Not long into the conversation I started feeling this tingling feeling on my neck, like someone was behind me running their fingers lightly over my skin. I looked quickly and saw Devlin staring at me. But the second I caught him, he would shift his eyes quickly away and look, for all the world, completely engaged in the King’s conversation. I lost count of how many times I felt his eyes on me. Each time when I turned, he would look as if he hadn’t missed a beat.
Feeling completely left out of their court conversation, in which they were completely engrossed, I rolled my neck and looked around the room in an attempt to pass the time. I was staring at a familiar looking book when someone grabbed my arm and lightly tugged me toward the other side of the room. He slightly waved toward the King, who nodded even though I don’t think he knew at what, and continued to pull me away.
Devlin pushed me, so my back was to the wall and his was to the King and Halo. I watched as his eyes traveled down to my finger.
“I saw,” I said.
He nodded.
He didn’t saw anything, only looked at me after and a flash of some emotion I wasn’t sure of whisked across his face.
“Is something wrong, Devlin?”
“Yes… no. Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Devlin, please, talk to me.”
He brought his hand up to my face, rubbing his thumb gently across my cheek. “You are amazing, you know that?”
“Don’t distract me, Devlin.”
He chuckled softly and dropped his hand. “He is very lucky. I would… never mind.” He leaned down and brushed my cheek with his lips. “I will find a way out of this for you,” he whispered lightly against my ear so no one else would hear.
“Devlin,”
We both spun quickly toward the voice, which belonged to Corrigan, who had an unhappy expression on his face. But it was much better to the murderous expression Halo was currently wearing.
Corrigan sent Devlin away, to go find the seamstress. The seamstress was apparently the one who was going to be making my dress for the ceremony. Whatever.
Devlin took his orders, winked at me and left.
Halo growled.
Corrigan gave a nasty look in the direction Devlin had disappeared then turned to me with his face completely neutral, until he smiled. An expression that lit up his face and could make the angriest of people smile. Once my lips cracked, he started to ramble on about the ceremony. I tuned him out fully. I nodded when I was supposed to and agreed at the appropriate times, but I heard nothing.
I don’t know where the seamstress was located in the court, but Devlin found her and brought her back in record time, I could tell by the surprised look on both Corrigan’s and Halo’s face when they came through the door. When they returned, the seamstress, who’s name was Bert and looked like my great Aunt Ann with a bigger chest, fire red hair and the same outrageous and loud makeup, came straight toward me and pulled me into a room in the back to be measured. Corrigan called to Devlin just as he was about to follow us through the doorway. Devlin flashed a wicked smile my way and turned back.
After the fitting, Halo and I said our good-byes and left. Halo was unusually quiet as he brought me around on the rest of the tour. He showed me the throne room, the banquet hall, the ballroom, the kitchen, the indoor gardens and the indoor pools. Everything was incredible, but Halo explained it all without emotion and said as little as possible. I didn’t try to push him to explain, if he wanted to he would, I think. I don’t know.
Back in “our rooms” I kicked off my shoes and elevated my aching feet. Too much walking for me today, I guess. I was sprawled across the big leather couch while Halo sat at the end, my feet up in his lap. If only I could get him to rub them, hmm. When I heard a knock on the door, I jumped up and ran toward it.
I don’t know who I expected to be there, but I didn’t expect her.
The girl standing across from me was a few inches shorter than me. She had short, choppy chin length blonde hair, big black eyes set in a pixie-like face and a very petite body and was dressed in a really cute punkish, short pleated skirt, ripped leggings and a multilayered tank. She stood there oozing self confidence and malevolence.
She cocked a dirty blonde eyebrow. “And you are?”
Rude much? I crossed my arms over my chest. “Trystie. And you?”
She didn’t answer. “Where’s Halo?”
Frustrated, I twisted around. “Halo,” I yelled.
He came strutting in from the other room where the TV was still on. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw who was standing in front of me.
“Darcelle,” He thrust his hands roughly through his hair. “What are you doing here?”
She didn’t answer, just shoved me out of her way and ran at Halo, jumping up and wrapping herself around him.
“I missed you,” I barely heard her muffled words into his hair.
He lowered her to the ground. “Darcelle, we’ve had this conversation already.”
“I know,” she said running a finger along the line of his lips. “But I thought maybe you changed your mind.”
“No, Darcelle, I did not.”
I cleared my throat and Halo’s eyes flicked to mine. A puckish smirk appeared on his lips and he turned Darcelle around by her shoulders.
“Darcelle, did you meet Trystie?”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said waving me away with her hand. “Can you send her away now, we have some catching up to do.”
His eyes darkened. “No, I absolutely will not. She has every right to be here.”
“In your rooms?” She laughed. “Doesn’t she have her own rooms, perhaps in the service quarters?” She didn’t look at me. She looked bored and inspected her nails.
“You are in her rooms.” Halo stated.
“Excuse me?” She squeaked. “Run that by me again.”
He moved around her and closer to me. “Darcelle, this is Trystie. We are going to be bonded in two days. How did you not hear about this? The whole court knows?”
