Fae (12 page)

Fae glared at him and stepped toward the door. He knocked on it and from inside came Nikola’s voice telling him to come in. When Butler opened the door he went directly to Nikola and leaned closed to whisper to him. Fae slipped inside the door and stood at the entry, noticing that the room had not been cleaned yet. The remnants of the decanter were still on the rug, catching the firelight and twinkling against the dark weave. The heavy oak chair was still sitting to the side and Fae’s heart rate increased even further looking at it. Nikola’s eyes finally lifted to hers, and his face was unreadable as he nodded to Butler.

“Kneel here.” Nikola pointed at the floor in front of the fireplace. He had been sitting in one of the chairs facing the fire, which had been renewed at some point in the night because it was still blazing. Fae’s bands lit up brightly in response, but she walked over and knelt without argument. “So you’re concerned about Juliet?”

He sat on the arm of one of the chairs and looked at her, and she dropped her head down to stare at the pattern in the carpet. Butler’s presence to her right made her want to shudder. Her mouth always got her into trouble, so Fae stayed silent and just nodded, because making him mad at this point wasn’t going to help. His voice gave nothing away, and it left her unsure of how to react.

There wasn’t a hint of concern, or irritation, or lingering anger from the night before as he spoke. “Alright, explain why.”

“Yes, Master. Thank you, Master.” She swallowed. “Juliet is hurt. Badly. I think she could be bleeding internally. We need the doctor here to help her.” She peeked up through her hair and watched as Nikola looked over at Butler. Nikola spoke quietly to him as he stepped up, and then Butler left the room. When he turned back he clasped his hands together.

“You know, Fae, you revealed something interesting to me yesterday.” A chill went down Fae’s spine and she looked up at him. “You don’t seem to care what I do to you, after all you’re perfectly fine today. Yesterday’s pain seems to already be forgotten as you come to me and tell me what I need to do about the property in my house.”

“Master, that’s not -” She started to argue, but he raised a hand to stop her.

“You may not care about yourself, however you seem to be
very
concerned about what happens to the other girls in this house. You even chose to be the one to come to me this morning, which just puts you at risk again.”

“Master, I swear to you, if you will just help Juliet I will be perfect from now on, for as long as you will have me in your house you will never have trouble from me. I will do
anything
you ask of me.” Nikola chuckled at her pleas and it made Fae feel cold inside.

“You clearly don’t understand our relationship. You will obey me because you have to, and I will continue to do whatever I see fit with
my
property.” The door opened and Butler came in carrying Juliet. He walked past Fae and laid her down in front of Nikola on the brick before the fireplace. Nikola nodded to Butler and continued with a cold smile. “From now on, if you choose to disobey me, in any way, I’ll pick one of the girls to take whatever punishment I would consider for you. At the same rate I would have it delivered to you.”

Fae didn’t know how to respond. Her mind was racing with the possibilities, the damage that her behavior could do to the girls she wanted to help – but as long as she was
perfectly
obedient they should still be okay. She could swallow her pride and submit for the next twenty or thirty years, however long he wanted to keep her around. She could obey. She could do that for them. “Yes, Master. I understand and I
will
obey you. I swear it.”

Nikola gestured to Butler who turned and left the room, shutting the doors behind him. Hopefully he was being sent for the doctor. Relief started to move through her because Juliet was still unconscious and didn’t look any better. The sooner the doctor came, the better.

“I know you will, Fae.” His words pulled her eyes back to him, and she watched as Nikola walked over to a desk in the corner and pulled open a drawer. He took something out and then walked back over to the fireplace with his back to Fae. “I know for sure you’re going to obey me, because I’m going to make you understand just how serious I am.” When he turned around he was holding a sleek black handgun, and he stepped forward next to Juliet and aimed it down at her head. Everything inside Fae snapped to attention, panic hitting her like a tidal wave.

“No, Master!” Fae screamed. Her instinct to stand up and get to Juliet was shut down by the bands on her wrists that sent pain up her arms as soon as she tried to defy the command he’d delivered. She was stuck where she was, unable to move closer to protect her. All she could do was plead with him from afar. “
Please
, Master, please don’t hurt her. I swear, I swear I’ll do whatever you ask. I’ll serve every guest you bring without argument. I’ll do anything to make you happy with me, just please don’t hurt her!”

