Elfin (3 page)

He took another step towards her, his eyes never leaving hers.

“I’m a genius,” he answered with a look that said “duh.”

“Oh. W
ell in that case, you being an ass is totally okay.” Cassie let out an exasperated breath as she continued to watch him.

“Perhaps
I am
being a tad rude.” He stepped closer still and was suddenly only a foot away from her. He swept down in a dramatic bow and stood back up, looking at her with smoldering eyes that had her holding her breath.

“My apologies
, my lady. Will you let me start our introduction over?”

Cassie could still
hear the playfulness in his voice but there was something else as well, something that made her feel like he really wanted to know her. He reached his hand out, waiting for her to place hers in it. She looked at the hand and then back up at him. Something in her screamed, ‘don’t do it’ and yet she slowly lifted her hand and placed it in his. He wrapped his strong fingers around it and his eyes squeezed closed. She felt a jolt of power burst up her arms. She wanted to pull away, yet she also wanted to wrap herself in his arms, to have him touch her, kiss her, love her.

Her eyes, which had closed at some point,
popped open.
Love?
WTH, she thought to herself.
Cassie get a clue, he’s dangerous, it’s written all over his lovely form. Yes , he is, but I still want him . She frowned at the petulant voice her subconscious had suddenly become. She shook her head, trying to clear it. She felt her feet moving forward and realized that he was pulling her to him. She was standing mere inches from his face. She tilted her head back to look up at him and found his silver eyes staring back at her. His brow was furrowed and she could see the questions on his face.

“You saw me?” He asked her
disbelievingly. “My true form, you saw it.”

“What do you mean?” She asked, her voice wavering under his intense scrutiny.

“Cassie, beautiful Cassie, what are you? How could you possibly see my true form?” He still held her hand in his and with his other hand he ran a finger down her jaw causing her to shiver again. She wanted to take a step back, needed to take a step back, but she couldn’t move.

“How do you know my name?” She asked.

His lips lifted in a crooked smile. “I saw it in your mind.” He said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Cassie tri
ed to pull her hand away but he tightened his hold.

“You think you can read my mind?”
She asked slowly, as if speaking to a child.

“Not think, know,” his finger was now trailing slowly, so very slowly across her bottom lip. “I know that you think my lips are made for pleasure.”

Cassie felt the blood rush to her face in embarrassment. “Oh,” she squeaked out.

She cleared her throat and tried again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” It came out more as a question than the firm statement she had been going for.

His finger continued to run gently across her jaw and down her neck to her collarbone.

“
I know about the time you fell out of the tree in your front yard and broke your arm because you were trying to rescue the neighbor’s cat. I know that you aren’t sure you even believe in prayer or the One you pray to, but it comforts you. I know that you think that your best friend is prettier than you are and I know that you do not see yourself clearly if you think that.”

Cassie’s breath was coming in short gasps as she listened to this guy she had just met, and didn’t even know his name, tell her things that there was no possible way that he could know. She felt like she was suffocating; she couldn’t get enough air and her sight started to fade.

“Come on beautiful, breathe for me.”
His voice sounded far away though she knew he was standing inches from her.

She felt his breath on her face as he spoke. His scent swirled around her and as she breathed in and out
, she felt like she might be drunk on the smell. She felt him brushing her hair away from her face and then tilted her chin back to look up at him. She blinked as she looked at his inhumanly handsome face. She saw his features flicker again. For a brief moment , he had long, pitch black hair, pointed ears, and eyes so silver and clear that they shimmered like diamonds . H
is face shifted slightly. If she thought that he couldn’t be even more beautiful, she was wrong. Then, in the blink of an eye , she was again looking at the man with shorter dark hair, regular ears, and eyes that were a more subdued, yet stunning grey.

“Wwwhat was that?” She stumbled over her words. Finally getting her feet to move she pulled back from him staring up at his widened eyes. When he continued to stare at her instead of answering her , she gathered her thoughts. She turned to look back at the door where she had entered. She could hear the other men out in the hall, speaking in low tones.

“They are going to find me soon. I need to go.” She looked back and ne
arly jumped when her face almost ran into his chest. She tilted her head to look up into his face.

“They won’t look for you in here,” he told her confidently.

“They will eventually. It’s pretty obvious since its right next door to the room they were just in and I hid so quickly,” she reasoned.

His lips
formed a wickedly crooked smile. “They won’t find you because I won’t let them.”

“
And who
are
you, exactly?” Cassie raised a single eyebrow in question at him.

He leaned forward until his mouth was mere inches from hers.

“I’m yours,” he whispered.

Cassie snorted out a short, abrupt laugh
to cover up the gasp his words caused. “Does that work on all the girls?”

Suddenly his head
whipped up as the handle of the door began to jiggle. Cassie’s body tensed as she turned to look at the door, ready to bolt like a frightened animal.

“Cassie, are you in there?” Cassie let out a relieved breath as she heard the voice of her father.

She took a step towards the door but was stopped abruptly when an arm snaked around her waist. She let out a gasp of air as her back came in contact with a very firm chest. She felt his breath on her ear as his lips grazed her skin.

“I
will
see you again, beautiful.”

She closed her eye
s briefly as she tried not to enjoy the sensation of being held so confidently. When he released her she headed quickly for the door and as she unlocked it and began to turn the knob, she felt his breath on her neck again and then a whisper.

