Richard: Blood Brotherhood – Erotic Paranormal Dark Fantasy Romance (12 page)

As they did that, the camera panned around and they saw her there. Lucia was standing on a table and swinging at anyone who got close enough for her to hit. Two other faeries lay on the floor, and one of them looked broken. Rick asked her what she wanted to do.

“End her.” Rick was all for that, but they needed a plan. Ryiah said she was working on that and had called the queen. He had a feeling that she’d not meant via the phone either. And when the woman appeared in the room, Remy and Skylar came in through the doorway.

“I should never have canceled that appointment that I had with you several days ago. Perhaps had I not been too busy, I might have been able to tell you that Hunter was in trouble.” The queen looked visibly upset. “I cannot beg your forgiveness enough for this. We must go and get her at all costs. Hunter is very special to me as well. All of my faeries are.”

Rick had forgotten about that. They were to meet her at midnight and talk. But at the last minute the queen had sent a message telling them that something had come up and that they’d have to do it another time, but soon. Ryiah asked what they could do about Lucia now.

“As you have said, she must die for this. Two of the others, the smaller faerie, have died. And several more have been injured when they went to help Hunter and the others.” Rick looked at Ryiah, knowing that she was worried about Hunter. “I’ve sent someone in to get them. They should be—”

“No. I have this.” Rick wanted to protest, tell Ryiah that was a terrible idea, but she continued. “She’s doing this because of me. Not that it justifies it, but she’s hurt Hunter because she knows how much she means to me. And the others because she’s lost something very precious to her. Fame and magic.”

“You might have to kill her, Ryiah. I can do this for you. It would be my pleasure. When she harmed one of mine, she ended all good will I have toward her.” Ryiah shook her head, and before he could try again to say something, Skylar spoke to him through the link that they’d established recently.

If she doesn’t do this her way, it will haunt her. She already feels guilty that she had her released and the Gathering didn’t do as they said and keep her under control.
Rick said that it was her sister.
I think that relationship ended a very long time ago. You should ask Ryiah sometime about some of the things Lucia had her do. Or did to her. They were never a family. Not even when they were children. If I were you, I’d support her and help her. She’s going to need you.

After thanking Skylar, he leaned back and decided that he would only voice his opinion on this if anyone asked. And he also thought that Skylar was right. He had felt the guilt eating at her even as Lucia left them in the cell area. Ryiah would have known then it was going to end this way. But he thought he could add something to the rescue of Hunter and the others that no one else could.

“I can go in and get them without Lucia knowing I was there. Because of the fact that she’s human now, I can simply pull the shadows around me and be in and out before she can see what I’m doing.” The queen asked him about the others. “Yes, I can, and will bring them here. With the help of Vicki. She can give me the layout of the rooms where they are. That way I won’t appear in the wrong place and end up with a piece of furniture in me.”

“If you do this, you won’t interact with her? You won’t try to subdue her in any way?” He knew that Ryiah was worried about him, but he promised her that he’d just get the faeries and then leave. “If she finds you there, she will try to hurt you. I can’t…I don’t think I could stand it if she hurts you.”

“I promise you, love, in and out and nothing more. Unless she sees me, which I’ll make sure that she doesn’t, then I won’t have any reason whatsoever to speak to her.” She asked him when he could go. “As soon as I know the rooms, I can go right after.”

Vicki came to help. Davis said he’d go as well, not into the house but close enough that if he was needed, he’d be right there. Everyone agreed that the less people hanging around the house, the better it would be. Lucia might have some spies that would warn her that there were others about.

After the rooms were laid out for him, Rick willed himself to the house and pulled the darkness around him. He’d been given several cloth slings to carry the little people in. Rick decided to get the dead first, fearful that if he got Hunter first, Lucia would know something was going on. It was a risk, but he was sure that he’d be in and out before Lucia would know. Going into the house, he moved slowly to where the faeries were laying and picked them up as gently as he could. Even dead, he wanted them to have as much respect as he could give them.

After getting the other three injured ones, he took them out to Davis. Skylar was going to come and get them as soon as he went back in for Hunter. Remy was going to come for him and the warrior to take her to Ryiah. She would be the only one who could save her.