Nikola didn’t even look at Fae, even when she started begging, repeating ‘
no’
over and over, louder and louder. His body shifted right before the ear shattering pop of the gun going off made Fae jump and cover her ears. When she looked again she could see blood pooling under Juliet, dark and shining in the firelight as it spread slowly.

It was unreal for a moment, an impossible reality that he had killed one of his own slaves, but it was true. It was true, and as the idea settled deep inside her – she screamed. A long wail that ripped at her throat.

She’d broken her promise to Ebere by taking action, then broken her promise to Irena when she’d failed to protect Juliet. And now her defiance had led to this, and the realization that it was her fault hurt. It hurt more than the curse coiling its vicious tongue through her body as she tried to move forward again and the bands lit up. The pain arced across her back forcing another cry out of her that turned into a scream. The emptiness in her chest was a hole. Juliet was dead because Nikola had wanted to hurt
her
, and he had. All of her pain and frustration and rage at herself came out in an unending scream as Nikola stepped back from the body, brushing at the fine spray of blood across his shirt.

“
Why
, why would you do that? I swore I would obey. I promised!” Her breath caught in her chest when the pain in her bands increased, and she leaned forward onto the floor trying to fight through it. She choked on a sob and screamed at him, “WHAT DID YOU WANT FROM ME?!”

Nikola was calmly ignoring her as he turned to set the gun on the mantle when a wind suddenly ripped through the room, sending papers flying and causing the fire to hiss and crackle. He looked up to check the windows just in time to see them explode outwards. Fae gasped, the wind became a howl in its ferocity, and then she looked down to see her skin glowing a soft gold.

What the-?

The bands were so bright they were casting a shadow behind her, and she swallowed the next sob and turned to glare at Nikola again. Bracing her hands against the floor she tried to stand once more, but the pain made her collapse as her bones felt like they were cracking under the strain of her effort.

“Stop, Fae. Whatever you’re doing, stop
immediately
.” His will was in the command, but as the room shook and the wind howled, pulling at the curtains against the walls, she didn’t care. She tried to lift one knee, to get her foot on the floor so she could push herself up through the pain, and Nikola’s eyes widened in fear. It was too intense to even scream, her lungs were empty, and her head was dizzy from the effort. Fae looked up at him as he lifted the gun to point it at her, and she wanted to laugh. She still couldn’t believe he had shot Juliet, and if she could only speak through the pain she’d tell him to go ahead and try to shoot her. Maybe it would kill her.

“I never should have wasted the money on you.” He growled the words, and his other hand came up to steady the gun. He was actually going to shoot her. He narrowed his eyes and she prepared herself, but instead of a gunshot the flames behind him leaped high and bowed out of the fireplace like crashing waves. They paused for a moment in the air as Nikola turned to look at the fire, and his mouth opened in shock just as the waves collapsed and surrounded him.

Nikola started screaming and Fae finally stopped trying to stand. His body was engulfed, a twisted shadow inside the fire as he went quiet, and then he stumbled backward into the wall, which caught fire. The fire wasn’t fading at all, it seemed to cling to him like a horrifying aura that Fae couldn’t tear her eyes from, and then his body tumbled forward slowly before falling behind the chair.

Suddenly, the bands on her wrists disappeared and the pain stopped like a switch had been flipped, leaving her dizzy for a moment in relief. A buzzing euphoria at the absence of it made her bend over her knees as she caught her breath.

Nikola was dead, and Fae was free.

The fire was already spreading up the chair, and across one of the carpets. Fae could feel the wet of the tears on her cheeks as she crawled across the carpet to touch Juliet’s neck. No pulse. Of course there was no pulse. Fae choked out a sob. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. This wasn’t meant to happen, Juliet.”

She was supposed to fix it, to make everything okay so they were safe. So they were all safe.

There was a loud banging coming from the doors, and when Fae looked over at them she could see the edges of the doors glowing a soft gold. From the other side was Butler’s voice yelling to break the doors down.

Run
.

