by Bonnie Vanak
Katy didn’t know anything about Ninnea, but she had to trust the Fae. What other choice did she have if she were to try to survive in this new, odd world?
“How many guards do they usually have outside?”
“Only one.” Ninnea frowned. “I suppose there should be more, but you clearly have not come into your powers yet, so they do not fear you.”
Odd statement. Katy was fully Lupine. What other powers?
The oak door was thick, but she knew sound penetrated, for she’d heard footsteps when Charles approached. “I have an idea. Can you shift back into your Thannach form?”
“Why?”
“The only way we can get that door open is by tricking the guard. I’ll scream as if you’re torturing me, and that might work. If they are truly intent on selling my body, they shouldn’t want it damaged that badly.”
“True. They would want to leave you as unmarked as possible for your buyer to ravage,” Ninnea said matter-of-factly. “Fear of me attacking them is what keeps most prisoners away from the door, not an actual attack.”
The stench of rot and decay was grinding on Katy’s wolf senses. She had to get out of the cell before going mad. She nodded at Ninnea, who shifted back into her Thannach form.
Screaming, Katy pounded on the door. “Help me! It’s eating me alive, it’s tearing up my legs and it’s going to shred me to ribbons!”
Sure enough, footsteps pounded down the hallway. Signaling Ninnea to be ready, Katy stepped behind the door to hide.
Keys jingled and the thick door opened. She tripped the man, and as he stumbled and fell, shouted, “Now!”
Ninnea turned into a whirling buzz saw of teeth, sawing through the Fae guard like a steak knife through butter before he could utter a scream. Blood spurted and the slick, coppery smell made Katy’s wolf whine.
Swallowing her gorge, Katy sidestepped the mess and peered out. “Let’s roll.”
The Fae took her words seriously, for Ninnea in her Thannach form tucked up her stubby legs and began rolling down the hallway like a tumbleweed.
Running after the Thannach, she finally found herself facing a strong oak door. Katy opened it and Ninnea rolled after her. They were outside in a courtyard with spongy green moss and tall trees against a thorny hedge.
As a barrier, it was quite effective.
Shifting back to her Fae form, Ninnea gestured to the hedge. “Follow me.”
Katy ran after her. Ninnea waved a hand, sending purple glitter into the air. She murmured a chant and the hedge parted. They slipped through, and then Ninnea chanted again, closing the break in the greenery.
They were outside the brothel’s boundaries, in a wasteland that looked like hell. Clouds of ash rose in the air as Katy took a tentative step forward.
“What happened here?” she asked, staring at the distant purple shadowed mountains, the flattened pine and oak trees that lay like jumbled matchsticks upon the grayness. A few boulders stood, brown and lonely-looking, against the moonscape.
“The Blasted Zone,” Ninnea informed her. She belched, and looked apologetic. “Sorry. Eating other Fae always gives me heartburn.”
The Fae kicked at the ash covering the ground, sending tufts into the air much like the glitter she’d emitted with her hands. Only this ash held no brilliant color, nor any warmth or life. It was dead and cold as the land.
“We must get as far as possible from here, for they will soon discover your absence.” Ninnea pointed to an outcropping of dark trees in the near distance. “The trees will provide us with refuge.”
A hot yellow sun burned down upon Katy as they began slogging through the thick ash. Each step felt like walking through wet concrete. The ash tickled her nose and made her sneeze. Every few feet Ninnea waved a hand to erase their footprints.
“How did the land get like this?” she asked Ninnea.
“Long ago, a group of Dark Fae combined their powers and in their greed to become even more powerful, they siphoned the energy of a volcano and it erupted, causing this wasteland. Nothing grows here, or survives for long.”
Ninnea glanced backward. “Hurry. If they find us out here, they will torture you before giving you the mercy of death.”
Katy increased her pace. Fatigue pulled at her, making her muscles burn. She tried to keep her spirits up, but in this vast desert wasteland, in a world totally unfamiliar to her, how could any of her people even begin to find her?
