I shook my head and pulled my hands away from my ears fighting the nausea rolling in my stomach. I tried opening my eyes again and was relieved to find the room as it should be. My eyes swung to him accusingly, “Fuck off, Fairy,” I growled.
His lips jerked at the corners before he sat beside me making me scoot over to keep distance between us, “I’m a fucking Fairy? Tell me how is it that you had no idea you were a fucking Fairy Synthia,” he whispered cold and tonelessly.
“Seriously, did the entire fucking world go crazy when were busy—” Shit!
“When we were busy fucking?” He finished crudely.
I felt a blush steal over my cheeks, I hated that I had given in and allowed him more ammo to use against me. Why didn’t my brain work right around him? I met his piercing stare with one of my own. “Thanks for that by the way, not bad for a fucking Fairy—” I laughed—“get it? Fucking Fairy?” I snorted and closed my eyes.
“I get it,” he growled, his hand moving the hair from my face making me flinch and back away from him. He allowed it, but only because one of my legs was held to the bed with a new metal cuff and a length of chain. I shot him a pissy look before laying my head back down. He’d accused me of fucking him as a distraction—something I had never done in my life.
“Tattoo guy, who is he?”
I smiled, or tried to, “Fuck off.”
“Keep telling me to fuck off Syn and I’ll see it as an invitation,” his voice had turned husky.
“Keep dreaming,” I growled, wishing I looked tougher and maybe less crusted in blood—my own at that.
“Keep saying fuck Syn,” he argued.
“Let me go,” I pressed, I needed to see my coven, make sure they were okay.
“I cannot do that Syn, the Guild killed seventeen Fae and that is not something they will live to regret. Tell me why your coven was inside the club when it happened and I will consider changing my mind about them. The others we already killed.”
“And if they didn’t do this? If it was a set up?” I asked watching his reaction closely.
“They did it, and they will pay for it. An eye for an eye Syn. I want the name of the artist who did the red ink tattoo on your neck.”
I blinked, “I don’t have a tattoo with red ink, its white ink. It’s not red.”
“Stop fucking around Syn, someone went through a lot of effort to hide you and I’d like to know who it was and why they did it.”
My hand went to the back of my neck on instinct, my fingers touching as they skimmed over the slightly raised skin. “I’m Synthia Raine McKenna, I was born human and I will die human Ryder, I won’t make it to old age. I’ll die fighting, you most likely if you don’t release my coven. We didn’t attack you. That much I know. I would have felt it. Inside. Larissa and Adam didn’t raise one magically delicious finger. If you try to tell me they did, you better have that shit on tape.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Ryder and his men left the room soon after we had agreed to disagree. They were leaving for the club to assess the damages. I wasn’t sticking around for when they got back. I pulled the chain and sat on the side of the bed, opening his nightstand drawer and found nothing useful.
I shook my head and looked around the room, my eyes landing on his dresser mirror. I sent my mind out to connect to my coven, the feel of them pushing their magic into me was heady, exhilarating. They were alive and inside this house.
I wrapped my hands around the metal anklet I had awoken with and sent magic pulsing into it. Nothing happened. What the hell was this thing made out of? Platinum? I eyed the chain, screw it. I grabbed it as close as I could to the cuff and pushed again smiling as the metal melted.
I crept from the bed and cussed as the knob twisted. Jumping back up onto the bed I pulled the blankets over the metal chain and evidence of what I had been up to as Ristan walked in. His eyes searched the room and then settled on me and then at my ankle.
“Going out?” He asked lifting a dark eyebrow.
I narrowed my eyes, “Guess not.”
“Oh, don’t stop on my account. I came to let you out anyways. Unless of course you don’t want to break your little friends out?”
I considered answering him and then hesitated, “I dooooo, unless of course I say that I do and then you go Demon on my soul, in which case I’d politely answer with nooooo, I like it here?”
