0449474001339292671 4 fighting faer (20 page)

Corinne’s eyes flew over her heartmate, but she couldn’t even see an injury. Even though Fergus’s knife had been covered in blood, he must not have done any permanent damage. Relief threatened to bring her to her knees. Except she was already there, where she’d landed after the impact of Graham’s weight against her shoulder had sent her sprawling. She was so close that she had to scramble out of the way of the pair before they rolled right into her.

The figure wrestling with Fergus spun away, and now Corinne could see that the one who had originally attacked Fergus had dark fur tipped with silver along the spine, and was definitely not human. It was a wolf.

Page 90

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Graham.

The werewolf pulled away from Fergus to let Luc get a chance at him. Even Dmitri seemed to know to hang back, that this battle belonged to the Fae warrior and not to his friends, no matter how well meaning. Instead, Graham placed himself between Fergus and Corinne and growled at her when she tried to go to Luc.

“Fergus.” Luc’s voice was a low, feral snarl that sounded almost like it was coming from Graham’s throat. He halted a few feet from the other Fae and watched as Fergus climbed slowly to his feet. “You should have forgotten about the door and kept running, because the moment you touched my heartmate, you sealed your own fate.”

“So dramatic,” Fergus sneered, “but tell me, Captain, how are you feeling? I hope you didn’t mind the feel of my knife sliding between your ribs, because I have the urge to repeat the experience.”

“Too bad you won’t get to fulfill it. I’ll give you a choice, Fergus of Eithdne. You can surrender to me and consent to be taken in irons back to our Queen, or you can die, here and now, for crimes against Queen Mab and all of Faerie. You choose.”

Corinne stood so close, she could hear the sound of Fergus’s sword hissing as he pulled it from its scabbard. Even if she had been further away, though, she doubted she would have been able to avoid what happened next. As it was, he moved so fast, she almost didn’t see him move, feinting toward Luc and then spinning around Graham’s unsuspected form to grab Corinne by the hair and pulled her across the ground until she knelt in front of him. He held her hair tightly, bracing her against his thigh while he held his sword in his other hand.

“I think you should choose.” Fergus raised his blade and pointed the tip at her throat. “Either you finish opening that door and let me pass through, or I slit your heartmate’s throat and see if she bleeds any faster than you do.”

Luc gave a roar of rage and threw himself forward, only to catch himself in mid-stride as Fergus’s sword nicked Corinne’s skin, sending a tiny trickle of blood to slide down her throat.

“Be very careful, my friend,” Fergus sneered. “I’m not feeling charitable toward the human to begin with, so it would be no hardship for me to watch her die. In fact, I might just enjoy it.” Luc growled impotently, but he stilled and met Fergus’s gaze with rage burning in his own.

“Very good. Now open the door.”

Corinne met Luc’s gaze and saw the frustration there. His concern touched her, but it also pissed her off, because she knew right then that he was going to give in to Fergus’s demands and open the Faerie door himself. To save her. She wanted to scream in frustration. Between Graham, Dmitri and Luc, they had enough power to mash Fergus into tiny bits, but because he had a sword to her throat, all three stood there completely paralyzed. Even Reggie and Missy looked too intimidated to move. Damn it, they had to get over this little phobia of seeing her die.

“Don’t do it, Luc,” she said, her voice trembling. Not with fear but with anger.

Her heartmate spoke in an unsteady voice himself. “I can’t let him hurt you.”
Page 91

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

“This is touching,” Fergus interrupted. “Repulsive, but touching. However, it’s also quite futile. I don’t know how I can simplify this for you any more. Either open the door, or the human dies. Choose.” Luc swore and turned toward the glowing sliver of doorway. Corinne screamed.

“Don’t you dare!” She didn’t care about the fist in her hair or the blade at her throat or anything else.

What mattered was that Luc couldn’t throw away everything he stood for because some lunatic with a superiority complex was holding a knife on her.

“Shut up!” Fergus shouted, loosening his grip in her hair so he could cuff her against the side of the head.

Idiot. That was all she needed.

She threw herself backward, screaming as she felt a huge clump of her hair stay behind in Fergus’s hand.

