Julia's hands popped onto her hips, ignoring the introduction entirely. “Here's the thing.” They looked at her with surprise and curiosity. “Cormack. I'm kinda done being abducted by every group on the planet.” Julia put her finger to her chin, rolling her eyes up to the ceiling. “Actually, I'd like to know if there's any other group I need to know about because I'm all ears.”
“I was not told she was rebellious,” Cormack admitted, flustered.
Julia was glad to see it. She wasn't in the business of playing nice when she was kidnapped. It usually ended badly and it looked like Cormack wasn't used to being dismissed.
Tharell hid a smile at the assertive Singer's comment and Domi grinned outright. “We only know how she was before the initial abduction... this,” Domi palm-swept her body, “is not what our human intel gave us.”
“The last two years of being kidnapped and held prisoner will change a girl.” Julia stared at them. If they knew so damn much, they should certainly know about what she'd been through. The fey knew where to find her and went through a lot of deceit and preparation to get her.
Tharell laughed, a deep rumbling sound like a loud purr and Julia jumped at the sound. It was like velvet on the air. “Precious!” Tharell said, grinning.
Cormack scowled at him and Julia took notice again of all the problems within the group. If she could find a weakness, Julia would use it. Being part of the Singer mess was preferable to this unknown. Anything was.
“Why am I here?” Tharell's grin remained and Julia smacked her captor in the arm and it was like hitting stone. Tharell's grin widened, his teeth a white slash in his face. “You mean to hurt me, little one?”
“Hell yes!” she stomped her foot. Yeah, childish. Julia didn't care. “You pretended to be some long lost sister, and made everyone fall asleep. That was a chode move.”
“Chode?” Domi asked.
“Dick head,” Julia responded. “Actually, it's a great 'all-encompassing' term. Chump, dick hole, putz, butt munch, douche...”
“Ah, your American slang, so charming,” Cormack said. She could tell he was less than amused.
Screw him and the horse he rode in on. Julia wanted to go home. Even if it was ten shades of screwed up and dysfunctional, it was hers.
Tharell put his large hands on her shoulders and gave her one hard, brisk shake, his humor gone. “You will come before our Queen and she will dispel this notion of returning that you have. There is no return from the Unseelie fey.” His bright eyes gazed into hers. “And the Queen is less... inclined to humor than the three of us.”
His eyes were no longer kind... but weary.
And he thought they had a great sense of humor? This Queen must be a laugh a minute and that made Julia began to feel frantic. She pivoted, trying to go back the way she assumed they came and dove into a thicket of thorns. They pierced her flesh and Julia yelped at the thorns as they set into her body. “Ah!” Julia shrieked as the fey warriors waded into the branches. Julia twisted in the thorny-filled arms of the plants and watched them whip and tear at the men as they came for her. Bloody mouths from the wounds of the thorns opened on their arms, legs... faces.
They were trying to get to her and the thorns were trying to keep her.
As soon as Tharell touched her the branches lifted, but continued to wrap the other warriors, the long branches bending to become vines around the limbs of the warriors.
“Stop!” Julia moaned in a voice laced in pain and fear, a command she was unaware of held within her voice. The branches shivered at the word, carefully lifting out of her skin and she slumped into Tharell's arms, relieved. Julia watched as they tore holes out of the other men without any of the care they'd given her.
“I am Tharell,” he said above her ear and Julia could only nod as she watched the macabre scene play out in front of her.
“Get me out of here,” she whispered.
Tharell lifted her easily out of the nest of thorns, their tips soaked in the blood of the fey, and the purest blood of all. Ultimately, it was the Rare One's blood that had quieted the sentry of thorns.
The briar could not be subdued except by blood.
Tharell had a thrill that hummed in his bones. He had not believed that the Rare One would revitalize his people.
But the briar as the Unseelie's first defense was formidable indeed. If they had not been here to capture Julia Caldwell, she could have commanded her escape and the thorns would have bowed to her.
Her blood.
*
Heidi
“Wake,” Trevor whispered anxiously, his lips hovering over those of the Reader. Then, “Please wake,” he begged.
