I hesitated, unable to peel myself from the comfort of the wall. How could I touch him without getting carried away? He probably wanted to prove he still had some physiological effect on me, but I had to keep myself under control.
Thinking of drowning puppies and wrinkled old men, I went to him. Stopped. “Stand up. I’m not sitting on you again.”
He rolled his eyes. “You agreed.”
“I agreed to a kiss, not the delivery. Stand up, and I’ll make good on my promise.”
After a few huffs and a dirty look, he pushed himself off the sofa and stood in front of me. We were the same height, increasing the intimacy, but at least my girly bits weren’t pressed against him.
Sighing, he stroked my cheek while he stared at me. His touch still made me goose bumpy, but nothing compared to how it used to be. Nothing compared to Liam’s touch. Think of him. Just this once. I relaxed a little, more in control than I’d ever been with Parthalan.
“Now kiss me and mean it.”
“Uncuff me so I can do it right.”
He pondered that for a moment, shrugged. “I suppose it doesn’t matter.” He dug a key from a pocket inside his suit jacket and unlocked my cuffs. I flexed and relaxed my fingers until they worked properly again.
A moan escaped him when I slid my fingers along his sharp jaw. I didn’t do it for intimacy, but because I wanted to control him. It took everything I had not to retch as I leaned in and found his lips with mine. Energy arced between us, but it didn’t tear me open and eat me up like it normally did. I kissed him softly. When I went to step away, he wrapped one hand around my waist, pressed us together and grabbed a handful of my hair. He kissed me hard, invading me with his tongue.
I squealed into his mouth when he pushed me against the wall. His skin shimmered, and mine answered with a faint rainbow of morphing colors. When he started pushing the hem of my dress up farther, I turned my head.
“Stop! You said just a kiss.”
His breath blew across my ear in ragged puffs. “You are such a tease. The touch of Seelie flesh is like no other, so warm and soft, your scent so sweet. And your power—” He moaned and lapped at my skin. “Don’t pretend you don’t want this, that you don’t feel what we will be once we are mated before the Goddess.”
Can a fae be mated twice? I was starting to see why Liam didn’t want to tell him.
Fire spread through my flesh; my pulse raced. Not as bad as I’d feared, but I needed to get away. “We should wait,” I blurted. “Save all this energy for later, at the ceremony. Don’t you think?”
At first he kept pulling at my clothes but gave up and slumped his head down on mine. “I suppose you’re right. We’ll give them a sight none have witnessed before and never will again.” He released me and went through his little preening routine: suit, tie, hair—the usual.
What did he mean by ‘they’? Knowing Parthalan, sex would be involved, even though Liam said it wasn’t necessary. The thought twisted my stomach, sending acid into my throat. Some sort of ritual must precede the consummation of the ceremony. I rubbed my arms, desperate for some soap and water to wash away the scent of him. I had an unbearable urge to scratch my skin off.
“Now,” he said when he’d finished his primping, “kneel before me.”
“What? Oh, hell no. I am not doing that.”
He tilted his head back and howled a laugh. “I do so love your dirty mind. This is the second part of our bargain, just words, unless the mood strikes you to do more.” He raised an eyebrow. When I did nothing but glare back, he went on. “Now kneel before me. You have given your word. To break your oath can have dire consequences.”
Now he tells me. Not that I had any intention of backing out, but still. Scowling, I knelt in front of him, tucked my skirt under my knees. His gaze slid down the top of my dress, so I cinched it tighter across my chest.
“Now, repeat after me. I am yours, my King.”
My brain cramped. Every time I tried to spit the words out, they turned into barbed hooks in my throat. My arms trembled, and my fingers curled into fists as I stared into his thighs. Lousy, pompous shit.
Parthalan repeated himself and shifted his feet. “Say it!”
I opened my mouth several times before anything came out. “I am—”
Rourke stumbled through the hole in the wall and fell beside us. For once, I was glad to see him. His words came out through panted breaths. “My King, please forgive me.”
“Now?” Parthalan threw his hands up. “Really? Have I surrounded myself with nothing but brainless twits?”