The word echoed inside her, and she stifled the sobs in her chest, locking the guilt away so she could think. Fae gave Juliet one more glance before she stood up. The fire was spreading up the wall, roaring against the ceiling and Fae backed away from it. There was no way to get to Irena or any of the girls, not from this room. The only way out for her now was through the windows. Running over to them she hopped up onto the windowsill and slipped out the window.

She gasped as her bare legs went through a foot of snow that had built up against the house. Pushing through the bushes that scratched at her arms she tumbled out onto the front lawn. Although the cold was painful she had to hurry, they’d be through the doors soon, or someone would see her out front. Moving across the snow covered turf she started to run as best she could, pulling her legs high out of the snow. Her breaths were puffing out in clouds around her, and she couldn’t really feel her feet anymore, or her hands. The realization was far away though, she just had to run, to get as far from those girls as she could so no one would get hurt because of her again.

That was the greatest gift she could give them.

Juliet was dead, but Nikola was dead too. If she were there they’d only use the other girls to punish her, and she couldn’t handle that on her conscience. She couldn’t have another of their deaths to remember.

Chapter Eight

Rannoch Moor, Scotland

The roar of laughter slowed down and Cole picked up his story again, “So there’s Kiernan, waist deep in the river getting his grooming routine on, and this beauty comes walking along the other side of the river.” Cole planted his foot on the ribcage of the massive tiger that spanned the length of one of the tables, and one of the guys shook Kiernan’s shoulders while laughing loudly in his ear. “So we hear Kiernan whispering at us, ‘
Hey! Guys! There’s a tiger
!’ and I open my eyes to see his ass,
naked
, running around our camp trying to find his bow.” Cole scrubbed his face in a dramatic way, “I’ll never forget that image in all of my days!”

“Like you looked so hot with your face in the mud? I woke this idiot up half drowning in a puddle! And I put on my fucking pants, Cole.” Kiernan shouted over the others, which only renewed the laughter from the group of Laochra who had gathered to see their trophies. 

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so he grabs his bow and runs back to the bank of the river - and there she is just drinking. She stretches herself out like she
wants
to get shot, just waiting for him. Kiernan pulls back the bow and POW down she goes.” More hands reached forward to clap Kiernan on the back and he took a big drink of his beer, which sloshed over as he got bumped again by the crowd. Eryn was sitting on the other side of the table and he stood, the group growing quieter to listen to him.

“She wasn’t down for the count though! No way. Kiernan fords across the river, half-swimming and gets to her and she starts hissing and roaring at him, swipes at him with one of those huge claws.” Eryn raised his glass in a toast. “And he leans over her and slits her throat with his knife!” A roar of cheers rose up and Eryn’s grin split his face, showing his teeth.

His own smile was false, hollow.

It had been a fantastic trip, but Eryn was just as vicious as ever and Kiernan couldn’t be a part of the vision Eryn had for the world. He tipped his beer back and finished it, showing the empty mug to the group. Standing up he headed back to refill his drink from a barrel that had been brought out in celebration of their kill. As he stepped away a few of the guys gripped his shoulder, or slapped him on the back and he made himself smile at them. His stomach was turning though, a feeling of dread pooling in his chest as he opened the tap. His arm suddenly burned and he pulled up his sleeve to see the vines progress towards his shoulder. The pitstop at the bar in Virginia on their way back had been enough to move the vines back to his elbow, but not enough to push them back completely.

What the hell was happening
?

He headed towards the sleeping areas and hissed as the burn in his skin faded. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the vines were a warning, that it was something important, and not just his normal lack of action. Kiernan rubbed the ends of the vines on his arm and tugged his sleeve down as Fae’s face popped into his mind. He froze for a moment as her sad smile filled his head and pushed away all thought of the hunt, of the other Laochra waiting to celebrate with him. He just needed to check in on the observation glass and then he could come back. He could come right back, and no one would even notice.

Hopefully
.

Focusing on his apartment he felt himself reappear and waited a second until everything came into perspective.

