by Amy Sumida
The more I thought about it, the more certain I was that the food had been laced with something. If not Gancanagh magic, then something else, some kind of love spell. Maybe a witch's spell. Whatever it was, I knew that I loved my husbands more than enough to break it.
“Seren?” Drostan asked in concern.
“Give me a moment,” I muttered as I went to stand as far away from him as possible.
I closed my eyes and thought of them. Tiernan with his ombré hair, going from bright white at the roots to black at the tips, falling like silk around his muscular shoulders. His eyes like molten silver, ringed in a thin band of jet. The way he held me. The way he loved me.
Raza, his leathery wings wrapped around us as he held me. His deadly claws gentle upon my skin. His sharp Dragon-Djinn features and soft lips. Those stripes of blood red in his raven hair. The way only I could bring him back from the bloodlust of his dragon. Mo shíorghrá, his voice rumbled through my memories seductively.
Killian, my fiery lover with the hair to match. His brutal body and loving hands. Those vivid emerald eyes with their slit pupils full of love. His bright smile. The way he teased me. The way he reminded me of what being human meant. The way he made me laugh.
And Daxon, so sensual that it was hard to see past it to the love inside him, but that love was deep and as true as what I felt for him. I saw his broad back covered in intricate tattoos, the ink full of magic, and his blue eyes full of mystery. I had once seen those tattoos come to life as he defended me. Seen him step forward to face death without a second thought. For me.
I gasped as my love rose like a tide for my husbands and shot through my body, my heart beating wildly as it shoved love through my arteries to combat the drug that lingered there, and, more importantly, the magic within the drug. Whatever spell was inside me, be it witch or fey, it burned away amid the fire of my love, and with it went that aching need. The false obsession and the savage desire I felt for Drostan vanished. I took a deep, relieved breath, and smiled grimly. Take that, witches!
“What did you do?” Drostan whispered.
“I just proved that I was drugged.” I walked over to him without fear or even a twinge of arousal. “I focused on my love for my husbands until it banished the magic.”
“Seren, stop it,” Drostan grumbled. “You were not drugged.”
“Drostan,” I gentled my tone, “I know you want it to be real, and I'm so sorry that they've hurt you by doing this to me, but it's not the Call of Danu. At least not on my end. I don't feel it anymore. At all.”
“No,” he whispered. His eyes glistened with tears. “No. Please, just let me hold you again. Let me kiss you. I'll prove it to you.”
“I'm so sorry,” I whispered as I took his hand. “I wish I could take this from you.”
“I don't!” Drostan shouted as he dropped my hand. “I've never felt so alive as when I kiss you. Pleasuring myself with you was a more erotic experience than most of the sex I've had. I love you, Seren. I don't want this to go away.”
“Drostan, you barely know me.”
“That's bullshit!” he raged. “We've spent a lot of time together. More than enough to know each other. I know you, and I love you. We're meant to be together. I won't stop fighting for you because you think you were drugged.”
“I was,” I said firmly. “If I wasn't, how could I stand here now and speak to you so calmly? You saw me before; I was out of my mind with lust. Seeing you in a towel turned me into a nymphomaniac. And yet, here I stand, looking at you, feeling absolutely nothing.”
“It comes in waves for me as well.” Drostan lifted his chin. “There are moments of relief before it hits again. It will return, Seren, and then, I won't hold back. I'll let you have your way with me.”
“If this is the Call, and it returns, I will accept it,” I vowed, feeling my stomach clench with my hasty words. But I was so certain it wasn't. “I will consummate it with you and not hold back.”
“You will?” Drostan asked eagerly.
“I will. But you need to promise me that if it doesn't return by tomorrow, you'll believe me—you'll accept that I was drugged.”
“Deal,” he said in his businessman's voice. Then he grinned, just as certain that it was the Call as I was that I'd been drugged.
That grin made my chest ache.
Chapter Seventeen
By the time dinner arrived on another tray, I was starving. Drostan got a steak while I had a packaged protein bar on a plate. I knew they were punishing me for foiling their plans, but I took my bar and ate it, then drank the bottled water that came with it. Drostan shook his head at my obstinance, but said nothing. When he was done, he took the tray and left it in front of the panel in the door.
We sat on the couch together, a few feet apart since I wasn't ready to snuggle on the heels of our mutual masturbation session, and watched TV—some show about hunting serial killers. It made me anxious, but Drostan seemed to enjoy it. They were just catching the psychopath when that vicious desire hit me again.
