The Elfbitten Trilogy

by Leila Bryce Sin

  “No, Corbin,” I said gently, the sound of his name made him look at me. “I am a Bright Elf, we more than most, understand the need of physical touch and what it can do to you to be deprived. I’m not offering to be your life mate,” I said, making sure he understood, “but I understand you. I can be here for you when you need someone.”

  “I don’t want pity,” he said, but now his voice was softer and his eyes slid away from my face. He was embarrassed about needing someone and having no one. I closed my eyes and relaxed into the bed. I didn’t want him to think I was making a big deal out of his loneliness since I knew it would only embarrass him more. I started to caress his arms again, running my fingers slowly along the impressive muscles that were singing with tension.

  “Pity is a human emotion,” I said quietly, “as a Bright Elf, I need affection, if we deprive ourselves our magic dwindles away and we eventually die.”

  “Like you starve to death?” he asked. I could hear the suspicion easing from his tone. I nodded, running my fingers over his shoulders. Corbin relaxed a little and I felt his weight press me into the bed again and he rested his head in the hollow of my neck. I brought one hand up to brush the hair away from his face and I felt him sigh, his breath warm against my bare skin.

  “Exactly like that. Actually, I nearly starved to death just a short while ago,” I confessed and felt him tense under me. He wanted to ask me about it, but was holding his curiosity back. So I explained, “I was in a relationship with Cillian for years and I thought he was going to propose to me. On the night I thought he was finally going to do it, he admitted that he had been cheating on me with this fairy whore for months.”

  “Wow,” Corbin whispered before he could stop himself. I felt the familiar pang in my chest when I thought about that fateful night. I had put Cillian behind me and was happier for it, but the wounds were still relatively fresh, especially for the lifespan of an elf.

  “Wow,” I agreed, nodding though he couldn’t see it. The tension in his body was slowly easing as I shared my pain with him and he eventually brought one hand up to my side, caressing my ribs, up and over my breast, making me sigh in pleasure. His hand guided over my shoulder and down my arm until he could twine his fingers with mine.

  “So what happened?” he prompted.

  “Well,” I said while watching our fingers twined together, “I was devastated and humiliated. I hid myself away in my home and refused to come out. I stayed like that for six weeks,” Corbin’s fingers clenched around mine when I admitted how long it had been. “Then my best friend had had enough of my pity party and literally threw me out of bed, into the shower and dragged me out of the house.” We both chuckled at that and Corbin brought my hand to his face and pressed light kisses to the knuckles.

  “Go on,” he said.

  “Roxy took me to Andre’s club and told me she wasn’t going to stand by and watch me kill myself. That Cillian wasn’t worth it. So I tried my best.”

  “You’re not telling me something,” Corbin said and I could almost feel his magic in the room when he spoke.

  “I ran into Cillian and the fairy whore while I was there,” I said blandly but Corbin laughed and eventually, so did I.

  “I imagine that went over real well.”

  “If by well you mean I managed to seduce Cillian in front of his fairy whore and reject him as harshly as he rejected me, then yes, I’d say it went real well.” I was laughing by the time I finished speaking and so was Corbin. He released my hand and pulled me closer to him and we rolled in the bed until I was underneath him, my legs wrapped around him again and he was smiling down at me.

  “So you really don’t pity me then,” he said and he believed it.

  “We all need someone to pull us out of our own pity parties. I don’t think you need my pity. Besides,” I said, feeling a sly grin curl my lips, “after what you did to me tonight, I don’t need any ulterior motives to come visit you again.” Corbin crushed me to his chest and stole a kiss before he pushed away from me and crawled off of the bed.

  “Let’s get that bite mark off of you before we make any more plans,” he said but I could hear what his voice sounded like free of suspicion and anger so I smiled and untangled myself from the sheets and scooted off the bed. Right now the bite was quiet on my shoulder, letting me think clearly. I enjoyed sex as much as the next Bright Elf, but I didn’t like feeling like I had to have enough sex just to quiet its needs. And as much as I knew I’d like to visit Corbin again, I was sure he wouldn’t trust my desires so long as the bite was on me.

