Chapter Nine

 

Opening my eyes, I sighed at the stone ceiling. My mind was clear, all too clear, and I knew I had been captured. Again. This time it was nothing but my own foolishness I had to thank.

Sniffing, I tried to sense where I was, up high, or down low, and was relieved when I had not travelled far from the last place I was conscious. I scrunched my nose up. It smelt dreadful; so bad I could taste the decay.

Rolling onto my side, I ignored the figure I had sensed in the corner when I woke up, and touched a hand to my neck. The skin was tender but fully healed. I fingered the two raised lumps of skin and closed my eyes remembering how it felt to have fangs sink beneath your skin and your blood sucked from you. No, that part was not a dream either.

“Our bite marks leave scars.” The voice from the corner was hesitant.

Wonderful, as if I needed more of those.

My sweaty palms slapped loudly on the hard floor “Why do I always find myself in these uncomfortable situations? Why don’t holding dungeons come with warm blankets and cushions?”

Shifting onto my hands and knees I arched my back, working out the stiffness then levered myself up onto my knees. I stood and rolled my shoulders. When I opened my eyes Tomas stood in front of me, eyes fathomless and deceptively filled with life.

I breathed out slowly. “Why are you here?”

“Protecting you.”

I chewed my bottom lip. “From the vampire Queen?” He nodded once. I flushed angrily. “Why does it matter? I saw the way she looked at me when she realized we have a blood tie. It’s only a matter of time before she drains me, right?”

Like hell it was, but I was curious. For all intensive purposes, he had betrayed me, but then why was he down here lurking in the shadows like a weirdo?

“None shall feed from you but me.”

“Oh don’t you like to share.” My eyes narrowed. “Unless you have something I would want to hear I suggest you leave. Looking at you is making me feel ill.”

His hand lifted as if to touch me, but he let it fall loosely to his side. “You hate me.”

“What do you think,” I snapped and moved around him to place my hands on the door. No iron, just wood. It had a locked rusty doorknob. I frowned and opened my senses. Okay, no iron close by. I furrowed my brows at him over my shoulder. “It’s like you were expecting me to stay in here.”

“Yes,” the response was unassuming.

The rank odor of my prison had me retching again. “What is that sm–” My eyes landed on the body twisted in the corner. My heart sank to my feet and my face flushed in anger. “Oh gods.” Swallowing hard my eyes twitched to his. “Why have you done this?”

Tomas glanced at the body in the corner. “That was not my doing. He and his followers entered the city and Gwendolyn defended her territory. No doubt she was hungry too.”

My mouth swung open, and all I could see was a chain of events that had spiraled out of control and led me to this moment. Was this my fault? No … he had come here to escape his own mad actions. Knowing this made the sight in front of me no less easy to bear. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

The body explained why Devlin had unexpectedly disappeared from my future, from everybody’s future.

He simply did not have one anymore.

In this moment of pain, I did not think of the entire fairy race but of Wasp. She would be devastated. Hell, deranged would be a better description. I remembered Devlin speak of his life-mate. The way the insanity had drained from his eyes to be replaced with adoration. He would not have left her, anyone else but her. What if that had been Breandan lying there and I was her?

I spun on him with tears in my eyes. “You evil, heartless–”

Blurring into motion Tomas pressed his forehead to mine and backed me against the wall. My wrists were pinned to my side as one of his thighs slid between my legs until my feet lifted off the floor.

“No. No, I have a heart and it is yours. I even have a soul though you may question this as I willingly did this to you despite the tie we share. You put your trust in me, gifted me all faith in the hope I was a clean dark. I have manipulated and pulled you. Twisted your mind until it was confused and pliant.” I turned my head as the knife in my heart twisted at his words, but he simply pressed himself harder into me and spoke into my ear. “You should know I always meant to bring you here, but I could not have imagined losing the love that lingers inside me to one such as you.” Stunned, my head snapped round so I could see his face. He peered into my eyes, his blinkless stare allowing my own unfaltering gaze to measure his. “Whatever you think of me, if you never dare trust another word that comes from my mouth, I beg you to believe that.”

He released my wrists and eased back. My feet touched the ground and my heart thundered in my chest.

My hands lifted, fell. What did I feel? Not the same overwhelming need to connect that broke me down each time Breandan came too near. It was not the flare of need, and want, that attacked me before Breandan and I touched.

