by Chloe Hart
“I’m not so sure about that. Have you seen Jack and Liz together?”
“Yeah, but we won’t be like that.”
“Famous last words,” she said, smiling against his skin. “I think we’ll be exactly like that. I think we’ll—”
She was interrupted by the crash and tinkle of broken glass.
She sat up with a gasp, but Evan was a lot quicker. He was standing beside the bed, growling at the intruder and ready to spring, before she saw who had come in through the window and was standing facing them.
Hawk Blakestone. The assassin who’d been hired to kill her.
His hands were up, palm out. “Steady on. The hit on your girl’s been called off. Of course you probably already figured that out, since she’s no longer a threat to anyone. I’m just here to talk.”
“How the fuck did you get in here?”
Celia was wondering the same thing herself. The magical wards and protections around this club were pretty formidable.
She pulled on her pajamas and grabbed Evan’s sweatpants from the floor. She handed them to him as Hawk reached inside his pocket, slowly, and held out something for the two of them to look at.
It appeared to be nothing more than a small chunk of obsidian, but she could feel the power emanating from it. “That must have cost a fortune,” she said, knowing the price of a charm like that on the black market. There were very few witches or spell casters with enough power to make that kind of object—and even fewer who would sell one to a vampire.
“You can have it,” he said. “The magic will wear off by sunrise.”
Evan pulled his sweatpants on, never taking his eyes off Hawk. “Somehow I doubt you paid that much for a charm just to get you in here.”
“True. I was somewhere else before I came here. That’s what I need to talk to you about.” His eyes went to Celia. “Both of you, if that’s all right.”
“You could have called, mate. You didn’t need to break the fucking window.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d see me unless I…dropped in. And I wanted to give the redhead a chance to vet me.”
Celia frowned. “Vet you?”
“Yeah. You can cast a truth spell, can’t you?”
“Yes, but I’m not powerful enough to do it without the subject’s consent.”
“Well, I consent. I don’t have time to waste convincing you to trust me. I need…” He hesitated. “I need your help.”
Celia looked at Evan, and he looked back at her. After a moment he shrugged. “Go ahead, if you’re willing. I must admit I’m curious. I’ve known Hawk Blakestone a good many decades and he’s never asked for help before. I wouldn’t mind knowing what’s brought it on now.”
Celia nodded. “All right.”
Hawk met her eyes. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “I’m grateful you’re willing to hear me out, considering.”
“Considering you tried to kill me a month ago?”
He smiled a little. “Yeah. Considering that.”
“I don’t think you wanted to.”
“No. But I would have.”
She shook her head. “I’m not so sure about that. Evan told me a little bit about you, Hawk. He said you were the most feared assassin in the vampire underworld—and that you’d never killed an innocent. You were hired to kill me, but you didn’t. Instead you went to whoever hired you and came up with that deal to save my life.”
“I would have killed you if you hadn’t taken the deal—and if the client hadn’t called off the hit.”
“Maybe…or maybe not. I guess we’ll never know.”
He looked at her curiously. “Is that why you’re willing to listen to me now? Because you think I wouldn’t have killed you if it came down to it?”
“That—and the fact that curiosity is my besetting sin. Like Evan, I want to know what’s brought you here.”
Something flickered in his eyes. “One of your kind, actually.”
“There, see? Now I’m even more curious.” She turned to Evan. “Why don’t you take Hawk downstairs, and give me a few minutes to get dressed. I’ll be down soon with my spell book.”
Evan’s eyes went to the marks on her neck, fading already into a barely perceptible scar. As if his look were a touch, goose bumps swept over her skin.
“This wasn’t how I wanted to spend the next few hours,” he murmured.
“We’ll have time later,” she answered softly. “We’re mated, now. We’ll have time for everything.”
He smiled into her eyes. “I like the sound of that.” Then he glanced at Hawk. “Still have a taste for whiskey?”
“Hell, yes.”
“Then let’s go downstairs and give my mate her privacy.”
Chapter Five
“You look lovely. Absolutely lovely.”
Jessica met Talia’s eyes in the gilt mirror that hung in her bedroom. “I thought you were downstairs with the guests.”
“I just came up for a moment, to see if you needed anything.”
After they had returned to the mansion, her mother had sent her upstairs to freshen up. When Jessica had looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, she knew why.
Her hair looked like a rat’s nest. Her face was flushed, and there was a smudge of dirt across one cheek. Her dress was dusty and torn in two places.
Definitely not what the Fae nobles expected of North America’s princess.
Jessica sent word by one of the maids that it would be at least an hour before she came down again. She could have managed it in fifteen minutes by just redoing her hair, washing her face, and asking one of her mother’s maids do something with her dress…but the truth was, she was desperate for a shower.
No…a bath. In scented water as hot as she could stand it. She wanted to soak away the memory of everything that had happened tonight, as if that could wipe the slate clean and allow her to start over.
But as she lay back in the sunken tub, breathing in the scent of lilac and narcissus, Hawk’s face kept appearing in her mind’s eye.
Damn that vampire.
