The fae was fast, slamming his hands into my chest. I flew backward, landing on my butt. Before I could recover, Elliot shot off the ground and was on me once more. I’d held onto the dagger, gritting my teeth as his hand came down on my throat, his fingers digging into my windpipe. I swung the stake around, thinking a head shot would do the trick.
His hand suddenly left my throat and then Elliot was flipping through the air as if invisible hands had snatched him up.
Gasping for breath, I rolled onto my side, my free hand splaying across the pavement. Several strands of blonde hair had slipped free from my ponytail, blocking one eye.
Elliot was rising to his feet. He spun and then his body jerked back a step. He was frozen for a moment and then his body just caved into itself, sucking itself back into the Otherworld with a faint pop and sizzle.
“Holy smokes….” Breathing heavy, I started to sit up. Gratefulness warred with dread. Obviously an Order member had intervened, which was great, but also meant I was busted, so freaking busted.
A tall, broad shadow strolled forward. The light of the lamp sliced over an iron dagger and black gloves. Gloves? It was cold, but not that cold.
Wait.
I started to rise as I lifted my gaze. Every muscle in my body locked up. I saw who’d come to my quite unnecessary rescue and anxiety exploded like a buckshot along with a hefty amount of WTF.
Now I understood the gloves.
It wasn’t an Order member who’d intervened.
He now stood under the lamp, and I would swear the light intensified as it shone down on him, as if powered by his presence.
The Prince stood before me. “We meet yet again.”
Chapter 15
My hand tightened on the iron stake as the buzz of anticipation swept through me. No way should I be excited to see him—and the mere thought of that was so utterly confusing—but I was.
So I ignored the feeling. “You totally just stabbed Elliot.”
His brows lowered as he hooked the stake to what I assumed was some hidden sheath. “I did.”
“You do realize he was one of the missing younglings, right?”
“You do realize you were trying to stab him in the head, which would have roughly the same result as what I did?”
Okay. He had a good point.
“And you do realize he was about to choke the life out of you?”
“I completely had that handled,” I said. “Completely.”
“Is that so?” He folded his arms across his chest as he stared down his nose at me. “You looked like you had everything under control with his hands around your throat. Just like you looked like you had everything under control Monday night, when—”
“I had that fae under control and I was about to stab him in the head,” I reminded him. “Before I was rudely interrupted.”
The Prince cocked his head to the side. “Saving your life is rudely interrupting you?”
“I didn’t need my life saved, thank you very much.” Pushing to my feet, I met his stare with a glare I was rather proud of.
“That’s not the thank you I was expecting, but I’ll take it.” His lips curled into a smirk as my mouth clamped shut. “What were you doing out here, Brighton? I thought we had an understanding.”
“We did? Because I’m pretty sure that I never gave you any indication that we had an understanding.” I turned away from him and then gasped, stumbling a step back. He was in front of me. “Jesus.”
“Not quite.” His arms were at his sides.
“Ha. Ha.” I rolled my eyes as I fought a grin.
“Why are you out here, Brighton?” He was not nearly as amused as I was. “You’re not an Order member.”
“I am an Order member.” And whatever amusement I was feeling evaporated. My hand around the stake twitched and I resisted the urge to lob it at his smirking face—his very attractive, smirking face. “I was born into the Order and I am willing to give my life to fulfill my duty to the Order.”
“I stand corrected,” he demurred, dipping his chin. “However, you are not a hunter.”
“Gee, thanks, Captain Obvious.”
He stared down at me.
Exhaling roughly, I shook my head as anger and a good dose of embarrassment churned inside me. I was a real Order member. God. “Look, thanks for getting involved when you weren’t needed, but I’ve got things to do that don’t involve standing in an alley talking to you.”
“Really? What are those things you have to do? Go to Flux? The Court? Risk being seen again?”
I ran my tongue along the roof of my mouth. “Actually, no. And you know what, why are you out here? How did you just happen to be in this alley? Not exactly a place on the must-see list of New Orleans. I’m beginning to think—” I sucked in an unsteady breath. I hadn’t heard him move, but he’d shifted closer.
“Think what?” he asked.
I tossed the stake up and then caught it. “It’s just weird.”
“What?”
“How in the last week, you’ve nearly showed up everywhere I’ve been. It’s almost like you’re following me.”
“What if I was?”
I almost dropped the stake as my gaze flew to his face. His expression was unreadable and I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not. “Really? That’s not creepy or anything.”
His sigh was so heavy I was surprised it didn’t shake the buildings. “You shouldn’t be out here.”
“What do you want from me?” I challenged. “I mean, really? Are we going to have this conversation every five minutes?”
“What do I want from you?” An emotion flickered across his face, parting his lips. “That’s a loaded question.”
I started to frown as I tossed the stake up again. “Not really.”
His hand shot out with a speed that was both unnerving and impressive, snatching the stake out of the air with gloved fingers.
“Hey!” I reached for it.
The Prince deftly avoided my grasp. “That is incredibly distracting—”
“It’s not my fault you can’t multitask,” I muttered.