I reached up again, steeling myself, and my palms slid over his cool face and my eyes closed.

When my skin touched his, there was not a dual sense of completeness and breathless infatuation. Something was there. The same spark that allowed the blood tie to form between us. It was hot, and bright, and when I tried to touch it or see it more clearly it burned me. Possibly such a thing is not to be understood, or endured? How did it get there in the first place? Why did Tomas appeal to me so but not enough to form an attachment over what I felt for Breandan? Why was I pulled to him then ultimately here? To this Nest where once again my life hung in the balance.

“I don’t understand you,” I whispered. Frustration gave way to anger for I simply could not figure this thing between us out. I knew I should hate him but I didn’t. “I don’t understand us.”

He looked saddened when I took my hands away. “You don’t have to. I will protect you, Rae. Believe it or not you were not brought here for blood. Gwendolyn has a plan, but the Nest is hungry, and they will do everything they can to taste you. Few have any control and that situation would be … bad for you. So only I will feed from you and the others will feed from me until I mange to discover what Gwen has planned.” He jerked his head toward Devlin’s mangled and dry corpse. “That is more than I can say for him.”

“Lucky me,” I muttered and put my hands back on him. I let them slide down his neck to his chest. Keeping eye contact, I started at his collarbone and dragged my talons down his chest, ripping through the fabric of his top, and gouging deep groves that gushed with blood, my blood. I hissed and bared my teeth at him, as he snarled at me. “You will never taste me again. This I swear.”

As expected magic thickened in the air.

Tomas sniffed and his eyes darkened. “I don’t want you to die.”

I hissed. “How touching.”

“Don’t be like this.” He touched my cheek and I turned my head away, disgusted that my heart still tripped at his touch. “We can make this work.”

I snapped my head back round to glare at him. “You’re delusional if you think Breandan is not on his way down here with an army to tear you apart.”

The vampire’s lips lifted with a hint of a smirk. “Will he? The last memory he has of you is you walking off into the dark, with me. The vampire with whom you share a blood tie.” He leaned in to whisper in my ear, his cool breath tickling my neck. “You’ve mated your fairy but still your tie to me remains. Why do you think that is?”

My conviction waved for less than a beat, and I ignored his barb about the blood tie’s significance. “He won’t be fooled. Breandan knows I’m his.” I shook my head pityingly. “When he gets here this Nest is finished. Hell, I’ll help him stake you all in the sun with a smile.” I snapped for his throat and he never even leaned back, he did not flinch.

His arms bracketed me and I bashed my head back against the wall, upset with the whole situation.

“Bold words yet here we stand. You could kill me if you wanted to,” his gaze flicked to the circlet that framed my face, “Priestess. So why don’t you? Kill me then walk out that door.”

I lifted my chin. “Step back.” His lips quirked but he did as I asked. Pushing the hair out of my eyes my hand trailed down to touch the gold upon my brow. “I expect more from myself. I won’t be a mindless killer; I’m worth more than that.” Pausing I made up my mind. “I understand that the Nest is starving and I sympathize, I always have, but you must not keep me here. You must let me leave peacefully. If I have to fight my way out of here there will be nothing I can do to stop the others coming here.”

He regarded me thoughtfully, a pillar of darkness, arms loose at his sides and stance confident. “You truly have grown.” His head turned to the door as it squeaked open.

I sniffed and screwed up my nose at the dry and moldy smell that saturated everything.

A vampire-girl stepped into the room, her gaze flicking between us curiously. Her eyes were a murky brown color and would have been rather unremarkable had they not had a most unusual shape – two slim ovals with ridiculously long and straight lashes the colour of dried wheat. She had white-blonde slender braids and surprisingly tanned skin covered in freckles, and dark eyebrows. Dressed in cut off jeans, boots, and a dark green plaid shirt she had the same skinny, starved look all the vampires had, though there was a flush of colour in her cheeks.

She inhaled deeply, head falling back, and nose pointed in my direction. As her eyes opened, her fangs ran out, and I noticed a rather wide gap between her two front teeth. She started, and placed a hand over her mouth, shooting a guilty look at Tomas.

“It’s okay Daphne,” he said soothingly and smiled at her broadly opening his arms.

The young girl darted another look at me before stepping fully into the room, shutting the door firmly behind her. She blurred over to Tomas and wrapped her arms around him, tucking her head under his.

“I missed you.” Her voice was light, delicate, and if I was honest lovely – soothing and husky.

