"Yes, Mo rí. I will see to it before I start my shift." The sound of her husky voice had Jess' back up. When she left to do his bidding, he went on to talk to Kaer about having a table moved up to the building topside.
Alyss scooted closer to ask what the plan was. Before Jess could divulge it, however, Fallon and Kaer both stood, their chairs scraping as they pushed them back. The sisters looked up at them, questioningly.
Kaer spoke first. "I'm off to have a message delivered to the Unseelie Queen. Good evening, my lady's." He bowed a little at the waist before taking his leave.
Fallon spoke after he left. "And I need to take care of some unrelated business before coming to check in with you. I thought perhaps you'd like to gather some more items from your apartment. Roshea could accompany you. Finn and Keegan will keep watch as well."
The sisters quickly glanced at one another before they both answered at once, "Yes!"
Their excitement made him smile. When he started to walk away from the table, Jess halted him. "Wait, you haven't eaten." He had been conversing with everyone at the table, sometimes sipping orange juice but never made a plate for himself.
He winked at her concern. "I ate a couple hours ago," he said, before turning to squeeze past a group of males standing and telling stories. Jess was left to stare at him dumbly. That playful wink sent a little shiver through her. A particularly loud clang jarred her from thoughts of his especially hot ass and she began to dig into her breakfast again.
Roshea drove them to their apartment soon after they had finished eating. Alyss had a paper cup of hot coffee she had been moaning and sighing over from the same vendor in the market that Fallon had gotten theirs at the night before. Jess had learned her name was Gillian and she made a mental note to add her to the Christmas card list.
In their third-floor apartment, the two of them had begun to load every duffel, suitcase and grocery bags with clothes, toiletries and shoes. Sorting when they got back to the caverns, would be a bitch.
When Jess came out of her room with a picture of their parents, Alyss was forcing a pair of high heeled boots in a bag of shoes. Looking up and seeing Jess come out into the living room, Alyss recognized the frame and the picture in it.
Standing, Alyss went to look at the photo with her, wrapping a hand around her sister's shoulders and squeezing tight. Their parents were wrapped around one another on the Rockefeller ice rink, laughing so hard they needed to keep each other up.
"Do you have the photo album?" Jess asked, moving to tuck the frame safely between a bundle of clothes in one bag.
"Yeah," Alyss said, frowning. "But Jess, we're coming back, we don't have to take everything."
"I don't think I will be," Jess said softly.
Alyss stood in quiet shock for a moment before striding to her older sister and taking her by the shoulders, this time in a stern grip.
"You're just helping them get through this. You're not joining a cult. We don't belong in their world." Alyss spoke to her as if she were a child, but Jess understood she was just scared of the unknown. Both of their lives had changed so dramatically in such a short time.
Breaking the hold on her arms, Jess grasped Alyss' hands tightly. "Maybe you don't. And that's okay, Lyss. But I do, or at least I will once I come into my powers, whatever those will be. I certainly don’t belong here. Besides," Jess took a shaky breath. "They want me to be queen of the Seelie. And they already have plans for me after that happens."
"Their plans, not yours," Alyss interrupted.
"Whatever they are, I don't think I can walk away from them. I don't think I want to," Jess' dead pan expression told her sister how serious she was.
"It's because of him, isn't it?" Referring to Fallon. She watched her older sister's back go ramrod straight.
"No," she said, firmly. "Not the way you're thinking at least."
"And which way is it?"
Jess went to sit on one of the two barstools on the island between the kitchen and living area. "It's for all of them, Lyss. They honor men lost, hundreds of them, in the battle fought under an alliance with our grandfather who betrayed them in the end, spitting on that sacrifice. Their women are held prisoner while the men do their dirty work to keep their mates alive." Jess took a deep breath. "They face extinction." She looked up at her sister, who had unshed tears in her eyes that mirrored her own.
