Fae Chronicles 01 - Fighting Destiny

by Amelia Hutchins

  I blanched at his words and watched as he turned and walked away in the direction where Claire's ecstatic cries were still coming from down the hall. I turned and fled needing to get out of here. Once again I'd been enthralled by Ryder and this time it had been while he fucked someone on his desk! I needed a cold reminder of what I was and why I did what I did. And fast.

  I stole keys from the entryway before peeking through the window to outside, I quietly opened the door and snuck out of the house, sneaking through the door and into the garage before pressing the unlock button to see which car beeped. I growled when three made the same annoying loud beep. Stealthily, I slipped into the first one.

  I sat in a midnight blue Lamborghini and smiled like a naughty child with her hand in the cookie jar. Oh. Hell. Yes! I hit the button on the keychain to open the garage as I turned it on and pulled out onto the long driveway and winced as I saw the closed gates, but as I approached them slowly they slid open.

  I let a slow shaky breath out and passed through waving to the guard like I was supposed to be in Ryder's quarter million dollar car and smiled like an idiot. I didn’t relax until I hit the highway and then I opened the car's engine and allowed it to purr to life.

  My mind went back to Ryder inside his office. I'd considered his option…way too much. I'd almost taken the step that would have told him yes. I'd seen his hunger shining in his eyes and I had wanted to fix it. Of course I told myself it had been because I'd been the one to enrage his appetite and leave him hanging.

  I was lying to myself.

  I was getting pretty damn good at making excuses for why I did stupid shit around him. I wondered if they would notice the car's absence since it was unlikely they would notice mine at all. Ryder was partial to his cars and it showed in the way he drove them. The way his hands caressed the leather….oh hell!

  I switched on the radio and flinched as Nine Inch Nails roared to life from the speakers mounted in the doors. I clicked it back off and rolled my eyes at how pathetic I was acting. Synthia McKenna, Fae killer extraordinaire—is giddy over the Dark Prince…I could imagine it on the headlines of the Guild's paper already.

  I pulled up to the Oak Ridge Cemetery gates and nodded at the gatekeeper before slowly making my way to the unmarked grave in the back close to the tree lines. It was one of the oldest cemeteries in the state. It was also the only one with no names on any of the graves—just numbers.

  It was a way to keep track of the dead without giving out their family names or place others on the human's radar. Even though we’re technically human, we didn’t fit in with them or the Otherworlder's. We just continued to protect them even though they didn't accept us anymore than they did the Otherworlder's who couldn’t pay them enough to be accepted. Money made the human world spin. Always had and would continue to do so until someone decided they weren't worth keeping around any longer.

  I parked in the back and exited the car, grabbing for my purse before heading to where Adrian was buried. I'd bought his plot since he hadn't had family to do so. It was the least I could do since it had been my ego that had gotten him put it in the ground to begin with. There had been nothing to bury but a few pints of blood and hair.

  No soul lay inside this cold ground to be reborn. I had to live knowing it. Knowing that I'd failed to save him. They said the dying had it easy, that being reborn was easy and peaceful. What about the living who had to remember it? Had to carry the burden of knowing they'd failed, living with the memories of the dead? I think we have it worse off since we don’t forget.

  I cleared off the grave from the pine needles the wind had shed on his resting place. I pulled out the iPod from my purse and stuck in the ear buds feeling the call of the dead tingling on my skin. None of my dead was buried here, they hadn't been that lucky.

  I would release Chandra. Give her eternal peace until she was reborn. I didn’t have my coven to help as her witnesses, but I had a graveyard full of dead souls who had yet to pass on the Ever-after, stuck here for some reason or another and unwilling to pass on.

  Good thing I was one of the few who could raise souls, I'd raised this entire cemetery by accident soon after Adrian had been buried here. It had been just another botched attempt to release the souls of my parents. I wasn’t even sure I could release them, I'd messed up at taking them in, but I'd only been five.

  Most Witches couldn’t master taking a soul until their late sixties and it was risky do to at any age. I sat with my back to his grave marker, "I miss you."