But I was pissed off, and feeling a twinge of jealousy so it came across as inappropriately breathy and weak.

“And you are?” I asked icily, boring holes into the back of her small skull.

She looked at me over her shoulder wincing daintily. She untangled herself from Tomas, and gave me a diminutive wave. “Gwendolyn said you had a mouth on you, but Tomas says you’re nice when you’re happy. He’s told me all about you, and whilst Gwen is my Queen I obey him above all others.” Her head leaned to the side and her braids fell forward. “I’m going to excuse your unpleasantness as this is a less than hospitable situation you’ve found yourself in.” Her calm rationale and amiable greeting grated on my nerves. Huffing, I crossed my arms over my chest tightly. She gave me a sincere and beautiful smile. “I’m not your enemy, Rae.”

My tail coiled around my legs, whipping my lower thigh in irritation. I focused on keeping my wings snug against my back, refusing to let this girl trick me into liking her.

Tomas moved closer to me. “Daphne is like a sister to me,” he said reassuringly and stroked a hand down my back.

I avoided a second stroke by taking a hasty side step and scowled at him. Rather than ordering him not to touch me I lashed him head to toe with my eyes, making sure disgust seeped from my every pore.

Daphne tittered behind her hand. “My, my is she mad at you.”

Tomas barked a laugh and pinched his brow. I stared at him. I’d never seen him like this. He almost seemed … happy. I turned my hateful gaze on Daphne who smiled at me as if we were the best of blood friends.

I nodded to Devlin’s body. When it came to telling Wasp what had happened I had no doubt the fairy-woman would be eating out of the palm of my hand if it meant avenging him. “Can you get rid of that?” And it was a ‘that’. Devlin was not there anymore – not in that rotten corpse. The High Lord was gone, and though I wished I felt grief, I felt nothing but a vague sense of regret. Despite the fact the High Lord had not been the patron of evil as I had once believed, he had killed my friend, sacrificed her. Now I understood why he had needed a pure sacrifice to invoke dark magic. He had been trying to use the he-witches source of magic against him. Devlin had known all along a great danger gathered power … no wonder he had pursued me so stubbornly.

“Of course,” Tomas replied, breaking my maudlin thoughts, and motioned to Daphne.

She hefted the stinking thing over her shoulder without question, and in a blink was out the door, closing it behind her.

“I am sorry.” Tomas did not sound sorry at all, or particularly bothered that he sounded false. “I didn’t know that he was in here, and I didn’t want to risk moving you with Gwendolyn so … disquieted.”

“What?” I began sarcastically. “Was the appearance of Devlin not part of your master plan?”

“No, it was not. When I left here I was prepared. I knew you would not want to come with me. When I met you and realized you were so vulnerable, I thought it would be easy to convince you to accompany me here. I never knew you were a demon, nor someone of such importance to fairykind. I had no idea I would find myself in the middle of a fairy uprising. How could I? This is a mess I have not planned for.”

“Then why didn’t you back off?” My hands rose to fall with slaps on my thighs. “I can’t see where you’re going with this, Tomas. It makes no sense. In fact it’s plain stupid if you ask me. You’ve risked everything to get me here, and for what?”

“For them,” he barked. “I told you we are dying out here. There is nothing to eat, and one by one my family goes insane, devoured from the inside by their bloodlust. They attack each other then become enraged when the blood does not satisfy their hunger. We cannot sustain each other; it must be the blood of another kind, or our minds break.”

I watched him coolly. “So you travelled all that way to snag one human? How would I have changed anything? One human body does not hold enough blood to feed a Nest of hundreds.”

“Gwendolyn had a vision. She saw bringing you here would save us. I don’t know how, but she was certain enough for me to want to try. She is never wrong.”

“She’s a hatful bitch who wants me dead. You’ve brought me here to die.” His shoulders hunched with every word I yelled at him. “You might as well have drained me and had done with it.” My chest heaved and I fought tears. “Why did it have to be you? Why couldn’t it have been Daphne or Gwendolyn that came for me? Why did you make me think you–” I choked off and refused to finish.

Tomas spun on me, face livid. “It had to be a male because that is what Gwen saw would sway your sympathies. It had to be me because the other males were not sane enough for the task. And it had to be done in secret in case Cael found out!” The moment the words were out of his mouth he froze.

I froze then tilted my head at him slowly. “The he-witch? You are working for the Blackthorn Coven?”