“Alright, what’s going on...” he muttered to himself, shaking his head at his sudden paranoia as he moved his desk and flipped open the box holding the glass. He touched the edge of it, thinking of Fae. Light flickered in the glass and then the image came into focus. He saw her walking in the snow, bright sunlight making it sparkle around her like diamonds. He frowned as he tried to squint and saw the thin, sleeveless dress she had on.

Why would she be outside? Half naked? In the middle of winter?

What the fuck had happened?

Sliding his finger counterclockwise around the glass time moved backwards, images flickering until he saw fire fill the glass. He paused a second before moving it back even further to get back to the dinner party he knew had happened over the days he was gone; when he saw the whip he stopped and let it move forward. His heart rate increased as he watched, and he found himself digging his free hand into the desk as anger took him over. He wanted to find the man who had held the whip, the one called Butler, and kill him slowly. Very slowly. Then there was the one who’d picked her up off the floor, bleeding, and taken her to his room to-

Kiernan cursed loudly and forced himself to speed up the time, not having the stomach to watch what he did. Moving forward he finally saw the other young girl die, and then he had
no idea
what he saw inside the glass. The windows blew inward, her master was pointing the gun at her, and then the fire came to life and took Nikola into it. Then Fae was running, out into the snow.

In Canada. In only a dress.

Shit
.

When he removed his hand from the edge of the glass it snapped back to real time, only now there were three black clad figures coming towards her in the snow. He slammed the box shut and stepped back focusing on the image of her face.

He felt the frigid air hit him before he recognized he had moved, and when his eyes came into focus he was only a few feet in front of her next to the road, standing shin deep in snow. Fae had one of the men clad in black in some kind of arm hold, and she drove her knee into his stomach hard. Then when he bent over she snapped his arm over her knee. Kiernan could hear the bone break from several feet away and the scream from the guy only confirmed it. Brutally efficient.

“What the hell?!” one of the other guys shouted in a thick accent, and when Kiernan looked over both of the other men were staring wide-eyed at him. Shifting away from the man on the ground Fae kicked the guy with the accent in the chest before turning to look over her shoulder. Her lips parted in surprise and her brow furrowed as she finally saw him – and Kiernan was struck still.

Her eyes were an even paler blue than he thought and her hair was filled with fiery red strands that caught the sunlight. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold, the exertion of the fight, and trudging through the snow. He watched her turn back just in time to see the last man reaching for her and she side-stepped him, knocking his arm away from her. She was more beautiful than he could have ever thought watching her from afar, and watching her move fluidly as she fought, with her breath coming out in clouds in the air around her, was mesmerizing.

“You fucking bitch! You broke my arm! Travis grab her!” The guy with the injured arm had pulled a stun gun out of a pocket in his pants with his good arm, and that finally snapped Kiernan out of his daze. The one called Travis turned to respond but Kiernan caught him in the jaw with a right hook that sent him down into the snow.

What was he doing
?

Travis tried to get up and Kiernan leaned down to deliver another two punches, which dazed the man sufficiently to stay down.

“Who the hell is
he
?” The last guy circling Fae pointed at Kiernan, and Fae glanced at him, her brows pulling together again. The injured one with the stun gun lunged for her, but she jumped out of the way. Kiernan took a few steps towards her, ready to step in if the guy went for her with the weapon, but she obviously didn’t need his help.

Her arms and legs were bare, and from what he had seen when she had kicked the guy she was barefoot. She was cold, she
had
to be cold because it was very, very cold here.

He needed to fix that.

The guy with the broken arm lunged for her, but Fae had been waiting and smoothly moved to the side, grabbing his vest and shoving him towards the last man. When the stun gun made contact there was a crackle of electricity, the other man yelled and hit the snow and the injured man screamed and grabbed his arm as he landed badly. Before the men could react again, Kiernan rushed forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. He focused back on his apartment, and with one last blast of frigid air he shifted and they were in his living room dripping snow onto the tile.

“What the -” Fae’s eyes grew wide as she stumbled back from him, trying to catch her balance against the edge of his couch. She looked around wildly. “How- Who? What the hell just happened? Who -
what
are you?” Fae held a hand out in front of her in an effort to get some space from him, and all the color fled her cheeks. He knew the nausea she felt, it had taken him years to adjust to the instant movement from one place to another.

