Vindicta (The Liquidator Wars Book 1)

by Kindra Sowder

  “I don’t understand,” she muttered.

  Tarren chuckled and finally met her eyes, an awkward smile playing on his lips as he flushed under her gaze.

  “It’s for, you know,” he barely explained. “Just in case you can’t, you know. It’s also supposed to tingle.”

  Gwenyth’s eyes widened, and Terran burst out into laughter at her innocence despite everything that had happened recently.

  “Trust me, the tingle is a good thing,” he explained past the laughter. “Trust me.”

  ***

  Bayn, Tarren’s identical twin brother except for his coloring being light in contrast to his twin’s dark and brooding good looks, sat idly in the far reaches of the rose garden, seated on a stone bench that was God only knows how old. It was made of onyx and had a gargoyle carved at each end. The same bench he had made for Brynn all that time ago sitting across from him as he sat in the darkness.

  Brynn was an avid collector of ancient artifacts.

  He had his knife out and was whittling on a chunk of wood, not really even thinking about what he was doing. Usually upbeat in nature, he felt out of sorts. He knew his brother Tarren was probably having sex with the younger of the Daughters of the Electi by now, and even given the fucked up circumstances of their union, at least Tarren would get to claim one of the Daughters of the Electi.

  He looked down at what he’d been carving and was not surprised to find that he’d unconsciously been creating a likeness of Brynn’s face. He couldn’t get her out of his mind, and he still couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that the mixed breed angel Creed had claimed her.

  Sunday afternoons were usually quiet, but this one seemed unusually so. Bayn was convinced that everyone was having a glorious time fucking each other except for him.

  He’d been surprised that Tarren had eventually calmed down and resolved to do as Brynn had asked. At first, he’d been furious of course, that legendary temper that both he and Tarren shared coming out in full force.

  But when Bayn had pointed out to him that Brynn had already been claimed, he had finally agreed that honoring her wishes was the best testimonial of his love and devotion to the Warrior Queen that he could give.

  Bayn sighed deeply. He was having a terrible time letting go of the notion that he would never lie with Brynn. The day he had nearly claimed her played over and over in his memory because he had been prevented from consummating his love for her by a mysterious force that literally shocked them apart and prevented their union. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be.

  Still, he had seen her naked, and that wasn’t easy to forget.

  He heard small measured footsteps and saw Calyx approaching.

  “You too huh?” she commented. She knew Bayn well enough to know when he was down.

  “I feel kind of let down too,” she confessed. “I usually do after a battle. But this is different. Since Brynn hooked up with Creed, I feel as if I’ve lost my dearest friend for some reason.”

  Bayn patted the seat next to him and handed her the carving he’d been distractedly working on.

  “Now you have Brynn’s likeness forever,” he told her.

  Calyx turned the figure over and over in her hands.

  “This is quite good Bayn,” she said, “I believe you have a gift.”

  “Thank you. That would make two. I believe I have a gift for falling in love with the wrong woman. Calyx, I think I always knew that Brynn wasn’t for me. I was hoping she might marry both of us somehow. And Brynn and I became so close this year that I dared to hope my dream would come true. And then…” he said, his voice trailing off.

  “And then the Mongrel Angel came along,” Calyx finished for him. “I understand. It is discouraging. Love is a fickle commodity at its best, a bottomless pit of misery at its worst.

  Calyx leaned over, rummaging in a small suede drawstring bag she’d been carrying, and finally pulling out a slim rectangular paper box covered with cellophane.

  “Damn, Calyx,” Bayn said in surprise, “I had no idea you smoked! In fact, I’ve never seen you smoke!”

  “Only on occasion,” she answered, offering him one from the open pack, “Here. Fairy made smokes. A bit different than your usual.”

  “Hah,” Bayn said, smiling for the first time and taking one out. He held it up to his nose.

  “Smells kind of like absinthe,” he said, and something else. Something green smelling like freshly mown grass. Very interesting.”

  Calyx snapped the end of her index finger and thumb together, and a greenish flame appeared long enough to light both Bayn’s cigarette and her own.

  They breathed in the light green smoke simultaneously. Bayn immediately felt himself relaxing.

  “This is great,” he said, “Suddenly I feel as if all my troubles have faded. What is it exactly? Fairy Ganja?”

  “Kind of,” Calyx answered him. Her eyes looked beautifully luminous as she turned to him, her characteristically spiky hair, lit up by the slants of fading sunlight, looked like a halo around her head.

  What caused him to place his mouth over hers and start kissing her, he wouldn’t remember. But soon, as his hands began to explore her body and his manhood rose in anticipation of fucking his first fairy lover, it became evident that they needed to go somewhere more private.

  “My room,” she told him breathily, answering his unspoken question.

  They joined hands and ran carefree, like happy schoolchildren, toward the side door that led most directly up three flights of back stairs to Calyx’s sparsely furnished room. There they would remain past midnight, as Calyx happily showed Bayn around her unusual half Fae body. And Bayn would enjoy himself thoroughly.

  Especially after he discovered that she had a double vagina.