Chapter 7
A cool wind rustled the leaves in the trees outside his ranch house the next morning. Grayson adjusted the pack on his shoulders that contained the supplies he needed. He had spent all night tracing an ancient map, learning old routes, and then finally fell into a restless sleep, needing all his energy for the task ahead.
He needed to be alone for what he must do.
He chartered a private jet to fly to Las Vegas. Once in the city, he rented the fastest car and drove to the brothel that was a portal to the Dark Kingdom.
Finally he arrived outside a two-story house, painted a pale cream with green shutters, inside the forbidding iron fence that ringed the structure. The walkway was concrete.
The front door was solid oak, with an intricate carving of runes Grayson recognized as Fae. Magick pulsed in the air.
The Dark Wing Gentlemen’s Club, a very exclusive club for male Others near Sin City.
Jagged, blue-gray mountains flanked the valley and a stand of tall trees hid the building from the street. Grayson sensed Skins living nearby were blissfully unaware of the brothel. Power lines passed nearby and he felt the crackle and hum of energy singing in the air.
Interesting.
He went to the doorway and rang the bell. Expecting a legion of servants, perhaps a grizzly or Lupine bodyguard, to answer, he was surprised to see a Dark Fae open the door. He was tall as Grayson, but clad in a black tunic, black leggings and black boots. He had long, ice-blond hair, hard, brown eyes set beneath dark, arched brows, and bore a cynical look. Instinctively Grayson knew this man. Jaeden. The Dark Fae Aiden mentioned.
A silver sword was sheathed at the golden belt ringing his tunic. Grayson kept his gaze trained on the Fae’s face, knowing Jaeden’s magick was far more a threat than any Fae-forged steel.
“Wolf,” Jaeden drawled. “I’ve been expecting you.”
Grayson looked around, every instinct on full alert. “How? Your magick?”
The Dark Fae looked amused. “No magick except for the phone company. Mitchell called a while ago.”
Grayson entered the brothel, taking care to avoid skin contact with the Dark Fae. Energy crackled in the air. “You’re pulling power from the electrical grid,” he said.
Jaeden gave him a thoughtful look. “I can teach you how to harness it, wolf. There are many things one can do in this world, if one is equipped with the abilities.”
Grayson narrowed his gaze. “I’m here to access the portal to the Dark Kingdom, not play show and tell. Where is it?”
A short, unamused laugh. “You are a wolf of few words, Grayson Moore. And yet your friends in the Mitchell pack do not know exactly what you are. You are eager to hide this from them.”
Silence remained his best defense. The Fae could easily pull the information from Grayson’s mind. Grayson knew how to erect defenses against mind invasion.
Giving an elegant shrug, Jaeden led the way into the brothel. Opulent furnishings greeted him as he was escorted inside. Jewel-toned Persian carpets lay upon the marbled floors and the tall ceilings featured corniced moldings. The receiving area resembled a sheikh’s palace.
He followed Jaeden through a hallway to the back of the house, past a kitchen where an ogre in a white chef’s coat stirred a pot at a six-burner stove.
They went out the back door. What seemed like an acre of dry grass stretched outside, ringed by a tall fence surrounding the brothel. Jaeden headed for a stubby tree.
“This is the portal.” The Dark Fae pointed to the tree. “You will have to send over your pack first, be
fore crossing over.”
“I know.”
Jaeden gave him another thoughtful look. “It has been a long time since you last visited that world, has it not? I smell more of the Skin world on you than Lupine.”
Busy unbuckling his pack, Grayson said nothing and set the pack near the tree. He removed the amulet given to him in childhood and tucked it into a pocket of the pack, then chanted the spell he’d never forgotten.
There was a brilliant purple flash, nearly blinding him, and the backpack vanished.
Jaeden gave a low bow. “After you.”
His heart nearly stopped. “I’m not going with you.”
“Ah, but we are headed to the same place, so why not travel together and save ourselves the drain caused by crossing over?”
All his suspicions flared. Grayson tensed. “What the hell do you want with Katy?”
Jaeden’s pointed ears twitched. “Nothing. I have no desire to put myself out for your Lupine. There are other matters holding my interest. Female ones.”
“You want to get laid by a Dark Fae?”
