Wild Hunt

by Bilinda Sheehan

  “Did you….” I cut off. I didn’t want to ask him; asking only made it real, but I needed to know. I needed that part of my memory. “Did you rape me?” I blurted out, the constriction in my chest increasing as I dug my finger tips into my legs in an attempt to keep my emotions in check.

  “Of course not…. You do not love me yet, and when you do, you will come willingly to me,” he said.

  A long, shuddering sigh escaped me, my shoulders drooping beneath the weight of my relief—but it was short lived as he leaned in toward me, his breath hot on my neck.

  “Children of the Fae must be born of love, and you will bear me many, many sons….”

  Jerking away from him, I threw myself off the bed, my legs protesting at the sudden movement. They fought me and I very nearly lost the battle as I stumbled around in the dark, pain echoing through every inch of my body.

  “Why do you keep running, always trying to escape? Would it be so terrible to stay here with me?” he asked, his voice coming out of the darkness.

  He wasn’t on the bed anymore—I was certain. His voice moved fluidly around the room, and while I couldn’t hear his steps, I was acutely aware of him because his power was still coiled beneath my skin like a snake ready to strike at any moment.

  “Yes,” I said, sucking in a deep breath as I searched for my centre.

  “Why? I know what you are; you’re safe here. No one will ever harm you.” He sounded genuinely curious.

  My laugh escaped me before I could even try and stop it; bubbling up my throat and rumbling from my mouth, it sounded vaguely hysterical. “Are you kidding me? You really don’t see any of the things you’re doing as hurting me? In one short night, you’ve done more damage to my human body than anything else that might have happened in my entire life.”

  “Only because you would seek to deny what we share. Think of the power you could wield.”

  “You mean the power you would wield; all I would be is a mindless automaton. That’s not the life I want, so I fight you,” I said, but silence danced around me and the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention.

  “Then I will just need to find another way to persuade you,” he said, his voice suddenly behind me.

  His arms locked around me and I screamed, bringing my wrists that were still locked in the manacles down on his leg as I attempted to side-step his grab.

  Fionn roared, his pain obvious, and it sent his Heart Hounds into a frenzy. They howled, their paws hitting the floor with enough force to echo around the room as they pranced around us.

  Even if I escaped Fionn, I would still have the Heart Hounds to deal with, and here in this small, enclosed space, I wouldn’t stand a chance.

  “Hunt with me,” he said, his voice low, the pain still in his eyes.

  “No,” I said, catching sight of something over his shoulder.

  She moved slowly toward us, her movements jerky, and she flickered in and out of my line of sight. Why hadn’t I seen her before now?

  It was the Fae from my vision, the one whose body we had found in the woods. She was dead; I’d watched her die, and yet she crossed the room toward Fionn with the same intensity of focus as any killer I’d ever seen in one of my visions.

  Her eyes met mine and my heart sank; it wasn’t Fionn she was focussed on, it was me.

  She reached for me, her long, delicate fingers practically transparent as though the act of crossing the floor had been too much for her. Hadn’t Darcey said something about the Fae not having anywhere to go? That there was no Heaven, they simply faded? So why hadn’t she faded?

  Her fingers touched my arm. I jolted in Fionn’s grip and he glared down at me.

  “You cannot fight me,” he said.

  “No, but perhaps she can,” I said, jerking my head in the direction of the ghost who crept closer, the grip she had on my arm tightening and making her a little more real.

  The air around her shimmered and she used the hold she had on me to drag herself closer. Fionn glanced back at where she stood but I watched his gaze go straight through her. Evidently, I was the lucky one.

  “Obey,” he said, but I felt the waver in his magic, the ghosts grip on my arm breaking the flow of his power enough to let me fight back against him.

  “No,” I said again, turning in his arms so I faced him. I moved fast, his surprise giving me the seconds I needed to put my plan into action. Jerking my arms up, I balled my hands into fists and slammed them into his jaw. His mouth snapped shut as the force drove his head backwards.

