Gert sneered at Arlan. “Listen, loser. The kids are better off here, where they get toys and shit. They have nice rooms. We don’t treat them bad.”
“Apart from ripping them from their mothers’ arms and draining them of their magical power. That power is their birthright, asshole.”
Gert guffawed. “Their parents can’t even pay to house them properly. They have no rights.”
August said, “Yes, they do. You’re stealing from children.”
“Ever heard of survival of the fittest, dumbass?” Gert retorted. “Those of us in the Half-Fae Network didn’t ask to be stranded in the mortal world. It’s our birthright to get to the Fae Realm, but we’re doing something about it and getting it back. Personal responsibility. We’re helping ourselves. If these kids’ parents are lazy and can’t make money to save them, that’s their problem.”
A red veil covered Arlan’s vision, and the rage inside him boiled over. He twisted a fraction more in his bonds until he was at the angle he needed to be. He aimed true and winced as his lucky kick hit precisely where he’d intended it to. Gert’s tortured groan almost made him feel pain in his own balls.
“Oh, you’ll pay for that,” Gert growled.
Arlan ignored the angry security guard and looked at his fingernails. “Holy crap, why haven’t I changed?” He’d been so sure all the stress and rage would have made his claws come out by now.
He’d been speaking to himself, but Jay answered. “Duvessa reversed the curse, remember? You’re in control of it now. If you want to change, you’re going to have to will it. Try humming.”
Even though his friend Gert lay writhing on the floor, the security guard hadn’t let go of Arlan’s arm. Now he smiled. “He can’t shift into a lion with his hands bound like this. None of you can do shit. We’re gonna lock your dumb Warrior of the Light asses up.”
Arlan laughed. “What does my being tied up have to do with shifting?”
“You’ll still be bound, were-lion. You won’t break free of those magic ropes.”
From behind him, Arlan heard feminine humming. He turned in astonishment to see flames flickering at the ends of August’s fingertips. Pure horror contorted her features.
Fear shone in the eyes of all the security guards too. One thug smacked his hand against the wall. “That bitch has finally come into her mother’s fire-fae power.”
“How could she do that?” one of the guards asked. “We should be the ones with that kind of power from draining the kids.”
The first guard sniffed. “He mother was the daughter of a fae princess. Hardly surprising.”
“Did you hear the way Gert was talking before?” Another man glared at Gert. “I don’t think we’re getting shit. No money. Nothing more than our wages. It’s all about him and Silvara, not the Network.” On saying that, the man hauled off and kicked Gert right where Arlan had kicked him. Gert’s scream of pain might have made Arlan’s blood run cold if it wasn’t so deserved.
Arlan swallowed bile. “So, where’s Silvara now?
Gert panted hard, his words coming in short bursts. “Her…mother…died. Her parents are Americans. She’s in Montana, sorting…the will.”
“More money for you, eh, you prick? And none for us.” The outraged employee gave Gert another kick.
August carefully rolled another ball of fire in her palms. She’d gotten over her shock and was gaining confidence.
Gert managed to blurt out more words around his pain. “We need…to stop her…before…hurts with fire. Get…knife.” Though he still writhed in pain on the floor, his whispered words had the desired effect. One of the men bent to get the knife and lunged for August.
The beast inside Arlan gave an almighty roar. His lion leaped, battling to fully emerge. Claws burst through his hands. Fur raced up his arms.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Don’t be afraid.
Her first instinct had been terror. Childhood memories of her mother’s use of fire magic had filled her mind. Duvessa had used fire to frighten her, to punish her, in so many of the memories she actively repressed.
But really when she thought about it, she knew why her power was coming back to her now. Love was making her whole. Making her who she was meant to be. Increasing her self-esteem, the lack of which had suppressed her magic. She clenched her fists, forcing herself to concentrate and take control. She rolled the flames erupting from her fingertips into balls.
