Olivia went back to working, her mind firmly back on Justin. He was late, as was Alden. Maybe they’d gone out to coffee? She liked coffee. Recently her daydreams included going out for coffee with a certain visiting Enforcer. Yeah, right, like that was ever going to happen. She sighed heavily and jumped as Mildred dropped a thick volume on her counter.
“These need to be returned, and Cyrus wants you to alert him the moment Alden gets in. He also said to be watchful today, and that you should just suspend the afternoon class. Those kids will riot if you do, so please don’t. The rest of us would rather not take over the primary class.”
Mildred was thirtyish, with drab, yellow straw-like hair. Her parents were both Elders, kind people. It was a wonder that their daughter was so serious and sour. Olivia took the heavy volume—one she had just fully archived and taken from about thirty tomes—and dropped it onto the lower part of her counter.
“I’ll still teach it, and Alden hasn’t been in yet. He’s usually not this late,” Olivia politely pointed out, her hands coming back up, and folding on the counter. “Is there anything else you needed?” she continued.
“No. Make sure you file that, and be sure to note that I took it for only a day,” she said flippantly as she turned and left.
As if I don’t know how to do my own job? Olivia just barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes as she went back to cataloguing the archive she was working on. Distractedly, her mind wandered to the hours she’d spent last night looking into the description of the Demon the kid had given her, and yet the Guild held so little information on Demons that it was like looking for a ghost.
Two hours went by before the kids started coming in and the visitors started leaving. She looked to where Kendra had been and noted that Sadie was talking to the girl now. She turned and watched as the last of the kids entered.
She smiled. She loved this part of her job the most. Teaching History to eager little minds, well, mostly eager. Some hated being here, and those ones normally could be brought around easily enough with the right lesson.
“Miss Olivia,” Matilda said as she slipped her tiny fingers into Olivia’s hand. “No monsters today, okay?” she begged with her small lip trembling.
“Monsters are why we are here, Matilda. They’re why we need to learn about them, so we can hunt them down and protect others from them.”
“‘Tilda is afraid of them,” Clarita said, her brown eyes challenging. “I’m not afraid of them; I want to kill them, and protect people!”
The kids started sounding off, and Olivia felt her heart twist with the reality of it all. They would go out into the real world, and some of them would make Enforcer, unlike her. Some of them would die protecting the Human race from very real monsters.
“Let’s sit on the carpet today,” she said, her eyes searching the faces and taking a mental head count. Having an eidetic memory came in handy at times like this. “Bryan, Kandice, and Burt, front row please. Today I’ll be getting your full attention, or Alden and James will be making you run additional laps tomorrow morning. Do you understand?” she chided.
She wanted kids, but she wanted the kind that didn’t happen. The kind of kids who listened, loved to learn, and behaved. She’d once confided that to Alden, and he’d laughed. He’d responded with, “A child is only silent when they are in trouble, and they only behave if bribed to do so.”
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen,” she said as she took her seat at the head of the class, on the small chair which could barely fit a child. Not that she was much bigger than the oldest kid here. “Today we learn about the Fae, and some of the breeds. We’ll start by asking each other some very important questions.”
She waited until they all looked in her direction before she continued.
“Who can give me the names of the High Fae castes? And why are they the most dangerous?”
“That’s easy,” Daniel called out. He had a light complexion, with freckles that covered both his cheeks and his nose. He was a smart ass most days, being the oldest of the group.
“Well,” Olivia said after a moment, “enlighten us.”