  He released me instantly, stumbling back into the darkness.

  The first Heart Hound lunged and, at the last second, changed his mind, veering to the side to land harmlessly next to me. I felt his wet nose pressing against my leg as he drew in a long breath, my scent along with it.

  I could feel their eyes on me, their red eyes watching me from the dark as the Heart Hound that scented me dropped to the floor next to my foot with a long whine.

  The ghost moved closer until my vision swam with her face. I tried to take a step back, alarm bells going off in my head that being this close to a ghost was a bad idea. She couldn’t hurt me….

  She slipped beneath my skin and I cried out, my body suddenly on fire as her icy tendrils took root within.

  Kill him.

  Her voice was strange and melodic within my head but there was nothing I could do to stop her.

  Kill him, she said again, and I fought against her.

  “Why, why did he kill you?”

  “Because he thought I had lied, but I hadn’t. He was the liar … my father is both murderer and liar….” Her voice changed as she slipped from beneath my skin once more and stood next to me.

  I could feel the void within where she had been and it took all of my willpower just to ignore it.

  “Amber,” Fionn called to me, and I felt his hands against my hair, but there was no pull to his voice.

  “I will kill him if you help me get out of here,” I said to the girl who stood next to me, her expression mournful. She watched something in the darkness and I knew without having to turn around that it was Fionn.

  She glanced over at me and nodded; her hand on my arm once more, she tugged me forward.

  Moving with her was hard; one minute, her touch was firm against my skin and the next, I was stumbling through the darkness on my own with nothing but my own poor sense of direction to guide me forward.

  Fionn made another grab at me but the ghost wrapped her fingers through mine and tugged me forward once more and out of his reach. The sound of his Heart Hounds howling faded into the distance as we ran through the darkness, a darkness that was slowly beginning to come to life with every step we took.

  “Why is it dark here?” I asked, my breath coming in hard gasps as I fought to keep up with the girl ahead of me.

  “Because he has made it that way; he prefers the dark. It wasn’t like this before,” she said wistfully, and I remembered the bright sunshine and warm grass beneath my feet from the vision I’d had. “Think of home, Amber,” the girl said, jerking me to a halt at a fork in the road.

  When had it even become a road? I cast my mind back but everything had looked the same until she had asked me to think of home.

  An image flashed into my mind and the fork faded, leaving a beaten trail through the trees. The sound of the Heart Hounds closing in on me once more grew louder and I felt my heart beat beginning to race.

  “Go. I will distract them, but you must run and you cannot look back,” she warned.

  I didn’t need to be told twice and I took off at a sprint, diving through the trees and bushes, thorns catching in my clothes and hair as I ran. The Heart Hounds let out another howl, the sound triumphant as though they’d caught exactly what they were looking for.

  Picking up my face, I ran, forcing my body to suck in oxygen through my nose as I let my exhausted legs carry me forward. I felt the ground change beneath me, getting wetter, the terrain harsher, and for a second, my stomach s
ank. What if all I was doing was running in circles? What if that was what he wanted me to do, and all of this had just been part of his game?

  I hit the veil, the air getting stiffer as though it sought to hold me inside, but I kept running anyway. Each breath I tried to take was harder than the last and I felt my pace slow to molasses. The baying of the Heart Hounds grew louder and still I ran.

  The air popped and I stumbled; pitching forward I dug my hands into the dirt and scrambled back to my feet once more. It was freezing and I wrapped my arms around my body, the thin gossamer dress I wore no help against the freezing air that clung to my skin and caused my breaths to escape in tiny puffs of air.

  The frost-covered ground bit through the thin satin slippers I wore and I didn’t waste anytime hanging around.

  The sound of traffic met my ears and I ran toward it, my legs carrying me to the side of a guard rail that ran along a dual carriageway. Staring around at my surroundings, there was something terribly familiar about it all. It wasn’t King City, and that was for sure and certain.

