Claimed by Fae_MMF Paranormal Romance

by Lisa Gardiner

  Confused, she glanced down at her necklace and saw that it was glowing. Then she realized she was glowing too. Gasping, she clutched at the necklace.

  My fae magic.

  She had never known, never believed she had this kind of power.

  August turned to face the car and toppled over into the grass, screaming as her flesh tore on the poacher’s wire noose.

  They drove the Land Cruiser right up near the Zambezi. Moonlight danced on the surface of the river. Rather than the Lexus, her mother sat at the wheel of Kruger’s vehicle, bathed in the glow of August’s own magic. She had the door open now. In the backseat sat a large man, someone a lot larger than Kruger.

  Duvessa climbed out of the car, went to the back and opened the trunk to take out a backpack. August struggled to right herself, her heart slamming like an imprisoned bird. She turned her head, determined to face her mother, determined not to cower, and set her lips in a grim line. The man stepped out of the car, and yes, it was him, Willem, a vicious brute of a half-fae. He’d often been around her childhood home, laughing when her mother “punished” her. The man acted as a bodyguard of sorts to Duvessa.

  Dread formed a knot in her belly, but she clenched her jaw and blinked back tears, determined not to give Duvessa anymore satisfaction.

  Her mother looked as flawless as ever in the moonlight, her hair lustrous, her bone structure perfect. August knew it was the fae glamourie her mother used that made her so tall and stunning, yet still she felt a twinge of envy. She muttered a curse as her mother came to stand beside her.

  “You should have known I’d be watching you in my scrying bowl, and I’d catch you sooner or later. I had to change cars for the rough terrain out here.”

  “I hate you.”

  Duvessa rolled her eyes. Then she knelt to examine August’s ankle. She opened the backpack, and to August’s surprise, she took out what looked like a first aid kit. Duvessa opened the kit and took out some bandages. “This isn’t a good time for you to be hating on me, considering you’re caught and bleeding, and I’m the only one here to help you. Ironic that you were caught by a poacher’s snare.”

  “What do you mean ironic?”

  “I mean with all your crazy animal do-gooding and what not.” Duvessa examined the wire noose. “I’m a zoologist, Mother, an academic and wildlife conservationist, working to protect endangered species. You still don’t even understand what I do for a living, do you?”

  “I get what you do.” Her mother grappled around in the large backpack and finally just picked it up and shook it upside down. Some sandwiches wrapped in plastic and a water bottle fell out onto the ground, along with what looked like a makeup case, a wallet and a pair of wire cutters. “Ah there they are.” She picked up the wire cutters. “I came prepared to help free you from this, so don’t do anything silly like start running in the dark again. You’re glowing, for one thing, and Willem has long legs. You won’t stand a chance running from him with your stumpy little legs. He’ll catch you quick.”

  Against her will, tears slid silently down her cheeks.

  Duvessa shook her head. “Why the fuck are you crying and acting like I’m going to kill you?”

  “You tried to kill me once before.”

  “Oh, I did not. Not really. I always knew you had the immortal gene. It was simply a test to make sure, and to kill your pathetic father.”

  “You’re a psychopath.”

  Duvessa stopped cutting and glanced up at August. “That’s a very rude thing to say. And very silly considering it’s a term that relates to mortals.”

  It was on the tip of August’s tongue to apologize, and then she shook herself. Her mother could always twist things and make her feel in the wrong.

  “I am not a psychopath. I’m dark fae. I’m self-interested. It’s the realism necessary to live successfully as a half-fae in the mortal world.” Duvessa went back to cutting the wire. “A trait you lack and would benefit from cultivating.”

  “Just let me go, Mother. I’m not going to fake pretending we have a relationship anymore. Just let me go.”

  Duvessa finished cutting the wire off and put the tool back in her bag, then began to spread cream on August’s wound.

  “Why are you doing that? Tending my wounds so I’ll be pretty for the sex magic? It’s not going to happen. I will not have sex with Johan.”

