by Amy Patrick
“I will be honest with you, about everything—the good and the bad. And if that doesn't send you screaming in the other direction... I want to be with you—always.”
“Oh Culley.” She rests her face against my chest. Her words are soft rushes of air against the exposed skin at my open collar. “Thank God. It absolutely devastated me to see you yesterday. I haven’t been able to think of anything else for one minute. I was going to break things off with Brandon tomorrow because I knew I couldn’t be with him when my heart was still so full of you.”
My own heart threatens to soar right out of my body. Wrapping my arms around her shoulders, I pull her as tightly against me as I can without crushing her. She feels perfect. This moment is perfect. I’m so happy laughter spills out of me.
“Is something funny?”
“No. I was thinking... Brandon will never know how lucky he is. If you hadn’t just said that, he was about to meet up with some very nasty Elven glamour.”
She lifts her head and pulls back a little. “I didn’t love him, you know. What I felt for him never even came close to how I feel for you.” There’s a long pause as we sit holding each other in the dark. “There’s something you said yesterday that concerns me, though.”
“What is that, love?”
“You can only bond with one person for eternity. And I’m not immortal like you are. Shouldn’t you be with someone of your own kind?”
Taking her face between my palms I kiss her hard and quick. “Don’t you understand silly girl? Eternity is worth nothing without you. You are worth any price. If you won’t have me, I’ll never bond with anyone. You're the only one who’s ever seen the real me. And somehow you fell in love with me anyway. Besides, we are the same, remember? You told me that one time. You said our hearts are the same.”
“I love you,” she says and throws her arms around my neck, rising to her knees and kissing me with wild abandon.
I pull out of the kiss after a minute, laughing with joy but still struggling to make those three vital words come out of my mouth. I haven’t said them to anyone since I was a young child. They’ve never brought me anything but pain and disappointment.
Staring down at her, I open my mouth, willing the declaration to come out. Instead, I say, “You are so beautiful. There is no one like you in the world—and I’ve seen a lot of it.” I hesitate, drawing in a few steadying breaths. “There’s something I have to tell you, and I hope your love for me can withstand it.”
She wants honesty from me, and I have to give it to her. I have to tell her about my role in the S Scourge, about the possibility that I am the pusher who got her brother hooked on the drug. Even if it’s the end of us, I can’t keep deceiving her.
“Anything, Culley,” she says. “I can forgive anything you’ve done. Tell me.”
Before I can utter a word in response, her bedroom door flies open and hits the wall behind it.
I jump to my feet as Laney cringes back. I’m expecting her enraged dad or even the barrels of a loaded shotgun. What I see is a thousand times worse.
Chapter Twenty-eight
His Past
“Father!”
Shock transfixes me. Audun Rune stands in the doorway, legs apart, hands out to the sides, looking like a maniacal pirate about to unleash a volley of cannon fire. Right behind him is Bjorn, his favorite bodyguard. The name means “bear” and the guy’s as big as one—no secret why Father prefers him to all his other hired muscle.
“So this is what you’ve been up to,” Father scoffs. He flicks the light switch and strides across the room to Laney’s bedside, staring down at her as if she were a plate of spoiled food. “This is the reason you’ve betrayed your family and your people. A human. A defective one at that.”
I rush him and throw a punch, but he ducks out of the way, smiling as if this is the most fun he’s had in a long time. Bjorn grabs my arms and wrenches them painfully behind my back. The man’s grip is like stone.
“Let me go, you big gargoyle,” I demand, twisting and struggling to no avail.
“I spoke with the pilot and then flew to Memphis myself to find out once and for all why you've been so distracted and morose,” Father says, strolling over to face me eye to eye. “And then I followed your car. You have not been honest with me, son. And that—well, that cannot be tolerated. I’m not sure how you managed to hide your immunity to my glamour from me for so long, but someone with so dangerous a power cannot be allowed in the Dark Court.”
