by May Dawson
Wandering Queen
Lost Fae Book 1
May Dawson
Contents
Also by May Dawson
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
A Note from May
55. An Excerpt from One Kind of Wicked
Also by May Dawson
Also by May Dawson
The True and the Crown series:
One Kind of Wicked
Two Kinds of Damned
Three Kinds of Lost
Four Kinds of Cursed
Five Kinds of Love
Their Shifter Princess:
Their Shifter Princess
Their Shifter Princess 2: Pack War
Their Shifter Princess 3: Coven’s Revenge
Their Shifter Academy:
Their Shifter Academy: A Prequel Novella
Their Shifter Academy 1: Unwanted
Their Shifter Academy 2: Unclaimed
Their Shifter Academy 3: Undone
Their Shifter Academy 4: Unforgivable
Their Shifter Academy 5: Unwinnable
Their Shifter Academy 6: Unstoppable
The Wild Angels & Hunters Series:
Wild Angels
Fierce Angels
Dirty Angels
Chosen Angels
Academy of the Supernatural
Her Kind of Magic
His Dangerous Ways
Their Dark Imaginings
Ashley Landon, Bad Medium
Dead Girls Club
For my amazing beta readers, Andrea, Angie, Barb, Becca, Denise, and Lisa, who helped make Wandering Queen the book it is.
And for everyone on the beta team who helps me with the next book.
I don’t know what I would do without you all!
Prologue
Five Years Ago
I was on my knees in the forest. I didn’t know how I’d gotten there.
The sun filtered through the green leaves of the trees above. The trees looked wrong somehow, but I didn’t know how. In the distance, there was a faint, constant rushing noise, and I tilted my head, trying to understand the sound.
As I rose to my feet, confusion almost tipped into panic. I didn’t remember anything. Not my name, not where I’d come from, not how I’d ended up there.
Looking down to make sure I wasn’t hurt, I cataloged my narrow wrists and pale skin, and the simple jeans, sneakers, and t-shirt that I wore. There was a note pinned to my chest, and I frowned as I pulled the pin loose.
Your name is Alisa.
You don’t have friends. Don’t trust anyone who claims to be one.
You’re quite good with a sword.
Well then, I supposed that was all I ever needed to know.
My hands shook a little as I folded the note and shoved it in my pocket, as if it might somehow answer more questions later. I touched something else in my pocket, and pulled out a wallet. There was nothing in it except for dozens of crisp hundred dollar bills. Nothing that told me who I was.
I headed toward the source of the strange sound. I had to go somewhere.
The sound led me through the forest to a hard, wide, black path. A road. The name followed for the path a few seconds too late. Constant noise rose and ebbed, coming with the cars that raced up and down the road. I knew what they were, but they still felt unfamiliar. Dangerous.
I glanced to both sides along the road. Maybe I should walk down it until I found…what? What was I even looking for?
No one ever found their path by standing still. I didn’t remember whoever said that to me, but I had a feeling I’d heard those words plenty of times. I started down the road. Where the hell could I go for help? What could I do?
My Converse sneakers rubbed my heels raw before the forest gave way to houses. Cars whizzed past me, and even though I walked in the grass on the side of the road, they made my heart beat fast when they came so close.
I was limping as I passed a building with several cars parked in front. Two men watched me from the front porch.
“Hey,” one of them called. “Where are you going, girl? It looks like your feet hurt.”
I didn’t know where I was going, but I didn’t like the way those men looked at me.
I ignored them, but from the corner of my eye, I saw the two of them exchange glances. Then the second man leaped over the porch railing and crossed toward me.
“Hey,” he said. His voice sounded gentler than the first man’s had. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him. Never show weakness. There was that voice from the past again.
“You need a ride?”
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine.” I’d been through worse things in my life than a few blisters. I didn’t know what. But getting into one of those cars with a strange male might lead to something worse than blood-stained sneakers.
“Call you a cab?” he asked.
Cab. Right. That was how people got around with no car of their own, if their destination was too far to walk. I’d forgotten they existed until I heard the word.
I hesitated. “Yes, that would be helpful.”
He nodded as he put his cell phone to his ear and took a step back, leading me toward the bar. “Have a drink with me while you wait?”
