“Eloden hid my ears,” I said. It was lame but I needed to redirect this conversation fast.
“Why did you cry on Eloden?”
Dain’s simple query held so much pain that I had only started to bury again. I couldn’t go there yet, either.
“If I want you to know, I’ll tell you,” I said, throwing his words back at him. They had their secrets and I had mine. It was a cop-out but Dain hadn’t earned the privilege of exploring my hurts with me. I didn’t trust him, respecting his power but resenting the restrictions he imposed on me. He was still my captor and not my friend.
“I’ll protect you, even against the things you won’t tell me,” he said, tugging on the braid he still had around his finger. That would have sounded romantic coming from someone else.
“I can take care of myself,” I insisted, wiggling back a bit on the countertop. I needed breathing room.
“Will you help take care of us?”
He surprised me with that last request. I didn’t think Dain asked for help often. The opportunity was there for me to stomp all over his request in return for his imposition onto my life, but there was also a chance to welcome him on my terms. Fae seemed to love their bargains.
“Can we take it a day at a time?” I asked.
He smiled and I knew I had chosen right. “Now, you’re talking like a Fae,” he said, brushing his lips gently against mine.
As a kiss, it was short and sweet. The simple touch was all that was needed to seal the deal between us. It was over before I could decide to protest or move closer.
He pulled back but didn’t release my braid.
“The rest of us need to finish Marking you tonight.”
Chapter 14:
FOUR MORE MARKS? I felt my heart race. The thought of Dain or Kheelan Marking my neck scared me. They seemed older and stronger than the rest. I worried a Mark from them would somehow change me.
“I’m not ready for more Marks,” I answered truthfully. Eloden maybe, but not the others. He was the first one to meet me and I felt more comfortable with him than the rest, although, I was getting to know the two Fae that had already Marked my neck.
“We can’t wait,” Dain said.
“Just Eloden,” I offered.
Dain shook his head. “Eloden can go first, but you will take all of us.”
My heart reminded me that it was still in my chest and I was losing this bargaining match. “Can we do one a night?” I proposed, still trying to win concessions.
“I wish it were possible to delay,” Dain said, and he truly sounded regretful. “We can bind you and do it quickly if that would be easier for you.”
Now my heart was hammering. He must have seen the panic in my eyes because he sighed and released my braid, only to throw me over his shoulder.
Dammit, we were back to this? I thought we had made progress. It seemed only I had moved forward. This neanderthal was regressing to before the dinosaurs.
“No, Dain!” I screamed.
“You are afraid without reason,” Dain calmly told me.
I pounded his back and kicked my legs. I tried to bite him, but his clothes were too thick. Why did he wear so much goddamn leather?
“I told you she would fight it,” Falin said. He got added back to my shit list. Didn’t seem like he would ever stay off it long anyway with his need to push my buttons. He was like Ai Lung but in a guy, able to get in under my skin and well aware of it. Falin wanted all of me and he refused to let me hide behind my usual defences.
Dain threw me on the bed. I worried for a moment that I would disturb Orin but as I bounced on my back, his beautiful face looked down at me. He was sitting up and his chest dressed. They had wrapped a torn fabric, probably somebody’s shirt, around his chest diagonally. All traces of blood were gone and there was already a bit of colour back in his skin, although he was pale to start, naturally blonde and blue-eyed.
“Can I help you?” Orin asked. He looked so sympathetic, giving me back the worry and care I had given him.
I remembered his hypnotic touch and voice from yesterday morning. Did I want to give up my control to make it easier?
“Please don’t,” I said, softening the rejection with a rare plea. I looked back at Dain, standing at the end of the bed. “I can’t do this. You need to wait.” I left out that waiting a lifetime would be preferable. Fae lived forever, right?
Eloden crawled onto the bed from behind me.
“It can’t wait, Sweetheart,” he said. “If I found you, it’s only a matter of time before another Fae will notice you.”