“And incredibly dangerous,” he continued. “I really don’t want to see it go through your hand.”
I popped my hands onto my hips. “It wasn’t going to go through my hand.”
“Rather be safe than sorry.” He smiled tightly at me, and that just annoyed me to no end.
I started to ask for my stake back, but he spoke again. “You’re not a hunter,” he repeated, changing the subject. “Why were you out here?”
Back to that again. I sighed. “I wasn’t out here patrolling. I was seeing if I could find one of the missing younglings, which I did. However, that didn’t end well.”
“No, it did not.”
Knocking a strand of hair back from my face, I glanced at the mouth of the alley. “I thought it was a Winter fae first because he was following a woman, so I kept an eye on him—and yes, I know, I’m not a hunter, but I’m not going to walk away and leave someone to fend for themselves.”
“You should have.”
My head swung back to his. “I didn’t ask for your opinion.”
His eyebrow rose.
“Anyway, I saw his face and realized it was one of the missing younglings. I thought maybe I misjudged what he was doing since he broke away from the woman and walked into this alley, but he knew I was following him,” I explained, troubled by what had occurred. “It was a trap in a way. He came at me.”
“That makes no sense,” he said, head tilting slightly. “The Summer fae do not attack humans.”
“Yeah, well, he attacked me and I did nothing to instigate it either.” There was something pecking away at the fringes of my thoughts. “Wait a second. Elliot said some weird stuff. He said his parents weren’t his parents any longer and he also called them wannabe humans.”
“Did he say anything else?” he demanded.
I shook my head as I saw Elliot’s face in my mind. “But his eyes were messed
up.”
“What do you mean?”
“They were pitch black, like I couldn’t even see the irises….” I trailed off as I thought about his eyes. “I’ve never seen anything like that, but….”
He stepped toward me, voice low. “Are you positive that is what you saw?”
“Yes. He was this close to my face.” I put my hand within kissing distance of my face to show him. “His eyes were all black.”
The Prince’s jaw hardened as he looked away.
There was a sudden feeling where I felt like I’d seen something or a reference to eyes like that before, but I couldn’t place it. Like a word that rose to the tip of your tongue, but you couldn’t quite grasp it. “Do you… do you know what could cause that?”
“I don’t—” The Prince’s head swung sharply to the left and then a curse exploded out from him. He moved toward me just as a shot rang out, echoing through the alley.
Chapter 16
The Prince crashed into me, taking me to the ground before I had a chance to see who was shooting at us. I had only a moment to prepare myself for the bone-shaking impact with the ground, but that never came.
Somehow, he shifted at the final second, taking the brunt of the fall. He hit the ground hard, my front plastered to his long length for about a heartbeat and then he rolled suddenly, shoving me under his body as the cracks of a gun firing went off again—and again. My entire body jerked in surprise as a bullet hit the ground right beside our heads, sending tiny pieces of gravel into the air.
The Prince lifted his head and those near transparent eyes locked onto mine. “Stay down,” he ordered.
“W-What?”
Launching to his feet, he spun around and then he was no longer there, moving so fast I couldn’t track him in the shadowy alley.
I flipped onto my belly, lifting my head as I kept low to the ground. I was going to stay down, because I really didn’t want to get hit. Another shot rang out and then I heard a grunt as my gaze swung to the back of the alley.
Two large forms collided. There was a flash of reddish-yellow glow coming from the hands of the Prince, a circular flash of light that reminded me of a fire ball. And then the smell of burnt metal filled the air a second before one of the bodies flew back several feet, slamming into the building opposite me.
The body fell forward into the dim light. My eyes widened as I saw that it was a fae. That… that was uncommon.
They rarely used guns, but unless a human had doused themselves in silver paint and had their ears shaved into points, that was definitely a fae.
The Prince tossed the ruined gun aside, and I knew he’d been the source of the burnt scent of metal. He’d done something to that gun.
Dear God, that kind of power….
He prowled forward like a caged animal finally unleashed, his chin dipped low, and I swore those pale eyes were glowing. “Who sent you?” he demanded, his voice a deadly growl that sent a wave of shivers through me. “Was it Aric?”
Struggling to his feet, the fae swayed as he reached into his boot. I tensed, expecting him to whip out another gun.
I was wrong.
It was an iron stake.
The fae grabbed it with his bare hand. He hissed in pain, lips peeling back in a snarl as he straightened.
The Prince shot forward. “Don’t—”
Too late.
Slamming the business end of the stake into the center of his chest, the fae ended it right then and there. Within a few short seconds the fae who’d shot at us was gone.
“Holy shit,” I whispered, raising unsteadily to my feet. “Did that just happen?”
“Yes.” The Prince was suddenly in front of me, causing me to jerk back a step. His expression was drawn and tight. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. I think so.” I felt myself up, searching for holes that shouldn’t be there. “What the hell just happened?”
“I do believe we were being shot at.”
Hands stilling, I lifted my gaze back to his. “Gee. Really? Let me clarify my question. Why do you think a fae shot at us and then sent his sniper ass back to the Otherworld? That doesn’t happen every day.”
