by May Dawson
They whirled by, faster and faster, and as they whirled past, I caught a glimpse of her pointed teeth in her smile, gleaming. His blond hair was tangled and sweaty as it fell across his face, but he didn’t seem to notice. His mouth was open too, laughing.
Another Fae woman led Chase out onto the dance floor, flashing him a smile over her shoulder, as predatorial as a spider, and I knew.
I didn’t know what they’d done to us or how to stop it, but the Fae had enchanted us. Memories of an ancient practice I’d read about—the Fae blood rite, a party where they murdered giddy humans for sport—rose in my mind. The Fae had supposedly stopped doing that long ago.
The memory of Fenig facing down Turic rose in my mind. She’d saved our lives by saying we’d fulfilled the old laws—just as he commanded. He wanted to go back to old ways.
I straightened from the wall, looking frantically for someone else who was still clear-eyed. I looked, too, for Raura and Arlen and Lake, but they all seemed to have disappeared.
I saw only Tess, across the dance floor, watching the dancing with a miserable look written across her face. Then her gaze met mine, and her face changed as if a mask had snapped into place. She raised her glass to me, flashing me a look of challenge.
An unfriendly world. Enchanted wine. A room full of Fae who wanted us dead.
We were well and truly fucked.
“Relax,” Silas said into my ear, his voice low and cool. He leaned against the wall beside me, and I relaxed back into it too. He gripped a goblet of wine between his long, slender fingers.
“Don’t drink it,” I warned him.
“It doesn’t do much for me,” he admitted. “You forget I’m not from your world.”
“I never forget that, Silas.” As soon as I said the words, I knew I shouldn’t have, but only the faintest flicker in his eyes indicated he’d even heard me. I forged on, “How do we get them sobered up and out of here?”
“We have to get them off the dance floor,” he said, nodding to where Chase and Penn danced past, their movements graceful as the Fae’s but so fast they were a blur. Chase’s smile looked almost like a rictus mask now as if he couldn’t stop his lips from being peeled back from his teeth. “They’ll just keep dancing until…”
“It’s the blood rite,” I said. I cursed. “Fenig said we’d be safe—that we’d satisfied the law when I fought—”
I’d thought she was protecting us.
“I don’t see her at the moment, whether she had good intentions or not. And I really don’t think Turic likes you.” He clasped my shoulder, leaning in closer. “Pretend I’m saying something hilarious.”
“You are. Everyone likes me.”
“Actually, for the past several months, you’ve been driving us all crazy, but maybe I can’t talk. Rafe and Maddie are safely fucking each other’s brains out thinking no one is noticing, so they should be safe for now. You get Penn, I’ll get Chase. We’ll lock them up in the cells. Thoughtful of the Fae to give us cells in the first place.”
I turned to him with a fake smile plastered across my lips, hoping people would buy we were gossiping in whispers. “There’s a long way between here and there.”
And a lot of murderous Fae along the way.
“If you have a better idea, I’m not particularly attached to this one.”
I thought for a second, but shook my head. “I just don’t think those scary women are going to like it if we take away their playthings.”
“You’re right. We’ll have to give them something better,” Silas said.
“What?”
“You, Fae-blood, Shifter-blood. They might think you’re trash, but you’re new trash, and they live far too long. They get bored.”
My lips parted, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about, as he dragged me into the whirl of dancers.
Bodies pressed against me, hands waving in the air, caressing my face, stroking my skin. The first time, I jolted away, but then I remembered my mission and I fixed a faint, tolerant smile across my lips. I’d sacrifice myself to get our friends off the dance floor.
“Dance, keep your head, I’ll be back,” he muttered.
I gave him a look that should technically have caused his immediate death by immolation, but he gave me a thumbs-up instead.
“Can I cut in?” I tried to ask Penn and the Fae, but they whirled past me so quickly that I couldn’t get him away. One second, I saw her beautiful face, smiling and shining up at him; the next, for just a split second, I saw the face of a monster.
“Be aggressive, I know you’re good at that.” Silas said to me through a gritted smile.
So as Chase and the girl whirled past, I grabbed the Fae around her narrow waist and reeled her against my body. Chase came toward me, and then Silas grabbed him, muttering words in his ear until Chase paused obediently.
“The fallout from tonight’s going to be something,” I told Silas as the Fae in my arms hissed at me, a hint of a forked tongue glistening between her lips. I reeled her tighter against my body, picking up the tune as well as I could, leaving Silas and Chase standing in the center of the dance floor. Her body relaxed against mine, into the music.
“Yes it is,” Silas said, that dreamy liar’s smile fixed across his face. I knew him better than that. He looked transfixed by the music, lost to the enchantment itself, and yet, nothing touched Silas. Not truly.
Except, maybe, for Maddie…
The thought wriggled under my skin, but I had to turn all my focus on the dancers. I needed to stop the momentum of the dance, long enough to peel the other dancer off Penn. I wouldn’t be the only male who danced with two females tonight—there were all kinds of pairings whirling across the dance floor.
“Why did you insist on dancing with me, Fae-blood?” She purred into my ear, and I felt the slick tip of her tongue flick into my ear.
