“So, what are they, then?” Devon’s voice rang out across the fire, strong and sure, every bit the leader as his mate was, even though he’d deny it if that fact was ever voiced.
“Monsters,” Eire said, and everyone heard the vulnerability in her voice despite her ice queen exterior.
“Yes,” Matt said quietly, a quake in his voice. Gem stood and moved into Matt’s side more firmly. She wrapped her strong arms around her mate, kissed his arm, and leaned her forehead against his bicep. Matt leaned down and kissed her dark hair, but he let his lips linger. Nicky knew he was scenting her, holding on to her smell to steady his nerves. Nicky had done that as a teenager with his parents after his first change. The change had been unexpected, but their presence had helped him cope, helped him re-center and ground himself. “Yes,” Matt repeated, more firm. He lifted his head and looked at the group. “When I was seventeen, I was sold to a Fae—”
“Fuck,” Damon said.
Nicky felt the same, but he feared this was worse than even his experiences had prepared him for.
Matt ignored the outburst, his eyes distant as he continued his story. “My parents were good people. They weren’t evil. They weren’t Dark. They were both Luna. I shift into a big cat, but mom and dad were both more grounded than I ever was, and their animals were more sedate.” He paused and smiled. “They were house cats.” He said this distractedly and with a slight laugh. “I always wanted to be something bigger. Not the best way to react to a good upbringing, but I did. I wanted to travel, see the world, write about every place I visited, and basically live out of my car. And, at eighteen, I had a scholarship to the University of Arkansas that I’d earned because of my writing, but also for track and field.” Nicky watched as Matt leaned down and kissed Gem’s head, again breathing her in. “The summer before I went to college, I decided to travel. I started in Oklahoma, then moved onto Kansas before heading West to Colorado. I explored there for days before hitting up some of the outskirts of Denver. Evergreen was the last place I remember before I found myself up for auction.”
Auction? Shit. What kind of Others were they dealing with? He felt for the guy. He really did, but he had to ask. “I’m not trying to sound like an ass, Matt,” Nicky said, “but what use would the Fae have for an eighteen-year-old kid?”
Kieran, Eire, and Damon shared a glance.
“Fae can only survive in this world, outside of the Veil, if they consume one thing: emotion. It just so happens that the Fae I was sold to was a fan of pain,” Matt said, cringing, like the word meant something different to him than it meant to others. “She fed off of it. And not just fear, although that did in a pinch. No. She liked sadness, anger, that butterfly feeling you get when your anxiety skyrockets before a big decision… Physical pain…” His breath left him a whoosh, and Nicky knew he was getting into the meat of his story now. “Fae in general prefer Clan and Others best. All that power. They eat it up. It’s their bread and butter, their whole world. The Clans are terrified of the Skröm…think the Skröm are these nasty creatures who hold the gold medal for torture and evil.” Matthew shook his head and smiled sardonically. “The Skröm are babies in the world of Darkness, though, and even then, we all know not every Skröm succumbs to evil. The Fae are a thousand times scarier than any Skröm I ever met.”
“You said ‘this world’ and earlier, Devon mentioned the Veil as a place.” Alexia looked at Matt then around the circle. “What am I missing?”
“I forget how new you are sometimes. No offense,” Matt quickly added, but Alexia just nodded for him to continue. “There are four worlds, or planes of existence. There is this world, the physical here and now, but there are also the Afterworld, the Underworld or realm of Hades, and the Veil. Most think of the Veil as the place where ghosts, Loa, Shadows, and other types of incorporeal beings dwell, but the Veil is really a world much like our own. You can touch. You can feel. But there is no emotion. And there is a weight to that place that drags you down, that makes you near invisible to everyone and everything around you. That’s why the Fae need us. We give them the emotion they crave.”
“You know a lot of the Veil,” Eire said, and her eyes moved over to Matt and Gem. This conversation had awoken something in her. Her voice was no longer cold, hard, precise. Now it was like waves of emotion filled the undercurrents of her statement. The Veil was already a place Nicky didn’t want to be.
“I spent thirteen years there,” Matt said to the group and Damon moved to stand in front of them.
