by Lexi Blake
“I have no intention of sacrificing you. You can’t believe I brought a human female along with me on this venture as a partner. I always intended to use you as bait. You see, the ogre isn’t smart but it is an instinctive creature. If he thinks a great hunter is in the woods, he will hide rather than show himself. This is why the bean si said only you can stop the war. You will attract the ogre and then keep silent about the fact that he was here.”
The Hunter hauled me back into the clearing. The dogs panted at my feet as I forced the bastard to drag me the whole way. I did not go quietly. I kicked. I screamed. I cussed like I was starring in a Martin Scorsese film.
“Very good, Your Grace,” the Hunter said approvingly. He looked around as though he expected the creature to show up at any moment. “This racket will definitely bring the ogre out, though I don’t think he understands our language so you don’t have to curse.”
I closed my mouth. He was right. I was going to have every predator in the woods curious about me if I kept the current volume set on maximum. He pulled me back toward a tree with a nicely rounded trunk. “Oh, I’m cursing, you can count on that. I’ll just be quiet about it. You just try to stop me. You know what else I’m doing? I’m calling you an oath breaker, Herne the Hunter. I call for the Wild Hunt. It’s my right as Her Grace, the wife to the High Priest of all Faery. I demand you call them and hold court.”
He released the restraints on my hands but kept one locked firmly in his grip. I took the opportunity to slap him upside the head as hard as I could. His head snapped back satisfyingly, but he wouldn’t let my other hand go. I tried again but he ducked this time, ready for the move. He pulled me until my back was against the tree trunk and caught my other hand easily. “There’s no need for violence. It won’t help us in attracting the creature. Your screams are good enough. I don’t wish to exhaust you. After I kill the creature, we still have to walk back to the palace. You should save your strength.”
I rolled my eyes and tried not to scream as the Hunter successfully managed to retie my hands behind my back. I made as big a fist as I could while he tied me and pulled my hands as far apart as my strength would allow. “I wasn’t trying to attract the creature, you bastard. I was trying to hurt you and get away from you because you’re a psychotic idiot.”
He seemed happy with his work and walked around to face me. “How does running away help our cause? I thought you wanted to aid me in killing the creature so we can stop the inevitable war that will occur when Queen Miria discovers someone from the Unseelie has unleashed the ogre on them.”
“That was when I thought you wanted my hunting skills.” He snorted as though the idea was insane. I continued my tirade. “I wanted to help you before I was cast as the goat from Jurassic Park. Just so you know, that damn goat dies!”
“You aren’t going to die, Your Grace, and I won’t be bringing any dead goats in, though I’m not sure what they have to do with anything. They would distract the ogre and he would eat them quickly. I need live bait.” He pulled more rope out of his pack and started laying it out.
“Where is my hunt?” I asked, stubbornly pulling on my bindings. The ropes were hot against my skin.
“I’m not going to call a Wild Hunt on myself when I’ve broken no oaths,” he replied, working diligently. The dogs came up and sat down beside my well-restrained body. “I promised you I had no intention to cause you harm. I firmly intend to defend you. I need a reason for the ogre to ignore the fact that I’m in these woods. As I said before, the ogre is not intelligent, but he has an excellent sense of self-preservation. The only way to get around that is to overwhelm his senses with very vulnerable prey. You are human and female and pregnant. I can’t think of anything the ogre will like more. He’ll be so attracted to you that he’ll forget about the danger I pose.”
“Good to know I have my uses.” I hated him in that moment. He was using my child to attract a dangerous predator who would probably kill me despite the Hunter’s best intentions. I’d come out here to save Devinshea only to lose my own life and that of our child. “You understand my husband is going to kill you.”
“Devinshea will understand,” the Hunter said. “We’re doing this to save him. It’s likely that the ogre is the one who would kill him. It makes sense. It would inevitably start a war between our people. You’re doing exactly what the bean si said you would do. You’re the only one who can stop the conflict.”