“It doesn’t?”
“No. Not in my world. It happens in yours?”
“I’ve made a lot of enemies, sunshine. A lot who’d rather see me return to who I was,” he said, and my chest squeezed at the mere mention of him returning to the Prince who was an absolute nightmare. “Or see me dead.”
“That’s kind of scary—” Gasping, I jerked my hand away from my stomach. It was wet, and even in the poor lighting, I could see the dark smudges. “There’s blood on my hand.”
“You said you were okay.” One hand was suddenly wrapped around my wrist while the other was on my stomach, pressing.
“Hey!” I smacked at his hand, but he studiously ignored me. “I don’t think I’m bleeding.” When he still felt along my midsection, I caught his hand and squeezed hard. “I think it’s your blood.”
“I’m fine,” he gruffed out. “Are you sure you haven’t been hit?”
“Pretty sure I’d know if I’d been shot,” I said, squinting at him. He was wearing a dark thermal and pants, like he had the first time I’d seen him. I placed my hand on his right shoulder and felt nothing. I slid my hand down his chest, and he sucked in a sharp breath.
“What are you doing?” he asked, voice deeper, thicker.
My gaze lifted to his, and I thought I probably should pull my hand away, but I didn’t. I moved to the other pec, and it was me who sucked in air this time. Wet warmth hit my palm. “You’ve been shot.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing?” I exclaimed. He let go of my wrist, so I got both hands involved. “You’ve been shot in the shoulder, too!”
The Prince said nothing.
I didn’t know the biology of Ancients, but I figured, like the fae, they could survive mortal wounds. But a chest and shoulder wound? I stepped back, lowering my hands and wiping them over my jeans. Did the pant leg of his right thigh look darker? Shot three times? That… that was a lot.
My stomach pitched with concern I probably shouldn’t feel, but he had covered my body with his when shots rung out and he had paid for the crab cakes and crawfish.
“We need to get out of here,” I said, looking over my shoulder, to the entrance of the alley. “With that many gunshots, police will be on their way. Can you heal yourself?”
“Normally.” His voice was off. Not like it had been when I’d been feeling him up or Monday night, but there was something strained about it. “You should get out of here before the police arrive.”
Or more gun toting fae showed up since this was apparently an everyday occurrence to him. “What do you mean by normally?”
“Do you always ask this many questions?” he demanded.
“Yes. Is it annoying?”
“Yes,” he growled.
“Sorry, but you’re going to have to deal with it,” I shot back.
He’d moved back into the shadows, but I could practically feel his glare. “You know that the fae can heal from virtually any wound if they feed,” he said.
And rather quickly too. That’s what made fighting them so dangerous. You didn’t have a lot of time for what they’d consider flesh wounds.
“I know that, so you should….” Understanding dawned. “You… you need to feed?”
He let out a dry, racking laugh. “Something like that.”
“When was the last time you… you fed?” Those words sickened me, and a part of me didn’t want to know the answer.
“A while.”
I stared at him for what felt like a whole minute. “What exactly does ‘a while’ mean? A couple of days? A week?”
“Try longer than that.”
A frown pulled at my lips. “Longer than a couple of weeks?”
That didn’t make sense to me, especially with him being at a place like The Court where humans were happily on the menu.
He sa
id nothing.
“A month? A couple of months?” I whispered. Knowing what I did about the fae, they had to feed on a regular basis to slow down the aging process and give them their preternatural abilities. The Prince might look like he was in his mid to late twenties, but he had to be hundreds of years old, if not older. The fae metabolism was much like ours. They might not need three square human meals a day, but from the Order’s research, they had to feed at least once every other day.
“You need to go,” he said as the faint sound of sirens could be heard.
“And leave you here to bleed all over yourself, the alley, and perhaps even on police officers?”
“Do you really care what happens to me?”
My fingers twitched. “No.”
“Then go.” He started to back up.
I should go. I should leave his ass here to bleed out like a stuck pig. He was an Ancient, and even if he hadn’t fed in a few months….
Holy crap.
It struck me then. “You haven’t fed this whole time, have you? Not since the spell was broken.”
He tossed a glare at me over his shoulder through thin slits. “Aren’t you leaving?”
“What does that mean then if you haven’t fed in like two years? Can these wounds—”
“Kill me unless it’s treated or I feed? Probably not, but it’ll take a while to heal.” Grunting, he pushed against the hole in his shoulder. “I just need to get out of this alley.”
“You can’t go to the hospital.” Having a very human doctor discover that fae were a real thing was not exactly on the to-do list for tonight.
“No shit,” he grumbled.
I ignored that. “I can—I can get you back to Hotel Good—”
“No,” he interrupted, and I thought that he might’ve swayed a little. “You will not contact them.”
Confusion filled me. “What? Why?”
“Can you just accept an answer without following up with another damn question?” He let out another curse. “God, you’re infuriating.”
I lifted an eyebrow at that. “You know, if I am so infuriating, then you probably shouldn’t have stalked me into the alley.”
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