  Turning my head, I caught sight of one of the familiar green road way signs.

  Corcaigh, or as I knew it, Cork. I wasn’t even in America anymore…. I was back in Ireland.

  Chapter 25

  When the Fae had told me to think of home, my brain had instantly conjured an image of my mother’s two storey white-washed house surrounded by honeysuckle and lavender. This was clearly the result of that thought. Although, the path could have brought me a little closer to her house; I was still a good twenty miles out and walking didn’t seem like the best idea.

  A car pulled over onto the hard shoulder and I watched it crawl along, the headlights making it impossible to pick anything out. If I was lucky, then it would be someone willing to give me a lift to somewhere with a pay phone. Not that there were many of them left in Ireland; not now that everyone and their mother had a cell phone.

  The headlights washed over me and the car suddenly picked up speed. It crunched across the gravel and came to a halt next to the barrier, the passenger door flopping open as the overhead light flickered to life.

  I must have looked as surprised as I felt. Nic climbed from the car and wrapped his arms around me, his hold warm, his strong body crushed to mine.

  He felt thinner, his clothes hanging from him a little more than I remembered, and when I looked up into his face, the dark circles beneath his eyes tore at my heart.

  “Amber.” The woman’s voice snapped me out of my concentrated study of Nic’s face and I peeked past his arm to stare at the woman who had climbed out of the driver’s side.

  She looked just as she always had, her curly dark hair piled onto her head, her blue eyes watching me with a closely-guarded expression that even now I couldn’t read.

  “Mom,” I said, my voice cracking over the word.

  She hurried around the car and dragged me from Nic’s grip and into her own arms, her deep orchid and white musk perfume surrounding me in a bubble of warmth only she could bring.

  “I knew we’d find you. Your fella here wasn’t too sure, but I knew better,” she said, her words falling from her and against my neck.

  “How? How did you know I’d be here?” I asked, finally pulling free of her grip and staring down into her face. I’d always been a little taller than her and everything was as it had always been.

  “You look just like you did the night you went missing,” Nic said, his voice laden with an emotion I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

  “That’s because it was yesterday,” I said.

  Nic shook his head and ran his hands over his face. “Christ, they said this would happen.”

  “Who said what would happen?” I asked, glancing between them both, their worried stares making me more than a little uncomfortable.

  “Faerie doesn’t follow the same principles of time that we do, love,” my mother said, pressing her hand to my face. I winced as her hand touched one of the bruises covering my cheeks and anger flashed in her eyes.

  “Right, I know that,” I said, my brain refusing to pick up on what they were trying to tell me. I shivered and Nic shrugged out of the leather jacket he wore and wrapped it around me.

  “Here, get in the car and I’ll get the heat on,” my mom said, pushing me toward the back seat.

  I didn’t argue, just climbed in as Nic followed me and sat with his arms wrapped around me. Now that I’d begun to shiver, I couldn’t stop my teeth from chattering and my body shook. It was probably shock; after everything I’d gone through, I was just surprised I hadn’t gone catatonic as soon as I was safe.

  My mother slid in behind the steering wheel and I stared at her in surprise.

  “When did you start driving?” I asked, watching her start up the car with the practiced ease of someone who was more than comfortable behind the wheel.

  “Shortly after you went to America,” she said, without looking back at me. I could feel the tension in the air and the urge to clear it was only superseded by the fact that my brain refused to work under such conditions.

  “What were you trying to tell me? As far as I’m concerned, I was gone for a night—how long was it for you?”

  My mother kept her gaze firmly on the road ahead even though the car had yet to even move anymore. Nic stiffened against me, his grip tightening on my arms. “Forty-five days,” he said.

  I laughed, the sound manic in the small car as I tried to absorb what he’d just told me. I’d always known time between Faerie and the human realm moved differently, but that was too much. I shook my head in disbelief.