  Duvessa sighed. “Listen to me. Stop and think a bit. I mean yes, I treated you badly as a child, but it was all for a good reason. Just look at you.” She gestured to the glow. “You have plenty of power and not the sense to use it properly. By damaging your self-esteem, I did my best to keep you from getting involved in all the Warrior of the Light garbage and ruining all my plans for wealth, for this family, for your family… You never approved, yet you had a luxurious childhood.”

  “You provided a luxurious home, when you weren’t torturing me, yes.”

  “You had everything. You had a beautiful bedroom, a spa pool, a tennis court, a swimming pool, a huge entertainment center. I can’t understand why you even left. I didn’t kick you out. You left. And went to live in some shoebox you could afford with your ‘job’. Anyway, I stopped punishing you years ago, so I don’t know why you’re acting so scared of me.” Duvessa wrapped the bandage around August’s ankle and began humming a healing spell.

  The skin under her ankle bandage began to knit itself back together. “Stopped punishing me for what? All I did was study and get good grades. What the hell did I ever deserve to be punished for?”

  “For choosing the light path.”

  “Mother…”

  “No. You listen to me. I was so proud of you when you were tiny. You had so much magic potential, and then you chose to squander it, so I cut it off. You would have ruined me and our family financially, and I would not allow it.”

  The light radiating from August danced on the metal body of the Land Cruiser. She rubbed her temples. As much as she hated to ask Duvessa for help, she needed her mother’s knowledge.

  Duvessa picked up the water bottle and took off the lid, which she dropped in the bag, then took a sip of water. August looked at the package of sandwiches lying on the ground, and her stomach growled. She wondered what kind they were. Her mother put the makeup case, the wallet and sandwiches back in the backpack.

  “Mother, why am I glowing?”

  Her mother pursed her lips and rested her chin on her fist. At last, she shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “It’s some kind of strong magic, obviously. Magic you’ve always possessed but that I suppressed by damaging your self-esteem. But you shouldn’t just be glowing with power like that.” Duvessa’s brow wrinkled. “I’ve seen a glow like that with newborn babies.” She stepped back and observed August critically. “It relates to new things. Something new is occurring. New power is collecting itself.” She shook her head. “Well, hopefully all that power will be useful for the sex-magic.”

  August glanced at Willem. If she ran, they’d catch her, tie her up and throw her in the Land Cruiser. All she could do was try to reason with Duvessa. She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat, trying to find the right words. “Let us go now. Let Arlan go and let me go.” It was all she could think of to say.

  Duvessa folded her arms and pouted. “I don’t understand why you suddenly have a problem with the sex magic. You were happily doing it before you found out it was something your mother wanted you to do. You were more than happy. I saw you face smiling in my scrying bowl.”

  Heat crawled up her neck, and she swore under her breath in exasperation. “Mother, forcing Arlan and me to sleep with Johan would be rape.”

  Duvessa’s mouth suddenly dropped open, and August turned to see what she was staring at. A huge male lion stood glaring, his golden eyes glowing like laser beams in the night. He must have padded his way over to them on velvet-soft paws.

  August knew lions. She had studied them for enough years to know the worst
thing you could do when faced with one was run. The best thing to do was freeze, to stay completely still and wait for the giant beast to decide you weren’t a threat.

  But Duvessa screamed and ran for the car. She leapt into the open boot of the Land Cruiser. The lion crossed the distance to the car in an instant.

  She wondered why her mother wasn’t using magic and realized with relief that terror had frozen her abilities.

  “Back! Get back from me. I’ll use magic on you,” Duvessa threatened.

  Her mother’s legs stuck out of the trunk of the car. August winced as hooked yellow claws ripped into flesh. Duvessa screamed. The lion pulled at her so she fell back out of the car and slammed onto the ground, moaning with pain.

  Then August noticed Willem crawling along the ground. Something shone in his hand. He didn’t have a hunting rifle, but he had a pistol. Shock galvanized her and filled her with a diamond-hard hatred.

  Oh no, you fucking don’t.

  She loved Jay. She loved Arlan. This lion was either one of the beasts she loved or her lover Arlan himself. August carefully slid the metal bar she’d stolen from the gym out of her bag. Duvessa’s screams sounded like shrieks from a horror film, but she couldn’t feel sympathy. When her mother struggled to sit up, the lion placed his giant dinner-plate-size paw on her belly.

