Kiss of Vengeance: A True Immortality Novel

by S. Young

  “There are supes out there who believe God made them this way?”

  He nodded. “They think the stories of the fae are fairy tales. Remember, very few people in the supernatural community believe the origin story is true.”

  Well, that made the prospect of going on the run seem a little more plausible if she wasn’t constantly up against fae fanatics. She sighed and studied the basilica. “I don’t feel uncomfortable.”

  “You will. And that’s why I brought you here. In a fight, you’ll most likely be outnumbered and thus disoriented. You need to learn to focus through that.”

  Aghast at the realization he truly meant to train her inside La Sagrada Familia, Rose gaped. “You can’t train me within the sanctity of a world-famous church.”

  “I can and I will.”

  “Uh … I’ve been in there, Fionn. There are security scanners, cameras, and a lot of guards.”

  Her mentor tsked at her as he stared down in mock disappointment. Then he lifted a hand and waved it comically. “Faerie,” he reminded her.

  The whole thing was so un-Fionn-like, Rose couldn’t help a bark of laughter. If anyone looked the opposite of the human depiction of a faerie, it was Fionn Mór.

  The lights that lit up the basilica illuminated Fionn’s face and the amusement glittering in his green gaze.

  Grinning, she crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for two tourists to stroll out of earshot. “So, what are you going to do?”

  “I’m doing it. Their cameras are, as we speak, on a constant loop. Once we get in there, I’ll take out the guards—I’ll just knock them unconscious,” he assured her before she could protest.

  “How are you going to do all that if you’re disoriented?”

  “My dear Rose.” His tone was exasperated but the endearment still caused a flutter in her stomach. “I’m the oldest motherfucker on this planet. Very little can disorient me.”

  That flutter intensified. “I’m not gonna lie … the ‘oldest’ part should put a girl off, but the whole badass immortal thing is pretty hot.”

  Fionn closed his eyes and pinched his lips together for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes, his expression was admonishing. “Stop flirting and concentrate.”

  She enjoyed irritating him way too much for it to be normal. “I’m a great multitasker. I can do both.”

  “If God exists,” Fionn muttered up at the church, “give me patience.”

  Deciding to offer him a reprieve, she clapped her hands. “Okay, in all seriousness, if we’re going to disrespect holy ground, let’s get it over with. What’s the plan?”

  He studied her a moment and then, apparently assured of her earnestness, replied, “We will travel in. Be careful of anything that looks like iron. Most of it can’t hurt you—only pure iron can, like the dagger Ethan carried. But better to be safe than sorry. You’ve—”

  “I just had a thought,” Rose cut him off and then gave an apologetic look. “How have I avoided pure iron my whole life?”

  Fionn considered this. “It’s not used as often as mixed iron materials because there’s less carbon in it, meaning it’s softer, more pliable. There’s been a resurgence of its use commercially in the last few years, but it doesn’t surprise me that you’ve had no contact with it.”

  “Does it hurt a lot?”

  “I wouldn’t know. I’ve avoided the stuff for three centuries, despite being attacked by supes in the know.”

  She smiled and couldn’t help if it was somewhat coquettish. He brought it out of her. “You really are a badass.”

  Ignoring her, Fionn gestured to the building. “You’ve been here before, which will make it easier. But as soon as you’re inside, you’ll feel the effects of hallowed ground. Dizziness, nausea, a lack of concentration.”

  That did not sound fun.

  “What about the guards?”

  “I’m going in first to take them out. Travel in after me in five minutes.” Then poof, he was gone.

  Rose blinked, glancing around to make sure no one had seen him vanish, but the humans standing outside the church had their backs to where Rose stood. “Shit,” she groused. “I will never get used to that. Also?” She threw up her hands. “I don’t have a watch.”

  Waiting for an approximation of five minutes to pass felt like the longest moments of Rose’s life. Despite knowing no human could hurt him unless they were in possession of pure iron, she worried for Fionn. He’d been in her life a mere two days, and yet that didn’t feel correct. Despite all she didn’t know about him, he felt familiar in a way so little in her life ever had. She had feelings for him.

  If another woman came to Rose and told her she had strong feelings for some guy she’d only known forty-eight hours, she would’ve staged an intervention.

  “Life is so weird,” she mumbled, preparing herself to travel. Then she considered what she was about to do and mocked herself, “You think?”

  Remembering the mammoth entrance to the church with its cathedral ceiling, marble floors, arched stained glass windows, and stone pillars, she visualized it as best she could. What she remembered most was the ceiling—how the columns split into branches to hold up the vaulting, like trees holding up the sky. How natural light poured in through spaces in the design. It was less alien inside than outside. Instead, it was like standing beneath the canopy of a great stone forest.

  Rose focused, closed her eyes, felt the resultant tingle, and opened them again.

  She stood inside the dark cathedral, near the chairs that faced the altar.

  “You were seven minutes.”

  Startled at the sound of Fionn’s voice, she turned toward him and felt the cathedral spin. “Whoa.” She put out a hand to find balance, but a wave of a nausea flooded her. Clutching at the nearest chair, Rose leaned into it. A memory hit of when she was seven years old, at her first gymnastics lesson. The dizziness after each somersault. A dizziness that had dissipated quickly as her body got used to spinning and tumbling.

