August watched with a mixture of horror and resignation as the change began. The beautiful cerulean blue in her mother’s eyes began fading, transforming to amber. The pupils became slits as the glamourie dissolved, and the salamander traits of the fire fae appeared. “You dare ssspeak to me like thisss? In front of her?” She jabbed her thumb at August. Johan screamed as her grip on his hair tightened and she banged him against the bars of his cage. Released, the young man slumped to the thin mattress on the floor.
Duvessa began to hum. And August was not surprised when Kruger fell forward onto the table with an “Ooof.” A variety of objects tipped over. Some rolled off the table and clattered onto the concrete floor.
She was more surprised when Kruger’s belt undid itself and his pants and boxer shorts fell down to reveal a gym-toned butt.
A whip that lay among the clutter jumped from the table into Duvessa’s hand. As Kruger bent to pull his trousers back up, Duvessa struck him hard across his still-bare ass. The blow must have stung —he cried out. A thin pink line appeared.
“Duvessa!” Kruger called out her name in agony.
August couldn’t tell if Kruger was chastising her mother or if he was aroused. She feared the latter. Duvessa lifted her arm, and August hid her face behind her hands so she could only hear the thwack of the whip.
Twenty thwacks, twenty screams.
“Duvessa, Duvessa.” He was pleading now, begging, crying. Were the tears from pain? Or from loss of dignity? Duvessa wore her TV-presenter smile again. The whip clattered to the floor.
“So. Tell me your plan, Hendrik. Tell me how we work this sex-magic.”
Kruger breathed heavily. “I…I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Forget that. Tell me the plan.”
“Well… We’ll prepare the three of them. Get them ready for the sex-magic.” “How?”
Kruger leaned back against the desk, sweat beading on his brow. August averted her gaze quickly at the sight of his erection.
“We want to do this properly so that the magic really works this time. So, we can tap into the mysterious power these people have. You know there are certain objects that can be placed around the participants so that…”
“Yes. Yes. We saw Arlan line up all those little trinkets.” Duvessa sneered. “It didn’t work.”
“We’ve figured out at least part of the issue is that Jay Nandoro isn’t pure of heart. He’s a cynical type with some kind of chip on his shoulder, so that was some of the problem. Another problem might be that—”
“Why not just get on with it? Have them mate in the cages right here.”
August gasped, bile rising in her throat. This would be rape, and her mother involved. It was grotesque.
“Um, no. No, that wouldn’t work at all.” Kruger sounded hesitant, but his words gained in strength. “I think they must be properly groomed first, oiled, their fingernails cleaned and trimmed, that kind of thing. I’m sure that would help.”
Silence.
August didn’t want to see her mother’s face, and when she did, she wished she hadn’t. Glimpsing the serpent’s face beneath the glamourie had always scared the hell out of her, always made the black dog of depression return. It sat heavy on her chest. The sensation felt like all hope had left the world.
Chapter Twenty
Anger and adrenaline soared. Jay touched his chest. Blood seeped from the gash the thug had managed to make even as he jumped aside. It was only a slash, but it still stung like a motherfucker.
The fae humming began in his throat before he’d even made a conscious choice to try magic. Tendrils of silver and blue appeared at his feet, coming out of his toes. Wow, he’d never had magic seep from his toes before.
His hand was behind his back, bent painfully by one thug, but as he concentrated, light poured out from his fingertips He focused on a pool ball behind him that he could no longer see. Jay fought to concentrate. With his mental powers and his magic, he hurled the ball at the third man, the short one, as hard as he possibly could. The orange ball with the number five on it went sailing over his head, careening through the air.
SMACK.
The pool ball hit the man straight between the eyes. Blood streamed from the round wound, making him look like some three-eyed monster from a horror film. One of the thugs let go of his arm in shock, and Jay drove his elbow backward into the guy’s gut. The other creep grappled with him, not about to let go.