I didn’t mention the fact that the banshee had said following the path of the Blood Stone would lead to me stopping the war. “I wasn’t talking about Dev. I was talking about my vampire. He won’t understand and no explanation will make sense to him. He isn’t going to like the fact that you tied me up and offered me to an ogre.”
Of course, he’d also probably be pretty angry with me.
The Hunter seemed to think about this for a moment as he covered the ropes with leaves he found on the forest floor. “Perhaps. But here is the way I see the situation. If we persevere then you won’t wish to tell your vampire of the adventure since he’ll be angry that you traipsed through the forest with a strange man after lying to him about where you intended to spend the evening. If we perish, then it won’t matter.”
“What happens if I die and you manage to kill the monster and live?” That was the most likely outcome of our current endeavor.
“Then I’ll probably attempt to cover up your death,” he admitted with a straightforward stare. “It would do your vampire no good to kill me in revenge. It wouldn’t bring you back and it would only kill my host, who was against this plan in the first place. I would survive. You’ll agree that if that scenario happens, it’s better for everyone if the vampire never knows what truly occurred.”
“I hate you.”
“That’s a sad occurrence since I actually find you to be quite interesting,” he said seriously. “I think you could be important. You could do more to bring our people together than anyone else. The Unseelie will find you fascinating and the Seelie will eventually accept you because they need Devinshea’s magic. You could be a conduit between the two faery worlds. Now be still. I don’t wish for the rope to harm your skin.”
He fell silent as he continued his work. He tied a long length of rope around a tree opposite me and gracefully climbed up its trunk. Though I couldn’t see what he was doing, I watched as the tree shook and I thought about my quandary. I had to hope that the Hunter was as good as he thought he was or I was in deep shit. That ogre would make a beeline for me. It struck me as odd that the ogre had made its way this far without the Seelie army noticing his passage. Maybe I didn’t understand the geography of the sitheins.
“How far are we from the door?” I asked quietly.
The Hunter dropped to the forest floor again and adjusted his ropes. “We’re deep in Seelie territory. Like the Unseelie, the Seelie built their palace far from the door. It’s a defensive strategy. You don’t want an army to be able to come through the gates and immediately attack your stronghold. You want advance warning.”
“Is the gate guarded?”
“Of course. I had to go through much security to be able to enter.”
“Yet someone got through with an ogre?”
He thought for a second. “That does not make much sense, Your Grace. I follow your line of thinking. You believe someone from the Seelie is working with someone from the Unseelie, and this is the way they managed to bring in the ogre undetected.”
“Let me make myself clear, Hunter.” I was going to put my theory out there. If I got eaten, I wanted someone to know who to send the dinner bill to. “I believe that the Duke of Ain or someone close to him is working with someone from the Unseelie. It’s the only thing that makes sense. He controls the lands surrounding the gateway. It’s his army that allows passage from the Unseelie sithein. How else would they get an ogre through the gates and deep into Seelie territory? Someone wants a war and they’re willing to work with the enemy to get it.”
“Then we are
dealing with traitors on both sides,” the Hunter agreed, his eyes dark. I wouldn’t want to be the traitor because I was betting the Hunter had plans for him. “It’s an astute observation. I will speak to my king about it.”
“Your king doesn’t want a war?” It wouldn’t be the first time a ruler used subterfuge to get the war he wanted. Propaganda and misdirection were the games of kings.
“No. He’s adamantly against it,” the Hunter said firmly. “He believes Devinshea’s ascension is a sign that all of Faery has a chance at renewed life. Like the Seelie, many of the Unseelie have faded over the last hundred years because our fertility is gone. We need children to give our lives meaning. It might be different if the priest was someone else, but the Unseelie believe Prince Devinshea will treat them fairly.”
“He might not if you get his goddess and unborn child eaten by an ogre,” I said sourly.
He sighed. “I won’t let you be eaten. Please relax. All we have to do now is wait. If you would like, you should feel free to scream. I believe that might attract the creature. Crying might have the same effect.”
