by C. R. Moss
Jack placed two fingers against Kol’s neck and didn’t find a heartbeat. He placed a kiss on the beast’s forehead and sat up, stunned that the creature whom he’d come to care for was gone.
Kristina, quietly crying, sidled up to Jack and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “Looks like we were too late. I thought by coming here and telling him I loved him it would give him hope. Give him a reason to live.”
“Agreed. But at least he was able to hear us and acknowledge our feelings.”
As they huddled in each other’s arms and stared at Kol’s body, a black mass with silver highlights gathered and covered the fiend. The sparkly blanket swirled and pulsed over the body.
“What the hell?” Kristina’s brow furrowed.
“My sentiments exactly,” Jack stated, studying the occurrence, trying to figure out what it was and what it was doing.
The matter grew, extended dark tendrils toward him and Kristina until it surrounded them and in seconds filled the room. A brief panic about being suffocated filled Jack, but he could breathe, and the darkness dissipated before he even had time to worry about it.
In front of them stood a gorgeous creature, tall and lithe with flowing auburn hair and the greenest eyes, besides Kristina’s, Jack had ever seen. And the moment the being looked his way, all the memories his dreams had hinted at flooded his conscious mind.
He’d lived that life. He’d been Father Frost, killed that girl and then was sentenced and punished.
Fairy Prince Edan. Ruler of fire. The FEC’s leader and top punisher. The one who carried out his sentencing along with the punishment for the red-headed elf named Kristina. They’d fallen in love with him all those years ago. Then the fairy had left them.
“You bastard,” Jack shouted, lunging at the fairy, his hands stretched toward his throat. When his fingers connected with the prince’s neck, he squeezed. “You broke my heart when you left me hanging there in the council’s forest. Literally hanging there with ropes digging into my skin, red welts on my ass. I trusted you to do right by me, take care of me … love me. But all you did was disappear on me, on Kristina. She was so devastated she took off, too, and I was alone. Again.”
“I’m sorry,” Edan squeaked out.
“Jack, release him. Let him explain.”
Jack glared at Kristina but did as she requested. He’d allow Edan to try to wriggle out of this and then he’d kill him. It’d make up in part for all the hurt he’d caused him and Kristina so long ago.
Edan fell to the floor upon release. He coughed and sputtered, rubbing where red marks the size and shape of Jack’s fingers appeared. “I’m sorry. Truly I am,” his voice rasped.
Kristina walked away, and when she returned, she handed Edan a glass of water.
“Thank you.” The fairy man sipped on the liquid, took several slow breaths and drank some more. He finished the contents then looked to Jack then Kristina. “If you’ll recall, I had been interrupted during our session that morning and told I was needed in court. I hadn’t intended to abandon you two. I had planned to return, finish what we were doing, and inform you your sentences were over.”
“Oh my God, I remember. In my last dream, I had gone to the council to turn myself in and receive punishment for the bad stuff I’d pulled, but I never knew who took over my case. It was you.” Kristina snapped her fingers and pointed at him. “Though Jack and I had to complete our sentences and be subject to the punishments you dealt, the three of us were a team. We all loved each other. That last day… That fateful day, Eau came in and had said there was a delegate from a neighboring realm who’d wanted an audience.” She dropped next to Kol on the floor.
Jack followed suit. The floor felt cool against his bare ass. The cock ring bit into his skin, but he didn’t let it distract him from the matter at hand.
“You are correct, Kristina,” Kol replied. “I found my priestess Terra, and we went to greet him. The meeting hadn’t gone well.”
Jack huffed. “That seems like an understatement.” He leaned back on his forearms waiting for Edan’s excuses to start. Keeping an observant watch on him, he figured he’d be able to pick up on any of the fairy’s lies.
Edan glanced at him. “The representative had turned out to be Focalor. A fairy of my court I’d exiled years before for causing too much mischief and harm. He’d returned saying he sought forgiveness, and that he was sorry for the trouble he caused. He wanted entry back into the kingdom. He wanted me, him and Terra to be together. He’d been very charming, and his powers had developed quite considerably that he almost had his way with the two of us.”