“Your magic can hide me,” I said, pushing up to sit and turning to see Eloden better. I really didn’t understand their worry.
“We can’t take that chance,” he said. “There’s only a few days left-”
Eloden cut off suddenly with a groan. I don’t even know how he managed to get that out, grabbing for his throat as if he had the words ripped out of it before he could speak. The room echoed with various sounds of discomfort.
“Stupid loose-tongued fox,” Aeric said with a hiss.
“I’ve only known all of you a couple of weeks and you think I’m going to trust you to put a bunch of magic hickeys on my neck? I don’t even know what these Marks do other than make an easy accessory to impress all those other mysterious Fae wandering around and... and stabbing Orin, who is also Fae. Maybe I’m better off pretending to be human.”
“You don’t scare her enough,” Kheelan said. “Those Marks are the only thing keeping you from being attacked.”
I looked over to Kheelan. He was standing by my lonely dresser, partly in shadow. They had only left one candle burning once they were done dressing Orin. Kheelan was normally difficult to read, but in the dim light, I couldn’t see anything but disapproval.
“Orin looks like someone tried to carve him in half with a sword. Are you telling me that somebody is trying to kill me?” I asked.
“No,” Kheelan said. “I’m telling you that you’re someone worth killing the rest of us to steal. Every Mark you wear tells other Fae just how much protection you carry. Aeric and Falin are not enough.”
“Why did someone hurt Orin?” I asked. “If it’s about me, then why?”
Nobody answered. I fisted my hands in the blanket on the bed, furiously wondering if they thought it was too frightening for my poor, little female brain to hear. I deserved to know why they wanted to Mark me and not this patronizing silence.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Orin said. He touched my leg, a gentle, cool connection, magic trickling along my skin.
I glared at Orin. “Don’t touch me,” I said.
He moved his hand. I didn’t miss the hurt in his eyes.
“None of you want to really tell me what is going on. I’m tired of your excuses. I don’t see how you are protecting me by keeping me in the dark.”
“Just do it, Dain,” Kheelan said. “We’re going to be talking circles with her all night.”
I rolled over onto my knees and quickly crawled to the top of the bed, as far away from everyone as I could get.
“It’s my body at risk here. I get to choose,” I insisted.
“You can choose who goes first,” Kheelan rebutted. He got a personal glare. Forget the shit list. Kheelan’s pushy behaviour without regard to my feelings or even my permission made him the number one on his own list of assholes in the room.
“What about Eloden?” Dain suggested, going with my first request. Too late now, I knew his final objective and this was only step one.
They were blocking all the exits. Six pairs of eyes watched as I scanned the room, my own gaze lingering on the window I had insisted be closed earlier. The fall from there might break me, especially blindly. Kheelan stepped in front of the window and cut off even that risky opportunity to escape.
‘Dick’ I mouthed with a silent curse and he arched an eyebrow at me.
“Do you want Falin or Aeric to hold you?” Eloden asked, like the decision had already been made
. “They have Marked you so there is a connection that will allow them to ease your mind.”
“Mind control?” I said, horrified. Orin’s hypnosis one time had been enough.
“No,” he said. “It’s a simple connection, Fae-to-Fae. You should feel it when they touch you. Your thoughts and consciousness will be your own.”
Did he mean the burning and freezing touches? Those were unlikely to make me feel calm. They didn’t affect my will. The only time I had felt out of control over myself was when I ordered Falin to remove my glamour.
We were at a standstill, or at least I would like to think the others would respect my reservations and hold back. Deep down I knew better. This was going to be ugly no matter what but I could make it easier on myself and accept the inevitable. I could trust in the promise of the two Marks I had received already and let the Fae protect me from a threat they were afraid to even speak.
What reason could they have for wanting to Mark me other than my own protection? I needed leverage over them if I wanted control of my future back in my hands.
“You will each ask me if you wish to place a Mark,” I said, a hasty plan forming in my mind.
