by Marie Hall
She arched a brow. “You’re staring. Hasn’t anyone ever told you how rude that is?” Getting off the couch, she pretended to fluff up her cushions, and then walked the mirror back to the mantle.
Had he seen anything? Heard anything?
Her heart pounded so hard she felt she might choke on it. Her hands even shook a little as she adjusted the mirror.
Beings that Chrysalis was his goddaughter meant she had to tread lightly in this matter. Jericho could never know of what she’d done. She’d made certain to hide her trail all those years ago. Doing everything Rumpel had commanded she do in order to keep her deeds—or misdeeds as the case were—hidden.
Brushing the wrinkles out of her citrine gown she licked her front teeth, affecting an air of nonchalance. It wasn’t often that Jericho could get the drop on her. Because he was master of the night and she master of the day, they could only meet during that fleeting period between the sunset and sunrise.
It rattled her that she’d been so caught up in her conversation with Chrysalis that she hadn’t paid better attention to the exact time of day.
“Nothing,” he smiled, flashing her a set of pearly white teeth. “I was bored. My shift has ended.” He pushed away from the wall. “Where’d you get that mirror? I don’t recall ever seeing it before.”
She scoffed, fluttering her wrist. “I’ve had it forever. And you would know that, if you visited more.”
He shrugged. “Well, considering we’re rarely allowed more than a few minutes a day in one another’s company, you can’t really blame me. Now can you?”
Why was he acting like this? So…engaging.
It wasn’t like him. In fact, it’d never been like him. She narrowed her eyes. “What do you want, Jericho? My shift starts soon, I don’t have time for these games today.”
“Just, heard your voice. Came to see what you were doing.”
“I’ve got to go.” She made to walk around him.
“Where’d you say you got the mirror by the way?”
Jutting out her jaw, trying in vain not to inhale the spicy warmth of him, she pursed her lips. “I didn’t.”
And this time when she made to move around him, he let her, but her stomach was now a mass of nerves, and it had nothing to do with his presence and everything to do with what he might have heard.
The bridge came to an abrupt end. One second it was stretched as endlessly as an ocean into the horizon, the next, they were off. And the horrible, rending sound wasn’t thunder at all.
But a bike. A gleaming bike of chrome that spit a long orange and blue tail of fire, the light in the front wasn’t white, but red. A deep, bloody red color that almost appeared to blink back at them.
Sitting astride the metal beast was the black leather-wearing demon himself. His long blond hair was caught back in a ponytail, scruff dusted his jaw and he was gazing at Aeric with an impish curl of his lips.
“The famed Huntsman.” The silky smooth voice was designed to make any woman salivate, and any man want to grind that pretty boy face into the dust beneath their feet.
Aeric gnashed his teeth, immediately feeling a burning hatred fester and boil down deep in his soul. “Rumpel,” he snarled, fisting his fingers by his sides.
Lissa, who’d been silent up till now, turned toward him. Her eyes were slitted as she said, “Relax, hunter. We need him, remember?”
She was right. He blinked, and took a moment to breathe deeply through his nose and out his mouth. Just enough to get his irrational urges under control.
When he looked up, Rumple was leaning back on his bike, feet propped up on the handlebars with his arms crossed behind his back and his peaked brows raised.
“You owe me,” Rumpel grinned.
“I did not ask for your help,” Aeric ground out.
“Tsk. Tsk, Aeric. You know that is not how this transaction will go.”
“And just how do you imagine this will go?”
“With me getting what I want, hunter. And if I don’t,” he sat up, straddling the bike once more, “then you’ll return right back to where you were. And good luck getting out of that by yourself.”
His laugh was like the scrape of nails on glass. Heart pounding with fury, Aeric took a step forward. Ready to throttle him, Lissa jumped into his arms.
Her furry little body instantly quieted the rage humming through his blood.