Jaeden laughed. “I have no need to purchase pleasure for the night. No, I will tell you. You are a singular-minded Lupine, and have no interest in Fae matters.
“There is a Dark Fae named Ninnea who went missing a year ago. I suspect she’s prisoner in the brothel and the queen wants her back.”
There was only one queen in the Dark Kingdom. The Unseelie Queen ruled over all Dark Fae, but for the solitary ones who avoided complicated court politics.
“Queen Morgan of the Unseelie Court? What does she want with her?”
Jaeden’s cynical look returned. “Ninnea is her niece. There is quite a nice reward for her safe return.”
Safe return. It had to be specified safe, for Fae in the Dark Kingdom would tear her apart and send the pieces back, expecting the reward.
“What is Morgan paying?”
The Fae lifted an eyebrow. “Why should you care, Grayson Moore?”
“Just curious.”
Jaeden removed his sword and twirled it in the air. “Five hundred gold pieces, and the head of a very annoying troll I’ve pursued for many months. Little slick bastard manages to get the slip on me each time I draw near.”
“He must be quite powerful to escape a mighty Fae like you,” Grayson mocked.
The Fae struck at a branch of a sapling, lopping it off neatly. “He is a distraction I cannot afford to have. Easier to pay Morgan to send his men after him and do him justice than to hire my own bounty hunters. Of course, I have heard as well that the missing woman has a certain magick of her own I wish to explore.”
It didn’t sound very honorable. Then again, it wasn’t his business. Still, chivalry wasn’t dead in him. Not yet.
“If you’re going to harm her, I will find Morgan and tell her myself,” Grayson warned.
Jaeden laughed. “No, though it is none of your business, Ninnea’s magick that I wish to explore is of a different nature, and she will find it quite pleasurable for me to tutor her.”
He winked, and Grayson realized the magick the Fae mentioned was of a sexual nature. He shrugged. “Your hide, Fae.”
If the missing Ninnea was related to Queen Morgan, she had her own defenses against Jaeden’s sexual tricks.
Jaeden nodded at the tree. “Shall we? If you are ready, hold onto my belt.”
Grayson clutched the back of the Fae’s belt. Steeling himself for the shock of entry, he felt apprehension at finally going back after all these years.
After closing his eyes, Grayson felt a ripple in the air, much like that of an approaching windstorm of tremendous power. And then pain wracked his body, enormous pain that felt as if someone yanked deep inside him and tried to squeeze his innards. He grit his teeth, hoping Katy had been unconscious during the crossover.
He felt his body compress, and then pull outward, and then magick pouring into his body. Not good, wholesome Lupine magick of wolf, but pure power, as if someone pumped him full of energy.
Opening his eyes, he growled. “Damn, I forgot what a rush that is.”
The Dark Fae disentangled himself from Grayson’s grip. “It’s a wonder you do not experience it more often, wolf. Or are you so ingrained in the Skin world that you forgot how to be yourself?”
Not answering, Grayson looked around and found his backpack sitting a short distance away. He strapped it back on and regarded this world.
They were just outside a stretch of thorny cacti that made an effective barrier between the vast wasteland of the Blasted Zone and the glittering black building that was the brothel in this world.
The Dark Kingdom.
It looked the same as the earth world at first glance. Overhead the burning yellow sun beat down upon them same as it did in the Nevada desert, and the sky was a clear, cloudless blue. But then he noticed the streaks of deep purple and pink rippling in the sky before vanishing, like the Northern Lights of Alaska.
Grayson had noticed a flash of the same streaks in the air back at the Nevada brothel. The Dark Fae had effectively harnessed the magick of both worlds, Grayson realized. He wondered how Jaeden managed the power without becoming totally corrupt…or mad.
Most of all he felt different. It was as if he’d repressed everything Other about himself on Earth, and here, all his powers surfaced. Here in the Dark Kingdom, Others were free to practice their magick, embrace their powers and use them without restriction, without fear of human discovery. No humans lived in the Dark Kingdom.
And that lack of repression made the Dark Kingdom dangerous. It could corrupt you if you let the power go to your head. Drive you mad if you could not harness your emotions and discipline your magic. Charles had done neither.