He smiled and shook his head, his eyes turning briefly from their silver and black pattern to red as he plopped on the bed and folded his arms behind his head. “You will need to hurry, Adrian will meet you at the exit road,” his eyes met and held mine, “You are going to be timed of course, Ryder will be back shortly, so you have exactly fifteen minutes to be out of here. This information comes with a price Synthia,” he smiled coldly.
“Great, you want my soul?” I glared at him unamused.
“Nah, that thing is battered and bruised. You now have fourteen minutes. I need a promise that you will stop this before it happens. If Ryder openly attacks the Guild, it will mean a full out war. While it would be a feast…I cannot allow it.” He waved his hand and I felt a cold breeze pressing gently across my face as the thick oily presence of his magic surged through me.
“So tell Ryder,” I said harshly, “What did you just do to my face?” I asked afraid if what he had done, but it felt clean and less painful now.
“I cleaned you up a bit and you’ve met him Flower, he’s about as fluffy as a porcupine. He will not listen to me or to you unless there is powerful evidence to change his mind. There is something else, you need to get close to Arianna and you need to look closely at her Syn. She’s off, something isn’t right about her. I can’t “see” her and that can mean a multitude of things—most of them bad. Got me?”
“You want me to take her out?” I asked carefully.
“No, I want you to look at her. Ryder would kill you before you could take her out, don’t be stupid. You’d start a fucking war of the worlds you do that shit. Thirteen minutes,” he replied smiling.
“Fine,” I started to stand up and groaned from the pain inside my head.
“C’mere girl,” Ristan said smoothly, before I could protest, I was pressed against his mouth with my eyes bugging out as he kissed me. When he was done I pulled away wiping off my mouth with the back of my hand. Power pulsed through me, raw, dirty power. Demon magic…I smiled and started to walk out of the room but he caught my hand and pulled me back staring. “Fucking hell, you taste good.”
“Thanks…I’m leaving now.” I looked down noticing he’d just done more than juice me, he’d given me black sneakers, black sweat pants and a black long sleeved shirt for escaping in, rather than the bloody mess I’d been wearing before.
“Good luck, go stop this before it’s too late,” he whispered before he flicked his hand and the collar appeared on his neck, his face taking on an instant black eye as if I’d hit him myself. I turned and left the room shaking my head and wondered if Ryder would really believe that I overpowered Ristan.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The basement was on the next floor down. I’d barely managed to miss being seen by two guards as I’d not so stealthily walked right down the middle of the hallway. I could sense the Demon magic he gave to me with that lovely kiss was dangerous kicking up my pulse. I felt no pain, my emotions were gone. I felt like darkness would overtake my soul if I let it.
I took the stairs more carefully, my eyes scanning for body heat as second sight took over. I had to actually concentrate using it as I walked. As if I wasn’t myself and maybe that had to do with the head pounding I’d encountered with the door. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, a single door sat ajar.
I pressed against the wall and peeked inside, Larissa and Adam both sat on chairs with their hands tied in front of them. I slipped inside, expecting to fight. I looked around the barren rooms. Pulsing cells enhanced by Fae magic were constructed along the walls. An enhancing spell covered the wall in black ink and I h
ad a feeling Ryder was creating those cells for Witches alone.
I slipped over behind Adam who had been sleeping and started untying his ropes. They got ropes, while I got platinum, I felt special—sorta. “Adam, untie Lari. I’ll guard the door. We got ten minutes to be out of here.”
He lifted his dark head and leveled his emerald gaze on me, “Syn, he’s going to attack the Guild, we have to stop him.”
“Untie Larissa Adam, he won’t attack them tonight,” I said feebly. I had no idea if he would, but I couldn’t go into panic mode right now, not juiced up on Demon.
I turned back to watch him carefully untie Larissa while patting her cheek to wake her up. He was gentle, his hands sure as he undid her bindings. “Baby, we gotta go.”
Larissa opened her eyes and turned a brilliant smile on Adam, “Told you she’d be here to save us.”
