by Eric Vall
I froze.
I couldn’t even tell how many elves I was hearing, but it sounded like they were having a party of some kind. They roared with laughter, and although they spoke in Elvish, I could tell they slurred their words badly.
I ground my jaw as I realized they’d stolen Deya only hours before and were now drunkenly celebrating their feat together. I fought to control the fresh surge of anger in my veins and returned the arrows to my quiver as two voices approached.
I didn’t have time to reload and kill them as well. So, I flattened myself into the shadow of the alcove and waited for the drunken elves to come by. They didn’t turn into the stairwell, though, they just stumbled past and on down the hall, and as they went, I stepped out and loosed two arrows into the back of their heads. Then I turned and headed toward the music.
The door at the end of the hallway was still left open, but I carefully brought myself to the entrance. As I peered along the edge of the doorframe, I saw a large banquet hall that seemed to take up the center of the fortress on this floor. There must have been at least forty elves inside, and all of them were as big as the ones we’d passed already.
They laughed drunkenly and spilled their goblets as they did, and at the back of the hall, a long table stretched the width of the room. The elf at the center looked aged and sickly, but he guzzled his wine and sneered at the others’ jokes with much enjoyment. Two elves stood on either side of him, and their hair was the same strange orange hue as their leader. They laughed heartily as they propped themselves on the back of the leader’s chair, and as one leaned forward and gestured to the ceiling, the three burst out in laughter.
I slid back around the wall and glared at the stonework for a minute. I had enough arrows to kill the leader and his two sons right now if I wanted. The filthy grins on their faces were reason enough to do it, but I’d never make it out alive with the rest of the elves in that room. And my women and Deya wouldn’t, either.
So, I took a steadying breath and tightened my hold on the bow before I forced my legs to turn in the opposite direction down the hall. I passed the stairwell I’d come from and stepped over the two dead elves as I worked to ignore the fury welling up once more in the base of my spine. I focused instead on the fact that failing wasn’t an option, and I scanned for any sign of another door on this level. Instead, I came to another stairwell, and I cursed.
We’d dispersed through the levels of the fortress with seven stories in mind, but here I was on the eighth floor, and it wasn’t even the top.
I quickly scaled the next set of stairs three at a time and was relieved to find the ninth floor was silent. I cracked my neck to relieve some of my tension before I proceeded down the hall and hoped I’d finally come to the top of the fortress. Any higher, and the three women and I would be too far apart to help each other out with the forty elves between us.
The arching doors and ceilings on this level were twice as tall, and the lanterns outside of each chamber were made of gold. I eyed the golden latches as I quietly moved through the hall and rounded the first corner, but each door looked the same as the last for a while.
Until I turned down the final hall.
The door I stood at had three hefty locks embedded in the deep red woodwork, and there was even a metal bar braced across the planks for good measure.
Looks like I’d found the place they were keeping their stolen prize.
I looped my bow at my back before my magic sparked to the surface of my palms, and then I held my hands out toward the many locks. The metal brace lifted free first, and I dropped it to the floor as the top two locks clicked in succession, and then I took one last steadying breath as I moved on to the final bolt. The second it gave way, my hand shot to the golden latch, and I wrenched the door open.
Before I’d taken two steps into the room, a candelabra smashed into my face, and I felt my nose crunch under the force of the metal.
“Fucking shit!” I stumbled back and clutched at my throbbing nose, and I said a few more choice words before I could finally open my eyes again despite the pain.
Then I pulled out my revolver, held my other hand out to guard my face, and tried to enter the room once more. I squinted around the large chamber, but couldn’t see anyone.
Then a soft voice called out. “Mason Flynt?”
“Yeah,” I spluttered through the blood that dripped down my face. The pain in my nose shot through my eyeballs, and I blinked hard to try and focus them a little better as I scanned the room once more. Suddenly, there was a flicker of white near the desk, and as I whipped around, Deya appeared out of nowhere. She was perched on the desktop with a fireplace poker in her grip, and I could only stare as I hazily returned the revolver to my hip.
I had been so focused on getting through the jungle and House Kylen undetected that I’d forgotten how distractingly sexy the elven beauty was in person. Now, I raked my eyes along the woman’s slender thighs as she hitched her gauzy white dress up over her leg and climbed down to the floor.
When the dress dropped down, my eyes shot up to her violet eyes and her pixie face, and Deya sent me a smile that made my heart stop for a good three beats.
The pink-haired elf ran to me and pressed her supple form against my body as she wound her arms around my waist, and before I could form a thought, my arms were locked around her. My pulse kicked up, and I realized I could feel her heart beating wildly against my own.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she sighed.
I couldn’t think of anything to say with her warm body pressed against me like that, and I was lost in the sweet smell of her pale pink hair as she tucked her cheek beneath my neck. It was like vanilla, citrusy fruit, and something else that reminded me of cotton candy and summer evenings from when I was a kid.
Deya ran her hands gently along my back as she tightened her hold on me, and my mind suddenly started to scream a dozen reasons to not get turned on right now.
I quickly let go of the elven beauty and stepped back for good measure. Deya’s violet eyes sparkled up at me, and I noticed her cheeks had turned a beautiful shade of pink.