  Fionn stepped into her path. “I told you it can be disorienting.”

  Rose frowned. She was an ex-gymnast.

  No way was she going to let a little dizziness take her down.

  She concentrated, focused, felt the room right itself, and stood. It still spun a little, but the nausea lessened. “The guards?”

  Fionn eyed her a second and then nodded. “They’re out. Come.” He strode toward the center of the mammoth space.

  Rose followed and felt the room spin again; she threw out her hands and imagined the floor was a balance beam, which helped her find her center. Following Fionn, she met him in the middle of the room.

  “Very good,” he said.

  “We’re not going to do any damage to the church, right? They’ve been working on construction for nearly 130 years.”

  “I can fix anything we damage.” He shrugged, like damaging a Gaudí building, a religious one at that, was no big deal.

  “You’re insane.”

  “Keep insulting me. It’ll inspire me to be more creative when I attack you.”

  Uncertainty made Rose retreat, and it was like doing it on a balance beam without concentrating. She stumbled. “Shit,” she huffed as she straightened. Rose, belligerent now, crossed her arms over her chest. “How exactly are you planning to attack me, oh ancient one?”

  “That would be telling. You’re going to defend yourself using this.” He punched a fist against his gut. “Instinct. You ready?”

  Before Rose could answer, she felt a rumble beneath her feet and stumbled again, this time because the floor was moving as the marble began to crack, breaking apart. It tore out of the floor, only to float up in a collection of hefty pieces that hovered almost exactly halfway between her and Fionn. “I’m not going to lie, this feels very disre—ahh!” She ducked as the pieces flew at her and over her head. “—Spectful!”

  The largest piece didn’t fly over her head, though. It came straight for her face.

  Son of a bitch!

 
; Rose swiped a hand across the air in front of her, catching her finger on a sharp edge of marble. The piece immediately flew backward and once her surprise receded, she used her magic to slot it into its original spot in the floor.

  Turning around, ignoring the way the room tilted at the edges of her vision, Rose concentrated on the broken marble that had landed behind her and commanded it back to where it belonged.

  Wonder filled her as the pieces floated by and settled into the cracks. She watched the marble knit back together, good as new under her silent order.

  Fionn heaved a sigh. “Are we going to fight, or are you going to spend this session cleaning up?”

  She threw her hands up in disbelief. “It’s La Sagrada Familia!”

  His lips twitched. “I had no idea you had such respect for religion.”

  “I may not be religious but I respect that faith is important to billions of people around the world. Putting that aside, we’re talking about a significant piece of architectural history.” She gestured around. “Training here feels wrong.”

  “Which is why we’re doing it.” He deliberately misinterpreted her words.

  Without preamble, Fionn swiped the air with his hands and three stained glass windows high above her shattered, the shards of broken glass flying in her direction.

  Anger pulsating through her, Rose focused on the shards, mirrored Fionn’s movements, and sent the individual pieces shooting toward him instead.

  With a flick of his wrist, the glass halted in midair and then whizzed back toward her. Just as she focused her magic on returning the glass to the windows, a piece she’d missed from Fionn’s initial attack sliced across her cheek.

  Rose cried out at the sting, that split-second distraction causing the rest of the glass to fall to the marble floor and shatter into even smaller pieces.

  Glaring at Fionn, she pressed two fingers to her cut cheek and felt it heal beneath her fingertips.

  “Nice,” she snapped at him.

  “I’m teaching you focus. I’m not here to be nice.” He strolled casually past, placed his hands above a section of the broken stained glass, and it rose from the floor.

  Within seconds, every single piece was back in the windows, good as new.

  Just like her cheek.

  Rose touched it again, feeling the smooth, unbroken skin. The reminder that she was almost invincible dissolved the irritation she felt for Fionn. Her coaches had pushed her to her very limits, and that was just a sport. This was life or death, so she could forgive him for a little cut on her cheek.

  Especially when she was practically unkillable.

  Practically unkillable.

  Feeling a buzz of excitement thrum through her, she stepped toward him. “Throw me across the room.”

  His step faltered. “What?”

  “With your magic. Put all your strength behind it.”

  “Are you certain?”

  She nodded.

  With a glint in his eye, Fionn pushed his palm into the air in front of her and the next thing she knew, she was flying. The sensation so took her aback, she lost concentration.

  Rose crashed into a pillar with such force, not only was the breath knocked out of her but she felt and heard a crack in her ribs. When she hit the floor with an almighty thud, pain paralyzed her.

  She sucked in a ragged breath.

  Then slowly, her ribs began to heal, and the pain receded. Rose lifted her head and stared across the room at her mentor. He was still as a statue, waiting for her to respond. She stood, turned, saw the crack in the pillar, and pressed a palm to the stone. Rose could feel the magic crawling up toward the crack, sewing the stone back together. No one would ever know her body had once broken a pillar in La Sagrada Familia.

  So. Fucking. Cool.