She opened her eyes and looked down at her body. Men had looked at her with desire before, but she’d never felt an answering passion of her own. She’d always felt a kinship with Artemis, moon goddess and virgin huntress, and every time she rebuffed an advance she thought of her.
Artemis had been a warrior, too. And she had never surrendered to lust.
Lust. There was no other word to describe what she’d felt for Hawk. She, Jessica Greenwood, had been overwhelmed with lust.
She had to forget it. Put it out of her mind completely. But as she stared down at herself, she couldn’t stop picturing Hawk’s hands on her. The way he’d touched her, covering her breasts with his palms.
Sharp twinges of excitement sparked through her body. She felt restless, and at the same a kind of voluptuous languor made her limbs seem heavier than usual. Slowly she raised her own hands out of the water and settled them on her breasts.
What if her mother and the prince hadn’t come along? What if she’d let him keep going?
What if she’d said yes to his outrageous proposal, there at the edge of her mother’s property?
She started to knead her breasts the way Hawk had. She moved her thumbs over her nipples and they hardened, the way they’d hardened for him.
She closed her eyes and let her head fall back.
There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Your Highness?”
Jessica sat up with a splash, her face flaming. “Yes. Come in.”
It was one of her mother’s ladies-in-waiting.
“Your Highness, the queen asked me to do your hair for you. Are you nearly through with your bath?”
Jessica was already stepping out of the tub and reaching for a towel. “Yes, thank you. And I would appreciate your help with my hair. It’s a skill I’ve never mastered.”
Now, ten minutes later, she was standing in front of her bedroom mirror with her mother at her side. Her dress had been invisibly repaired,
her hair looked beautiful, and her expression was calm and cool.
Everything was exactly as it should be, and the satisfaction in her mother’s face reflected that.
“You know, Kel was very impressed with how you handled yourself during that…ordeal. And he was quite relieved when you came back safely.”
“That’s nice of him,” Jessica said drily. “But you and I both know that the ‘ordeal’ would never have happened if I hadn’t been such a fool.”
“You weren’t a fool, Jessica. You were taken in by a master manipulator.”
She couldn’t deny the truth of that. “I know.” Then she turned away from the mirror and faced her mother. “Will you tell me what the two of you were talking about?”
Talia stiffened. “That doesn’t concern you.”
In her twenty-three years, Jessica could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she’d pushed her mother about something, or opposed her in any way. But she wasn’t willing to let go of this.
“After everything that happened tonight, I think it does concern me.”
Talia turned away and went over to one of the windows, overlooking the circular front drive.
“A few stragglers are still arriving, but most of the guests are here. We should go down to them.”
That made Jessica think of something else that bothered her. “I wish you had let me invite Liz and Celia.”
Talia turned back to face her again, probably thinking that her daughter had accepted the change in subject.
“My darling, we’ve been over this. This ball is the first time in centuries that we have welcomed one of the Dark Fae among us. Royalty have come from all over the world to meet the Prince and to congratulate you on your engagement. There simply isn’t room in the house to invite everyone we wish. And you must remember, however much you like them, Celia is an eighth-blood—and Elizabeth is only a sixteenth. A hundred years ago, she would never have been admitted to the Green Fae.”
Jessica bristled. “Liz is one of the best warriors we’ve got.”
“I know, I know.” Talia smiled now as she returned to her daughter’s side. “You are a true American in many ways, do you know that? You’ve always insisted that people should be judged on merit and not by birth. I sometimes think you would make a better queen in North America than I would. You seem so suited to the sensibilities here. But your destiny is to rule in another land, over a proud and ancient people. In truth, I envy you, my dear. Now let’s go downstairs, where a handsome prince is waiting for you.”
Jessica looked her mother in the eye. “I want to know what you and Hawk were talking about.”
“Jessica!”
She held her ground. “I’m serious, Mother.”
For a minute the two women stared at each other in silence. Then Talia huffed out an angry breath.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you tonight. Hawk was here because of a misunderstanding. I hired him to help with a…situation. Involving another vampire, which is why I thought he’d be useful. Now he’s insisting I didn’t give him his full payment.”
“I see.” Jessica felt a little sick to her stomach. “That’s what his urgent business was. Money.” She rubbed a hand across her eyes. “I hope you agreed to pay him. You should do whatever it takes to get him the hell off our continent. He’s the one I told you about, you know. The vampire who was in the alley that night. The one who was hired to kill Celia.”
Talia’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know that. Is she still in danger?”
Jessica shook her head. “No, that job was called off.” She smiled without mirth. “He hasn’t had much luck on this side of the pond lately. Maybe after this he’ll stay in England.”
Talia pursed her lips. “Once he has his money, I’m sure we’ll never see him again.”
“I’m sure you’re right.”
Jessica took a deep breath and looked at herself once more in the mirror.
This time, when she pictured Hawk, she felt only disgust—for herself as much as him. She’d known what he was all along, of course, but her conversation with her mother had brought it home to her somehow.
Those were the hands she’d allowed on her body. The hands of a hired killer, interested only in money. Hawk was an assassin who couldn’t care less about the lives he took or the lives he destroyed, as long as he was paid. And he wouldn’t hesitate to use any tool necessary to achieve his goals.