Her face had transformed again, and this time it wasn’t the cat but the woman gazing down at him. “Aeric, before you do something we’ll both regret, remember that even in female form I’m not nearly strong enough to pull you out, you had minutes before the bit of land you stood on turned to dust beneath you too. If you reject his offer, there will be no coming back.”
He didn’t realize he was petting her again until he heard her purring, but the repetitive movement definitely helped to calm him. And as he pet her he realized she didn’t smell like spring rain as she always did, now she smelled of the perfume of a thousand roses.
“Lissa, you don’t understand, there is no end to his trickery. You agree to one thing, little realizing you’ve been duped into so much more. It’s not worth it. I’ll figure out something.”
She hissed. “Foolish man. Just like all the rest. With what? You’ve lost your pack. The are no tools to bail you out, there is only this.” Her tiny nostrils flared as her full pink lips tipped down with a mixture of disgust and anger and it was irrational that he should suddenly feel like laughing.
Did she actually care?
“You’d have me sign a deal with the devil? And what if his deal kills me in the end anyway? You’re okay with this?”
Not that it was her decision to make, in the end he’d be the one deciding what to do, but it confused him that she would care so much.
She didn’t answer, just continued gazing at him with that intense feline stare that made him feel strange. Discombobulated.
“Why?” he asked. “Give me one good reason why you care so much, and don’t just say because, because if you do I will turn around and demand he put me back in that hole.”
He himself couldn’t understand why he wanted to know the answer to this riddle. Why it mattered so much to him.
But in all his life no one had ever really cared what happened to him. Anyone and everything he’d ever loved had always disappointed him, always left him in the end. So why did a perfect stranger care so much?
“Because I think you can save me,” she finally whispered.
“Save you?” he frowned.
A long-suffering sigh jerked him back to the present. Rumpelstiltskin had his upper lip curled and was looking at them in obvious revulsion. “Have I got your attention yet?” he sneered. “Good. I’ve not got all day.”
“More deals to fashion, Lucifer? More lives to enslave?” Aeric retorted.
“Oh, something like that,” Rumpel chuckled, “tell me, hunter, how is Claudia these days? Hmm? It’s been a while since I’ve seen the spry lass. The way she used to bend—”
An inhuman roar sprang from Aeric’s lips and he did lunge at the imp then. Smoke engulfed him, the fumes thick and cloying, smelling of flowers and sulfur and then a decidedly firm hand shoved into his sternum.
Lissa’s brows were set, and apart from her face and one arm, no other part of her was visible. “Stop it now!” she roared. “Do not let him get to you. I will not let you destroy yourself for whatever male pride you feel you have to save. Whoever this Claudia is, if you want to get her back, then you need to set this male ego aside and stop!”
Aeric gave her a withering glare. “You do not understand—”
Pointy little fangs protruded from her mouth. “I understand enough. You want to get through Wonderland, you want to find the creature—”
Rumplestiltskin snorted. “Find the creature? Oh, that is rich. Lissa. Lissa. Lissa.” He shook his head, laughing quietly under his breath. “That is rich.”
This time it was Lissa’s turn to shoot him a glare full of fury and hate.
Holding up his hands palm out in a sort of ‘peacemaker’ gesture, Rumpel grinned.
“Enough! The both of you,” Lissa snapped. “Rumpel, you need him to make a deal. Aeric, you need him to get out of an impossible situation.”
Rumpelstiltskin only laughed harder. A curved buck knife manifested in his hands, taking the tip to his nails he began cleaning them out. “I find this highly amusing, my dear. Forgive me, I can be civil when I must I suppose.”
Aeric grabbed a hold of her wrist, and just like when she was in feline form, the touch of her soothed the beast inside of him. “Do not ask me to do this, Lissa. Rumpel and I have history.”
“True enough!” The imp clipped his head.
Aeric snapped around, feeling his body buzz and swirl, calling the sand to him. The killing sand that he’d wrap around the imp’s body to strip all the flesh off, forcing him to beg and plead for his life before gleefully dealing death’s blow.
