by Lisa Alder
She laughed. “That’s rich. Coming from you. You...jerk.”
“Do you really want them to let you loose?” Vetis said coldly. He hoped the fool would attack Amara. He would love the chance to inflict harm against him.
As if he realized how tenuous his position truly was, the gambler slumped. “Sorry, my Lord,” he said grudgingly.
“Your debt is forgiven.” Vetis forced the words out through clenched teeth. He really wanted to wrap his hands around the man’s throat and choke the life from him.
Vetis tried to see into his mind. Desperate to glean more details as to why the Fae had sent him to the Demon of Corruption. If he could find the information, he wouldn’t have to let Amara go. But the man’s only thought was of escape.
Which meant Vetis had to let Amara leave with her husband. They could not alert the Fae by changing any of the parameters of the bargain.
Edward bounced on the balls of his feet. “So I am free to go?”
“Not just yet.” Vetis set his face in hard lines. “Do not approach me again.”
Amara jerked. She had misunderstood but he could not explain to her here and now. “And never cower behind the skirts of your wife again. From now on you will settle your own debts.”
“But,” the gambler sputtered, “you can’t--”
“Silence,” Vetis roared. The stupid fool finally understood, recoiling at the way Vetis towered over him. “I have deemed it so.”
The man nodded nervously and scuttled toward the door.
“Haven’t you forgotten something?” Zepar drawled in a deceptively lazy voice.
“What?” Edward stopped, jumped away from Zepar. Fear made his eyes wild.
“Your wife,” Vetis snapped.
She looked at the lout as if she could skewer him. Then she paused and turned to Vetis, her shoulders softened and a tremulous smile graced her lips.
“A moment, my Lord.” The melodic tones of her voice, heavy with sadness, washed over him.
He inclined his head. Air stuttered in his chest. The difficulty in breathing reminded him of the soul crushing moment long ago when the Demons realized they were trapped underground.
Amara glided to him and smoothed her fingers over his cheeks and lips, as if she would memorize his features. He drank his fill of her while he waited for her words.
She cupped his jaw with a gentle caress. Rising up on her tip-toes, she brushed her warm, full lips against his mouth. “Thank you,” she whispered so softly only he would hear her.
Vetis swallowed, his throat constricted unexpectedly. He read her thoughts, searching for darkness but she was full of light.
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.” The husband was suddenly impatient, tapping his foot by the doorway.
Her anger at his impatience swept over her features, so blissfully full of life, unlike the first time Vetis had met her.
Vetis recalled when he’d seen into her soul for the very first time. Her vision, filled with icy rage, as she imagined killing her husband. Instead of enhancing and corrupting that rage, he’d turned the tables and gotten her to feel pleasure.
His final gift to Amara would be the tools to rid herself of her husband once and for all. But first he had to let her go.
***
It was done.
Vetis had let her go. For a weak moment, she’d wanted to beg to stay with him. But deep down she knew it wasn’t possible. Demons used Humans. They didn’t live with them. They didn’t love them.
She sealed off the pain and planned her next move. She had been secreting away money for awhile. She only needed to save a little more. As soon as she had enough, she was gone. She had the skills to work and she could support herself. Having no clan was better than the “protection” she’d been forced to submit to under her husband’s clan.
Vetis had threatened Edward. If he ever tried to sell Amara again, he would answer to Vetis. The gesture was sweet. But truly how would Vetis know? Amara had to defend herself now. She would never let herself be used or degraded in such a manner again.
And if her heart ached because she would never see Vetis again, she kept that to herself, like a closely guarded secret. Because if no one knew, then no one could mock her for falling in love with a Demon.
Amara walked away from the castle, turning for one last look at the window of the room where she’d been held captive and had finally found her freedom.
But the Demon castle was once again cloaked in a glamour spell that hid it from Human eyes. All that filled her vision was the ruins of a long forgotten abbey.
She sighed and braced for the long walk home. The energy that filled her earlier was gone, swept away on a tide of profound sorrow. But she was stronger than that. She would survive.
Chapter Fifteen
Vetis and Zepar followed Amara and Edward at a safe distance, keeping to the shadows as they ventured further and further into the run down part of the village. The Demons cloaked themselves in glamour when people passed them by.
“She is in love with you,” Zepar said softly as they approached the tavern.
Vetis recalled the surge of power that accompanied their union. The crackle and sizzle of magick that thundered through him at the moment of completion. Could love have been the difference? His heart rate accelerated at the thought. “Perhaps.”
“Do you forget my title? Seduction is my strength.” Zepar’s boots clicked on the ancient cobblestones.
“One doesn’t need love for seduction.” Vetis flicked his hand and searched for an alternative to the hope snarling in his chest. “You of all people know this.”
“Love is a gift. Would you throw that away?” Zepar continued to nag at him.
“What are you, my priest?”
“Ah, trying to anger me will not work.” Zepar hated the church with a passion. For how could seduction be wrong? The beauty of giving in to your senses, to indulging your carnal appetites was natural.
“Fine.” Vetis thought about that surge of energy again. It must have been an anomaly. They would have to try to create the energy again with another Human. But for some reason, he couldn’t picture being with another woman.