  Corbin was out of the bedroom before I was off the bed so I walked out to find him in the kitchen. Now that my body and the bite were satiated I was able to enter the room and stand there without becoming lightheaded with need and memories of Daniel. Corbin had found a baggy pair of sweats before I made it into the kitchen. The charcoal grey material hung off his narrow hips, curving over his round ass in a very appealing way. When he turned to see me standing there I was still admiring the view. He grinned at me; finally the air between us was free of tension. I was still naked, much more comfortable with it than humans normally were and I watched as his eyes raked my body, the heat in his eyes was enough to light the fire in my body again.

  “Should I put something on?” I teased.

  “It might be a good idea,” he said hoarsely. Although I was enjoying the attention I turned and left the room to find something to pull on. I grabbed his discarded shirt and pulled it over my head, it was long enough to over my ass, but not much more since we were so close in height. When I came back into the kitchen he already had a copper pot on the stove in the corner, some liquid bubbling happily inside.

  “So what exactly do I have to do to get this thing off of me?” I asked as I lowered myself into one of the chairs at the table in the center of the room.

  “Well, I’m not all together sure it will ever come off,” Corbin said as he considered two glass jars he’d pulled from a high cupboard.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, we should be able to break the bond and its power over you, but you’ll probably be stuck with a scar,” he explained. Nodded my understanding, I wasn’t too happy with the idea that I would have a scar on my shoulder for the rest of my life, but if that was the best I could get, I’d take it.

  “But what do I have to do?” I asked again.

  “There are a couple of different options really,” he said, finally deciding between the two jars. He opened it and took a large pinch of some red powder from it and tossed it into the pot. The liquid bubbled violently for a moment before calming to a rolling boil again.

  “Such as?”

  “Well, the most effective, surest, way is to kill the Hunter who bit you,” he said, turning around to face me, to watch my reaction. I gave him a blank face, waiting for him to continue. “Do you think you could do that?” he asked and I remembered the other night, when the Hunter called to me, beckoned me to him. I had to fight with everything I had not to answer the bastard. If Daniel hadn’t been with me, distracting me, I don’t think I could have fought the compulsion to go to him.

  “Yes,” I said, spark of power snapped at my fingertips, “I could kill the Hunter.”

  After a moment of considering me, Corbin nodded and turned back to the concoction on the stove. I watched as he added more ingredients to the pot and whispered an incantation that had the air humming with magic.

  “Is that the only option you’re willing to explore or are you going to tell me the other options?” I pressed when it didn’t seem as though he was going to continue.

  “I’m going to try a bond breaking spell first, but you’ll probably have to go find the Hunter to complete the spell. If it doesn’t work, or you can’t get him to do what we need, you may just have to kill him,” Corbin said matter-of-factly.

  “How am I going to get to him and perform the spell if I can’t resist his pull?”

  “That’s why we’re going to start the bond breaki
ng spell here, before you go to him,” Corbin explained as he dipped a ladle into the pot and fished out some of the potion, pouring it into a ceramic mug he was holding. He turned and handed me the steaming mug. I took it, a feeling of trepidation chilled me as I looked into the cup with the foul smelling liquid.

  “And I’m supposed to drink this?”

  “Best to do it quickly,” Corbin said, “Just plug your nose and go.” So I did. It burned my tongue and my stomach felt like I had swallowed lava but I managed to keep it down.

  “Blech!” I stuck my tongue out as if I could keep the taste out of my mouth and grimaced as I handed back the mug.

  “Yes,” he agreed, already spooning another ladle full into a glass flask. “But how do you feel?” I thought about it for a moment and realized the near constant thrumming I usually felt on my shoulder ha dulled to a point where I thought I could just ignore it if I wanted to.

  “I feel better actually,” I said tilting my head to the side, “freer.”

  “Good,” he said, stoppering the bottle with a cork before dropping it into a leather pouch, pulling the string to close it and handing it to me. “You need to go find the Hunter and have him drink that.”

  “What if I don’t?”

  “We’ve covered that.”

  “I mean what if I can’t get him to drink it and I can’t kill him? What then?”

  “The effects of the potion will eventually wear off and you’ll be right back where you started.”