“Trik, my name is Trik.”

She turned to look over her shoulder at him but there was no one there.

Cha pter 2

“
Light elves have one mate—their Chosen. They love that one with totality and unquestioning faithfulness. For all the darkness that lives inside a dark elf, for all the evil that is innately born in them, they too have but one mate. And whatever the reason, the ferocity and intensity they love their Chosen with is neither lessened by their evil, nor sacrificed because of who and what they are.” ~Myrin, Advisor to Lorsan

Trik stood leaning up against a large tree in the deserted park, the lateness of the night having driven the humans to the perceived safety of their homes. He debated whether to go and report back to Lorsan or wait until he had his emotions under better control. He didn’t want to get into what had happened with the beautiful girl, Cassie. He had plucked her name from her mind when he had touched her. As soon as his skin had made contact with hers , it was evident to him that her beauty wasn’t just skin–deep. She was beautiful down to the deepest part of her soul, and that should be enough to make him stay away. But he knew he wouldn’t, especially since she had seen the light elves in their true form. For all the good in the light elves, they still lived according to their laws and a human who had seen them in their true form had forfeited their life—whether it was their fault or not. As soon as she had walked into the room where he had been spying on the light elves and turned to look at him, she owned him. There was no way that he would let Tamsin and his band of goody-two-shoes touch a single hair on her head.

He shook his head and chuckled as he remembered the look in her eyes when he had told her that he was hers. What he hadn’t said, and what would have probably sent her running straight into the arms of the ones searching for her, was that not only was he hers, but she was his. And that was why he couldn’t go see his King right then.

He pushed away from the tree and decided to head for one of the many businesses
that his people owned. It would do him good to surround himself with some good old-fashioned greed to remind him of who and what he was. Like the light elves, the dark elves had many businesses in the human realm. It was a good way for the elves to justify coming here to keep tabs on the various other species that had decided to make this realm their home. But where the light elves businesses had to do with the wellbeing of the earth, the dark elves’ businesses had everything to do with self-indulgence, feeding off of the baser needs of humans and the potential for darkness and evil deep in their hearts.

Deciding he needed a distraction from the beautiful human
,
Trik headed in the direction of the stores just beyond the park. He found what he was looking for in a large glass front window where he could see his reflection. Elves could travel from realm to realm as well as to other cities using mirrors, or glass as long as there was a reflection of themselves in it. They needed only to think of where they wanted to go and then step into the glass. He pictured the lights of Vegas in his mind and took a step forward, his leg slipping easily through the glass followed by the rest of his body. On the other side , he stood in front of Iniquity, one of the many casinos in Las Vegas that his people owned. The bright lights flashed across his face; the city noise and chatter of humans was music to his ears. He could feel the greed, the lust , and the depression that swirled around the city in a thick fog. He inhaled a deep breath, smiling as he thought to himself; this is where I belong, not drooling over some human girl . Yet even as the thought passed through his mind, he knew he would see her again. He headed into the casino looking to find one of the few humans he dared to call a friend and hopefully a good card game.

~

“So why exactly were you hiding in that conference room?” Cassie’s father asked as they walked out to the parking lot after having locked up his office.

Cassie had been trying to figure out what to tell her father. She didn’t want to freak him out
, nor did she want to sound like she was off her rocker, but she didn’t want to lie to him either.

“Are there any unusual people who work in your building?” She asked carefully.

“What do you mean by unusual?” He asked as they arrived at her car.

“Like long
, shiny hair, unusual colored eyes, and pointy ears unusual?” Cassie cringed as she said the last part. She knew how it sounded, and the look on her father’s face just confirmed the sanity, or lack thereof, in her statement.

He thought for a moment before he
replied. “The owners of our company
are a little odd looking.”

Cassie jumped on that statement.
“Odd
, how?”

Her dad
scrunched up his face as he tried to describe them. Of course, a man trying to describe anyone in any amount of useful detail was a little bit of a stretch.

“Well, they don’t have long hai
r, or pointy ears, but they are…” he scratched his forehead and searched for the words, “well, for lack of a better term, beautiful.”

Cassie’s mouth dropped open and her mind
jumped to the tall, incredibly handsome, and yes, beautiful , guy who called himself Trik. She remembered how his appearance had seemed to shift before her very eyes, though both forms were unbelievably beautiful.

“They don’t have long shiny hair?” She asked.

Once again her father looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

“No. No long shiny hair. Are you sure
you’re alright?” He asked her cautiously.

Cassie though
t for a moment before she answered her father. “I’m alright,” she nodded, “maybe they were just dressed in their Halloween costumes or something.” The tone of her voice made it very clear that she didn’t believe her own words.

“Maybe you need to get more sleep,” her dad offered.

Cassie nodded in agreement, though she knew that what she had seen had nothing to do with sleep. She climbed into her car telling her dad that she would meet him at home.

“Be careful,” he told her as
he always did when she was getting in her car.

~

Cassie sat on her bed as she dialed Elora’s number. She had gotten ready for bed, allowing herself to gather her thoughts and try to gather the words she would use to describe to Elora just what she had seen tonight. The phone rang four times before Elora answered.

“What’s
wrong?” She asked.