  Though her mother had for the most part healed her ankle, residual pain made her wince a little with each cautious step, as she crept up behind Willem, who was gaining on the unsuspecting lion.

  That lion could be Arlan if he’s escaped somehow, and Willem’s going to shoot him.

  Willem crawled on his belly like a snake. August was right behind him. Fury had risen within her in a momentous wave, all the years of being at the mercy of Duvessa and this man, her bodyguard. Years of denied love.

  She brought the metal bar down on Willem’s head. Crack. She felt the jarring impact all the way up her arms, heard the brute’s curse through the rush of blood to her head, and brought the bar down again. Crack. All the years of hating her mother’s minions from the half-fae network filled her with rage. “No, you will not shoot one of the men I love.” Crack. “You creatures will not ruin my life anymore.” She could barely hear the man’s moans over the sound of her own rapid breathing. Crack! “You will not harm me. You will not harm my lover.” Crack.

  All the years, she’d suffered abuse, and no one had helped her, no one had protected her from her mother.

  Willem had ceased moaning and struggling to right himself.

  “For God’s sakes, August, you’ll kill him! Hit the damn lion with that thing. Get him off me,” Duvessa screamed.

  A wave of nausea rolled through August at what she’d done. She shook from head to toe, but she had saved Arlan.

  “Willem’s still breathing. You haven’t killed him. Stop standing there like a little idiot and get this beast off me.”

  The lion cuffed Duvessa’s head and stepped away. He stared into August’s eyes. Duvessa sat in the grass, her back against a tree, tears streaming down her face as she grasped her mauled knee. She muttered, “I’ll get you, you bastard.”

  The dark fae wiped at her tears angrily with her fist. She set her jaw and began humming. Fire rippled across the ground, her mother’s fire-fae power. Her dark magic.

  No, no, no.

  Fire snaked across the ground. Some of the flames looked like blue tongues tasting the grass, until the lion was surrounded by a circular wall of flame on all sides.

  August screamed, but gold sparks flew from Arlan’s coat. His own magic.

  Arlan’s magic fought back, repelling the flames so they only formed a ring around him and didn’t scorch his fur. But the ring of fire seemed enough to trap him where he stood. Duvessa’s humming had changed pitch, and August understood Duvessa was now healing her leg wounds.

  August strode across the grass to get closer to Arlan. But when she got close, the heat became unspeakable, intolerable. “Arlan!” she cried out to him in fear, wondering what she could do to set him free from the circle. She didn’t notice the hands on her until it was too late. She struggled wildly, kicking and screaming. Duvessa, so much taller and stronger, took the thrashing in stride.

  Her mother yanked her hands roughly behind her back and bound them with what felt like cord. August thrashed and kicked, cursing herself. Arlan roared with rage every time he tried to approach the heat, but he couldn’t breach the flames.

  Her mother lifted August, easily carrying her toward the trunk of the car. August looked up. High above her in the distance, a winged figure appeared silhouetted against the moon. She gasped in surprise as the figure began to glow. Instinct made her glance around at Arlan behind her. Yes, he too was surrounded by a haze of gold. All three of them glowed with power, like the pendant around her neck. The pain of craning her neck to look at Arlan made her look back up at Jay. His wings were beautiful. As he powered toward earth, they sparkled with every color of the rainbow. Jay had true-fae wings? That was something her mother had never managed. Duvessa had always been furious that she didn’t possess the power of flight.

  Her mother shrieked as Jay came flying toward her, and August fell upon the grass. Duvessa backed into the Land Cruiser, her hands in front of her. She closed her eyes and began an intense humming.

  Jay dropped to the ground beside August and began to untie her. Seeing the horror on Jay’s face, she turned to glance at what he was looking at. Her gut pitched as her mind struggled to process the sight.

  Behind them stood an enormous salamander, perhaps seven feet tall. The reptilian skin of the beast glowed red like hot coals, its malevolent eyes a shimmering jet black. A peppery musk emanated from the reptile, surrounding them until they all began to splutter and cough. The monster breathed out a torrent of dark dust until their throats burned with pain. And August remembered something just in time.