“You can’t be serious! You told me you would never bond… with anyone.”
“Well, obviously, I changed my mind about that.”
She jerked her body toward me, as if she just became aware of me in the room. I plastered a big, cheesy smile on my face and waved.
Her face twisted with fury and her pixie face turned a nice shade of red. Just when I thought she was going to blow, she looked as though she thought better of and faced Halo again. “That was good. You almost got me.” In a flash of speed, she hooked him around the neck, pulled him down and kissed him.
He pulled fiercely from her grasp and wiped at his face. His eyes locked with mine. With just that look alone, he was begging my forgiveness.
I arched a brow at him then looked down at the girl fighting in his arms for his attention.
“Hey, blondie! You mind taking your hands off my prince?” Halo’s surprised expression almost made me laugh.
“Your prince? He is not yours.”
“No? Would you like to go ask the King, I’m sure he’d love to take time out of his day to explain.”
“No, Halo? How could you do this? You told me we couldn’t be together because you would never bond, to anyone, I don’t understand.”
“What’s so hard to understand? It wasn’t that he didn’t want to bond with anyone, it was that he didn’t want to bond with you.” I responded trying to look just as bored as she did.
“You bitch!” she screamed and lunged.
In one swift leap, she tackled me to the ground, clawing at my face. But only seconds later, she was being pulled off of me. I laid there panting, when a burst of laughter escaped me. I opened my eyes and my vision cleared to see Devlin leaning over me.
He gave me a concerned look that was accompanied by a sly smile. “I see you met Darcelle.”
“Yeah, I did.” I started laughing again.
“You all right?”
“Yup, fine.”
He held out a hand to
help me up. I took it.
He helped me to my feet and into the room where we were watching TV. I sat on the couch and he sat beside me, pulling my feet up onto his lap and gently rubbing them. My head fell back on the couch and I closed my eyes. God, that feels wonderful. Wasn’t I just wishing Halo would do this?
“Are you getting comfortable here?”
“Why, you want me to come back with you?” I joked as I attempted to fix my snarled hair.
“I find myself regretting talking you into accepting this.”
I stopped playing with my hair and gave him my full attention. “I am not accepting it. I’m just making things as easy as possible until I can figure a way out. At least if there is no way out, I’m past the hard part.” I stopped and thought for a second, confused. “How did you get here so fast?”
“I sensed your unease.”
I sighed and looked away. “I don’t think I want an explanation.”
He pushed a piece of hair from my face. “No, I don’t suppose you would.”
Damn, when did my life get so difficult?
Someone cleared their throat. Devlin pulled away and looked behind us. Two guards were standing in the doorway, silently waiting.
“Roman, Jax, you may return to your posts.”
Both men gave a tilt of their heads and turned to leave without a word. Halo walked in just as they left.
“You can leave, Devlin.”
Devlin nodded then looked at me. He said nothing as he gently removed my feet from his lap and walked to the door.
“I don’t like him being around you so much.”
“Aw, Halo, are you jealous?”
Walking around the couch, he took Devlin’s empty seat. “I want you to be mine, Trystie.”
I didn’t respond. I had nothing to say to that. I wish I could say something witty like “How does it feel to want?” or “It must be nice to always get what you want”, but I didn’t. So I just turned my attention back to the TV handing on the wall. I didn’t care what was on, I wasn’t really paying attention to it anyway. My mind was lost, swirling around and around. How did I get myself into this? A little over six months ago, my world died, I felt like I died inside. I was just a walking, talking shell going through the motions of life. But then I moved here, I met Jayson and Lauren and Kamdyn and Becky. I had Justin and Kimber. I felt love again and I felt like myself. No, better than myself. I felt whole. I guess I kind of feel bitter about losing everything again. But why did that feel… wrong? Pushing all those thoughts aside, I looked back at Halo. I needed a distraction.
“So, you really like blondes, huh?”
“What?”
“Blondes. First Samantha attacks me, now another psycho blonde girlfriend, Darcelle? How many more should I expect?”
“I did not expect Darcelle to come here, ever. We haven’t been together in a while, a long while. I don’t know what she was thinking.”
“The question is, should I expect more?”
“No, no more. Though I would be on guard with Darcelle. She’s umm…”
“Yeah, got it.” I took a few breaths. “So how long has it been?”
“We broke up months before I met you.”
“Did you ever… bite her?”
His eyebrow shot up and a smirk appeared. “Jealous?”
“Curious.”
He lost the smirk. “No, I did not.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Why not?” Now he really had my attention.
“I have never fed from someone before I went to your realm.”
“Why not?” And why me?
“I never needed to here, the blood was always supplied. I only need it once in a while in Faery.”
I could tell, just by the way he was talking; not looking at me, an unhappy look on his face, his body language. He wasn’t giving me the whole truth. So naturally, I got aggravated. I crossed my arms and sat back against the couch, making sure I looked as impatient as I felt.
“What?” he asked barely looking in my direction.
“What aren’t you telling me? You are leaving something out, I want to know what it is.”
He growled. It was a very low sound, but I was close enough to catch it. “There is nothing.”