His shoulders slumped and his face took on a look of the beaten. “Cael’s witchcraft has held our Nest under his thumb for some time now.”

Scoffing a disbelieving laugh, I pushed the hair out of my eyes and my talons scraped my circlet reminding me of whom and what I am. “How long is ‘some time’?”

Tomas made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Less than two hundred years. Cael is older than me yet how he has managed to prolong his life and keep his youth is unknown. Witches have a human lifespan. He is a mystery. ”

I took a step back, purely in shock. I fumbled for the wall behind me until my fingers pressed against the cool, damp stone. I leaned against it heavily and groaned.

Tomas was at my side in an instant but refrained from touching me.

“The Rupture,” I gasped. The leaps of understanding taking place in my mind were immense, and the room spun. “Vampirekind didn’t start it.”

“No. We were forced into a corner and had no choice but to do as we were told.”

My head whipped up to pin him with a glare. “Ana told me–”

Tomas held up his hand and his expression rippled with what would have been on a human face mild displeasure. Since he was vampire it looked like a nervous twitch.

“The white witch can tell lies, Rae. You forget she is not fairy like you. She is a Blackthorn, a powerful being born of Cael’s bloodline the most influential Coven in this region. Though she’s different from her kin the white witch will bow to his authority if he catches her in his snare. It is their way to follow the word of the Coven Father, instinctive. Unlike us vampires where loyalty must be earned in blood.” He paused thoughtfully. “No doubt when she saw me coming she would have warned Breandan and you. Even then she would have tried to turn you against me.” He laughed without any real humor. “The fairy and I were destined to loathe each other.”

I whimpered and pressed a hand to my throat, feeling physically sick. Could Ana have lied to me to protect her family? Was she swayed by a need to defend her Father even as she tried to fight for what was right and good? She had looked me in the eye and told me the vampires had started the Rupture. The global event in which everyone believed the vampires attacked the humans first and the rest of demonkind were forced to fight since the humans turned on them too. Did she know the truth? That they were under her Cael’s influence? I knew she had kept things from me on Breandan’s request, but surely, he could not know about this?

I dry heaved and bent over, resting my hands on my knees as I fought to regain my equilibrium.

More questions with no answers to hand. Everything I learned took me one step closer to nothing. I was moving sideways, darting through shadows of half-truths and lies. How was I supposed to know what I was supposed to do when I could not trust the actions of those closest to me? Was every action a cover for a nefarious end? No wonder Devlin had turned to black magic in desperation, for protection. It seemed there were daggers cloaked and waiting to spear you at every turn.

Satisfied I was not going to toss up any nectar I said, “This changes things.” I stood and shook my hair back. It had finally stopped growing, and reached the middle of my back. It made my head feel heavy, but it smelt like the forest, and was a comfort in this dank place. Tomas’ expression was curious. My tongue burned as I added, “This makes your kind worth fighting for.” I looked him in the eye and squashed the knee trembling pleasure I felt when I did, afraid he would see the way he made me feel. “Tell me everything.”

The door burst open. Daphne bolted in and closed it behind her.

She spun and plastered herself against it, arms flung wide. “Gwendolyn,” she whispered before the door was flung open pushing her with it until she and the door slapped into the wall.

The vampire Queen strutted into the room, ringlets bouncing, bare feet slapping the dirty floor. It was meant to be a casual entrance but it reeked of quiet desperation. Vampires had a liquid movement that went beyond mere grace. They didn’t strut, they glided, and so her flippant attitude looked forced. Her hands were in the back pockets of her ragged jeans and her collarbones jutted out painfully. Gwendolyn looked underfed. Her eye sockets were sunken and her skin ashy pale, even for a vampire. Though none of this diminished her breathtaking natural beauty, and it took a great deal of will not to pull my glamour on in a pitiful attempt to cover my scars.

Daphne grunted and slipped out from behind the door, rubbing her cheek.

Gwendolyn took in Tomas’ closeness to me in a lingering gaze, her thin brows rising with exaggerated slowness even as a fire burned in the depths of her eyes.

Rather than step away from me, Tomas moved in front of me and cocked his head in a show of respect. “Love?” he asked with a hint of impatience.

She smiled and held out a grubby hand with nails bitten into ragged stumps. “We have a visitor,” she purred.