  “It might be illusionary, false fire magic, Jay. That thing isn’t real. Don’t believe in it, and it won’t kill you.”

  She said it just in time as fire poured out of the creature’s lungs, replacing the illusionary dust. Her mother had enough fire magic to create small fires. She’d burned August in the past. But huge fires like that, and huge salamanders and snakes… No way. Duvessa was only half-fae; it just wasn’t possible. This was an illusion.

  Despite the knowledge, the pain of the heat all but swallowed her whole. She rolled, rolled and rolled to get away, to try to kill the illusionary flames that seared her body.

  Not real, not real, not real.

  When she stopped rolling, glowing red snakes surrounded her.

  Not real, not real, just her mother’s stupid nasty, illusionary magic. “You’re both going to die.” Duvessa laughed.

  “Who’s got the gun, asshole?”

  August whipped around to see Jay had Willem’s pistol. But he had it trained on the snake closest to her and not on her mother. “No, Jay. Focus on her. On her.”

  But Jay seemed frozen with shock at the sight of the reptiles. Gradually the creatures transformed and coalesced into one enormous cobra with a huge wedged-shaped head and a tongue that flickered in and out. The snake’s eyes glowed with the fire power of its fire magic. It reared toward them, breathing more dark dust.

  August’s fingernails made half-moon shapes in the sides of her arms. Every nerve in her body thrilled with elemental fear, even as her mind knew this was not real. Her mother wasn’t powerful enough for it to be real.

  The dust burned her throat, but it didn’t knock her out.

  It’s not real. The monster’s not real, so his dark dust isn’t real. Jay’s gun tracked it. He was going to waste a bullet.

  “No. Point it at her, at her,” August shouted.

  The snake reared up on its coils and spread its neck in a threatening display. A red glow outlined each of its scales. The eye-shape pattern on the back of its hood was mesmerizing.

  Through the smoke and sulfur, Jay finally pointed Willem’s pistol at her mother. />
  Her mother’s lip gave a nearly imperceptible quiver. The dark fae’s jaw twitched. She’d never seen that expression on her mother’s face before. She’d seen her angry, she’d seen her excited, but she’d never seen this. This was Duvessa Peak, scared.

  The sun punched a little gold through a gap in the clouds. At last, the long night was ending. Jay thumbed back the hammer on the little pistol and aimed at the fire fae, while his body screamed with pain from the flames. The ring of fire remained around Arlan’s lion form. The dark fae struggled to maintain it. She seemed to him to be losing her energy.

  Duvessa backed toward the Zambezi, getting closer and closer to the water. “You won’t shoot me.” Arlan roared from behind the flames. Incredulous, Jay lifted an eyebrow. “Give me one reason why not?” But he knew why he wasn’t pulling the trigger.

  “I’m her mother.” She aimed a finger at August. “You love her, don’t you? So, you can’t go shooting her mother.”

  “You were kidnapping her, you crazy witch. She doesn’t need you for a mother.” You’ve never hurt a woman in your life. But she’s a monster. Just shoot her. Conflicting voices raged in his head.

  Duvessa sighed and rolled her eyes. “My plan was simply to take her home and make her behave. I know what’s best for her. I’m her mother.”

  He raised the pistol and pointed it at her head. “Not good enough. From what I heard, you were about as crap a mother as a person could be.”

  Duvessa sniffed. “I’m sure I inherited the immortal gene anyway. You won’t kill me.”

  “Then it doesn’t matter if I shoot you.”

  The dark fae spluttered even as she backed toward the water, her knee still bleeding from the damage Arlan had done with his claws. Silly woman used her magic up on threatening us with fake serpents, and fire, and forgot to heal her own knee.

  Duvessa glared at Jay. “You’re not the type to shoot a woman.” She had him. Even if she was dark-fae.

  And a child abuser.

  He cocked the pistol. “Wrong.”

  Duvessa held up her hands. “I have magic that can help him. Arlan.”