by Michele Hauf
“It’s Zett’s mark.”
“What?” His shout hurt her ears, and Lyric winced and tugged the hair back over her ear.
Vail stumbled backward, catching his heel on the wooden chair by the broken television, and sat, slapping his palms to the chair arms with a loud crack. The disgust on his face stretched through his entire tense musculature.
It shamed Lyric, and for good reason. She felt as small and helpless now as she had after her brother had initially berated her for allowing it to happen.
“I’ll explain,” she offered quietly. “It’s not what you think it is.”
“I have no earthly idea what it could possibly be. Zett would never—” Vail shoved a hand through his hair. “Hell, I don’t know anymore. Apparently there is something about you he desires enough to— I wish you would have revealed that little secret right away.”
“So you could have turned me over immediately? Not started to care about me?”
“I don’t—” He sighed and thumbed his chin. “I do. I just… Fuck, Lyric, do you know what that mark means?”
His voice had taken on an emotionless tone she guessed was not new to him. A means of putting up a wall. She knew that trick. She’d been doing it since she was a teenager.
“Of course I know what it means. It’s haunted me every day and night since I was a teenager.”
She sat on the bed, careful not to face Vail directly, because it felt like an intrusion into the shield his intense emotions cast before him.
“I met Zett when I was thirteen,” she explained. “It was summer, and my mother had packed me off to summer camp, as usual. I hadn’t hit puberty yet, so I was just another silly mortal girl to any who would wonder.”
She couldn’t erase a wistful smile over memories of camp. And the sun. The curse of the bloodborn vampire was they got to grow up as if a normal mortal, eating, drinking, and enjoying the warmth of the sun upon their skin, until the blood hunger took it all away.
“I met Zett one night after campfire, when most of the others were in their cabins readying for bed. I’d gone for a walk in the woods behind our cabin, gathering daisies for a chain—”
She wasn’t swayed by Vail’s mocking expression.
“He told me he was a faery prince. You can imagine I was enchanted.”
Vail grunted and caught his chin against his fist.
“I didn’t believe he was a real faery, but my thirteen-year-old, angsting teenage heart wanted it to be true. You probably don’t have a clue how a teenage girl’s heart works. Suffice to say, it was dramatic and pining and desperate for any facsimile of love.”
It still worked that way. Only now it was more cautious.
“Zett was my first kiss.”
She heard Vail’s quiet intake of breath, but continued, needing to get it all out while she still had the courage.
“He touched me behind my ear, though I wouldn’t know it was a claiming mark until my brother explained it to me, and swore me never to tell my mother.
“Zett apparently had no idea I was vampire. He didn’t come for me after that. The years passed and I thought I was in the clear. Leo was relieved. Until last month. I knew I was being followed by faeries and guessed they were Zett’s men. They must have witnessed me drinking blood from a mortal and reported back to the Unseelie lord. I received a polite request, by letter, to meet Zett in the forest.”
“You went to him?” Vail asked, incredulous.
“Of course not. I’m not stupid. I also wasn’t stupid enough to believe the attempt on my life two weeks ago from a speeding car wasn’t related. So when Charish told me she’d made a deal with a faery lord, I knew right away what Zett was up to. He’d found a more sinister way to get at me through my mother, who was completely unaware of the mark.”
Vail slammed a fist on the chair arm, breaking it from the body of the chair. He stood and paced. “I can’t believe this.”
“But it’s the truth. I had no idea when a faery marked someone it meant that faery intended to someday claim the person as their—”
“Bride,” Vail blurted. “Zett marked you as his fucking bride.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
YES, CHOSEN TO wed the Lord of Midsummer Dark.
Lyric hadn’t known what the faery mark meant until she’d shown her brother. Both young, they’d decided not to tell Charish because Lyric had suspected her mother would never allow her to go to camp again. Leo had been busy training so he’d left her alone to deal with the knowledge she must keep a secret—or die. Because no faery would ever claim a vampire as his wife. And if Zett remembered his foolish mark, he would kill her.
After that summer, she’d never pined for boys again. It wasn’t smart to moon over a handsome man. It could get a girl marked for life.
Vail’s voice broke the awkward silence in the dingy hotel room. “Why were you intending to go to him with the gown?”
“I wasn’t! I told you, my mother agreed that I would take the gown to Zett, but my intentions all along were to escape. Charish had no idea of Zett’s ulterior motives. You think I don’t know what fate waited for me should I set one foot in Faery?”
The two held each other’s stares for a moment that felt like forever. Lyric didn’t want to speak her fate. Please, let him figure it out.
Finally, Vail nodded. “I see. Why didn’t you tell your mother?”
“Because I was young and didn’t want to get in trouble and if you keep a secret long enough it becomes what you are. It is no longer a secret but just that thing you never talk about. And you try to brush it off as insignificant, but then one day it comes back to bite you.”
“Zett must have seen this as an opportunity to get to you.”
Lyric shook her head. “Yes, and my mother knew only that she was getting a bargain from Faery. Charish had arranged for demon guards to accompany me. She didn’t know Zett had marked me, but she was smart enough to guess that he could try something.”
