A wry grin tugged at my lips. Most locals stayed far, far away from Bourbon, staying off the known streets and into the lesser parts of the French Quarter or hanging in the business district. There were times I’d rather take a swim in the muddy Mississippi than walk on Bourbon, but when I was gone for a while, I missed the craziness. Probably because I hadn’t lived here my entire life, and in many ways, I was still a newbie to Nola.
Cafe Du Monde was about five minutes from the heart of the Quarter, but the space under the green and white pinstriped awning was always packed, as it was today.
Sighing, I sidestepped a couple who’d apparently decided holding hands while walking at the speed of a three-legged turtle was an appropriate thing to do. The line up ahead was ridiculous, but I’d come this far, so I was getting a damn beignet—
A cold draft stirred my curls. Goosebumps raced across my skin as I stopped under the covered walkway. My right hand floated to my side as I whipped around, ignoring the startled curse from the boy in a waiter’s white uniform. My heart jumped into my throat.
The prince stood behind me.
Chapter Five
Holy shit.
I took a step back, bumping into someone. The person said something, but I didn’t hear them or care. Part of me couldn’t believe I took an actual step away, like I was afraid, but I was beyond caught off-guard.
The prince of the damn fae stood in front of me, and he looked like he belonged in the Otherworld.
Or in an Anne Rice novel.
His raven-colored hair brushed broad shoulders cloaked in a white linen shirt. Like before, he must’ve forgotten to button it completely. Unlike normal fae, his skin wasn’t silvery, but bronze, and stood out in stark relief against the whiteness of his shirt. He’d ditched the breeches, though. He was rocking some leather pants now and . . . combat boots.
Actually, the prince looked like he belonged in New Orleans.
Snapping out of my surprised stupor, I became aware of the hum of conversation around us and I felt the warm breeze return. The sugary scent of beignets filled my nostrils, and I saw a middle-aged brunette openly gawking at him, and even though I found his very being to be disturbingly unsettling, I could admit that his perfectly symmetrical, angular face was beautiful. It was the kind of beauty that was almost hard to look upon. Like if he was just a picture on the Internet, you wouldn’t believe he was real. But he was, and there wasn’t a flicker of warmth or compassion in his features.
I lifted my right hand, reaching for my iron stake out of instinct, even though I knew it would do no good against the prince.
“You shouldn’t do that.” His voice was deep with what reminded me of an English accent. “I know you want to, but it would be very, very unwise of you, Ivy.”
My hand twitched.
Creepy Prince smiled slightly. “Your friend has been very helpful.”
That got my hackles up. I slid my sunglasses onto my forehead and forced my tone to stay calm and level. “I’m sure she has. Speaking of Val, happen to know where I can find her?”
His lips curled in a semblance of a smile as he stepped closer. The prince was tall, taller than Ren, who was pushing six foot two. My entire back stiffened as I forced myself to hold my ground, even though every instinct demanded that I run and run super fast, because he had almost killed me once before. Correction. He would have definitely killed me if he hadn’t realized what I was and had, I guessed, healed me.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, instead of answering my question, his pale blue eyes fixed on mine.
My hand curled into a useless fist. “That is extremely creepy to hear.”
That cold smile returned. “Why don’t we talk? There are seats across the way.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
The slow smile increased but never reached his eyes. “Oh, I know it is.”
Fine hairs rose on my arms.
“What exactly can you do right now?” he said in the same coldly polite voice. “Refuse me?” Creepy Prince laughed, and it wasn’t a bad sound. Again, it was something that was just cold, as if he were mimicking what a human would do. “You can’t.”
“I can.” My palm itched to grab the thorn stake secured under my pant leg, but I held still. I might be reckless, but I wasn’t stupid.
“Really? I will have to beg to differ on that. You see, humans surround us. So many of them, and I have an extraordinary appetite.” His eyes appeared to glimmer as his gaze slithered from the top of my curly head down to my toes. “A rather impressive appetite for many, many things.”
“Okay. First off, ew.” My lip curled. “Secondly, I don’t want to hear about any of your appetites.”
One dark eyebrow rose. “Oh, but you should know that I could kill twenty of these humans in less than five seconds and feed on the rest, leaving them to believe that it was this little red-headed girl who murdered these innocent people.” His voice dropped even lower as he leaned in and icy air brushed my cheek. “You deny me this, those lives will be on your hands, little bird.”
Anger flushed hotly as my eyes met his. There wasn’t a single part of me that doubted anything he said. He had me. God, I hated to admit it, but he had me.
Pivoting on my heel, I marched to the corner of the street and then crossed it, heading towards Jackson Square. I didn’t have to look behind me to know the prince was following. I could feel him, his iciness beating upon my back.
The whole entire time, my heart raced so fast I was sure I was going to go into cardiac arrest on the sidewalk. This was insane on so many different levels. I was about to have a conversation, albeit an unwilling one, with the mother freaking prince of the Otherworld on a lazy Sunday afternoon. At any minute, he could kill a dozen people before anyone knew what he was up to. Any Order member could stumble across us, and how would that look, me being chummy with the prince?
