A bubble of laughter from Ana had me in fits of giggles. Resting my head on Breandan’s chest I was thrilled to feel his own body shaking with repressed laughter.
Wasp clapped her hands together in irritation. “What about my mate? Or have you forgotten?”
My giggles stopped and were replaced with a grim smile. “No. I remember the problem of Devlin quite well. I have an idea.”
Stepping away from Breandan I searched through the darkness. I looked inward, felt along the blood tie and called him to me. I wish I could have given him space but we simply didn’t have the time. I turned the moment Tomas stepped from the shadows. Our circle swelled outward, openly distrustful of the vampire in their midst.
I stepped forward and jerked my head toward the other side of the courtyard where it lead into the desolate Temple. Tomas walked off and I followed behind.
Breandan caught my hand, eyes narrow and panicked.
“We need an ally with the vampires,” I soothed. “You know this.”
Dangerous.
The word came with a flood of emotion. Jealousy. It was a warning that had my nature twisting in discomfort. I sent back a wordless wave of reassurance. Tomas and I had so much between us. I would be fine and he had to see this.
Breandan let me go, fingers releasing their hold one by one with reluctance. “Alright,” he said flatly.
My eyes wandered to Conall. “Will you find him somewhere to sleep? Away from this place, we can’t stay here.”
“We all need to rest before we go our separate ways,” he said thoughtfully. “I will find somewhere.” Oh, my heart swelled at the sight of him. Trust, it was a beautiful thing. He smiled; showing his fang-like teeth then yanked me back to him. “Kiss me,” he demanded.
I gave him a timid look from under my lashes. “In front of everybody?”
He dipped his head down to flick the tip of his tongue over my lips. Inhaling in a rush, I fluttered my wings as he pulled me to him. I fiercely crushed my lips to his. Pulling away, his eyes were wide and burning with the silver-blue flames I loved. I flushed and gave him a challenging look, which he intensified and returned. He kissed me again and I clamped one arm around his back. The other fisted in the dark hair now cresting his head.
There was a not so subtle throat clearing, giggles and long-suffering sighs that became grumbling mutters about public displays of affection.
“Rae! Off!” Conall barked unexpectedly not sounding at all sleepy. Thunderous brow smoothing, he shrugged his shoulders helplessly, eyes darting every-which-way. “Perhaps, it does not even matter now the bond is sealed.”
Jerking away from Breandan guiltily, I stumbled. My wings flexed straightened me out and I settled them neatly against my back. I knew Conall would bestow his blessing on my mating with Breandan, but it was done now. Surprisingly, the blood tie was still there. I knew Breandan had been sure it would break when we mated, but I had a feeling Tomas was bound to me till death, and since he was immortal, that meant pretty much for the rest of my life.
Breandan pressed a cracker into my hand. “Eat,” he ordered then strode away, motioning the others to trail him.
I flicked my tail at Alec when he gave me a cheeky thumb up and followed Maeve.
Trotting after Tomas, smiling, and blushing furiously, I clutched that damn cracker like it was a gift from the gods.
Chapter Eight
We walked without speaking for a while, and Tomas took my hand after a few steps. I bit my tongue when my mouth opened to tell him that I did not think it was a good idea. He was just holding my hand.
Nothing bad ever happened from someone holding your hand.
“Thank you for not taking off,” I said quietly.
He stopped and stared at the empty street. At what I cannot say since he seemed look past it. “I can’t leave. I need your help.”
I nodded slowly. It pained me to admit his cold admission that he stayed because he needed something from me hurt. I slapped myself mentally. Hadn’t that always been the case with Tomas? He had always needed something from me. When I thought of it objectively so did Breandan … in the beginning. The difference was now he no longer needed a thing from me. He was guiding me to make the right choices, helping me to carry out my decisions. I sighed. But the comparison wasn’t fair. Everyone wanted something from someone I guess.
Raking my bottom lip through my teeth, I glanced at him then away. Back again then looked at his chest. “You’re bleeding?”
“I healed.”
