Nyssa attempted a sarcastic laugh, but it ended up as a cough while her face contorted in pain. “You and your neutered vamp got lucky this time, fairy. Next time, the tables will be turned.”
My patience had been stretched to its limit. I huffed out an irritated breath as I propped my hands on my hips. I mean, here I was, trying to act normal and go on a date, and I ended up in a battle for my life, covered in blood, dress and shoes in tatters. My shoes! I glimpsed the red beauties off to the side. The broken heel filled me with enough anger to light up the whole city. I’d had enough.
“There won’t be a next time, Nyssa.” My burning anger had me barely aware of the crackles of power that sparked from my fingertips as I raised my hands from my hips. I narrowed my eyes into slits at the tips of my fingers snapped and popped with little lightning bolts. Nyssa’s blue-black eyes widened a little as she sensed the power rising within me. That’s right, you mutant bitch. Be very afraid of the angry fairy.
I placed my hand just barely above the one she clutched over her wound. With a smile, I zapped her with a jolt of magic that elicited a shrill yell from her thin lips. “Now, what where you saying about leaving?”
The look she gave me was so full of hatred, I was surprised laser beams didn’t shoot from her eyes. She tried to call forth her blue magic again, but the fireball refused to take shape and went up in a bluish gray cloud of smoke. “You little—”
I zapped her again, a little more power behind the action this time. She cursed at me loudly in a language I didn’t understand. A fresh stream of blood leaked from her wound. “What was that again?”
“You will pay for this you fairy slut. I will hunt you and—Aaaaaahhh!” Her words spiraled into a scream as I blasted her with another dose of magic. Apparently, she thought I was kidding. Not hardly.
Nyssa was panting from the pain, her teeth clenched. I didn’t like being the bad ass here. Well, not totally. It kind of made me sick to my stomach, truth be told. I was just so tired of all this crap. I heaved a sigh as I briefly rubbed the gathering tension from my temples. “I don’t want to hurt you, Nyssa. But I will. Have no doubt about that fact.”
The sound of her ragged breathing filled the hallway, punctuated by a groan from Gareth. The vampire stirred briefly. I turned and blasted a bolt of magic his way. His head snapped back and hit the wall with a loud crack that left him slumped further than before. Nyssa winced at the sound. Her whole body sagged as she accepted defeat. “What are your terms, fairy?”
I wanted to give a little shout of triumph, but managed to keep my cool. “First of all, my name is Sora. Sora Starwind. Daughter of Princess Shaylee Starwind and High Prince Kiernan Starwind of the Hidden Realm of the Fae.” I typically didn’t use my pedigree to my advantage, but hey, I could use all the help I could get right now.
The pixie’s eyebrows reached for the ceiling as recognition filtered into her deep blue gaze. Despite the rocky relationship between pixies and fairies, she’d most probably heard of my family. My father alone was the subject of much speculation and political activism. Go, dad.
“Your terms, Sora?” Nyssa made a face when she spoke my name, like it left a bad taste in her mouth.
“You and your psycho boyfriend are going to leave this place. I don’t care where you go, but it will be as far away as possible. You will not come looking for me, Liam, or any of our friends. Ever. Agreed?”
She nodded, an evil glint in her eye. “Agreed.”
One more card to play, I raised my chin with disdain just like I’d seen my mother do about a million times. “Forgive me if I don’t trust your crazy ass, Nyssa. I want you to swear a blood oath to me.”
The pixie’s face hardened. A blood oath was sacred in the Hidden Realm. There was no way to break it, and no way to cheat it. As long as both parties lived, the oath remained in full effect. And if either person did harm to the other, the magic retaliated and did the same harm to that person. Kind of cool, really.
“Fine,” Nyssa hissed through teeth clamped tight. The hand that had been fastened over her chest wound shot out toward me, covered in her indigo blood.
My stomach turned at the thought of having to touch her blood-soaked hand. I know the whole blood oath thing was my idea, but pixie blood still squicked me out. I mean, the stuff was blue, like she was an alien or something. Gross.
