That set off something low in my body and I squeezed my knees together.
“You gotta pee?” Eric asked.
I shook my head rapidly. “Nope, all good.”
I was, in fact, not all good. The idea of Crash had taken root in my mind and my body was reacting way too strongly. Side effect of Karissa’s kiss? I was betting so. I put my head down and tried to breathe through the waves of oh-baby-take-me-now that were rippling through every inch of my muscles and nerves.
Shit. I had to stop this in its tracks. Think of something else. Think of something scary or bad.
Like being shot at again. We were headed back to the wildlife reserve; what if the shifter who’d been shooting at us came back to try again? That cooled my libido pretty ducking quick and I was finally able to lift my head and see where we were.
“Overshoot the normal docking place,” I yelled to be heard over the engine and the slap of water against the hull of the small boat. We were skipping and bobbing along so fast that we were bouncing.
Eric took us around an extra couple of bends in the river before he pulled the boat to the shoreline. He hopped out first, but I was right behind him. Hopping out like I was twenty again.
We pulled the boat up onto the shore, far enough that it wouldn’t be seen from the water. I worked with a couple of thick branches to sweep the drag lines.
The sound of the second boat had me scrambling backward, falling on my butt as I slid in the slick mud.
“So you’re faster, but still clumsy.” Eric grinned as he helped me to my feet. I grimaced, and then we were off and running again. Yeah, this was going to hurt me later.
But in no time at all we were approaching the massive oak trees at the far side of the fairy ring. The problem was that I wouldn’t be able to see how far the yellow and black fairies had gotten in digging through the one tree unless I circled around. With it being close to dusk, there were no fairies here yet. The Unseelie were active from three in the morning until noon, which meant they should still be asleep. This was the perfect time to set up camp to watch them.
“Stay here,” I whispered to Eric as I crouched and crept my way around to the side where I could see the action.
The sight of the tree trunk made me gasp. I could almost see through it. Like a piece of stained glass, the striations of wood were barely there.
Did I dare get a closer look? “Eric, you can hear me?” I glanced over to see a single hand emerge from the trees, the big thumb pointing to the sky.
“I’m going to get a better look.”
Thumb turned down.
Too late.
Staying in a crouch, I hurried forward and pressed my hands on the trunk of the tree. Karissa wanted me to bring the relic to her. What if I could take it now? I pressed my hands to the hole in the trunk and the tree shivered away from me, the bark turning black under my hands, and the remainder of the trunk peeled away leaving a perfect hole, just big enough for my hand. Inside the circle of trees, on a bed of brilliant green moss, lay a solid quartz chunk of stone in the shape of a cross.
I reached in and pulled it out, and tucked it into my bag. As I pulled my hand out, the circle of trees began to droop, black rot spreading from the tree through which I’d reached the cross, traveling in curling tendrils that cracked the trunks.
I’d done that? It had to be from Karissa’s kiss. That’s what I told myself, anyway. But something inside of me said it was more complicated.
You must protect the cross now. From all that would take it and mean harm. Keep it safe, Guardian.
The voice rippled through the air and I stumbled backward, running for Eric, forgetting all about being quiet.
He grabbed me by the arms. “What happened? Why are the trees dying?”
“Um, I touched the tree and then it started dying. The other ones seem to have caught it.” I opened my bag and he looked in.
“Holy shit, that’s a relic of the fae. Why did it let you take it?” he whispered.
“That’s an excellent question.” Crash’s voice thumped into me and I spun to see him across the small clearing.
Lordy Jaysus, he was hot, even more so when he was angry. What the hell was wrong with me? My legs shook, and not out of fear. I took a step back. “You’re working for Douche Canoe, so no, you can’t have this.” I put my hand on the bag and tucked it behind me.
Crash’s eyes narrowed. “Who the hell is Douche Canoe?”
“Sean O’Sean’s pop. O’Sean senior,” I said. “They spelled the Hollows Group, worked with Hattie, and threatened my life, and you’re working for them.” Not to mention that he obviously had terrible taste in women if he thought those two young thangs were all that and a bag of potato chips. I glared at him. “And you are a cradle robber.”
That last comment seemed to throw him for a loop, but he shook it off. “Sean O’Sean is dead. There are other forces at play here that even I don’t understand.”
“Yeah, because I killed him when he attacked me and a friend,” I said, widening my stance, my hands dropping to my knife handles. Was I really going to take on Crash? Holy shit. Holy shit. My palms began to sweat, and I think I may have peed myself a little.
I slid my bag off my shoulders and handed it to Eric. “Hang on to this for me.”
“You can’t fight him,” Eric whispered. “He’ll kill you. He’s way stronger than you.”
“I know,” I said, and I did. He was the bad guy, remember, that’s what I had to keep reminding myself. “You get that to Karissa if he kills me.”
Crash’s eyes went wide and then narrowed. “You’re working for my ex-wife?”
“You bet. Lady power and all that jazz.”
“She’s using you,” he said.
I snorted. “And you weren’t trying to?” His jaw ticked and I nodded. “That’s what I thought.” I pulled both knives from their sheaths. By all that was holy, I hoped that this was going to work.