I nodded three times too many feeling awkward. “Are you hungry? I mean, can you eat solid food at all? I have a cracker.” I offered the mealy disk shaped biscuit to him. “It has nectar in the middle. It’s not awful; it’s sweet in an earthy kind of way.”
He grimaced uncomfortably. “Anything but blood makes me ill.”
“Oh.” I looked at my palm then shrugged and stuffed the cracker in my mouth and swallowed. Even with the liquid centre, it made my tongue dry without water to follow it down. I guessed it was good to have something in my stomach. I did not feel hungry at all, but mentally I felt better for eating. I wiped crumbs from my mouth and felt rude for eating in front of him. “Sure you’re okay?”
His grip on my other hand tightened. “Rae?” There was no patience in his tone.
“Okay, okay.” I plucked at my bottom lip before placing my hand on his shoulder in what I hope was a friendly, platonic way. “I need you to bring the leader of your Nest back here.” I paused and forced myself to look him in the eye. “Please.”
He cocked his head and shifted so he faced me. “You wish to meet my Queen. Why?”
Queen? The vampires truly called their leader Queen. There was reverence in Tomas’ voice when he had spoken so I swallowed my pithy remarks about the title. Just because I found being called Lady Priestess awkward did not mean others would not approve of being addressed by the title their hierarchy afforded them.
“Well, we agreed that a meeting between demonkind would be best to decide what to do about the Sect and the witches. We should work together to find a peaceful solution to the mess we’re in. If we remain divided everything will continue to spiral out of control.”
“What of your promise to me?”
I stopped fidgeting and glared at him. “I am helping you, albeit not in the way you expected.”
His brow furrowed, lips twisted in anger. “You gave me your word.”
“Breandan does not want to go,” I snapped. “I can’t, okay.”
“You let him control you this way?”
I gritted my teeth and squashed the rebellious voice that yelled he was right. “I know you’re anxious about what’s happening to your kind, but you won’t starve.”
“No thanks to you.”
Now I was mad. I tried to tug my hand from his but he held on. Trying to argue with someone whilst they clutched your hand like a lifeline was difficult, but I managed to keep my voice biting as I said, “Believe me when I say I’ve done more for you than I’ve ever done for another. Never has Breandan received the same blind faith as I’ve given you and he is bonded to me by magics. I’ve kept your secret about the fairy you drained two days ago.” He jerked back and I got in his face. “Yeah, I know. I saw it. Felt it.” I thumped my chest. “If I didn’t care what happened to you I would have told Breandan or Conall, and not even I could have stopped what they would have done to you.” I breathed in sharply through my nose, controlling the urges of what I wanted to do for him for taking the girls life. “You keep killing people and while I can forgive you once, even twice I can’t simply ignore it or pretend it isn’t happening.” My voice lowered dangerously. “If I didn’t care, Tomas, I would have let you burn in the sun. I risked everything, everything, turning my back on my kind when I saved you. Don’t you dare ignore or forget what I have done for you.”
It was clear from the blank look on his face he was unmoved by my words. He made a fast movement with his free hand. “This is your choice.”
“There never was one. This is who I am and I refuse to run from that anymore.”
He regarded me silently. “You’ve grown.”
His hand was cold as he stroked my cheek. His touch sent a shiver down my spine and I no longer knew if it was lust, fear, or my nature recoiling from him. Slowly and with great tenderness Tomas wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest.
“I’m going back to my Nest, to whatever fate awaits me, but … please,” he whispered over my head. “Please do this for me. You know what I want, and what I need from you. To have you with me is something I never dared to dream. Two nights ago, I did not want to wake to the reality where you had chosen him over me, but I understand. Now I only ask that you come to help me save my Nest, my family.”
He sounded so forlorn and grief-stricken it made my heart wrench. My conviction wavered. “Gods, Tomas, what you do to me….”
Working my bottom lip in my mouth I tried to make the decision that would let me have Breandan as my mate, and Tomas as my friend … that would mean I could go to his Nest on behalf of demonkind, and say the words that would make them help us.
