This time, there were no flames in the underground room to greet me. There was no one around.The fae must have realized that the fire wouldn't affect me. He must have run back upstairs.
I had to hurry. With their portal potions, the Mage Council could travel anywhere in moments. They could disappear in a puff of colored smoke and reappear on the other side of the world. I had no doubt that King Summerset had run off to call them.
I ran up the stairs and found myself crammed in the pool house—the pool itself a glittering, innocuous-looking mirrored surface once more. There was no sign that it had just tried to swallow me up.
I shoved through the doorway of the poolhouse, still dripping wet, and taking down chunks of the wall on either side because of my size. I shook out my wings, trying to rid them of water and debris as quickly as I could so that I could fly out of there. The droplets and splinters scattered like rain. I was about to jump and put on a burst of speed, when a white sleep grenade hit my stomach and exploded.
Everything seemed to slow down when it detonated, as if my mind was working so fast that the world was in slow motion. I watched in horror as a cloud of white dust billowed up around me.
Fuck.
If I inhaled, I'd be knocked out for hours.
I'd never wake up.
The council would make sure of it.
With only half a second to spare, I plunged back down into the water to avoid the white powder. I made sure to stay far from the mage jewel’s cage. The water currents didn’t seem to spin. The spell didn’t seem to activate again, perhaps it only went off if someone touched the jewel’s hidden location. When my clawed foot hit the bottom of the pool, it was actually the bottom of the pool.
I waited a moment and held my breath as the sleep dust cleared. Then I shot back out of the water into the night sky, sending a stream of fire from my mouth. I didn't pick a direction for my flame, I just turned my head from side to side and sprayed. I kept the heat low, hoping the smoke would make the fae cough and give up his location.
I assumed it was Aubry's father attacking me, but it could have been some security guard. They had enough fucking money. Or even one of the council members showing up. I’d certainly wasted enough time.
My ears twitched as I heard the tell-tale cough. There. To my right, standing between me and the house. I swiveled my head in that direction and let out a billowing puff of smoke without flame.
I heard the coughing intensify as he started to fly after me, but I didn't care. I flapped my wings as hard as I could, straightening my tail for maximum velocity, and I shot up into the sky.
But pain ripped through my tail only seconds later, making the appendage curl in agony. I lost my aerodynamic shape and tumbled back down, smacking against the roof tiles until I fell to the ground. If it weren’t for the scales that protected me like armor, I’d have been dead. As it was, I saw double. My head pounded. My tail throbbed. Sanity and humanity left me, and the frenzied fury of an animal in fear of death stole over me.
I roared.
Someone had fucking shot me.
I whirled around, stomping through perfectly manicured lawns, shoving aside planters and firepits until I came face to face with an older male fae, who hovered in midair and held a gun. His wings had the same pink dots along the tips as Aubry's, but I didn't register that fact in the moment. I could hardly see anything beyond the scarlet rage tinting my vision.
My fire couldn't end him nor could his hurt me. I'd have to defeat him some other way.
I blew smoke again and dove sideways as the gun went off once more. I tucked and rolled through a set of bushes, hitting the house so hard it vibrated.
The second bullet missed me. So did a third as I crept around on the ground, continually blowing black smoke rings so that the fucking fae couldn't see a thing.
Prey! my beast mind screamed.
I heard a whoosh behind me, which meant that someone else had just arrived—probably via Portal Potion.
I'd be surrounded soon.
I blew more smoke and finally heard a cough. I lunged forward, fangs latching onto the fae's shoulder just as more footsteps sprinted around the corner. I used the claw that wasn't clutching the mage stone to wrench away his gun and heard a horrid pop in his shoulder.
The beast in me didn’t give a fuck when he screamed. The man in me didn’t give a fuck. My enemy was disarmed.
I launched into the sky with my treasure and my prey, determined to take both far away from the dangers here so I could better enjoy them.
I had to focus intently in order to force my injured tail to stay straight. My muscles ached, even as they started to heal and knit together. My wings flapped vigorously.