  “Couldn’t I just keep taking the potion, like a tonic?”

  “No,” Corbin said, his voice a little sad, “I’m afraid you’ll just build up a tolerance to the potion and it’ll stop working eventually.” He leaned against the counter and watched me as I stared at the leather pouch, feeling the weight of the bottle inside – the bottle that could cure me of this prison, this bottle that could give me back my sense of self, my freedom.

  “Do I need to get him to drink all of it?”

  “No, a few swallows should do it; I just gave you enough in case you have to try more than once.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Just the desire to be free of him.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, still staring at the glass flask.

  “The closer you are to him the stronger the bite’s power will be. It’ll be harder for you to keep the manufactured desire at bay. If you can do that, the bond should break after he drinks that.”

  I looked up to meet Corbin’s gaze and wondered if my sudden affection for him really was the simple act of finding a kindred spirit who knew what it was like to abandoned by those you loved, or if it was some magic of the bite on my shoulder? When I looked at his warm eyes, blond curls and full mouth I wanted to believe it was me, the real me, that wanted his company when we both needed it.

  “You have many thoughts running behind your eyes right now,” Corbin said, bringing me out of my head.

  “Yes,” I agreed, “I do.” I stood up and walked over to him, he opened his arms to me without a moment of hesitation. I stepped into him and wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my forehead to his. It was strange to stand with a man almost my exact height; even a hug was more intimate. I tilted my chin up and gave him a light kiss before looking into his eyes.

  “I hope I see you again, after this is all over,” he whispered.

  “You mean, you hope I want to see you again when the bite is gone,” I said and he nodded, a sadness stealing the warmth from his eyes.

  “Well, the bite is quiet right now,” I said, “and I still want to come back to see you again.” A slow, small smile curled his lips and he pressed me closer to him in an embrace. I thought about taking him back into the bedroom and showing him just how much I wanted to see him again, but I wanted to find that Hunter and break his bond over me more than anything else right now.

  I gathered my clothes and put myself to rights before we said our goodbyes and I left with the leather pouch clutched in my hands. I tossed it into the passenger seat of my car once I was inside. I gripped the steering wheel and closed my eyes to concentrate. I hadn’t tried this before because I had been trying to avoid the Hunter, but now I wanted to find him so I concentrated on him in my mind and his scent, his heat, his need flooded my senses and I knew I could drive right over to him.

  The Hunter lived on the other end of town, nearly on the fringe of the city. I wasn’t altogether surprised since most Hunters preferred to live in the country as opposed to the city. I think they were only trying to assimilate to city life to stay close to the rest of the paranormal community. The house I stopped in front of was very unassuming from the outside. It was a classic suburban ranch style home, complete with an attached two car garage. The lights were on inside but the front porch light was off, casting the door in deep shadows. I had no idea what I was planning on doing. Part of me want to just walk up and grab the Hunter by the face and force the potion down his throat, but the other – more logical – part of me remembered that while I had magic, he was much stronger than I. I had to be smart about this.

  I reached in the back seat and grabbed my short teal leather jacket and pulled the glass bottle out of the leather pouch and slipped it into the front pocket of my jacket. I got out of the car and swung it over my shoulders to pull it on. I examined myself in the reflection of the car windows and was satisfied that the bottle didn’t cause an obvious bulge in the pocket. I left my purse in the car an slipped my keys into the other pocket of my jacket before smoothing my hair back from my face and walking across the street to the Hunter’s house.

  I decided I would simply knock on the front door and wing it as I crossed the street. It would be stupid to try and use force against the Hunter, even with my magic, so I was going to try a more subtle route. I didn’t like stepping into the pool of shadows at the front door, but my elven eyes could see well enough in the dark that I shrugged off the creeping feeling crawling up the back of my neck. I pressed the button for the doorbell and felt a swarm of butterflies erupt in my stomach as the chimes rang behind the door. I could hear light footsteps and saw a shadow break the line of light at the threshold before the lock in the door clicked and the doorknob turned.