I cleared my throat. “Uhh … ” I tried, but that’s about all I had.
“Your nose,” she said, and her brows crinkled sadly in a way that made me want to kiss her on the spot for caring even a little about me. “I’m so sorry about that.”
“It’s totally fine,” I assured her. “It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”
Fresh blood still dripped freely down my face, and Deya raised her soft pink brows in amusement.
“Okay, it hurts like hell,” I admitted, “but it’s still fine. That was pretty impressive honestly. You have good aim considering how big and dark this room is.”
Deya smiled sweetly and blushed another degree, and I felt my blood begin to drift southward. Then I recognized a vague resemblance between herself and her brother in the features of her face, the brother who’d hired me to rescue her, bring her home safely, and not do a damn thing more if I wanted to live.
“We should go,” I said abruptly. “Also, there’s a shit ton of elves down there. We’ll have to be as quiet as possible.”
Deya nodded soberly as her lips returned to their natural pout, and she looped her delicate hand in mine.
I took a deep breath as I turned to the door. “Focus, ” I muttered to myself.
“What did you say?” Deya whispered.
“Nothing,” I assured her. “Nothing, just uhh … here we go.”
We crept into the hall and hurried toward the stairwell, but as we rounded the last corner, we rammed right into a burly elf. His blue eyes flared as he saw Deya beside me, and he swiftly ripped a dagger from his belt.
I pushed Deya back a few feet and dodged the elf’s blow as I pulled out my sword, and before the elf could make another strike, I drove my blade into his hefty gut.
The elf lurched and dropped the dagger, and I twisted the blade inside of him as he twitched and began to bleed out. When he drop
ped to his knees, I wrenched my blade free, and Deya and I were already at the stairs by the time I heard him keel forward.
The music from the celebration still echoed loudly when we came to the eighth floor, and I could tell the doors of the large hall were open wide. We turned the opposite direction and were running when we came to the two drunken elves I’d gotten from behind.
Deya skidded to a stop and stared with wide eyes, but I casually steered her toward the stairwell instead. “Sorry about that, ” I tried. “It’s been a bit of a--”
The pink-haired elf gasped and dropped my hand as she covered her mouth, and her violet eyes looked down in terror at the tortured expressions of the burnt elves strewn across the stairs. They somehow looked even worse than they had before, but this could have been because Deya wasn’t as accustomed to gore as we were and looked like she’d just walked into a nightmare. After a moment, I realized she was too shocked to move.
“For the record, I didn’t do that,” I clarified, “I don’t generally do the burning them alive thing. Aurora’s a sweetie though, that’s what this is. It was the only option at the time, so she stepped up … ”
Deya turned her wide eyes toward me and tried to nod casually.
“I usually shoot them in the head, it’s a little cleaner,” I muttered, “or the chest.”
“Or the one with the sword and the belly, ” she added and twisted her hand vaguely in the air.
I scruffed the back of my head and offered her an apologetic smile. “I mean … maybe we shouldn’t get into too many details right now. Things have been a bit intense lately.”
I helped Deya step around the burnt corpses, and she kept her eyes glued to the ceiling until we were on the seventh floor again. We made it through the hallway and to the next corner, and Aurora was waiting for us with her bow at the ready.
“Miss Aurora,” Deya said, and a beautiful smile spread across her face.
Aurora looked genuinely caught off guard by her delight. “H-hello again,” she tried. Then she just stood there and stared at the pink-haired elf.
I cleared my throat. “We’re still in a hurry.”
“Right!” Aurora said as she blushed and turned down the hall.
Then we rounded the corner with the seven dead elves with arrows through their skulls, and Deya turned her face into my arm as we stepped over the heap.
“Again, so sorry about this, ” I muttered.
“It’s fine,” she assured me. “I’m very grateful, really, just … getting used to new things.”
Deya still had her fingers looped in mine, and I couldn’t ignore how much I enjoyed leading the elven beauty through the fortress. She kept her free hand curled around my bicep, and I snuck a couple glances at her as we followed Aurora down the stairwell and out onto the next floor.
Her long pink hair swished softly with the sway of her hips, and I could see her pale skin through the gauzy fabric of her dress. Her plush lips were pursed nervously as she glanced around the halls, and the strange sheen of her serpentine eyes caught beautifully in the torchlight so their violet hue seemed to glow.
I realized I had started staring again, and I snapped my eyes forward just as a door opened about ten feet ahead of us. Deya tightened her hold on my arm, and Aurora sprinted forward to catch the elf off guard. She slammed her boot against his gut to knock him back into his chamber, and as I rushed forward and pulled out my sword, there was a sudden flash of flames.
I didn’t stop in time, and from her place on my arm, Deya unfortunately got a front row seat for the gruesome scene. The burly elf collapsed into a charred heap at Aurora’s feet as she flicked her wrist and extinguished her searing blue flames, and as the half-elf turned for the door, she had a devilish grin on her face. She slowed her pace when she saw the look on Deya’s face, and then firmly closed the door behind her and offered the pink-haired elf an apologetic smile much like the one I’d been using a lot.