“I’ll take a pass.” I wasn’t about to help the damn thing find me. I would be quiet as a mouse if I thought the ogre would ignore me.
I stood there with my hands tied behind my back as the Hunter took his place hiding behind the large tree with the ropes he’d secured earlier. I wasn’t sure what those ropes were supposed to do but I hoped they did their job and caught the ogre in a stranglehold. The Hunter kneeled down and settled in like he thought it might take a while. My hands already hurt. The next time I had to deal with something like this I would be much more careful about the wording of the oaths given to me.
I saw the Hunter stand quickly, though he made almost no sound. He’d heard something and every muscle in his body was primed for action. Every muscle in my body was worried about becoming an entrée. I listened intently but couldn’t hear what had caught the Hunter’s attention. My eyes roamed the dimly lit forest and finally I saw a woman in white appear from the tree line across the pond.
I relaxed since she was obviously not an ogre. From my viewpoint, I saw a woman with platinum blonde hair and a white dress that did nothing for her pale complexion. Girlfriend needed some color or at least a spray tan because she was all kinds of washed out. She sort of floated along the ground, and I gave her points for grace. It took a lot to walk through the forest in a long, flowing gown and not trip all over the place. There was an odd air of fragility that clung to her, and I started to hope that maybe the ogre would eat her first.
“Good evening, Hunter,” she said in a strange singsong voice. She paid no attention to me or the dogs, who looked at the woman curiously but obviously didn’t see her as a threat.
I expected that this would be the time the Hunter clocked her over the head and pulled her off to safety so she didn’t screw up his carefully laid plans. He hadn’t shown any weaknesses where women were concerned. He was all about the hunt, and she was a monkey wrench to be dealt with.
“Hello.” The Hunter left his perch and walked toward the woman in white. He seemed much more relaxed now, as if he’d had a little too much to drink and all his inhibitions had fallen away, leaving a man ready for pleasure. I didn’t need a man ready for nookie. I needed a man ready for some serious ogre killing.
“Hey,” I said, trying to get his attention.
“Is she your mate?” The woman spared me only a second’s glance. Even in that moment, I could see that there was something off about her eyes. They were deep and black and far too large to be normal. She was something magical, and I doubted it would come to any good. It was like my dad always said, nothing good happened in faery forests after midnight when you’re tracking an ogre.
“She’s of no consequence, beautiful one,” the Hunter said, his voice deep and seductive. I huffed because if this was the way the man treated his precious bait, then I would hate to see how crappy he was to his prey.
“Then she won’t mind if you dance with me.” This was said in a little girl voice that made me want to puke. And I minded. I minded a lot.
“Hey,” I tried again. “Don’t you have a job to do? King Angus gave you a mission to complete. I didn’t realize you had a date in the middle of our special time with a hungry ogre.”
But he only had eyes for the ridiculously pale skinny chick who circled him in what looked to be a weird-ass paso doble. I only know that because Neil made me watch Dancing with the Stars and let me tell you, Bruno would have been all over the Hunter’s footwork. It was awful but the weird woman didn’t seem to mind. She was too busy doing something with those odd eyes of hers that drew the Hunter in further. They circled each other with no thought to anything but their dance.
She moved her body sensuously, her breasts and hips flowing in time to some music only she and possibly her prey could hear. I used the word prey at this point because I was pretty sure that was how she was viewing my male companion. It was the only thing that made a lick of sense. I doubted that hookers prowled the forest hoping horny hunters had a little cash on hand.
I watched in complete disgust as the male and female continued their dance. It became somewhat frenzied as the woman’s magic took over. I racked my brain trying to figure a reason why this woman would try to dance a man to death and then the word finally came to mind.
“Baobhan sith.” I have to admit that I was in awe of the rare creature I found myself in the presence of. I’ve seen a lot of freaky shit in my time, but this was something totally different.
She stopped suddenly and turned my way. “You know my race?”