I was getting away. I was doing it. I knew I was succeeding based on the furious yells coming from the tiny people dotting the lawn below.
But my prey didn't hold still. He struggled, still fought, even as my free claw accidentally shredded one of his wings as I tried to get a better hold on him.
The fae’s hands shot useless fire at me. It did little more than momentarily obscure my vision. But when he started kicking and swinging his legs in my hold, he fucked up all my aerodynamics, and that made me furious.
My rage grew as hot as my fire and I just... let go.
I dropped him.
But he kicked one last time as he fell from my grasp, his foot wrenching the mage jewel out of my claw before he tumbled through the air, one wing flapping uselessly, the other—the one I’d shredded—dancing like streamers in the wind.
The glowing yellow jewel plummeted down after him.
NO!
Before I could tuck my wings and dive after it, before I could react at all, both of them smashed into the concrete pool surround, pulverized. I hovered for a second, in some suspended state of disbelief.
Did all of that actually fucking happen?
Shots whizzed through the air at me, confirming that it had.
I ignored the bullets, wondering if I could plunge down there and fly off with a tiny chip, if a piece of the jewel would do any good, make any of this worth it. But the fragments of the mage jewel had lost their glow, returning to tiny, ordinary crystals dotted with blood.
It was a few seconds before I could pump my wings and soar off into the sky, away from the mages who had started to appear out of thin air.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
The angry beast within me subsided, and my horrified human side took its place, as the reality of what had just happened sank in.
All my hopes for shifter kind were shattered along with that stone.
And a piece of my heart splintered too as I realized... I’d just killed Aubry’s father.
22
Aubry
When Drake swooped out of the sky in dragon form, my heart clenched tight with worry.
Bodie and I had just emerged from the woods, returning from our "walk," when Drake landed in the gravel drive. He quickly shifted to human, stumbling slightly as if he were drunk or hurt, and said only one thing, "Time to run."
My chest grew heavy and my hands started to tingle. Drake was in trouble. Probably with the fucking mages, if his eagerness to flee was anything to go on. Did I want him to get away? Did I want them to succeed?
I looked over at Bodie. I couldn’t answer that question because my pussy still ached from his cock. My heart still ached from the words and emotions we’d shared.
"What the fuck happened?" Bodie asked, grabbing my hand and the chain he’d reattached to my ankle, pulling me from the trail over to the porch. It seemed like these shifters couldn’t go two seconds without some kind of drama popping up.
The fact that Drake had left without telling us riled me up in a way I didn’t expect. It made my heart beat frantically, almost like I was fucking panicked. Probably just because I’d gotten so used to his annoying presence over the last several days stuck in the damned cabin together, but still.
"Where the hell were you?" I demanded as if he owed me an explanati
on. As if he’d give me one.
Drake didn’t. He just walked into the cabin, with Bodie and I on his heels.
I spotted Larry, who was passed out on the couch, EarPods still in his ears. Tee was snuggled up near his elbow, muttering again about unicorns and hoes. I couldn’t tell if she was having gardening dreams or dirty ones.
Drake lifted a phone to his ear and I could hear Easton’s curt, "Yes?" on the other end of the line.
"Come back now," Drake ordered. "We have to disappear."
Drake hung up and dug another phone out of his pocket. Before he dialed, he turned and looked at Bodie. "Anything you need, grab it. Weapons too. We need to clear out of town. Code Black."
I saw Bodie’s shoulders stiffen at that code. I had no fucking clue what it meant, only that it was bad.
Drake made a call on the second phone, but that didn’t give me any more damn information than the first call. He just ran a hand through his jet-black hair and said, "Code Black," again. What the fuck was happening?
Did Trite find him?
That thought froze my heart. Shit. I hoped they didn’t find Triton. But I also hoped Trite didn’t find them. I didn’t want anyone to find the other. I didn’t want these separate worlds to meet. Ever. I had a feeling it would be like stars colliding.