He was standing over Hunter, having removed the glass, when he looked around the room. He wasn’t going to leave anyone here that would be hurt, and nearly fell back when Hunter pointed upward. There on the ceiling were about twenty more faeries, all of them looking as terrified as he’d ever seen them. Picking up Hunter and holding her close to his body, Rick pulled open his shirt and nodded for them to come to him. In seconds he had them covered in his clothing and was ready to leave. Then Lucia came into the room.

He had no idea what he had expected in this woman. Rick knew who she was, of course. He’d seen her several times over the last few weeks. But ever since she’d been released from the cell, she’d let herself go badly. And it looked to him like some of the faeries had gotten in a few licks of their own. He held Hunter to his heart, afraid of her being hurt again, when he felt a small prick. He looked down at her and saw that she had pricked him again, but to get his attention this time.

She isn’t insane.
He asked her what she meant.
She is playing the fool right now in order to gain sympathy from the Gathering. She said that if they see how it has driven her mad to be without her magic, they’ll return it to her. But she plans to kill them. I don’t know how. And then you and Ryiah.

Rick watched the woman and wondered why anyone would think she was anything but insane. The house was a total disaster, as well as herself. Her clothing was dirty and torn, her hair looked as if she had a large family of rats living in it, and she was talking to herself. Instead of waiting around to see what she had to say, he left. He felt Ryiah’s worry and decided that Lucia had fucked with the wrong person in this.

Chapter 11

Lucia looked everywhere for the fuckers. Not one of them were to be found. But what pissed her off more than anything was the fact that Hunter was gone. Not like dead gone, but simply gone. And she knew that her sister had taken her. Picking up the phone, Lucia stared at it, not having any idea how to contact her sister. The faeries were supposed to do that for her, but all they did was die. Lucia did smile about that.

Hunter had come here to tell her something. Whatever it had been had died with her. Lucia was sure that she’d killed the little thing, and she also knew that her sister would come running. But nothing had happened, not a single thing.

She’d expected her to come storming in here, demanding her friend back. Why anyone would befriend a fucking faerie like that one was beyond her. They served little purpose other than to supply someone with endless magic, as well as they were the best at keeping a house clean. Lucia missed that almost as much as she did the magic. Someone to clean up after her would have come in real handy these last few days.

Laying the phone in the cradle again, she started to go and see to her appearance when the phone rang. Turning to stare at it, she debated whether or not to answer it when it suddenly stopped mid-ring. Turning her back on it again, she was annoyed when it rang a second time, and decided enough was enough.

Snatching up the phone, she said nothing as she listened for whatever the person on the other end had to say for herself, if anything. Just as Lucia was ready to hang up again, she heard someone say something quietly.

“What did you just say to me?” Nothing, not even a heavy breathing sound. “I don’t know who this is, but I want you to stop calling here. I have better things to do than to listen to you breathing.”

“I said I’m coming for you.” The voice, she knew it. Not waiting for the person to say more, the receiver was nearly to the cradle when she spoke again. “Lucia, you’re as good as dead as of this very moment. But I’m giving you fair warning to let you know that when you’re gone, I wanted you to know it was me that put you there.”

The phone went dead. The long continuous tone in her ear was both frightening and a relief. Scary because Ryiah had sounded so very serious, and relief because she knew that her sister would never harm her.

“She doesn’t have it in her. No guts.” As she made her way back through the house, she got down on her knees and looked for the fucking faerie. “All she ever did our whole life was cater to my needs. Do what I told her. Said what I told her to. An empty threat. There isn’t any way for her to harm blood. I would hope that she’d not even try that trick on me.”

Lucia was going back into the other part of the house when she saw the note on the front table. It had had a large vase on it when she’d first arrived, but the flowers in it had died and she’d taken the entire mess out back and tossed it in the pool. It had water now, she thought with a smile. Looking at the pretty handwriting on the front, she almost didn’t want to open the envelope. Seeing her name in such fancy script was very nice.

“Oh bother.” Opening it as carefully as she could, she laid the pretty envelope aside as she took out the single sheet of paper. It was expensive and monogramed. Across the top of the pretty paper were the initials RJ.

In the event that you don’t understand what I said to you on the phone, I want to make it clear to you. When you step from your home, even to reach for a pizza that you might have brought to you, I will kill you. I am finished with you, Lucia
.

Then it was signed Ryiah James.