“Oh!” Rourke grinned, stood and brushed bits of rubble from his black pants. “Has she sworn herself to you so soon? You disappoint me, Lila. Even your own people will treat you as a traitor now.”
“What?” I scrambled to my feet, glared razors at Parthalan. “So just by saying those words, you’d own me?”
He cast a fiery gaze at his peon, who shrunk in on himself. “She would have if you had better fucking timing.”
Rourke stuttered a few times. “It was Garret and his father, Donovan. They cast an illusion over me. A dragon. He burned me.” He held up his arms as if to show us the char marks, but they were as smooth and pale as before.
The shadow around Parthalan pulsed and spread like a puff of smoke around us. A sudden wind carried his hair above his head, and his eyes flickered with blue fire. “I can trust no one but myself, it seems. I will take Lila to my chamber and deal with them myself.”
“You gave your oath to heal this house,” I said.
Rourke turned a shocked expression toward his king.
Parthalan cast a snide glance my way. “You didn’t fulfill your part of the bargain. Let it rot.”
“Lying bastard!”
He shrugged. “I’ve been called worse.”
Muttering to himself, Parthalan clamped a shackle over my wrist. I yelped and pulled too late. He heaved me over his shoulder as I unleashed a storm of curses at him. He growled, and his muscles hardened beneath me as he strode through the hole onto the street. I didn’t bother to struggle, weakened once again by the shackles.
I had to get the hell out of Parthalan’s world, but there were a few details I needed to know first—like, why did Garret’s father help me?
16
Parthalan carried me up the steps of the castle and waited in front of the towering arched doors. When they creaked open a moment later, he crossed the threshold and tossed me onto the black marble floor.
Rodan, and the rest of the Sluagh I’d seen on the street outside the house, filed in after us and shut the door with a resounding crash.
Parthalan turned to Rodan, his voice commanding respect. “Put a call out to the rest of the Host. Garret and Donovan are to be brought to me immediately. Do. Not. Fail. Me!”
Rodan dipped his head in a nod. His black hood did nothing to hide the disdain in his eyes. He gave subtle hand signals, and several of his brethren slipped out the door.
I climbed to my feet and stared up at the ceiling far above me. “Something’s moving up there.” When I looked closer, the entire expanse boiled black and silver. I backed toward the door. “No, scratch that. A lot of something’s are moving up there.” What is that?
“Those are the Bean Sidhe,” Parthalan said. “Some call them banshee, pets of the Sluagh. They keep a vigilant watch over the Court. Best not to upset them.”
There must have been thousands, but the way they writhed around one another made it hard to tell. Women’s faces floated in black rags, but they didn’t have any eyes, only dark holes where they should be and gaping mouths. My eyes grew larger by the second. My bound hands groped for the door handle behind me, but I ended up grabbing fabric instead. I didn’t make a sound when I turned and found Rodan staring down his black beak at me. As I retreated, I thought I caught amusement in his seawater eyes.
My heart tried to climb my throat.
Parthalan eyed me, laughed right from his belly. “Oh, I do love to watch you sq
uirm, my darling.”
“Go to hell,” I whispered under my breath.
“Rodan, take Lila to my chambers and keep a guard on the door.”
The captain gave that subtle nod again, but he kept staring at me. His face wrinkled up around his eyes as though he grinned somewhere in the shadow. This can’t be happening. The creepy undead guy needed only a moment to snap my neck, and without my Light, I had nothing to defend myself. I searched the hall for someone or something that might be useful to me. Nothing but foreign Unseelie scum and more feathered creeps waited. I shot a glance at Parthalan. For once, I considered him the lesser of two evils.
“I’d like you to take me.” I sauntered back to the Unseelie king, swinging my hips with faked enthusiasm. He stood rigidly at first, stared at me with a wrinkled brow. After a few moments hesitation, his shoulders flattened, and he slid his arm around my shoulders.
Parthalan raised a sculpted eyebrow as he led me away from the cavernous hall and down a wide corridor lined with the same black marble as the entrance. Thick vines snaked along the ceiling everywhere—brilliant emerald lines on the dark backdrop. Tiny yellow flowers appeared in clusters.
