Blood Before Sunrise

by amanda bonilla

  “Darian.” Her voice, unused for a few weeks, rasped in a near whisper. “You’re swathed in Fae magic. And separated from your protector. Changed since I saw you last. Have you been to The Ring?”

  Come again? “I haven’t been anywhere, you crazy pain in the ass. You’re up and talking for one reason and one reason only. Where is Raif’s daughter? You said you knew how to find her. Where is Brakae?”

  Delilah laughed as if she’d just heard the funniest, dirtiest joke ever written. She tilted her head in Fallon’s direction, looking very much like the cat that ate the canary and crawling, it seemed, from madness to lucidity. “You don’t know, do you?”

  Fallon sat back on his heels, taking in every word Delilah said with perverse interest. I ignored the way my body responded to his movements, swaying backward as if attached by a length of string. My mind cleared as if by his will, and I found the pluck to drill right into Delilah. “No more games, no more riddles. Just plain talk here. I’ve been through hell the past couple of weeks and, goddamn it, I want to take a shower, get some sleep, and go the fuck home. Tell me right now where Raif’s daughter is, and I won’t beat the shit out of you before I give you back to the PNT.”

  “In my mind’s eye, she’s very beautiful. Is she still?” Delilah asked, the epitome of innocence. “Did you know that Oracles are blind and not particularly lovely in exchange for their gifts? I’ll never see the sunrise as you do or captivate men’s hearts the way you have. The way she has. For the right price, I can show anyone his future. Hers. Yours. Even Tyler’s. Everyone’s but my own. Funny, isn’t it?”

  I went for the dagger I kept sheathed at my thigh, ready to stab her out of sheer frustration. But when I reached for it, I found it was gone. I looked around the room, confused. Again my mind felt shrouded in fog, and my memory became hazy. Where was the dagger? I reached for my back. The katana was also gone, but I couldn’t remember for the life of me where it could be. Had I left it in the car? Put it in the closet? I shook my head to clear my thoughts, and Delilah’s face blurred in and out of focus. Damn Fallon and his magic Fae fingers. What had he done to me?

  “Where is she, Delilah?” My legs wobbled, threatening to give at any moment, and my arms felt too heavy to lift. “Spit it out already. Where is Brakae? I need to find her.”

  “Darian.” Delilah sat up straight in her chair, her voice laced with bravado. “Darian, Darian, Darian. You broke me out of that prison, abandoned Tyler, and the gods know what else, when what you should have been doing was watching your back.”

  Well, she’d snapped back into her old snarky self pretty damned fast. What happened to the bat-shit-crazy girl I’d dropped off at the PNT weeks ago? I should have known she wasn’t going to be grateful and spill her secrets as if we were the best of friends. Nope. I’d have to beat it out of her. Fine by me. Though I’d probably need a solid night of rest before I could do it properly. Jesus Christ, I was tired. When was the last time I’d slept?

  “I warned you,” she said. “But you never listen, do you? You’re just so very tough. What did Tyler say when you left him? Was he understanding of your running off with another man?”

  I answered her with silence. I hadn’t told Tyler I was leaving, or had I? God, I couldn’t form a coherent thought to save my life.

  “You didn’t tell him!” Delilah squealed like a girl at a pajama party. “Oh wow. He is going to be pissed. You’ve never seen his nasty side, but I can tell you from experience…Tyler has an ugly temper when he has cause to show it.”

  “Shut. Up!” I yelled, clarity singeing a path through my brain. I brought my face nose to nose with hers. “You are not allowed to talk about him. Ever. You used him to get to me. You would have let me die thinking he’d betrayed me.”

  “Had to get you on board somehow. You were chosen. And the Enphigmalé needed a Guardian’s blood to be awakened. A Guardian…in love, no less.”

  Guardian. Again. Fate laughed at my predicament, the separate events of my recent life twining once again into a long, complicated braid. The black-haired Shaede had called me a Guardian. So had Reaver. What the fuck was going on? And why was I always the last to find out? “Your plan didn’t go too well,” I said, backing away from Delilah’s stinking face. “I killed your gargoyles. Every last one.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Delilah asked, her head cocking toward Fallon.