Kristina gasped. “How awful.”
“Yeah, positively ghastly,” sarcasm dripped from Jack’s voice. He didn’t care. So far, he was nowhere near satisfied with Edan’s rendition of events. As the fire fairy prince, Edan had insurmountable powers. He’d been the Supreme Being and ruler over them all, fairy and elf alike. That’s why he’d gone to Edan for punishment and absolution. Even the jolly guy himself deferred to the prince’s commands. If Edan had wanted to, he could have put Focalor in his place without issue.
Edan looked at Jack with a sad expression. He shook his head. “Focalor had put an enchantment on the great hall. Like I said, his powers had grown. The spell rendered mine useless.”
“Then how’d you get away?” Kristina stroked his hair.
“Though his powers were strong and definitely caused me problems, his enchantments couldn’t hold for too long. We’d gotten as far as him pleasuring Terra’s pussy and me ready to suck on his cock, but just as I was about to take him into my mouth, I felt a change in the hall.”
Jack observed him as he paused to breathe, checking Edan’s facial expressions and respiration, looking for any sweat forming on his brow. Edan showed no signs of deceit. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but the thought of him screwing another man was something he didn’t even want to contemplate.
“Taking the opportunity,” Edan continued, “to work the situation around to my advantage, I sprung from the bed, taking Terra with me. Needless to say, Focalor was irritated and had held back some power. For spurning him and exiling him, he cursed me to become the vampiric monster you knew as Kol. Focalor put Terra under the curse, too, since she happened to be there.”
“Sidero?” Kristina inquired.
Edan nodded. “Yes. Then for good measure, he threw you two in. He’d learned how much I loved you both and thought to hurt me more by hurting you. He’d said the moment that you two were informed I’d left, that you, Kristina, would no longer remember me or your past. And you, Jack, would forget as well, die of old age and continually be reincarnated never to know or understand love.” Tears welled in his eyes.
Kristina pulled him to her bosom, continued to stroke his head.
“That makes sense.” Jack sat up. “I’ve pretty much been a cynic my whole life. That is until I met Kristina.”
Edan repositioned himself in her arms so his back rested against her chest. “And she and I are the only ones who could have ever broken your part of the curse.”
Jack raised a brow, realized the last threads of his skepticism about the paranormal were finally slipping away. “How’s that?”
“Eyre.” Kristina smiled.
“That’s right, love. Eyre and Eau had overheard Focalor’s spells. After he stormed out and they felt safe, they hurried in and added some provisions. Eyre stated that Terra and I, as long as we stayed together and only drank off each other, we’d survive long enough to break the curses. Eau added that to break them we’d have to find you two and both of you would have to love me in my vampiric state and willingly come to me again. It was the best they could do to counter act what Focalor had done.”
“But you still left. Why didn’t you just come to us then? Explained what happened?” Jack swallowed back all the disappointment and hurt that threatened to flow out of his memory. “And what was the deal with all bondage and sex here?”
“Last question first.
I thought by partially reenacting the times we spent together, it would jar your memories.” Edan sighed, seeming to struggle with the memories. “As for not returning to you then, we tried, but the moment we stepped out into the passage way, servants and lesser fairies were on us in a minute.”
“They ran you and Terra out, didn’t they?” Kristina inquired with a hitch to her voice. “Because you’d already changed.”
A tear trickled down Edan’s cheek. “Yes. They thought the realm had been invaded by monsters. Terra and I were banished from our own home since we weren’t ourselves. We tried to keep tabs on the two of you, but it wasn’t easy. The moment you, Jack, stepped out of the protection of the FEC’s realm, you turned human and left the country. You, dear Kristina, ran off, and we’d lost your trail. So many years passed. She and I traveled far and wide trying to find you two.”
“But what of your magic?” Jack asked. “Couldn’t you have used that to your advantage? Tracked us down sooner?”