“Nessa?” he asked.
“How did you know?” Matt whispered, tension filling the clearing. There was a spark now in the voided space that hadn’t existed between everyone. Where before there had been suspicion and wariness, now there were questions and stories and something known, yet unknown between the group as a whole.
“Shit,” Eire said as she went to stand near Damon. She grabbed the back of Damon’s shirt and pushed him behind her. Yeah, she sure as fuck didn’t need Nicky’s strength as a Vuković. She was bloody strong on her own.
“Nessa was our grandmother,” Eire said, her confidence never faltering. “She raised me after my mother passed seventeen years ago. So, when you speak of the Veil, I know. I spent six years there.”
“Grandmother,” Matt said slowly.
Nicky’s instincts kicked in and he quickly moved around the fire to stand at Eire’s side. His urge to protect her was so strong, he had to physically rein himself in before he shifted. Not good. Not fucking good at all.
“You’re Fae…” Matt said, his expression changing to one of dawning horror before anger replaced the look. In a flash of light, a large black jaguar ripped from Matt’s body instantly, and Nicky growled in frustration. He couldn’t half-shift like other Vuković. His wolf was all or nothing. But he also wouldn’t transform until he knew he had to. Matt was impulsive. He often shifted at a moment’s notice.
“Matthew, my big kitty.” Gem’s voice was soothing.
At close to 250 pounds, Matthew’s jaguar form wasn’t gigantic, but the animal had enough weight to take any of their human forms out. Definitely not what Nicky would call a kitty. Nicky looked behind him and saw Danny was safely by the fire. Danny gave him a laid-back smile, but there was a wariness in his gaze as he leaned against the tree on the opposite side of the clearing. Nicky refocused on the scene in front of him and saw Alexia move closer to Matt and Gem. Her eyes flared red, and Devon stood about arm’s length behind her, guarding her back.
“Explain,” Alexia said, turning to Eire and Damon.
“Nessa is thousands of years old, one of the oldest of the Others, but young for a Fae. She loves collecting Luna, though. Something about their animal being so closely tied to the Clan member’s soul makes the pain taste different. I wouldn’t know the taste,” Eire added quickly while the jaguar growled at her. She looked between herself, Matt and Damon.
“She’s not Nessa.” Damon’s voice was calm, secure, and Nicky could sense he believed what he spoke.
“We don’t even know who Nessa is. We know Matthew, though, and he’s a short fuse, but there’s almost always a reason for it,” Alexia said from Gem’s side. “Spell it out for those of us who have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“I don’t need to feed off emotion at all because of my human half. I don’t need the grounding to this world like the other Fae do. Damon and our two other brothers…well, that’s for another time, but they aren’t a threat. Their Fae side isn’t strong. In fact, despite the fact that I don’t need to feed on emotion, my Fae side is the strongest of all four of us…” She stepped back and now it was Damon’s turn to pull her behind him.
“You can’t protect me, Damon,” Eire said from behind the tatted up bar owner.
Damon’s fist flexed, but he nodded and moved to the side. Nicky could only guess at the strength it took for Damon to let his sister move closer to the group. In moving forward, she brushed against Nicky, but she didn’t back away. And he fe
lt her gain some fortitude from the touch. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, but otherwise soldiered on, even as Nicky himself was dealing with the gut-clenching realization of what it meant that she could gain comfort and strength from him.
“I am Fae. My father has the gift of Swords. The knife-like claws that retract from my fingers,” she explained, turning to Devon and Alexia who had seen those claws for themselves last night. “For the Fae, there are five gifts: Swords, Sky, Moon, and Sun, or very rare is the gift of Blood and Bone. We also have abilities that haven’t been seen in thousands of years or that are only seen in our older Fae, such as devouring. These are more like accents on top of their ancestral line of gifts, which only come in those five groups I mentioned. But a full Fae consumes mostly a vegetarian diet, and then, well…not so vegetarian…they take blood a couple times a week,” she added, as though to prove she wasn’t that much different than Alexia. Good salesmanship. “But if they want to stay on this plane, emotion is a necessary food source as well. Matt was captured for that purpose. Nessa feeding on Matt allowed her to visit this plane, and Nessa always liked to feed on one emotion.”