Heidi opened her eyes with a great, whooping inhale and on her next breath she whispered, “Julia.”
Trevor sat back on his ample ass and broke out in a fiery wave of relief. “Thank God.”
Marcus gave a single curt nod and straightened, wondering yet again, if Trevor had been too fine a Deflector. He had kept the Reader's talent so under wraps that she must not have had sufficient time to warn the Region when the fey infiltrated.
“She doesn’t look a thing like Jules,” Cyn reflected.
“Yeah, duh, Cyn,” Jason said and Scott scowled.
“What now?” Scott asked and Marcus looked at the genuine Reader, the only subject he hadn't met. The one he regretted not making acquaintance with. For if he had, Heidi would not have been a stranger to him and he would have known it was deceit when they fey weaved his lies. But who could have presumed the fey were a real entity? No one he'd encountered had ever made mention of the fey except as a bedtime tale.
“Heidi will tell us the outcome and then...”
“You decide what course of action to take,” Manny intuited.
Scott shook his head. “That's a negative pal. Julia is mine. And currently, I'm not getting anything... not a bleep on the screen.”
Jason cleared his throat.
“Buzz off, you don't want her—really,” he responded to Jason's nonverbal grunting.
“Bullshit,” Jason disagreed in a growl.
“Yeah? Well, now that she's been taken, a-fucking-gain, you suddenly want to play ownership? Hero. No. Suck it.”
“How is this helping get Julia back?” William asked quietly. Then, “The fey are formidable, if legend speaks true. What's more... they have a prison of a territory. One must be fey to enter, the tale goes.”
“Shit! Fuck! Shit!” Scott roared into the closed space of the Reader's room. He whirled on William, “How can you be so stupidly calm, drinker?”
William's bald gaze met Scott's. “One of us needs to be. It is not you. And the Were, who claims wedded ties to Julia, cannot decide if he wants to shit or get off the pot.”
Scott blinked at the first crude phrasing he'd ever heard William utter and was left speechless.
William nodded elegantly, in an unpracticed gesture. “Yes, I too can ape like a human thug. However, I generally choose not to. You heard and understood that bit though? Did you not?”
Scott's eyes narrowed on William. “This thug, as you so aptly named me, will see this through to the end. By any means necessary. Do you understand?”
“Yes. I think we do finally understand each other.”
“Well you two dipshits go ahead and talk about whether or not I care about Julia—while I find her,” Jason said. “First come, first serve.”
“Oh?” William arched a perfectly black brow. “And how might you find her with the fey that so brilliantly put us all into a magic-induced coma?”
There was a few seconds pause. “He does not have a ready answer,” Jacqueline pronounced. And Tony, fully healed from the beating from Reagan, smirked at Jacqueline's side.
Cyn groaned, those two.
“Oh... and you do?” Jen asked with disbelief.
“And who among you are fey?” Jacqueline queried. All remained silent. “As I thought.” She laughed, pleased.
“Don't tell us? Your criminal, murdering ass
is fey,” Cyn said in a tone of resignation, flapping her hands on either side of her body in a parody of wings.
Jacqueline made a show of smiling and answered, “I am.”
Adi groaned and Slash grimaced.
“You need me,” Jacqueline stated as fact.
And for once, no one could refute her. It was on the tips of all their tongues, bitter and eager to escape their lips, but they remained silent.
Jacqueline was vile, but oh so necessary.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Queen Darcel
The sickness raged as usual, but Darcel mastered her expression effortlessly, a benefit of her time in the Unseelie court, where emotion was viewed negatively- as a telltale weakness. It would not do to have others see that she was in pain. Darcel had thought she was beyond being distracted by anything. That nothing could cause the pain she weathered to become background to the constant agony.
Darcel was wrong.
The young blood Singer walked in, dwarfed by Darcel's finest guard, the half-breed, Tharell. They were quite the opposite of each other, one dark and one light. It had always pained Darcel that Tharell was not pure Sidhe. For if he had been, he would have been first on her list to call to her bed. As it were, she still might. In secret. Perhaps all of his luscious burgundy skin underneath her hands could make her forget the sickness for a moment.
