The Sidekick Chronicles:
Sixx and the Fae
(Book 2)
Becca Vincenza
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 Becca Vincenza
Cover: Covers by Christian
Proof Reading: Dawn Yacovetta
All rights reserved. The book may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The books are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author‘s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Books by Becca Vincenza
HEXED SERIES
Hexed Hearts
Hunter’s Heart
THE REBIRTH SERIES
Stolen
Damaged
Healed
Burned
Drowned
Tamed
MERCENARIES FOR HIRE
Freelance
Hired
Contracted
Authorized
CURSE BREAKER SERIES
Art of Death
Secrets of the Dead
Dance with Death
THE SIDEKICK CHRONICLES
Sixx and the Beginning (Prequel)
Sixx and the Hellhound
Sixx and the Fae
Sixx and the Incubus
Sixx Saves the World
Dedication
To Maddie – mostly because this one has more swearing
Preface
In truth, this all started when I was thrown over a massive shoulder and toted away in the middle of the city. It all ended pretty magically, sort of. I mean, literally, with a bit of magic. Since, you know, the guy carrying me away ended up being a Russian hellfire hound as we later settled on for his label. Well, maybe he didn’t so much settle on it as allowed us to slap it on.
But, yeah, I think that was when the real trouble in my life started to brew. For years, my kickass best friend and I had been taking down, in secret, bad paranormal creatures that went bump in the night. Soon, we were to discover that, oops, there was an actual para-police force named Sentinel that did that…sort of. It was how I met my…uh…well…mate because he was an undercover agent for Sentinel. I still had trouble calling him my mate, so mostly I went with the term boyfriend.
The next couple of months were bananas as we became embroiled in chasing down the origins of a hot new drug called Dreamscape, and we ended it with a significant drug bust. The drug itself was incredibly addictive, dangerous, and could expose humans to the para world, which the paras did not want. At all. So, to keep people I love alive, I went undercover.
Things seemed to calm down after that.
Of course, in this world, nothing remained calm for long. And in the para world, there were no laws to abide by.
That was how I ended up in the Veil in front of the Dark fae King, who was looking down at me with a frosty gaze that could freeze Florida over. And trust me when I say that Florida was Earth’s version of Hell, especially in the summer.
“Hello, Sixx. I did warn you.”
Fudgers.
Chapter 1
“This is ridiculous, Olezka.”
“Nyet, it is not.”
I rolled my eyes and walked down the sidewalk with my phone pressed against my ear. “Yes, it is. I’m literally walking from my workplace to my car.”
“You promised that you would humor me until we got to the bottom of what Erebus meant,” Olezka said through the tinny speaker of my phone.
“Ouch, shit!”
“Sixx!”
“I tripped, Z.” And I had. Because I got distracted by the memory of that conversation. I shivered as I recalled the discussion I had afterward with Ana. Erebus wasn’t speaking about me. First off, there was no way I could handle more than one over-protective Alpha male in my life. Especially since the one I was semi – well, more than semi-committed to was being a tad ridiculous.
Olezka and I started spending a lot of time together after everything went down at the lab. He’d swing by before I got off work then walk me to my car. Sometimes we grabbed dinner or hung out with Ana at the paranormal bar Xibalba, where she worked as a bartender. Tonight, I had planned to meet her there after I got off work.
“Pchelka.”
“Don’t little bee me!” I snapped, referring to his pet name for me. “I’m fine. I’m safe. I promise.” Truthfully, I was.
“Text me when you arrive home. And remind me to kill Roman.”
I snorted but said goodbye. Z’s brother, Roman decided to take pity on me and taught me a bit of Russian, mostly just the pet names Olezka used on me. It was particularly helpful since Ana and I ended up staying in Olezka’s house for a week after the drug bust. After the raid on the laboratory where Dreamscape was being manufactured and where two of the scientists had drugged me up so they could use me as a guinea pig, Olezka worried about how the lingering side effects of Dreamscape would affect me. Not to mention the repercussions that may come. Olezka and Kallan’s team took the scientists, Doug and Scott, into Sentinel custody, or at least, that was what I liked to think. But even with their disappearance, Dreamscape was still circulating throughout the metro area. The rumors of it had spread.
I was a self-taught White Hacker, and the software I used to track movements of Dreamscape kept pinging all over. I sighed. Sentinel had another lead they were following, which was why I wouldn’t get to see Olezka today. A stab of disappointment hit me when I realized I wouldn’t see him. As much as his overprotectiveness could be overbearing, it was sweet.
Olezka refused to use the term girlfriend; instead, he insisted on calling me a laundry list of Russian pet names or his mate. He had been incredibly open about that since Erebus threatened me, even though we lacked a conventional relationship label. I’d always said I didn’t want to be the kind of girl who dropped everything for a guy, yet it felt like that was the case since Olezka and I became semi-serious. Hard to be too serious when you had to fit dates around finding and taking down a powerful, fae drug lord. To make matters more delicate, Olezka had insisted we were destined for each other from the first moment he caught my scent, which was why he slung me over his shoulder and tried to carry me away the first night we met.
