Dark Bound

by Kim Richardson

  The queen looked slightly taken aback that I was speaking to her so directly instead of formally using her title of queen. She might have been queen of the faeries, but she was not my queen. I wasn’t about to submit to her court or bow to anyone who wore a crown of human teeth.

  “Yes,” said the queen. “I have a job offer. Apparently one that pays well enough, or you wouldn’t have bothered to come.” She smiled knowingly at me, like she knew I was broke.

  I was desperate. Not stupid. How could anyone trust a word that came out of those sausage-like lips?

  As the queen tilted her head gracefully, the light of the demon fire pierced through the trees and sparked off the circlet of human teeth above her head.

  “I need you to find a faerie for me,” said the queen.

  My mouth opened in shock. I was not expecting that.

  Tyrius spat. “A faerie? Is she freaking kidding?” A row of hair spiked on his back. “We came to this stinking fae-fest for a freaking faerie?”

  Queen Isobel leaned forward on her couch, her eyes on Tyrius. “And who might you be? Dinner?” Her eyes sparked. “Oh, you look delicious. Purebred meat is always more tender.” At that the queen’s courtiers all laughed, their eyes on Tyrius and their mouths open, salivating as though they had already fixed him on a plate of baal fillets.

  Tyrius pulled back his lips in a smile and said in a clear voice, “I’m your faerie godmother. Hang on a second while I pull my magic wand out of my ass—”

  “Tyrius!” I hissed under my breath, my eyes on Daegal as he shifted and his bow appeared in his hand. That damn faerie was quick.

  “What?” Tyrius’s blue eyes flashed as he looked up at me. “The Tooth Faerie just threatened me, Rowyn. I’m not going to just bend over and take it.”

  Heat rushed to my face as I felt a spike in my adrenaline. I hated faeries. But I loathed this queen with every fiber of my being.

  The queen pressed her ruby red lips into a thin line, her face shining with a sudden terrible beauty. Isobel drew herself up, her eyes dark with murder. The energy in the room iced. The tension continued to build, and the seething gasps of the fae grew.

  Shit. My heart pounded hard and my breath came fast. “Tyrius. Stop talking. Not a single word. You’re going to get us killed.” My fingers graced the hilt of my blade. If Daegal nocked an arrow, my soul blade would meet his neck first.

  “Rowyn’s right,” came Danto’s voice. He was close enough that I could smell old blood rolling off of him like cologne, a scent that made my stomach churn. Tension pulled his jaw tight. “This is not a fight we can win.”

  “Nonsense.” Tyrius never stopped sneering up at the queen. “She won’t kill us. She needs us. If she’s desperate enough to call upon the services of a Hunter to find her missing faerie, she will do no such thing.”

  Sighing, I looked up and met the queen’s glare, hoping Tyrius was right. “I’m going to need more details before I make my decision,” I said to the queen.

  Isobel gave an irritated glance at Tyrius before returning her eyes to me. “The faerie’s name is Ugul.” She pronounced his name like it tasted bitter in her mouth. “And he killed my son.”

  Now I was really curious.

  The queen stiffened in her chair. She stared at me for a second, anger and pain on her face. Then they vanished, and she smiled. “I want you to find him and bring him to me. Alive.”

  I studied the queen’s face. She must really want this faerie if she sought the help of little ole me. But there was something off with the way she was speaking to me, enunciating every word carefully like it was rehearsed. Even as her lips moved, her eyes spoke of something else.

  “Do you have any idea where he is?”

  The queen’s face was blank of emotion as she said, “Elysium.”

  My eyes widened. Elysium in Greek mythology is the concept of afterlife, but to us paranormals, it was also an underground world in New York City, under Manhattan.

  The truth was, the New York City legendary Mole People and Tunnel Dwellers were actually half-breeds living under Manhattan’s abandoned tunnels, caverns and old subway systems. Most of them were castoffs from their clans, the sick and diseased, but some just preferred to live like moles. Elysium was gargantuan, with thousands of places to hide. No wonder they couldn’t find this Ugul.

  The queen’s face was expectant but her eyes were hard, leaving me with the feeling there was something more she wasn’t telling me. “That’s it?” I asked. “You’ve got nothing more to give me?”

