"All fae are the same. You think you're all that, but when it comes to it, you're just as weak as the rest of us."
"Huh?" I grunted. What was he on about?
"You think you can just cause the end of the world and no one would care?"
"I didn't cause the end of the world," I pointed out. I shouldn't have bothered though. His type were all the same. They'd blame us because they didn't want to accept things they couldn't explain.
"How do I know it wasn't you?"
"How do I know it wasn't you?" I countered. "I've found that people with black hearts are normally the ones to blame."
He gave a mocking laugh while pulling me around. If I judged what he was up to correctly, he was about to throw me to the floor. If he managed that, then I was a goner.
Shit. Where had Jacob gotten to? A distraction was all very well, but right now I needed a helping hand and Mika still seemed out for the count.
I slammed into the ground, a sharp cry escaping from me as pains lanced through my back. It was going to take something short of a miracle for me to get out of this one. And I wasn't convinced one was going to come. Not this time. I'd been lucky once with the wolves arriving, I didn't think I would be again.
Ruairidh's weight bore down on top of me, the pressure of his body causing bile to rise in my throat. This wasn't how I'd end. It couldn't be.
Prickles started at the tips of my fingers, almost as if my magic was making itself known again. That didn't seem right though. I couldn't feel it inside me at all, and given the situation, that must mean things really were dire.
I pressed my nails into the skin of Ruairidh's arms, hoping it would get him to loosen his hold. If he moved to the left just a little, then I'd be able to do some serious damage with my knee.
Unfortunately, he didn't do that. Instead, his weight seemed to increase, pressing down into me all the way.
I cried out despite myself. I'd rather not let him know he was getting to me. I dug my nails in even harder, but unsurprisingly, they didn't seem to make a difference.
Damn it. Why was Mika unconscious? And where was Jacob? I needed them. They were my mates, why weren't they around for me?
It was a stupid thing to think, it wasn't up to them to save me. That wasn't how I wanted it to work anyway, but at this point, I just needed something.
Ruairidh grunted and for some unknown reason, his grip let off slightly.
Seizing the opportunity, I yanked my wrists away from him and fastened them around his neck, squeezing ever so slightly. Only problem being that I didn't have anywhere near the level of strength needed to make a difference. He wasn't going to budge no matter what I did.
The prickles intensified and I tried to squash down the hope they brought with them. My magic wasn't within me, it couldn't get me out of this kind of mess.
Even so, I had to try.
With all my might, I pushed the prickles away from me, into Ruairidh's neck and along his skin. If they were real, then they'd irritate him no end, which could serve in my favour. If they weren't real...all I had to lose was hope. I didn't need to worry too much about him noticing what I was doing.
Ruairidh yelped, his hands flying to where mine were and trying to pull them away from his throat.
Huh, maybe it was working after all.
"Rhianna!" Jacob's voice called down the corridor. The hopeful part of me jumped in response. With what I was doing working, and Jacob now here, maybe I actually stood a chance against this. And of getting out of here. I really didn't want to stay any longer than I had to.
"Check...Mika," I managed to gasp, hoping he got the message. With so much of my concentration going on what I was doing to Ruairidh, I didn't have any time for extra words.
"No," Ruairidh protested, his voice strained as he repeated his useless protest against my magic.
Good. What I was doing must be working then. That was always a good sign.
I pushed more power towards Ruairidh, hoping my magic would listen, even if I didn't completely expect it to.
The clutching at his throat intensified and he began to foam slightly around the mouth. It began to drip, and I squirmed, trying to dislodge myself from under him, but reluctant to release my hold when that seemed to be what was working the best for me. I grimaced as a wet splash hit my cheek. I could have done without that, but maybe it wasn't the worst thing given the circumstances.
Ruairidh began to shake harder, his whole body convulsing violently. The weight of him was forcing me into the floor and I wouldn't be surprised if I found some more bruises when all of this was over. Life might be rough now, but it wasn't normally quite this bad.
His eyes rolled back into his head and somehow, I just knew that was it for him. The end of his life was coming and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
There was nothing I could do either. Even if I stopped pouring magic into him, I didn't think this process would stop. He was too far gone. I couldn't say I felt all that bad about it either. Though I was sure the act of killing someone would get to me later, when I had time to stop and think about what I'd done.
The weight lifted from me and I tried to follow it so I didn't lose touch with Ruairidh's skin, but strong arms pulled me away.
"You need to stop," Jacob told me, his worried eyes meeting mine. "You're as pale a sheet."
"Mika," I whispered.
"He's fine, just coming around now," he assured me. "But you need to stop the magic."
"Can't." I hadn't realised how much what I was doing was draining me until that moment.
"Please, Rhianna?" he begged.
I focused my eyes on Ruairidh. Jacob dragged me into his arms and away from the convulsing incubus.
"What did you do?" he asked.
"I don't know," I responded, my voice raspy and worn despite the fact I hadn't done any damage to it.
"Will it stop?"
"I don't know," I repeated.
My palms began to sweat and I could feel something big growing inside me. If I was right, then it wasn't going to stop at all. Instead, I was going to explode. Or my magic was.