“Sit down, the effects will fade soon. I just need a minute to think.” Kiernan sighed and pushed a hand through his hair, gripping it at the root.

“No. You need to tell me what the
hell
you are and how you got me here.” She was still bracing a hand against the couch, but every line of her body was ready to fight. He tried to tear his eyes from her curves, from the very short hem of that dress, and focused on the impossibility of what he’d seen in the glass.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Kiernan was muttering to himself and suddenly turned around to face her again, raising his voice at her, “How did you even kill Nikola? That shouldn’t even be
possible
!”

“How do you even know he’s dead?” Fae’s voice was serious, and she stood up straighter.

“I watched it happen!” His head spun as he remembered the eerie way the fire had moved, the way she had glowed with the power of the gods. He felt angry all of a sudden, like she’d somehow lied to him all these years. “You’ve
never
been able to do that before. Moved fire? Blew out those windows? What the fuck, Fae!” Kiernan put his hands in his hair again so he wouldn’t grab for her. He started to pace around the edge of his living room. Fae started moving around the front of the couch taking slow steps back from him, and he was somewhat grateful for the additional space between them.

“What do you mean you watched me? How do you even
know
me?” Fae’s voice had grown quiet, and he turned to face her, those blue eyes evaluating him in a way that made his cock twitch in his pants.

“Of course I watched you, it’s my freaking job, Fae.” He laughed as the bitterness of that statement hit home. He growled as he pointed at her. “The other Laochra will
kill
you if they find out you killed your master. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

Fae stilled and Kiernan pushed out a breath of air, his hands clenching in his hair as he tried to
think
. But he couldn’t think, because she was here. In front of him. In his freaking apartment. This was so stupid, so very stupid. Suddenly, Fae jumped up on the couch and grabbed one of Kiernan’s swords that hung on the wall above it.

“Oh gods.” He groaned. For a second Kiernan regretted keeping his weapons sharpened, because this wasn’t going to go well. Drawing the sword from the scabbard she stepped off the couch and stomped towards him, he raised his hands, about to try and reason with her when she swung it hard at him. Kiernan barely ducked it before hitting the wall behind him as he threw himself backwards.

“Are you insane?!” Kiernan shouted at her as Fae brought the sword back around. He picked up a small table to block the blow, and the little statue that had been on it shattered on the tile. Fae pressed Kiernan backwards, striking at his legs and his head, each blow he caught with the table. His anger flickered inside him and he yelled again, “Stop it, Fae, stop!”

“You’re Laochra?! How dare you
touch
me, how dare you even
speak
to me, you bastard son of Gormahn!” Fae screamed back and surprised him with a hard kick in the stomach before bringing the sword around again. This time Kiernan was slower to block it and it almost cut into his side. Rage flared inside him.

Son of Gormahn
? He was no son of Gormahn.

Kiernan stepped back quickly to get some breathing room from her range with the sword. There was a battle axe hung like art inside a black picture frame next to him, and every piece of him demanded he grab it and show her how he could fight. He gripped the hilt, then he imagined himself swinging the wide blade into her ribs and he released it instantly. A wave of nausea hit him, and he barely got the table up in time to block another blow.

“Listen! If I didn’t take you from there, those guards would have taken you back to Butler, and you know he would have claimed you. You
know
what he would have done to you.” He tried to reason with her as he blocked yet another attack. She was moving the blade incredibly fast and it was wearing him to keep up without a weapon of his own to counter and press her back.

“A Laochra wouldn’t care about that!” She kicked for his knee and he barely avoided it.

“Fae, stop! Would you just talk to me?” he pleaded, and Fae responded by bringing the sword down hard in a two-handed swing meant to separate his shoulder, but Kiernan caught it in the butchered legs of the table and it stuck. When Fae tried to pull it back he saw that it wasn’t moving and he twisted the table to wrench the sword out of her hands. Once it was free he threw the table and the sword behind him down the hall to his bedroom. “Okay, now st-” Fae spun and caught him in the side with a kick, but he grabbed her foot while it was still up and yanked her forward off balance. Catching her he threw her to the ground and avoided a head-butt as he pinned her.