  The queen gave me a level stare. “That is all you need to know.”

  I looked down at Tyrius and raised my brows.

  “There’s no lie in her words that I can sense,” said the cat, reading the question in my mind.

  Danto angled his head and I tried hard not to wince as I felt his hair brush against my neck. “But it doesn’t mean that she’s telling us everything.”

  The vampire leaned back and straightened, his eyes fixed on the queen. “Why did you summon Rowyn? Why not ask one of your Dark Arrows to search for this faerie?” His voice was now clear but filled with deep loathing, as though it took great effort just to speak to her. “Faeries never seek the help of outsiders because no one would ever trust you, and for good reason.”

  Queen Isobel sneered, her features pulled back and making her look feline. “Why are you here, vampire?”

  The faint tightening of Danto’s jaw was the only sign of his resentment. “I’m here to make sure you don’t screw Rowyn over with this request. I know you. I know what you’ve done… what you’re capable of. I won’t let you harm her.”

  Heat rushed to my face, and I prayed to the souls no one had noticed. My nerves stretched as tightly as a piano wire.

  The queen’s face twisted in a wicked smile. “And I know you, Danto de Luca.” Danto had gone very still. “You are no leader. You don’t deserve the title of Head vampire. It was never yours to take.”

  I sucked in a breath and looked at Tyrius, who gave me a hell-if-I-know shrug. What the hell was this? When I looked at Danto, his face was rigid with frustration, but he wouldn’t look at me.

  Isobel’s smile widened at Danto’s discomfort. “The title was only granted to you because you were the Elder vampire, Oros’s, favorite. We all know what that old fool did. We know Oros changed the votes in your favor.” Isobel clicked her tongue. “The vampires don’t support you. They felt cheated out of their vote.” She bared her teeth. “Stefan is the true Head vampire in the New York Court. Not you. He had the support, and you stole the votes from him. You will never have the support of the other Vampire Courts.”

  Damn. I felt like I’d just stepped in a vampire-faerie soap opera. I thought I knew Danto from working as a Hunter. We’d crossed paths many times over the years. Turns out, I didn’t really know him at all.

  “I wish I’d brought some popcorn,” said Tyrius, his mouth twitching. “This is some pretty heavy stuff.”

  I didn’t feel like being drawn into the faerie-vampire drama, but I couldn’t just turn around and leave. I hadn’t decided if I wanted to take the job or not. If nothing else, it might provide me with some valuable insight on the vampire’s character and the queen’s.

  “Stefan is one of yours. Isn’t he? One of your pawns?” accused Danto, leaning slightly forward, his toes splayed in the dirt floor. “How many Vampire Courts have you been bribing over the years? Corrupting and manipulating their minds with your lies? Ten? A hundred? Your efforts to kill and pollute lives have always been to acquire more power for yourself.” Danto’s jaw pulled tightly, his hands in murderous fists. “You wanted to sink your claws into the Vampire Courts. You wanted to control them. Oros knew this. He knew what you were trying to do. It’s why he changed the votes and made me Head vampire.”

  “You’re not the leader of anything,” hissed the queen. “You and that angel-born whore you flaunted around. You are a disgrace to your race. You bring shame to the New York City Court.”


  Danto’s features darkened, and without warming, his eyes blackened. Shit. He was going to vamp out. My blood pounded in my veins. If he did anything, if he lashed out, we were all dead.

  “Danto,” I pressed, and added calmly, “don’t do anything stupid. It’s not why we’re here, why you came. Remember? You came for me. Danto?”

  Isobel laughed. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t destroy you where you stand, vampire. No one will care if I end your life. I’ll be doing the Vampire Courts a favor.” Her pointed teeth gleamed as she gave him her snake-like smile.

  “Uh, Rowyn.” The panic in Tyrius’s voice pulled my attention to him. “The vampire’s about to blow.”

  Sure enough, Danto’s fangs and claws were out. I couldn’t trust that he’d keep calm in this situation. If I didn’t do something now, we’d all end up as meatloaf for the faeries.

