by Selena Page
"I hope that wasn't Goldy," Jack muttered. "I hope they're OK." He leaned out the window and fired another blast of power at the remaining pursuers.
He slipped back inside as they scorched the tips of his hair with a couple of soporific blasts. "Goldy's fine," he muttered. He shook his head to clear the threatening lethargy and caught Amber giving him a strange glance. "What?"
"I didn't expect you to be on a first name basis with people who are chasing you over the countryside and shooting at you. What's this look like to normal human people?"
"You mean, like not you?" He took a moment to twist around and look behind him. The remaining SUV wasn't getting any farther away, even though the windshield looked like an incontinent roc had used it for target practice.
"Ha. Very funny. Yes."
Jack shook his hand, feeling his power levels. His hands felt like they were on fire, and his head was pounding. He'd been pushing himself, and his self was starting to push back.
He could be burned out later. "They're, you know, I never really thought about it. They'll definitely see the speeding. Not sure about the firefight."
"These would be useful things to know about your power."
"Well, we don't usually--pothole! We don't have firefights in the middle of high-speed car chases in public, you know." He shook his hands again and found a spark of fire; he had to make this one count.
He leaned out the window and targeted as fast as he could. The wheels hadn't worked.
"Radiator!" Amber shouted. "The front center of the thing."
Front center. Right. He dodged another blast.
His spark fizzled out, and Jack swore and flattened himself against the seat. "Shit. They're fresher than I am."
"How do they respond to a shotgun blast?" She wasn't looking at him; she wasn't looking anywhere but the road. Considering the numbers Jack could see on the speedometer, he was glad about that.
"Uh, angrily, but if you're not already worried about the police."
Sirens echoed behind them as if to highlight Jack's sentence, and Amber and he swore in concert. The last thing they needed right now was skin-donner cops.
A bright flash of light shot out from Goldie's SUV in all directions. Jack barely managed to throw up a shield. Anywhere but inside this car, with its protections, it wouldn't have been enough, but the power bounced off of them.
The police car spun into a U-turn and sped off the other way, sirens still blaring.
"Well, that was useful," Amber muttered. Now if only they could do that to themselves.
But her foot had come off the gas for a split second while they looked at the police car, and that was enough for Goldie's SUV. The beast of a vehicle charged up behind them, closing with a tap on Amber's bumper.
It might have been a tap, but they were going over ninety miles an hour, and it was more than enough to send them careening to the side of the road. Amber swore and slapped her hand over Jack in a reflex that might have been amusing in another circumstance.
Jack's power sputtered out as he tried to force a barrier spell, a bed of flowers, anything. Three, four seconds seemed to last an hour, and then the car landed upside-down in a ditch nearly as deep as it was large.
Chapter 9
She didn't remember blacking out, but she came to in someone's arms with the smell of sawdust and cinnamon filling her nose. "Dammit, woman, if you don't wake up, I'm going to marry you unconscious, and then where will you be? A widow before you regain consciousness, probably, because your father will kill me and nobody will ever find the parts. Damnit, woman, wake up, why couldn't I fall for a nice fae girl and not a werewolf's daughter? Wake up, wake up!"
"Jacanamo Tyberius." A second voice boomed outside the car, female, angry. "I think it's time to give up this ridiculous game of yours and come back home, don't you? We'll pay for the girl's car and get her safely home, but you, Jack Jacanamo Tyberius Henry Angoulême de Antoniono Isobelo, it is time for you to do your duty, and you know it."
"Damnit, Amber," Jack muttered in her ear. "Just wake up, will you? I told you to slow down, but this isn't what I meant."
Opening her eyes seemed like too much effort, but Amber managed to squint at him. "Ow . . ."
"That would be where you hit your head on the ceiling, probably. Or maybe where the seatbelt tried to choke you to death." His voice was a whisper, but he sounded happy. Ridiculously happy.
"The Guard?"
"Right outside the car and mad as heck. I think Goldy's going to spank me with the flat of her sword." He even managed to sound happy about that.