“Liar.” I said it calmly enough, but I might as well have screamed it at the top of my lungs.
He roared. “Do not call me a liar!”
“Then don’t lie. It’s a simple concept.”
He ran his fingers roughly through his hair again. I was getting to notice he did this when he was uncomfortable. “Why do you, and only you, seem to always push me?”
“I don’t know. It could be that I don’t care about your title or how scary you think you are, or I just won’t let you get away with the crap you pull with everyone else.”
“Think I am scary? I am scary?”
“Yeah?” I twisted in my seat to face him. He gave me his intimidating I-am-a-bad-ass look, the one I used to fall for. I ignored it and reached up to stroke his soft waves, caressing down his neck as my fingers went through his hair, then continued across his shoulder and down his bare arm. I brought my attention to his face while my fingers played gently over his. His eyes were closed, his lips slightly parted. I leaned in, his eyes remained closed, but he knew I was there. I brought my lips close to his, so close a slight sway and we would touch.
I spoke in a whisper, my breath teasing his mouth. “See, not so scary.” Then I pulled away completely, going back to my corner of the couch, my eyes back on the TV.
“That was just… completely cruel.”
“I was only proving a point.” I responded without giving him back my attention.
He growled again, jumping to his feet and blocking my view. “Don’t toy with me.”
“I’m not!”
“You are. I am never off my guard, ever. Only around you, and you take advantage of it. You use it against me.”
“Use it against you? How? To get what I want? I didn’t ask for any of this Halo. I only wanted a few simple answers.”
“Answers that aren’t simple for me.”
“Why?”
“Because…” He took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “Because they involve emotions I am not used to feeling, let alone sharing.”
“Fine,” I stood without looking at him and started for the door.
“Where are you going?” His voice was coming up behind me.
“To find Devlin,” I through back at him without turning around.
He said nothing, so I turned and watched as his face twisted with anger.
“You are doing this to punish me,” he managed between clenched teeth, his hands in fists at his sides.
“I am not doing anything to punish you. I like Devlin, and he seems to like me enough to give me the answers to the questions I ask.”
He repeated. “You like Devlin.”
I shook my head, rolling my eyes. “Why is that all you hear?”
“I have never heard you say you like me.”
I let out a long breath. “Maybe if you opened up to me, even a little, I would like you. But you threw me in a place I don’t know, and I can’t get out of, in a world I don’t understand and you explain nothing. Fine, if you won’t, I’m sure Devlin will.” I turned away from him then, not waiting for a reply, and walked to the door.
“Wait,” Less than a whisper, more like a breath. “Please wait. I will tell you.”
My hand dropped from the handle and I walked back to him. I crossed my arms and looked up into his face. My stance screamed impatience because, well, I was. All I asked for were a few simple answers. I wasn’t interested in his ego or how he felt about the answers, I just wanted them. Call me selfish.
Seriously, what is it with guys, no, this family? To get any answers from Halo or Kamdyn you needed to practically beat them with something. This was some kind of genetic fault that needed to be weaned out.
Halo shuffled from foot to foot, uncomfort
able, but wouldn’t meet my eyes. The tops of his feet were much more fascinating at this point.
I felt that my patience was about to break, and then he took a breath and found my eyes.
“We do not feed here because most of the time it is too violent. You saw what happened when I fed… on those girls. It was not something I could control, or something I wanted to do.” He glanced away for a moment. I knew he wasn’t done, there was more, there had to be.
He took a tentative step forward and took both my hands in his. “It is either too violent or too… intimate. It is an act that is too personal to do with just anyone. I never even came close to wanting to do it, I never cared about anyone enough, I guess.”
So that was it. He has feelings for me he never had for anyone else. Was that why it felt the way it did? I was still confused. I understood it was intimate, but it seemed more so. It didn’t seem, by the way he was acting, like an act you “saved” yourself for, like sex.
“Halo, is that why it doesn’t hurt me? Why you wouldn’t have just killed me?”
“I would not have killed you. I admit, I tried to scare you, but that’s it. I knew there was something… unique about you. Something I could not let go. But in the woods, the first time I tasted you, I knew then that this was where you belong, with me.”
“And Kamdyn?”
He flinched. “What about him?”
“What if I belong with Kamdyn?” I shook my head and dropped my hands. I walked over and fell onto the couch. I guess I understood his reasoning. When you know, whether it’s a sign or a feeling or just a fact, you know. Just like deep in my heart, all over my skin and in my bones, I knew I was meant for Kamdyn. I do not understand it here. I don’t know enough. If there are clues somehow that destiny hands out as a marker for you to find your soul mate or who you will bond with, then I needed to know.
I needed to talk to Devlin.
Chapter Twenty Five
I was back in Devlin’s rooms. He didn’t know I was here yet. I let myself in. Neither did Halo. I told him I was going for a walk, alone. I needed to clear my head. He protested, but eventually, I got my way. It wasn’t like I could actually go anywhere. I was stuck here at court until the bond was accepted or rejected.
Beautiful Nightmare Page 36