My eyes went wide with horror as Drostan suddenly replaced everyone in my head and heart. There was only him, only my chest-tightening love for him. I gasped, my hands clenching into fists as I tried to fight it. Drostan turned toward me, his expression going hopeful. I panted past clenched teeth and dug my nails into my palms. Tremulously, his hand reached out and stroked my cheek. I shuddered at Drostan's touch and had to fight the overwhelming desire to drop to my knees and bury my face in his lap. To beg him to love me. I saw it all in my head—me naked and writhing atop Drostan, his hands kneading and gripping my flesh, and his breathtaking face with a blissful expression. I wanted to make him happy. To do whatever he wanted me to do. Anything to see him smile and hear him say that he loved me. It took every ounce of willpower I possessed to stand up and back away from him. It felt like I was turning my back on the Goddess.
“Seren!” Drostan stood and started to follow me. “Seren, please! You promised me that you'd accept it.”
“No,” I growled. “They tricked me somehow. Maybe it wasn't in the food.” I scowled. “No, it had to be the food. We just ate.” I rushed to the tray and grabbed the wrapper of my protein bar, then held it up to the overhead light. I searched it carefully. “Oh, fuck,” I whispered as I found what I was after.
There, right in the seam, was a pinprick.
“What?” Drostan demanded.
“Stay away from me, Drostan!” I shouted and backed up. “They got me again, those fuckers!”
“Seren, your food was sealed.”
“There's a pinprick in the wrapper!” I knew I sounded like a crazy person, but I couldn't stop myself. “It's right there, in the seam.”
I flung the wrapper at him but it barely went a foot before it fluttered to the floor, and I had to back away as he stepped forward to retrieve it. Drostan held the wrapper up to the light and thoroughly inspected it. He lowered it with a grim look, set it back on the tray, and sighed.
“Did you see it?”
“Seren, that hole could have happened when you unwrapped it.”
“No, it couldn't have! It's a perfect hole, not a tear!” I hissed. Then I ran to the bathroom, slammed the door, and tried to lock it. It didn't lock. “Fuck!”
I ran to the toilet and stuck my finger down my throat. Drostan walked in as I started vomiting. He turned away in disgust, staring at the counter while I retched.
“You're letting this drive you mad, my love,” he said gently. “There was nothing wrong with your food.”
I vomited until there was nothing left in my stomach, then went to the sink and rinsed out my mouth before answering. “It was drugged. I'm certain of it. Now get out.”
“What?”
“I need to concentrate again,” I snarled.
“Damn it, Seren, you swore to me that you would accept us!”
“There's nothing to accept except the fact that they drugged me again!”
“They haven't drugged you!” Drostan was flushe
d, his white hair wild about him. “Why would they? Give me one good reason why they'd want to make you fall in love with me.”
“To torture my husbands,” I said. “Get out, Drostan. If I'm wrong, I won't be able to drive this away by thinking about my husbands.”
“Yes, you will,” he growled. “How do you think I've been dealing with this ache for all these months? I've meditated, Seren.”
I went still. “What?”
“I meditate!” he snapped. “I calm my breathing and concentrate on other things. It's the only thing that works—the only thing that's kept me sane.”
“And what happens when you meditate?” I asked, a new fear rising.
“I feel this shivering burst as the Call is driven back,” he tried to explain. “And then I'm calm again.”
Fuck, he just described what I'd felt when I fought off the drug. What if I was wrong? What if I was really fighting the Call? Those witches would be laughing their asses off. Either that or scratching their heads trying to figure out what the fuck was wrong with me.
Desire hit me again, and I groaned, my knees buckling as wet heat drenched my sex. Oh, fuck, I needed him. Memories of him rose in my mind. Of him stroking himself. Licking Verisande. Writhing atop her. Drostan steadied me with a hand on my arm and liquid fire shot through me from where he touched me. I cried out and pushed him away.
“Seren, stop this!”
“Just give me a second to brush my teeth,” I whispered as I grabbed one of the toothbrushes they'd left for us on the counter, all wrapped and fresh. “You don't want to kiss me after I've thrown up.”
“Way to ruin a mood,” he grumbled and walked out.
“If only it were that easy,” I muttered.
But it had gotten Drostan to leave, and as I unwrapped the toothbrush, I also focused on my husbands. I went through the process of imagining them again. Feeling my love for them was harder, what with the drug so fresh, but I'd also gotten the food out of my stomach faster this time, and I hoped that helped. I kept concentrating on them as I brushed my teeth and after rinsing, I left the water running and closed my eyes. Drostan kept rising in my mind—that awareness was getting stronger now, so strong that I could tell exactly where he was in the bedroom—but I pushed him away steadily and found the love that had been buried beneath magic. I gripped it tightly, and it burst through me, pushing back my need for Drostan, then burning it away altogether.
All that was left was the reassuring, true love I had for my husbands. My heart lightened as I saw their faces in my mind and felt my love for them. For them, I would fight anything, but this time, love had been my weapon. If we had been anything less than what we were, I'd be in Drostan's arms already.
I lifted my head and grinned viciously at my reflection. “I don't care what Drostan said about meditating, this isn't the Call. It's a fucking drug, and I know it.”