Humming and concentrating carefully, she sent the fire to burn the ropes binding Arlan and Jay, willing with every shred of concentration she had that it wouldn’t burn her lovers. The ropes sizzled around Arlan’s bound paws. Then she willed the fire to die before it could touch his fur. Free at last, Arlan pounced on the man with the knife, sinking his fangs into the arm holding the blade. Perhaps the brassy taste of the man’s blood was too much for him, or perhaps it made him want to feast. Whatever the reason, he dropped the screaming man on the floor.
One of the men, obviously terrified of the combination of fire and lions, pulled the door open and ran into the stairwell. Another man followed him.
August thought she might as well try asking the professor what he knew. “Hendrik, did you see anything more with your scrying? Do you know where exactly the children are?”
“No. Unfortunately not.”
She rolled her eyes. Kruger had addressed her breasts again. He might have had a change of heart about where he stood on issues of good and evil, but he was still a pervert.
“You’ll never find it, bitch.” Gert struggled to get up.
Kruger hauled off and kicked Gert several more times. He couldn’t get at the man’s nuts now, but he got a few good kicks in the kidneys until Gert sprawled on the floor again.
Jay put his foot on head of the man with the bleeding arm. “Tell us where the kids are, or I’m going to stomp you.”
“I…I don’t know.”
Jay put more pressure on the man’s head.
“I don’t. They don’t share it with us. Mufaro must be right. Gert and Silvara were planning to keep all that power for themselves.”
Jay kept pressing on the man’s head until he said, “All right, it’s fucking connected to this room somehow. I just don’t know how. There’s a secret doorway in here. That wheel of spinning light over there. It’s something Gert rigged up. It drains magic power from the kids. I don’t understand it all. I’m only a quarter fae. I have no power. Let me up.”
But Jay didn’t take his foot off the guy’s skull. Instead, he began twirling his fingers, focusing hard, humming like a vacuum cleaner. To her astonishment, instead of light, a mini tornado appeared, floating in the air above his hands, along with the indigo light she’d seen him create when he cooked. His air-fae magic.
“August,” he said, “roll up some more of those flames for me, would you, sweetness?”
She had no idea what he was planning, but she was getting the hang of this fire thing, and it was actually fun. She made a strong humming sound in her throat, letting the flames arise from her hands.
“Close the door behind the cowards, Kruger. We need an enclosed space here.”
Kruger did as asked. Jay focused on the flame in her hands and shot the mini tornado right into the ball of flames. Smoke billowed up in the air, filling the room until everyone was hacking and coughing.
August blinked, her eyes watering from the smoke. Arlan let out a roar.
“What in God’s name are you doing, Jay?” Kruger shouted. “I’m getting out of here.”
“Help me!” shouted the man under Jay’s foot.
“Don’t even think of opening that, door, Kruger.”
“I’m not letting you kill me with fire, you crazy mother—”
“Look.”
August and Hendrik stared where Jay pointed. The smoke seeped into cracks along the wall, outlining a doorway. Jay put his hands to his mouth and called, “Watch out, children. I’m breaking the door down. Move out of the way. Move any little ones out of the
way.”
August could only pray that the children heard and could understand English. “Wait. Jay, what if they get hurt?”
“I don’t see any other way to do this, August.”
“I don’t either.”
Arlan tapped on the outlined door. They called to the children several more times, urging them back. Finally, Jay strode to the door and began kicking it. August ran to join him and kicked too. Wood splintered, and a loud cracking noise rent the air. Light on the other side filled the darkroom.
August took in the sight—toddlers, babies, preschoolers, school-age children, teddy bears, dolls, a trainset, and beds stretching off seemingly forever, in a huge nursery.
A nursery-rhyme mural covered the walls. She wondered who among the evil kidnappers had had enough heart to do up the room in such a way. Most of the children huddled against the opposite wall, and they all turned to stare. One frightened child held a splinter of the broken door in his tiny hand.
Epilogue
Three Months Later.
“Have you felt the change yet, August?”