  Satisfied, she faced Fionn and strode toward him. Stopping several feet away, Rose braced her feet, anticipation, adrenaline, and excitement soaring through her. “Again.”

  16

  Something like wonder caught Fionn off guard as he stared at Rose standing before him, demanding he throw her through the air for a second time.

  Exhilaration blazed in her pretty blue gaze.

  Wonder mixed with pride. Pride mixed with something more primal. Something that caused a heavy, hot need between his legs.

  Fuck.

  When he’d decided to keep Rose at his side by pretending to mentor her, he’d expected the woman who had been raised as a human to fear her fae side, to hate it, like he did. Instead, she found joy in it.

  She was a natural with her abilities.

  Watching her take him on, fearless and determined, on the back of dealing with her enjoyment in flirting with him, Fionn was stuck in the most unlikely of places.

  He wanted to fuck the woman he planned to use in his vengeance.

  It was inconvenient to say the least.

  The fact that he needed to control these wants and thoughts about her was goddamn galling. Bothersome woman. First, he spent hours deflecting her personal questions only to end up telling her all about Bran, and then worst of all, sincerely suggesting she go to Bran for help if something happened to him.

  It was petty to take his frustrations out on Rose … but she did ask for it.

  Concentrating a potent level of magic toward her, Fionn pummeled into her body with such an impact, he heard her gasp as she flipped backward through the air.

  But something happened.

  Instead of crashing into the nearest pillar or wall, Rose paused as she righted herself midflight. Then she dropped, landing like a cat, hand to the ground to balance against the disorientation caused by the church grounds.

  A smile prodded at his mouth.

  Damn, she was good.

  With a cocky smirk, she pushed to her feet. “What’s next?”

  Obviously, the woman required a true challenge. “I want you to travel to the top of one of the two tallest spires. You’re going to jump off, and you’re going to land on the ground without breaking a bone. I’ll be at the bottom waiting for you.”

  He noted more than a glimmer of concern flicker across her expression. “Are you kidding?”

  “Even on a still evening, you can use the wind to control the fall. Tonight there’s a breeze, so it should be easy.”

  “And if I break every bone in my body?”

  Fionn shrugged, knowing it would annoy her and finding a little too much pleasure in the fact. “You’ll heal within a few hours.”

  She scowled. “No worries, then, huh?”

  “Sarcasm is beneath you.” It was a hypocritical response since sarcasm was a second language to him, but, again, irritating her was fun.

  However, this time, the last word had barely left his mouth before he found himself flying to the ground with a furious trainee fae on his hands.

  Rose had been an impressive blur across the church.

  Incredibly fast.

  And strong.

  He frowned. The little viper had smacked his head off the marble floor, and this annoyance had momentarily distracted him from the fact that Rose was sprawled atop him, straddling him, her forearm pushed against his throat. “Yeah, well, now you’re beneath me, asshole.”

  This was not threatening.

  This was disturbingly arousing.

  Gripping her wrist in his hand, he easily pried her forearm from his throat. “What the hell was that for?” Fionn snapped, anger masking his desire.

  “For not giving a shit if I shatter every bone in my body,” she hissed.

  Her eyes sparked fire. Her cheeks were flushed.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  Fionn took hold of her narrow waist and pushed her off. Not gently.

  She soared up off him but landed on her feet with remarkable grace.

  He rolled up onto his and dusted off his sweater. “You’re handling the disorientation well.”

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “So you said,” he replied dispassionately, and then caught sight of the cracks in th
e marble floor where he’d landed. She’d taken him down with some force. “Impressive.” He gestured to the broken floor before using his magic to fix it.

  “You know my coaches were tough on me, but they were at least concerned about my well-being.”

  Exasperated, he whirled on her. “I am trying to keep you alive,” he bit out, losing his usual cool. Goddamn her. “Unless there is a graveyard of fucking pure iron spikes beneath you, I am not afraid for you if you fall from a building.” His frustrations mounting, he marched toward her and watched her tilt her chin up at him in defiance, holding her ground despite her disadvantage in height and build. “I am afraid that falling will slow you down in a fight. If someone is chasing you through a city, that city needs to become your playground. You need to learn how to fall from great heights as if jumping over a fucking puddle. Capisce?”

  Anger melted from her features. Her lips twitched. “Capisce.”

  “Good,” he spat and strode past her toward the main entrance. “Spire. Now. And use the shadow trick to conceal yourself. The last thing we need are photos of you on top of the fucking La Sagrada Familia circulating the internet.” He traveled outside before she could respond.

  Seconds ticked by as he watched the tallest spires. The church was lit up, but the spires were less visible as they pierced the night sky. Fionn could still make out the tops of them with his fae eyes.

  Impatience wriggled through him.

  Uncertainty created waves of displeasure in his gut.

  What if she fell?

  Rose cannot die.

  But she can break into a million pieces.

  The reality of that caused something akin to panic. Fuck, she would fall. He prepared himself to travel to her, to stop her, but then he saw her atop one of the spires, pulling shadows toward her.

  Before he could make a move, Rose kicked up off her feet onto one hand, suspended in a one-handed handstand for a moment before leaning her weight over and off the building.