"What would mom do?" She asked, seeing Alyss give her a deadly glare. "I don't think she'd walk away, do you?" A pregnant pause filled the room. Neither of them moved until finally, Alyss walked to Jess and wrapped her arms around her, squeezing tight.
"She'd stay and help. She'd fight," she said hoarsely, pulling away. "Just like we will."
Jess snatched her sister's hands before they slipped away, holding them close to her chest. "We?"
"We're a team, sis. So, yeah, we."
A tear fell down Jess's cheek as she stood to hug her sister again, a watery giggle sneaking past her lips.
Arriving back at the Barr, everyone, males and females, hauled in a bag or box from the car towards the back. Seeing the large table set up in the center, Jess presumed it must be in preparation for the Thanksgiving dinner. When Alyss reached the steps, an electronic chirp echoed from Roshea's pocket. Juggling the box she carried, she pulled a cell phone out, glancing at the message on the screen and cursed. "Shit. Jess!"
Just as they all turned to look back, Alyss heard the clicking of a gun being cocked before a man's voice told her to "Stop right there."
She dropped the box to put her hands out and up, making clear she was unarmed. The man holding the gun ascended the steps, keeping the gun trained on her. He waved it slightly, gesturing for her to move against the wall. Circling around her to the top of the stairs, he stepped uncaringly on the makeup that had spilled out from the toppled box, the sound of the plastic cases cracking under his boot bounced around the marble walls before silence settled once again. "Don't move," he ordered walking into the opening of the room.
Alyss didn't listen and started to edge behind him. Just as she had gotten around to better disarm him, she caught sight of Jess and Roshea, who had bent down to her knees on the unforgiving floor. Keegan and Finn were nowhere to be seen. Catching her sister's eye and the minute shake of her head, she froze.
"What were you doing? What are in the boxes?" The man asked, his voice demanded answering.
"They are supplies, sir," Roshea answered, keeping her eyes downcast.
He frowned at her for a second before telling them to "Get up." As they raised themselves, Alyss jumped to stand back where he had left her.
"Go on." He waved them all to go ahead of him down the stairs. "Banner is waiting."
After reaching the bottom, they saw what looked like all of the Fomorian females and children lined up against the wall to the left of the stairs, and the males facing them in three rows. Through the chaos, the difference in population between the two sexes did not go unnoticed by Jess. More men stood next to the lines or walked between them, guns held threateningly. They all wore tunics in a metallic gray, something she'd never seen without the use of CGI in movies and the previous night, on Queen Brianna. Complete with thick black leggings, each had dark brown boots made of some sort of leather that laced all the way up to their knees. They looked handmade, but no less hardy than those that Fallon and his men wore.
"Against the wall," their captor said, nudging Roshea with his gun.
As they moved to comply, Jess scanned the males for Fallon, not seeing him. Pressing her back to the rough rock wall, Alyss and Roshea flanked her.
"Don't react," Roshea whispered under her breath, lips barely moving.
Not sure what she wasn't supposed to react to, she just jerked her head once in understanding and remained still, wondering what they were waiting for. Looking around the market, she could see one man standing atop a table that usually had baked goods on it. He watched as the other men brought in stragglers from what Jess assumed were the depths of the caver
n's maze of tunnels. His uniform differed from the rest with a lighter gray vest and bands that circled from his wrists to his forearms. Though he looked to be watching the action and all that was happening with a watchful eye, a sense of disinterest seemed to project from his demeanor. With dark blonde brows above hard, brown eyes that kept watch on the other guards as they rounded everyone up, his mouth was hard and sculpted, with a slightly deeper bow to it that drew her attention. From what she could tell, they lacked any laugh lines. His hair was cut short, parted a little off center and gelled neatly. His face looked almost painted with perfection. If she were closer, she’d look for signs of make-up.
“Banner.”
Her head jerked up at Fallon's voice, spotting him entering the marketplace from the residence side of the cavern.