She wanted to tear it up. Or take it to the fireplace and toss it in with the other rubbish that had been coming to her since she’d been here. Lucia even went to the living room to do so when she thought of who she was dealing with. Ryiah. Her only living relative had just threatened her.

“Well, we’ll just see about that, won’t we? And after all the shit I’ve done for her.” She couldn’t think of a single thing off the top of her head, but she was sure there had been something. They’d been alive for so very long that Lucia was sure that at some point she’d done something. “I cannot believe the nerve of her. First she takes my mate. Then she won’t give me back my magic. And now she’s threatening me. I’ll show her what happens when she pulls that shit on me.”

It took her all of two hours to figure out that she had to get out of the house. There wasn’t anything that she could do once she was out, but since she’d been told that she couldn’t leave, that was all she could think about. So of course, that was her sister’s fault as well. And when she could bear it no longer, Lucia went to the door.

There were two faeries there when she stopped in the main hall.

“Fair warning, Lucia.” She reminded them that she was Lady Lucia and they would use her title when they both laughed. “You are nothing. Not a single thing to us. And should Hunter not survive this, we will take great pleasure in tearing you apart.”

“You? Tear me apart? Don’t be stupid. You couldn’t do a damned thing to me when I had my magic, and I know that you cannot do anything now. You cannot harm those with less than you.” They said nothing, but she could see that they thought her stupid. “You know the rules. A faerie cannot kill or take magic from a lesser being. Every faerie knows that rule. It’s the first one they teach you.”

“No, the first one they teach us is to harm none. You have been harming us for decades. And now that you’ve hurt Hunter, we have permission to keep you in the house or we get to kill you.” Lucia leapt at them, scaring the little creatures. When she laughed at them, Lucia wondered if all of them were as stupid as these were. If so, then she had nothing to worry about. They were terrified of their own shadows.

Opening the door, she let the coolness of the day wash over her. It had been a few days since she’d been out in the sunlight, and she tilted back her head to let it warm her face. This was what was so wonderful about being a faerie. The magic, for one, but the feeling that the sun gave a person when it touched their face.

She decided to go shopping. Get some cans of soup like those she’d found in the cabinets of this house and enjoyed. And then maybe she’d go to the compound and see about getting her sister to turn over her magic. It was the very least she could do after what Lucia had been through in the last few months.

Lucia took a single step, one that just put her toes over the line, when she realized that she’d made a fatal mistake. The horde had appeared out of nowhere just as the door behind her slammed closed, pushing her the rest of the way out into the opening and to certain pain. Lucia was trapped.

The magic pulled her the rest of the way out into the grass. She saw Ryiah there, her Richard standing just behind her. It occurred to her then that her sister was beautiful. Her magic, all of it, seemed to shine in a way that put a halo around the couple.

When Ryiah lifted her hand, just a simple hand to the air, the horde flew at her. Lucia tried to back into the house to get to safety, but they were too fast and the door wouldn’t unlock. They were too many.

Fighting them off, she began to see that Ryiah might have been mad at her. Just for what, Lucia had no idea. As the horde tore into her, tearing at her skin, cutting through her clothing and then her flesh, she tried to find a place to hide. Anywhere but in the open. She turned to Ryiah then, and made her way there to get her to stop this nonsense.

Opening her mouth to tell Ryiah that she’d gone too far, Lucia felt them hit her body hundreds at a time. Her hair was torn from her scalp in large hanks that made blood run down her back. Even as some of it ran into her eyes she ran as quickly as she could, hoping that if she could get to Ryiah she’d see that Lucia was getting hurt. There wasn’t any way that she’d let this continue otherwise.

Her mouth was full of them, and she gagged and choked as they entered her throat. The tearing of her ear from her head made her scream, which allowed more of the creatures to fill her mouth. Coughing now, she fell to the ground and was lifted up, her body dropped over and over as they tore off fingers and toes. Even as she was stripped of her clothing completely, the only barrier that she’d had between them and her, it occurred to her that they meant business, that she just might not survive this.

Her eyes were stabbed with small blades. Rubbing her hand over her head to try and stem the blood flow, she could feel the rawness where her hair had been. There was nothing there now, just pain and open wounds. Looking up when a shadow fell over her, she tried to make it out but could only see outlines. She had a feeling it was her sister.