The girl was beautiful for a human. It must be the Singer blood, Darcel mused. The purest of all bloods. Julia Caldwell was very fair, the hair that fell to her waist was too gold to be platinum and too light to be dishwater blonde. It rode that fine line of hay in color but with such variegated shading it didn't appear lifeless, but teemed with depth and shine. However, it was her eyes that were her most arresting feature, like the spun gold of Cormack's skin with a hint of fine whiskey. Lion's eyes.
Those eyes met her own in a bold and inquisitive stare. Darcel tramped down on her irritation. How dare Julia Caldwell behave as if she were equal to the Queen of the Unseelie? Darcel seethed, but it would do no good. She needed the Rare One. She was not fey and certainly no Sidhe. Yet, that was of little consequence. For the girl possessed the rarest blood to have made an appearance in this last one thousand years.
Darcel rose, the pain of the sudden movement grinding her innards into a churning hot nest of agony, causing her vision narrow to a pinpoint as the girl filled that small focus.
Tharell stilled, the Queen's pain was obvious to him, but not to those who were pure Sidhe. It was a minor talent he had, Discerner. He knew what ailed others. Not always, but usually. He knew what ailed his Queen, though she did not know he was privy. It might have gone quite wrong for him if she had. Tharell saw the way Queen Darcel looked upon the girl.
It would not end well.
It was the Rare One's blood, you see. Her blood would be needed to heal their Queen. And perhaps Julia Caldwell need not be alive for the properties it held to work against the sickness that all Sidhe feared. However much they enjoyed the prestige of their pure royal blood, it was not without cost. The desire of the Sidhe to interbreed for purity sake, had caused some distressing recessive genes to manifest. But in keeping with their need to appear better than all, like gods, those failings of exclusivity were not mentioned. Now their own Queen suffered the disease of worms.
It was a crude nickname, but apt. The worms stood for intestines. A normally immortal being died slowly due to its own lack of genetic diversity. Essentially, her guts were eating themselves. No amount of food nourished her body as the process went wild, never digesting but cannibalizing itself and ignoring outside nourishment. In the human world, they could claim insanity when cousins married cousins. Here, in the Unseelie court, Sidhe were beginning to fall to their choice to stay pure.
At the cost of their own immortality. Tharell knew all this as he released Julia's elbow. He understood her special blood might mean her death. For much would be needed to save the Queen's life.
“Come,” Darcel said and unconsciously brushed a hand across her concave abdomen with a small grimace. The Queen kept a brave face on the turmoil her existence caused her.
Julia looked at Tharell, his hand having just fallen away from her and gazed at the Queen. If she'd been easily impressed with beauty, then she'd be blown away. Because the Queen of the Unseelie fey was easily the most beautiful person Julia had ever seen- not female or male, just person. Or supernatural. Julia thought the Queen was tall but wasn't sure because she stood on a dais, which was by its very nature was raised. She watched as the Queen stepped down to stand in front of her.
Julia looked up, way up. She'd thought the guards were tall, and they were, but the Queen was nearly six feet, she estimated. Everyone towered over her, she was used to it by now.
Her skin was a white so pure it appeared almost gray, like a fine polished marble. And that was not exactly right. If Julia thought about it, it would be like the lightest tone of a gray pearl. Translucent, luminous. Darcel's skin seemed to shine from within. And her eyes matched that ethereal quality, they were a deep but pale green, as if somehow you could drown in them. Like the sea dwelled in those small circles in a face that would have been lovely if it weren't so chilly in its expression.
“So, you are the Rare One?”
Julia almost smiled, thinking of about ten different kinds of smart-ass responses but in the end, with this unknown group, she decided to keep it simple. “Yes.” After all, she had been kidnapped.