“Guys, we gotta go,” I said needing to get them a safe distance before anyone noticed they were gone.
We went out through the door at the top of the stairs. I’d made a note to peek and make sure it led out since it was a lower level but surprisingly it looked like it was accessible without setting off any alarms. The cool night air washed over me, calming my nerves, as we emerged from the back of the house.
“Two guards inside watching through the upper windows Syn, one on the ground level but he is looking at a magazine.” Adam said going right into combat mode.
“Get closer, I’ll throw up the shield, Lari throw up a spell to shield our presence, Adam, watch our asses.”
After we had everything up, we walked out onto the green grass and into the shrubbery only stopping to fortify Larissa’s spell before we headed for the gate. As we got closer the metal bars slid open to allow several dark colored SUV’s through.
“Get in the bushes!” I shouted, remembering Ryder had been able to see through my glamour a few days ago. We held our breath as the cars drove past and with the last one going through, we scrambled and made it through the gate before it had fully closed.
“Let’s go, Adrian’s waiting,” I said. When we had made it the mile and half on foot to the car Adrian was waiting in, I froze with my hand on the cars door handle. Hounds howled furiously. His hounds.
I turned to look back the way we’d come, sparing one last look at the dim lights in the distance before I opened the door and jumped in. I had to stop Ryder before he put us into a war we would never recover from.
Thirty Two
We sat in an abandoned warehouse, it wasn’t ideal but it was an indication that we were officially at the top of the Fae’s persona non grata list. I paced, burning a hole into the concrete floor. Adrian sat watching me, he’d explained how the Demon had called and told him to be waiting for us.
“So let me get this straight, the Guild did attack the Fae?” I stopped pacing long enough to level Adam with a glare.
“It was someone from the Guild Syn, but they were off, we left the Guild an hour or so after the party got started. Figured the Darklands would be more alive and well we worried about you,” he said shaking his dark head as he sat beside Larissa on an old ratty couch that had been left here.
“Explain off and thanks for worrying, next time stay where I send you,” I said tapping my foot nervously. If we had in fact attacked the Fae I couldn’t fix this.
“I couldn’t tap their powers to stop them, they didn’t notice us either. Witches would have, Lisa was there and she was one of them. I couldn’t sense anything inside of them, as if they were dead?”
“Dead?” I asked to confirm and grinned. “That’s actually good, well not that she’s dead but it means the Guild didn’t do shit. We don’t come back to life…” I spared a look at Adrian who was now sitting up on the hood of the broken down car that was stored in the warehouse, “Unless someone brings us back.” I amended.
“That still doesn’t explain why they would be at the club attacking the Fae,” Adam continued.
“Actually, it does,” I said moving over to lean against the rusted car, hoping I wouldn’t need a tetanus shot after I did so, “If they thought we’d be able to figure out more about the murders and who was doing it, who would you take out first?”
“The Guild and then the Fae investigating it,” Adrian said making us all turn in his direction, “What? It’s who the Vampires would take out.”
“Not helping Adrian,” I said holding his gaze before dropping it, “So they killed Witches, somehow turned them to something cold and lifeless and had them attack the Fae, because there is no faster way to start a fucking war then to openly attack someone on their own turf. Whoever is doing this is starting a war and they know it. Smart, which makes this dangerous. The Guild should be on lockdown, if they are following protocol.”
“Syn, you should get cleaned up a little more. You’re still bleeding a little, are you sure you’re okay?” Adrian said huskily his eyes turning hard at the sight of blood.
“I got in a fight with a door, I’ve done worse,” I said sharply. My head hurt, hell my entire body hurt right now as I came down from the Demon-Blood-Kiss high. My nose was still bleeding a bit, but I’d recover without any more magical help.
“You know, considering our line of work, you get hurt a lot Syn,” Adam joked.
“We need a plan, Ristan said I needed to get close to Arianna and look at her—whatever the hell that means,” I said absently.
“The Light Heir?” Adrian said before whistling, “Good luck, she’s bouncing all over the place. First she was hiding and now she can’t get enough attention.”
