by Jackie Nacht
To help the one you love, you must uncover the light that is surrounded by darkness.
After his brother and Axle are kidnapped by the notorious Puck, Axle finds himself tied to a tree at the mercy of the attractive fae, Foster. However, that’s the least of his worries since his destructive path has hurt someone close to him. Knowing he has to change is easier said than done, especially since Axle never knew who he really was. Can Foster help him along his journey of self-discovery and redemption? And how, along the way, did Axle start falling for the fae?
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Enamored To A Fool
Copyright © 2013 Jackie Nacht
ISBN: 978-1-77111-679-4
Cover art by Carmen Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Enamored To A Fool
Knavish Sprites, Book Two
By
Jackie Nacht
Chapter One
Axle felt like complete and utter shit. The alcohol was still buzzing through his system, making him dizzy even while lying down on the couch. He knew he needed to get up and get a glass of water to rehydrate, but he kept falling in and out of a drunken stupor. The only reason he was emerging from the mist was that he thought he heard someone knocking on the door. When another loud crash sounded throughout the house, Axle realized that it had come from the back where his brother Torque's room was.
Opening his bloodshot eyes, he noticed that Donavon wasn’t amongst the group passed out in the living room. He never liked the bastard and was always concerned at the way he looked at his brother. Axle warned the guy away from his brother numerous times, but it never seemed to matter. The only reason he kept hanging out with Donavon was that he was actually Axle's boss at the garage where he worked. He didn’t want to get his ass fired, which was threatened if Donavon wasn’t allowed to join them on their bar excursions. So, he had to watch this asshole like a hawk and grit his teeth when Donavon tore Axle or his brother apart. Axle knew if he lost his job, Torque and he would be homeless. Man, if his brother knew just how much Axle kept him in the dark over their dire situation, he’d be bitching him out until he was sporting gray hair.
Managing to get vertical was almost impossible. That’s what happened when you spent the last three days drinking and fucking everything in sight. Finally, he was able to stand, and what he saw turned his alcohol-filled veins to ice. A red-haired man was standing in his living room holding his brother, and Torque looked like he'd just got the shit kicked out of him. It reminded him of all the times Torque and he had had bruises from their father after he'd come home in a rage. Axle tried to make sure he always pissed his dad off enough to make sure the fists flew his way and not at Torque, who was younger and smaller than he was. Sometimes, his dad had enough left over for Torque when he left Axle in a bloody mess on the floor to watch.
“Who the hell are you? Are you the one making him scream like that?” Axle took menacing steps toward the red-haired guy that was holding his very injured brother.
The stranger came forward like a bat out of hell and knocked Axle on his ass.
Axle tried to get air back into his lungs with no luck.
The guy walked out of the house, leaving the door open. He tucked Torque into the front seat of the car before returning to the house. There was moaning coming from Torque's room. What the hell? Did this guy just save my brother or was someone else hurt? Guilt swamped him. It was his fault that his brother was hurt. He'd spent his whole life trying to protect him from their father, and he had failed him by being just like his father, passed out drunk on the couch, bringing in his asshole friends. What the hell was he thinking? He was the biggest asshole of them all.
Hearing the sound of footsteps on the porch brought his attention back to the front door. Before he could react, the guy grabbed Axle none too gently and threw him in the back of a vehicle.
A million things were going through his brain. The first was that he wasn’t completely sure what this guy’s motives were. Was this guy going to hurt him or was he rushing his brother to the hospital? The second was that no matter what this guy's motive was, it didn’t matter; Axle was too inebriated to protect him or his brother. And how fucked up was that?
The guy began slowing the car near an unfamiliar forest edge. Axle's head kept spinning from all the alcohol, making him slow to concentrate and keep up with what was happening. Outside the car, the red head was unloading the vehicle and began chucking shopping bags into the forest. God, I feel like dog shit. Trying to lift his head, all he could do was moan while lying in the backseat.
The next thing he knew, he was smacked in the head. “Hey, man!” Axle yelled.
“Okay, here’s the thing. One of your buddies beat the shit out of your brother, and I need to get him some help.”
“Wait…what? Who touched him?” Was it Donavon? Axle was almost positive. So, this guy was here to help them and not dump their bodies in the middle of the forest after offing them. Nice to know.
“You would already know, asshole, if you weren’t drunk off your ass. Now, pay attention. See those two bags? I need you to carry them for me while I carry your brother.”
Regret flooded Axle. He began shaking his head as he moved to sit up. “No, I’ll carry my brother.”
“I don’t think so. You can barely walk, let alone carry him. I’ll take care of him from now on.” The guy moved to the passenger side to carefully pull Torque out of the car. His brother let out a pitiful cry before tucking his head into Red's chest.