  He stood in a flash of movement and brought his fist down hard against Delilah’s tiny skull. He knocked her right off her chair, actually. She fell to the floor with a thud, out like a light. My knees finally gave up the fight to support my body, and I crumpled to the floor beside her, staring without emotion at her still and fortunately silent form. Fallon stood above me, stroking my hair as if I’d become some sort of pet, and I fought a wave of nausea so strong, I thought I’d empty my stomach right there on the hotel carpeting.

  “Shhh,” he soothed as he petted me. “Sleep, Darian.”

  Magic twined around me, holding me warm and secure. I fell back against him as his arms gathered me close. Finally, I thought, I’m going to get some rest.

  Chapter 21

  I awoke to a pulsing warmth at my throat. The sensation didn’t disturb me; in fact, it calmed me and turned my bones into Jell-O. A body hovered above me, and warm breath fell on my bare neck as a finger caressed something hard and unyielding that lay against my skin. I felt rested, despite the crazy dream I’d had, as if I’d been sleeping for hours. I snuggled deeper against my pillow, my eyelids still too heavy with sleep for me to open. I recalled the details of my dream as I floated in the hazy realm between sleep and wakefulness. I’d become a thief, a kidnapper, and I’d left Tyler. I groaned as I struggled to fight the lethargy that clung to my mind. Surely my dream was more nightmare than anything. No way in hell would I ever leave Ty.

  “Tyler.”

  The warmth at my throat diminished as fingers lifted the heavy weight from my skin. I felt the rasp of a chain as it slid against my neck, but my brain was still too fuzzy to command my eyes to open. It had to be Tyler sitting next to me. I wanted to open my eyes, to look at him, but holy hell, I was so, so tired.

  “I dreamt I’d left you without even saying good-bye. It was horrible.” My voice was thick with sleep. My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. I tried to lick my lips, but the effort exhausted me.

  The warm weight returned to rest against my throat, and what I’d once perceived as a pleasant touch became forceful as a hand wound around my neck, forcing my face upward. “It’s time you forgot about the Jinn,” Fallon snarled. I came fully awake as if plunged into a freezing lake, and I stared into his angry gray eyes. “Do you understand me?”

  My blood turned to ice as my mind regained coherency. This nightmare wasn’t something I could merely wake up from. It had become my reality, and my heart pounded against my rib cage like it wanted out as yesterday’s details flashed fresh in my mind. I pulled away and sat up, facing the bastard who’d managed to make me his prisoner. He leaned on an elbow and lifted the emerald pendulum, the thing he’d caressed so lovingly, the chain now fastened around my neck.

  “I found it in your pocket. There’s no need to keep it hidden. Not now. You should wear it. It’s your right.”

  I took a cleansing breath, wanting like hell to wish for Tyler’s help. I needed him so badly, and not just for protection. Only Tyler could fill the black hole that Fallon had managed to tear open in my soul. But something prevented me from speaking the words. The wish sat at the tip of my tongue but refused to go any farther. I sat bolt upright and looked down at the deep green gem, glowing softly against my skin. “Do you know what this is?”

  Liquid silver flashed in his eyes. “Iskosia,” he said. “The Key. And you’re the only living thing this side of O Anel to possess one.”

  “What is O Anel?”

  Fallon laughed, launching himself from the bed with a jaunty bounce. “I’m starving! Aren’t you? There’s no room service in this dump, and even if
there were, I wouldn’t eat anything prepared by a human. Stay here. I’ll bring you back a delicious breakfast, and you’ll see what you’ve been missing.”

  Good God, but he was a daffy fucker. He needed a Prozac the size of a golf ball to deal with his personality issues. But if he wanted a contamination-free breakfast, then the better for me that he go in search of one. “I doubt you’ll find a meal within a hundred-mile radius not prepared by human hands.”

  Fallon tapped his temple with his forefinger and headed toward the door, the same businessman guise sliding over his skin. He crossed the room to the bedside table, grabbed the phone, and jerked the cord from the wall, tucking it under his arm. “We have a long day ahead of us. I’ll be back soon.”