August took a sip of the dry nonalcoholic champagne that Nhamo had poured into her crystal flute. She smiled at her new friend, whose belly was swollen. She must be seven months or so along in her pregnancy.
“Well, yeah… Many changes. Fatigue, mostly.”
Nhamo laughed. “That’s not what I meant. The were-lion, Arlan. He is your mate, yes?”
August nodded, unsure what Nhamo knew about magic and were-lions, and where she stood on such issues as threesomes and fated mates.
“He told me that he really is the magic were-lion. He got me this job with the catering company,” Nhamo said proudly.
August smiled. She was so glad Arlan and Jay had been able to get her a job with the catering company hosting the lunchtime feast.
“Your other boyfriend is very good-looking too.” Nhamo nodded toward the podium in the lodge’s spacious dining hall. They’d invited all the villagers to a catered lunch to discuss the situation with the witchdoctors now that the danger had passed. “They are both half-fae your men, yes?”
“Yes.”
Easier than explaining Arlan’s only a quarter fae.
Jay stood at the podium, flawlessly handsome in a charcoal suit. He tapped twice on the mike, getting everyone’s attention before speaking. “Good evening, everyone. I just wanted to say a few words about why Arlan and I decided to host this party.” He took a deep breath. “Firstly, we wanted to celebrate the defeat of the group of men and women from the Half-Fae Network who have plagued this area for so long.”
A wild cheer rose from the crowd.
“Another cause for celebration is the birth of three new lion cubs that have been born in the area, thanks to the tireless work of Professor Kruger from Long Island University and his gorgeous and accomplished assistant, my lovely wife, August Peak.”
Loud clapping filled the dining hall.
“Most importantly, this party is to celebrate the successful return of fifty-five children to their parents, children who were stolen by the Half-Fae Network.”
The applause reached a crescendo.
Clapping the loudest was Runo, his eyes filled with happy tears, Mukuru sat in his lap, playing with the orange and yellow beads around his neck and laughing. The little boy’s head was shaved close. He looked so adorable with his chubby cheeks, big smile and little hands clapping hard. Mukuru’s older brother, Pili, sat beside his mother, Nhamo, clasping her hand.
“But this is not the only good news concerning children I have today. For me personally, I’ve had the news I’m to be a father. My wife is due to give birth next July.”
The applause from Jay and Arlan’s friends was almost deafening. August looked down at the large diamond in her ring, surrounded by five smaller diamonds. It caught the sunlight and shone prisms of rainbow light in her lap.
Conservative Jay had had to buy her the biggest and the best, had had to marry her right away when he’d found out she was carrying a child. And he was convinced the child was his, despite the high likelihood to the contrary. She giggled. Oh well. One day she would have his child too.
August’s smile widened when Arlan came up behind her. He slid his hand across her tummy, stroking the slight bulge that signaled the little miracle growing inside her.
“So much for fae condoms,” she whispered
“Hey, now, human condoms break too. And I was going pretty hard at it.”
“Shh.” She put her finger to her lips, indicating all the people around him. Arlan only laughed. There were enough children in the dining hall that the low hum of noise ensured no one heard his words.
“Hey, Jay,” Kruger shouted, “the news is about to come on.”
Jay nodded toward the huge flat screen TV they’d set up earlier next to the podium. “Turn it on.” The crowd gathered in front of the television to watch. August knew they all wanted to see the same show they’d seen snippets of for the past three days on the news. The documentary began with a montage of images of mothers and fathers crying with happiness and hugging children of various ages. Then it shifted to pictures of the storm tower.
The Zimbabwean news reporter spoke with awe in his voice. “Many families have made some difficult claims about this mysterious tower. They claim this tower was not previously here and that some kind of magic was involved. Some blame witch doctors, others the so-called Half-Fae Network. What we can confirm, however, is that many children once imprisoned here have been returned to their ecstatic parents, and that two-people involved with the Half-Fae Network have been arrested. However odd their stories about this occurrence, the fact remains that many missing children have been found.”