Vail walked to the window and beat a fist against the wood frame. The night sky flashed with neon lights. Raindrops pearled down the window.
“That bastard spoils everything he touches,” he muttered. “I will kill him!”
Lyric climbed off the bed and embraced him from behind. He initially shrugged to push her away, but she clung, fearful of abandonment. Vail was the only man she trusted right now.
“Please,” she whispered against his shoulder.
He turned and clasped her to his chest, drawing her head against his shoulder, and held her so tightly she thought they two would become one. And she wished for such a magical bonding.
You know you can never bond, not unless he drinks your blood.
“I won’t allow Zett near you,” he said. “I vow it.”
Tilting her head, he kissed her hard and deep. Lyric lost her breath, but it didn’t matter because she took in Vail’s breath. They fed each other the vicious hunger for acceptance only they two could understand.
This kiss was everything that fateful summer camp kiss had not been. Intense and defiant. True. It must be hard for Vail to claim he would protect her when he could not abide her kind. For that, she respected him.
“No one knows about you being marked,” Vail said. “They can’t.”
“It’s just Leo. But what about that worm wraith? He said he wanted me dead for the price on my head. He must have known something.”
“He could have been Zett’s man. I thought he was unaligned, but hell, I don’t know much of anything anymore. Surely the wraith couldn’t have known the reason Zett wanted you dead. If anyone learns the Lord of Midsummer Dark marked a vampire as his bride that could destroy him. The wraith would have kept you alive and used you against Zett.”
“I know. Which is why I’m trying to stay away from him. You understand now?”
“Yes, but you can’t run forever. He will find you with ease. Changed hair color or not.” He kissed the crown of her head. “I’m sorry I made you do this. It’s not going to matter
now. The mark behind your ear acts like a beacon.”
“Does it glow?”
“No, but it gives off pheromones I’m sure Zett can track. He’ll exhaust all his resources before coming for you personally. I know Zett does not like the mortal realm. It surprises me that he was at a summer camp looking for a wife.”
“It might have been spur of the moment for him.”
“I doubt it. Zett would not venture to this realm without intent.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Move faster than every faery who wants to get their hands on you and the gown. If we can learn what Zett and your mother had arranged, it may give us leverage. You’re not keeping any more secrets from me?”
She shook her head.
“What about the gown?”
“What about it? I swear, beyond telling you I thought she was going to get access to Faery, I don’t know what mother agreed to with Zett. She wouldn’t tell me.”
“You never told me that. Access to Faery?”
Lyric sighed. Yes, she must tell him all if she wanted to retain his trust. “Zett agreed to allow Charish into Faery to steal artifacts and such.”
Vail laughed. He pounded the wall with a fist. “That’s a lie.”
“Is not. That’s what my mother told me.”
“Then she was lying to you, Lyric. I know Zett. He, along with the rest of Faery, would never make such a deal. First of all, there’s nothing in Faery that would be worth fencing in the mortal realm.”
“There are collectors. Vampires, werewolves, demons. They all want a piece of faery.”
“Any faery item brought into the mortal realm would lose its power unless held by a faery. That’s the way it works. So there’s got to be another reason.”
“I’m sorry, that’s what she told me.” And truthfully, she’d suspected it a lie the moment in the apartment when Vail had challenged her to consider what a faery could possibly want from a vampire.
“She lied to you, Lyric.” He kissed her on the crown of her head. “And for that I am sorry.”
* * *
VAIL’S CONTACT RETURNED his call. He put the phone to his ear, but kept one eye on Lyric’s slinky catlike walk as she paced the room, arms crossed. “Santiago and the Unseelie?”
“I don’t know what the deal is,” Domingos LaRoque said over the phone, “but I’d suggest you check FaeryTown if you want answers. All roads lead there, my friend. But you didn’t hear this from me.”
“Of course not.”
“They’re lookin’ for you, man.”
“I know that. But what they in particular?”
“A gang of Unseelie. I heard Zett sent them. They are badass.”
Vail smirked at the notion of badass faeries. They came as vicious and fucked-up as any other paranormal, but still, it just sounded fluffy.
“I didn’t kidnap her, Domingos.”
“Yeah? So why have you been seen with her?”
“It’s a long story. Does Santiago know?”
“I don’t think so. I have connections with the family through tribe Zmaj, but since the Santiago clan is not allied as a tribe, they’re out of the loop. It’s possible Charish hasn’t heard anything.”
“Let’s hope it stays that way. I don’t think I can go to FaeryTown without being recognized if Zett has a crew out.”
On the other hand, FaeryTown was the last place a respectable faery would go. Not that Zett was in any way, shape or form respectable.
“Safest place for you is Antarctica, man. I heard faeries don’t like the cold.”
“On the contrary, their blood is cold so they get on pretty much anywhere.”
“Tough luck for you, Vail. Is that all you wanted?”
“Yes, thank you.” He slapped the phone shut and slunk onto the end of the mattress. “FaeryTown.”
FaeryTown hid in the eighteenth quarter, edging a city park. Very few faeries chose to live in the mortal realm, but those who were attracted to the cities, which were the least enchanted places in this realm, tended to gather and develop small towns within the cities. It was a place to mingle with other faeries, but also a place, Vail knew, that vampires frequented. For one reason.