“Blood, Light, Dark, and the Horde. The Horde is the ugliest and vilest of the monsters and I’m going to kill them all when I get bigger and become an Enforcer. You won’t see much of the Horde here because they’re ugly buggers. Dark is smart, and deadly, but unlike the others, they like our world and stay in it. They don’t hide, like the Blood Fae do. Those ones don’t come here. They’re probably afraid of us and our Enforcers. The Light is the most beautiful, and you know it’s them because they draw you in with their pretty eyes and looks. Then they eat you,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Good description, but those aren’t facts. The Blood don’t come here because it’s believed they prefer to stay hidden in the shadows and remain in Faery. Little is known about them, other than that. The Horde is the ugliest of the Fae, but they don’t appear so when they use glamour. They’re monsters, ones without rule because their King has been missing for a long time, which makes them the most dangerous. The Light Fae, while alluring and attractive, are truly stuck-up and self-absorbed.” Olivia made a face that made the kids giggle. “Or so I am told. And the last is the Dark Fae, the most well-known group of the Fae. They don’t hide in the shadows, you’re right about that Daniel, but you forgot to mention that they, too, are amazingly beautiful. Each of the four castes feeds on the Human race,” she said, and then paused, hating the next part. “Can anyone tell me why that is bad?”
*~*~*
Ristan watched her from the shadows, her delicate features crinkling when she didn’t like something. She enjoyed teaching; that much he was sure of. Her eyes had gazed on the children with love, and he found himself wondering what it would be like for someone to look at him like that.
He grinned to himself at the Guild teaching she was passing on to the children. The Humans hadn’t gotten word yet that the Horde King wasn’t missing anymore, and would have flipped if they’d known that he’d been masquerading as the Dark Fae Heir for years with the support of the Dark King, no less. Nor did they know that the real Dark Fae Prince had been hidden in this very Guild the entire time. Yep, that wasn’t going to go over well when they realized the extent of the trick that the Fae had pulled on them.
He listened as the children answered each question she asked, and then as she corrected them. He liked the soft lilt of her voice, as if she had a hint of the South in her, not that he was actually from the South himself. Just the small twang, which she’d probably picked up from a book or a TV show.
He’d told Synthia that the little redhead was a Demon, but the truth of it was, she was more angel than anything else. She didn’t fit the mold of a traitor, and yet, did anyone? She’d be too scared of doing it. She was too small, and very meek, as Synthia had described, but Ristan was sure she had a fire in her, just itching to get out.
Most freaks were the ones no one expected, the quiet ones. He grinned. His eyes slid further down to her plump breasts. Most men would say too small, he’d say just fuckin’ perfect. Impeccable size for clamps, in his opinion. And her red lips…fuckin’ hell, he’d like to see them wrapped around his cock, as those beautiful dark blue eyes watched his pleasure as it spread across his face.
Those small hips were perfect because it wouldn’t take much to rock them, and he would. He’d take her hard, relentlessly, for hours. Those elegant fingers, small, and yet big enough to get the job done…
“Justin,” Alden said, his voice making Ristan jump from where his filthy ass mind had gone.
The problem with actually fucking Olivia? She wouldn’t know what to do if a cock came with crayon-written directions, and he wasn’t into teaching as much as he was into doing.
He turned to the old man and glared. “Let’s get those archives,” he growled as he led the way to the study carrel. His min
d firmly dismissed thoughts of what he ‘wanted’ to do and couldn’t fuckin’ do. Because when it came to that little librarian, it wasn’t rocket science. He wasn’t hitting it, period.
Chapter Six
The halls of the Guild were almost empty as Ristan moved through them, his eyes scanning for unseen threats as he followed behind the librarian. She seemed sweet, and yet he never took anyone or anything at face value. Shit was never what it seemed, and the moment you let your guard down, you died. Now that she was finished with her duties for the day, it seemed that a little invisibility glamour and a bit of nosing around might be in order.
He slipped silently by her and into her apartment, catching the subtle scent of jasmine as he passed her. She could be innocent, but she could also be guilty of being in league with the Mages. They’d all seemed innocent at first, right up until they’d started stealthily attacking the Fae.