“Pain,” Nicky said, solemnly. This strange woman in front of him, this Other – a Fae – was tied to him, in what way he was still trying to grasp, but there was no doubt in his mind that there was something between them. So, he had wanted to know exactly what he was getting involved in – because of the case, yes, but also because of her.
“Yes,” Eire said, looking straight ahead and not meeting his gaze, even though she still stood at his side. “Nessa fed on pain.”
“And you don’t need to?” Alexia asked, relaxing her stance.
“No. I’m half human. I consume blood to satisfy my gift of Swords,” she said. And other things, was the unfinished thought she didn’t voice, but that Nicky heard. More secrets.
“You are what you eat,” Kieran said moving into her side, another beer in hand, and Eire gave him a look of frustration. “What, it’s true. You eat lots of fruits and veggies and you drink blood, but you don’t take a lot. And you never take from the unwilling.” He looked to the rest of the group, but then added worriedly under his breath, “Of course, she only eats when she has to.”
Nicky felt the worry as well, because he’d noticed how pale she still was. Everyone else ignored the side comment.
“What Kieran is trying to say is that Eire isn’t Nessa,” Damon repeated. “Nessa was dangerous, powerful, and well, fuck it… Gran was just plain evil.”
“I gotta ask. What happens to someone whose emotion is fed on by someone like Nessa?” Devon asked.
“Matt was with Nessa for over a decade,” Damon continued, “but he still has his animal. We’re not sure why, but Luna seem to last longer when it comes to a Fae feeding. They are quite literally the best high that never ends. But many of the Others and most Clan burn out quickly, some over a year or so, but sometimes in a matter of days. Those who burn out quickly tend to become human, but those who take a bit longer appear to use all of their strength holding onto those last pieces of themselves, and they die. So, in answer to your question,” Damon added looking to Devon, “they either die or become human.”
“Human? That doesn’t make sense,” Devon started, shaking his head. “Humans are separate from Others and Clan members. Humans can’t become Clan or Other unless mated, and the only way a Clan member can become human is if they mate to a human. That’s rare, though, and that never happens to an Other. And Other can only take on human characteristics if they’re half human, like you, Eire. If not, and they’re full Other, it’s not possible even when they mate with a human. The Darkness doesn’t allow it.”
Devon knew his Clan history. Nicky would give him that.
“So, Matt would have died if he’d stayed?” Alexia asked, stepping closer to the jaguar.
Damon nodded. “Nessa wouldn’t have been able to stop. She would have been as addicted to him as he was to her. She would have fed until he had no more emotion left to give her.”
“And where is Nessa now?” Devon asked. “You said a Fae was committing these murders. Could she be behind these murders?”
“She had a slave,” Damon said, moving his steady gaze around the group. “Slaves have only one purpose for the Fae, to provide that emotion, so the Fae can stay on this plane. These slaves are called Feeders. Nessa’s slave was a Luna. Captured at seventeen and sold to her. An adventurer.” Damon’s eyes moved to land on the jaguar. “Her favorite slave, even though she’d been collecting for thousands of years. This Luna Feeder was known to walk the grounds of her castle in the Veil as a large black cat, ever watchful. When the jaguar had been with her for over a decade, he killed her. No one knows how—”
“Because what Damon is neglecting to say is that Matt shouldn’t have been able to kill her,” Eire cut in, giving Matt’s jaguar a strange look. “The problem with feeding is that, just like mating, there’s a bond between a Fae and their slave. They become addicted to each other, and the feeder’s addiction is what we call Fae touched. Even death does not change this.” Eire’s look did not waver from the jaguar, whose gaze met her own, and Nicky felt the strong urge to stand between them.