Man, I really should’ve listened to Ren.
Then again, would the prince have stayed away if Ren were with me? Creepy Prince said he’d been waiting for me. He could’ve come anyway, and Ren would’ve gone ape shit, and his life would be in danger.
It really was a no-win situation.
All the benches were full, but the prince strode right up to the first one that was under the shade of a leafy tree. An elderly couple took one look at him and then struggled to their feet. Not a single word was exchanged. They ambled off as fast as their tired, old bodies could carry them.
“I bet you’re real useful on a crowded bus,” I remarked.
He sat down on the bench. “Sit.”
“I prefer to stand.”
Those eerie eyes locked onto mine. “And I prefer you to sit.”
My fingernails dug into my palms. “You wanted to talk, then talk.”
His eyes were no longer glimmering. They were as hard as chips of ice. “Sit, little bird.”
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped.
There wasn’t even a flicker of surprise or anything that gave a hint about what he would do next. He simply lifted a hand and crooked one finger. A second later, a horn blew and someone shouted—several people shouted.
I looked over my shoulder. “What the . . . ?” I trailed off, eyes widening as a young man, no older than me, stood in the middle of the busy street. It was the waiter who’d cursed earlier when I’d whipped around. A car door opened as the young man dropped to his knees in the middle of the street.
“Sit, or I will make sure his insides are on his outside.”
Oh my God. Heart dropping to my toes, I pressed my palm to my chest. “How did you . . . ?” I’d seen fae manipulate humans, but never like this. Never from this far away and without touching them.
“I am the prince,” he replied. “You have met no other like me. Sit.”
Holy shit.
I sat.
I sat as far away as I humanly possibly could on the bench. The prince smiled, and the young man shuddered. A look of confusion crossed his face as he
looked around hastily. He rose to his feet and stumbled across the street where people surrounded him.
“The mortal realm has changed,” the prince said after a moment, and I looked over at him. He was staring at the road, dark brows knitted. “The last time I was here, horses carried people where they needed to go. There was no world wide web or TV.”
My brows inched up my forehead.
“It has taken me a few days to . . . adapt to all of the technology and people. They are everywhere. Ready to serve.” He smiled again as he stretched out his long legs. “My people will do well here.”
Pressing my lips together, I inhaled through my nose and remained silent.
“My world is dying, little bird. It is dark and dead. Nothing new is reborn.” The prince extended an arm along the back of the bench. If he touched me, I’d puke in his lap. For real. His chin tipped toward me. “The only way I can save it is to permanently open the gates.”
I knew this already. Tink had told me.
“Our food source is nearly depleted. It will not be much longer before everything is gone.”
When he spoke of the food source, I knew he didn’t mean cheeseburgers and bacon. He was talking about humans. When the fae didn’t feed, they had normal human lifespans, but when they fed from humans, they could almost become immortal. It wasn’t something any of the Order members liked to think about, because there was nothing we could do about the humans that had been snatched from our world long ago, when the fae came and went through the gateways as they pleased. From what we’d learned, they raised humans in their world like cattle.
It was repulsive.
“You’ve done this to yourself,” I said, voice surprisingly calm. “You’ve killed your own world. You’re not going to do the same to ours.”
The prince dipped his chin. “What do you know of my world, little bird? What do you know at all?”
Prickling irritation danced across my skin. “I do know I want to stab you in the eyeball every time you call me ‘little bird.’”
His lips twisted into a cruel smirk. “You do not like me.”
“No shit,” I muttered.
“Perhaps if we met under better circumstances—”
“One where you didn’t beat me within an inch of my life?”
A woman walking past us looked over at us sharply but kept going when the prince nodded. “There is that, but I do recall giving you ample opportunity to leave without injury. You chose not to. You fought me, and yes, I would’ve killed you if I had not realized what you are.”
I choked on a laugh. “Wow.”
He didn’t appear to find anything he’d said amusing. “But now I know how important you are.”
My fingers curled around my knees as a breeze lifted a curl and tossed it across my face. A strange scent surrounded the prince. It wasn’t exactly unpleasant, but it reminded of something. Beaches? No. I frowned.
His gaze flickered over my face. “You will open those gates for me.”
I laughed again. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
“I figured you would say that,” he replied, casting his gaze back to the street. “Let me impregnate you and you will want for nothing.”
My brows snapped together. “Yeah, that’s probably the most unappealing offer for sex in the history of mankind.”
He stared at me. “You are not afraid of me, are you?” Then he leaned over and inhaled deeply. “No. I smell fear on you, and yet you speak to me as if you have no concern for your well-being.”
“Did . . . did you just smell me again?” I asked, my pulse pounding in my throat. The truth was, I was scared. Terrified, honestly, but I couldn’t show that.
The side of his lips curled up. “You are confident because of your importance to me, or you are foolish. Either way, you will bear my child.”
All I could do was stare at him, because this was by far the most bizarre conversation I’d ever had with anyone or anything, and I’d had a lot of strange convos with Tink.