Kheelan sighed quietly by the window and deflated a little. I shot him one more sharp glance because he wasn’t shifting from his position on my list and if I had to take his Mark he would definitely be going last. He could freeze his ass off guarding the window in the meantime.
“I want you all to know that I am being forced against my better judgement because I haven’t even been given the information to make an informed decision,” I said, crawling back down the bed.
“Noted,” Dain said.
“I feel I am owed compensation for this,” I said, testing the waters for how my idea would float.
“She wants us to pay her?” Aeric asked. I had traded a Mark for his help today. He should already be familiar with the concept of paying a price for what he wanted.
“I think she’s trying to bargain,” Eloden commented.
I crawled to where Orin was sitting in the middle of the bed. I reached out and touched the only spot of blood left on him, dried on his cheek. He flinched a little as I touched him. Immediately I felt his cool magic.
“I want a favour owed to me,” I said, establishing terms. This plan might just work.
Kheelan snorted. “She wants us to pay her to provide protection to her? That is rather arrogant, Princess.”
I met his dark gaze with a smile. “I’ll want two favours in exchange for your Mark,” I said.
“You started this bargaining over Marks,” Falin accused Aeric.
“You started it with making that stupid bet,” Aeric accused Falin.
“Both of you are to blame,” Dain said.
“We haven’t even talked about the modifications you did to Eve’s charm,” Eloden added, sounding upset. He normally was easy going.
“I agree to a single favour to Eve of her asking in the next thirty human calendar days if I feel it is something that will not harm me and it is within my capabilities physically and magically to complete and limited to a duration of less than the next sunset or sunrise from when the favour is asked in return for her agreement to immediately submit to my placement of a Mark on her body and future agreement to any and all future Marks I wish to place on her body or replenish without obligation for any further favours.”
I looked at Orin after that little speech of an offer, not catching everything because I had been playing eye swords with Kheelan. “That sounds complicated.”
“It sounds like a typical deal with a Fae,” Eloden said. “Both parties are partially protected by the terms, although if it wasn’t against my own interests I may have counselled you on the particulars more carefully. I still feel Orin offers it with good intent.”
It was the best offer I was going to get was what he was saying.
“Fine. Let’s do this,” I said. They weren’t the only ones eager to bind themselves to me. I was going to gather favours and hold it over each and every one of them. There were hard questions I had and they would no longer be able to deny me.
My mother might get to wish on a genie, though this hope was still too fragile for me to voice. First I had to pay the price for the chance to rub the lamp.
Orin grabbed me with no hesitation this time, both hands on my shoulders pulling me up on my knees. Even seated, he was tall. I felt his magic, a cold burn that didn’t quite hurt. I shivered.
Orin tilted his head slightly and looked at me. His blue eyes were dark indigo in the dim room. It felt like when I peered into Falin’s eyes sometimes, looking down a deep well with no bottom in sight.
“Why is it cold?” I asked.
“It’s your magic’s interpretation of the feel of my magic.” Orin’s voice had deepened, although he still had the lightest tone of them all, a musical cadence almost, just needing a more rhythmic language. His voice was probably as dangerous as his touch, I reminded myself.
I tried to relax under his cool hands and dark stare. This was pretty boy, harmless as long as I didn’t let him hypnotize me.
“So how do you want to do this? Aeirc and Falin bit my neck from behind and that was all there was to it.”
“I’ll Mark the front of your neck,” Orin said. “Move your braids to one side and bare your neck on the other side, kneeling in front of me.”
I did as he said, feeling vulnerable. I couldn’t stop myself from shaking as he came closer, trying to focus on the heavy swath of bandage over his chest. Orin was injured. I had to stay still so he could do this without straining his wound. He wasn’t going to hurt me.
“You are right to be wary of us,” Orin said, one hand sliding up my shoulder to trace over my clavicle and then my neck, thumb pushing against my tense muscles as I strained to hold still for him. “Never trust another Fae,” he warned as he leaned down to my neck.