Including her.
As her mother had said, he was a master manipulator.
Talia came up behind her again, repositioning one of the jeweled clips in her hair. “Are you ready to go downstairs?”
Jessica nodded.
Talia smiled at her in the mirror. “That’s my girl. I’m very proud of you, you know. I probably don’t say that often enough. I wish you would change your mind, and stay here until your wedding.”
The thought of spending her last few weeks on Earth surrounded by courtiers and nobles made her feel like she was choking.
“No, I want to go back to Boston.” She had an apartment there, an elegant brownstone, and she was looking forward to returning to the privacy of her own home. In fact, she was planning to dismiss the guards and servants her mother had sent to her when she first moved into it.
Growing up, she had never had enough time to herself. Now, for the first time, she was going to indulge in the luxury of solitude.
At least for a little while.
“Very well. But you’ll come here on weekends?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Now let’s go find that handsome prince of yours.”
Handsome prince.
Somehow, describing him that way made him seem less real, like he was a character in a fairy tale instead of a flesh and blood man. As Jessica descended the marble staircase with her mother beside her, she spotted Kel near the entrance to the ballroom, surrounded by Fae royalty from all around the world. He smiled politely at something the Icelandic princess said, and Jessica paused on the staircase to watch him.
He came from another dimension, but if she hadn’t known that she wouldn’t have guessed it from observing him. Was it possible that his world was as similar to theirs as her mother had promised? That the myths of the Dark Fae had been exaggerated?
“Good idea,” her mother murmured behind her, and before Jessica had time to wonder what she meant the crowd downstairs began to quiet gradually, as more and more people looked up and saw them.
Her mother thought she’d stopped here on purpose, for effect.
She hadn’t, of course, but it certainly was effective. In less than a minute a hush had fallen in the great hall, and even the servants with their trays of champagne had paused. The sudden silence and stillness felt like a tableau.
As though it had been choreographed, Prince Kel stepped forward and bowed low. Then he straightened and held his hand towards her.
Feeling again that strange sense of unreality, as though she were acting a part, Jessica began to descend the stairs again. People shifted to create a path from the staircase to the prince. When she reached the bottom, she put a smile on her face and walked towards Kel as he began walking towards her. When they met, he took both her hands in his and kissed them.
“I am glad to see you looking so well after everything that happened,” he murmured.
His voice was really rather pleasant—smooth and easy and cultured. But Jessica found herself comparing it to another voice, a voice deeper and rougher and with a British accent.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
“None of that between us,” he said with a smile, offering his arm as a servant threw open the doors to the ballroom. “You will call me Kel—and I will call you Jessica. We are affianced, after all.”
“As you wish—Kel,” Jessica said, taking the prince’s arm as they led the way into the ballroom.
It felt like someone else was walking beside him into the elegant room, smiling as the musicians began to play their first notes. When Kel ha
d led Jessica to the very center of the room, right underneath the massive crystal chandelier, he turned to face her.
“May I have this dance?”
She nodded, still smiling, and the two of them moved into a waltz with easy grace.
“They have waltzes in your world,” she said after a moment. Kel was a wonderful dancer, and she was trying to feel something from his touch. One of his hands was at her waist, and she tried to will her body to take notice, to shiver and tingle the way she had when—
“Yes, we have waltzes. Our worlds are similar in many ways. I think you will feel at home there, Jessica. That is certainly my wish.”
It was weak and foolish to feel this longing for another man’s touch. And it was up to her to conquer that feeling, to do everything she could to accept her new life.
“Would you tell me about your home? My mother said you live in a castle in the mountains, with your mother. Queen Navril.”
She’d actually seen it, once—or a room inside it, anyway. When she and Celia had gone into absinthe trance, their spirits had traveled to the Dark Fae realm, where they’d observed the queen discussing her plans to unleash the demons of their world upon Earth.
But that was all she’d seen—and she didn’t remember much about the castle itself. Her vision had been blurred and strange in the absinthe trance, and Celia had dragged her away as soon as they’d heard what they needed to.
Her mother didn’t know much more. She’d gone in spirit to meet with the Dark Fae queen, but since that wasn’t a particularly safe mode of travel, she hadn’t stayed long. And after that first meeting, the queen had sent Talia a magic mirror that functioned as a portal between the worlds, to allow them to communicate that way.
Kel smiled at her. “Our fortress was built eight hundred years ago, by my great-great grandparents. It’s very beautiful. It’s high in the mountains, above a lake and an ancient forest.”
“Are there cities? Towns? Where do your people live?”
“There are fewer of us than there are of you, remember. And no humans in our world. Our entire population is no more a hundred thousand, perhaps. Most of our people live in villages, although there are several cities—what we call cities, anyway. When I say that you will find much that is familiar in our world, I don’t mean in comparison with human modernity. Our ways are older, as are our arts and crafts and sciences. We honor blacksmiths and silversmiths and glassmakers, not mass production and factories. Our sciences tend towards astronomy and navigation and medicine, and have not followed the path of your world.”