  I sat on the bed with a silly grin plastered on my face. When I heard the door latch, I ran to the window, peeking through the curtain, and watched as the VW pulled out of the parking lot. I crossed the room with only one thought: Get the fuck out of here. I turned the knob and pulled the door, only to find it refused to open. Using the wall for leverage, I propped a foot against it, pulling with every ounce of my preternatural strength. The door would not budge.

  “Did you really think he’d leave you here without taking precautions?” Delilah said from where she sat on the other bed. “He’s waited for you a long time. He’s not going to let you go.”

  She looked much too comfortable for my taste, lounging against the headboard as if she hadn’t a care in the world. “Delilah,” I said, coming to stand at the foot of her bed. “Shut the fuck up! I wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t decided to get all chatty about Raif’s daughter. I should have let him kill you when he wanted to.”

  “Yes, you should have. Never forgive your enemies, Darian. It will always come back to bite you in the ass.”

  “Point taken. Now shut up. I’ve got to find a way out of here.” A locked door wasn’t going to stop me. I didn’t care if I brought the whole building down around our heads; I was getting out of this room. I grabbed a bulky chair and threw it at the window. It bounced off the glass as if the chair were made of cotton balls and landed at my feet. “Fallon’s spelled the entire room, hasn’t he?” I whispered. “I’m not getting out of here.”

  “Is that what he’s calling himself?” Delilah mused. “He’s fortified the windows, walls, and door with a containment charm. Fallon has made the room impossible to escape from. I told you, Darian—he won’t let you go. Not now.”

  Is that what he’s calling himself? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Could Ty have been right all along? Fallon had been keeping his true identity a secret. Despair welled in my chest, threatening to choke the air right out of me. I hoped it would. I hoped it suffocated me with its weight and put an end to my miserable existence. I’d taken offense at being called stupid time and again, but lo and behold! I was as dumb as a person could get. I’d orchestrated my own undoing with almost no effort at all. Fuck the world, how could I have been such an idiot?

  I sat at the foot of Delilah’s bed, rested my elbows on my knees, and cradled my head in my hands. I couldn’t let Fallon—or whoever the hell he was—get the upper hand. He’d done something to me, messed with my head without my realizing it. If it happened again, I was as good as dead.

  “Delilah,” I said, turning toward her, “how long was I unconscious?”

  “Fifteen or twenty minutes.” She shrugged. “We’ve been here only an hour.”

  I massaged my throbbing forehead with my fingertips. Confusion swirled as an anxiety-fused knot formed in my stomach. My limbs were sluggish and heavy, and my head teetered on my shoulders as though I’d slept for days. I had no sense of time. Fifteen minutes? Felt like a fucking week. “You and I are going to have a little talk.”

  I stalked to the side of the bed, hauled her scrawny ass up, and threw her into a chair. Hell if I know how I kept from beating her to death, because it was all I could do to prevent myself from using her as a punching bag. She deserved it. Oh, she may have looked tiny and defenseless, but she’d eat me whole and spit me out the first chance she got. “Now, I may not have a knife to cut you with, but don’t doubt for a second that I know ways to inflict serious pain without a blade. And just because you think I’m one of the good guys doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy every second of your torture either.” Big talk? Damn straight. I needed it. “Now, before Fallon gets back with my human-free breakfast, I want to know what the hell is going on. And if I feel like you’re not being forthcoming with me…” I grabbed a glass from the counter, smashed it, and took a large shard in my hand. “Well, I’m going to start by using this glass to carve out little bits and pieces of you. You got that?”

  Delilah nodded in agreement. But her coy smile caused a chill to shake me from head to toe. God, she was one creepy chick. I wondered how Ty could have ever befriended her…Focus, Darian! I shook the cobwebs left over from Fallon’s influence over my mind and bent low so I could look Delilah in the eyes. Who cared if she couldn’t look back? “Where is Brakae?” I asked, my voice steady.

  “Brakae is in The Ring,” Delilah said as if I should have known. “She’s been there since the day she was chosen.”

  “What do you mean, ‘chosen’?”

  “Chosen to serve. Just like you were. Though I have to say, Darian, you got the better end of the deal.”