“Do you know where she’ll be tomorrow?” I asked hopefully.
“She’ll be downtown, not sure where though. Ryder has the Fae on high alert. No one without clearance can get close to her without him knowing.”
“Perfect, we have to figure out how to get around him then,” I tapped my finger on my chin and shook my head discarding thought, after thought. “Okay, listen up. We need a plan and fast. We need to figure out where she will be tomorrow and we need to know like yesterday. We need a distraction team, something they wouldn’t see coming.”
“And if something is off about her? What then Syn?” Adrian asked narrowing his eyes, “If you take out the Light Heir, you’ll start a war.”
I let the air from my lungs out slowly as my head bobbed in agreement, “Yes Adrian, but what if she is part of this? Ristan said to get close to her and take a look, what if she’s not the Light Heir, what if she’s something else?”
Adam sat up and swore, “That would be stupid crazy and how would Ryder not be able to see it?”
“Not sure without being able to bounce this off the Guild, but I think there are spells that could fool the Fae—if she had a powerful enough Mage working with her, or a Witch. It’s not easily done, but it isn’t impossible either.”
“If they’re able to conceal it from Ryder, how the hell will you be able to see through it?” Adrian asked swinging his legs over to sit beside me.
“Because I’ve something he doesn’t, I have a coven who can push enough magic inside of me to see the truth, but to do that…I’m going to have to light up, which means we’re going to need a huge distraction,” I mumbled.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I’d barely managed to sleep, I kept dreaming of Ryder finding us and throwing us in those cells he had in his basement. I could feel his eyes on me as if he was standing right in front of me inside the crappy warehouse. As if he’d seeped inside and was watching me from within a dream. My dream.
I’d managed a sponge bath with water Adam and Larissa had brought back with them, along with some extra clothes for today. Adrian had gone back to Vlad, since his absence would be noticed. We had rounded up enough people to create a small flash mob, but I wasn’t positive they’d be enough to draw the Fae away from Arianna, but I only need a few seconds to see whatever it was Ristan wanted me to.
There was also this restlessness inside of me, as if something was fighting to get out. I’d stared
in the mirror for an entire hour trying to figure out what the hell was in my eyes that Ryder had been talking about…they didn’t change once. And yet something inside was changing, I could feel it twisting and turning as it fought to come to the surface.
Ryder said I was Fae, but that was impossible wasn’t it? Wouldn’t I have known if I was? Could I have been what the Fae were looking for when they killed my parents? I had too many questions and no answers. I closed my eyes and groaned, the sun wasn’t even up yet and I already had a million problems to solve.
I must have fallen back to sleep, because when I opened my eyes this time, I was back in the small house inside Faery and Ryder was lying beside me playing with a lock of my hair between his fingers.
“You shouldn’t have left me Syn, I have to punish you now,” he whispered.
“You say that an awful lot Ryder. I have to stop this, before more innocent lives are lost,” I replied back to dream Ryder.
He smirked and dropped my hair from between his fingers and placed his hand on my face softly. “And if your people attacked mine Synthia? What then?”
“Then we become enemies and I fight against you,” I whispered breathlessly.
He laughed, but it was a cold and emotionless sound, “You would lose,” he moved over me as he said it, pinning my hands softly in one of his hands, above my head. “I miss being buried in your warmth Syn, I need to fuck you.”
I smiled and shook my head. “Not unless you release me from the contract,” I uttered breathlessly as his mouth moved dangerously close to mine.
“I don’t think so, you still wear my mark around your neck Syn, I like how it looks on you,” his eyes sparkled with amusement.
“Go away Ryder,” I growled, but he closed the distance and silenced my mouth with his, his kiss was soft but carried an urgency I matched as the kiss deepened. Moaning against him probably wasn’t the best response since I wasn’t supposed to want his kiss, but it was all I had— until the bed shook violently.
Fighting Destiny Page 29