“She died.” Lucia couldn’t ask her who she was talking about, but thought she might have known. That fucking faerie, Hunter. “You killed her, and now you’re going to pay with your life.”

Lucia reached for her, saw her arm and dropped it. The skin was gone, bone showed now, and her fingers were missing as well. Her sister had done this to her. Her own sister. When Lucia started to move, crawl from the pain, she felt something enter her mind and saw the faerie queen. With the queen’s words to her, spoken softly yet loudly in her mind, Lucia felt the blade, magical and pure, enter her heart, and then she was no more.

~~~

The burial was just as Hunter would have liked…simple, with good friends and family together. Every time Ryiah thought of her friend, her only friend for so long, she hurt. Not just in her heart, but in every part of her. Ryiah sat down by the pretty faerie garden that had been built just that morning. There was even a pretty bench near it so that she could sit upon it if she wished. But for now, she sat on the ground.

“I have never missed anyone as I do you. You were my heart for so long that I can’t think beyond that you’re gone from me.” Picking up one of the tiny flowers that danced prettily around the circle, she laid it in the middle. Knowing that in order for someone to disturb Hunter in her rest, they’d have to put the flower exactly where it had been before. “You’d love this garden that was made for you. Pink petals, as well as yellow blossoms that Rose brought here from her own garden. Pitch was here as well. He is so broken hearted that I sent him to his home. Whey is with him; the two of them loved you as much as I do.”

Ryiah broke down then, her sobs like great painful rips in her heart that she knew would never heal. Lying down, putting her hand just near the circle, she thought of the things that the queen had told her.

“I have to choose someone to lead the army now. Yesterday I did the.... Well, yesterday I was there for them, but I don’t think I can do that all the time. I need them near me, but when you were here....” She cried again and had to blow her nose twice as she tried to regain some control. “When you were here, I know that you kept them safe and together. I haven’t any idea what I’m to do now. Oh Hunter, I’m so sorry that you were killed.”

As she lay there, thinking of her sister now, she told Hunter what had happened. And that Lucia was no more. It was important to her that Hunter knew that. That Lucia hadn’t had a proper ring made, nor had she been taken into the earth where she had died.

“The queen stabbed her with the sword of life. I’d never seen it before. It is something that you hear about for all your life, but to see it....” Ryiah wondered how many others had met their fate by being taken by the queen, and didn’t want to think of it. “She told me that when this is finished with the monsters from the other realms, she wishes to have a talk with Rick and me. I’ve not any idea what she might want, but we told her that we would. I so wish that you could be here with me when I see her. Or to see the beautiful sword. You could have—”

“Ryiah?” She looked at Rick as he sat beside her. “I’ve come to see if you’d join us for a meal. The faeries want you to be there when they start it.”

“I’ve no appetite, and I’ve no wish to be around people just now.” He nodded but didn’t move away. “I have lost my best friend in the entire world because my sister was a horrible monster. Why? Why did she have to kill her, Rick? Hunter was only doing her job.”

“Did I tell you that I spoke to her when I went to get her?” She sat up but didn’t take her hand from the circle. “She told me where the others were, and Lucia’s plans for the Gathering as well as the two of us. I think that even then she knew that you’d not be able to save her, and she wanted me to have as much information as she could get to us.”

“She was such a warrior. I saw her fighting so many times, and I was forever surprised at what she was capable of. And the way that she led the others into victory was the most amazing thing.” He nodded. “The others, they don’t have a leader now. I don’t know what to do about that.”

“You should lead them.” Ryiah only stared at him. “Why not? You’re a faerie and they look up to you. When I saw you with them yesterday, I was amazed at how well you seemed to know what to do after telling me that you’d had no experience with them.”

“I only had to tell them to go. That isn’t leading them.” He asked her why not. “I would have to make sure that they’re trained properly. That they know what to do when they are out working. And to keep them out of trouble when there are no wars, which is most of the time. They need someone there all the time.”

“And again, why not you?” He sat down beside her, and she squeaked when she was lifted up and sat on his lap. “You’re brave, smart, and know a great deal more than you let on. Hunter was the best there was, but only because you were there for her. I’m sure that if given the chance, you’d be a ferocious and great leader to them. Someone that the queen could depend on as well.”