“Get your head in our mission,” Zepar snapped.
Vetis shoved thoughts of Amara and sex from his mind. They lingered across the street as Amara and her husband entered the pub.
“We need to wait outside until the Fae approaches.” Otherwise, their enemy might sense them inside and not make contact with the gambler.
“Are you sure he will come?”
“It is the most logical.” He hoped they could have the confrontation with the Fae outside, leaving Amara safe in the tavern.
Truly, he didn’t want to go into that tavern, didn’t want to be confronted with the desolation of her existence. He had given her tools to survive on her own, to find pleasure. Once they discovered the Fae’s purpose, he would give her the knife to enact her revenge on her husband.
Gods, he hoped that would make her happy.
He was the Demon of Corruption, feared by most, hated by many. He would not condemn her to a life with him. His experiment, born of boredom, had opened a hole in his heart. He would give her a new life.
To know she was happy would have to be enough.
***
Amara stepped back into the warmth of the pub she’d called home for the past two years. She’d never felt at ease here and she couldn’t wait to finally leave. She refused to let the dark wood paneling, floors sticky from spilt ale, and the smoky scent of curing pork from the hut behind the main room bring down her spirits. She was free in a way she’d never been free before.
“‘Bout time you got back,” Edward’s brother said from behind the bar. He poured himself a pint and disappeared into the back room.
“Get to work,” her husband ordered, slinging himself into a stool at the bar. “And bring me a pint.”
“Get your own pint,” she said pleasantly as she tied an apron behind her back.
Her gaze skittered around the nearly
empty pub. A group of regulars gathered by the fire and a solo man, barely visible in the shadowed recesses of the corner, were their only customers. The tables were cluttered with dirty mugs and crumbs littered the floor.
The fact that she’d be leaving soon, loosened her tongue. “Looks like your lazy brothers have done nothing since I’ve been gone.” She ran hot water over a freshly laundered cloth from the pile underneath the bar. The pile was stacked to the same height as when he’d dragged her out of here two days ago.
“Shut your whoring mouth,” he snarled as he built as own his pint behind the bar.
“Don’t speak of me like that again or you’ll regret it.” Amara rubbed the cloth in ever widening circles over the sticky copper bar.
“You have no say in how I speak of you,” he said belligerently. “I’ve been imprisoned because of you.”
“You’ve been imprisoned because you attempted to bargain with a Demon.” She continued to wipe the bar down in long languorous strokes, remembering the feel of Vetis sliding in and out of her. Perhaps if she daydreamed of his sensual attentions, the time until she had to leave would be bearable. “Fool.”
And thank the Gods for it. Amara would still be stuck in this hell with no hope if her husband wasn’t a total idiot.
“I had no intention of bargaining with him.” He gloated. “It was all part of a bigger plan.”
And Gods hadn’t she heard those words before? They usually preceded some situation where he used her to pay off the debt from some wager that never panned out.
“The why did you take me to the castle with you?”
He crowded her against the bar, his breath hot and fetid against her neck. “I was hoping he’d ask me to kill you.”
A shiver raced down her spine even though she stood preternaturally still.
He wasn’t kidding.
For a moment, black despair slithered around her heart. But she refused to let him win. Straightening her back, pushing against the wall of his chest, she broke away from him. “My luck he had something different in mind.” She smiled, letting every luscious memory of her time with Vetis play over her features.
“Bitch.” Her husband stalked away from the bar and headed toward the solo man in the shadows. The smirk on Edward’s face worried her as he straddled a chair at the man’s table as if he’d been invited.
Amara snatched up the broom from the kitchen and began to sweep, edging closer to the warmth of the fire and the furtive conversation. Try as hard as she could, Amara only caught some of their words. Her husband was describing everything about the castle, and Vetis and Zepar and their dungeon.
“Why don’t you invite your charming wife to join us?” The voice that came from the form huddled in the corner was magnetic, compelling, and Amara found herself obeying without conscious thought.
“What?”
She sank down into the hard seat of the oak chair as if magickal bonds held her there. She knew not to make eye contact, even though his form appeared to be mere shadows with no clearly delineated features. Power, immense and overwhelming, radiated from him.
“So you traded her for your debt?” the silky voice purred. The underlying menace in the dulcet tones shivered across her shoulder blades.
“That was what he wanted.”
“And while you were locked away in the dungeon, where did your delectable wife reside?”
Her husband pffted. “With him.”
“So she spent three full nights with a Demon?” The being cocked his head, as if analyzing her, trying to see deep into her soul.
A sick feeling gurgled in her stomach as she finally put the pieces together. This creature was Fae. Her husband had made a deal with the Fae.
When the Fae turned his attention to her, instinctively Amara blocked her thoughts. He wanted information about Vetis. She would go to her grave before she would betray the Demon who had returned her soul.
The shadow laughed softly. The sound grated over her nerves like the screech of ill-oiled machinery.
“Ah, how amusing, she thinks to protect him.”
“Do I get my reward now?” Edward was still trying to make bad bargains as he rubbed his hands together gleefully.