Jay took a deep breath, shaken by the use of a kind of magic he’d not tried since childhood. It still fucking scared him to use it for anything. Images of his mother flashed through his mind—playing with her, drawing with her, singing with her, doing culinary magic with her. Her lying blank-faced in a hospital ward. The memories randomly flashed in his mind while he grappled with the swearing, grunting jerk.
Jay blinked, and clenched his fists, humming louder than before.
Indigo light flashed in diagonal streaks. A pool cue slid across the table and smacked its edge, then rose through the air to press across the man’s neck. The man fell silent, his face a mask of shock and terror. He let go of Jay to use both hands to try to pull the stubborn cue from across his neck. Crowds had formed around the bleeding man. Few had noticed the pool cue’s animation.
One man had, though.
“Witch! Monster!” The accusation was one of whispered horror. It was the fat bartender, his face purple. “Get out of my pub. Fiend! Witch! Monster!”
Jay glanced around at the dozens of witnesses, but it was a pub. He could claim they were all drunk. Most of them were staring at the slumped and bleeding men, not at him, anyway.
The pub owner raised his voice and shook his fist. “Get out, get out.”
Jay pushed the doctor ahead of him, past several gawkers and out the front door. Footsteps pounded behind them. As they ran down the street, Jay still heard someone behind him. He didn’t want any more trouble. His brain split with headache pain. Already nauseated, he didn’t want to use anymore magic and he didn’t want to fight.
He whispered, “Run,” in the doctor’s ear, and he and the doctor started pounding the pavement. Jay sent up a prayer of thanks that he’d worn his Nikes. After several blocks, the doctor was panting and whimpering in pain.
His hand!
Jay rounded the corner and swore. He stopped and leaned back against a brick wall, looking left and right. Whoever had been following them wasn’t there now. Dr. Tongai moaned again, and Jay cringed at the memory of the sound of cartilage popping in the doctor’s hand. He’d momentarily forgotten how much pain he must be in.
Jay touched the pocket of his shirt, which was still sticky with blood from where the thug had cut him and sighed. “I don’t even have my phone. How bad is your hand?”
“I’m in pain, Jay. A lot.”
The older man’s complexion had a green tinge. He looked like he might vomit from the pain. “Do you have a cell phone on you? We could call a taxi or a doctor.”
Tongai shook his head. “Battery is dead.”
Jay swore again. The last thing in the world he wanted to do was healing magic. The magic that had put his mother in a coma. But she had been trying to heal his father’s vital organs. This was just a crushed hand.
Dr. Tongai held the first aid kit out to him. “Good job grabbing that thing before we left, but I think you know as well as I do that nothing in there is going to fix this.”
“Bloody fuck!” Tongai nodded and moaned again. “Give me your hand.”
Tongai dropped the case. “Why?”
“Just do it.”
Dr. Tongai held out his arm. Jay grasped the doctor’s hand and began to hum and then sing in fae, remembering his mother, remembering how she’d done it when he’d twisted his ankle as a kid. He held the old man’s hand up to his mouth, breathing warmth on it, the threads of healing spiraling in his mind. Beneath his fingers, the magic swirled, the cartilage healed, the damaged hand became strong.
Tongai panted hard and fast. “What th
e fuck? What did you do?” He flexed his healing hand. “More magic. All that shit that went on in the pub? Holy crap, I always thought all that half-fae nonsense was just a bunch of kooky people running around being weird. Just some delusional fringe group.” “Did you think you imagined what happened in the pub?”
“I thought I was maybe losing my mind from a combination of alcohol and pain. I thought I was hallucinating.
Jay leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes to fight dizziness and nausea. Maybe it was finally time to break it off with Arlan once and for all. Their love was far too dangerous in this country. He couldn’t live with himself if some dudes like that attacked Arlan, or August somehow got hurt.
Chapter Twenty-One
When August awoke, she glanced down at her palm, where she still clutched some strands of hair. Rather than give in to the depression, she’d decided to try to braid some strands of her hair into a thread. If she had a few threads, she could make a cord, perhaps use it as a weapon against Kruger or whoever might open the door of her cage. It was better than just lying there being depressed.