“You can make this easy and come with me now or—”
“I can make this hard? I know how this works. You can’t force me to have sex with you,” I said, voice low. “And if you threaten the lives of others to get me to go with you, you’re still forcing me.” I met his stare, calling up every ounce of bravery I had. “You can make me sit here and talk to you. You can even expose what I am to the entire world—”
“Why would I out what you are? Your kind, your Order, would kill you before you took your next breath. No one who wishes to not incite my wrath will betray you.”
Well, that was . . . kind of good to know. At least I could mark that one thing to freak out over off the list. “Anyway, you can make me do a lot of things, but you cannot make me do that. Ever.”
His head cocked to the side. “Is it because you’re in love with the human male?”
I blinked, jerking back. He said the word love like he was utterly unfamiliar with the term. “What?”
“The man who rushed to your side when you were injured. The one who has been spending every night at your place.”
Oh no. I started to stand but my legs were weak.
The smile reappeared. “How much do you value his—?”
“Don’t,” I warned, voice barely audible. “Don’t threaten him.”
He chuckled then, and it almost sounded real.
“Loving someone else has nothing to do with it. Even if I were single, I wouldn’t have sex with you.”
“I would,” a man said as he stopped in front of the bench. He grinned at the prince. “Just saying.”
The prince winked in return.
I waited until the other man had roamed off before I continued. I made sure my voice was low. “I am not having your child and ensuring that your kind takes over the world. Sorry. That’s not going to happen.”
“Are you a wagering type, little bird?”
I stared at him a moment. “This is insane. You nearly killed me. You’re a fae that wants to take over the human realm. There is literally nothing you can say or do that will—”
The prince moved fast, too fast for me to track. He was suddenly directly in my space and his cool hand was curved around the nape of my neck, smashing my curls. I tried to pull back, but yep, I was getting nowhere without breaking my own neck.
“Let go of me,” I ordered, moving my hand to my left side. If I had to stab him, even if the only thing it did was piss him off, I would.
“You can fight this all you want, but I know the game and the rules,” he said, and my stomach roiled as his icy breath coasted over my cheek. “I know how this ends, little bird. And trust me, you will be consenting sooner than you realize.”
Chapter Six
The prince just got up and walked away. Walked on down Decatur like he was out sightseeing wearing leather pants in seventy-degree weather. I think he might’ve walked into Jackson Square. Maybe he was going to check out the statue of Andrew Jackson? Or maybe he’d cross the street again and try some beignets or coffee mixed with chicory?
And I just sat there, sort of stunned and kind of wanting to laugh. Not the good kind of laugh. I was back to the slightly crazed kind.
What had just happened?
I was trying to comprehend the entire conversation, but the prince getting up and walking away was perhaps the most unexpected part. He didn’t try to force me to go with him. Oh God, was Tink right? Was the prince going to attempt to woo me? Nausea hit me in the stomach, and I might’ve puked a little in my mouth. Was that why he had only creeped me out but didn’t try anything else?
I knew I needed to say something. It was my duty to inform David that the prince was out and about.
Pushing up from the bench, I drew in a deep breath and slid my sunglasses back onto my face. What could I say though? How could I explain to anyone that I’d seen the prince but he hadn’t attempted to harm me? It might be believable if I was any other Order member and not the one who’d chased the prince down and spent on
e-on-one time with him, getting my ass handed to me. I could say that the prince hadn’t seen me. That wasn’t entirely impossible.
Nervous energy filled me as I waited for the traffic to clear on Decatur. The best thing for me to do was keep my mouth shut, but I couldn’t. I had to warn other members that the prince was out and moving around the city. It was a safety concern. But it was more than that. It was my duty—a duty ingrained in me since birth and I couldn’t deny it.
The Ivy before the whole halfling business would’ve done the right thing, and I was still her.
As I crossed the street, I thought about texting Ren, but I didn’t. Not yet. There was something I needed to take care of first, the reason why I was out in the first place, and that had nothing to do with getting beignets.
I headed northeast on Decatur then turned left on St. Phillips, making my way toward the headquarters of the New Orleans branch of the Order. The twenty minute walk helped slow down my heart rate, but it did nothing to ease the anxiety building within me.
When Mama Lousy’s gift shop came into view, I noticed right off the bat that things had changed. The shop was closed, and since it was Sunday, that was unheard of. The gift shop was really just a front for the Order, selling fake voodoo stuff and yummy pralines. Jerome, a grouchy retired Order member, usually ran the place. I hoped nothing had happened to him. He could be a real dick, but he was kind of a lovable dick.
Dylan was standing outside, leaning against the deep burgundy wall next to the door that led upstairs. To the average passerby, he looked like some strange dude loitering, which meant he blended right in with his dark denim jeans and gray Henley shoved up to his elbows. He was wearing sunglasses and his built arms were crossed over his chest.
My steps slowed as he turned his head in my direction and said, “Oh look, she is alive.”
I arched an eyebrow as I stopped in front of him. Order members weren’t exactly a warm and friendly bunch. Probably had a lot to do with our high turnover rate. Most of us died before you could even get to know someone. Val had been different, though. From the first moment I’d met her, she’d welcomed me while everyone else was standoffish. Another reason why her betrayal cut so deep.
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