The guy looked down at Torque. There was tenderness in his eyes that showed that he was familiar with his brother. Is my brother dating someone and I didn’t even know it?
“I know this is going to really hurt, but I need you to wrap your arms around my neck,” Red said to Torque.
“Is he going to be okay?”
“He’s going to be just fine. Now, come on,” Red began leading them into the forest, not waiting on Axle.
Axle grabbed the two bags then swayed behind the pair. He followed them as he walked into the foggy forest. There was a moment's alarm as he lost sight of his brother, and then, the guy reached out and grabbed his hand, dragging him into the fog.
The walk was only about ten yards before he felt the leaves beginning to crunch underneath his feet. The air warmed with each step, and the mist began to dissipate until they were standing in another part of the forest. He could see shopping bags strewn all over the forest bed. In a matter of about ten seconds, he went from a cold December day to standing in a forest that looked to be in the height of fall.
Looking at the forest in bewilderment, Axle was too slow to react when the guy pulled him to a nearby tree. His wrists were tied to the tree with thick green vines.
“What the hell?” Axle strug
gled. He had a personal rule of never allowing himself to be tied up. It left a person completely vulnerable. Although Axle was big at over six feet, he had a feeling this guy could break his neck like a dried-up twig.
“Sit.”
“No way! What are you going to do with my brother?”
“Your brother is no longer your concern. You need to start worrying about yourself.”
What the hell is that supposed to mean? He gave a desperate look at his injured brother lying in the bed of colorful leaves. This had to be a nightmare. As soon as he woke up, he was going to clean up his act, for sure. He’d quit partying, get his ass back in school and try very hard to reconnect with the brother who had been through thick and thin with him while growing up.
The vines began wrapping around him, tripping him to lie on the floor of the forest. Red adjusted him to a sitting position with his back against the nearest tree. The guy took an envelope out of a nearby bag and pinned it to the front of his shirt.
“My brother should be around shortly. You won’t be left by yourself for long.” Red turned and grabbed Torque, taking him away from Axle.
Chapter Two
You have got to be fucking kidding me. Axle could not believe he was still tied to a tree. Struggling with the vines that held him was useless. The red-haired bastard had pinned a note to his chest like he was in kindergarten all over again. He had been a little shit at five, so he had plenty of experience with the note pinned to the chest. There was a deep need to rip it up and throw it in the creek, like he had done when he was five, except being tied to the tree kept him from it.
Looking around, he could not understand what the hell was going on. One moment, he had walked into a forest that was free of leaves due to the bitter-cold weather, and the next moment, he was in an awe-inspiring forest with every color leaf he could imagine. The trees glistened with morning dew that seemed to make the forest appear unreal. Maybe someone slipped something into one of his drinks, because there was no way in hell any place like this could actually exist. He was either on something or having one crazy-ass dream.
Waiting was never one of his specialties, and it seemed like he had been tied to that tree forever. The sun had risen and now shone brightly in the sky. The colorful leaves were giving him a canopy, but he definitely needed sunglasses to help with the beams of light breaking through.
By now, Axle was hungry and thirsty. Without water, his weekend of drinking had become the worst hangover he had ever experienced. His head throbbed, making it the mother of all headaches. He couldn’t get comfortable, and he was sure Red sat him on the sharpest rocks he could find. He would be digging them out of his ass for the next year.
Let’s not forget he had to use the restroom. There was an urgency to get his hands undone. Axle thought maybe if he called out for help, someone might be able to hear him. However, he didn’t know who the fuck would come. He had no clue where he was, and by the looks of it, he might get some scary-ass flying monkeys. Who knew? Maybe he hit his head and actually landed in Oz.
Leaning his head back against the tree, he tried to think of anything besides all his discomforts. There was a small breeze that blew across his face, and he tried to focus on that. The smell of jasmine seemed to calm his nerves. It cleared his head some, and he began to wonder if his brother was okay.
All his life, he had protected Torque from their father as best he could. Yet, he could feel with every day that he was beginning to sink into the same pattern as his old man. He would never hit anyone; he just knew that to his very core he could never hurt someone physically. The thought turned his stomach. But he was becoming reckless and drinking too much.
At twenty-one, he knew he had a chance of turning it around if he got his act together. He just didn’t know how. He was terrible at school. Axle never let anyone know that he'd struggled with reading, and that kind of set him up to fail all through his academic career. Then, there was his home life.
When he had been younger, he and Torque had hid out when their father came home from a very similar weekend to the one he'd just experienced. He used to hug Torque as his father screamed out, looking for a way to expel his rage on his sons. Torque tried to be strong, but silent tracks of tears would come down his cheeks, and Axle would wipe them away. The fear on those nights hardened Axle, and his brother tried to keep him from it by being a typical smartass teenager. Man, he wished it had worked. Instead, he'd become bitter and angry.