Liam’s hand settled protectively on my shoulder. Despite all the carnage I’d seen and experienced this evening, his touch still thrilled me with a shot of warmth that spread throughout my body like a wildfire. I stood up and turned to him. “Will this work?” His voice was raspy and tinged with disbelief.
“With your help.” I held my hand up in front of his mouth. “I know I just told you to put your fangs away, but I need some blood to swear a blood oath.”
He stared at my hand with longing, hunger filtering into his gaze for a fleeting second before two sharp fangs lowered to touch his very kissable lips. I inhaled sharply as memories of his mouth on my wrist earlier threatened to turn my knees to rubber. Focus, Sora. There’s a job to be done, here.
Liam gently wrapped his long fingers around my wrist as he drew my hand close to his mouth. He slowly dragged the tip of one fang along my palm. I winced in pain as blood beaded immediately. His nostrils flared with the scent. A shudder rippled through me and I swallowed hard. Especially when Liam’s tongue darted out to lick the smear of blood left on his mouth. Lord and Lady.
Air whooshed from my lungs as I forced myself back to Nyssa. I grabbed her outstretched hand and yanked her to an upright position, our blood mixing where our hands touched. She grunted and swayed a bit on her feet, but managed to remain standing.
“Swear by oath of blood to leave us and this place, never to return.” I gripped her hand harder.
“I swear.” She spat the oath at me, none too pleased with her predicament. She dropped my hand like it had burned her with acid and glanced over to Gareth’s slumped form. “He will not be pleased with this development. And since the oath is by my blood alone, he is not bound by it.”
I stared at my bloody hand for a beat before finally relenting and wiping it on my skirt. The dress was already ruined anyway. “Then it will be your job to convince him otherwise. If he cares at all about you, then he’ll stay away. Besides, it’s not just a vampire and a fairy he’ll have to contend with. There’s a zombie, an ogre, two imps, a shifter, a ghost, and a demon from hell that more than have my back. Explain that to his royal craziness over there, and it’ll become clear that he needs to leave us all the hell alone for his own safety.” When it came right down to it, I was certain all my friends at Hell House would be there if I needed them. That’s what families did, right? Stick up for each other, and help each other.
Nyssa gave a curt nod as she shuffled over to Gareth. The silver from the knife imbedded in his gut kept him incapacitated like a poison arrow. The magical head butt probably didn’t hurt either. Well, it hopefully hurt a lot, but that was beside the point.
“I don’t think I can open a portal alone. I’ll need your help, fai—Sora.” Nyssa didn’t appear pleased to have to ask me for help.
I nodded. Portal magic wasn’t my forte, but with her assistance, I could probably do it. Nyssa let loose a thin stream of blue magic to her right. The blue cloud pulsed and swirled. Lightning bolts crackled in its center. I raised my arm toward the portal, adding my own white magic to the mix. When it collided with hers, a rush of hot air swept through the hallway. The blue vortex turned blue-gray and widened enough to accommodate a person.
Nyssa grasped the collar of Gareth’s leather coat and yanked him across the floor into the portal. With a loud sucking sound, they disappeared within the magical doorway. I ceased my stream of magic and the doorway vanished, leaving wispy plumes of smoke the only evidence of its existence.
“Where did you send them?”
Liam’s question was a good one. I shot him a bemused glance. “I have no freaking idea. My portal magic is crap.”
>
He laughed and strode toward me. He took my wounded hand and placed his tongue along the gash, running it back and forth over the injury. I know he said his saliva would help heal, but holy moley, that particular sensation made my knees almost buckle. Finished, his arms snaked around my waist as he pulled me close, staring down at me with a sexy smirk. “You are something else.”
I shrugged, and smiled up at him. His dark eyes pulled me in and took my breath away. “And what would that be?”
“Mine.”
That one word did all sorts of things to my body, making my brain pretty useless as his head dipped and his lips brushed mine. I was fully prepared to investigate this course of action further, but a shrill ringing rent the air and tried to destroy my eardrums.