“See,” Rumple said, “I told you someday you’d appreciate the killing sands. In fact, should you ever learn to harness it properly,” his tone dripped contempt, “you’re quest will succeed.”
Lips curling into a tight snarl, it was all Aeric could do not to snap the devil’s neck. The last thing he needed was to be told how to use this ill-gotten power. “You did this to me!”
“No. I did not. I cannot do anything. You know who fooled you, how she tricked and deceived you. I was merely the vessel used to do it.”
“Aeric, stop!” Lissa swatted his arm with her paw until she captured his attention again. “Look at me.”
His chest ached with a burning need to do the smirking pretty boy bodily harm, but looking into her eyes stilled the fury of the beast inside. “I’m looking.”
“Good. I need you,” Lissa gritted out, forcing him to keep his eyes on hers. “I cannot do what needs done without you, do you understand?”
Something about her words struck a chord in him. “What do you need done? I can do it without him? You must trust me, I will do it.”
Jumping out of his arms, she transformed back to a woman, and the shift made his breathing hitch, his body warm, and his head spin. Oddly, she was mostly visible this time. The only thing missing was her left arm.
She palmed his face and he swore if he closed his eyes he could feel her other hand, her ghostly one, cupping him too.
“You have two choices, accept the deal with the devil. Or die. That is it. What will it be?” Her sweet breath whispered across his lips.
On the walk here Aeric didn’t think of his history with Rumpelstiltskin, didn’t think of Claudia’s deception, how she’d forever shattered him. How her deal with the devil had ruined his life.
He’d put it all aside because he’d believed it’d been so long ago, that surely by now he was over it, that he could move on from that night the way he’d moved on from Claudia.
And he’d believed that, until he’d set eyes on that familiar pretty boy face—wearing his perpetual devilish grin, and riding with thunder between his thighs.
All in Kingdom knew to never make deals with him. Aeric had seen the ruin firsthand. He closed his eyes, not able to look at Lissa another second.
A woman’s eyes had always been his undoing. “I cannot help you, Lissa. I cannot die from slipping down a hole. I’ll come back to you, somehow, someway. I’ll find you and help you with whatever you need, I’ll find Chrysalis and I’ll stop her. I can do it without him.” It was his final plea, and it was strange to him that he was even pleading with her at all.
Her soft touch guided his gaze back to her and her eyes swam with desperation and fear. “Please, hunter, do not do this.”
His soul trembled with the weight of her need. The sincerity and fear in her gaze and like always he felt himself pulled in against his will by that pain.
“What if that hole isn’t just a hole, but a drop into torment?” she asked. “It is not so far a stretch to believe that. Not here,” she whispered, and the hand that’d caged him in now felt more like a gentle caress. “Would you really be willing to take that chance?”
He shuddered.
“Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock, as the Hatter would say,” Rumpel interjected, “decisions. Decisions. Make one quickly, Aeric, for your time expires like the grains of sand within this hourglass.”
He was now holding a small glass and gold timepiece between his thumb and finger. The grains were very nearly slipped through.
“In five…”
“…four…”
“Aeric, please,” Lissa whispered.
“…three. C’mon, huntsman, are you really going to let a little history come in the way of survival? Two.”
“Yes. Fine!” he spat, the words settled like lead weights in his gut “Whatever you want,” he whispered as the final grain fell.
“Whatever I want?” Rumple was reclined on his back again, shaking his head back and forth. “What powers women have over you, Aeric. I’m rather nauseated by it. Haven’t you learned your lesson once already?”
Lissa’s brows dipped and her heart trembled at the brief flash of misery that scrawled across the Huntsman’s face. “What do you mean by that?”
Lightheaded and dizzy, Lissa felt suddenly a little fuzzy. She hadn’t slept well last night, which was probably why she felt the sudden nauseating need for sleep. Wiping her brow, she leaned against Aeric’s arm.