  I waited, as if he would answer me back.

  I exhaled trying to find something else to say, anything.

  "I'm the world's biggest slut now, almost gave in to a Fae. Go ahead, roll over in there A. Lord knows my parents would be right now." I smirked finding irony in the fact that I was confiding in a concrete slab with numbers on it, "I miss you. Larissa and Adam are totally bumping uglies by the way. Cue more eye-rolling, I know you would be if you were here. I told you he liked her," I smiled imagining the wide grin he used to give me when he found out I had been right on something. "Okay, let's do this."

  I stood feeling the eyes watching me. I scanned the area finding nothing out of place in the thick greenery on the edges of the cemetery. I pulled the small blade from my purse before pulling out the ear buds to listen for a second longer.

  The wind howled, but other than the Witch posted at the gates I felt no one close enough to be considered a threat. I whispered the words for the candles to be lit, feeling the surge that came before the flames leapt to life in the candelabras that had been scattered throughout the graveyard.

  The feeling of power running through my veins was heady after being useless for two days in a row. Throwing a shield didn’t give off the same kind of thrill casting did and nothing gave the feel of raising the dead, even if was only souls that I was actually raising here.

  I took the headphones off and placed the iPod on dead shuffle, which I'd made for doing this since the dead loved to dance. Most would consider it odd but not me. Since they couldn’t talk it was about all they could do and not look like zombies. Okay, well some still looked like zombies.

  12 Stone's Let Go blared to life over the iPods small speaker. I whispered the words for the releasing of the soul I held, hopeful she would leave my body without a fight when I released the blood.

  No such luck. Chandra was still pissy about ending up among the dead—which I could understand. I whispered the words for the dead to rise watching as hundreds of spirits rose from their graves. My eyes flickered to Adrian's empty grave with sorrow.

  Mrs. Gracie who had been dead from the early 1800's wafted over, her feet never touching the ground as she watched me. She had taken some time to get used to. She wore an old fashioned school teacher dress in black and white which made her wide blue eyes seem out of character since it was the only thing left in color on her.

  "Good to see you Mrs. Gracie, you should seriously think about crossing over, if you don’t I'm going to have to change your name to Mrs. Grey." I watched her shake her white curls that had been blonde three years ago violently before she put her nose up in the air and headed to a far off spot to sit and watch me.

  Next came the kid, which I couldn’t find any information for off his numbers alone nor did Alden have any knowledge on who the small boy might be. I called him Billy Goat Gruff which he didn’t seem to mind at all. Or maybe he did, but it wasn’t as if he could tell me. Whoever he was, he needed new clothes but I wasn’t about to dig him up and redress him.

  "Pick your poison Billy," I smiled and nodded at the iPod.

  I said the words to enchant the iPod as he tried to push his not so corporal finger through it. The kid had taste at least but of course there weren't many songs I had on my iPod that I didn’t like. Linkin Parks Iridescent echoed through the normally quiet cemetery.

  I smiled and watched him thump his foot on the grass floor of the cemetery. I watched as the spirits started doing the same, waiting for a constant bea
t to dance to. They wouldn’t be finding one inside of this song but Billy wouldn’t let them down with the next one.

  I sliced through the flesh in my hand and whispered the binding words backwards to release Chandra. I felt the anger, the taste of betrayal she felt in being killed. When she did come through, it was a brilliant green flurry of lights and then her soul exploded sending sparks everywhere as her soul shattered into a thousand different pieces.

  "What the hell?" I asked the ghost who all ignored me as if someone hadn't just exploded into tiny pieces of ectoplasm. I closed my eyes and shook my head before opening them as the song ended and everyone stopped and turned to Billy.

  He stopped, turning his small angelic face towards the bushes. I turned looking in the direction but still couldn’t see anything. I turned and tilted my head, waiting to see what he did next. His fingers started crossing his skin and I realized he was telling me as best as he could to put up protection.