“I don’t believe you did what we discussed.”
“I thought--”
“I didn’t ask you to think, now did I?”
Her husband blinked.
“I need information about their lair, their living arrangements, where they store their magick energy. We must prepare for war. I need her.”
In a slow hypnotic move, the Fae reached across the scarred table with an abnormally white, pampered hand.
***
“Amara is in trouble.” Vetis sprinted toward the pub.
“How do you know?”
He ran with purpose to the tavern door that seemed further and further away the faster he ran. “I can sense it.”
Zepar kept pace beside him. “We should assess the situation before going inside.”
“Screw that.” He shoved through the suddenly crowded streets, launching mortals out of his way to get to her. Vetis banged open the pub door, dismissed the group of old men by the fire and focused on the trio in the shadows.
The Fae was here. With Amara. With her husband.
“What if she’s involved?” Zepar curled his fingers around Vetis’s bicep.
“Not a chance.” Vetis didn’t even hesitate as he shook off Zepar’s hold. No way was Amara consorting with the Fae.
Tendrils of magick sparkled in a visible line from the Fae’s fingertips to Amara’s head.
With a battle cry, he unsheathed his sword and roared to Amara’s rescue. He charged toward his sworn enemy ready to defend her to the death.
But before he reached the table, the shadow disappeared. All that remained was a pile of clothing draped haphazardly over the chair.
“No.” The husband cried and grabbed for the specter of the Fae. “What about my money?”
On the off chance the Fae still lingered, Vetis knew Zepar had his back, but he could sense no glimmer left. He held his sword at the ready, searching for any sign of the Fae’s presence, ready to defend her. Not like that worthless husband of hers.
“Are you okay?” He rasped and chanced a look at Amara.
She had shoved the chair back, stood proud and true even as she trembled. “What-what are you doing here?” He’d take that as a yes.
A stunned shock blanketed her face. Even her thoughts were fuzzy as if she’d been blocking them from the Fae. He grinned. Good girl.
Zepar came up beside him with stealth. “Gone.”
Gods damn it.
A commotion arose from the other occupied table, and one of the old men, with a silver dagger gripped in his fist, charged the husband. “No one tells.”
He lifted the dagger above his head, then stabbed the knife down toward the husband’s chest.
Zepar casually knocked the old man over.
“My thanks,” Edward, the stupid fool grinned, wiping the sweat from his grimy face.
“We need you alive to answer our questions.” Vetis snarled at the idiot. To Amara he said, “we must question him.”
From a sheath at his waist, Vetis removed a knife with a serrated blade, exactly like the one Amara had pictured in her rage the evening they met. He turned the knife around and closed her fingers carefully around the burnished wood hilt. “But once we’re done, the honor is yours.”
***
Amara couldn’t process the events of the last minute. Vetis was here!
But, as she replayed his words, she realized he was here because of the Fae, not her. The momentary elation fizzled like an ale gone flat. Why would he give her a knife?
The weight of the weapon was heavy in her hand. The blade looked strangely familiar.
Vetis was so near, the comforting warmth of his body heat seeped into her. His closeness distracted her so she was only half paying attention when he whispered in her ear. “For your freedom, you can deli
ver your vengeance.”
She looked down at the wicked blade in her hand, remembered his confession that he could read minds. Remembered how much she’d wanted to kill her husband the moment he’d given her to Vetis. But something had changed within her and she no longer wanted the same things.
“I do not need this.” She had her freedom. And she would not kill her pathetic excuse for a husband.
“I am trying to give you a gift.”
She tossed the knife onto the table and reached up to cup his jaw reveling at the sensual rasp of his beard against her softer skin. “You already gave me a gift.”
“You do not wish to carry out your fantasy?”
“How could I when he brought me to you?” She laid her heart bare with that statement.
Zepar crowded them closer to the stone wall of the pub. “We need to get this over with.” He glanced around the pub. “I have a feeling I cannot shake.”
Her husband snatched up the knife and backed away from them. “No one is killing me.”
With an unnatural groan, the old man rose from the floor. In one fluid movement, he plunged the dagger into her husband’s throat. Blood gushed from the wound in a great red river.
Amara gagged and turned away from the geyser.
“Gods damn it,” Vetis swore.
The old man collapsed again.
Zepar knelt over the attacker. “Compelled by the Fae. I knew I felt him still,” he said with disgust.
Vetis hovered over Edward, shook his shoulders and barked out questions, that even if he’d wanted to, he couldn’t answer. He was in his death throes, his vocal chords severed.
Vetis dropped Edward’s body to the floor with a thump.
Amara stood in the corner, frozen by the violence of her husband’s death.
“What did the Fae want?” Zepar stood in front of her and obstructed the view of her husband’s dead body.
“The Fae?”
Zepar nodded impatiently, but Amara couldn’t focus. She shuddered.
“Leave her.” Vetis curled his arm around her shoulder and for a moment she allowed herself to be weak, to tremble in the hard embrace of his arms and breathe in the scent of him. She’d missed him so much. It had only been mere hours yet it felt like an eternity.