The force of her movement sent her slamming into the ground harder than when she’d been dropped earlier, knocking some of the wind out of her. Her head landed a glancing blow against a rock, making her vision fuzz and blur.

She couldn’t see what happened next, but she sure as hell heard it. Roaring echoed in her ears, and she couldn’t tell if it came from Luc or Fergus, or the Others, or even all of them at once. She knew the cheering she heard definitely came from Reggie and Missy. She heard the sounds of a brawl, but her eyes had closed against the blinding pain in her head, and she couldn’t pry them open. Nausea roiled in her stomach and she curled instinctively into a fetal position, gagging helplessly. She couldn’t work up the strength to protest when she felt two pair of small hands hook under her arms and drag her out of the way of the struggle.

They needn’t have bothered. With odds of four against one, Fergus didn’t last long. Before they had even stopped moving, silence descended on the hilltop.

Well, silence punctuated by the sickening sound of a fist thumping violently against flesh and bone.

“Luc. Luc, stop!” she heard. “He’s unconscious. Stop before you kill him.” Rafe. The voice of reason.

“Why should I? He touched my mate.”

“But she’s safe now. And do you want to have to explain his death to the Queen?” A brief silence. Corinne struggled to breathe through her mouth and ride out the pain. At least the nausea seemed to be fading.

She heard a vague grumbling, then more silence until she was lifted and settled in a hard lap, cuddled close in muscular arms.

“I’m so sorry, baby.” She felt his lips moving against her forehead as he pressed his cheek to her hair. “I love you so much. I’m so sorry he touched you. I should have been quicker.”

“Fine.” Her voice cracked and squeaked, but she figured that was enough to get her point across. She was fine. Or she would be. Eventually. She needed to say something else though. She parted her lips and gathered her strength. “Love, too.” Not real clear, but he was a bright guy. Sometimes. He’d figure it out.

Page 92

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

His arms tightened convulsively around her and she knew he had.

She pressed her face against his chest and whimpered one, critically important, word. “Aspirin?” Then she blacked out, safe in her heartmate’s arms.

She got Tylenol with codeine.

After the doctors checked to make sure she didn’t have a concussion, they prescribed the good stuff and released her to Luc’s tender care. He had to fight Reggie and Missy for the privilege.

“Are you okay? Does your head hurt?”

She sighed. “No more than it did the last time you asked. Five seconds ago.” She cracked an eye open to see Luc’s face hovering above hers. He had taken her to Vircolac to a room Graham provided rather than bring her back to her apartment. She would be more comfortable, he told her, with twenty-four hour room service.

“Isn’t that what you’re for?” she had asked.

He had been incredibly solicitous, so much so that it was beginning to get on her nerves. She was all for being adored, but not when he seemed afraid to handle her like anything other than spun glass.

“Do you want a glass of water? You can’t have another pill for an hour, but I could do a charm if your head hurts too much to wait.”

“I’m fine. Stop hovering. Either go away, or get into bed with me, because I’m about one second away from forgetting about the doctor’s orders and going home myself.” He got into bed with her. “Sorry,” he said, sounding sheepish and adorable. “You just scared the hell out of me when you passed out.”

“I scared myself a little,” she muttered, snuggling against his chest and feeling his arms close very gently around her. “But I’m fine now. The doctor even said, no permanent damage. I’ll be good as new in a couple of weeks.”

“I still wish Rafe had let me kill him.”

She grinned. “But then I’d have gotten jealous that I didn’t get a lick at him.” The grin faded and she
Page 93

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

looked up at him. “I’m glad he stopped you, though. Mab was upset enough by what he’d done, but I think it would have been even worse for her if you had.” He sighed against her hair. “She was upset. She never guessed one of her Guard would betray her.”

“No one did. But at least she got Seoc back safely.”

Luc chuckled. “Yeah, and he’ll be using his innocence to get out of trouble for centuries.”

“Hey, I would, too, if I’d been so falsely accused.”

He laughed. And brushed a kiss across the top of her head. “She demanded to be invited, you know.” Corinne frowned at him. “Mab? What did she want to be invited to?” He smiled slightly. “Our wedding.”