  I strangled the air in front of Delilah’s neck. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought she was stalling. But Delilah just liked to talk in circles. In my opinion, it was her greatest gift. “What is The Ring?” I asked. “And why is Fallon so interested in this broken hourglass? It’s connected to Brakae, right? That’s the whole point of this little field trip.”

  “Boy, you don’t miss a thing, do you?” She tilted her head to the side, thoughtful. “He was banished from O Anel a few hundred years ago. And ever since, he’s been looking for a way back.”

  Fabulous. “Where is O Anel? What is it?” She laughed and I pressed the shard of glass to her delicate skin. “I’m not kidding, Delilah. I’ll kill you if you don’t cooperate.”

  Sighing, she settled deeper into her chair. “O Anel is The Ring, Darian. It’s the Faerie Realm.”

  I fingered the emerald at my neck. “And Iskosia. What is that?”

  “The Key,” Delilah said. “Belonging to only one person. The Guardian. It opens O Anel.”

  “And I’m this Guardian, right?”

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” Delilah said, picking at her fingernails. “Do you think they get channel twelve here? I wonder if Judge Judy is on.”

  Jesus Christ. “Stay with me here, Delilah, and you can watch—or listen to—all the trashy TV you want. But not until you answer my questions. So, let’s talk about this Guardian bullshit.”

  “It’s not bullshit, Darian. You were chosen. Before your Shaede existence, Fate had your path set out for you. And if you don’t like it, well, I guess that’s just too damned bad.”

  A scream built in my stomach and rumbled up my throat, but I swallowed it down, determined not to let her shake me. I, not Delilah, was in charge of this interrogation. Running out of time, I needed more information before Fallon returned. “Okay, so let’s say I am this Guardian. What do I protect?”

  “Not just what, but whom,” Delilah said shrewdly. “You know, Darian. I don’t have to tell you this one. I sensed it on you. You’ve been there already. You’ve seen the Time Keeper with your own eyes.”

  “That woman. The priestess. She’s the Time Keeper?”

  Delilah graced me with her Mona Lisa smile.

  “Wait,” I said, wading through the details in my mind. “That can’t be right. There’re more than one of them. I saw three different girls. Are they all Time Keepers? Or just one of them?”

  Laughter answered me. “Time is a strange thing in O Anel.”

  It couldn’t be. Could it? As I slowly pieced the information together, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized it sooner. Those sapphire eyes, the curling raven hair. An
d their smiles. All the same, and so familiar. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen that expression either. “They’re all the same girl,” I said more to myself that Delilah. “And”—holy fucking shit—“the Time Keeper is Brakae.”

  “You’re finally catching on,” Delilah said. “Took you long enough.”

  “What about Fallon?” I said. “How does he fit into all of this?”

  Delilah laughed in astonishment. “Darian, how could you not know by now? We’ve covered this. Fallon is the Man from The Ring.”

  I slumped back, saved from a fall by my ass bouncing on the foot of the bed. Of course Fallon was the Man from The Ring. Who the hell else would he be?

  “I’m sorry, Darian, but I did warn you.” Delilah stood and laid a comforting hand on my shoulder, which I promptly brushed away. “You should have killed him like you did the others. But you let him get away. Too concerned about Tyler’s injuries, I suppose. Who could blame you? You love him.”

  “What’s going on here?” Fallon walked through the door, slamming it behind him. “Delilah, my dear, you’ve been running off at the mouth again, haven’t you? I thought I could trust you without sealing your mouth shut. I guess I was wrong.”

  Delilah seemed to melt under Fallon’s heated stare, shrinking back down into her chair. “I didn’t tell her anything she didn’t already know or wouldn’t have figured out with a little thought.”

  I’d run out of time and could already feel the draw of his presence, my will dissolving. I’d be nothing but a dancing puppet as he pulled the strings in a matter of moments. With determined focus, I cataloged everything Delilah told me, praying I wouldn’t forget.

  “What do you think, Darian?” He beckoned me with a finger and I obeyed, walking toward him as if I had no other choice. “Does Delilah have a big mouth?”

  “Oh yeah.” I blurted the words as if he’d fed them to me on a teleprompter. “She likes the sound of her own voice.”