He wasn’t much taller than I was, and his frame looked weak, his shoulders slumped in his white t-shirt. I had a feeling I could kill him if I had to. I just needed to be cautious; any warrior can die if their guard slips or their luck runs out, no matter how weak their opponent.
“Sure,” I said.
My shoes crunched across the gritty parking lot. I followed him up the stairs, passing a few peeling rocking chairs and a tin can full of cigarette butts.
He pushed the door open with his back, then stopped, holding it open for me. I made sure I didn’t touch him as I walked in.
Faces in the dimly lit bar turned toward me. The scent of stale beer rose to my nostrils, along with a whiff of the man beside me. I’d expected him to smell bad, because his shirt was yellowed at the armpits and his dark hair was greasy, but he smelled like something both pungent and clean. Bleach.
I followed him to a table where his friend was already waiting.
“Cab should be here in about fifteen,” the first guy said, slipping his cell phone into his pocket
before he held out his hand. “I’m Steve.”
I didn’t like touching people—how did strangers touching each other ever become the normal person thing to do? But I committed, offering him a grin as I shook his hand. “Alisa.”
“And I’m Roger,” the other guy said. He was bigger than Steve, wearing a flannel shirt and a trucker hat pulled down low; escaping brown hair curled around his ears.
“Nice to meet you both,” I said. One of them signaled for the waitress, who came over glancing at me skeptically. “Water, please.”
Neither of them complained I wasn’t drinking, so that was a point in their favor. My throat was dry from the long walk.
How the hell had I ended up in the middle of the woods? With no memories?
Did I have a home? A car of my own?
A last name?
The two of them were staring at me, and I knew I’d better let go of my questions about the past for now. Staying alive in the present kept me busy enough.
That note had warned me I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t think I’d suddenly found some.
I drank my water. The men asked me a lot of questions about my life that I didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer them, but let’s be honest, I wouldn’t have told them even if I could.
When Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee weren’t distracting me, I looked around the bar curiously, taking in the bartender that leaned on the bartop to gossip with a cute young blond guy, and a couple of tables of aging good old boys who kept the noise level elevated.
An older woman was drinking by herself at one end of the bar. She slowly sipped a glass of wine. Her posture was perfect and dignified, and even though her hair was gray-streaked in a ponytail, her jeans and halter top clung to her fit frame. One of the good old boys swaggered over and tried to buy her a drink, and from what I overheard, she very politely told him to fuck off.
Okay, okay, she said she was waiting for her boyfriend. But it was obvious what she meant.
It was an interesting cast of characters. I drained the last of my water and set it on the table just as Steve’s phone buzzed against the table. “There’s your ride,” he said, holding up the cell.
“Thanks.” Then I lied, “It was nice meeting you both.”
Out in the parking lot, a yellow cab was idling. The car looked like it had been through a lot; mud was splattered all across the back of the car, obscuring the license plate.
Steve opened the door for me, which was a little more gallant than I needed, and I slid across the ripped black vinyl of the back seat.
“Where to, little lady?” The driver asked. He might have been looking at me in the rearview mirror, but he was wearing sunglasses and a hat and I couldn’t see much of his face.
The passenger door opened just as Steve slid in beside me. I slid over, glimpsing Roger settling into the passenger seat, then I kept moving. Instinct took over. I grabbed the handle and tried to open the door, but the door was locked. I yanked harder on the handle as I heard the doors slamming shut on the passenger side.
“Changed my mind,” I said, trying to stay calm. I’d ask them nicely…once. “I’d like to get out here.”
“Oh, you’re going to have to pay the fare, little lady,” the driver said with a smile. The car was already rolling, and he turned onto the road.
Steve laughed.
I rolled with my back against the window and kicked Steve hard in the chest. He slammed into the window.
Steve wasn’t laughing anymore. I kicked him in the face, my heel catching his nose, which spurted blood. I was already moving, getting my arm around the driver’s neck. I yanked him hard against the headrest as he made a choked, shocked noise.
“You’re going to want to open that door before I lose my sense of humor,” I warned him.
The passenger window exploded open. Steve looked at me with wide, blank eyes. Then he slumped toward me, red suddenly blossoming across his t-shirt like a flower unfurling. Roger let out a strangled scream just before the second sound of a gunshot went off. His blood splattered across the car.