But she had drunk from the bottle attached to the side of her cage. And the damn thing must have had a sleeping draught in it, or, more likely, more fucking dark dust. Her mouth felt like it had been stuffed with cotton. She remembered feeling so dizzy that her arms and legs had stopped working, and she hadn’t even been able to get her eyes to focus. Now they felt gritty.
She fought against the remaining stranglehold of the drug, struggling to wake properly. Gradually, she became aware that she wasn’t where she’d expected to be. She was lying on a towel. Her fingers splayed on…smooth wood. Not the thin mattress. Wherever she was, it wasn’t her cage.
It was very hot in here, and the scent of steam and soap and lavender filled her nose. She opened her eyes fully. Steam floated all around her. Music came from another room, but no other sounds indicated people nearby. She ran her hands down her slick body. She was oiled—and completely naked. Her pulse took a sharp upswing as adrenaline surged.
She swung herself into a sitting position and brought her wrist to her nose. Someone had slicked up her naked body with a lavender-scented body oil. Her heart pumped with a ragged fierceness that scared her. Her turquoise pendant still hung between her breasts. She clutched it, felt its smooth surface and took deep calming breaths.
Someone pushed through the plastic strips that hung down as a curtain blocking off this steam room. August gasped.
Kruger.
Frantically, she stood up, grabbing the towel to cover herself.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Kruger whispered as though to a frightened animal. “I’m not here to hurt you, August.” Even as he said it, he glanced down to her breasts.
August tightened her grip on the towel wrapped around her. Anger helped her brain to awaken and become more alert. “Where am I?”
“Your mother is renting this place from some very wealthy half-fae. You’re in their private gym and exercise area. This is the steam room.”
A sense of excitement flooded her, even with the dreaded Kruger here. She wasn’t in the cage anymore. She glanced around the steam room, but there was no way to dash past Kruger. He would catch her. “But why? Why am I here?”
“Listen, August, I told your mother all that garbage about how we had to get you looking beautiful, oiled, scented and perfect for the sex magic. I did that for precisely this purpose.” He seemed pleased with himself.
August wasn’t sure she understood his change of heart, but then she remembered Duvessa beating his ass with the crop.
She humiliated him. That’s why he’s changed his mind. Her aggressive dominance with him backfired. He no longer admires her.
“Two half-fae women trimmed your nails and everything in preparation. They’ve gone out to for a bite to eat now.”
“What are you saying?”
“This is your chance to escape, August.”
“Oh my God!” She clutched the towel to her chest. “Thankyou. Thankyou. Won’t she…”
“Kill me? For helping you escape? Your mother is a demon from hell, but I think I can outsmart the dark-fae witch.” Kruger’s eyes were cold stones in the steam. “She’ll never know I had a hand in it, as long as you don’t do anything stupid now. So, don’t waste time. Get moving.”
August stared at him. “Um… I’m naked.”
Kruger threw up his hands. “Hold on.” He pushed through the plastic strips and left again. Her heart continued to thump painfully. In a few minutes, he returned with shoes and a tote bag and a red velvet dress that was way too big.
She held it against her body. “This is my mother’s dress. And those aren’t my shoes either. I don’t know whose shoes those are.”
“They took your clothes away for cleaning. I have no idea where they are. This is what I could find.”
She realized she was being ungrateful. Kruger was putting himself at considerable risk. “Thank you.” She pulled the dress on over her towel, ignoring his obvious disappointment, as his gaze still lingered on her chest.
“And take this. It’s going to get dark soon.” He handed her a flashlight, which she put in her tote. “Thank you again.”
“I’m out of here. There’s no way I’m getting caught by your mother. You’ll have to fend for yourself now.”
“Well… Wait… What about Arlan, where is he?” She bent to put the shoes on. They had a slight heel but they actually fit. Perhaps they belonged to a maid or something.