More happy faces of parents and children showed on the screen. Pride at what she and her two lovers had achieved made August grin.
Then the reporter’s smile faded. “But it is not a happy ending for every child. Some of these children are orphans, their parents not having survived while they were missing, and some no longer have homes. For this group of children, financial aid is desperately needed.”
August squeezed Arlan’s hand. Lately, when he wasn’t with her or the lions, he was on the phone trying to arrange care for the orphans. He squeezed back then whispered, “Come outside with me.”
The party was in full swing and had become so crowded that no one would notice them leaving for a while, so she let him take her hand and lead her outside.
They picked their way through the crowd of people. She looked behind her for Jay, wanting him to come outside with them, but he was busy talking to the caterers, probably about their pay.
Outside, the yellow grass swayed in the hot breeze, cicadas hummed, and far away, she could hear an elephant. “You got Nhamo a job with the new catering company. That’s awesome.”
“Her husband was earning next to nothing. They were barely surviving. Anyway, she’s a fast learner.”
“So, this new catering company you and Jay invested in, you think it’s going to provide a lot of jobs?
He leaned back against an acacia tree. “Yeah, finally gonna close down every one of my dad’s hunting lodges, replace jobs with the catering company.”
“That sounds like a lot of work.”
Arlan grinned. “Not for us, baby. I still don’t think you get how much money we have.” He sighed. “I don’t know how much evil my dad did to get all this money we have, though.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling. Lucky, I didn’t inherit anything, huh?”
“We could fight that.”
She gave him a cheeky grin. “Why bother when my men are both billionaires? Let June and April have it. I could care less.”
“It makes me so mad, though. Those bastards…”
“Shhh.” She put her hand on his arm. “I don’t care, baby, really.”
They walked on, holding hands for some time, until he pulled her behind another acacia tree and took her in his arms. “How are you feeling otherwise?”
“Me? I’m fine.” He frowned. “If you’re talking about the baby, Arlan, I feel great. Morning sickness now and then, but not too bad.”
“August,” he whispered. “I’m asking have you felt the change yet?”
“What? What change?”
He glanced up at the sky. “I don’t know if it’s true, and if it is, it’s pretty rare, but I read that if you become pregnant by a were-lion, you may become one yourself. I’m so sorry about the burst condom. And it looks to me like you… Well, you seem different.”
Her heart stopped. She could actually hear the thunder of it click off and the swishing sensation of her blood draining.
He put a hand on her shoulder, obviously noticing the shock on her face. “Baby girl, you okay? Don’t be scared. Whatever happens, Jay and I will help and support you. If you have trouble controlling the shifting, we’ll find someone else with magic like Duvessa’s to fix it for you. We’ll search far and wide.”
She gave a gulp so loud they could both hear it. “I never expected to get pregnant, you know? I never even thought of it. I wouldn’t mind being a were-lion, I guess, as long as I could change back.”
“Whatever happens, we’ll make sure to find a way you can change back. We’ll find someone as clever and powerful as your mother was to help us.” He pulled her into his arms. “Remember that day at the market, when we saw Mukuru and he threw his arms around you?”
She nodded.
“You were so gentle and sweet with him. When I saw that, all I could think of was you with a big round belly, swollen with my child. And one day, you’ll have Jay’s child too.”
Her skin itched in the heat, itched so bad it hurt. Her nipples were tight buds, chafed by the material of her thin cotton dress. She had a fuzzy feeling in her head. Her muscles were twitching, then stretching. Every sinew ached. For a few moments, terror gripped her. Gradually, her fear faded, and sensuality took hold. A velvety, sexy sensation replaced terror. Fur sprouted from her pores and began to cover her body.
Arlan shifted into his own beautiful male form, and she rubbed her head across his flanks, full of affection, full of the deepest love she had ever felt. She smelled a dozen new scents and heard a dozen sounds she’d never heard before.
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