I suppressed a shudder. It was time to turn on the charm—I remembered how to do that, didn’t I?
“These men are like my brothers,” I said. “Anything they have, I want too. Especially when that anything is so lovely.”
She laughed at that, a peel of laughter that was disarmingly human. If I hadn’t seen her face…
“I see. Do you want my sister, too?”
I followed her gaze to where Penn and the other Fae reeled around the room. Penn’s face was flushed, his eyes wide, and my heart beat faster, even though he didn’t have the sense to be afraid right now. “I do, in fact.”
“Do you think you could manage us both?”
I stroked my hand down her body, and she exhaled against my throat.
“You don’t know what a shifter from my world can do,” I told her, my voice low and throaty.
She laughed.
As we came to the briefest pause between songs, she caught her sister’s arm, and then the music rose again in a fierce, relentless tune.
Penn looked lost, then furious, but Silas was there. I danced on with the two girls, watching from the corner of my eye as Silas ushered Chase and Penn out. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw them clear the room.
I took a few spins around the dance floor with the sisters, ignoring the feel of their tongues as they lapped against my throat. Jesus. Would Maddie understand everything that was happening tonight?
Then—god help me—Lex and Jensen walked back into the ballroom.
I saw a few Fae ladies heading toward them, and I practically shoved my dance partners away in the rush to get to them first.
Fae ladies draped themselves over my friends, smiling and cooing to them. Lex and Jensen pushed them away, but their eyes were glazed. The ladies took their hands to pull them onto the dance floor.
I said the only thing I knew would break through the haze of strange magic. “Maddie needs you.”
I could try to stow them away until Silas got back here and we could get all five of them safely up to the rooms.
Fuck my life. I pushed the two of them toward the hidden chamber where I knew Madd
ie and Rafe had disappeared.
“Entertain each other,” I barked.
I turned to face a room full of hostile Fae. Sharp teeth flashed at me from beautiful faces.
Terrific.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Maddie
I was up against the wall, my arm twined around Rafe’s neck, my thighs locked around his waist. My mouth was on his neck, my teeth leaving little circle indentations across his skin that were mesmerizing to me, even though he smacked my ass sharply every time I bit him. That was not a discouragement.
Then the curtain was abruptly yanked aside. I jumped, and Rafe whirled, clutching me tight to his body, straightening, ready for a fight.
But it was Lex, then Jensen, who stepped into the room.
“Tyson said you needed us,” Lex said. His gaze locked on mine.
“Always,” I said, my voice husky with desire.
Rafe set me down on shaky legs, and the shimmering material of my skirt fell around my legs again. He steadied me as I turned toward Lex and Jensen.
“I miss you when you’re not with me,” I whispered to Jensen, just before he wrapped me up in his arms.
I ran my hands through his hair, kissing him greedily, my thighs closing around his waist and my ankles locking together at the small of his lower back. I feel the curve of his taut ass shifting back and forth against my heels.
“I’m right here,” he said, smiling down at me. But I knew he felt the same way because he was the one who always had to be near me.
I wrapped my arm around his neck and pressed a kiss to his lips. He tasted like that sweet wine, and he bent me back, kissing me back, until a giggle rose to my lips.
Jensen pulled me back to my feet easily with his hand pressing against my lower back. Then Lex was behind me, the two of them pressing devouring kisses to my throat and bare shoulders.
“I want to watch the three of you,” Rafe said. His trousers were still slack around his hips, and he drew his cock out as he sat down on that bench.
He began to give the three of us orders that we were more than happy to follow. I enjoyed watching Lex and Jensen, and I enjoyed watching Rafe draw his hand up and down his big shaft, his eyelids growing heavy-lidded.
Tyson stepped into the room, and the four of us stilled, then went back to what we were doing.
He took in the scene and said, “Jesus, I can’t leave you guys alone for a minute.”
“You can join us,” I promise him, beckoning him over with a finger.
“Cute, but you’re all wasted,” he said.
“I had one glass of wine,” Rafe said, holding up one finger on his free hand.
“You are legit never going to get over this,” Tyson told him. He moved to the curtain and looked out.
Raura slipped in a second later. Rafe growled and stood, shoving himself back inside his trousers, and Lex moved to block me from her with his body.
“I’m friendly,” she said. She told Tyson, “Keep a lookout. I can fix this.”
“Please do,” he muttered. “I don’t know what’s taking Silas so long, but I need to go find him…”
Tension was written across Tyson’s face. I could fix that, and I headed across the floor to run my hands across his abs through his shirt. He smiled faintly, but gathered my wrists in one hand, still leaning against the doorway to look through the curtains.
“I’m not wasted.” His voice carried none of the heat and desire I would’ve expected when he pinned my wrists, and irritation—and worse, embarrassment—flamed through my chest. He was not being any fun. More gently, he said, “This isn’t my party.”
“After the way you hurt me the past few months, you should be glad to be welcomed to the party.” My voice came out as sharp as a wake-up call, and it cut through my pleasant, dreamy haze. I’d meant to sound glib, and I was suddenly far too aware of all the little movements of my face, of my forehead creasing and my lips pressing together into a pout.