Would making this kind of choice work for everybody make me the Priestess believed I was destined to be? My heart sunk. But I didn’t truly believe I was destined to be the fairy High Priestess. Is that why this was so hard for me?
Was there a way to convince Breandan to let me travel with Tomas to the vampire city? Would he believe my desire to destroy Devlin had been doused by my wish to help bring peace?
Devlin dying at my hand before Lochlann was named High Lord would throw the entire fairy race into turmoil, I saw that now, and I would not bring more harm to my race. But my behavior in the past had been so mindless and self-absorbed the chances of Breandan believing me were slim. I guess I could swear with magic…. No, no I could not go. It was too close to where Ana said the witches Coven was located, and Breandan would have a fit at the idea of me walking into a vampire Nest without him. I doubted Tomas would agree to take my fairy with us, or protect him if things went wrong when we were there. More than this, I knew Breandan wanted to return to the fairy Wylds. He wanted to see his brother and be in the presence of the Tribe. I could understand that.
A secret part of me now yearned to see Wyld land too.
“Stay then,” I blurted. “Stay with me. I’ll keep you safe, and you can show everyone what you’re really like. You would be a great help. We will find someone else to see the Queen. I know it’s a lot to ask from you, but I think we could make it work.”
His shoulders shook and a grizzly sound broke from his chest. “I cannot lurk beside you like a silent shadow, and hide when your friends and mate try to kill me. It would not end well, Rae. There would come a time where your fairy and I would clash, and not even you could stop the end result.”
The end result, one of them dead, stolen from me forever.
The thought of Breandan meeting his end at Tomas’ hands was unconceivable, and went against everything I knew, and wanted to know. When I saw Breandan and Tomas’ meeting in anger, I saw the end of him – the end of my vampire.
I closed my eyes, and twisted my hands into knots behind my back letting him go physically as I knew I had to do emotionally.
Yet I whispered, “Don’t leave.”
“My Rae, my sunshine,” he murmured and wrapped his arms around me tighter. “I must. There can be no middle ground.”
My hands flitted up to rest on his sides. I gave him a squeeze then released him and made him release me by placing my hands on his chest and pushing him away. My decision was made and my heart throbbed in pain.
“I swear I will help the vampires as best I can, Tomas.” I braced myself. “But I cannot go. He’ll never forgive me if I abuse his trust this way, and I honestly don’t think me going with you is the right thing to do. I feel like I’m needed here, and I have to start trusting myself, my own intuition. I admit it feels like I will go to your Nest someday, just not now. My own people need me now.”
A raven crowed. The sound was loud and brash. There were always ravens around the Temple, vile carrion eaters.
I waited for Tomas to react with anger, but he became oh so still, and quiet. He looked away and nodded stiffly. “So be it.” The words were uttered so softly my ears twitched and strained to catch them.
Tomas turned his infinite gaze upon me, and the small smile that had lifted my lips at his composed acceptance faded. His cold hands came to rest on my cheeks and at the contact I was sucked into the unending, falling into him. The darkness inside me squirmed, writhed, and twisted around my mind until I thought it would shatter. And I … I wanted to move … to move us somewhere else. I could not understand where he wanted me to take us. So the darkness guided me, showed me where I was to go. The familiar feeling of being stretched, of being pulled apart by magic bombarded my senses. I frowned. This was wrong…. Faintly, I remembered it was easier than last time, and I slipped through the opening, pulling the darkness with me from one place to another. My stomach revolted, wanted to empty, but I breathed through it. Tomas tugged on my hand to make me walk forward…. But I didn’t want to be here … and I … I wondered why he led me this way.
We passed the fist of the dilapidated buildings and I felt a tremble of fear. The windows were blown out and I thought I could see glowing eyes peering at me from the gloom. An eerie fog crept along the concrete floor and lights flicked and died in odd spots in the distance.
The air had a funny dry, ashy smell. Like something had gone moldy, and was so old and putrefied the smell had aged beyond a particular odor you could name or compare to anything else.