Pushing those thoughts away, I got into my car and drove to Xibalba. The bar was open to a wide range of paranormal creatures, but unless you knew what to look for, most humans were unable to see the bar because it was glamoured to look like a decrepit building in order to keep non-paranormal entities out. Adding to the otherworldly flair, the bar hosted varying themes on different nights of the week where the staff glamoured the inside of the bar to change the surroundings, making unconventional themes possible. One or two nights a week, humans were allowed inside, and paras were instructed to keep the supernatural feats down to a minimum.
I pulled up to the small parking lot attached to a rundown building that looked like it would be a perfect place to kidnap and torture people. On the nights the club doors were open to humans, the building looked modern and industrial versus derelict and creepy. Since tonight belonged to paras, the structure was spelled to make humans want to turn away and leave.
As I walked toward the door, my neck tingled from the magic that coated the place, and I turned my senses on high alert. Pulling open the heavy steel door, I was eager to see what tonight’s theme would be. The moment I stepped inside, I had to fight the urge to sneeze as pungent wisps of sandalwood and patchouli fought for ownership of my nostrils. The floor had been trans
formed from its typical concrete into a soft, undulating carpet of brightly colored rugs layered on every square inch, which dampened the noise of downtempo techno beats and soaring stringed instruments. Large, cushioned booths lined the walls, topped with sapphire and emerald canopies to make each booth feel wildly personal and private. The area in front of the bar was filled with a smattering of low tables with pillowed poufs instead of chairs and rich, stained glass Moroccan lanterns draped gracefully from many different heights throughout the club.
I sighed. The Moroccan theme was one of my favorites. Even though the night was moderately late, paras only filled half the tables, talking quietly amongst themselves. With the moody lighting, ambient techno music, and soft textiles placed on every visible space, the building felt cozy and warm, a place to sit and relax.
The tall, lithe machine working behind the bar twisted and twirled bottles like a bartending aficionado, even though no one was watching. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a sleek ponytail, in stark contrast to her all-black ensemble. She looked up and spotted me the moment I stepped inside as if scenting the air molecules I disturbed when I walked through the door. Ana’s lips split into a huge smile as she waved to me, still holding a liquor bottle in her hand.
“Sixx!”
“Yes, hello, Sixx,” a husky voice whispered next to my ear. I stiffened, hating how Ana’s bartending partner always managed to sneak up on me. It had become Mark’s new game to see how high I could jump.
“Mark. Don’t you have a throat to go rip out?”
“I’m a lover, not a fighter. But if you’re offering…” His hand brushed over the curve of my hip.
I leaned forward out of his hold. “Oh, no, no, no, nope. Not in a million years.”
“Hmm, with a mate like yours, I doubt you’ll make it to a million. Why don’t we call it a truce at one thousand?”
My eyes widened. Surely, he was kidding. But then, he winked at me and darted off, moving faster than any human could and meeting Ana behind the bar.
I joined them, settling in front of Ana.
“Barkeep.”
“Patron.”
“Give me your finest drink,” I said.
“Um, no. I’ll give you the finest whiskey sour I can make.”
“I’ll take it.”
Ana snorted as she walked away to mix the drink. Even though Erebus owned Xibalba, he hadn’t been seen in weeks. I remembered the first time I set eyes on the dark fae. Without even speaking, he scared me to my core.
Thump.
Ana placed the drink in front of me and offered a pensive look.
“What?” she asked.
“Olezka just called me to make sure I got to my car safely.”
“Oh? Did you tell him where you were headed?” Ana asked, knowing the answer before I even opened my mouth.
“Nope. Not until you give me the okay to tell him that Erebus has been talking about you.” I muttered the last part between gritted teeth, hissing at my best friend. She knew it made me uncomfortable lying to Z about this— especially since we were in the beginning stages of our fledgling relationship.
“Look, I appreciate that you’re lying for me. I do. I just… I’m not ready for that whole can of worms.”
Oh, I definitely knew. Because instead of Ana getting the third degree, I was. Both Olezka and Kallan had questioned me repeatedly about what I heard. I had a good ear for languages, and even if I didn’t know what the words meant, I could repeat them. But when I repeated the words Erebus had whispered in my ear – Bidh mi a ‘tighinn air mo shon mo charaid – Kallan insisted I misheard or misspoke.
My shoulders dropped. If I could offer this bit of respite to my friend, I would. She and I had only begun to understand the world she belonged to and that I became part of years ago. We were finally getting training, lessons, and starting to learn about the paranormal world that glittered just under the surface of the human world we knew.
Olezka had laid claim to me and informed me over a month ago that I was his mate, so that was pretty much a done deal. But now he thought that claim was being threatened by another in his world because everyone assumed Erebus was referring to claiming me as his mate when he was actually referring to Ana. I had very little knowledge of how the concept of mates worked in their world, considering Ana had selectively decided to keep that little tidbit from me. When I asked her why, she explained it was because she never thought it’d affect me. Her aunt was her only lifeline to this world, but when Aunt Lola passed away from cancer shortly after we graduated high school, she and I tried to navigate this new world the best we could.