A peer over my shoulder revealed Rodan pacing us at a distance, eyeing me as if he knew what I planned to do when Parthalan and I were alone. A few of the other Sluagh pranced and fidgeted behind him, and some of the banshees crept along the walls and ceiling. Their shreds of clothing blended into the marble. Except for the ashen skin of their eyeless faces and the gnarled hands that groped blindly along the surface, they were invisible.
I stifled a shudder and turned forward again. If I had to choose between becoming one of the Sluagh or going with Parthalan, I’d choose the latter. I could sway him with a little flirting and touch. I needed to figure out how to use it to my advantage.
We stopped in front of another wooden door. Parthalan turned and grasped my face in his hands. Despite the desperate urge to shake him off, I stood there and forced a smile.
“I can’t tell you how it excites me that you have begun to embrace me.” He kissed me gently, tracing my upper lip with his tongue. I found the contrast between the psychopath and his soft side disturbing. “Welcome to the honeymoon suite.” He swung the door open with a flourish and led me inside. I wiped off his slobber when his back was turned.
When Rodan approached the door, I slammed it shut in his face with my shoulder and whirled around. “I need to talk to you … my King.” Gag me.
The largest bedroom I’d ever seen stretched out before me. The ceiling loomed high above, similar to the one in the entrance hall, except made from glass. The swirling liquid sky cast a strange shade into the room. The building pulsed with life beneath my bare feet.
“I haven’t much time, but I’ll hear you, my Queen.” Double gag me. He lounged on an enormous bed with red satin coverings. Dark wooden beams rose up from the four corners, supporting an open frame at the top. Red gossamer and ivy hung from it in a scalloped design, something I’d expect if someone made a princess porn movie.
“You can’t leave the Sluagh to guard me,” I blurted when he beckoned me to lie beside him.
He sat up, stared at me as if I’d shed my skin. “Why ever not?”
“Rodan gave the order to kill and bury me in their cemetery just before you showed up at the house tonight. The other one, Tobias, egged him on. He said the Sluagh could use me to overthrow the Unseelie and take back their city.”
He shot up from the bed. “You would accuse my faithful guard of treason?” He held his arms ramrod straight at his sides.
“I give you my oath, it’s true.”
Parthalan shook his head, curled up his lip in a snarl and paced. Ten steps to the wall, ten steps back. His hands gestured as if emphasizing whatever thoughts crowded that psycho head of his.
On his fifth pass, I said, “You’ll wear a hole through the floor if you keep that up. I thought you said you were in a hurry.” I needed him out of my face so I could find Donovan.
A faint sound caused me to turn. I caught a glimpse of two women peering around a door opposite the bed before they disappeared again. The space in which they hid appeared to be either a bathroom or a dressing room.
“Whether true or not, I cannot take the chance. Not tonight.” Parthalan stared at the floor and stroked his chin. “But I must tread lightly, or they’ll bring war upon me anyway.” He looked at me, something unfamiliar pooling in his eyes. I’d never seen him afraid before. I turned so he wouldn’t see my smile. “Willa! Althea!”
The two women emerged, the first striding boldly from the other room. Her long sable hair hung down past her waist, swinging as she walked. She wore a red skirt low on her full hips. It flowed out around her like ripples of crimson water. On top, she wore something similar to a bra in matching fabric. The way she looked at Parthalan made me want to vomit. I finally understood how he thought women worshipped him, or at least how she did. The need in her eyes made me avert mine in case the heat might flare out and burn me.
The other woman, shorter and more voluptuous, peered around the door. After a thorough, wary look, she crept into the room. Her sandy blonde hair lay in two braids over her shoulders. Both women had enormous brown eyes, but she had lashes that would make most women jealous—thick, curled and dark. She wore a similar outfit to the other, except she overflowed her bra and brilliant blue replaced the red. Just as the heat in the other one’s eyes made me turn away, the fear in her drew me in, made me want to pick her up and hide her from the monster in the room.
Red Skirt plastered herself against Parthalan. “What’s yer pleasure, my King?” she asked with a thick Irish lilt as she slid her hand down the front of his pants.
He jerked her arm away and pushed her back. “Not now, Althea. Bathe and dress Lila for the bonding ceremony. You know what I like. You have an hour.”