“Excellent.” She whirled, looking at the many fey. Julia also looked at each one briefly. They all resembled the queen. Beautiful, artificial... she decided she didn't like the Unseelie court. Julia wasn't much for artifice. It seemed like that's all this place was. It was a great distraction from the obvious: what they wanted from her. Because Julia was sure they did. There wasn't a group yet that hadn't.
“Behold, your new Princess,” Queen Darcel announced and Julia inhaled deeply in shock, looking around for a handy chair so she could sit down and put her head between her knees. Julia was so blown away she didn't have time to be scared.
Tact, Julia, tact, she told herself. “Actually... I'm not really up for the job. And, I'm sort of already a Queen somewhere else. In fact,” Julia held up a finger in her defense. “They're probably freaking out about now that I'm not there. Y'know, that whole, put everyone to sleep and steal me thing has probably made everyone pretty mad.”
One of the beautiful people stood from their posed peacock perches that flooded down and away from the dais. They were all mini-thrones, carved and elegantly appointed and finished in colors which flattered those who sat on them. “Queen Darcel,” called one, her face pinched in irritation, swung away from Julia and landed on him. There was a beat of caged silence then she barked at him, “Speak, Rex.”
“She is a blood Singer.” Julia watched Queen Darcel roll her eyes as if bored. Rex twisted his dandy hat in hands that were so tense his knuckles were colorless. “She is not Sidhe and as such, should not be allowed a seat in the royalty.” Julia thought he was the plainest of all of them. But that was saying something because he was so handsome he hurt to look at. She couldn't believe these people. Oh... fey, she meant. They certainly didn't look human. They had noses, eyes... mouths. But everything about them was so different.
Rainbow people. “That's okay, really,” Julia began, helping the guy. After all, she hadn't signed up for this detail. “Anybody can have the job. I'm needed elsewhere.”
Darcel's head whipped back, her eyes pegging Julia's like a bird catching sight of a delicious fat worm. “You are needed where I tell you,” Darcel said slowly, and in a tone that expected compliance.
She reminded Julia of Jacqueline. Like the world needed two of them? Yeah.
Julia heard Cormack make a low chuckle and she was suddenly tired. Here was another group that wanted her, but only for what they could get from her. Not Julia, just her blood. Of course, very consistent, Julia thought, heaving out a sigh.
Rex the fey stated the obvious
and Julia could have kissed him. “Queen Darcel... please,” he simpered, “the girl does not want to be here, she is not Sidhe, but... a human.”
“Nope. Not really, but go ahead,” Julia said, her shock making her bold with her comments.
Queen Darcel gave a small smile and inclined her head toward Julia. “And the girl makes my point for me, she is not truly human. That means, she can wed any Sidhe she wishes, and the offspring will throw pure. Without any of the... issues that have laid siege to our kind.”
Oh no, Julia was so not cleaning up the fey gene pool. What was with everyone? And she thought the Singers were messed up? Ah—no. Clearly, messed up supernaturals were not exclusive to Singers.
“I think we should hold a vote,” Rex said and Julia did smile then. Nice to know he was so determined to get rid of her foul “human” existence at any cost in that wonderful, scheming way of the fey. She could already see how they operated. Wonderful.
“Rex, Rex,” Queen Darcel shook her head as if chastising him and looked at Cormack. “Cormack, Rex needs a lesson in obedience, talking out of turn and finally, believing he is the sole monarch.” Darcel’s gaze narrowed down on him. “If even for a moment.” Her eyes held his and he looked like a horse startled, primed to bolt. “The Unseelie fey, as you are very well aware, is not a democracy, Rex.”
Rex's eyes flitted to the large and dangerous figure of Cormack.
He licked his suddenly dry lips. “No... Queen Darcel, I thought...”
“You thought you had choice,” she said softly and he smiled in relief that she'd come to her senses.
“Why yes, that's true,” he said, nodding too quickly and Julia's stomach began to churn. Something bad was going to happen, she knew it and didn't have to be a Singer to feel the foreboding tremor in the air.
“But, it is not.” She held out her hand and Cormack put his palm into hers, raising it to his mouth, his golden hair sweeping forward. “I await my Queen's pleasure.”
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