I strode into the bedroom to find Drostan sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for me. I think it was merely the closest piece of furniture to the bathroom, he wasn't trying to seduce me. But he looked disappointed when he noted my composure.
“You meditated it away again, didn't you?” he asked morosely.
“It's a drug, Drostan,” I declared. “I'll prove it tomorrow when I skip breakfast.”
“You can't starve yourself over this, Seren!”
“I won't starve; I'm a fairy.”
“You won't die, but you will starve. You'll weaken and eventually fall into a coma.”
“So be it.”
“Seren, please!” Drostan got up and walked over to me. “Don't hurt yourself over this.”
“Just give me till lunch tomorrow, Drostan. Then we can talk about this again.”
He sighed and nodded.
“Thank you.” I offered him a small smile. “You want to watch some more TV?”
“Can we at least snuggle?”
I chuckled. “Okay.”
Drostan grinned, took my hand, and led me back to the couch. That warm tingling awareness rushed over me, so much stronger when I touched him. It couldn't be the Call, so what was it? Aside effect of the drugs? Lingering damage? Maybe they'd somehow aligned me with Drostan or his magic. Whatever it was, it scared the hell out of me. As we snuggled together and watched TV, I prayed. Not to Danu, but Anu. Danu wouldn't be able to hear me on Earth, but Anu would. He rarely interfered, but since the whole reason I was working again was because of him, I was hoping he'd make an exception.
Please, help me, Anu, I prayed. Help me get free of these witches and back to my husbands. Help me prove to Drostan that this is just the effects of a drug, not the Call. But if it is the Call, help me convince your sister that it's bad form to go back on her word.
It sank in then; if this was the Call, it meant that Danu had betrayed me.
Chapter Eighteen
Lunch came, and Drostan ate alone. An hour later, I felt nothing for him. He had to concede that I had been drugged. Every meal that followed became a battle against hunger and Drostan. They kept sending me sealed food, but I wouldn't risk it. Drostan would beg me to eat something, at least from his plate, but I adamantly refused. Several days passed without a word from the Councils or my husbands and no rescue. I continued to refuse all food. I wouldn't even drink the bottled water they brought me. Instead, I drank from the tap in the bathroom.
Drostan's pleas got more and more desperate as I weakened. Being immortal kept me alive, it repaired my body, but without fuel, those repairs were slowing down. I went into starvation mode, just like a human. The only difference was, starving wouldn't kill me. When I ran out of fat to use as fuel, my immortality would put me into stasis. In other words, I'd fall into a coma. Eventually, I got so weak that I didn't leave the bed except to use the bathroom. I couldn't even find the strength to shower. I don't know how many days went by after that, but it was enough that I barely even thought of food anymore. All I thought of, all I dreamed about, was my family.
I missed my husbands and my children. If I fell into a coma, what would happen? Would I ever awaken? I had to be strong for them, but it was getting harder to concentrate. Maybe I should eat and try to fight off the drug again. Just one meal to tide me over. But when Drostan brought me a bowl of soup and tried to spoon-feed me, I turned my face away and closed my eyes. I wasn't sure if I had the strength to fight the drug now.
Drostan's furious roar and the clatter of the bowl hitting the wall barely registered with me. Then he was shouting, but I couldn't understand him. My hearing was going wonky, coming in hollow echoes. I tried to go to sleep, but then I heard the door open. I cracked my heavy eyelids and frowned as I watched a bunch of people stream into the room. I couldn't focus on them as they tossed the covers off me. My head lolled as they lifted me onto a stretcher and then rolled me away. Light fixtures passed overhead. Rectangles of blinding white. I was being taken down a hallway. I couldn't hear Drostan anymore. His shouting must have been directed at the witches—telling them to save me before they lost their golden goose. Wait, was I a golden goose or a golden ticket? Something gold, I think. Or perhaps purple.
Whatever color I was, they didn't want me to fall into a coma. I was taken into a small, white room and transferred to a hospital bed. I frowned at that. They had a clinic? Was it for testing their magical drugs? Wait, no, that didn't make sense. They slipped their drugs to hapless humans. They didn't conduct safe drug trials with doctors supervising. I frowned again, my mind was so fuzzy.
“Easy now,” a calming voice said as someone took a firm hold of my arm. “I'm going to insert an IV. We need to replace your electrolytes and give you some vitamins. You're malnourished.”
“No,” I moaned as a sting announced the insertion of a needle.
Now they could pump the drug directly into me.
“No one is going to hurt you, Your Majesty,” the man said. “You're very valuable to . . . them.”
I tried to focus on him, but his face wavered in and out of my vision.
“L
eave me alone,” I muttered.
Yeah, like that would happen. My eyelids closed as unconsciousness came for me. I fell into a hot darkness full of vicious cackling and terrible roars.
Chapter Nineteen