Is my brother okay? God, he looked rough when Red carried him away. Guilt ate at him. There was no denying that this was his fault. He let that asshole tag along and got so fucking drunk he actually brought a predator into his home. He didn’t think Donavon would be capable of doing something so horrible, but it didn’t change the fact that it had happened, and he had been too FUBAR to help his brother out.
Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back on the tree. He was going to have to figure out a way to get to his brother and find out if he was okay. The forest was deadly quiet, which was why it surprised the hell out of him when he felt the envelope being ripped off his chest.
Axle’s eyes flew wide, and his mouth dropped open in shock. The guy standing before him was fucking hot. Ice blue eyes swept over the envelope in concentration for a few seconds before one of the corners of his mouth pulled up in a smirk, and holy hell, what a mouth it was. He had full lips, hair that was green with white tips. Must be a dye job, but it looked great styled in a windblown mess. Tall, lean muscles covered in sun-kissed skin. His defined abdomen was at his eye level, and it was completely ripped. Axle could even smell the suntan lotion that lingered on the guy’s bare upper body.
Green’s bottom portion was covered with a pair of long red swim trunks that seemed completely out of place with the bow strapped to his back. He looked like a cross between a surfer and a hunter. Weird mix, but somehow, it completely fit the man standing before Axle. If he wasn’t in such a shit situation and worried about his brother, he would have already had the guy bent in half, fucking him.
Green squatted down, staring with those piercing ice blue eyes, “I can’t figure out if Puck is playing another joke on us or if he’s out of his fucking mind giving you to our queen.”
Axle tilted his head to the side. “Puck? You mean Red? You must be the brother I’ve been waiting for. Mind untying me? I have to take a piss.”
The guy’s cool blue eyes were penetrating. “Yes, Puck is my brother, and if you don’t shape up, you can rot here all night and piss in your jeans for all I care. Drop the attitude and I might not kill you where you sit.”
For some odd reason, that stopped Axle in his tracks. The guy might look like he was on spring break, but his eyes looked vacant of any warmth. Being an ass to this guy would definitely get him killed.
Trying to reason with the guy, he asked, “Look…what’s your name again?”
“Foster,” Foster grunted out while taking a quick look over his shoulder before refocusing on Axle.
“The name’s Axle, not that you asked or anything. Look, Foster, if you could just untie me, I could take a piss and get out of your hair. I need to go find my brother so I can get out of la la land,” Axle admitted. His mouth ran rampant when worrying over his brother, and a hangover made him extremely irritable.
“Didn’t my brother tell you the situation you are in?” With his long fingers, Foster began tracing the vines that tied him up, ending on one of the knots.
“No, just that my brother was injured, and he was going to take care of him from now on. Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but my brother was hurt when Puck carried him off. I think he may need a doctor, and I have to get untied to get him to the hospital. So, be a champ and cut these suckers off me.” Axle raised a dark eyebrow at Foster.
“Your brother belongs to the Unseelie now, where you belong to the Seelie. Your brother is no longer your concern, and from what you say, it seems my brother is quite fascinated with him, so I don’t think you need to worry about him. Come, I’ll un
tie you and you can meet your queen. Don’t even think about giving me a problem. I have no idea what my brother was thinking. Your ass should be over on ice mountain.”
Foster pulled a blade from behind his back and began cutting the vines from around Axle. Again, if he hadn’t been an idiot partying and tied there for hours, he might have been able to do something about getting away and going after his brother. Unfortunately, Axle’s pride took a hit when he needed Foster to help him stand. Axle was no small guy either. He was built just as muscularly as Foster, and it pissed him off to need assistance in a moment of weakness.
Axle leaned against the tree and turned his back to Foster to take care of business. After zipping, he turned. “By any chance, you wouldn’t have any water on you?”
Foster shook his head and began putting Axle's arm over his shoulder to help guide him to the unknown.
Chapter Three
Foster was completely confused with his brother Puck’s decision in bringing this human as the Seelie changeling. This guy was so dark, he would have been a bottom feeder in the Unseelie court. Yet, Foster tried to look deeper, and what he saw was a human with a lot of damage. Is this what Puck saw? Did he think this human needed the Seelie court to find himself? Or was he so enamored with the other mortal that he didn’t give a fuck who he gave to Titania? He didn’t have a clue; however, the latter seemed the most plausible.
Whatever his brother’s intentions were, Foster was going to keep a close eye on Axle. It wouldn’t be a hardship since Axle was extremely handsome with dark hair, standing over six feet with tanned muscles. The only unattractive feature about him was the bloodshot eyes. The dark blue eyes would look so much better after they cleared up—which upon further thought, Axle reeked of alcohol, might take a while.