The Mages blamed the Fae for not being welcomed into the High Fae Castes, especially not on equal footing, as they were Changelings and not fully Fae. They’d never even bothered to come to the Horde, but then again, they hadn’t wanted to be a part of the Horde. They wanted to be accepted, but every Caste had those they easily accepted, and those they didn’t. Acceptance didn’t mean equality, though; this was something Ristan knew all too well.
The Mages were half -human, and to the Fae, that used to be a death sentence. They were mortally flawed, as they aged, and the Fae were vain in their immortality and inability to die from natural causes. Who could blame them? They were frozen in time, at the age of their Transition, or close to it. Who wanted to watch as someone withered and slowly died as they aged? Granted, a Changeling’s lifespan was a lot longer than a Human, but aging was still inevitable.
Of course, the Horde would have taken them in, had they asked. They’d been open to any Fae or creature that could in some way add to their numbers. Instead, the Mages had let their anger fester over time and had become monsters in their own right. The Mages had been systematically trying to destroy the Fae, and Faery itself, in retaliation. The Fae had traced the Mages back to the Guild’s doorstep, where they’d been hiding in plain sight. The hard part was separating Witches and Warlocks from the Mages, and figuring out who was actually there to protect the Humans, and which ones were using the cover of the Guild to destroy the Fae.
Ristan swiftly slid into the entryway as he searched the room for any damning evidence. It was a small apartment with a kitchen and separate bathroom, living, and sleeping rooms all only a few steps away from each other. He caught sight of pictures—or, more to the point, frames. Olivia had walls of frames, with the original sample pictures they came with still displayed in them.
He moved his eyes to the slim female as she moved inside the room. She removed her shawl and slipped out of her flat sandals. She stretched and moved to a docking station on the counter, popped her phone into it and touched an app for an oldies station. Ristan smiled, approving of her taste in music as the Beatles’ I Saw Her Standing There came on and her head bobbed to the beat. She softly muttered a spell and the music spread to the other rooms of the small apartment.
“Kit?” she called, her eyes moving around the room. “Kit cat, if you don’t come out, mommy can’t feed you,” she called out, and then started dancing her way to the bag of cat food. She shook the bag, and moved around the small room, searching for the feline.
“Bad kitty,” she said, her eyes passing over Ristan, and then slid further through the room. “I swear, if you got out, and you get me into trouble…” She let the threat hang in the air unspoken.
Ristan looked down as something curled around his ankle and meowed. Found the pussy. He smiled; yeah, he was a pussy fucking magnet. He carefully pushed the cat with a gentle foot and smiled as Olivia’s face lit up as she caught sight of the cat.
“Damn, Kit, you gave me a scare. You know they’ll boot you out if they discover I took you in. The Guild doesn’t allow animals in the apartments,” she chided lovingly, and Ristan narrowed his eyes on her.
He shook off the thoughts that popped in his head. She loved animals; who said the Mages wouldn’t love them as well? Who says evil people didn’t have pets? He moved further into the apartment, listening as she started singing along to the radio while watering her plants and chattering to them. For such a quiet little thing, she had a lot bottled up in there that she seemed to only feel comfortable saying to the cat and plants. She had a small snack in her kitchen, cleaned up, and then she moved into the same room as he was currently heading into.
He watched her from the empty corner of her small, but perky, bedroom. More of the frames with images of the model families filled them, even in here. Only one frame hadn’t been bought and placed directly on the wall.
A picture of a woman with a pregnant swollen belly and coppery hair was on her nightstand. The woman’s eyes were a vivid aqua blue, and if he guessed right, it was Olivia’s mother. The background setting showed a little farmhouse with a white picket fence that surrounded it. By the vivid coloring of the tree leaves, he guessed it was taken somewhere in New England.
His eyes slid back to the woman at hand, and he paused. She was undressing. Fucking hell, he should look away. Right? He looked to the door and found the cat watching him carefully. Yeah, he knew he should leave, but he couldn’t muster the willpower to actually go.