Lyric finally asked, “Who was that?”
“A friend of mine, Domingos LaRoque. He’s with tribe Zmaj.”
“You have a vampire friend?”
“Don’t give me that look. He pulled me out of a fight with another vampire after I’d first arrived. He’s a musician. And I know what you’re thinking.”
“Yes, well, we are your breed. Sooner or later you’ll come around.”
He already had, thanks to one very sexy vampiress. As around as he intended without succumbing to blood drinking.
“Domingos thinks I’ll find some answers in FaeryTown.”
“I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. I can’t believe Charish wasn’t forthright about the deal. What is she up to?”
She sat beside him, and he kissed her new brown locks and pulled a few strands from her long lashes. They were two alike, both with parents of nefarious means. However, Vail had never met his father. It was easy to hate someone you didn’t know.
And yet, part of him wanted to believe that Cressida’s tales of his father’s misdeeds had been concocted to make Vail not desire to meet the man.
He touched the lily bracelet he’d worn since leaving Faery. The stem was firm and cool. Cressida had insisted he wear it to protect him from the evils of the mortal realm. Could it shield his eyes from his father’s truth?
He pressed his forehead to Lyric’s. To capture this moment, shared with her, seemed a ridiculous task. Something not meant to survive captivity. A fleeting affair on the timeline of his weirdly inappropriate life.
Soft caresses stroked his cheek and neck. “I don’t think you know how much I appreciate you protecting me, and wanting to get to the bottom of all this. How can I make you understand?”
He kissed her fingers and held them against his mouth. “You don’t need to do anything, Lyric. I understand. We should stay out of sight until we learn the truth behind the deal. If Zett’s men are after us, they may be tracking your mark by pheromones. If it’s not Zett, they need to actually see your mark to track us.”
“We can go to Leo’s place. My brother has it warded with so many different security systems it’s not even funny. And I do need to talk to him.”
“Or maybe we can give them what they want.”
“Me?”
“Or the gown.”
“I didn’t steal the gown. And that is the truth.”
“I trust you, but I don’t believe you.” Vail clasped Lyric’s hand tightly. “Where is it? You have the gown. You can make it all end right now.”
“What makes you think that? I told you—”
“Yes, that you didn’t steal the gown. Hawkes told me the storage for the faery items had been neatly invaded.”
“The security at Hawkes Associates was lousy.” Lyric slapped a hand over her mouth.
“Exactly.” Vail smirked, but he didn’t feel the win like he should. “Still had that one last secret, eh?” And how many more?
“It wasn’t me.”
“Is that your final answer?”
“My brother stole the gown after Charish gave him the big sad-eyes treatment. I don’t know why everyone is getting so bent over this damned gown. All I know is Zett was going to let Charish into Faery to steal.”
“Which was a lie, because vampires don’t belong in Faery, and Zett would sooner kill them than allow them in.”
“He allowed you in.”
“He hadn’t a choice. I told you I was taken right after my birth by the Mistress of Winter’s Edge.” Vail clammed up, turning his back to Lyric.
“Look, I know you’ve got a past and it’s not necessary to what we’re doing right here and now, but do you want to talk about it?”
“Just accept I know Zett would not make such a deal with your mother. It has to be huge, whatever
the deal is,” Vail said softly, “or it wouldn’t be worth the gown.”
It should have made Vail glad she was finally in a position to understand his world, but it made him sad. For he saw into her heart and got a glimpse of her weakness—family. She would do anything to protect them, even if it meant running for her life.
“I think we should set a trap,” Vail said.
“Which is?”
“We need to hand the gown over to Zett—”
“But I was supposed to hand over the gown.”
“Yes, and I was supposed to turn the gown over to Hawkes Associates. It belongs to the Seelie court.”
“So, you’re saying you’re going to hand me over to the faery who wants me dead?”
“No, I… No.” He pushed his fingers through his hair and tugged. “You’re mine.”
“Is that so?”
He turned to catch her surprised expression. “You know what I mean.”
“Do you know what you mean? Because I don’t think you do.”
He did, but he wasn’t prepared to admit that, yes, he’d developed feelings for a vampire, of all creatures. “Can we concentrate on the problem?”
“No, I want to know why you think you can claim me as yours when you won’t so much as taste my blood. I disgust you!”
“You don’t— It’s just you’re—” He swung a look out the window and fisted the wall.
“Pretty to look at, nice to fuck, but not to bond with?”
“Who said anything about bonding?”
“Right. I get it. I’m yours, some kind of plaything slash prisoner slash deal-bait—”
He grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her. It was the only way to stop her from taking this conversation to a place he wouldn’t be able to navigate. He kissed her hard and she struggled, but it didn’t take long for her to kiss him back.
That she trusted him enough to surrender to his insistent lust, and felt safe in his arms, was some kind of wacky gift he didn’t deserve but intended to hoard from all others. Lyric in his embrace, and at his mouth, changed him. Or maybe she steered him toward his truth?
“What if we had a fake?” she suggested.
“Zett would see through it right away.”