“Oh come on,” Rumple mocked, “please lets not try to pretend you didn’t just use your feminine wiles on him like the sharp end of a blade, Lissss-aaaa.”
She shivered at the way he said her name, like he was privy to some secret she didn’t have a clue about. At the way his wickedly beautiful golden eyes caressed her as if he could actually see the missing parts of her. Aeric was right when he called the man the devil himself, he was a tempting package of lust and evil wrapped up in one.
“Shut up,” Aeric growled. “You got your wish, I’ve signed my soul to you. Leave her out of it.”
“Oh, it’s like that then, is it?” The broker of Kingdom chortled. “Well, I can say this about you, you’re always constant.”
“What is he talking about?” she asked, glancing between the two men. Truth be told a burgeoning headache was starting to pound at the back of her skull and she was really antsy to get this deal brokered so she and Aeric could move on.
For so long Lissa had felt like a failure, watching the ruin of her beloved forest fall into the hands of the demon girl, watching as the madness continued to twist and morph so that it was almost too dangerous to inhabit. As guardian she should have protected it better, but the moon marked always seemed one step ahead of her. It was maddening. Which was part of the reason why she continued to stay with Aeric, his mission was just as important to her.
But now that the he was here, together, they could stop it. She knew, felt it in her heart and soul. Finally this nightmare could end.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Aeric turned his eyes toward the sky, and she could not deny that it made her feel bad.
Worse than she’d felt before. It was her fault he was in this predicament.
If only she could have found someone to help get him out of there safely. Anyone else. But as was always the case when she sought out people, they were a scarce lot. In fact, Aeric was one of the few to ever stop and talk with her.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that unless she was in cat form, she was barely visible. That little quirk of hers seemed to be very off putting to those around her.
She sighed.
“Aeric, I’m sorry. I only wanted to help.”
His jaw clenched.
“And help you did.” Rumpel clapped his hands. “Now, to the little matter of finalizing our deal.”
“This cannot take long,” Aeric shook his head, “I must get back to my quest, the longer I stay here, the farther she gets from—”
The imp’s lips curled. “The least of your problems, huntsman, I can assure you.”
Ae
ric’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve a knack for telling the future. What do you see, imp? What aren’t you telling me?”
He shrugged, tracing the bike’s tank, which literally seemed to purr under his touch. “I could tell you. For a price. Of course.”
“Stop screwing around with him, Rumpelstiltskin,” Lissa hissed his name, feeling the oddest surge of defensiveness for the big Viking standing beside her. She’d put him into this mess, somehow she’d fix it. She had to.
The blond devil wet his lips, and the hard press of his gaze did things to her insides. Made her want to run and hide from it. Frowning, she angled her body slightly so that she stood behind Aeric.
It was irrational she knew, she was barely visible, but it seemed to her that the broker saw much more than the average individual.
“No, dear. Wouldn’t want to do that, now would we?”
“Enough,” Aeric snapped, “forget I ever asked. I will not be signing on for a new bargain. Name your price, so that we may journey on.”
Rumpel sighed. “If we must, I suppose. This is my deal then, you are free to go.” He smiled a vicious curl of teeth and lips.
“That’s it?” she asked, mind whirling with a million different possibilities. “That can’t—”
Aeric chuckled, though it sounded far from amused. “No, Lissa, that’s never it. The devil is never so generous.”
“Hmm. Matters of the heart, and you’re a pussy cat, but you are shrewd, Huntsman, at least in that. You are free to go, for now. Continue on your quest. I shall save my boon for a day when I actually need it. Fair enough?” He spread his hands wide in a gesture of innocence.
But Aeric looked far from appeased.
“You cannot leave me to wonder.”
Rumpel rolled his eyes. “I can do whatever I want. You needed me, remember?” he winked. “And,” he held up a finger, “lest we should forget.”
An ancient looking roll of parchment winked into existence before them. The black lettering was bold against the shimmering golden glow of the paper.