“That’s fine,” I spit at him. “I wasn’t planning to stick around. Consider me gone.”
“Ah ah ah—not so fast. It’s too dangerous a power to be allowed in the world. Your mother will have my head if I kill you, but you cannot be permitted to roam freely any longer. Under my mansion is a set of underground rooms—with no door knobs. I think you’ll find them a very comfortable place to spend eternity, if a tad dull.”
Behind him, Laney slips from the bed and sneaks toward her bedroom door. I make a point of not watching her, praying she makes it out while Father is focused on me.
Of course Bjorn sees her. He grunts, “Behind you.”
Audun whirls around and snags Laney’s pajama top, dragging her back against him and sinking his nose into her hair. “And you, my sweet little bird with clipped wings...”
“Don’t touch her,” I roar, fighting against Bjorn’s vise-like restraint. Fury throbs in my brain like a heartbeat.
Father shoves Laney onto her bed where she recoils against the headboard, trembling. “You my dear will spend the rest of your pathetic sightless days in the fan pod of one—or many—of my friends in Europe. They do so enjoy variety, much like me—and my son.”
Laney yells at him. “Culley is nothing like you. You’re vile and evil. Culley is a good person.”
Father’s laugh fills the room, high and frightening and filled with malicious glee. “Oh, that’s rich. A good person. You are blind, aren’t you, little girl? In more ways than one. Did Culley not tell you about his past?”
“His past doesn’t matter to me.”
“Really? Then it doesn’t matter to you that he was at the very inception of the S Scourge? Yes, I saw you that night at the gala—poor pathetic blind girl with the dead drug addict brother. Culley brought me the main ingredient for my pet project. S would never have existed without him.”
Laney’s face pales, and her breath hitches.
“Oh, I can see I’ve shocked you.” His lip curls in perverse enjoyment. “Well, it might shock you further then to learn that my son, your wonderful knight in shining armor, is my most trusted and successful drug pusher. That’s right. Every night over the last several months he’s gone out to clubs and bars around the country—clubs in Los Angeles—and offered an irresistible sample to the people he encountered there. You stupid humans are only too willing to try anything that beautiful face has to offer. Of course, you wouldn’t know anything about his glamour, would you? You see, Culley is the most attractive man anyone has ever seen—and I do mean anyone. Every man, woman, and child sees what they want to see when they look at him. It’s quite wasted on you.”
For an excruciating moment I wait to see how she’ll react. And then it all crashes down—my hopes, my dreams, my future with Laney.
She turns toward me, her bottom lip trembling. “You killed my brother. It was you who got him hooked on S, wasn’t it? Tell the truth—for once.”
Oh God. The look on her face. A piece of my heart cracks off and falls to the floor.
“I... I don’t know. It could have been me. I don't remember. I was going to tell you—I wanted to. I’ve changed, Laney. You changed me.”
She struggles against Father’s grasp on her wrists, furious at him, furious at me. “You’ll never change. You told me the day you met me that you were a bad guy. I should have listened.”
Now the rest of my heart crashes and burns. I never deserved her love, and now my past has driven a stake through it as I always knew it would.
Ignoring Father’s presence I focus solely on her. “I know you can’t forgive me for what happened to Joseph. I don’t deserve forgiveness. But I want you to know I truly regret what I’ve done. I’ve been working to help Asher and my friends Ava and Lad and Ryann put an end to the S epidemic.”
“You what?” Father roars, letting go of Laney’s wrists.
In a blur of motion, Laney springs into action, lifting Cupcake from his spot beside her on the bed and tossing him at Bjorn.
“Get him, boy,” she yells. “Culley! Run! Get out of here.”
The cat lands on Bjorn’s face and shoulders, claws out and screeching.
“What is that? Get it off,” my captor yells, releasing me and reeling backward.
At the same time, Asher and Hakon come spilling through the bedroom window. Asher, not a small guy himself, rushes and tackles Bjorn. Hakon lunges after my father.