We walked further, I took in the burnt out cars, and smashed up pavements and wondered why if the vampires wanted the world so badly did they let it go to hell? Why fight so fiercely for something to turn around and let it fall to ruin? Why did they back off when the Rupture was over and receded into the depths of abandoned cities like these to hunt scraps?
The devastation in this city was minimal, but it had a sinister and unpleasant sort of look about it.
“I don’t think we should go any further,” I said without thinking. Literally without thinking. My mind was almost void, blank. Random memories and thoughts pinged around, but there was nothing underneath but a cloud of darkness.
I stopped walking, my thoughts becoming less muddled. There was a loud buzzing in my ear. Tugging my hand from his, I pressed my palms onto my head and pushed, hoping maybe the pressure would release whatever was causing this wrong feeling all over me.
Tomas brushed his hand across my forehead. The coolness was refreshing and I looked into his bottomless eyes, feeling such peace.
“How do you feel?” he asked compassionately and rubbed my shoulders.
I was being silly, so silly, and here he was being all brave and strong. I shook my head at myself. “Fine. I think today … all the fighting and use of magics is catching up with me.” Breathing out I let him take my hand again and squeezed his gently for being so thoughtful and considerate of my needs. “I know as a fairy I don’t need much sleep, but it helps me keep things straight. Sometimes so much is happening around me I feel lost, y’know? I mean, I know I miss a lot of stuff … and Breandan says I must start being more aware of….” Frowning I fisted my other hand and knocked myself on the head. My hand knocked something hard, and I fingered the metal pressed into my skin. How odd. “Uh, everything is a muddle.”
“Come. Once we reach the inner city you can rest.” His voice was light but I thought I heard it crack at the end.
My senses told me dawn was hours away, but I checked the sky anyway. I wasn’t exactly in a right state of mind – maybe my senses were off too? The sky was inky black.
“Are you okay?” I asked concerned. “You seem strained.”
He smiled, fangs running out as he lifted my hand to kiss my wrist. He pressed a kiss to the veins he found there. “I will be,” he murmured.
A dart of fear and disgu
st shot down my spine and I snatched my hand away. Then I was instantly contrite by the startled look I caught on his face.
“I’m sorry. I….” I reached for him but stopped before I touched him, somehow, deep down knowing that I should not be touching him. Not with love. My love belonged to….
Biting my lip I started walking, not sure why my body trembled when Tomas fell into step beside me.
There was a soft scuttle to my left and I jumped, even as Tomas quickened his pace and pulled me deeper into the city. My eyes darted across the flat walled buildings and tried to pierce the dense shadows that hung over every surface. I could see in hues of blue and purple in the dark, but it was almost like my gaze passed through anything that did not want to be seen in those shadows.
Were there really dozens of hungered red-rimmed eyes staring back at me through the dark from down the alleyways?
The deeper into the city we rushed I felt my magic being pushed into me, compressed inside my body and my heart sped up.
There was more scuttling from behind us, and I shot a fearful look over my shoulder. I swallowed a scream seeing the hunched figures lumbering behind us. One grinned manically and I saw the glint of fang.
“There are vampires behind us,” I whispered to Tomas and tugged on his hand to get his attention, which was focused on a point up ahead and had been for the last ten minutes.
“Do you trust me, Rae?” Tomas’ voice was soothing, and the darkness inside me smoothed over my nature, which was agitated, spiky, telling me something was wrong here.
Why was I here again? Coming here was probably the worst idea I had ever had. It was my idea to come here wasn’t it? Where was Breandan and why was he not with me? Wait. He definitely did not want me to come here, but he would never have let me come here without his protection. Or maybe he thought Tomas protection was enough to keep me safe?
I swallowed hard and looked over my shoulder.
More vampires - dozens of them - ambling behind us in liquid slinks. One darted past, whooping, and shrieking as he did. They ran with a fluid yet cumbersome gate, zipping across the wide street manically and passing from shadow to shadow so all I saw was bare chests and ragged jeans. The slap of bare feet on the concrete had the hair rising on the back of my neck. The moon was bright and when one of the vampires passed through its light I saw a starved emaciated body covered in grime and dirt.
Demon Day Page 29