  I took a deep breath and looked up to address the queen. “This is all very informative, but I didn’t come here to hear about your drama.” My voice echoed throughout the whole chamber as clearly as if I’d been shouting. “I have to agree with my friend the vampire,” I said, looking at Danto. His eyes were still black but I saw fingernails, not claws at the ends of his hands, and some tension had left his body. “You are fae,” I said, as I flicked my eyes back to the queen. “Why not have your faeries take care of this? Why me?”

  The queen leaned back into her sofa and crossed her legs very slowly, her clash with the vampire forgotten as her full attention focused on me. “Because they failed.” The queen gave a dark glare in Daegal’s direction. “It’s why you’re here, Rowyn Sinclair. Why I need you. You’re my last hope at finding my son’s killer. Come now, Hunter,” Isobel said. Her lip curled back, revealing too-sharp canines, which gave me the creeps as I stared into her black eyes. “Do we have a deal? Will you help me find my son’s killer?”

  A band tightened around my chest, squeezing me as I turned her words over, looking for traps and loopholes within her wording. But it all sounded right.

  “What do you want to do, Rowyn?” asked Tyrius. His worried expression pulled at my chest. “You want this or not? You don’t have to say yes. We’ll find another way to get that twenty grand. We can all leave now and forget we’ve ever met the Tooth Faerie,” he added loudly enough for Her Majesty to hear. I loved that stupid cat.

  No, I didn’t have to say yes, but with the due date approaching I knew this job was my best chance at saving my grandmother’s home. Looking for a single faerie didn’t seem all that bad. Hell, it was almost too easy.

  “What about payment?” I wasn’t about to go hunting a faerie for Her Highness without some sort of payment. I wasn’t stupid.

  The queen lifted a hand and gestured to her Dark Arrow commander. “Give Daegal your bank account details and we’ll wire you ten thousand tonight. I’ll keep ten thousand as a security deposit, which you will get when you bring me the faerie.”

  “And what if I can’t find your faerie… will you send your Dark Arrows after me?” I said, remembering stories my grandmother told me about angel-born going into Elysium to never be seen again. I’d also heard that it was plagued with Rifts, demon portals that would open up and suck you away to the Netherworld.

  The queen sighed, visibly biting back her annoyance. “I would never do that, silly Rowyn,” the queen purred and sent goose pimples all over my skin. “And before you ask, you can keep the ten thousand for your trouble.”

  “It’s never that easy,” I countered, having suffered my share of unhappy clients when things didn’t turn out the way they wanted—usually asking for their money back.

  “It is,” said the queen, “you have my word.”

  Right. Like that meant anything to me. How could I trust a faerie with a crown of human teeth on her head? I didn’t. But I trusted Tyrius with my life, and when he gave a slight nod of his head, I knew the queen was truthful—or at least she thought she was.

  “You’ll get your money,” said the queen. “I’ll trust you to fulfill your end of the deal, Hunter. You come highly recommended in the community.”

  My eyes fell on Daegal and I flinched when I realized he’d been staring at me this whole time. His tiny smirk sent a new wave of heat to my face. The bastard was daring me to say yes, like he thought I was afraid to take the job. Hell no. I was not afraid of some faerie.

  “Well?” Queen Isobel demanded as she picked at her nails, and warning bells resonated in my mind. “Do you accept? Will you bring me Ugul?”

  My pulse quickened at the thought of what I was about to do. Me? Hunting for a faerie? I hated faeries.

  I glanced at Tyrius one last time before I said, “You have a deal. I’ll find your bloody faerie.”

  7

  Tyrius lay on my bed on his back, legs splayed on either side of him exposing his belly. We’d been going over the Manhattan subway and Amtrak maps for most of the night and early morning, looking at some points of entry that we both knew existed, specifically an entrance at the Riverside Drive viaduct. Elysium was a massive network of passageways, and we were both tired and grumpy by the time the sun was up and spilling yellow rays through my kitchen window over the empty pizza box.

  And then Tyrius started moaning.

  “What’s wrong now?” I asked, pulling my eyes from the maps on my laptop’s screen and blinking back the eye-burn I always got from staring too long and too close at a computer screen. “Hair ball?”

  The Siamese cat’s head lolled to the side. “I feel fat.”

  I let out an exasperated breath and shook my head. “You should have thought of that before you ate four slices of pizza. I mean… in that tiny body… where does it all go?”