". . . gon' marry her?" Her words were coming out stupid and slurred. What was wrong with her?
Oh, yeah, she'd rolled her car and hit her head on the roof. Also, she'd been chased by skin-donners, barely missed a troll, and been tracked all over upstate by the Palace Guard, who apparently took driving lessons from action movies.
"Spank?"
"What?" Jack peered at her. "Oh, uh, I spent a lot of time in trouble with the Guard when I was younger. Goldy was my bodyguard, back when I was living in the Court. Nanny, too, I guess."
"Some nanny." She reached up to rub her head, but Jack caught her hands before she could get there.
"Hey, don't do that, OK? She's, yeah. Some nanny all right. Tough love, and all that."
"Jack! Get out of there and we'll work this out."
"Time for more tough love?" Amber blinked a couple times to clear her vision. It didn't seem to help. Jack was still a worried blur above her face.
Now he was moving, sitting up? Though it looked like sitting down. "No can do, Goldy, sorry. For one, we're stuck. For another, I don't think we should move a werewolf princess with a head injury. I haven't even met her father yet and he scares me. For another, seems the car is warded."
"Keep sayin' that," Amber muttered. "I'm not a witch." The rest of what he'd said sunk in. "Not a . . . mrrffmrrfmrrf."
Jack had slapped a hand over her mouth. She glared at him while Goldy continued to scold him.
"If she's a werewolf princess, Jacanamo Tyberius, she could shift and heal. Unless you've been shoving silver into her and not just--"
"Her father's a werewolf king."
Where is he getting this? Amber blinked at him blearily. She'd told him her father was a werewolf, not some king.
But he was still going. "I'd say that makes her a princess, even if she's not a shapeshifter. Like I said, her father's scary."
"Only you, Jack, only you," Goldy sighed. "We have to take you back to Their Majesties, you know that. Come on out and we'll heal the girl."
The hand over her mouth was warm, and Jack looked drawn, exhausted. He must have pulled all of his power in those last few shot. Amber closed her eyes, the world swam less that way, and held out her hand toward him.
Slowly, he moved his hand off her mouth. "Freely given?"
"Freely given."
"I still don't think we should move you. You hit your head pretty hard."
"I've got a pretty tough skull. And I don't think we have a choice."
"Jack. You're being absolutely ridiculous. Come on out of there, werewolf princess or no, and we'll work this out. Their Majesties are a wee bit annoyed with you."
Goldy sounded like she, too, was annoyed with him. Amber could empathize with the feeling, and yet . . .
"Goldy, lovely valiant Goldy, there's still the wee problem of us being stuck."
"I believe that no more than I believe you have a werewolf princess in there, Jack. I remember the stories you used to tell when you were in trouble."
"Ah, and that's a pity." Jack took Amber's hand, and warmth washed over her. Every vein in his arm seemed to glow red, and he suppressed what she thought would probably have been a loud grunt of pain but was instead a soft moan. "You see, I really was telling the truth about the werewolf princess."
He kicked his door open with both feet. The grunt from the other side suggested Goldy had been closer than she'd sounded. The second grunt--this
one from Jack--told her just how close to his limits he was.
Amber closed her eyes tight and thought about the way he smelled, the way his lips had tasted against hers, the warm feeling of waking up in his arms. She thought about pushing the skin-donner off of them, and pulled up the image of the way he had been tossing power like water balloons back at the library.
He grunted again, and the world around her lit up even through her closed eyes. He tugged on her hand, and then, when she didn't move, scooped his arms under her armpits and lifted her.
It was not the lightest, easiest ride Amber had ever had, but it felt like bliss compared to being folded up in her wrecked car, and besides, it was in his arms.
"You know you can't do this, Jack."
Amber opened her eyes to see Goldy standing in front of them, or at least the person she assumed was Goldy: a human-looking woman with high, pointed ears, golden skin, and short black hair. The woman--elf, fairy, whatever--was beautiful. She was also glaring, and that was terrifying.