“Kind of ominous when you’re about to bite me,” I commented, still holding motionless. It was too late to be second guessing my decision. So much was at stake.
He licked my skin. I jumped a little and then chided myself. “Sorry,” I said.
“Don’t apologize or give thanks to a Fae. It only encourages debt where there should be none. You don’t want to leave any room for the magic to misinterpret.”
Had the sword wound to the chest somehow damaged Orin’s head? When did he become such a font of information?
“Get it over with already,” I ordered, using my normal, aggravated tone.
“Better,” he said, and gripping both my shoulders tightly, he bit.
I didn’t feel it, like the other two times, other than I seemed more sensitive to the feel of the magic involved. Icy shivers were beyond my ability to still. Every hair stood up on my limbs as I counted the seconds silently in my head.
Orin licked the bite again when he was done, whispering something against my neck.
“Is that Fae language?” I asked, relaxing now that it was done.
“Yes,” he answered, but didn’t interpret it for me.
“Hurry it up,” Eloden said, standing beside the bed, waiting for me. I guess he thought he was next.
“You’re messing with the afterglow,” I complained. How could I do this three more times I wondered, feeling languorous.
“The rest of us would like to get our Marks done before sunrise,” Eloden insisted.
“It’s not even midnight, yet,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Give us a moment.”
“I could make you rest to ease the fear from the other Marks,” Orin offered, wrapping an arm around me to pull me against his chest. I slumped, my heavy eyes fighting a losing battle and head flopping down on Orin’s bandaged chest.
“No,” I said, head shooting back up and shaking my head to clear it. “I don’t want to make you bleed again.” My hands quickly patted down his bandage as gently as possible, glad to find no new bleeding. “You shouldn’t be exerting yourself at all.” I straightened out his bandage where it curved over h
is shoulder, sighing.
“What is she doing?” Falin asked.
“Leave it,” Dain said.
“She’s doing human healing,” Eloden said.
I glanced up at Eloden. He had seen me with the Changs, knew about my secret. Even my family had no idea I visited a dying girl to hold her hand because it felt like the right thing. Something inside me wanted to heal, even if it was merely comfort I could offer.
“I have your Mark,” I said to Orin. I touched it on my neck, knowing where it was although it didn’t hurt or feel different under my fingers. “Rest now.”
“Fae are not as fragile as humans,” Orin complained. He had the same tone as the twins when I insulted their masculinity by referring to them as boys.
“I’ll sleep beside you tonight,” I offered. I wanted to watch over him anyway.
Falin grumbled some complaint.
“You can sleep on her other side,” Dain said. I hadn’t agreed to that but they always slept wherever they wanted and there weren’t many choices. I had two sides. Sandwiching wasn’t new to me.
“Only for you would I lie so close to him,” Orin said, grumbling now. Maybe I was getting in between more than I knew. One Dark and one Light and both with an uncanny way of setting me at ease. I couldn’t let down my guard tonight.
“Careful Orin or Falin will forget how valuable your hide is tonight and take another bite out of it,” Eloden said, snapping his teeth together.
I shot Eloden a dirty look. “Stop stirring up trouble,” I said. I looked at his mouth and added, “I’m the only one getting eaten today.”
The quiet when a pin can be heard dropping? Right then.
Aeric broke the silence, laughing first.
Falin left his post at the wall and leaped onto the bed, landing on his knees. He crawled over to me, giving Orin the barest glance and an order to lie down. Orin obeyed.
“Bossy,” I complained, pushing against Falin’s chest as he got right in my face.
“I’ve been very patient while you let two Light fairies Mark your skin,” Falin said. “Eloden is next, Baby.” He licked his lips, letting me see a flash of silver from his tongue piercing. “Don’t let that fox do anything to you that you would deny me tonight.”
No Faerie Tale Love (Faerie Series Book 1) Page 21