Bodie dropped my hand and sprinted up the stairs without explanation, leaving me in the middle of the cabin’s living room with a twenty-foot chain coiled at my feet like a pet snake.
I just stared at Drake with a question on my face. He grimaced, and I thought I saw a spot of blood on his lips, but he turned away quickly and shook Larry awake.
"Huh? Huh? What?" Larry mumbled. When he opened his eyes and realized the dragon shifter loomed over him, he shoved himself as far back into the couch cushions as he could. "Damn, Drake, you scared me!" the old man shouted.
"We have to leave," Drake said softly.
"What? Oh, hold on a second." Larry dug his EarPods out of his ears and grabbed the charger from his pocket to replace them. "What was that now?"
"We have to leave. I need you to…" Drake glanced at Tee then over at me. Then he gave a loud, long-suffering sigh. "I need you to spell the pixie so she doesn’t remember anything."
My heart jumped into my throat. Did asshat just do what I thought he did? Was he actually taking my feelings into account? Holy shit! Was the world ending?
Drake didn’t look at me again, which only confirmed my conclusion. And it made me scared—more scared than when he’d first landed and freaked us out. Drake didn’t do nice. He was acting out of character.
Shit.
He was worried.
Larry scrubbed a hand over his face and gave a yawn. He shook his head, trying to wake up. "You know that Memory Wiping Potions aren’t really my specialty. And they’re typically only for use on humans."
"You want me to kill her?" Drake’s fury heated the room.
"Nope. Nope. Just gimme a minute." Larry scrambled to his feet and went over to the kitchen. I turned to watch the mage, because the alternative was staring at Drake’s furious eyes as they flickered between gold and blue.
Larry puttered around in there, opening the cabinets that Easton had recently filled with food. He pulled out some nuts and an avocado. "Is there a mortar and pestle?" he asked.
Bodie came back downstairs with a sawed off shotgun strapped to his chest, pistols at his hips, and two cases in his hands full of what I assumed were more weapons. "Yup. We keep a mortar and pestle right next to our magic cauldron," he quipped. "What the hell are you doing?"
Larry shrugged. "Drake wants a memory wipe for the pixie."
Bodie sighed. "You got time for that?"
"I wasn’t given a timeline—"
"Never mind. Where’s Drake?"
I turned, realizing the dragon shifter was back outside. Two flaming hunks of plastic lay on the ground near him—the cell phones. Fire danced above a disgusting mess of plastic and black smoke billowed into the night. The stench wafted in and made me cover my nose.
Bodie stopped next to me. "Wait here while I go check on him."
"What?" My jaw dropped. After everything we’d just done and confessed, my mate wasn’t going to trust me? What the ever loving fuck? Anger rose and smacked my cheeks, turning them red. "You just want to—"
Bodie shook his head. "Drake looks like he might flame out. I don’t want you getting hurt, Butterfly."
His stupid nickname softened my rage. Or maybe it was all the orgasms he’d just given me. I decided to blame those instead. Bodie leaned down and kissed my forehead. "I’ll be right back," he said.
I huffed but turned to watch Larry instead of going out onto the porch and eavesdropping. Their stupid shifter ears would have heard me and my chain coming from a mile away, making it impossible anyway.
Larry used a meat mallet to smash up some walnuts. Then he put them in a bowl and cut open some avocado and dumped it in. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some white dust. He sprinkled that onto his mixture and grabbed a spoon.
"What was that?" I asked him.
"You don’t wanna know," he responded, using a spoon to mash the whole thing together. "Unfortunately, I’m gonna have to ask you to be quiet because I don’t want to mess this up."
Larry started to chant as he finished the mixture, the words sounded like gibberish to me. From what Trite had told me over the years, mage magic used some long-forgotten language out of Mesopotamia. It made it harder for people to learn and impossible for non-mages to just steal spells or potions and replicate them.
He began waving his arms in wide gestures as he chanted. He even did a strange little shuffle-step.