"Ah, Fallon." The man called Banner jumped down from his perch and strode to meet Fallon, both coming to stand between the males and females. "I don't appreciate being kept waiting when I come to call." His hands were empty of a weapon, though, he wore a fancy looking buffed leather holster around his waist. Judging from the size of the case, it was clear to hold a monster of a gun. There was no snap or anything keeping it from being drawn in an instant, so she had a good view of the handle. Polished silver with a twist of crusted gems and what looked like diamonds wrapping around it and disappearing under the leather.
The tension in the room was so thick, Jess swore she could taste it, a bitter shock that roiled her stomach. The Fomorians all remained silent, but she could tell the majority of the females looked frightened while the males just looked royally pissed. Roshea had been tipped off, by text, of the Seelie guard in the cavern. While she warned not to say anything lest she say something wrong by accident, and to kneel, Finn and Keegan must have flown up and through the manhole in the ceiling of the building, taking their burden with them.
Fallon kept his eyes on Banner, never once looking her way. This odd feeling to need him to glance her way and somehow let her know it was going to be alright, seemed to make her panic a little when he didn't.
Fallon didn't dare glance her way. If he looked at her, Banner might suspect. He wanted nothing more than to go to her and take her away, but that just wasn't possible. He kept his eyes trained on Banner's shoulder, knowing the guy had a problem with people looking him in the eye. It went against his nature not to make eye contact, but the momentary discomfort was worth keeping the situation, Banner specifically, calm. When the Seelie king's general got a nod from one of his men he walked to the head of the line of women and waited as a guard demanded them to "Kneel."
Reluctantly, they all bent down, knees touching the hard unforgiving ground. After the last female had lowered herself, Banner followed behind the same guard giving orders as he swept their hair and clothes aside, inspecting their necks and shoulders one by one. When he reached Alyss, Fallon watched her tense and he secretly willed her not to resist. When she didn't, and allowed the general to jerk her hair and pull at her shirt, they release her when they found nothing. He let out a small breath he had been holding, only to suck in another one, remaining still when they moved to Jessandra. His wings gave a minute twitch as a snarl began to swell in his chest just as they yanked at the tank top she wore. He felt time stall, for it seemed like their inspection of her was lingering compared to the other women's. When they finally did let her go, they moved on to Roshea. After the last female, he saw all three women relax as the guard stepped away from the line and moved to stand between the two lines, watching for a reaction from the males. The bastards knew they couldn't stand to watch someone manhandle their females, driving them crazy with a natural born instinct to protect them. They became feral like.
Some moved on to tip over a couple carts and tables of wares, fragile pottery and glass shattering as they did, simply because they could. To retaliate or raise a hand to a Seelie guard was punishable by whipping or worse, and not just the male, or female for that matter, but also their mate. None of the males were willing to take that risk.
Banner smiled as two men played soccer with a grapefruit before one of them kicked it with so much force to the other that it cracked open, splattering juice and pulp on the receiver and onto the wings of some of the males who still remained in line.
"Alright, garda," Banner said, approaching Fallon again. "Let's get out of here." When he stood in front of Fallon again, he spoke in a low tone. "King Sylus wants to see you soon. He'd like to know how his favorite pet is managing lately."
Fallon controlled the desire to roll his eyes. The Seelie king liked to consider all of those under his control as pets. Broken and trained to do his bidding, without the freewill to nay say him.
"Fine." He said, begrudgingly. "I will visit court in two days’ time." His least favorite place.
"You know he doesn't like to be made waiting for too long, daor," Banner said, spittle spraying a little with the last word, landing on Fallon's cheek, reminding him of the king's lack of patience as well as Fallon's real position. A slave.
"I understand, ginearálta," Fallon said, nodding and moving his gaze down at the ground, looking every part the slave that Banner saw him as.
Soon, you bastard, Fallon thought. Soon, I will no longer be your ward. Then who will save your snarky ass?