  The cat sprang up on his feet, tail in the air. “Do you want me to tell you?”

  “You’re a pain in my ass. That’s what you are,” I grumbled, wiping my eyes and feeling an ache at the back of my neck. “Where do you want to start looking? This Ugul character could be anywhere.”

  After leaving Sylph Tower and her royal faerieness, Tyrius had made me promise to take him with me on my hunt for the faerie. But when I had turned expectantly to Danto, he seemed only to want to put some distance between us and had left without saying goodbye. No doubt, he was embarrassed that we had heard the queen’s words. It painted a very different picture of my vampire friend, a more mysterious one.

  Unease had welled in my chest as I had watched the vampire disappear into the night. Strange how things had changed. I actually gave a damn about a blood sucking vamp. Who knew I was so sensitive? Maybe I was losing my mind. Or perhaps my perception had changed now that I knew Danto and I had something in common—we both had demon essence flowing in our veins. But something in the way his eyes shone with betrayal and pain had left me concerned.

  I knew about the Vampire Courts and how they governed themselves, but I’d never heard of the vampire Oros. Guess that was before my time. If anyone could get bored to death with angel-born or half-breed politics, it was me. But if what the queen said was true, Danto was an outcast among his own kind—just like me.

  Vampires never stayed that way for very long, especially if his fellow kin felt as though he’d cheated them. Sooner or later Danto would be hunted and killed.

  “What do you know of this vampire Stefan?” I asked as I leaned back in my chair.

  Tyrius stopped washing and looked across, eyes narrowing to frowning slits. “That he’s a nasty piece of work. He gets off by drinking the blood of virgins, right before he snaps their necks.”

  “Nice,” I said, stifling a shiver.

  “And if he’s in bed with the sweet faerie queen of the Dark Court, he’s even worse. Only the truly evil would take sides with that crazy half-breed bitch.” The cat’s tail quivered straight out behind him. “If I were to guess, I’d say she tried and failed to get Stefan the vote. She’s probably planning on Danto’s replacement with Stefan as we speak. It sucks, but the brooding vampire’s days are numbered.”

  “Why?”
I asked, feeling suddenly awake. “What’s in it for her?”

  Tyrius shrugged. “Nothing good. The fae and the vampires have always been sworn enemies. I’ve never heard of any coven or clan from the different races working together. I think we’re missing something here.”

  “I agree, but we don’t have time to get into all that right now.” I slumped in my chair thinking of coffee and how good it would taste down my throat. “Aren’t there maps of Elysium?” I said between yawns. “Maybe Bemus and Mani might have one?” I pushed my chair back and went in search of coffee in my kitchen.

  “Maps of Elysium don’t exist,” mewed Tyrius, his pink tongue darting as he cleaned his front right paw.

  “Why not?” I whirled around with a scoop of coffee grounds in my hand. “That seems a little weird… even for us.”

  “Personally, I think it’s because no one ever bothered to make one,” said the cat. “But it could have something to do with the fact that the place keeps changing. New tunnels keep popping up. Doorways appear and disappear. It’s cursed. It’s like a living maze.”

  “Great. Why do I get the feeling I got screwed?”

  His eyes widened. “You’re making coffee?” With a single bound, Tyrius leaped on the kitchen counter and padded over to me. He raised a questioning brow as he sat next to the coffee machine. “Is it organic? You know what pesticides do to my coat.”

  I shook my head. “Yes—I mean—no. Tyrius. You know what happens when you have coffee. You’re… not yourself. I’ve seen cats on catnip, but you on coffee… you’re like a hundred cats on catnip combined. Remember what happened the last time? Father Thomas had to hose you down to keep you from ruining his garden.”

  “How can I forget,” mumbled Tyrius. “The priest had me nailed to the wall with his hose—that sounded dirty. Oh, come on. Just a sip. I promise I won’t spaz out.” He put his right paw to his forehead. “Baal’s honor. Besides, I need a little kick. We’ve been at this all night. I. Deserve. Some. Coffee.”

  “You are a spaz. But a cute one,” I laughed as I poured the water into the coffee machine and then added the coffee and pushed the on button. The smell of the beans was intoxicating, rejuvenating me with only its aroma.