I looked out the front window when Larry started to do some squats and his pants slipped a little. I didn't want to break his concentration, but I also felt awkward as a plumber's crack issue started to develop.
Outside, I saw Drake was now as armed as Bodie. Both of them stood sentinel, staring down the road, waiting for Easton. My heart pinged around in my chest like an old-school screensaver. I knew traffic was bad in Los Angeles. But waiting on Easton made me nervous that something had happened to him. It made me want to chew my nails.
Instead, I dropped and did push ups. If I was gonna have anxiety, I'd rather burn it up than let it burn me up.
No worrying for you, I told myself as I extended my arms and lifted my chest from the ground. You’re the mother fucking Chuck Norris of the fae. When you do a pushup, you push the earth down. When fear knocks at your door, it runs away screaming.
I didn't know how much time passed. Half an hour? An hour?
I'd moved from push ups to sit ups to lunges by the time Larry finally made his way over to the couch and spread the paste he'd created on Tee's forehead. Instead of being brown or green, like I expected, it was a soft lavender. Larry kept chanting, and I watched as the lavender paste soaked into Tee's skin and disappeared.
I swallowed hard. I was used to magic, but Larry was the only mage who'd ever performed spells in front of me before—I didn't count whoever my parents had hired to spell me upon birth and make me reversibly infertile. Part of me was fascinated. And the other part of me couldn't help but wonder why the hell mages ran the world when their magic was slower than a snail riding a turtle.
Those thoughts didn't have time to expand into metaphors that didn't suck, because Easton pulled up just then, his headlights cutting across my vision.
I ran out onto the porch. I couldn't stop myself.
My heart thumped wildly until I saw him climb out of the driver's seat unhurt. Until I realized that his back seat and passenger seat were both empty. He hadn't been harmed and he hadn’t found Trite. Good. The knot in my chest eased.
"Go time," Bodie was at my side in seconds, grabbing my chain and escorting me down the steps. He opened the back door of the car for me and I climbed into the seat.
"Nope. Scoot over, Buttercup," he said, shoving his ass in next and coiling my chain at his feet. "Hurry, L
arry!" I heard Drake call out. Then the dragon shifter slid into the driver's seat.
Larry came scurrying down the steps moments later, lugging a cat carrier that came from… where?
Drake just jerked his head at the car and the mage got in. He took the front seat next to Drake. "I can’t just leave her behind, not knowing if someone would take care of her. I brought Tallulah. No arguments," Larry stated, with a sense of authority I’d never seen from him before.
It made me smile. But that smile was wiped right off my face when I realized that the only open seat left was next to me. I gulped as Easton slid into the back seat on my other side.
I was caught between the wolf and the bear, each of them cozying up against my legs just as they had my heart. The irony was not lost on me. In fact, the irony felt like a shaft of iron had just been shoved up my ass for a nice little 'fuck you.'
Neither man looked at me. Both checked their weapons and kept their eyes out the window. I took a deep breath and tried to keep my adrenaline from fueling my desire. If I had known any sports stats, I would have started reciting them.
"Where are we headed?" Bodie asked.
"Away." Drake's monotone response was all we got for the next half hour.
We left the forest and wove through Pasadena and Glendale before coming to a stop outside of Union Station. The old Spanish mission style building had a modern clock tower with Roman numerals on the exterior. The time read 12:50 a.m.
Drake jerked the car toward the sidewalk, cutting someone off, and ramping Larry’s ride up the curb for a second before parallel parking in a spot that was just long enough that Larry’s bumper didn't touch the car in front of it.
"Out," Drake ordered.
The street was empty at this time of night, but I could hear people inside the station. The depot served trains and buses, and typically hummed with life no matter the hour.
Before we climbed out, Bodie bent and unlocked the chain around my ankle. But then he kept a tight grip on my hand and slid out of the car with me next to him.
Fae Captive (The Mage Shifter War Book 1) Page 25