  “That’s not possible. Look, I’ve still got the I.V. mark,” I said, gesturing to the small red puncture on the back of my hand from when I’d been in the hospital.

  “I wouldn’t lie to you, Amber,” Nic said, sounding weary and exhausted.

  “How did you know I would be here? How did you even know I would be in Ireland?” I asked, staring up at him and pressing my body a little closer to him.

  “Your mom called, said she had a vision…” he said quietly.

  I remembered what those had been like, it was probably where I’d gotten such a ready ability to walk the scenes for the Elite. My mother was what the old coven had called a seer. A useful and nifty trick to have up your sleeve and one that I had envied on more than one occasion in the past.

  “I tried to go in after you but I couldn’t pick up on you at all,” she said, the shake in her voice genuine. “If I had known how much danger you were in, Amber, I would never have let you leave when you did,” she said, suddenly turning in her seat to stare back at me.

  “You had to—what choice did you have?” I asked.

  “I had a choice,” she said cryptically, and I vowed to ask her exactly what it was that she meant by that comment.

  I’d always believed the choice to leave had been my own; I’d wanted to train with the Elite, hunt for my father’s killer. Of course, finding out that I was the reason he was dead, well, that had been more than a blast from the past, and one I still hadn’t quite come to terms with.

  “You haven’t answered any of my phone calls,” my mother said as she started up the car and let it glide forward over the bumpy gravel.

  “I really don’t want to go into all of that right now,” I said, scrubbing my face with my hands in an attempt to avoid looking into the woods and the place that I had come from. I could still feel Fionn—distant, and the feelings I was picking up from him faded in and out—but there was no denying he was seriously pissed that I had gotten away.

  “I knew the moment the spell broke,” my mother said from the front seat, and when I didn’t answer her, she caught my eye in the rear-view mirror. “I’m sorry for what I had to do, but there was no other way.”

  Biting down on my tongue, I turned away from her and stared out the window. We’d re-joined the flow of traffic, the car moving slowly forward as we inched toward the city. I couldn’t believe I was back in Ireland, the one place I really di
dn’t want to be; my life wasn’t here anymore. Of course, the one good thing was that Nic sat beside me, his arm wrapped firmly around my shoulder as he allowed me to sink further in against him.

  For now, I was safe, and that was all I cared about. Fionn and the trouble he entailed could wait until I’d had a shower and slept for a year … well, a few hours at least.

  Chapter 26

  “Amber.” Nic’s voice filtered through my sleep fogged brain and I jerked awake.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, peering around in the gloom, my heart rate instantly picked up. What if I was back with Fionn, what if he had gotten to me, to Nic and my mother? How would I protect them against him?

  “Relax, Amber, it’s just me. We’ve arrived,” Nic said, pinning my arms down my sides.

  I stopped fighting him; I hadn’t even been aware of the fight until his fingers had closed around my wrists. Glancing down quickly, I expected to see the manacles still locked around my hands, but they were gone. Where they’d come off I couldn’t remember; all I knew for certain was that I was pretty glad they were. The bruising and raw skin left behind would take time to heal and when I touched my skin, I couldn’t help but wince. They hurt like hell.

  “Come inside and get warm,” my mom called from the doorway of the house I remembered growing up in. Nothing about it had changed, or at least not that I could tell from my vantage point in the backseat of the car, anyway.

  Nic took my hands and helped me scoot to the edge of the seat before tugging me gently onto my feet. Twilight was rapidly giving way to night time and I knew that within the hour it would pitch black. Almost as dark as Faerie had been, or at least the corner of it I’d been stumbling around in.

  Nic kept his arm firmly around my shoulder, tension singing down his arm into my body as he escorted me toward the house. Glancing up at him, I couldn’t help but notice the marks around his neck, and my heart came to a stuttering halt.

  “What the hell happened to your neck?” I asked, jerking around to get a better look at him and drawing him to a complete halt.