Amber swallowed.
Jack didn't seem the least bit intimidated. "I'm pretty sure I can do just about anything I want, as long as Their Majesties don't tell me no. I'm pretty sure you taught me that, Goldy." He set Amber down carefully, an arm around her waist to support her.
"Yes, you obviously missed learning the as long as Their Majesties don't have other plans part. Listen, Jack. I'm going to take you to them now. You've been fighting all day, and you've got track lines running up and down your arms. You don't have anything left. Stand down now, and I'll make sure your werewolf princess here is well taken care of."
Amber glanced over. Jack looked as exhausted as Goldy said he did. The Palace Guards of the High Court had a foot of height on him and probably fifty pounds of solid muscle.
Not that he looked weak. She'd always thought fae men looked, well, fey, and that certainly wasn't the case with Jack. Why did that matter now? Amber swallowed an entirely unhelpful urge to kiss him and instead squeezed his hand.
"I believe he said he didn't want to go anywhere," Amber said softly.
At the moment, he didn't look as if he could take a mouse in a fight, much less a Palace Guard. He raised his chin anyway. "You know why I'm not going to do that, Goldy."
"You're unbelievable. Your intended bride is not that bad."
"She's a harpy. And I might be literal there. I've never been sure about her mother." His voice was tense. "You know she wants the title, the position."
"I know Their Majesties have insisted, and I do what they tell me to." Her voice might have softened, but there was energy glowing in her hands. Behind her, the second Guard stood up shakily. Greenbramble had a bleeding wound on his temple, but even so, his hands were glowing green, and he was grimacing determinedly.
Amber glanced at Jack. "Are you sure? Werewolf father and all?"
He glanced back at her. "Am I sure?" He quirked an eyebrow at her. She could feel the power between them, rising up through their hands. She could smell it on him, her scent mingling with his to form something new and strange.
She didn't want to fight the Guards right now. She wanted to lie down on the grass, right here on the side of the road, and see if High Court men really did make flowers grow under their feet.
"I think the question is," he spoke slowly, "are you sure? I can smell destiny when it hits me in the face, you know."
"That's enough messing around, Jack." Goldy stepped forward. "It's time to go home. We can send the girl a check when we get back to the city."
The girl. Amber raised her chin. "Look. Normal isn't going to be my thing, no matter what I do. So there's no use in pretending. But what about A--"
"Alicia Blackburn?" Jack sighed. "Who wants her when I could have you?" He grinned ruefully and suddenly. "Besides, I was probably chasing pipe dreams and myths to begin with. You're strange and unpredictable and, well, real."
"A real live werewolf princess." She rolled her eyes. She knew Goldy was about to grab Jack's arm. She could feel the other Guard circling around behind them. It didn't matter.
"Freely given?" he whispered one more time.
"Freely given," she replied and squeezed his hand.
"Sorry, guys." The power seemed like it was coming out of her, as if Jack was reaching right into her soul and using her hands to channel it. It seemed as if her body was built for it, Caprice curse or not. Jack was grinning; he was on fire with the heat of the power. She was on fire with it. She felt him pulsing through her as if he was already inside her. She felt her hips move against his, although they were standing still. "I've got prior plans for today. You're invited, though. You can be on my side of the temple."
"What?" Goldy began. Her hand was wrapped around Jack's arm, around Amber's arm, around their arm. Her fingers were digging in. Amber bit her lip as Jack thrust into her again, through her, his power--her power, their power--exploding over the area.
Goldy flew backward. Greenbramble flew backward. They lay still on the ground, knocked out by the blast of power. Jack and Amber stayed still and strong, pressed against each other and barely talking.
"I think," Jack muttered, "that counts as a betrothal."
"In some states and some Courts," Amber answered, although she barely felt as if she could move much less talk, "I think that counts as wedded, signed, and sealed."
Jack snorted. "In some Courts. But let me show you what wedded and bedded looks like to me."
