigh that made Arlan’s stomach hollow.
Jay kissed the top of her head. “Listen to me, August. You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to do. Our fight with the witchdoctors is not your fight. We can find someone else.”
She took a deep breath. “These witch doctors have already made it about me, though. Haven’t they? They tried to kill me. I think I want to do this. Just let me think about it a little more.”
Claimed by Fae: MMF Paranormal Romance (Magical Mayhem Menage Book 2) Page 8