I did, though only through stories from my adopted summer parents. Ingrid and Halle had given me a rundown of all the creatures of Faery I should know. The baobhan sith were only mentioned because they thought Daniel would find them amusing. They were the faery version of a vampire. The baobhan sith were all female. They roamed the forests at night looking for wayward men, so in some ways my prior hooker theory held true. She would exchange her body for what she wanted. But she wouldn’t take a quick hundred for a hummer. She wanted her payment in blood, and unlike the Earth plane’s vamps, she almost always killed her donor.
“I know what you are.” I felt no great fear talking to her. From what I understood, she wouldn’t attack a female.
“This one is hunting in my forest,” she explained even as the Hunter swayed close to her. “That makes him mine.”
“Look, lady, here’s the truth of the matter,” I began, hoping beyond hope that logic could sway her. “I don’t care. If you want to eat that asshole, I’m more than fine with it. Hell, if I had a fork, I’d give it to you, but how about giving a sister a hand? Why don’t you untie me and I’ll take the puppies here and leave you to your dinner?”
It was a good plan. I couldn’t care less that the guy who wanted to use me and junior as lures would die. If the crazy vamp was willing to cut me free, then I could shag ass out of this forest and get Danny. Danny could handle the ogre with one hand behind his back and he wouldn’t need to tie me up to do it. If Herne the Asshole had let me in on his plan in the first place, I would have gone straight to Daniel.
“The woods have been full of hunters tonight.” Her strange eyes glazed over in memory. “I’ve tasted the sweetest blood.”
“What other hunters?” My skin crawled. If she roamed the forest a lot, then the Fae likely knew to stay away from her. My people didn’t. Some sort of sign might have been helpful or a pamphlet.
She smiled serenely. “I found another earlier. His blood was so sweet I spared his life. It’s why I need this one. I must have more but I wish to make the shapeshifter last a long time.”
“Damn it!” I let my head fall back against the tree trunk. Now I couldn’t just run for my life. “Seriously? Are you sure about that? Was he about six foot tall, with curly brown hair and a righteously crabby disposition? Because if we’re talking about the same guy then I have issues because that one is mine.”
Nice. I was tied up in the middle of the forest and crazy bitch was giving a lecture on scene control. “He isn’t my husband. He’s my bodyguard.”
She looked me over, ropes and all. “He’s not doing a good job.”
“Well, I can be rough on a guard,” I admitted. “He was just doing his job so I need him back. As for this one, go crazy. The dinner bell’s a ringing.”
The Hunter was at her back. He was still swaying but now he ran his hands down her arms and he let his face rub into her hair. She moved with him, keeping him in a state of wanting though her real attention was focused on me. “I think you’re not in a position to demand anything. Why should I give up my lovely treats to a girl who was silly enough to get herself tied to a tree?”
“Girl power?” I offered. “Come on, don’t we chicks have to stick together?”
“Why do you refer to me as a baby bird? I’m not soft and sweet.” She turned toward the Hunter now, who let his hands find her breasts. “I will show you.”
Baobhan sith don’t have fangs. She held her hand up and showed me what she did have. Her index finger sported a long, sharp talon. She drew it brutally across the Hunter’s neck and I got sprayed with a fountain of blood. The dogs growled now but even as she pulled him close and fastened her mouth against his neck, the Hunter’s hands came out to quiet his pets. They whined and moved close to me as though the tied up pregnant human would protect them.
The vampire feasted. She sucked and made noises I was sure Danny didn’t make when he ate. Even from the outside looking in, watching Daniel feed was a sexy thing. This was kind of stomach turning. For the most part, feeding a vampire is a fairly neat experience. Even the two times that bastard Louis Marini has caught me for a snack, he didn’t ruin my clothes. This girl vamp didn’t seem to care that she was letting a lot of her meal go to waste. Girl needed some table manners. She seemed to have skipped vampire finishing school. The Hunter was bleeding and it was going everywhere. It was on him. It was on her. It was on me.