  He looked magnificent framed in the doorway with soft light flooding around him like a sunburst. His massive shoulders were almost as wide as the doorway and his tattoos curled over his skin like caressing fingers. I felt the urge to reach out and touch his chest but I was able to fight it, grateful for the foul tasting potion Corbin had made me. Because of the shadowed doorstep and the light pouring out behind him, the Hunter’s face was hidden but I still managed to catch his look of surprise, giving way to suspicion when I smiled at him.

  “Taryn Malloy,” he said my name with a trill of his tongue, pronouncing it in the old brogue. I liked that, it made me wish he wasn’t such a manipulative bastard. “So you’ve finally answered me.”

  “Yes,” I said, making sure my voice was soft, going so far as to lower my gaze in a submissive gesture. He chuckled in a self-satisfied way at that. He stepped back and held the door open for me. Keeping my eyes down, I walked passed him into the entry way. It was small, only big enough for a coat rack and to divide the living room from the kitchen. I didn’t turn to face him when I heard the door close the lock turn.

  “I’ll take that for you,” he offered and I felt his hands on my shoulders, trying to take my jacket.

  “I’ll keep it for now, thanks,” I said quickly, tugging it tighter around me and out of his grasp. “I’m a bit chilled at the moment.”

  “Well, we’ll have to do something about that,” he said as his hands slid around my waist and pulled me into the curve of his body. I tried not to tense at his touch, knowing that would put him on edge and ruin my plan. I tried to relax my shoulders and meld to the bend of his body. He bent his face to the crook of my neck, on the same side as the bite and breathed against my skin. I knew he was looking for a reaction to his power so I forced a shiver to shake my body
, though it felt more like a shudder of revulsion to me, but it seemed to satisfy him. I felt his chin move and I realized he’d opened his mouth. I ducked quickly and slipped out of his grasp and moved a few feet away from him before I turned to face him.

  “I think one bite is enough,” I let him hear my anger and lifted my chin in defiance.

  “For now,” he agreed but the glint in his eye told me more than his words. “So, Taryn, why are you suddenly here?”

  “What do you mean? Haven’t you been calling me?”

  “Yes,” he nodded slowly, crossing his arms over his massive chest, “but you were resisting me, why are you here now?”

  “The compulsion has grown too strong,” I shrugged before I turned and walked into the living room as if I owned the place. “I couldn’t fight it anymore. The more I fought it the stronger the bite became. I even lost two days while trying to resist it.” He laughed at that as he followed me into the room. I noticed, though the house appeared to be as suburban as they come, he’d decorated in a tacky bachelor sort of way. The living room was dominated by a large black leather couch, the “art work” on the walls was mainly posters of music bands and one wall was obstructed by an obscenely huge television set. I was reminded of a human frat boy’s dorm room.

  “Its better if you just answer the call,” he said, his voice deeper, as if trying to soothe me, but all it did was put my nerves on edge. I was happy that my back was to him in that moment.

  I spied a wet bar in the corner and had a spark of inspiration and said, “How about we talk about it over a drink?” I moved across the room before he could and set out two glasses.

  “Sure,” he said cautiously. I could feel his eyes burning holes through my jacket and forced my shoulders to ease away from my ears before I turned around with a smile on my face.

  “What’s your poison?”

  “Scotch,” he said, lowering himself to sit on the couch. “Neat,” he added. I turned back to the bar and tried to be as discreet as possible as I pulled the flask out of my pocket. I was grateful now that it was glass and not silver so it would blend into the other bottles and glasses easily. I doubted the scotch would camouflage the flavor of the potion, but I had to hope he’d swallow enough of it before he noticed anything strange. I remembered Corbin’s warning that I had to want to break the bond more than anything but thinking of the Hunter’s smirking smile and his self-assurance that I would eventually bow to his will, I knew no matter what supernatural pull he had over me with his bite, I’d do what I had to to be rid of him. I made a bit of noise making my drink, a whiskey sour with cherries, to hide the fact that I had to unstopper the flask and add the potion to his glass. I carried both glasses over to the couch with a smile on my face. He was watching the sway of my hips as I moved and when he took the glass from me as I sat next to him, his eyes traveled to the swell of my breasts, effectively distracting him from the off-color of his drink as he raised it to his lips to drink.