"Jacob, get away," I warned.
"What?"
"Please." I pushed on his chest, eager for him to set me down and get away from me so I knew he was safe. Whatever was about to happen, it wouldn't be pretty and I didn't want him to get caught up in it.
"Rhianna?"
"Move away!" I shouted as loud as my ruined voice could manage.
If I survived this, then I was going to sleep for a week. And I'd deserve to.
After a few more pushes on his chest, he finally got the message and set me down, propping me up against the wall. He retreated back to where Mika was. Not far enough away if anyone asked me, but from the feeling inside, I didn't have the time to argue with him to move further away.
My hands began to vibrate in time with the spasms rippling through Ruairidh. Good to know it wasn't just my imagination that the two events were linked then.
I tried to hold it back, but some things just couldn't be contained.
Bronze filled my vision, sparkling and shining in front of me. I recoiled as my magic flashed before my eyes. Blackness descended and I waved my hands around, trying to understand the blindness which had suddenly overtaken me. Had I damaged my vision with my power explosion? And if I'd damaged mine, then were the others blind too? That didn't bode well for our escape.
I tried to call out, but my throat wouldn't open.
If this was some kind of punishment for killing someone, then it wasn't worth it. Even if Ruairidh had wanted to take, kill and drain me. An eye for an eye never really worked. Especially as I'd lost two.
The blackness got blacker...not that it seemed possible it could. I fought the sense of sleep coming over me. This couldn't be happening. No. I wouldn't accept it.
I tried to force my blind eyes open, but nothing seemed to work. I was going to lose consciousness right when we needed me awake to escape.
I just had
to hope my spell to stop the draining still worked while I was out for the count.
Chapter Five
My eyes stuck together as I tried to open them. But I was warm at least. Snuggled up in some kind of blanket, which was a far cry from the wall I'd passed out against.
"Hi?" I croaked.
"Hey," Mika replied, smoothing the hair out of my eyes. "How're you feeling?"
"Achy."
"I'm not surprised. That was some impressive magic you did."
"What happened?" I rested my hand on my throat, trying to soothe away the slight ache remaining there.
"You made him explode," Mika responded. "It was rather impressive."
"Sounds messy."
"Oh, it was that too."
"So Ruairidh is dead?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied. "As a doornail."
I snorted slightly, before the realisation I'd killed someone swept through me. I felt my face fall, and hoped it wasn't as obvious to him as it was to me.
"You did what you had to," Mika assured me.
"I still killed someone."
He sighed. "Zeke said this might happen. I have to go get him."
"Why?" I asked, frowning up at him.
"Because he said he wanted to be the one to talk to you about it. And he's alpha. My job is to do what he says." Mika shrugged as if it really was as simple as that.
"So just because he says something, we have to do it?"
"No, just because he wants something, I have to do it. I imagine you can get away with whatever you want." He smiled at me indulgently, before leaning over and dropping a swift kiss to my lips.
I kissed him back gently, not wanting to get too excited if I had to meet Zeke. I still wasn't too enamoured with the idea of the head wolf who'd been hunting me.
Mika pulled back, a satisfied grin on his face. "I see you're warming up to that."
"Very much so. Come back soon? Please?"
He nodded once but got up from his seat anyway. He really wasn't going to disobey his alpha for me. I supposed it was a good thing his alpha was mine too then, or else there'd be a lot of conflicted interests.
I watched him go with a heavy heart. At least he was safe. We'd gotten out of that hell hole. Hopefully I wasn't in a worse one now.
The tall form of Zeke stepped into the room and my heart began to pound. I didn't want to explain to myself why he was affecting me so much, but he definitely was. Maybe it was to do with the incomplete mating bond Mika and I had started by kissing. Now my body wanted Zeke and all the others too.
Was this what my life was going to be now? Me lusting after men I'd just met and not being able to do anything to stop that? Then again, I supposed they weren't going to be men I'd just met for very long. They were my mates. My destined. The other halves of my soul. Which was ridiculous, because that meant my soul was only a fifth of something whole and I didn't believe that. I'd survived this long without anyone else being a part of me, there was no way I wasn't a complete person, no matter what paranormal lore said.
"Hi, Rhianna."
"Zeke," I acknowledged. "What brings you here?" I asked, despite being pretty sure of the reason. Or being the reason myself. He probably wanted to see the woman he was bound to for the rest of eternity.
"You," he replied, not unexpectedly. I knew I was the reason for all of it. The rescue. The chase. The reason they weren't safe in the fae realm with the rest of the wolves. They'd taken my mother’s orders and crossed over, ending up in their very own hell on earth.
Maybe I was being too harsh on them. They had done their best for me, and they were all I had here. The thing with mates was that I'd always be able to rely on them. They'd always have my back. I just had to trust them.
"I seem like a pretty poor reason," I responded. "I'm more of a hindrance."
Zeke laughed. "You're not. But it wouldn't even matter if you were. I'm as stuck with you as you are with me."
"I could deny the bond." I shuffled up in the bed, propping myself up against the headrest, only then really registering I was in a bed. And not only that, I was in a clean bed. With sheets that weren't stained and smelling of mildew. That was a new one. Most beds these days were in pretty bad shape. Something to do with being left unseen to in a few years.