“Wait,” I breathed the word to Eric, who startled a little but gave a nod.
Then I rushed Crash, pulling up every last ounce of training I had in me.
And prayed I wasn’t about to die.
18
My knives hit a resistance as I’d expected; I mean, I didn’t think Crash would actually let me just stab him without fighting back. He spun lightly on his feet, a sword just appearing out of seemingly nowhere as he caught my blades and pushed me back.
“Breena, you don’t understand,” he growled. “You are deliberately putting yourself in danger!”
“So why don’t you cut the whole mysterious act and tell me what the hell is going on?” I snapped as I whipped my left blade across in a slash, following it with my right in a stabbing motion. He grunted, the tip of the right blade just missing him, as he was only able to block the first.
I let the magic that Karissa had kissed into me flow through my veins. This was everything youth was supposed to be, power and strength and stamina. But youth was also incredibly cocky, and young people so often thought they were immortal.
I knew better.
So as he stumbled back, his blade still on the upswing of blocking mine, I dropped my left knife to the ground, grabbed his shirt and pulled him in hard for a kiss that I hoped would literally knock his socks off.
All that magic that Karissa had given me? I pushed it into Crash, with a thought that he needed to sleep.
He grunted, his mouth moving over mine with a possessiveness that I wanted but knew better than to believe in. The magic pulsed out of me and he slumped to his knees, his mouth slipping from mine.
“Breena. Don’t. You’ll get hurt. Or worse.”
“I won’t help the O’Seans ruin this town, Crash. I won’t. Not even for—” I was going to say for you, but he didn’t want me. Not really. I was just a pawn, a way to piss off Eammon and the Hollows.
Yeah, that stung more than a little.
As he toppled over to the side, unconscious, I scooped up my blade and cursed at the pain that shot t
hrough my back. Yup, that was going to be a bitch.
I limped—freaking limped—over to Eric. His eyes were wide. “You . . . that was amazing. You didn’t even kill him, but you beat him. Nobody beats Crash.”
I shrugged and he handed me back my bag. A slight buzzing filled the air, and I found myself pushing him forward from what I imagined to be a horde of seriously pissed off yellow and black fairies. They’d attacked the trees with fervor and messed with Kinkly’s wings. I could only imagine what they’d do to us. If they were awake now, it had to be because Crash had called them.
Eric half dragged, half carried me to the boat and shoved me in. “Look at that, we didn’t even need Robert,” I mumbled as Eric turned the boat and sent us out into the river once more.
I wasn’t sure this was what Karissa had planned, but seeing as the item was now safe with me . . . I put a hand to my head. “What the hell was I thinking? I didn’t even want to take it!”
“I did give you a thumbs-down,” Eric yelled over the rushing wind and the slap of the water against the small boat’s hull.
“I know, I know!” I rubbed my face vigorously. “It’s like . . .” Like whatever juice I’d been running on from Karissa had robbed me of my better sense.
Eric scooted us back to River Street, and I all but slithered out, my legs jelly. I wasn’t even sore, I was just . . . jelly. “Come on, we need to get to Forsyth Park and the fountain.”
Thank all that was holy, Eric didn’t so much as blink. He got a hand under my one arm, and once I was up, I was able to move on my own.
“Why aren’t we running?” he asked as I forced my legs to work.
“Running people attract the attention of the supernatural; have you not read The Last Unicorn?” I smiled up at him and he laughed.
“Okay, so that part of the book was correct, but not much else,” he said.
So just like that we went from stealing a fae artifact to going for a stroll through town as so many couples did this close to sunset.
Just another day in the life of Breena O’Rylee. I lifted my face to the last rays of the sun and dared to close my eyes for just a second. “If Crash didn’t hate me before, he will now,” I said as I opened my eyes.
“I don’t think he hated you at all,” Eric said. “From what I’ve heard, he’s never so much as blinked in the direction of women other than for temporary pleasure.”
A snort slid out of me. “You should have seem him in the orgy pit.”
Eric choked back a sound. “I’m sorry, the what?”
“The doorway we went through to avoid the idiots in black was an in between, and it took us to what was basically a fae orgy pit. He had a brunette on one side and a raven-haired girl on the other, and it looked like they were maybe eighteen at best.”
“Well, shit,” Eric muttered, and coming from him, a bigfoot who looked more like a professor, it made me snicker.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear before.”
He patted my shoulder. “I don’t often. It’s a bad habit in my profession.”
We were quiet for about half a block before I asked a question. “Who do you think is behind all this weird stuff, Eric? I mean, we’ve got the O’Sean family. Karissa and Crash are obviously fighting over . . . maybe territory? And obviously this thing,” I put a hand on my bag as I looked up at Eric. He shrugged, so I went on. “The idiots in black, who may or may not have something to do with that, and then someone shot at us, but who?”
“Hard to say. All of it is a tangled mess.” He paused and turned to look behind us. I looked with him.
There in the distance was a broad-shouldered figure I knew all too well. “Oh shit. That spell didn’t knock him down for long.”
“Do we run now?” Eric breathed out.
“Just walk faster,” I said. I mean, Eric was hardly the one to blend in at over seven feet tall.