The older woman from the bar gripped her gun in one hand, and she made a hurry-up gesture at the driver. “I think the girl told you she’d like to get out,” she said, her voice courteous.
The driver fumbled frantically with the locks. They popped open. I couldn’t get out of that bloodied car, full of glass shards and bodies, fast enough.
“Five girls,” she said, her voice calm but loud in the quiet air. “She would have been the sixth you stole the life from, wouldn’t she? I usually hunt real monsters, but you certainly did your best to give the monsters a run for their money.”
I knew she was going to pull the trigger. The roar of the gunshot was no surprise.
She wiped the gun down and tossed it into the car with them. “You’ve got some moves, honey. But it’s time to get out of here.”
I stared at her. “I think I’d rather go with you, actually.”
She scoffed.
“You said you hunt monsters, right?” I said. “I’m great with a sword.”
“Why bother being great with a sword when we have guns?” she asked.
A long, sleek black car pulled up just then. I tensed, but she just raised her hand in a wave. “If I were you, I’d get out of here. People don’t call the cops for gunfire out in the country, but sooner or later, someone’s going to notice the car full of corpses.”
The driver’s side door opened, and a tall, good looking guy unfolded from the driver’s seat. “Hey,” he said, in a rough, sexy voice. “You all right?”
She shot him a look. “First of all, you are so late. Second of all, please don’t hit on the victim.”
“I’m not a victim,” I promised her.
She swung into the passenger seat. He shrugged at me—he didn’t look sorry—then ducked back into the driver’s seat.
I dove for the back door to their car. I managed to get the door open and slid into the leather interior.
She twisted in her seat and gave me an exasperated look. “You just watched me shoot three people and I can guarantee you, I didn’t have any heartache about it. Why the hell would you invite yourself into my car?”
I flashed her a smile. “I just want to be friends. We should get out of here before the cops show up.”
Fuck whoever left me that note. I could make friends.
For some reason, I wanted to know this icy-eyed old woman with steady hands.
She gave me a look, then said, “Drive, Carter.”
He grinned as he pressed down on the accelerator pedal. “Come on, Elly. You’re always recruiting.”
“Not like this,” she told him sharply. Then she said to me, “We’ll drop you off somewhere safe. Where were you trying to go?”
I took a deep breath.
This time, I’d have to tell the truth.
“I don’t know.”
Chapter One
Alisa
I was having a perfectly lovely morning, chasing down a vampire, until the damned strange male ruined everything.
“Excuse me, coming through!” I called as I pushed through the morning commuter crowd heading into the D.C. metro, trying to keep my gaze on the vamp racing ahead.
Some people parted to let him through, but no one answered me with anything but a glare. Sexism. That’s what that was. I hoped they got bitten.
I chased him down the street and into an alleyway, where he finally turned to face me. He’d greased his jet-black hair back, as if he’d watched too many movies before he’d been turned, and now he was trying to live up to the stereotype of a vampire.
His lip peeled back in contempt when he looked me over, and I grinned back at him. That’s right, you sentient stiff tube sock; only one of us is walking out of this alley.
It was a hot summer day already, even though the sun hadn’t been up long. The alley stunk of wet cardboard, piss and the coppery tang of blood coming from the vamp.
He licked his lips as he took a step toward
me, those dark eyes gleaming. “Aren’t you the hero? I hope you already had your coffee, so I can get my caffeine buzz and my iron all in one.”
“No coffee yet. I’m pretty sure I’m still drunk from last night.” I flashed him a smile.
He grinned. “You’ve got a death wish, little girl.”
“Not exactly.” I disagreed.
I only had a fraction of a death wish.
I had a lot more of a killing wish.
I reached back and gripped my sword’s hilt, drawing it over my shoulder in one smooth motion.
“This is usually the part where your kind run,” I said.
“This is usually the part where my kind dine,” he corrected.
There was the crunch of a footfall close behind me.
“Trap?” I cocked an eyebrow at him.
His grin widened. “Trap.”
“I’m glad you finally realized it,” I said.
I whirled, my blade a flash of silver arching through the air. There were two vampires behind me, and my sword sliced deep through the neck of the first one. Almost all the way. Fuck. A smooth vamp beheading was a matter of pride to me, but everyone has an off day sometimes.
My head reeled as I spun. Should’ve taken it easy at the bar last night, Alisa.