  "Well shit on fiddle sticks Billy," I mumbled before cutting my hand deeper to get enough blood to draw the Celtic cross on my cheek.

  When that was done, I drew the power around me and watched my arms as the Italic written words Never Forget and Always Remember lit up on my forearms as every other white ink tattoo I had lit up until it reached my eyes. I lifted my face and watched Billy smile wide.

  I stood out like a sore thumb like this. Most Witches wore their branding under glamour. Adam, Adrian and I had been the only ones to receive our brands in white ink that were invisible to the naked eye. If we stood under a backlight we'd be screwed.

  I watched, picking up everything around the thick bushes. Someone was there, standing just outside the cemetery watching me. Unless they were of mortal blood or could withstand the wards, they wouldn’t be coming in. I turned, listening as Billy messed around with the iPod finding his next song of choice.

  I was surprised when he turned on Gun's and Roses Don't Cry, I winced, the dead loved to dance and this wasn’t one they could dance to. What surprised me more was when they got into couples and actually danced together except, Mrs. Gracie and Billy.

  Billy floated over to me, his eyes taking in my glowing brands. Everything was off kilter tonight. Maybe I was affecting them with my own dysfunctional issues? I felt the ice of Billy's touch as he traced my arms and then indicated with those same icy hands for me to flip my arms around for him to continue.

  His touch, like all the dead was an icy reminder that they were no longer alive to us. His young chocolate brown eyes lifted to meet mine when he was done tracing Remember. He poked it a few times before he turned his head to the outskirts again and then he disappeared without his usual flourish.

  I looked over the now empty cemetery and stifled the shiver that ran down my spine. November Rain came on next as a figure walked over the graves coming in my direction. I held my brands up watching and waiting.

  Ryder came into view a few feet away from me as Z came up the middle of the cemetery keeping a safe distance from me. I watched the awe in Ryder's eyes. Not many knew we could do this, light up like a freaking Christmas tree, only white.

  He just stood there looking them over much as Billy and Mrs. Gracie did. I could see the darkness surrounding him in this view. It was much better than second sight. I could see though and surprisingly, besides the darkness I knew would be there, he had a pure soul.

  "You glow in the dark Synthia," he said softly as if he was afraid he would wake the dead.

  I didn’t reply, he wouldn’t understand me if I did since I'd taken the powers I was using from the dead. Which meant it would come out in different languages and maybe even some Latin.

  He watched me as I turned my eyes to the grave in front of me and swallowed, trying to calm the power inside of me, to dump it from where I had borrowed it from. I felt his eyes taking in every spell that was visible on my arms since I'd left in a tank top and jeans with sandals since I'd dressed in a hurry.

  I felt power slinking away slowly as my mind grasped onto the part where he and his men were inside sanctioned and spelled grounds. "Grounds, not for you they be." I winced as my words came out sounding as Yoda.

  His lips twisted up into a wicked grin. "Be as that as it may, I told the guard you were mine. You stole my car."

  "Borrowed it I did, return it I will."

  Oh bloody fucking hell.

  "Okay Yoda, can I have the woman whose body you stole back?"

  "My body it is, yours I am not. Dead I speak until drained I am," I smiled unable to help myself. The expression on his beautiful face was priceless.

  "You speak the dead?"

  I smiled knowing he wouldn’t be able to make sense of it. Billy chose that moment to poke his head up from the ground and wink at me. "Billy, you knew they were here?" I said to him but Ryder wouldn’t hear it as such, he'd hear some weird Yoda version.

  I watched the child bob his head happily before he went to ground again. I raised my eyes in time to catch Ryder staring at the ground in which Billy had been in. "See the dead you do."

  "You can raise the dead." Not a question, statement.

  I nodded carefully watching his face register the news.

  "But you cannot raise your parents or your boyfriend," he continued.

  I shook my head from side to side ignoring the pain those words always brought with them. The light around us started to dim as the power diminished back to where it had come from slowly. Ryder narrowed his eyes as if he was considering the implications of what I had done tonight.