“But the reason Nessa’s story is important, other than to give you all background on the Fae,” Damon added, crossing his arms over his chest, “is because the murders are particular to one rare ability.” He gave Eire a nod and she relaxed at Nicky’s side once again, but he could feel her fear like a tangible thing. “Nessa was one of the few Fae who was able to take power. Whereas most Fae just gain a foothold into this plane by feeding on emotion, the rare Fae can actually devour power from their victim. When a Fae devours, they are able to absorb power, taking and taking until there is nothing left but bits and pieces.”
Everyone perked up at that comment. Now they were getting somewhere, Nicky thought.
“Transform back, Matt,” Alexia finally said, moving toward the fire. “So, that’s what’s happening, then? We have a Fae devouring Others?” She took her seated position next to the fire. No one else had moved from their protective stances but that was Alexia. Protective when she needed to be and a lazy she-wolf when she understood the situation didn’t call for violence.
It was Eire who joined her first, and Nicky followed closely behind, taking a seat on the side of the fire where Damon and the others had sat before. “That’s exactly what’s happening,” Eire said, sitting down next to him and getting pulled into the discussion. “In this case, we’ve got Others. When their power is devoured, their soul reaches for the Underworld, and instead collapses and expands in quick succession trying to pass through the Veil, where all souls must pass through. Others are power. They don’t have power. They are the truest form of power, no matter their species. So, what you saw in the woods was those ‘bits and pieces’ that are left after their power is consumed by a Fae who can devour.”
“So, who do you know who can do this?” Danny asked, from where he was still leaning against the tree on the other side of the clearing.
“That’s the thing…” Eire looked at one of the few humans in the group with much more openness than she had anyone else there. “When we say rare, we mean like one in a million. There are no other Fae who can do this.”
“I’ve got to ask,” Kieran said warily as everyone started sitting back down around the fire. “What about your father? Could he have done this?”
“No,” Eire said, her expression closed, shaking her head. “No. Lochlan Trappe, despite his arrogance, doesn’t have that kind of power.”
“So, we’re left with another unknown in the game, or the fact that maybe Nessa didn’t die,” Devon concluded.
“Which isn’t possible,” Matt said as he put on sweats and stood next to his mate. Damon and Kieran were by their side as well. “I killed her. Used a yew tree wrapped in iron and ore and drove it through her heart. She couldn’t have survived that.”
Iron and Ore.
Nicky smil
ed slightly at the comment he’d overheard Eire make that morning when she’d greeted Damon. The ice queen definitely had a dark sense of humor.
“The Luna is right,” Eire said, her voice growing distant. She put her hands over the flame, and he wondered if she realized the gesture spoke volumes about her new degree of trust in the group. The Ice Queen was sharing fire with the fucking band of misfits she’d so callously treated as imbeciles that very morning. “I watched her fade.”
“You were the kid,” Matt whispered. “The child Fae.”
“Yeah,” Eire replied, hoarsely. “And you didn’t look familiar until I saw your jaguar, but I remember you now.”
Matt looked her over for a minute and then made eye contact with the others in the group. “She’s not evil,” he said, and he left it at that.
Eire threw the jaguar a look of gratitude, and he nodded his head and smiled at her. And then he did the strangest thing, at least for Matt. He knelt at her side, took her hand, and kissed her cheek. Nicky thought he would feel the need to howl like the wolf he was, but the wolf remained silent at the contact. There was nothing aggressive in Matt’s actions.
Nicky moved in closer to her side to make room for Gem and Matt to sit, and addressed the group. “I think we’ve got enough to go on for now. We need to find a Fae who can devour. I’ll grab Danny tomorrow and head out to Stealth to fill Ginny in—”
“Gimp and I will be coming,” Eire interrupted, her voice verging on excited. Nicky found himself smiling at her slip, but the next words she spoke were in the voice of steel he knew she tried to maintain. “It’s our case.”
“Sure thing,” Nicky replied, unable to hide his smirk. He’d known she’d want in. Then he pointed at Matt and Gem. “You two up for it?”
“The human and the jaguar?” Eire asked. Jesus, it was like she wanted the whole world to hate her. Matt didn’t look offended, though. On the contrary, he looked entertained. Two psychos from the same white-padded room.
Rage Against the Devil (Wild Beasts Series Book 2) Page 10