"Later, Fallon," Banner said with a cocky grin as he turned around and led the rest of his men out of the cavern, filing up the stairs.
When the last Seelie guard had gone, the Fomorian broke away from their line and moved to clean up the mess they had left behind. Someone already had a broom and pan, another brought over a trash can. Shards of glass and clay tinkered and clanged together as they were brushed into the metal dust pan and dumped into the plastic trash bin.
Seeing a woman struggle to right a heavy table, Jess and Roshea rushed forward to help. Barely finished with getting all four legs back on the ground, Fallon startled her when his hand snatched her upper arm in an unrelenting grip. Gasping at the sudden pressure, she was forced to stumble along with him as he dragged her through the cavern, back to her room. Closer now, she saw Keegan and Finn exit from the doorway and stop at the sight of Fallon nearly dragging her in their direction. Their eyes jerking from whatever they saw in Fallon’s, and lowering to Jess' slightly panicked expression, they high tailed it out of his way and towards the mess in the grand cavern.
"Fallon," she panted, having to practically run to keep up with his long, hurried stride. "What is it? What's wrong?" His fingers didn't loosen their grip on her arm, nor did he answer her.
Chapter Nine
Finally, he dragged her into her bedroom, slamming the door closed. The next second she found herself pressed up against the hard wood of it. In the same breath, he was on her, hands now digging into her hips, bringing her body flush to his. The pressure from his chest pushed up her breasts invitingly between them. His mouth seemed to be feasting on her shoulder and neck, yanking her hair out of the way. Jess just gripped his hips in return and held on for the ride. His lips felt searing hot on her sensitive skin, but she hardly noticed through the sensation zinging through her so forcefully, it left her gasping. All thoughts of teaching him a lesson for manhandling the way he just had, flew from her mind at the feel of him. All of him. All over her body.
"Fallon," she rasped, barely audible when he slowly scraped his fangs along her pulse. A growling sound was the only indication that he’d heard her. Releasing one hip she had anchored herself with, she snaked a hand up to grab a hold of the hair at the base of his neck, loosening the tie it was gathered in. Some of the silky waves tickled her nose as she tipped her head to the side for him.
When he finally raised his head, just enough to meet her eyes, his were a bit bleary. She saw his face was lit up with the tattoos like a blue neon sign in the night.
"Fallon," she said again, this time a tad bit clearer. "What— "
"The sight of their hands on you. Touching you." He stopped, rested his forehead on her shoulder for a second as she heard him t
ake a deep, shaky breath. Well, that she couldn’t argue with. He had warned her that males of his kind didn’t take kindly to others touching their females. Seeing it first hand was a different story all together.
"Shh," she cooed. "I'm okay." Stroking his cheek now and slipping the hold on his other hip under his shirt to smooth over his back, knowing she would see new tattoos appearing if there was a mirror in the room. The damp skin was warm to her touch, just like the rest of him. She was growing accustomed to the heat though. Her body identified it with his presence. As, she was sure, her coolness did for his.
"They didn't hurt me," she whispered before pressing a kiss to his cheek.
He snarled at her words, digging his fingers deeper into her flesh before he pressed his lips desperately to hers, thrusting his tongue to duel and dance with hers without preamble. Her nails instantly dug into his back with one hand and grabbed at his shirt with the other. The sensation of the primal roughness he used, didn’t scare her. Instead it had her lower belly clenching in anticipation. After a couple of intense seconds, he pulled back, putting some space between their chests this time to look down at her. Both gasped to catch their breath but neither stopped touching the other.
"Mine," was all he said. And with that single word, she understood why the males didn't touch any of the females. They didn't have rights to do so. Skin rights were preserved for only their mates.
Swallowing and gulping a couple breathes, she nodded in affirmation. "Yours."
At her acknowledgment, he grasped her behind her thighs and lifted her against him. He used his teeth when he kissed her this time. Nipping and scraping her sensitive lips, tenderizing them to better receive his own.
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