A male’s claim on a woman in the para world pretty much guaranteed she belonged to him. But currently, I had no idea what happened if two males laid claim to the same woman. I could tell you right now that I certainly wasn’t interested in being with two guys. Especially when one of them scared the living bejesus out of me and had clearly meant my best friend when he uttered the words of claiming in my general direction.
“I get it. I’ll keep your secret a little longer. You haven’t heard from…”
“No,” Ana said. I asked her constantly if she’d heard from Erebus since he disappeared and knew I was getting on her nerves. Fear trickled through me as Olezka translated the exact warning to me. Erebus would be coming for his mate. For Ana. Definitely not me, thank heck for that.
“Haven’t what?” Mark asked, swinging by to stand with us.
“Nothing, Mark. Don’t you have something to bite?” Ana asked, pushing away from the bar and heading to the opposite side with an unladylike snort. She’d informed me that her vampire mentor had let the temporary title of boss go to his head. The official story was that Erebus had to leave town for an undetermined length of time because one of his many other establishments had been having issues.
The night I was dosed with Dreamscape was a blur, and I barely remembered the days that followed other than an emptiness so deep it overwhelmed me. Even with Olezka and Ana staying with me, chills wracked my body day and night. Olezka was so worried about how cold I was that he brought in his hellhound brother Roman since his internal thermometer ran even hotter than Z’s did. For almost a day and a half, I was unable to keep anything down but water. I never wanted to relive those days.
A shudder went through me as I thought about that night.
“You okay, little human?” Mark asked, eyeing me speculatively.
“You radiate coldness, that’s all,” I answered with a smile. I had a distaste for vampires after Effie tried to piss off Olezka by pretending to bite me, but then, actually did because I screamed and he responded to his baser instincts. Effie got his comeuppance, but I sincerely hoped I never had to witness Olezka being that angry again.
“Careful, little human. We respect the rules of this world, but you’re still at the bottom of the food chain.” Mark snapped his teeth at me and turned away with a sniff. He’d never been rude to me; if anything, he was over-the-top friendly. At least, until he took over as the boss, at which point he let the temporary authority inflate his ego.
I stuck my tongue out at his retreating back. Ana saw and snickered, not even pausing in her duties to sling shots and beers for the thirsty crowd. She continued bartending while I finished my drink, never straying far.
Hopefully, the night would fly by.
****
Before the night progressed much further, I found myself tucked in a booth in the back corner. Some of the rowdier paras kept harassing me because I was a human in their club on a non-human night, so I moved out of the way. Especially after Ana had to come over and shoo them away with cutting remarks and zaps of her magic.
Ana had learned better control and excelled in her studies under Kallan’s exacting tutelage. Me, on the other hand… Well, I was weeks behind, which frustrated me since I enjoyed learning and usually excelled at it.
Shaking my head, I returned my attention to my book. When I read, I could usually forget the world around me and es
cape into the pages of the story. But not tonight. I rubbed the prickles of unease from my neck and peeked at my phone. Something felt…off.
Disquiet twisted in my mind and filtered throughout my body the instant before a piercing headache arced between my eyes. I dropped my phone and clutched my head between my hands at the sudden onslaught of pain. As I tried to hold my brain inside my skull so it wouldn’t leak out, the pain started to ebb away.
“Sixx?” Ana asked. The outline of her blurred body stood at the edge of the table. I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes, then perched them back onto the bridge of my nose, bringing Ana into sharp focus. She wore her standard outfit, which consisted of tight jeans, a tank top, and sometimes, like tonight, was paired with a light flannel shirt that she wore tied around her waist.
“I’m good.”
“You sure? You want me to get you some water?” Ana’s face was pinched with worry.
“Nope, I’m good. I need a new prescription for my glasses. I was reading, so it makes sense that I got a headache.” I intended it as an excuse to make her stop worrying about me, but as I said it, it made sense. Yes, that was exactly what it was. I glanced around and picked up my phone, showing off the dark screen of my app. “Probably the low lighting in here, paired with the black screen. I forgot to change it when I came inside. You about ready to head out?”
“Yeah. Mark said I could leave since it’s been such a dead night. Maybe when we get home, we can finish the season?”
“Oh.” My features slipped into guilt.
Ana perched fists on her hips. “No! Are you telling me you Netflix-cheated on me with your boyfriend?” Ana exclaimed as I slid out of the booth.
My cheeks heated. Yeah, well, sort of.
“Well, apparently, Olezka didn’t understand what Netflix and chill actually meant,” I mumbled.
Ana stared at me for a full ten seconds before busting out laughing. She gripped my bicep and leaned over, laughing hysterically. “I…am…never, and I do mean never letting you live this down. You tried to get your mate to come over to make out, and he wanted to watch TV instead. Oh, I’m so sorry!” Ana laughed.
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