The commotion gives me an opening to get to Laney. My hands cup her face. “Are you all right, sweet? Did he hurt you?”
She nods rapidly. “I didn’t mean those things I said—I was just trying to distract him. I know you’re sorry. I know you’ve changed. I told you before—I could forgive you for anything. That is what I meant when I said I love you.”
Before I can respond, Father breaks Hakon’s hold and grabs Laney by the hair, yanking her off the bed and out of my frantic grasp.
Wrapping his forearm around her throat, he crushes her against him and spits venom at me. “Back off. You too, healer,” he snarls. “You know it would take only a little more pressure to snap her neck or crush her trachea. I cannot believe you are a traitor, too—after all these years of faithful service.”
“Slavery is more like it,” Hakon says.
Turning to address me, Father says, “And you... you are just like your mother—so selfish, only thinking of her own needs and desires. You think you’ve won by working behind my back to end the S epidemic? It’s too far gone now. Even if you did somehow manage to stop it, I’m always a step ahead of you. I have another plan—a hundred other plans to restore our people to their proper position as the rulers of earth.”
I move toward him slowly, hands raised in front of me in a pleading gesture. He reminds me of a vicious, cornered animal. His eyes are wild and fever-bright.
“That’s right—you’re in charge. Please don’t hurt her. Just let her go. This is between you and me. You already have great power, loyal subjects, all the money you could ever use. Let her go, and I’ll be the son you’ve always wanted. I’ll do anything you say. I’ll marry the girl in Italy. I’ll help you form alliances with the European leaders. You and I can move past this—I’ve learned nothing is beyond forgiveness. If Laney could forgive me for what I’ve done—how can I not forgive you? Let her go now, and we’ll leave together.”
He stares at me so long and so intently I think I’ve gotten through to him. Then he laughs. “My son the human lover. Maybe I should have tried this little morsel if her appeal is that powerful.” He tightens his grip on Laney’s neck, causing her face to deepen in color as she struggles for air. “You are a better liar than even I am, my son, but it’s too late for all that. You have taken away something I care about. And now... I will take away what you care about.”
Reaching into a pocket with his free hand, Father extracts a syringe. He thumbs off the cap and holds the needle to Laney’s neck. “You, my little friend,” he says against her ear. “...are about to become a world-class S addict.”
“Don’t,” I yell.
“Audun, that’s too much,” Hakon says, his voice frantic. “It’ll kill her.”
“Even better,” Father says and plunges the needle into Laney’s neck.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Wherever You Go
Laney’s scream of agony is the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Terrified and enraged, I charge them, crashing into Father and knocking him backward, away from her. Hakon rushes forward and catches Laney as she falls.
Father is no larger than me, but he is stronger—he’s more than three hundred years old, and for the Elven race, strength increases with age. The two of us roll across the bedroom floor, wrestling for dominance in this hand-to-hand battle.
He ends up on top, one knee on my chest and his hands around my throat. “I wish you’d never been born,” he growls at me. “Then I could have had a chance at a son who is worthy of the Rune name.”
My hands grip his arms, struggling to pull them away from my neck, but he is too powerful for me, and my strength is decreasing by the second as I run out of oxygen. Finally my arms fall limp to the floor, unable to fight anymore. I don’t want my father’s baleful glare to be the last thing I ever see, so I roll my gaze to the side, looking for Laney.
She’s lying on her bed, sprawled in an unnatural manner. Hakon is over her, his ear against her mouth, as if he’s checking to see if she’s breathing. No. No, she can’t die. I make a desperate, delirious deal with the universe or with whatever powers are up there in Alfheim or otherwise. Take my life, but spare hers. I would give up a thousand eternities as long as she can live in peace and safety.
“Father,” Asher shouts. “Culley needs help.”