Not like he could if he actually wanted to. Sifting inside the Guild was something he had never tried. It was well-known that there were wards in place to prevent Fae from sifting in or out and he had never wanted to give them a hint of his being inside of the walls of the Guild. Too much rode on him being here.
Instead, he moved closer to the wall in the corner of the bedroom and slid down it. She had porcelain skin, almost alabaster in color, with a few beautifully placed freckles. He held his breath as she lifted the shirt and revealed a simple white lacy bra that was sheer enough that he could make out pink nipples that begged to be nipped and pinched.
What the fuck was wrong with him? He preferred exotic women, ones who enjoyed kinky fuckery, things like nipple clamps and other toys that could make a woman scream as she discovered new passions. He swallowed as she stepped out of her skirt, and yes, his eyes slid to the thin slice of fabric that barely contained the wispy red curls of her sex.
Fuck me, she’s perfect, Ristan said in his head, his eyes taking in her slim thighs and firm backside. She rummaged through the closet and tossed a few things on the bed before she bent over the dresser as she searched for something.
He waited as she left the room, and it wasn’t until he heard the bathwater that he actually groaned. He caught it and ran a frustrated hand over his face. Hadn’t he considered that she’d come home and bathe? No, because he hadn’t thought that far ahead.
The cat moved further into the room and jumped on the dresser. Its green eyes centered on Ristan as it lay down and watched him from its lofty perch. The little bastard was looking at him accusingly. He frowned, but c’mon, it wasn’t like he’d followed its mistress into the bathroom, which was exactly what he’d wanted to do.
He stood up and went to the door, his eyes scanning the rooms before settling on one that looked like an office. He entered it, uncaring that he was being stealthily trailed by the curious feline. He was almost to the office when he heard a soft moan, and his head snapped up, turning to the noise escaping from the bathroom.
He wasn’t going in there. No way, no how, right? He continued into the small office that doubled as a small library, took in the neatness, and frowned. This wasn’t neatness; no, this was OCD. Olivia was either a germaphobe, or she had a serious case of OCD.
He took in the minute details of the room, like how the one blanket on the recliner was folded perfectly, as in a perfect square. It had one corner that stuck out, and if he could guess what that meant, he was sure she could simply pull that corner,
and the entire blanket would unfold perfectly.
Books were stacked in the single shelf in alphabetical order, and he smiled as wild romance titles stuck out, each one alphabetically placed. He moved to the shelf and ran his finger over the top, bringing it back up to his eyes without a single speck of dust. He shook his head and moved around the office, opening drawers and files, but finding nothing but documents about the Salem Guild.
Salem?
He turned as another moan sounded from the bathroom, followed by a frustrated groan. He smiled; so the little minx was having issues reaching self-climax? He heard the water shut off, and finished nosing through her things.
He opened one of the Salem files and studied several documents regarding a Witch named Carleen. He read a part of one, which detailed how Carleen had signed the birth certificate naming Olivia before the labor pains had grown too fierce. In the end, she left the father’s name blank, and the child was left with her own last name. Carleen had died during the birthing, and they’d delivered the child by caesarean.
His eyes scanned the pictures of the violent birth and took mental pictures of the instruments used in the surgical procedure. Caesarian births were unheard of in Faery and he couldn’t remember seeing anything in Synthia’s baby books about it. His heart thudded as he considered what kind of life Olivia would have had if the Guild hadn’t been there for her.
He’d often been against the Guild, but in this one instance, he was thankful that it existed. Children deserved to be loved; they were innocent. He’d often sat in the grave fields in Faery, and looked at the nameless graves of the children who hadn’t made it.
The sickness was overtaking his home world, and it tore him apart to think of how the Mages had targeted the young and innocent of his species. They hadn’t been the ones to reject the Mages, and in their bitterness, they’d struck at the heart of his people. They’d poisoned the lands, and in doing so, they’d poisoned the babes. If the land didn’t accept the babes, they perished.
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