“Our magic had been severely diminished when we were changed. As well as taking a long time to find you, it took a long time for our magic to come back full force. Had we had normal use of it, yes, we would have cast spells to find you.” Edan rose and paced to and fro in front of them. “Then one day we finally had a lead that Kristina was with the Claus family. Supposedly, she’d been in an accident and lost her memory one Christmas. Santa found her and took her home.”
“I remember that morning,” she offered. “When I woke, he fed me a story that I was an adopted family member and had amnesia. Not knowing any better, I believed him and stayed. That’s where I lived from then on. Granted as time passed, I started thinking he’d lied to me, but he’d never tell me what the true story was.”
“And Terra and I in our beastly states couldn’t get into the North Pole to find you and help you, so we took up residence in the states and kept tabs on when you traveled. When we learned you’d settled in Las Vegas, that’s when we moved to the city. We felt it was destiny that you’d hooked up with Jack. We made it our mission to figure out how to get the two of you onto our estate and have you both fall in love with Kol the monster. This way the curses could be broken once and for all.”
“That’s some story.” Jack leaned back on his elbows and crossed his stretched out legs at his ankles.
Edan shrugged. “It’s all true. The goodness that you two saw in Kol is what makes me me. I am still the being you both fell in love with. I apologize for the deception and not being up front, but it had to be the way it was for things to work. Will you both forgive me?”
“Did that include enchanting us so that we fell in love with you and had those dreams?” Jack asked.
“There was no enchanting or magic to speak of,” Edan replied with a grin. “What you dreamt of and feel now is all of your own doing. By not being influenced by the outside world, your minds were able to process the stuff you’d repressed and share its findings.”
“That’s wonderful!” Kristina hopped to her feet and hugged him. “I forgive you.” She kissed Edan on the cheek.
They both gazed down at Jack. Expectant expressions lined their faces. He lifted an eyebrow. “You had to do what you needed to do. It’ll take me awhile to wrap my head around all this, but we’re good.”
The door to the den swung open. “Kol!” A beautiful brunette who was the same in stature as Edan rushed into the room. She stopped short upon locking her gaze on the auburn haired fairy. “Edan.” The female patted the spot over her heart. “Does this mean…?”
He nodded. “Yes, Terra, all the curses have been broken. We’re free.”
Jack watched the woman’s eyes fill with tears. Sidero in her original form was actually a gorgeous woman. No wonder she’d seemed so cynical and evil in her vampiric body. It must have been hard trying to keep up an appearance of beauty when one was a beast.
“That’s wonderful! Now we can go home.”
“Home to what?” Edan asked Terra. “We have no place there anymore. The council has moved on without us. Neither of us have families there. But here we have a place. We have a home and a thriving business.”
“And us.” Kristina pointed to herself and Jack. “As for your club, I have an idea I’d like to run by you all.”
Jack continued to sit on the floor and listen to one of the loves of his life discuss with his other love and their new friend the idea of using the club as a front for part of the Las Vegas Hunters Paranormal Investigating Services. She suggested the business could be a safe refuge, an underground for other beings—fairies, elves, dwarfs, giants and so on—who were adrift or needed a place to escape to. They could help assimilate them into a new life should they wish to take on roles of a more human nature.
Jack observed the chatty trio. Edan and Terra appeared to be pleased with Kristina’s ideas. Proud of his elf and her heart of gold and the enthusiasm Edan, the fire fairy prince, showed, Jack smiled. If someone had told him years ago that he’d be in love with two people, let alone mystical creatures, at the same time, he never would have believed them. Now he didn’t want to imagine not having Edan and Kristina or their magic in his life. He wanted to shout from the rooftops how much he loved the pair, and come hell or high water, he’d do what he could to keep them both happy and safe. After all, in this lifetime, his ultimate mission was to protect and serve, and when it came to the ones he loved and who they loved, that’s exactly what he’d do.
The End
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Other Books by C.R. Moss:
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