I clapped my hands over my ears, the sound making my teeth ache. “What—” was all I managed to get out before water erupted in the hallway, drenching me where I stood. I peered up at the ceiling, the sprinkler system raining on my parade, quite literally. Damn smoke from the portal had set off the fire alarm, which in turn triggered the sprinkler system. Are you kidding me?
“We need to get out of here.”
I totally agreed, but I didn’t want to leave my shoes. I know, I know, but I could fix them, good as new! I slid over to where they lay in the floor and scooped them up. Liam met me, his fingers twining with mine. He sprinted down the hallway, tugging me after him. I half ran, half slid behind him as the water soaked us both through. I pushed wet clumps of hair out of my eyes, my vision all but nonexistent as my mascara ran. I was glad Liam knew where the heck he was going because I had no clue.
Liam burst through a door, pulling me after him. The night air hit my wet skin and chilled me to the bone in an instant as I realized we had ended up outside the school again. I scrubbed my hand over my face so I could see and discovered that we had burst out of a side door instead of the front entrance. Liam paused beside one of the picnic tables and pulled me against him. My heart was racing and I shivered uncontrollably. My shoulders shook as he rubbed circles along my back, my broken shoes still clutched tightly in my hand.
We watched in silence while couples stumbled from the gymnasium, one after the other. Confusion mixed with panic in the jumbled mass of voices that rose with each passing second. Sirens wailed in the air as two fire trucks and an ambulance showed up and parked. Two firemen moved the crowd away from the building while three others ventured inside to check for stragglers. A little wave of guilt washed over me. I wanted to tell them that there was nothing on fire, but coming forward would just bring too many questions our way, so I kept silent. Medics flitted from couple to couple and checked for injuries. Blankets were passed out to those of us who had gotten wet to guard against the cold. Somehow, Liam managed to snag one and wrapped it around me snugly. It was a bit scratchy, but I was thankful not to freeze to death.
“Some first date, huh?” Liam continued to rub my back as warmth seeped back into my body.
“Yeah. We never even got the chance to dance.”
“Um. About that.”
I peered up at Liam, his expression sheepish. “You acted this way before when I asked you to dance. What gives?”
He sighed. “I can’t actually…dance, per se.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “You asked me to a dance with no intention of dancing with me?”
“I just wanted to spend time with you. The dance just gave me an excuse to ask.” He flashed that devilish smile of his, and I melted against him. The blanket had me in a little cocoon of warmth that only intensified with the firm wall of his body against mine. I sighed with contentment and laid my head on his shoulder. Closing my eyes, I swayed my body back and forth to the rhythm of our heartbeats.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting my dance. Any complaints?”
“Not a one.” He tightened his arms around me further and placed a small kiss on my shoulder as we continued to sway. I grinned. Perhaps I would keep this whole evening’s revelations and happenings to myself. Kind of made it more special and sexy. My secret vampire boyfriend. Zoe would be fit to be tied, and I’d have plenty of explaining to do about the state of my dress and shoes, but at this particular moment, I didn’t care. I was in Liam’s arms, and that’s all that mattered. I even let my broken fabulous heels fall to the ground with a dull thud.
I raised my head in time to be swallowed whole by the fathoms of his deep brown gaze, tinged with burgundy. He leaned in and rested his forehead against mine. “And just for the record, I’m falling in love with you, too.”
My heart did a complete somersault in my chest as he touched his perfect lips to mine. The world drifted away as his mouth moved feather light against my own. Fireworks lighted every nerve ending as I kissed him back and wound my arms around his neck.
Lord and Lady. I’m in love.
About the author – Christle Gray
Christle Gray was born and raised in Ohio, but lives in Kentucky with her husband and one frisky black cat. She's a Gemini, which means she's of two minds about everything, and has more projects in progress than she can ever hope to complete in one lifetime. Her interests vary as widely as her opinions, and she's in no short supply of either. Just go ahead and ask. One of the many voices yammering on in her head is bound to answer.
Visit her on the web at www.christlegray.com
Hell House Books 1-3: The First Three Hell House Novellas in One Box Set Page 14