Tomas went stiff and Daphne’s head whipped round to stare at him. Her entire body shifted into battle mode, even her braids appeared rigid, but with the slightest motion of Tomas’ hand, she relaxed her stance. She sent me a sorrowful look then looked away at the floor where Devlin’s body had lain.

My blood ran cold. Was the he-witch here for me already? I lifted my chin. I had faced him before and I would again. No matter if I was tried, emotionally drained, unable to use magic, and struggling to hold myself upright. I had faced him before and come out alive. I ignored the voice in my head that whispered the fear I had not hurt the he-witch, but that he had left of his own accord with a parting message….

“Feicfidh mé thú go luath, deirfiúr,” I muttered.

I didn’t know what it meant, but it felt like he meant me to think of it – of him – until our next meeting.

An odd slapping sound snagged my attention. Gwendolyn scuttled back on her heels away from me. “Labhraíonn sí an teanga ar an witches?” Gwendolyn spat at Tomas. “Dúirt tú liom go bhfuil sí eolas beag.”

“Níl sí ar Cael’s Coven,” Tomas replied in a soothing voice. “Calma síos.”

“You understood what I said?” I asked them both sharply.

“We have an alliance with the Blackthorn Coven,” Gwendolyn said with an odd roundabout rolling of her eyes. “Of course we speak the tongue of their incantations.”

“Alliance?’ I echoed. “Tomas didn’t make it sound as voluntary as that.”

“Because it’s not,” Daphne confessed. “Cael’s hold over us grows stronger by the day.” She placed a hand on her stomach, which gurgled loudly. “I don’t know if we could survive without him if we tried. He sends us blood, be-spelled blood that keeps us full enough to do his grunt work. It’s the only reason we’re alive.”

Gods, it kept getting worse. My hands fisted in anger. “Tell me what it means.” The look Gwendolyn gave me was rude and self satisfied. This vampire Queen was somewhat underwhelming now I had seen how insecure she was. I ground my back teeth together, understanding why Breandan succumbed to the habit so often. The pressure helped ease the anger and frustration building behind the eyeballs. “It’s not that big a deal. Tell me you demented–”

“I will see you soon, sister,” Daphne blurted. “That’s what it means, Rae.”

Gwendolyn slapped her.

I hissed and she snarled lurching forward, but Daphne was already in front of me, fangs bared, eyes flashing black.

“Enough,” Tomas said in a hard voice.

Daphne straightened and bowed her head. Gwendolyn sniffed and crossed her arms, leaned back on her heel as she fixed me with a glare.

Already over it, I frowned, and looked to Tomas for confirmation of what had been said. He gave a small nod.

“That’s it?’ I muttered. But it makes no sense. I’m not part of his Coven, and–”

“And thank the gods for that,” Gwendolyn butted in. Recovering fully from her sudden rage, she drew herself up tall. “Well, my consort and his loyal subordinate have spoken out of turn yet again, I see.” She gave said mate a lethal look. “No matter, such things can be dealt with. Come along, he is waiting, and the night grows old.”

Gwendolyn waited until Tomas clasped her extended hand. They left the room, but not before his dark gaze pinned Daphne for the briefest of moments, and she returned the unreadable look with a deep nod. She motioned me to walk, and since I had no choice, I did.

We climbed a steep and narrow staircase and exited into a long, high ceilinged passage. The paint on the walls was flaking and the corners of yellowed wallpaper curled down almost to the floor in some places. The dry, moldy smell was intense. It smelt like vampire and my nature recoiled, disgusted. And for once I didn’t fight the feeling. I noted the building was empty of life apart from us. Where was the rest of Nest? There were no humans to hunt so where had they all gone?

“Are we the only ones here?” I asked Daphne in a low murmur that managed to echo loudly down the empty hallway.

Tomas glanced over his shoulder, his eyes two black pits, unreadable.

“Yes,” Daphne spoke low in my ear, her cold lips so close they brushed across my earlobe. “The Nest has been sent to look for the grimoire. Cael managed to discover from the fairy High Lord that he had hidden it somewhere in the city.” Her eyes darted forward to the back of Gwendolyn’s dark head. “But they won’t find it,” she said with a hint of excitement. “They’ll never find it.”

We exited the building into the empty street where Tomas had fed from me.

Raindrops spattered on my face, and I blinked, wiped them from my nose, and breathed in deeply.

I stopped mid-breath my heart soaring.

Sunlight. I could smell sunlight.