She froze. “Are we getting married?”

“Well, since we’ll be living together here in Ithir and I plan to stay with you ‘til the end of our days, I thought we could.”

Corinne tried to ignore the fluttering in her stomach and the aching fullness of her heart. “But you said Fae didn’t get married.”

“You aren’t Fae,” he said simply. “I thought it would make you happy.” It would make her ecstatic, she realized, but as she didn’t intend to let him skip all the steps between meeting and marriage. She wanted all that good stuff, too.

“It will,” she admitted, “but we’re not going to do it yet.” She felt him stiffen. “Why not?”

“Because I want to date first.” She pulled back to smile up at him. “Look at it this way. You know I’ll say yes, which takes the pressure off, yet you still get the fun of trying to persuade me.” He laughed softly. “Ah, I understand. In that case, rest up, baby. You’re going to need your strength for my brand of persuasion.”

“I can’t wait.”

They lay together in silence for a few minutes, and Corinne felt the drowsiness caused by the drugs and the events of the past few hours start to take over. She could hear his heart beating steadily beneath her ear, and knew there was no place she’d rather be than in his arms. She couldn’t wait for the future.

She didn’t realize she’d drifted off to sleep, but when she woke again, Luc was gone and the clock told her she had been out for almost three hours. She rolled over and winced at the pain in her head.

“Here. Have some medicine.”

Page 94

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

She accepted the pill Missy pushed into her hand and swallowed it with a sip of water from the glass that was pressed against her lips. When she dropped her head back and opened her eyes gingerly, she saw Missy and Reggie sitting on opposite sides of her bed. “Where’s Luc?” Missy grinned. “Graham, Rafe and Dmitri pried him away from you long enough to feed him. He was starting to turn a little gray.”

“We think they plan to get him drunk, too. Just to celebrate.” Corinne scowled and looked around, her gaze screeching to a stop when she saw Ava watching her from the foot of the bed. “What?” she asked. “No Danice?”

“We couldn’t get a hold of her,” Reggie said. “She’s still not back from that mysterious out-of-town case she sprang on us last month. But I left a message on her machine at home, and with her secretary and her paralegal.”

Corinne rolled her eyes, then winced at the pain that caused. “It’s not like I’m on death’s door or anything.”

“Oh, we know,” Ava drawled. “But we thought she’d want a chance to grill you on Tall, Dark and Faerie.”

“Fae,” she corrected.

“Whatever. So spill it. Tell us all about him.”

“Buy the movie.”

“I’m not into porn flicks, darling. I prefer to read the book, but that takes so long, and you can summarize for me.”

“Can’t you get a life of your own instead of prying into mine?”

“Why should I?”

Corinne looked helplessly to Reggie and then to Missy for help. They just grinned at her.

“Don’t look at us,” Reggie said. “She did this to us, too.”

“It’s like a rite of passage,” Missy added. “We all have to go through it eventually.” Corinne scowled. “That’s ridiculous. She has no right to pry like this.” Ava arched a slim, dark brow. “Why do you think I waited until you’re exhausted and vulnerable? Now spill.”

Corinne knew when she’d been beaten, but that didn’t stop her from scowling furiously at the object of her displeasure.

“Fine,” she growled. “Until Luc escapes and comes to rescue me—which is becoming a distressingly familiar scenario—I’ll satisfy your prurient curiosity. But just remember this. One day soon, it’ll be your
Page 95

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

turn to answer questions about your love life.”

Ava laughed. “Corinne, darling, the day I fall in love is the day I’ll answer any question any one of you wants to ask me.”

Corinne felt her mouth curve into a wicked grin, and saw the same expression mirrored on Reggie’s and Missy’s faces.

“And I’ve even got witnesses,” she purred. “I want you to remember that promise, Av, because we are going to take great pleasure in holding you to it. And love has a nasty habit of ignoring what you want, and giving you exactly what you need.”

Also at Ellora's Cave

Fantasy 1: Fantasy Fix

Fantasy 2: Fur Factor