“We should … ” the half-elf mumbled.
“Yep,” I agreed. “Let’s go.” I returned my sword to its sheath and pulled Deya along in her shock, while Aurora casually hid herself on my opposite side.
Shoshanne waited in the shadows of the next alcove and returned Deya’s sweet smile when we joined her.
“It’s so kind of you to help,” Deya whispered to the healer as I lifted her over the three dead elves on the stairs.
Shoshanne sent me a coy smile when Deya returned her hand to mine without a thought, but I only locked my jaw.
We made record time getting to Cayla from here, and the princess looked like she’d finally begun to worry while she waited. “I started to think something horrible happened,” she admitted.
I was about to pull the princess into my arms when Deya instinctively stepped forward and embraced Cayla.
“This is such a lovely surprise, to see you all here,” Deya sighed, and from the look on Cayla’s face, she was well distracted from her concerns. She wrapped her arms around the slender elf’s waist without hesitation, and I smirked.
“Yeah, we’re kind of a package deal,” I told her.
“Kind of?” Shoshanne asked, and she sent me a wink.
Deya released Cayla and turned to take Shoshanne’s hand, and as she thanked them all for helping me rescue her, I couldn’t help noticing how beautiful they looked together. There was something fitting about the four gorgeous women side by side in the dim light, and Deya looked at ease with the others, as if she’d always been with us.
I began to think how nice it would be to have her around more often, when I noticed the familiar features of her face once more, and Dragir’s deadly eyes flashed to mind.
I swallowed. “We’re almost out,” I whispered. “They’re having a party on the eighth floor right now with about forty elves, though.”
“Seriously?” Cayla hissed. “Why didn’t you say that?”
“I just did--”
Then a cry of alarm came from the floor directly above us.
“Get back to the courtyard,” I ordered. “I’ll meet you there in two minutes.”
Aurora nodded and quickly padded down the steps, and Shoshanne and Cayla looped their arms around Deya’s to follow. The pink-haired elf sent me a worried expression over her shoulder, and I hoped it wasn’t the last time I’d see her.
I took a breath and sent my magic sifting through the fortress, and as it moved through the stones beneath the red carpet, I could feel four elves run around the fifth floor as they searched for us. They must have found the three bodies in Shoshanne’s alcove.
They drew closer to the stairs that would lead them downward, and I quickly moved my magic a few levels up to the stairwell near the floor with the seven dead elves. With a firm surge of my magic, I made the stairs buck so several stray stones would clatter down the steps.
The elves on the fifth floor instantly changed their direction, and as they ran up the stairs to the next floor, I quietly pulled the walls of the alcove closed at both the top and bottom of the stairwell. The stones were thick enough that no one would be able to hear them yelling for a while without being directly on the other side of the wall.
I knew the dead elves who littered the hallways would likely call the attention of any stray elves, though, and a grin came to my face. I sent my magic to the eighth floor where their celebration was taking place and closed the stairwells off there as well before I moved down through every story. When I finished, every alcove in the fortress was sealed.
On the first floor, I closed the stairwell off behind me as well, but I pulled a chunk of the wall loose to double the thickness of this blockade, and the last thing I did was melt the metal latches together on the doors that led outside.
I hurried through the shadows of the courtyard to where the women waited for me near the wall we’d climbed over, and I quickly hoisted Aurora up to scale the top.
Then I moved on to Cayla. “They found the bodies, but I think I bought us some good time,” I told them with a smirk. The ston
es that barricaded the many stairwells would likely give way if the burly elves battered them with strong enough axes. With at least forty of them in residence, it wouldn’t take long, but my last blockade would infuriate them.
Shoshanne balanced herself on my thigh next, and I turned to Deya once the healer landed on the other side.
The pink-haired elf sent me a shy smile as she moved to stand on my leg. Then I took the meat of her thighs in my palms and hoisted her above my head. She peeled the gauzy dress over her leg to climb over, and I felt my heart give another kick as the moonlight glinted on her silky skin. Deya’s ass was still plush against my palms, but I made sure to shift my focus to Dragir’s four racks of deadly weapons until she finally managed to make it over to the other side.
I was perched on the top of the ledge again when the dog came around the corner.
“Ruela, my love,” Deya purred, and she dropped to her knees to pull the bloodied hound against her. The beast let out a soft whimper, and its tail swished happily as Deya buried her face in the thick sable fur at its neck.
I jumped down to join the women on the other side, and we looked on in shock as the wildish dog suddenly seemed like a whole different creature.
“Is he yours?” Cayla asked.
“She is,” Deya replied. “She’s descended from my own grandmother’s favorite, and her mother belonged to my mother.”
“It’s a girl?” I asked incredulously.
“Of course,” Deya said. “Only the females are as loyal and ruthless as Ruela. The males are mostly useful for tracking or hunting.”
I grinned at my three deadly women.
Cayla winked. “That seems appropriate.”
When I looked back down toward Deya, she had removed the hefty rope from around the beast’s neck, and her finger caught on something that glinted silver in the moonlight. She pulled the object from between the taut tethering, and it looked like a small coin.