“I’m very sorry about that,” he said, still devastatingly level, “and I’m happy to talk about it when you’re not… like this.”
“Like what, Ty?”
“Under the influence of some kind of weird Fae magic that turns you into a sex goddess, apparently.”
“She’s always a sex goddess,” Jensen said.
“Ohh.” Raura turned to look at Tyson and me over her shoulder. “You two aren’t mates? Or you… aren’t the only mates?”
“They’re all mine,” I said proudly, just before Tyson’s palm found my lips. I bit him, and he yanked away, but then I pressed against him, my lips seeking the stubble of the five o’clock shadow across his jaw.
“Lucky girl,” Raura said with a smile. “And I can’t get myself one male.”
“Oh, Arlen and Lake both love you, Huntress,” I said, then frowned, just before she did.
“Did Silas tell you?” she hissed. Her face had changed, her eyes widening.
“I just… knew,” I said.
“Uninhibited Maddie is terrifying,” Tyson muttered.
I tried to run my hands across his chest again, and he shook his head, a faint smile crossing his lips. He gathered my wrists in one hand and twisted, pinning my hands up above my head. I smiled up at him—I always liked this game—but his big body didn’t sway against mine. He just held me there, affection lighting his eyes, no matter what I said to him.
Raura drew the pins out of her hair, and her long curls cascaded down her back.
“She’s so pretty,” I said to Tyson. To her, I said, “I don’t think Arlen or Lake are blind, sister.”
She shook her head in disbelief, but some of her tension had relaxed. “Listen, Maddie, you keep my secret, and I’ll keep yours. Turic needs to believe you’re mated to Tyson—his Fae-blood protects him to some extent, and that protection extends to you as his mate.”
“That’s great,” Tyson said, his voice harsh, “but what does that mean for the rest of our friends? Who are neither Fae-blood or my mates?”
“Relax,” she said. “Fenig is on your side. You’ll be safe long enough to get out of our world, while we stay here and fight the monsters.”
“It’s not the monsters that worry me.”
“The ones out there?” she asked, her brows rising. “Those aren’t the ones that scare me, either.”
She slashed the edge of her hair pin across her palm, and she barely even winced as blood seeped up through the cut.
“It’s Fae blood magic that enchanted the wine,” she said, “and I’ve got the same blood running through my veins.”
She smeared her bloodied wrist across Rafe’s lips before he could jerk back. He yanked away so hard that he fell over the back of the bench, tumbling to the stone floor.
He scrambled up, his eyes wide, his dark hair wild. “You’ve got be fucking kidding me.”
“And he’s back,” Tyson muttered.
Rafe looked horrified.
“Not my thing,” Jensen said, raising his hands as Raura approached him. “I’m a one-woman kind of guy.”
“Shut up and let her cure the enchantment,” Rafe snapped. “She’s not coming on to you.”
Raura glanced at Rafe over her shoulder, her expression mischievous with Jensen’s taut torso in front of her. “Well…”
“Just do it,” Rafe snapped.
Jensen flatted himself against the wall subtly as she pressed her blood-streaked, narrow wrist to his lips.
Then he looked around and said, “Oh shit.”
“Welcome back,” Tyson said. “Sorry. It was probably better in your temporarily fucked-up version of the world than this reality.”
When the curtain moved, Rafe’s posture shifted into an aggressive stance, and Raura hurried to mark Lex.
But it was Silas who ducked in. With his hair covering his ears, he could’ve been Fae. He was so good at blending into any world.
“I miss your Echo face sometimes,” I told him, yanking my wrists away from Tyson.
Surprised, Silas str
etched out an arm and folded me into his side. I wrapped my arms around his lean waist, breathing in the scent of him that I loved so much. “I even miss the way you were so mean to me,” I confided.
“Excuse me?” Lex asked.
“Oh come on, you all know—at least a little—how mean Rafe is to me, and you know I like it, so you don’t get all weird and protective,” I said. I wished that they wouldn’t be weird. Of course I loved Silas in every form he took.
Raura said, “Shh,” very softly to me, suddenly right in front of my face.
“You’re so graceful, it makes me miss my wolf even more,” I said, right before she smeared her bloodied wrist across my lips. I tasted the coppery tang of her, and it was nice, and then it suddenly wasn’t.
I resisted the urge to spit the blood out onto the floor, pressing a hand over my lips as I stared at her in disgust. The last few hours flooded back to me, but this time, colored with shame.
“Who did this to us?” I demanded.
“My father,” she said. “I think we need to get you all out of here. Tonight.”
“Your father?” I demanded.
She bit her lower lip as if she wanted to hold the words back, then confessed, “Turic. Turic is my father.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Tyson
“I can go through the wards on the ramparts and get you down,” Raura said. “It’ll just take me time to fly each of you down.”
“You can break through Turic’s wards because you share his blood, his magic. That’s why you were able to come see me,” Silas said, and I couldn’t help but give him a sharp glance.
He seemed to have developed a quick friendship with Raura. That was fine, if it was just a friendship. But if it was more…
Silas’s gaze flickered to mine, but he didn’t bother to explain. There was no time, and I knew that, but it still bothered me.