Hakon whirls around and sees us, attempts to pull my father away from me. It’s no use. He’s a couple hundred years older than the healer, too. None of us stands a chance against him.
As my eyelids are closing, I see Hakon retreat and pull a small pouch from his medical bag. He shakes its contents into his palm. Coming up behind Father, he claps the hand over his nose and mouth and holds it there with all his strength.
Refusing to break his own brutal grip on my neck, Father doesn’t move to stop him. Suddenly, the choke hold releases and Father gasps, falling backward and writhing on the floor. His face is swelling, growing darker, and his fingers scrabble at his own throat as his legs kick violently.
I sit up, still sucking vital oxygen into my lungs. “What’s wrong with him?” I croak at Hakon.
“He’s dying,” the healer says in a sad, serious tone. “Of iron poisoning. I filled my hand with the powdered iron meant for the new S batches. He inhaled it. It probably got into his mouth, too.”
“You have to go and wash it off of yourself,” Asher exclaims. “Now, Father, hurry. Culley—think you can help me with this guy?”
I glance up to see the bodyguard staring down at his dying master and still attempting to break free from Asher’s hold. I get to my feet and go to assist him.
“Not bad, farm boy,” I say to Asher before grabbing the guard’s throat. “How would you like a nice big whiff of iron powder yourself, mate?”
The man’s eyes go wide.
“No? Don’t want to follow your master that far, huh? Well then, I suggest you leave immediately, and I wouldn’t bother going back to the Dark Court. Nox will be running the show there from now on—with my full support. Your services are no longer needed.”
Asher and I march the guy down the stairs and out the front door, right past Laney’s parents who sit on the couch staring straight ahead at the dark TV screen as if catatonic.
“What did you do to them?” I demand, yanking the guy’s arms painfully high behind his back.
“Nothing—they’re just swayed,” he says. “You can undo it.”
“Lucky for you,” I say. At the front door we let the guard go and watch as he runs across the yard to where Father’s car is parked on the street. He gets in and drives away.
“Go help Laney,” I say to Asher. “Please. I’ll check on your father.”
Asher runs up the stairs, taking them two at a time while I follow. Hakon is in a bathroom at the top of the
stairs, leaning on the sink and letting water run over his hands. “I... I’m sorry. I’m afraid I may not be of any help to the girl. The iron in my system is repressing my glamour.”
The healer has vomited and looks weak as a baby, but he's still conscious and thankfully not writhing around on the floor like my father is.
Was.
I enter the bedroom to find him still and quiet. Stepping over his body, I rush to join Asher at Laney’s bedside. She’s as motionless and silent as Father.
“Is she...?” I can’t even say it.
Asher withdraws the two fingers he held against her pulse point. “She’s alive,” he says grimly. “But her pulse is weak, and I don’t like her breathing.”
“Where’s the syringe? How much did he inject her with?”
I start searching the floor for the thing but Asher taps me on the shoulder. When I turn to look at him, he's holding the syringe. It’s empty.
“He gave her the whole thing.”
Hakon enters the room, looking gray and haggard, but on his feet. “That was liquefied S—something we’ve been experimenting with. Audun was planning to put it into the water supply as soon as he could secure a safe exclusive water source for Elven use. There was enough in that syringe to overdose a large human male, even an Elven one.”
“Well do something,” I order, more frightened than I’ve ever been in my life. “Help her.”
“I’m not sure if I can,” Asher says. “This is different from healing you. You’re Elven, and you didn't have nearly this much of the substance in your body. I don’t know if I’m strong enough. I’m only a half-breed, as you love to point out.”
I grip his shoulder. “I’m sorry brother. I should never have said it. Ava was right about you. You are a good guy, and now I know why—your father is twice the man mine ever was. As far as I’m concerned, you’re full Elven. I believe in you. Do your best.”
I sit on the bed beside Laney, holding her hand as Asher works. Cupcake is curled beside her head, staring at us all as if willing us to fix her.