We picked up our pace, weaving our way through the next square, doing our best not to look like we knew we were potentially being chased.
“How close?” I asked quietly.
“He’s not hurrying to catch us, so either he doesn’t see us, which I doubt is the case seeing as he’s not blind, or he wants to see where we’re going,” Eric said softly.
I took the next right, and we broke into a run as soon as we were around the corner, heading for our house. For Crash’s house.
Gran’s house.
Crap on crackers, he was going to kick me out. I was going to lose my gran’s house completely. He’d never agree to sell now.
A flutter of wings caught my attention over the ragged sound of my lungs working overtime. “Kink! Are you okay?”
Tears streaked her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I should have warned you that she’d use you. I thought you were like the others, but you’re not. You’re my friend. She kicked me out for standing up to her.”
I wanted to ask her a question, but I didn’t dare. If I did, I feared I wouldn’t have enough air left to keep going. We reached Gran’s house and I bolted through the gate and up the porch steps. “Kink, meet me out back!”
As soon as we entered the house, I sent Eric to the kitchen with a hand motion, as I ran through the house to the back door, and right out into the backyard. I wanted to catch my breath, but I had more problems than a woman could count, and having all the time in the world wasn’t one of them.
“Kinkly!” I whisper-yelled her name and a moment later she buzzed down to me. “What the hell are you talking about? Is Karissa one of the bad guys?”
“No.” She shook her head and then nodded. “Maybe. She’s working with the O’Seans. They told her they’d help her secure her territory if she got them the fairy cross.”
Now that set me back on my heels. Because I knew Crash was working with them too.
Or at least he was making a crucible for Douche Canoe.
Now, if I’d been twenty years younger, I might have lost my mind right there.
But I was not.
And I would not.
I turned around and marched right back into the house in time to see Crash barrel through the front door. I pointed a finger at him. “You. In the kitchen, now.”
His jaw dropped and I lifted both eyebrows at him, not even trying the one brow trick. “Seriously. In the kitchen.”
“Give me the cross,” he growled.
“IN THE KITCHEN!” I yelled and he took a half step back. My heart was beating hard with a mixture of anger, hurt, and sheer exasperation. I went into the kitchen first, part of me expecting a blow from behind, but trusting Crash just enough to give him my back.
Eric, Suzy, and Feish were already crowded up against the far wall, like kids whose parents were really scrapping it out. I pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. Waited for Crash.
A full minute passed—which is a long time to wait, let me tell you, but I refused to back down. Not today.
Not tomorrow.
He finally came inside and sat across from me, his eyes flashing with anger. I glared right back. “You are working on a crucible for O’Sean Senior, are you not? I assume you need the quartz for it, as I believe I recall you saying it would take some time. Are you supposed to make the crucible out of the cross?”
Guessing, I was guessing, but the tightening along his neck told me I was spot on. Score one for me. Unfortunately, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to score any other way any time soon.
Before he could speak, I held up a finger. “I don’t want the O’Seans to have a leg up. Pardon me, the O’Sean to have a leg up.”
He frowned but kept his mouth shut. Look at me go. “The younger of the two is dead, and it looks as though your ex-wife is also working for O’Sean Senior.”
That frown of his deepened. “Damn it. Damn her.”
“Yes, well, seeing as I took on a job for her, I am the one cursing myself. You are somehow both working for the same asshole. How’s that for a pickle? I’m not interested in giving either of you this quartz
fairy cross.”
“I’ll kick you out of your gran’s house,” he said.
I leaned back in the chair, having already guessed he’d say that. “My gran would prefer for me to lose this house permanently than to help an O’Sean hurt this town, something she is very sure will happen if they have their way. Savannah is mine to protect, as it was my gran’s. So if you want to intimidate me, keep trying.”
He mimicked me. “Why aren’t you still running away?”
“You want to run around in this heat? Bless your heart, I thought you knew better than to risk heat exhaustion.”
Suzy snickered into her hand, but quickly covered it up. I glanced over to see my three friends eating some concoction Eric had whipped up earlier. Like they were spectators at a bull fight. I frowned at them and the jerks all shrugged in unison.
Back to Crash, I put both hands on the table. “We are at an impasse.”
Gran floated to the left of me. “My book, you read in my book about fae, about how to bind them, forcing them to heel.”
What the hell did that have to do with Crash right now? Yes, he was fae, but . . . had they made him sign some sort of contract?
Oh.
My eyes widened. “Are you being forced to help the O’Seans?”
His blue and gold eyes closed and he leaned back in his chair. “I am a prisoner to them, far worse than Feish is to me.”
Well duck me sideways.
19
Sitting in my gran’s kitchen, across the table from Crash, I just stared at him, gobsmacked by the words that had fallen out of his mouth. He was something like a slave to O’Sean Senior?
“Seriously?”
His jaw flexed, but not with anger, more like he couldn’t answer me. I’d seen enough of that lately to recognize it for what it was. Feish gave a burble off to my left. “I can speak for him. He will have to punish me later, but you must know, I think, or we will all walk off a cliff that can’t be seen in the fog.”
Midlife Fairy Hunter: The Forty Proof Series, Book 2 Page 21