Grayson sniffed the air, and caught Katy’s scent. Stronger, richer and laden with vanilla and a bite of musk that was purely sexual. Still a virgin, but her sexuality had awakened.
Grayson glanced back at the building. “Katy ain’t there.”
The Fae held out a hand and traced a rune in the air. “Neither is Ninnea. I sense her life form has fled this place. They escaped. And if I sense it, Gerner and the other Fae will as well. Come, we must find her before they do.”
Though he was glad Katy had escaped, Grayson shaded his eyes with one hand, deeply worried about her being lost in this desert. “I can track her as wolf.”
Jaeden looked amused. “So you are willing to embrace your true nature here, Grayson Moore? Being Lupine in the Dark Kingdom carries many dangers to your soul, if you have one left.”
Grayson didn’t matter as much as Katy did. He knew how to take care of himself in this world. But Katy wasn’t aware of the hidden dangers in the Dark Kingdom.
“The two girls traveled together.” Jaeden waved his right hand in the air, and a stream of pink and purple followed. “I memorized Ninnea’s life force. But we will have to track her on foot to pinpoint their exact location.”
Grayson unfastened the pack and handed it to Jaeden. “Put this on.”
Then Grayson shifted into wolf, the pull of power nearly making him howl. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he rode the waves as bones lengthened and thickened, and then he finally felt his senses explode with the power of his wolf.
Licking the air, he turned to the Dark Fae, grimly amused that the jaded Jaeden looked a little stunned. “I’ve heard Lupines were larger in this world, but this is quite excessive.”
“Get on my back. We can go faster if I take us.”
Jaden’s eyes widened. “I did not realize wolves could talk in this world.”
“Haven’t had much contact with one of us, I reckon. Get on. We’re wasting daylight.”
The Fae did so, struggling to climb onto Grayson’s furred back as one would try to mount a horse. Finally the Fae was on, his feet dangling off the ground.
“Head east, toward that clump of trees,” Jaeden instructed.
The sun beat down upon his head, and the dust tickled his nose, but he raced through the ash
and dirt. The pad of his large paws kicked up clouds of ash. Eventually he knew he’d tire, but Grayson would never quit. Not until Katy was found, and safe.
The Dark Fae leaned close and whispered in his right ear. “Move your furry ass, wolf. I spied Night Riders in the distance.”
Blood chilling, he forced his legs to run faster. Night Riders. In exchange for finding escaped prisoners, the mercenary patrols took their payment in living flesh, not gold.
Grayson ran faster.
Jaeden instructed him where to go until they finally reached the clump of trees. The trees resembled the mesquite trees he’d seen in the Nevada desert, but in this world, the narrow leaves were bright yellow, and the trunks were purple. Beneath the thin shade of one thorny mesquite tree, Katy sat on a rock next to a petite Fae woman with pointed ears.
Jaeden slid off his back, but Grayson scarcely noticed. All his attention was focused on Katy, the streaks of dirt smearing her round cheeks, the fatigue in her pretty eyes.
If I live to be a thousand years old, I will never see a more beautiful sight.
Grayson focused all his magick and shifted back to Skin. He waved a hand and conjured clothing and then raced over to her, watching her gaze widen with fear and then delightful recognition.
“Katy.” Grayson hugged her, relieved she was intact, alive and apparently unhurt. Anxious, he skimmed his hands over her arms. “You okay?”
Eyes shining, she cupped his cheek. “You came for me. I hoped you would be the one to find me. Might I ask if you brought water?”
Jaeden unfastened the backpack and poured the water out of the canteens Grayson had packed. “Do not drink this water, for it is of the Skin world.”
“You mean it will change me?” Katy asked.
The Dark Fae grinned. “No, but it tastes like shit over here. The water in my kingdom is much more pure, free of Skin pollutants.”
He walked over to a gnarled tree, struck it with the flat end of his sword. A small spring bubbled up on the ground below. Both Katy and Ninnea went to it and drank deeply. Grayson as well. Then they filled the two canteens and sat upon the ground.