  "What are you?" He asked carefully his eyes sizing me up.

  I narrowed my eyes at him and pointed to my brands. He nodded his head, right before he scratched it while his features turned questioning. The music changed before he could ask any more questions.

  I watched him and Z both jump as if they were under attack, but I knew it was only the ghosts getting in one last dance. They liked to scare anyone who came in on our time together. Not that I was anything special.

  I laughed as Billy blasted House of Pain's Jump Around and did just that along with the rest of the ghosts before my power drained. My head bobbed with him as a smile lifted across my lips. This was my favorite part of coming here.

  Ryder and Zahruk both looked at me like I was nuts as I danced with the ghost when Billy insisted. Dancing with the dead, boy they would think I was completely nuts now. I shouted over the music to Billy who would tell the rest. "Next time dance sooner! Powers fading. I should be back in a few weeks."

  I turned to Ryder who wasn’t watching my face as I jumped around in place. His eyes were locked on my boobs which were bouncing even in the confines of the bra I wore. Billy saw it too, kid was crazy…or well he was dead so it wasn’t like he could be killed again. His finger was pointing at Ryder and me while he continued to jump up and down.

  Zahruk was trying to count the dead jumping around instead of watching bouncing boobs. I knew the instant he figured out there were thousands of them, more ghosts than headstones stood inside the cemetery and I'd brought most of them here. His eyes flew to mine and locked even as I still jumped with Billy.

  "Necromancer," he growled in warning.

  I shook my head slowly, carefully. I wasn’t a necro, but I could manipulate the dead like one. It was just something I could do since I'd taken on dark arts. As the song died off, I turned to look at it from their eyes. I had a cemetery of dead, dancing to some—one—hit—wonder from the nineties. They all jumped in perfect unison even though their feet never touched the ground.

  "You need to explain how the hell you can raise that many spirits," Ryder growled.

  I ignored him placing my hands palm up to watch the branded words fade away. His eyes searched the words intently. As they faded away to nothing once more, I lifted my head searching for the knife and grabbing my iPod before watching the flowers bloom on Adrian's grave as they always did thanks to the dead surrounding the soil.

  It was the deal I had with the ghosts. I dance and bring the
tunes and they grow the flowers once a month on Adrian's grave. I flattened my palm on the headstone, "Always remember, Adrian." I looked to where the car was parked and started forward not bothering to look and see if the Fae followed.

  "You can raise the dead, how?" Ryder persisted.

  "Dark Arts," I mumbled as he caught up to me.

  "No mortal can do that massive scale of magic on the dead. So how the fuck did you?" He shouted, grabbing my shoulder to spin me around.

  "That’s a lie and just because you think it shouldn’t be done, doesn't it make it wrong." I shouted right back with my hands on my hips.

  I turned back towards the car but he stopped me again.

  "Yet you haven't tried to raise any of the dead the serial killer is taking out?" He continued with his voice still raised.

  "This is a cemetery, stop shouting!" I growled right back.

  "Yes it is, but I just watched you bust a move with the entire blasted thing. I don’t think they are resting peacefully."

  I smiled at his term for what he had seen. Busting a move? We'd been jumping since it was the best the dead could do unless you considered their botched up attempt at couple dancing. He'd seen me lit up with the brands and hadn’t made any glow in the dark comments. He hadn't said anything else…which meant he'd seen it before but how?

  "Get in the car, Vlad might be leaving town soon. We need to go in by tomorrow night to ensure we see him."

  I watched his eyes narrow on my face and tossed Zahruk the keys that I held in my hand. He caught them and nodded, before heading to the sleek blue sports car.

  "What?" I blurted when he just continued to look at me with his tense amber gaze.

  "In the office," he started.

  "Stop! I was coming to say I was sorry. I…I shit. Okay here it is Ryder, I don’t trust the Fae. Never have, probably never will. It was my fault today and I'll admit to that and yes, I should probably get laid before I have enough hormones to sell them at auction. I was wrong to blame you and that was why I was coming back to your office."