Now he turned, facing her in person and not just in spirit. His hand holding hers wrapped behind her, holding her arm there. It should have felt confining. It felt comforting.
His other hand settled on her hip. He was a few inches taller than her; why hadn't she noticed that before? Or the slight cleft in his chin, or the way his ears swept up to points. She wanted to make a joke. Instead she tilted her face up to his kiss.
His lips were warm and his hands firm, pulling her to him, pressing up against her. They should be worried about the fallen Guard so near them; she wasn't the least bit concerned. Power pulsed through them, power, and blood, and life. She pulled away from the kiss only long enough to look in his eyes.
"If this is a joke . . ."
He kissed her again, silencing her. When he pulled away, his expression was serious. "There are a few things I never joke about. Marriage is one of them. This . . ." He moved their clasped hands back in front of him. "This is another. Power. True power."
Amber swallowed. "We're cursed, remember, Caprices. My family. That means any children we have…"
He smiled at her, smirked, really. "I come from the New York City High Court. They're going to fit right in if they're cursed. And since your father is a werewolf, I can't imagine having some half-fae kids will be all that strange at those reunions, either."
Her father. Amber swallowed. "My dad is going to try to devour you alive."
"Well, then, I guess we'd better make me your mate officially before he can do that?" She raised her eyebrows; he grinned again. "What? You're not the only one that's done some reading."
"Yeah, but literature on werewolves--proper werewolves, not wolf literature someone tried to make fit--is pretty rare."
"Then maybe that should be my engagement gift to you. I happen to know where to find some very useful books."
"Keep sweet talking me like that and I really will marry you." She'd said it, it was real. Amber swallowed. "Are you…" she trailed off. Jack’s hand was glowing. He touched her shoulders, and the ache from the crash vanished from her upper back. He ran his hands over her temples, and the headache vanished. He touched her hip, and the pain vanished from the rest of her body.
A slow smile crept across his face. "I am sure about marrying you. I'm sure about letting the High Court know exactly how together we are. I'm even sure about the whole thing with telling your father and, uh, doing my best to survive that." Color rose to his cheeks. "But the ceremony and the ruffles and the . . ."
Amber put a finger over his lips. "Werewolf princess, you said
?"
"Well, it helps with the whole High Court Prince issue. And I thought Goldy would be less harsh on you if that was the case."
"So this is what happens when you kiss a prince," she mused. "Well, at least you didn't turn into a frog."
He looked nervous. It was a little funny, seeing the cocky, self-assured Jack squirming.
"So . . ." she offered slowly. Well, it wasn't like her family could complain about her marrying a fae prince, although there would probably be some I told you so. "You aren't in the territory of the New York City High Court, technically. But since we've been driving all day, you are in the wider territory of the Alpha of the Hudson-Mohawk region. That is . . ." She was blushing awfully. She was still a little sure that he was going to run away, or she was going to run away, or maybe they both would.
"That is, it would be rude, having gotten betrothed to the Alpha's daughter here, in his territory, to try to have the wedding down in the City. I wonder how many of the High Court will visit?"
"I think we can worry about that tomorrow." Jack smiled at her. "Right now, I want to seal this."
Chapter 10
I want to seal this.
Jack's heart was racing, and his heart was in his throat. He looked down at this girl, this woman who had been a stranger a few hours ago. There was a smell in the air, flowers and sunshine and the faintest whiff of the wild.
"I believe it's traditional to start with a kiss. And from there . . ." He cut himself off with a nice, long kiss. "Right here?"
She looked around them. "In a wheat field under the sun? I would say that's traditional for both of our families."
"Well, it's best to stick with tradition, then." He wiggled his fingers. His power was coming back. It would be slow, if he didn't want to drain Amber dry, but he was pretty sure he had just enough. "Pick a spot. Lady's choice is also traditional in such things."
"How about right over there. Behind the old oak tree?" She gestured toward the middle of the field.