"And if you deny the bond, we're all going to go a little crazy."
"Unlikely, I'm fae, remember. We're weird with our bonds."
"That doesn't mean we won't be affected by your decision," he pointed out. "You might be able to survive it, but the four of us..." he trailed off, letting me deduce my own conclusions. I didn't really need reminding what was at stake. I knew what happened to people who lost their mates. Going crazy wasn't unheard of. Tearing the world apart was a very big possibility.
Though given the state of this one, that might actually be a good thing.
I sighed. "Fine. I'm not going to deny the bond."
"I'm very glad to hear that. Though clearly that's not all you want to say." The wolf smiled at me, clearly confident in the knowledge of what I would do with my future.
"I want to shut down the facility I was in." I didn't see any point in sugar coating what I wanted to happen. he'd either help me and we'd all get along fine, or he wouldn't and I would go back to denying the bond. At least, with him I would. It might well be crueller for me to refuse him but accept Jacob and Mika. And possibly Charlie. He hadn't done anything bad to me either, so maybe it wasn't fair to keep him out of the running just because I didn't know him yet.
"Yes, Jacob thought you might say that."
"He did?" My heart swelled at the thought. He'd already gauged what I'd want and acted on it.
"Yes. He saw the conditions. I don't think he'd have let us leave it alone even if you hadn't been part of the equation. None of us deal very well with injustice."
"Is that why you made a deal with the fae?" I muttered bitterly.
"We had as little choice in that as you did. And you know things are changing over there..."
"Not anymore they're not," I replied sadly.
"I suspect even more so over there now. They don't have the same pool to choose from."
"You mean kidnap from?" I raised my eyebrow.
"Ah, yes. That."
"If it hadn't caused them all to die, the humans would have been better off without the fae anywhere near them." I sounded bitter even to myself, but it was hard not to. I had no idea who my father was because of the stupid fae custom of kidnapping men and reproducing that way. Almost every other paranormal species could only have children with their mates. Not the fae, though. Apparently, our matriarchal society meant it was okay to kidnap unsuspecting men to use for stud.
"Is that why you left?"
"No," I responded. Though in truth it was an underlying one. It had been the thing that persuaded me my reason was good enough. The reason I'd wanted to leave so many times. I didn't want to be a part of that. I didn't want to be with anyone who didn't like me for me, but for the power I used against them.
"Will you tell me the reason?"
"No," I responded instantly. "I'll never tell anyone." Mostly because I was ashamed, but he wouldn't ever hear that bit either. There was no one on this side of the portal who knew what had happened, I planned on keeping it that way if I could. I didn't want anything like that ever getting out, especially to my mates.
"Alright then. Back to the facility."
"Good call." I relaxed slightly, though I hadn't realised I was quite as tense as I had been.
"Did you have any sort of plan?"
"I think that rather depends."
"On?"
"Various things," I replied. "Who is going back in, what they actually have there, where we are. You know, the normal knowledge needed for forming a plan." I shrugged then winced as the bruises on my back made themselves known.
"We're about an hour and a half south of the facility. You have the four of us completely at your command. Basic resources too. As to what they have...we only really
have what you, Mika and Jacob saw while you were in there. We didn't know the place existed until you got trapped there."
"Right. And here is..."
He stayed silent. That wasn't going to work for me. I needed communication.
"You have comforts people don't normally have, you're going to have to answer me."
"It's a way station from one of the sanctuaries," he replied.
"A working one?" The question was pretty needless, really. It was obviously a working one or the sheets and room wouldn't be clean. But still, I needed to hear this one out loud.
"Yes, a working one. It's another couple of hours by foot from here, but it's safe."
"How many people?"
"Two hundred or so?" He shrugged, as if he wasn't too sure and didn't think it actually mattered.
"That many people survived?"
"Of course they did. The world wasn't as harsh on paranormals as most people seemed to think. And it's not like we weren't used to banding together of our own accord anyway."
"I wouldn't know," I muttered.
"Have you been on your own the entire time?" A pained look crossed his face, but I didn't acknowledge it. I didn't want to.
"Pretty much. I had a part-succubus friend before everything went to shit. But..." I couldn't carry on. The thought of what must have happened to Izzy fresh in my mind. The world had turned cruel and not hearing from her had been painful, even if I knew it wasn't her fault. It had been easier for me to pretend she'd already passed on from the world, rather than continue to hope and look for her at every turn.
"I'm sorry," Zeke responded.
"Don't be," I responded. "It's been five years, I'm getting over it."
"Doesn't make it any easier."
"No, it doesn't, but in this world we've all had to deal with loss of some kind."
We sat in silence for a few moments more. I didn't know about him, but I was grasping for words I couldn't reach. I wanted to say something profound. Something comforting. But I didn't think there was anything that would offer me what I wanted. And that was before taking Zeke's needs into account.
"So...plan?" I prodded after we'd been silent for a little too long.
Hers From The Start: A Collection of First In Series Reverse Harem Page 5