With a grin, he moved toward me, but Althea grasped his arm. Her face twisted with rage. “Her? Yeh’d take the Seelie over yer loyal pet?”
Parthalan rolled his eyes, turned to Althea. He launched a mocking laugh into the woman’s face. “How could you ask that? How could I not desire Seelie flesh and power over that of a mere selkie?”
“A mere—how dare yeh!” Her brown eyes darkened to black. “Yeh’ve treated me as yer queen, taken me to yer bed. I give yeh all a king could want. Now this one comes, and I’m nothin’ to yeh?” She flicked a long finger in my direction.
A small shift in stance turned Parthalan into something worse, something more imposing if that was possible. “For your insolence, I shall destroy your skin. The sea will be lost to you forever.”
Althea gasped and fell to her knees, pressed her face against his legs and pawed at him. “Forgive me, my King. I only want yer happiness, to please yeh. The Seelie doesn’t want yeh the way I do. I meant no—”
With an annoyed shake of his head, he turned and disappeared behind me, fumbling with my shackles until they fell to the floor. The weakness they caused in my arms began to ease.
He gathered my hair into his hands and pushed it to one side, kissed the side of my throat. A mutinous shiver raced down my skin. “To control the weak is enough for the lesser fae, but to control the strong, to control the one who won’t be controlled—now that is a thrill worthy of a king.” He breathed across my ear, bit along my jaw. I held my body rigid and resisted the urge to scrub my skin. “I’ll be waiting.”
The door opened and slammed shut behind me. My lungs expelled the pent-up air.
When I focused on the woman who knelt across the room, her eyes were impossibly wide as if someone had struck her between them with a hammer. Tears welled above her lower lashes as she wailed at the ceiling.
“How could he?” She screeched. “I’ll kill him, I will. I’ll scratch his fuck’n eyes out.”
“I told yeh this’d happ’n.” The one wearing blue—Willa he’d said—spoke with a soft angelic voice. She shot a wary glance at the door before draping herself around the sobbing
woman.
“What did he mean about the skin?” I moved closer.
Willa placed a finger over her lips to shush me and continued to whisper, eyes darting to the door once in a while. “We be selkies. Water elementals we’re called by the Sidhe of our home. Without our seal skins, we’d be trapped on dry land, left to die parched in sight of the Goddess’s great sea.”
“So, you turn into seals, like real seals with these … skins?” I’d never read that legend before.
Willa nodded as she passed a soothing hand over Althea’s hair. “The king took ’em so we’d have ta stay. Said if we show our worth, he’d be lettin’ us go.”
“He lies, Willa. No matter what he says, if he owns a piece of you, you’ll never see it again. How long have you been here?”
Her kind expression turned to sadness. I wanted to take that look out of her eyes. “As prisoners, only since he offed the queen. ’Bout six months.”
I nodded, knowing I’d added one more item to my to-do list. “I’ll help you if I can, but I need you to help me first.”
Althea sprung from the floor as if something had launched her. “Ah, go ahn! Why would the Seelie be helpin’ the likes o’ us?” Her expression couldn’t make up its mind between hope and disdain for me. “The fae do naught but spit on the selkie and use us as whores.”
I jabbed a finger in her direction. “I don’t even know what it means to be Seelie, so you’ll have to forgive my ignorance if there’s some sort of history between you and them. And I’ll help you because nobody should be treated as slaves, especially not by Parthalan. Now enough about that; we’re short on time. While you get me ready for this thing, I need you to tell me everything you know about Donovan, Garret’s father, and get a message to him if you can.”
17
“You have got to be kidding me.” I stood in front of a full-length mirror in Parthalan’s dressing room. “I look like Barbie does S&M.”
Black thigh-high hose hugged my legs. Over top of the fishnet, I wore shiny black vinyl boots with silver heels. They made my legs look a mile long. Black garters held up the hose, and a tiny red thong covered my girly bits, leaving my butt to hang out in the breeze. A red lace-up corset squeezed my waist so small I could hardly breathe and squished my breasts up until they flowed over.
The Glass Man Page 13