When she stood up again, he was gone. She yanked the towel out from underneath her dress and sighed inwardly.
Pushing through the plastic strip curtain, she found herself in an impressive, well-equipped gym area. An enormous flat-screen TV was set to some rock video channel. She scanned the room frantically. Some of her gratitude to Kruger evaporated as she realized the coward had scampered away and wasn’t going to give her one more iota of help. Her gaze alighted on some small handheld weights. Just the metal bar without the weight could make a decent weapon.
She’d never been one for small handbags. The tote bag was just big enough that it would hold the little metal bar. She slipped it inside. Spying a drinking fountain, she went and drank. Even if it slowed her down, she needed water. It felt like heaven to her dry throat and mouth. Even as she drank, she turned her head to the side to survey the room, her ears on alert, vigilant for any sound, sick with the fear they’d come back too soon.
She wiped her mouth and scanned the area. There were three doors, and she had no clue which way Kruger had gone or what the safest way out was. Taking a gamble, she grabbed the handle of the first door and headed down the corridor. Glancing up at the wall, she saw a portrait. She did a double-take. Her jaw fell open as cold settled in her belly. The portrait was of a handsome young couple. The older man looked so much like Ryan Garrison, it could have been his father.
She shook her head. Impossible.
She couldn’t be wasting time on nonsense like this. She gazed down the end of the long hallway to the door.
Just run, you fool.
She hoped her pounding footsteps wouldn’t alert some unknown someone in this colossal mansion.
She reached a big door, a back door. She pushed, but it wouldn’t budge.
Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out.
August pushed harder. The door swung open. In the dimming light, she could make out jacaranda trees, and, in the distance, euphorbia trees. The smell of jasmine hung on the air.
She really had no idea where she was. Leaning against the door, she covered her face. She’d just have to wing it. In the distance, a hippo snorted.
She noticed Kruger’s Land Cruiser parked in a car port.
She ran down a paved pathway through the immaculately tended garden, dodging a spitting water sprinkler. And then she heard it: a car coming up the driveway. A silver Lexus, with her mother at the wheel.
Fear slashed to her heart. She swiveled around and stood staring as Duvessa stopped and cli
mbed out of the car.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Flame Lily All-Night Café was located on Crassula Road in the center of Harare. The interior was decorated with many paintings of the stunning Zimbabwe flower. Jay took another sip of his coffee. “I never had any idea you were…”
Dr. Tongai smirked. “What? A little bit lavender?”
Jay laughed and ran a hand over his shaved head. “Shit, man, a little bit lavender.”
Dr. Tongai put a finger to his lips as the waitress approached. Jay glanced down as the waitress poured more coffee into his cup and placed a warm croissant in front of him. They waited until she walked away, unwilling to risk her hearing their discussion.
“You still live in that big old mansion with your friend?” Dr. Tongai asked. Jay glared at the doctor, daring him to say more. Daring him to make the comparison.
Hell, he didn’t have to make the comparison.
You told him. You told him about Arlan all those years ago, dumbass.
“Yeah, I do.”
The doctor glanced after the waitress. “We need to leave this country, Jay. Zimbabwe is not a safe place for us to be. It’s not worth it.”
“Who is we? Who is us?”
“Steven and I, you and me? This is not a safe country for our kind.”
“What do you mean, our kind?”
“You know what I mean, Jay.”
In his mind’s eye, he saw Arlan in his lion form, running across the savannah, his coat a blaze of glorious gold. “It’s just not that simple for us, for me.”
“Arlan doesn’t want to leave?” Jay bit his lip. “Something like that.”
“Steven and I are leaving. He got a job in New York. You and Arlan could…”
“Shh, for fuck’s sake!” Jay began humming a protection spell very low. It was the easiest, most invisible magic he knew.
This kind of spell couldn’t protect you once people had noticed and locked their attention on you. It was only good at hiding what people hadn’t noticed yet. It would misdirect people’s attention, distracting them.
Claimed by Fae_MMF Paranormal Romance Page 18